What do you guys think of the new VA’s for Silver, Blaze/Omochao, Zavok and Knuckles?

[MarioKartGamerDude]

As of now Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Quinton and Vic Micgona no longer voice Blaze, Knuckles/Zavok, and Omega 

Today we welcome 

Erica Lindbeck as Blaze/Omochao 

Bryce Papenbrook as Silver 

Patrick Seitz as Zavok

Aaron LaPlante as Omega 

Dave Mitchell as Knuckles 

How do you guys feel about this change?

Personally, I will miss the precious VA’s as they did a tremendous job on their roles but Travis and Laura are married and ahva child together so maybe they stopped being VA’s for their son

And we all know the stuff going on with Vic

Idk why Quinton isn’t there anymore, people say it’s cuz he’s too busy with his other roles 

Erica seems to be a good replacement for Blaze as I couldn’t even tel the difference till now

Bryce however is gonna take some getting used to since Quinton’s portrayal was similar to Pete’s

Patrick is okay as Zavok and is somewhat similar to Travis

Dave’s voice is...okay, but at moments feels off, Travis in my opinion was the best predecessor to Dan Green

Aaron’s portrayal as Omega is okay too but I need to hear more of him 

 

Again I ask, what’s your opinion and how do you feel about the change? 

[tailsBOOM!]

Well, everyone guessed Papenbrook, so there's that.

Overall, they sound pretty good, but could be a lot better

[DabigRG]

I'll have to get the game and/or here more of the others to form an opinion. 

Didn't notice Blaze was different though. 

 

[Dr. Detective]

I gave the majority of my thoughts in the TSR thread proper so I'll post that here.

2 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Just read the new article the site posted. I'm just now finding out that Omega got replaced too. Still haven't actually heard him in the game yet but I will when I buy it. 

The only ones of these new actors I've heard of are Bryce Papenbrook and my boy, Patrick Seitz. And Patrick isn't new to the series. He was Zomom and Snake-Man  Lyric.

Why didn't they let Patrick voice Knuckles though? That would have been interesting. Going from Roy Mustang to Dio Brando might have been cool.

Looking up Omega's new actor, Aaron LaPlante, doesn't bring up anything aside from bit parts and additional roles.  There's not a lot of them either. He's either really new or he doesn't get a ton of work.

Dave Mitchell, who's Knuckles' new voice (and Dodon Pa), hasn't done a lot of big parts. He has the occasional named character like  Shocker in PS4 Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus in Spider-Man: Edge of time.

But in Arkham Knight he was... Henchman. In Halo 5: Guardians and Call of Duty Black Ops III he was "Additional voices".

I'm scrolling through his stuff and it's mostly just "Additional voices" and "Various" and "Irish Sniper #1" and "Police Officer #1" and "Russian Bully #2" and "Thug #1"

"BSAA Soldiers", more "Additional voices", "Clone #1", "Clone Boss", "Clone #3", "Announcer", "Male Gunners" ...

I dunno. No offense to the guy but he doesn't strike me as the guy you typically give a role like Knuckles the Echidna to. I don't want to make any judgements based on the fact that he's clearly mostly used for bit-parts but what I've heard of his voice hasn't completely sold me on this being the right choice either. We'll see I guess.

All this said, I'm still short on actually hearing a sizeable amount of them at work.

At the moment, my thoughts are, from what little I've heard, a bit scattered.

Blaze and Omochao are fine. 

Silver's change was a jarring 180 in direction for his character but one I'm sure I'll get used to. At the end of the day, he's just Anime Protagonist-Hog now.

I haven't heard Omega yet.

Knuckles sounds weird and inconsistent. 

Zavok is okay. 

[Waveshocker Sigma]

I haven't heard everybody but I couldn't even tell that Blaze was different. She still sounds great to me.

Silver's voice now perfectly matches his personality, tone and overall inability to be taken seriously since he sounds like Knuckles and Shadow are gonna take his lunch money and shove him in a locker before the end of the school day.

Omochao sounds cute and I can't believe I'm saying that.

[Blue Blood]

So if I'm understanding rumours and speculation correctly, Travis Willingham (Knuckles and Zavok) and Laura Bailey (Blaze and Omochao) may only be temporary departures? They recently had a  kid together and are possibly taking time off work. I don't keep up with the world of voice acting at all, so I don't know if they've been providing other voiceovers recently for a while. And who knows when the voices were actually recorded for the game.

Anyway, as it goes...

Knuckles/Dave Mitchell: Easily the most controversial change. He trends to sound mostly fine when just talking normally. But the moment he tries to do any high emotions, he becomes an incredibly amateurish and try-hard sounding tough guy. And considering most of the in-game dialogue is exclamations, it's not great to listen to. Travis Willingham went from being a total Dan Green clone in Free Riders to really hitting the mark in Forces with a decent range of emotions.

Blaze/Erica Lindbeck: I can barely hear the difference. She's a bit higher pitched than Laura Bailey, I guess? Sounds fine. No complaints.

Omochao/Erica Lindbeck: Very much the same here. Definitely higher and now feminine than before. Also not annoying though. I like it.

Silver/Bryce Papenbrooke: Silver's voice style is the only one that's really changed significantly. All of the other replacements are channeling the same vibe as their predecessors but Silver is completely different. It's a change and change makes me uncomfortable, but I could get used to this. The generic anime protagonist voice really suits him. I think I preferred Quainton Flynn though.

Omega/Aaron LaPlante: How much has Omega even been voiced since the big VA change back in 2010? He had like 2 and a half lines in Forces. He sounded perfect, from what little there was to go on... From what I can tell in this game, they've gone a bit overboard with the digital effects on his voice. Sounds pretty much fine though.

Zavok/Patrick Seitz: Similar voice, but note quite as gravelly. It's Zavok though... I find it difficult to care so long as his voice isn't offensive.

-

Silver and Knuckles are the biggest shake-ups considering they're the most major changes and also the most important characters here. I hope that Knuckles' new voice is only temporary, because it's going to be a point of contention for a lot of people for a long time if not.

[dbzfan7]

Knuckles new voice would fit Boom Knuckles even more than Travis...yeah he sounds just like people who probably mock him would think he'd sound like.

Silver's new voice is perfect for those who don't like him. I'm indifferent but the whinny sounding voice is sure to make them chuckle.

Haven't heard Omega.  He's like fine. It's hard to get a bad voice for him considering the role doesn't take much.

Zavok....who the fuck cares about Zavok? He can sound however he wants, the damage is done.

[StaticMania]

I care about Zavok.

He's a rock.

[GentlemanX]

I'll have opinions when I play the game when it comes out on Tuesday.

[Ryusuke]

Silver fits, but I never really liked Bryce Papenbrook's acting, and it's still pretty bland here. Knuckles sounds so strange. I know he's trying to sound like Travis Willingham, but there's an extra dopey-ness that just doesn't sound right. Blaze is pretty alright.

[Tails spin]

Travis voice Thor as well for Avengers assemble right. We have to see if that was affected too to see if it is temporary

[DabigRG]

I was thinking that however the voices might've changed, I'm more concerned about whether the characters themselves feel right.

[ShadowSJG]

Silver sounds fine to me

Wish they changed Shadow

[Eurisko]

I'll bet that Travis will be back at some point , he's been Knuckles fora long time.

[SBR2]

Going off what I've heard since I've only seen a few cutscenes.

Knuckles: A little gruffer than any of his other voices but not terrible.

Blaze/Omochao: I legitimately didn't even notice they changed until I read it on Twitter.

Silver: Honestly I'm not getting the distain for his new voice. Bryce has a great dorky voice for Silver I think he fits pretty well.

Haven't heard Omega or Zavok.

[DabigRG]

With actual gameplay under my belt, let's talk about what I've heard so far:

• Blaze is still indistinguishable.
• Omochao sounded like Cream through weakass filter at first, but otherwise tries to be Laura Bailey.
• There've only been two or three lines from Zavok thus far. One was spot on, the others were doped Endeavor.
• Silver is okay. A slightly more dweebish Adrien
• Knuckles has one line in the intro and that's all I needed. He can vaguely pass at times, but it was pretty obvious.

• Omega's oddly high pitched for some reason. Need to turn that particular filter down.

[Dr. Detective]

After playing more of the game, I've decided that this is my new favorite Silver voice.

Also, Silver himself is great in this game.

[Blue Blood]

Silver's pretty cool in this. I really like him. But I'm so used to his "it's no use" and "that tornado" shenanigans that any new voice is going to take a long time to settle in.

But I would just like to say that Rouge, somehow, has ended up sounding like utter garbage. Karen Strassman has voiced her consistently since 2010, but now I think I can finally say that I actually preferred her 4kids VA. Her current voice doesn't suit get personality. Some of her lines in this game have a bit if a southern USA twang too that doesn't fit at all.

This game is a great showcase for fun and light comedy. It's a shame the cutscenes are static.

[Sega DogTagz]

I'm kinda swayed by some of the better lines in this game. Almost any voice will sound great when its complemented by fun writing.

mild-ist of spoilers ahoy
 

Spoiler

Tails stating that he got banned from Bingo Highway for counting cards. Shadow demanding that someone take his wisp. Rouge asking to "steal" a slingshot. Blaze commenting how she couldn't allow the Casino's pretty lights to distract her.

 

Its all so adorbs its hard not to like the voice acting in this one overall.

 

 

Sure there are plenty of clunkers (like who thought that line was a good idea bad) but there is alot to like here. The new VAs are off to a good start and the returning cast held their own for another day.

[StaticMania]

Rouge doesn't sound mature enough...

[DabigRG]

1 hour ago, StaticMania said:

Rouge doesn't sound mature enough...

Yeah, is Rouge being played by Colleen as well or something here?

[StaticMania]

No she isn't.

Distinct.

[Dr. Detective]

Rouge sounds plenty mature. I actually do prefer her current voice actor too but I will agree that her performance in this game is very odd. The instant she started talking, she sounded a little warbly. It's kind of weird.

Also, the inconsistency of Knuckles' voice can be a tad jarring at times. He's not doing an overall awful job but the random switch from "Alright Knuckles Voice" to "Big Dumb Muscle Doofus" is hard to prepare for.

Omega sounds almost exactly as he did before. Though, I kind of wish they'd make the metal voice filter a bit deeper. It's a little too high pitched for my liking.

Big is slightly off to me. I don't know if it's his lines or the acting but it feels like he's speaking just a tad too slow. Even for him.

Everyone else sounds great though. Keith Silverstein has pretty much become my favorite Vector voice now. It was touch and go between him and the Heroes voice but Keith can pull off serious Vector rather well. 

[Kuzu]

This game somehow made me like Silver and his voice is related to that. Bryce has a knack for voicing dorky characters, and dorky fits Silver like a glove.