The “Tales of Zestiria run that is only happening because Berseria was so good” run continues!  I’ve got to say, playing this game again (hopefully to completion this time) is much better than I remembered.  Having the added perspective of ToB is really making me appreciate things more this time around.

That said, let’s talk about the major issue that still stands out on the second attempt: the voice acting.  Just about every line said by the characters sounds totally lifeless, as if they were reading the lines for the first time.  I don’t even mean “reading the lines for the first time” as in they did only one take and were like, “aight, good enough…” I mean more like the voice actors were given a piece of paper and a microphone and had zero idea how the lines were meant to be read and just wung it.

The voices themselves sound good enough, so this is a problem with direction.  Outside of Edna, whose deadpan delivery is a part of her character, everyone else sounds super cardboard-y.

Like, where were these lines recorded?  Was the game director involved at all?  Surely someone could have been like, “hey that take was great, now let’s hear one with [insert emotion here]” or something.

Am I crazy?