During the PS2 era of gaming, developers began to put a lot of effort into not just into the enjoyment of wider forms of gameplay, but also into making the story feel as alive and intriguing as TV shows or movies. While games on the PS2 didn’t always succeed in this, one of the generally weaker points was the voice acting.
Trying to get players invested in a story or world was difficult with less-than-ideal voice acting. A weak script or too many NPCs in an RPG world that were poorly voiced could lead games down rabbit holes. The games usually suffered for it, but sometimes the voice acting was so bad that it was amusing, and became part of the game’s charm.
6Rygar: The Legendary Adventure
There is something off-putting but kind of hilarious about a bad voice actor whose every line is reverbed with an effect that makes her sound slightly more like the disembodied God she is meant to be portraying. That is part of the opening toRygar: The Legendary Adventure, a PS2 action gameset in a fantasy Roman/Greek inspired worldwhere Titans attack and steal Princess Harmonia.
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Simplistic in style,Rygar’sHerowas pretty poorly voice-acted throughout in an overly simplified “heroic” voice. Meanwhile, the Princess herself was quite an egregious bit of voice acting, and the Goddess who saves Rygar sets the tone in the opening for some of the weakest voice acting of the lot.
5Shining Force EXA
A late release for the PS2,Shining Force EXAis justone in a series of RPGsabout battles between angelic and demonic armies.Shining Force EXArepeated many of the mechanics in and out of battle fromShining Force NEO, the previous entry in the series. There were problems with the game outside the voice acting, such as frame rate issues and lag when many enemies were on-screen simultaneously, as well asthe length going a bit extreme. But the most egregious fault was with the voices.
Characters like Toma, the main male character in the game, were hardly bearable to listen to, particularly for such long periods of time. Even secondary characters came off as irritatingly simplistic in their portrayals, including Maebelle and Gadfort. The voices felt like there was very little effort to them. At times, it was horribly irritating; at other times, simply amusing.
4Grandia III
Another RPG from the PS2 era,Grandia IIIfollowed theprevious entries in the Square Enix serieswhen it was released in 2005. Set in a world where magic controls the aircraft in which humans fly around, the game follows a teenager looking to become a pilot as he becomes embroiled in the works of dangerous beings around him and falls in love.
WhileGrandia IIIwas a well-meaning gamewith a fun story and similar mechanics to those from previous entries, the voice acting made it hard to take it seriously. Everything from the leads to the side characters was outright ridiculous, and the cheesy triumphant music didn’t help matters as fans took to remember this as a very special entry in the franchise.
3Chaos Wars
Chaos Warsis one of those PS2 games that is remembered for the voice acting above any other aspect.A crossover game between franchisessuch asShadow Hearts,Growlanser,Blazing Souls, and more, this tactical RPG was supposed to be a huge triumph. Instead, it has fallen into cult status because of the hilariously bad English voice work, partly done by the children of the CEO behind the game.
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It is nothing short of hilarious. Characters like Uru and Karen barely sound as if their lines are being acted, more as if they were being read by a high school drama class.Chaos Warsis one of the few games that has become known so well for an aspect such as this, but it will definitely give gamers a few laughs to hear for the first time the voices in this game.
2The Sniper 2
One of the more legendarily terrible but fun PS2 games,The Sniper 2isabout sniping people from rooftops. It would be fair to laugh at the horror of most aspects of the game, which is generally enjoyable for the sheer audacity of how bad it is.
The Sniper 2features a number of cutscenes with characters whose writing doesn’t help, but whose voice acting is particularly egregious. By the time players get a chance to start shooting at enemies, most will already be horrified by the quality of the game. A forgotten classic of the so-bad-its-good variety,The Sniper 2is worth checking out for a good laugh.
1Robot Alchemic Drive
Of all the games that are known for bad voice acting, there are few where it seems so tragic that it almost has to be on purpose.Robot Alchemic Driveis about a young human who must fight to save the Earth from machine creatures called the Volgara. Despite receiving favorable reviews upon release, there has never been a more mortifying English dub of a game.
From overly long conversations about bread and soup to the worst death screams in history, every piece of the voice acting seems purposefully terrible. It’s hilarious enough to checking out and playing every second of the game in shock at witnessing this acting and trying to guess how it could have been released.
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