I’m not a huge fan of voice acting in games, I feel like more times than not it is distracting because either the quality of the script or the quality of the actors is just not enough for me to suspend disbelief. But there are definitely games that have above average writing and acting. I think Bloodborne is the only game I’ve played where I thought the voice acting was universally excellent and actually added something to the game rather than distracting me, but there are other notable ones too.
This thread is not about games that are universally good in this regard, but about random performances of minor (or at least supporting) characters in games that you thought were outstanding or notable in some way. I’m thinking mostly about voice acting here but if there are other elements of characterization that fit this category I’m also interested in that.
For me, the examples actually come from a game that I think is pretty good voice acting wise, but definitely uneven. It’s also a game I’ve been playing a ton of lately.
They both have the perhaps unintended effect of making you think the characters are more significant than they actually are. The first especially is utterly unimportant to the plot of the game, it’s from a random sidequest that you can only complete if you collect three specific books before talking to this unearthed corpse in a very distant corner of a graveyard in the game, it’s super easy to miss and doesn’t reference anything with any relation to the actual plot of the game. But the actor is just so charming that I feel like I would rather spend time with him than continue on w the rest of the plot. I feel like they should have gotten this guy to voice a more major character (or maybe it is the same actor who does other characters just using a different accent, IDK):
The other is kind of a weird case, in that it seems like the actor is like really going off the rails with the characterization. I don’t think it’s a good performance per se but it definitely uh elevates and redirects the material:
“Toyseller Sanders” is a minor character but part of the main quest at least. The only thing is, I don’t think anything in the plot actually requires him to be as fucking weird as he comes across whenever you talk to him. Like there are definitely other characters in this game who seem a bit “off” at first, and then later you discover they have a basement full of dismembered corpses or something. But unless I’ve missed something about Sanders, he’s written as a sort of eccentric tinkerer whose big secret is that he also helped design this major end-game vault area. But the actor makes him seem like he’s some kind of deranged psychotic pervert, very uncomfortable for someone who in their current career probably spends a lot of time around kids.
Anyway, what other random NPC voice actors do you think went above and beyond in their performances? I’m especially interested in the ones out there that are acted in such a way that makes you feel like there must be more to them than the script of the game actually allows
