Follow TV Tropes

Following

Vocal Evolution / Video Games

Go To

Click here to go back to the main page.


  • Over the course of the plot of Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, Komaru's voice gradually changes from high-pitched and innocent to deep and confident, to reflect her Character Development.
  • Considering the Sequel Gap between the fourth and fifth games (not accounting for the reboot), Reuben Langdon's take on Dante in Devil May Cry 5 is noticeably deeper and gruffer compared to that of 4. The same can be said about Johnny Yong Bosch as Nero, whose portrayal in 5 is a lot deeper and more matured than that of 4, which works well enough given how 5 is the most recent game in the series' chronology. Vergil, however, is a different story, since Dan Southworth's voicework is almost unchanged between games, owing to his very distinctive inflection as the Dark Slayer.
  • David Nowlin's portrayal of Sam from the Telltale Games series of Sam & Max: Freelance Police games was originally subdued and rather flat in a possible imitation of Bill Farmer's nasally Brooklyn accent from Hit The Road, being especially noticeable in the first season. However, by season three, "The Devil's Playhouse", his vocal range has become much more clear and expressive. This is acknowledged and lampshaded in Poker Night 2, where Sam states that he's been seeing a speech coach.
  • Solid Snake was originally only slightly, bedroomishly husky-voiced in the dub of the original Metal Gear Solid. Listening to him now, ten years on, he sounds as though he has a minor case of laryngitis. While some of this is down to a deliberate artistic decision to age the character, there's no real excuse for Snake's father being a lot, lot rougher than Snake despite being a lot younger - and the fact that it was that very-rough voice which Snake used in the often-dissliked remake of the original. The voice actor admits that as he himself has aged, it's become harder and harder to do Snake's voice. Where this stops being evolution and starts being decay varies from listener to listener.
    • For a more character based example, listen to the performance of Metal Gear Solid 3 Big Boss and compare to Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Big Boss. It's clear that David Hayter doesn't become fully comfortable with the character until the latter game.
    • The voice acting in the remake of Metal Gear Solid, since all of the original voice actors except one recreated their roles from the first game. Vulcan Raven and Sniper Wolf sound more natural, Snake and Meryl have better chemistry and both handle emotional scenes more competently, Liquid's accent sounds more convincing, Naomi sounds more deadpan compared to her lively and seductive performance in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Otacon's characteristic hesitating speech pattern and improvised 'um's and 'er's was replaced with an overall slow speech pattern; and the intonation of several lines was noticeably changed (such as Snake saying 'Oh, I had to take out that helicopter' in a shy way rather than an arrogant way).
    • Mei Ling and Naomi in Twin Snakes suffer from a serious case of Not Even Bothering with the Accent, but Mei Ling's case suited her character better, since she was at least raised in the States for much of her life.
    • Quinton Flynn's Raiden voice also seems to have gotten deeper and gravellier in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, though this fits the character developing and ageing. (It's also fun to compare it to the passage at the beginning of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty where Flynn plays Raiden in a gravelly Solid Snake-esque style until removing his mask.)
    • Christopher Randolph's portrayal as Otacon's father, Huey Emmerich, in Metal Gear Solid V uses the same kind of voice he used for Otacon, but is one of his more nuanced voice roles in the series; even if he sounds the same as his son, Randolph's Huey manages to nail the subtle differences between the two characters, the most notable one being that Otacon is a Nice Guy who owns up to his misdeeds, while Huey is a Dirty Coward who never admits fault in anything, and it definitely shows in the voice acting alone.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy X:
      • James Arnold Taylor tried showing Tidus' Character Development by using different tones. However, at some parts he sounded highpitched and too cheerful for serious situations. For Dissidia Final Fantasy Taylor once again voiced Tidus this time showing a consistent tone and a realistic anger. He was very excited to play him in Dissidia Final Fantasy (2015), and described it as a really 'energetic' performance unlike what he'd been doing before.
      • On the Japanese side, Tidus was Masakazu Morita's debut role and he certainly seemed to overreact and be too emotional at times, sometimes close to cracking his voice. Just like his English counterpart, when Morita revised his role for Tidus in Dissidia Final Fantasy, he managed to voice Tidus with more balanced emotions.
      • Hedy Buress's portrayal of Yuna, the primary sticking point for many fans of Final Fantasy X, was noticably improved in side-sequel Final Fantasy X-2. It was really due to two reasons: first, in Final Fantasy X Buress attempted to match her dialogue to the Japanese lip flaps exactly, instead of aiming for an approximation like the other (more experienced) actors did. Secondly, in the sequel the English localisation team got hold of the same technology used by the Japanese team to match up the lip flaps to the voices, eliminating Buress' original problem.
    • Final Fantasy XV:
      • Ray Chase's original performance of Noctis was brooding and extremely gravelly, and was mocked by players for "sounding like Batman" enough that Chase was nearly recast. He asked to redevelop the part and played him in the main game in a casual, youthful way that was significantly better received by fans.
      • Adam Croasdell's performance of Ignis is noticeably different between the dialogue recorded for the game and the dialogue recorded for the extra scenes and DLC scenes. In most scenes he sounds stuffy and mature, with a highly exaggerated accent; in later material, his accent is softened and his line readings are more vulnerable and boyish.
  • In Tales of Xillia, Minae Noji voiced Milla Maxwell for the English dub of the game and her performance varies on how well it was done, but she suffered from Dull Surprise and had a noticeable lisp when speaking as Milla. She doesn't seem to have a natural lisp, though it was likely intentional. When she reprised the role for Milla note  in the sequel, the lisp disappeared. Whether Minae simply got more used to voicing Milla or got different directions for that game, it was a pleasant change and made Milla's dialogue sound more natural.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • If you make a playthrough of the two Kingdom Hearts games for the PlayStation 2, you can notice how much David Gallagher, Riku's voice actor, changed. In the first game most of his lines are completely emotionless and dead-sounding (which can be partially justified by the fact the character was in the dark side). In the second he started putting some feeling into it, and in Re: Chain of Memories, he sounds perfectly okay.
    • Also, Richard Epcar in a podcast interview stated that he felt he gave a weak performance as Ansem in Kingdom Hearts II due to the voice direction he was given restraining him as trying (and failing) to imitate Billy Zane's glorious hamminess, and stated that he felt his performance in Re: Chain of Memories sounded much better and sinister-sounding. Fans seem to agree. In 3D and III, Epcar voices Ansem with a subdued rasp to differentiate from the younger, more aggressive Terra-Xehanort.
    • The Japanese voice of Ansem, Akio Ōtsuka, was similar in that his hamminess in the first game was more grating than entertaining (Billy Zane is preferred even by Japanese players), but in Re: Chain of Memories, he seemed to know what he was doing more and sounded a lot more pleasing.
    • The first thing you notice in moving from Kingdom Hearts I to II is that Haley Joel Osment has hit puberty. This is especially notable when playing Re:Chain of Memories, as it uses the first game's character model. It isn't so bad in II as Sora looks older, but young Sora with an older voice is jarring. Everyone knows that he just happened to hit puberty sometime between running after Pluto in that grassy landscape and entering Castle Oblivion.
    • In Birth by Sleep, Vanitas (also voiced by Osment) initially sounded like a deeper version of Sora's voice. Kingdom Hearts III had his voice become raspier, but after fan backlash, the Re:Mind DLC reverted his voice back to the original voice.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Mario has gone through this during Charles Martinet's voicework as him. His original voice was deeper and gruffer, with the occasional high-pitched squeal for when he's happy or a scream for when he's falling into a pit. Starting from Mario Kart 64, the high-pitched voice also became Charles Martinet's normal voice for him, so until Super Mario Galaxy when they were finally retired, whenever Nintendo decided to reuse the old Super Mario 64 clips it always sounded a bit...off. Just compare his Voice Grunting from Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy.
    • And then there's Mario's brother, done by the same actor. Martinet's Luigi has always been lower pitched and more down to earth than Mario's voice, but as Luigi's characterization became apparent, the voice changed to fit. His voice was quite deep and confidant in games like Mario Kart 64 and Mario Golf. Starting with Mario Party 3 Luigi's voice became nasally, skittish and a bit timid and had drifted slightly higher.
    • Peach's voice in 64 was originally a lot deeper sounding. She sounded more like a regal princess, instead of the higher pitched and bubbly voice she has today. However, starting with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Peach's voice started getting a bit deeper due to her current voice actress Samantha Kelly getting older.
    • Daisy's voice was somewhat deep and gave off a laid back down to earth feel in her voice. Today, Daisy's voice has her sounding loud and hyperactive.
    • Beside The Other Darrin in effect, Bowser's current voice actor Kenny James started out in Super Mario Galaxy with a booming, threatening tone to his guttural voice, which almost never faltered to keep him a frightening villain. Over time, especially in any spinoffs, Bowser would retain the ultra-low growling voice, but progressively sounded more expressive and cartoony akin to his previous voice Scott Burns. By the time of Super Mario Odyssey, he even imitates Mario's "wa-hoo" cheer at one point.
    • King Bob-Omb’s voice started out in Super Mario 64 as a deeper version of the usual Bob-Omb sounds. Since Mario Kart Tour, his voice is much higher-pitched and almost childish-sounding (not unlike Yoshi’s voice).
  • Persona:
    • In Persona 3, the otherwise Silent Protagonist has a few vocal lines (all of them in battle, usually when summoning a Persona). In English, he's voiced by Yuri Lowenthal in a fairly high-pitched voice akin to his usual roles, just slightly huskier than normal. When Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, the first game to feature the P3 protagonist speak freely, Lowenthal's take on the character was drastically changed, with him now having a slow, deep, almost lethargic voice, as another Lowenthal-dubbed character, Yosuke Hanamura, is also in the game.
    • In Persona 4, the otherwise-silent protagonist has occasional battle lines, like the hero from Persona 3. In the English dub of 4, his English voice actor, Johnny Yong Bosch, also voices Tohru Adachi, and Yu's battle lines and Adachi's own voice sound similar in 4. For Adachi's appearance in Persona 4: Arena Ultimax, where Yu is no longer silent and speaks freely, Bosch altered his voice to be higher pitched to keep it distinct from Yu's own voice - this distinction was kept in Persona 4: Dancing All Night. A similar thing happened when the game was adapted to an anime series - see the anime folder above for details on it.
    • As the spin-offs went on, Yosuke's voice has proceeded to get higher pitched and more excitable, possibly due to changes in voice direction (in addition to the aforementioned need for differentiation between him and Persona 3's protagonist).
    • In Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Michelle Ruff and Liam O'Brien gave Yukari and Akihiko, respectively, deeper tones to their voices compared to the original Persona 3, presumably to reflect their growing up and graduating high school.
  • In the early Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters games, Satoshi Hashimoto gave Kim Kaphwan a rather youthful voice (outside of his epic Taekwondo-related screams). Around the time KOF 96 and 97 were released, Hashimoto gave him a quite deeper tone and kept it that way later, most likely to distinguish his Kim voice from his Terry Bogard one and reflect the fact that he (Kim) is actually in his 30's. Kim's newest voice actor, Kazuhiko Nakata, has kept the tradition.
    • Similarly, Masahiro Nonaka's performance as Kyo Kusanagi has become deeper and more relaxed over time. Nonaka himself has stated that it has become a little harder to keep up, since he identified better with the younger and more Hot-Blooded Kyo from the first games than his somewhat Older and Wiser actual self.
    • From KOF 96 on, Eiji Yanou's voice for Kensou became very high-pitched all of a sudden... making the 19-year-old Kensou suddenly sound almost like a 14-year-old. Thankfully, Yanou managed to fix it around by the time KOF XI rolled in.
  • Star Fox:
    • In the Japanese version of the Star Fox franchise, Falco and Slippy's voices (Hisao Egawa and Kyoko Tonguu) have played them since Star Fox 64, and both of them have changed notably; Falco's voice is far deeper and mannish, while Slippy's voice is far less feminine than it was in 64. Also, Leon's voice (played by Shinobu Satouchi) is low and smooth in 64, but high and slightly flamboyant in Star Fox: Assault and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Likewise, compare Mike West's performance as Fox McCloud in the English release of 64 with his reprisal in Zero and onward. He puts forth a lot more emotion and effort into the role resulting in a performance that comes off as a very noteworthy improvement compared to 1997, and even pulling his weight in voicing not only James McCloud once more, but also providing his own take on Andrew Oikonny and Wolf O'Donnell. Same goes for Lyssa Browne and her reprisal of Slippy Toad and Katt Monroe in Zero. Her much-improved performance as Slippy, while still on the high side, and her more pleasing for the ears performance as Katt are nowhere close to how flat (Katt) and grating (Slippy) they were two decades prior.
    • Kenji Nojima only played Fox for two games (Star Fox: Assault and Super Smash Bros. Brawl), but already there is a noteworthy difference; it is slightly higher and more accented in the latter than the former.
  • Mass Effect:
    • The biggest single change is probably Tali, whose voice is a lot higher (and less accented) in the first game than the following two. Justified since she's at her youngest at this point, so it's easy to assume she was simply going through puberty at the time.
    • Steven Barr gave a much deeper, more gravelly tone of voice for Wrex in 1 and 2, one which bordered on monotonous at times. When 3 rolls around, Wrex has much more range to his voice than before, and generally expresses a lot more emotion. Justified since his earliest appearances in the series take place very recently after he hit rock bottom, and his experiences with Shepard (whether positive or negative) ended up giving him the push he needed to take charge of his life and his people.
    • Whether you're talking about Jennifer Hale or Mark Meer, Commander Shepard's voice changes noticeably as they become less of an Escapist Character and more jaded.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Sonic's first voice, Ryan Drummond, sounds calmer in Sonic Adventure, then more energetic and a tad deeper for Sonic Heroes. His voice in Sonic Adventure 2 was essentially the middle-ground.
  • Sonic's third voice, Roger Craig Smith, gave Sonic a highly sarcastic and playful tone during the generally lighthearted games of the 2010s. Sonic Frontiers would have Smith sounding much more mature and down-to-earth to accompany the more serious plot. In generally more light-hearted affairs post-Frontiers like TailsTube and Sonic Dream Team, Smith's Sonic is a middle-ground between the more mature voice from Frontiers and his voice from when he played the character in Sonic Boom.
  • Mike Pollock's voice as Eggman has also undergone many great changes, from a near-exact match for the late Deem Bristow to menacing and serious in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) to hamming it up in Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations.
  • Cindy Robinson's take on Amy was initially a rather squeaky Minnie Mouse-ish falsetto type voice. As games progressed, and especially following her work on Sonic Boom, her voice sounds much more relaxed and younger sounding, closer to how previous actors portrayed her. Between Sonic Lost World and Sonic Forces, Amy's voice in the games switched to match her Sonic Boom voice.
  • Spyro the Dragon:
  • Crash Bandicoot:
    • Debi Derriberry's take on Coco was initially rather high pitched and feminine. Throughout the titles her voice eventually became deeper pitched and more obnoxious sounding, a tone much akin to one of Derriberry's other roles. It could be justified as her character aging as the series progressed, as Coco is one of the few characters to develop over the series.
    • Lex Lang also used a near perfect replicant of Clancy Brown's soft spoken deep voice for Dr Cortex in Crash Twinsanity. In the Radical Entertainment titles Lang exaggerated Cortex's tone to be louder, higher pitched and upped his campness and flamboyancy to eleven. Radical liked the take and actually evolved the character itself accordingly.
    • Kevin Michael Richardson's take on Crunch was originally extremely calm, deep and serious sounding in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, following his Heel–Face Turn Crash Nitro Kart onwards, he gave him a louder more hyperactive voice, with raspy tough guy mannerisms not distant from Mr. T. A particularly notable example since this change actually became the main pivot in not just his replacement actor's take on Crunch, but his entire personality and mannerisms following it.
  • Christopher Robin Miller's voice for Professor Layton has certainly improved, mostly in the British-ness sector. If you compare his Layton voice in Professor Layton and the Curious Village and his Layton voice in Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, you can probably pick up that, for instance, while he has a rather crudely done British accent in the former, he has a calmer, more natural British accent in the latter.
  • In Warframe, the voice of the Lotus has changed quite a bit across the Updates, only partly due to change of the filters used.
  • Dragon Age:
  • The returning voice actors in Soulcalibur VI have shown remarkable growth in their skills since their introduction to the series. One of the biggest examples is Keith Silverstein's depiction of Zasalamel, one of the earliest roles in his career, whose voice in VI is notably deeper and gruffer. Also standing out is Charles Klausmeyer as Raphael Sorel, a role he has reprised since III: his side-story in Soul Chronicle features a very subtle performance from Klausmeyer as he depicts Raphael's wide range of emotions, in addition to his Large Ham dialogue in battle.
  • When Akatsuki Blitzkampf was released for the arcades as Akatsuki Blitzkampf Ausf. Achse, some characters got updated voice tracks that followed this trope. i.e., Akatsuki still possessed a deeper than usual voice but the delivery was more intense compared with the calmer-sounding original one, whereas Murakumo's initial Tenor Boy voice became somewhat higher-pitched and quite louder. It's kinda funny since both Murakumo and Akatsuki were voiced by the same voice actor.
  • Animalese sounds different in every Animal Crossing game. The most obvious change to international fans is likely between the Nintendo Gamecube title and Wild World. Wild World uses an Animalese that sounds more like the Japanese version of the games (which is higher pitched) and sounds more like generic gibberish than text-to-speech. There's also a conspicuous difference between Wild World and City Folk, where the latter's Animalese sounds like a combination of the Gamecube and DS versions: high-pitched but still discernable. New Leaf utilizes a version of Animalese very similar to that in City Folk, with the added feature of changing the pitch and dialect based on each character's personality (similarly to how Joan, Farley, Luna, and guest player characters use unique variations of Animalese when speaking). New Horizons further changes it by giving larger villagers slightly deeper voices than smaller ones, even when they're the same personality type.
  • Simlish in The Sims has evolved a lot from The Sims. The sound has refined and there is more Simlish, meaning that Sims don't repeat the same words as often.
  • Matt Sloan's rendering of Darth Vader's voice in The Force Unleashed was a rich baritone that was almost a dead ringer for James Earl Jones. Fast forward to his performance in Star Wars Battlefront (2015), and Vader's voice has become noticeably higher and is possessed of a distinct echo that wasn't there before. This was because Sloan doesn't sound like that naturally (unlike James Earl Jones). His natural voice is quite high-pitched, he merely mimics Jones' speaking style and his voice is electronically deepened to a similar pitch, which wasn't done correctly here. In Star Wars Battlefront II (2017), he is back to sounding like he did in TFU.
  • Saints Row: Pierce Washington's voice got higher-pitched and hammier from Saints Row: The Third onwards, which is completely different to how he sounded in Saints Row 2, even though he's voiced by the same actor (Arif S. Kinchin) in all his appearances.
  • When BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger was released, many of the dub voice actors were still relatively new, but as the series progressed, they gained experience with their characters, and their performances improved considerably. Compare Patrick Seitz's performance as Ragna the Bloodedge, for example; in Calamity Trigger, he sounded fairly youthful. Come BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, however, Ragna's voice is notably deeper and sounds more confident.
  • In Fire Emblem Heroes:
    • Yuri Lowenthal's three characters from launch (Marth, Merric, and Eliwood) all used to sound about the same. Marth has retained his vocal register throughout his alts (barring his Groom and Young alts), but Eliwood gained a deeper pitch from Yuri starting from his Valentine's alt. Merric wouldn't undergo any vocal evolution until over four years after Heroes' launch, when he gained his Resplendent, and with it, a more hushed tone to complement his humble personality.
    • Patrick Seitz's voice as Hector made Hector sound like he was significantly older than he really is and sounded a bit awkward. Each Hector alt since launch has had Patrick adjust the voice a bit to fit better into what each one is supposed to be; Valentines Hector is more energetic, Legendary Hector is more heroic to match the "Legendary Hero" angle, Halloween Hector is older-sounding to reflect this being Hector as a father, and Young Hector has a noticeably higher-pitched voice to match his appearence as a young boy.
    • Greg Chun's performances as Ephraim and Ike sounded very similar and didn't do much to differentiate the two characters at first. The alts they would get later on do a better job giving them distinct performances. Ephraim uses a higher pitched voice and speaks with more bravado and flair befitting his hot-blooded personality. Meanwhile, Ike speaks in a deeper/more neutral voice with lines that are usually more subdued and casual to reflect his more down-to-earth nature.
      • Eldigan and Lukas, two more of Chun's characters in Heroes, also sounded a lot like each other at the outset. Lukas' voice remained the same when he gained his picnicker alt, but Eldigan underwent some vocal evolution of his own for his masquerade/To Stay Dreaming alt. There, he booms with a voice that is pitched significantly lower than Lukas', does not retain any of the rasp that Lukas' voice has, and better reflects his fierce, yet loyal and understanding character.
    • Lexi Klein's Triandra at first sounded somewhat like a sassy teenager. When Klein reprised her role as Triandra, who would accompany Peony for a New Year's Duo, she gave Triandra a more withdrawn-sounding, but more mature voice.
  • Injustice: Gods Among Us:
  • Neptunia:
    • In the English dub of first game, there was little to no difference between the voices of Noire and her Super Mode Black Heart. Over the next couple of games, Erin Fitzgerald started giving Black Heart an increasingly deeper voice. The Japanese version also has Asami Imai changing Black Heart's delivery from slightly livier than Noire's to a deeper tone.
      • A similar change can also be observed in her sister Uni; Black Sister's voice got lower over time.
    • The reverse is true for the English dub of Blanc and White Heart. In the beginning (and in the original Japanese version), Blanc was a soft-spoken stoic while White Heart was loud and aggressive. Nowadays, Wendee Lee uses pretty much the exact same voice for Blanc and White Heart, she just dials back the aggressiveness as Blanc. The 3D cutscenes in VIIR feature Blanc with more shy and soft-spoken body language appropriate of Kana Asumi's voice acting, so Wendee Lee briefly reverts to her original voice acting for Blanc, but only for those scenes, and the difference is very noticable.
    • Rom's English voice became noticable higher-pitched once her VA Carrie Keranen also became The Other Darrin for Tara Platt's Vert.
    • Plutia's Japanese voice has become noticably higher-pitched over the years. This could be due to her being Out of Focus for a couple of real life years after her first appearance, so it's possible that Kana Hanazawa forgot how she originally voiced the character. This becomes especially noticable in Re;Birth3, the Updated Re-release of Victory, Plutia's first appearance, which features both the original voice track from the original game, as well as newly added scenes recorded several years later.
  • Altough his voice actor is still the same, Alberto the robot sounds completely different in the French version of Uncle Albert's Fabulous Voyage and Uncle Albert's Mysterious Island.
  • Deliberately Invoked in Shin Megami Tensei V. The voice actor for Demi-fiend and voice directer Christian La Monte stated in an interview that he attempted to contrast his performance in Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, going from a highschool kid with greatness thrust upon them to someone that "had long since become something more" than who is seen in their debut game, comparing him to someone that "looked upon the world with the eyes of a being above."
  • Mike Hillard, the voice of Dr. Kleiner and various other scientists in Black Mesa, has also voiced Kleiner in the Hazard Course mod and Gorgeous Freeman web series, and reprised his role as the scientists for Black Mesa: Blue Shift. The voice he puts on in these projects is noticeably more mellow than how he sounds in Black Mesa.

Top