Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep US teaser

[granville]

With the announcement of the new Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep for PSP, there has been a new trailer, as well as new voice actor confirmations. This trailer was originally leaked by Gamestop of all people and it was unknown if it was just a fandub or not. But it turns out it was real after all. Have a look-



As well as this, we now have some new voice actors confirmed for the US release, some pretty big stars which i'm sure many people will be happy with! Leonard Nimoy will be voicing Master Xehanort. Also on the list are Mark Hamill (who will be either Terra or Master Erauqs, not sure yet). Willa Holland should be Aqua (her voice is spot on for the Japanese version). And Jesse McCartney will be voicing Ven of course (he and Roxas are identical in looks and voice). And of course, James Woods as usual for Hades. So they've got some big stars there. Maybe they'll get Christopher Lee back as well since he did his voice for the DS game.

Birth By Sleep is a prequel, set 10 years before the original Kingdom Hearts. It stars three keyblade apprentices Terra, Aqua, and Ven who all play pivotal roles in the rest of the series. There's also the mysterious Master Xehanort who is also a central character and whose name you may recognize from the other games as well (although in a slightly different sense once you see). The story takes you to a lot of different worlds, trying to rid the worlds of a new thread- unversed, which are a new kind of enemy introduced for the PSP game that feed off negative emotions. They are very similar to the heartless and nobodies seen in the other games, and there is a reason they don't appear in the other games. As well as that, there is a mysterious masked keyblade wielder named Vanitas who appears along the story as an antagonist (but his motives and identity are only revealed at the very end). And also, Master Xehanort (and old keyblade master) has gone missing as well. All that and more are what the three protagonists have to face and uncover during their journey.

Birth By Sleep will be hitting the US on September 7th. We'll likely get a new trailer come this E3 as well as playable footage of the US release. As for me, i don't have a PSP now, so i already spoiled the Japanese version for myself and know everything already. Still, i really want to hear the epic US voice acting of some of our new stars.

http://psp.ign.com/articles/109/1090198p1.html

 

[dib]

That actually sounds pretty cool. Yet you know that five minutes after it hits the web/shelves there will be a bunch of weeaboos in here clamoring for an edit with the japanese voices.

 

[Njrg]

That actually sounds pretty cool. Yet you know that five minutes after it hits the web/shelves there will be a bunch of weeaboos in here clamoring for an edit with the japanese voices.

Kinda depends how/when you play/listen to it.

If you get used to the Japanese version, the English sounds so awkward.
But if you begin with English, everything is just dandy.

But no matter the game, if Square took the time to re-shape the facial animation to match English voices like they did with FF13, then I would embrace any English whether there were big names or not.

But sometimes weeaboos demanding Japanese is justified. I mean have you played Dissidia? Just terrible...

 

[granville]

I'd say it's a bit unjustified here. I always found the KH voice actors to be quite good overall. Some hit or miss here, and i couldn't stand Aerith's KH2 voice (although blame Advent Children for that). But the main characters/villains are always really good. And the Disney characters all sound far superior in English. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in Japanese = just odd, especially Donald.

As for these, they're good ideas. Leonard Nimoy has a great voice, as does Mark Hamill. They've proven themselves and although i did indeed get used to the Japanese voices in this game, i find Nimoy's voice great. The woman they got for Aqua actually sounds like a fully grown woman too like she's supposed to, you can see some of her other work if you look for it. She is actually spot on for her Japanese equivalent. Jesse McCartney has always been a good voice for Roxas, so Ven should be good. I'm very interested in Terra though. I'm not sure whether they got Mark Hamill for him or Master Erauqs. I could see him pulling off either voice actually. I've witnessed his diversity.

 

[Njrg]

But there could a problem with using those big names. Being big could be a disadvantage if they don't commit to the role and are just there for the paycheck. Recent example: Bill Murray in the Ghostbusters game sucked compared to the rest of the cast who were actually more involved in the project and had a passion for it.

Osment kinda just lucked into the role of Sora. Despite being in 6th Sense, he was never really that much of a big name and had nothing going on his career at the time (Like so many child actors going through puberty). And being of that age, its no wonder that he would take that role seriously and perform moderately well.

Hammil and Nimoy, right now, are only giving the game notoriety because of their fame/careers. Theres no telling that these grown men, who are already senior citizens (58 and 79), will see Birth by Sleep as nothing more than a Nin10diyo game and will just voice act for the check instead of the story itself. I'm skeptical of their intentions of bringing their characters to life.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Fuck, I actually grew interest in this game with Leonard Nimoy voicing in it. I FUCKING LOVE SPOCK. And Mark Hammil should be quite good too; he did voice acting for the Joker for a long time in the Batman cartoons IIRC (not to mention he did the Joker in Arkham Asylum). Oh, and he of course did Luke Skywalker

Now all we need is George Takei...

 

[granville]

Njrg-

Well about big names, i'll again cite Christopher Lee. He was proof the developers care about a fitting voice AND getting the best. I think the same will be true here, but we'll see.

BTW Guild- i know you think KH Days wasn't spectacular, but BBS is far more interesting from a story/gameplay/characters/pacing standpoint. Just saying, you could easily hate any other KH game but love this one. None of the worlds are filler either, they're all important parts of the story.

 

[Gaisuto]

But there could a problem with using those big names. Being big could be a disadvantage if they don't commit to the role and are just there for the paycheck. Recent example: Bill Murray in the Ghostbusters game sucked compared to the rest of the cast who were actually more involved in the project and had a passion for it.

Osment kinda just lucked into the role of Sora. Despite being in 6th Sense, he was never really that much of a big name and had nothing going on his career at the time (Like so many child actors going through puberty). And being of that age, its no wonder that he would take that role seriously and perform moderately well.

Hammil and Nimoy, right now, are only giving the game notoriety because of their fame/careers. Theres no telling that these grown men, who are already senior citizens (58 and 79), will see Birth by Sleep as nothing more than a Nin10diyo game and will just voice act for the check instead of the story itself. I'm skeptical of their intentions of bringing their characters to life.

Nimoy I can't really say, but Hammil loves doing game roles, he's always awesome at everything he ever does. Don't even need to mention Arkham Asylum, check this out, from the game Darksiders:

 

[Daizu]

Hi Spock.