Cloud's Voice

[NEO Ness]

I hope it's not too late for them to give him his usual English Voice Actor. Steve Burton would make this so much better.

What do you guys think? Think they've delayed the release to get him to speak English? (long shot, I know...)

I mean, most of the cast is speaking English. Samus, Ike, Snake(brawl), etc

I know some people like the fact that Marth and Roy are speaking in Japanese, and I can understand why. But I've grown attached to Steve Burton's Voice for Cloud.

 

[TechPowah]

Since every other trailer already had the/a set of English voices for each character when it was applicable, i'd say we're getting a Japanese-only Cloud. I also am bummed out because I like Steve's performance, but what can you do.

 

[The Stoopid Unikorn]

Considering that there's still exactly two weeks until December + who knows how many days after until his release, I'd say they have more than enough time to put in Burton's voice before his release.

 

[NEO Ness]

I just looked it up, and it turns out he's been doing some Soap Opera stuff. Maybe they couldn't fit it into his schedule and decided to just keep the Japanese voice to not (mostly) disappoint anyone?

 

[Moorthen]

The fact that Cloud doesn't have a release date gives me a little hope that he'll have an English voice when he releases.

 

[Pegasus Knight]

All I know is if he isn't the voice of Sonic, I'm not buying this game. You hear me, Sega!?

...What do you mean 'wrong character, wrong company, wrong thread'? He's got a spiky head and an attitude, right?

 

[KingPinGamez]

I hope he stays Japanese like he should be. I am still sad that Ike got his mediocre us voice and the huge nerf marth took to his counter lines in Japanese just because he wasn't translated (JP version keeps his quotes).

This could easily be avoided by having a language switch ingame somewhere though.

 

[NEO Ness]

I should have made this a poll! Should Cloud be in English? 1) Of course! 2)Not a chance! 3) Who cares?

lol xD

EDIT: If a moderator has the power to change my OP to a Poll, that'd be awesome

 

[Tri Knight]

All I know is if he isn't the voice of Sonic, I'm not buying this game. You hear me, Sega!?

...What do you mean 'wrong character, wrong company, wrong thread'? He's got a spiky head and an attitude, right?

Sonic has always had one of the most annoying voices I've ever had to listen to. His is almost as bad as Fox in this game.

 

[NintendoKnight]

As far as I've heard, when Cloud was announced, even Xander Mobus was caught unawares.

For those who don't know, Xander Mobus is the voice of the announcer. If he didn't know, then they haven't done the English recording yet. It'll happen, don't worry.

 

[Jae]

A Voice Language option would be the most ideal but it's probably not going to ever be a thing (again-ish).

I do vastly prefer Sakurai's Cloud over Burton's Cloud but I'd take either or whatever decisions for Cloud's voice come to place.

 

[Exate]

I just looked it up, and it turns out he's been doing some Soap Opera stuff. Maybe they couldn't fit it into his schedule and decided to just keep the Japanese voice to not (mostly) disappoint anyone?

https://twitter.com/1SteveBurton/status/665628225687707648
He's already expressed interest in voicing him. As others have said, there's probably still time to get it done.

 

[StormC]

Hayter said he did his lines for Brawl in 45 minutes so I can't imagine it would take long for Burton to send some recordings.

That said I don't like Burton as Cloud but I won't be fussed about it if he does the voice. It's just a fighting game.

 

[NEO Ness]

I just like consistency. The Japanese voices for Cloud are all over the place. But Burton has been with him through thick and thin.

Also, I'm glad to see a twitter saying that he is interested, thank you.

 

[StormC]

I just like consistency. The Japanese voices for Cloud are all over the place. But Burton has been with him through thick and thin.

Er, what? T. Sakurai has been Cloud in every role in the 21st century. The only time he didn't play Cloud was Ehrgeiz.

 

[NEO Ness]

lol, you're right. I should do a little more research before I open my big mouth. xD

When you guys were saying Sakurai I thought you were talking about the creator of Smash Bros. I was confused.

 

[Claire Diviner]

Steve Burton, or bust. That's what I believe. Plus, has anyone seen what Steve Burton looks like? He's a hunk, if I ever did see one!

 

[fenyx4]

Personally, I want Cloud to be voiced by Steve Burton as he has been within English-language games (it's nice that actors from long ago can still be called up to do character voices if needed, and it's weird that Final Fantasy 7 didn't have character voice-acting, apparently); I will probably refrain from hearing Cloud's English voice and wait until I see/play Cloud in action in the English release of Super Smash Bros. 4.. If Burton doesn't return, it's going to be very jarring having Cloud without an English voice..

I feel like Marth/Roy (primarily Marth, since he had an English voice actor, Yuri Lowenthal, allotted to him in Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.) speak Japanese in Super Smash Bros. purely for Rule Of Cool, possibly since even the inception of their inclusions.. Shulk and Ike managed to avoid this quirk (at least in part to already having English voice actors prior to their Super Smash Bros. inclusions), although I'm not sure how Cloud will be handled, as Nintendo could easily invoke "Cloud speaks Japanese because Rule of Cool" if they're lazy (or I guess due to "artistic vision"), keep the Japanese voice grunts but mute any Japanese-only victory quotes (like how Mewtwo is currently implemented), or actually let Cloud be fully voiced in both English and Japanese (the last of which is what I hope happens). The Mewtwo "incident" worries me because it demonstrates that Nintendo is willing to release a character without their English voice actor (and/or that Nintendo was cheap/lazy regarding retrieving voice actors)..

As far as I've heard, when Cloud was announced, even Xander Mobus was caught unawares.

For those who don't know, Xander Mobus is the voice of the announcer. If he didn't know, then they haven't done the English recording yet. It'll happen, don't worry.

Although on one hand I see how that could lend credence, Xander Mobus did state that he "recorded character names off of a huge character name list, not knowing which ones were real, fake, or potential additions".. I could easily see Nintendo actually doing "Okay Xander, today we need you to say these words: Sky. Cloud. Grass. Trees. Bushes. Plants. Worm. Snake." (quote source), so if Cloud has been planned for a while, the announcer recording could have been done ages ago, and with the Japanese sounds done (English character-name announcement by Xander Mobus and Japanese character voice by Takahiro Sakurai), Nintendo could be content to just leave it at that and/or go wrongly further by muting Japanese quotes for English releases (exactly as what happened with Mewtwo)..
--Xander Mobus interview; timestamp regarding "huge list" at 17:40 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sen_43HXOd4&t=17m39s
--source of information: https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/...us_smash_4_announcer_had_no_knowledge/cx0jhx7

https://twitter.com/1SteveBurton/status/665628225687707648
He's already expressed interest in voicing him. As others have said, there's probably still time to get it done.

Nintendo (supposedly) hasn't asked him to voice Cloud yet?! December is like a mere few weeks away! Although Cloud's DLC pack date hasn't been announced yet, I feel like he would be available in December 2015...then again, Mewtwo was announced months before release (although it's not like that helped English voice actor matters at all)..

Hayter said he did his lines for Brawl in 45 minutes so I can't imagine it would take long for Burton to send some recordings.

Really? Wow; wish I could see the source for that.. And that includes all of Solid Snake's "Shadow Moses Island stage" codec conversations? Wow; he knocked it out of the ballpark - Super Smash Bros. Brawl was my first time hearing Snake's voice in any media, and all of David Hayter's line delivery for the game was perfect (hoping that Snake returns for Super Smash Bros. 4; Nintendo can recycle the English Brawl voice clips for all I care). I figured that completion of voice acting for a not-too-dialogue-heavy game series like Super Smash Bros. could be done in a day or a week tops, so I didn't think that the act of "hiring a voice actor" would cost too much, so I am still baffled at why Mewtwo was released the way that he was (as in, without an English/applicable-non-Japanese-language voice actor) if it wasn't for budget issues..

 

[NEO Ness]

I would like to make a Poll thread if it doesn't cross any lines.

This thread can be closed if you'd like.

 

[ぱみゅ]

Nah, I simply added the poll here, no biggie.

 

[StormC]

Really? Wow; wish I could see the source for that...

I heard him talk about it years ago on a podcast. I can't remember which one, unfortunately.

 

[fenyx4]

I heard him talk about it years ago on a podcast. I can't remember which one, unfortunately.

Ah, thanks for the information; that helps to narrow the source down..a little. I would go hunting for it (might do it in my spare time), but it seems like it would take me a while to go through all the interviews... >_> This is why archives and compendiums (especially video/podcast archives) are important! I think the "David Hayter in Gametrailer's Bonus Round" video from 2008 might help, but I can't find any trace of it..ugh.

 

[Zink Imp]

STEVE BURTON NEEDS WORK.
HE'S HUNGRY.

Hayter said he did his lines for Brawl in 45 minutes so I can't imagine it would take long for Burton to send some recordings.

Ali Hillis, the voice actress for Palutena in Kid Icarus Uprising, said she couldn't do Smash 4 because of scheduling.

However, since Cloud is 3rd party and a very prominent character for Square Enix, the voice actors might've been part of the contract and Nintendo can't recast him.

 

[Masque]

Union rules are pretty strict about not mixing union and non-union actors, so that might have also affected the team's decision not to use Steve.

 

[KingPinGamez]

I can't stress enough how much I hope they keep the japanese voice.
I have been playing Dissidia and Duodecim undubbed for forever and *love* the nuances in his japanese voice that simply aren't there in English.

I would hate to lose that the way we lost Mewtwo, Marth, Metaknight and even Ike. Pit's voice actor in in English is amazing and the same goes for Lucina and Robin so I can't complain there.


Personally, I don't understand why the language switch doesn't exist anymore. It costs them nothing to put it in.

 

[the.tok]

I really wish we could have language selection for each character, just like in MvC3.

I really hope they don't enforce English voice for non-english countries like they did with Ike and Ryu

 

[TechPowah]

Personally, I don't understand why the language switch doesn't exist anymore. It costs them nothing to put it in.

Actually, it WOULD cost them; As the devs for Skullgirls can attest, there are extra licensing fees that come about for when you want to import international voice work, or at least importing Japanese voice work. Maybe it's the talent agency group or whatever that started that. In hindsight, this does explain why it's only really Capcom that springs for dual audio for their fighting games.

 

[dezeray112]

I don't mind whether Cloud is voiced by Steve Burton or Takahiro Sakurai.

 

[8-peacock-8]

Although i don't mind just having the Japanese voice, Steve didn't know Cloud was in Smash.

So we'll have to wait and see if they get the english voice or not.

 

[OmegaRS]

I hope they can get Steve Burton in SOME way, even if it's porting his lines from Dissidia. I don't know if that's what they did with Kyle Hebert's lines on Ryu since I'm not really a Street Fighter guy, but the "So this is Smash..." in the trailer makes me assume he recorded something. I guess even if they can't get Steve Burton, I'd be happy with someone else, but he's got plenty of lines in Dissidia that should fit here. Cloud has been an icon all over the world, not just in Japan, he should have an English voice for the English speaking versions of the game.

 

[ArcanaXIII]

I like both voices, so I don't mind either way.

 

[Rinku リンク]

I usually have a preference for Japanese VAs but for once I actually don't mind the English voice over for Cloud. He does a pretty good job compared to some other VA's we've gotten -cough-

 

[Bladeviper]

I can see it going ether way. I am going to assume that the remake will have steve voicing cloud again so maybe they got him to do some extra lines and sent them along but ether way I don't mind

 

[NEO Ness]

I can see it going ether way. I am going to assume that the remake will have steve voicing cloud again so maybe they got him to do some extra lines and sent them along but ether way I don't mind

If the Remake doesn't have Steve's voice I'd cry.

Also, I'm glad to see the Poll growing I'm also glad to hear all of your opinions! I'm surprised to see so many people enjoy a English voice actor. I guess I just hang out with more stubborn people. lol

 

[fenyx4]

Union rules are pretty strict about not mixing union and non-union actors, so that might have also affected the team's decision not to use Steve.

Yikes; I hope that doesn't crop up as a reason that Cloud doesn't get an English voice, if that turns out to be the case.. Not sure what the mixture of "union voice actors vs. non-union voice actors" is in Super Smash Bros. 4, given the immense amount of voicework in the game.. Although I'm not familiar with the intricacies of "voice-actor" unions, I guess that they exist for a reason, although it's irritating that they typically cause nuisances that hinder the consistency of voice-acting roles.. (Does Japan even have voice-actor unions..?)

Actually, it WOULD cost them; As the devs for Skullgirls can attest, there are extra licensing fees that come about for when you want to import international voice work, or at least importing Japanese voice work. Maybe it's the talent agency group or whatever that started that. In hindsight, this does explain why it's only really Capcom that springs for dual audio for their fighting games.

...ugh, that rationale makes sense (and it's dumb, in my opinion; media licensing is expensive enough for companies as it is >_>). But if this is the case, it's weird how Super Smash Bros. Melee is the only game where Nintendo could "afford" this option, at least in regards to the English release (then again, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4 each have huge amounts of voicework); European/"PAL region" releases seem to have multiple voice options.

I hope they can get Steve Burton in SOME way, even if it's porting his lines from Dissidia. I don't know if that's what they did with Kyle Hebert's lines on Ryu since I'm not really a Street Fighter guy, but the "So this is Smash..." in the trailer makes me assume he recorded something. I guess even if they can't get Steve Burton, I'd be happy with someone else, but he's got plenty of lines in Dissidia that should fit here. Cloud has been an icon all over the world, not just in Japan, he should have an English voice for the English speaking versions of the game.

Although I haven't experienced Cloud Strife's English quotes from Dissidia Final Fantasy, I guess I would be fine for recycling those lines if it would help to lower the cost; not sure if they are fitting or not (I'm not against recycling voice clips, especially if they still fit in their needed context).. However, I was really hoping to hear Cloud's English voice actor, Steve Burton, saying "Limits are meant to be broken!" and "Bring it on." in Super Smash Bros. 4.. The Dissidia Final Fantasy lines of "Not interested." (maybe as a taunt or during a counterattack?) and "Can't smile about this one." (the latter as a victory quote) would be great as well.


Also, does anyone know if Ehrgeiz has any English voice acting and/or if Steve Burton played a part in the voicework?

 

[Altais]

I did rather like Cloud's Kingdom Hearts voice; that said, I wouldn't mind hearing it in Smash. Though, I won't be too upset if he keeps his Japanese voice.

 

[RyuIsDio]

I hope to the gods It's English.

 

[LunarWingCloud]

I think the whole reason we didn't get a release is to give time to get a non-Japanese voice for him before release. I'm sure the dev team realizes keeping true to Cloud's image wouldn't be completely right without a proper voice to go with it in English.

 

[Shamsy]

I'm okay either way, but I did get used to Steve's voice coming out of Cloud >.>

 

[DonkaFjord]

...ugh, that rationale makes sense (and it's dumb, in my opinion; media licensing is expensive enough for companies as it is >_>). But if this is the case, it's weird how Super Smash Bros. Melee is the only game where Nintendo could "afford" this option, at least in regards to the English release (then again, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4 each have huge amounts of voicework); European/"PAL region" releases seem to have multiple voice options.

Well Sakurai had stated that both sides of the Voice acting was done at the same time and I imagine having less characters (and not including 3rd party characters with VAs from other agencies) as well as a lot of characters sharing VAs in both Versions (Mario, Luigi, Space furs, Kirby, Ness, Pikachu, etc.) then I imagine it was easier back then. I mean the Roster has pretty muched double in size since Melee with many new talent being mixed in.