Ask Lemmy

The original Resident Evil

The voice acting in Hellblade always gives me chills.

Final Fantasy 3/6. Kefka's laugh will forever be the best evil laugh.

CURSE YOU BAYLE! I HEREBY VOW YOU WILL RUE THIS DAY! BEHOLD, A TRUE DRAKE WARRIOR, AND I, IGON! YOUR FEARS MADE FLESH! SOLID OF SCALE YOU MIGHT BE, FOUL DRAGON, BUT I WILL RIDDLE WITH HOLES YOUR ROTTEN HIDE! WITH A HAIL OF HARPOONS, WITH EVERY LAST DROP OF MY BEING!

I can't think of any game at the moment that was particularly notable across the board, but I can think of a few specific performances.

Kazuhiro Nakaya as Nishiki and later Ichiban in the Yakuza/Like a dragon series. He is fantastic at getting the character's personality across just in general scenes, and the emotional moments genuinely stick with me.

Rene Zagger as Emet Selch in FFXIV. That game has some fantastic performances but Emet Selch's is honestly one of my favorites. Every one of his lines is delivered perfectly. The arrogance theatrics that later tive way to genuine anger and sadness at what he's gone through. Along with more specifics I won't get into. 100%, A+ Performance.

Though, actually... Now that I think about it... The Persona 3 Reload dub is probably one of the best English dubs for a Japanese game in a looooong time. And generally they're pretty good these days. But that one nails it.

Disco Elysium has the best voice acting that's ever enhanced my experience. Others might be objectively better but never have I been so immersed in a story

Kreia from KOTOR 2 really gave an astonishingly good performance, as did Bao-dur in the game game.

I played The Last Campfire recently. It's a small puzzle game and the only voice is the narrator, Rachel August. Maybe it's just her accent but I think her voice has a haunting otherworldly beauty that just makes the game.

The voice acting in Tangle Tower (a point and click murder mystery game) is 10/10

I mean, the new Indiana jones is pretty incredible.

Karen Dunbar - also a legendary Scottish comedian.

A bit part, perhaps, but George Ledoux as DUNCAN FISHER MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries!

Cave Johnson.. Love J.K Simmons work overall but Cave was perfect.

Some of my favorites:

• GLaDOS from Portal 1+2: Ellen McClain did such a fantastic job balancing a monotonous robotic tone with human emotions and adding subtle glitches to show not everything was 100% alright. She defined what a female robot voice should sound like for that decade. I saw that Stephen Merchant was mentioned and while his performance was good and Wheatley's character was hilarious, I think McLain's performance as GLaDOS was more original and memorable.
• Narrator from The Stanley Parable: Kevan Brighting was arguably the protagonist of the game and the player was the annoying mob to him. As the only chacter with dialogue in the entire walking sim game, he had to carry almost the entire game's story, personality, and charm all through his voice. And it's honestly so fun how disappointed, annoyed, and exasperated he gets when the player refuses to listen.
• The Joker from Batman Arkham Asylum: This one is cheating cause Mark Hamill has played The Joker in almost every modern animated medium available. Still, there's a reason his version is so iconic. It's just so bittersweet that he refuses to ever voice The Joker again since Kevin Conroy, the VA for his Batman passed away.

Edit: After reviewing my list, it seems like I like offscreen narrators who insult the player. How funny

How has Baldur's Gate 3 not been mentioned in this thread yet? Huge cast and everyone is going for it. Even the narrator. Especially the narrator.

The whole cast of Team Fortress 2.

I haven't played that game in over a decade, yet if I read any of the lines from the game, I'll still hear their voices loud as day. Even just seeing the word "medic" and I hear Demoman screaming it.

The narrator in The Stanley Parable made me lose it so many times.

Arthur Morgan in Red Dead 2

Vaas from Far Cry 3.

This scene is always such a treat: https://youtu.be/rKMMCPeiQoc

Also ~~Alan Tudyk~~ Stephen Merchant in Portal 2.

Edit: Was just recently watching something with Alan in it and got them mixed up 😅

Stephen Merchant and JK Simmons do a great job in Portal 2

Dionysus in hades. Dude amps me up so well I pick him over boons I like better.

One of the best villains I can remember from a game, Handsome Jack in Borderlands 2. Maybe he was just written so well, but he was amazing.

Narrator in Bastion. Just glorious.

The first new Wolfenstein was amazing. They got actual German actors to play the nazis and it made a huge difference.

Troy Baker & Ashley Johnson in Last of Us will stay with me for life.

I think Hades is the best overall, which has been mentioned here. Everything from Supergiant Games is great. I've seen Disco Elysium mentioned too, which is also great.

But I think one game that is underappreciated and not mentioned here is Horizon: Zero Dawn. Ashley Burch won several awards for her performance as Aloy. I think part of the reason it gets forgotten is that the facial animations in cutscenes are bad, at least in the main game, which led to people just not liking the cutscenes very much. The DLC's animations are pretty good though.