Poll of the Day > Sooooo, why do people hate Tidus (ffx)? Possible spoilers

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KogaSteelfang posted...

Hey Tidus, don't tell anyone you touched Sin. "Hey everybody! I touched Sin! Did you hear me? I TOUCHED SIN!!!"

He was explicitly told to tell people he got too close to sin because people would think that he's bonkers for saying he was from zandarkand.

KogaSteelfang posted...

Only the summoner and guardians are allowed in the Trial. *goes in anyway*
Stay away from the Summoner! *immediately breaks all rules and customs just to get to the Summoner*

He was thrown into the first trial. I forget what happens in the second trial. After that, I think he becomes an offical guardian (I'm not that far in my replay)

Dang it, I'm gonna have to purchase the Steam version when it is on sale again. I just wish FFX and FFX-2 were separate. I have nothing against X-2, I just prefer controlling the amount of new games I purchase.
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I thought he was OK. Just a kid. I didn't like Vaan near as much.

AllstarSniper32 posted...

Oh, and I actually liked Tidus' VA. I think most people just don't like it cause they played 9 FF games before it without any VAs.

Not really, because the performance doesn't really stand up well to games that came after, either. Even to people who grew up playing nothing but voiced games and only go back to hear their dialogue today, it's still poor audio.

Being the first voiced FF game WAS part of the problem - but less in the sense that people weren't used to the idea, and more because Square didn't know what the fuck they were doing yet and produced substandard audio tracks because they didn't have a high-quality anime-level voice director involved to keep the localization smooth.

Or to put it another way, it's precisely the same reason why a lot of early anime dubs sucked so much that purists ranted about how the subbed version was always better. Eventually, over time, dubbing practices became more advanced, directors and VAs became more skilled, and dubs became much, much better (at which point it was mostly only the crusty old-timers and anime hipsters who still screamed that subs were the Only True Way to watch anime).

A lot of the first voice-acted video games - FFX among them - were absolutely terrible. Because it took a few years for the industry to figure out how to do it well.

In FFX specifically, Tidus and Yuna were the absolute worst voices because it was Hedy Burress's first VA job and James Arnold Taylor was still pretty early in his own career, so the combination of their own inexperience, the lack of a skilled director to help compensate, and the added problems of attempting to match lip movements to characters who were originally animated speaking a different language (which makes a lot of their speeches kind of stuttering or filled with awkward pauses) meant that their performances weren't really as strong as they should have been.

Conversely, Tara Strong, John DiMaggio, and Paula Tiso were already established voice actors by the time of the game, so they were MUCH better at emoting solely via voice and matching lip movements without sounding as awkward. Even so, there are still people who were equally annoyed by Rikku (for being too goddamned chipper) or Wakka (for being a terrible islander stereotype)'s dialogue.

Matt McKenzie (Auron) was mainly in the same boat as Hedy Burress (ie, he was a normal actor and not a VA), but it was easier for him to do a good job because he was a mostly quiet, generally secondary character with much more subdued delivery.



Metalsonic66 posted...

James Arnold Taylor is a great actor.

NOW, maybe.

But FFX was one of his earlier roles, and it's entirely possible that his lack of experience and/or confident could have impacted his performance negatively.

For funsies, watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DR8pAjTu_M

That's the first VA job Mark Hamill ever had. Now watch/listen to that and compare it with his performance as the Joker in Batman: the Animated Series.


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ParanoidObsessive posted...

But FFX was one of his earlier roles, and it's entirely possible that his lack of experience and/or confident could have impacted his performance negatively.

It was one of his first major roles, but he'd been doing voice acting for several years before that game, and it was only shortly afterward that he took over the role of Ratchet in Going Commando.

I'd say that the stiff acting is more due to the format than anything.
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green dragon posted...

He was thrown into the first trial. I forget what happens in the second trial

the first trial he just walked in.

second trial he was thrown in.

however, you can always leave the fucking trials. NOTHING was there to make him have to do it, especially in the first case when the priest and wakka specifically told him to NOT go in, and he tells the priest to fuck off and then runs past him.
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Blasted_Fury posted...

the first trial he just walked in.

second trial he was thrown in.

oh that's right. my b

Metalsonic66 posted...

It was one of his first major roles, but he'd been doing voice acting for several years before that game, and it was only shortly afterward that he took over the role of Ratchet in Going Commando.

Almost all of his prior roles were extremely minor - it was still his first major starring role.



Metalsonic66 posted...

I'd say that the stiff acting is more due to the format than anything.

Well, like I said, trying to match lip movements to characters who were originally animated in Japanese almost certainly played a role, and I suspect the voice director on the job lacked the experience to compensate for it.

But a relatively inexperienced actor is going to be far less able to improvise or roll with the challenge than people who've been doing major work for more than a decade, which is why Tidus and Yuna tend to be the two stand-out horrible voiced characters in the game.

(Though there are others - I'd argue that Seymour was terrible both in performance and certain character choices, but then again, I suspect that wasn't the VA's fault except possibly in regards to being miscast in the first place.)


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