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2.5 Messed up Roxas' charact , .



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Wander

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In case you didn't notice, Roxas got a lot of "new" voice clips in 2.5's KH2. These clips are actually some of Ventus' battle lines from BBS, and Roxas' from Days. No big deal right? Same voice actor and all. Except these characters have vastly different voice directions, and McCartney did a great job making that apparent.

Thing is, Roxas doesn't get much screen time in KH2, not nearly enough to make a really deep character. So a part of his character is reflected in the gameplay involving him. It's why I think Roxas worked really well as a character in KH2, you really get a feel of his character even though he has limited screen time. Anyway, I'm rambling. Point is, Roxas' battle grunts are decidedly heavy in the original KH2, like he puts so much force into every swing. This plays to his character, he's ANGRY. He's supposed to be angry, it's one of his most iconic traits in KH2, he doesn't want to be here. HOWEVER, in 2.5 his voice becomes horribly inconsistent. You KNOW when it's Ven's voice, it's a lot more docile and spirited. Things Roxas is not supposed to be. Instead of angry, vindicative Roxas we get bipolar-ass Roxas who constantly switches from 'ROAH' to Ven's passive 'yeah!'. It's mildly irritating for one, but it also muddles up a character who is supposed to be carried solely on his emotion.

It is at its most noticeable in the Boss Battle with Roxas near the end of the game. Axel is dead, Roxas is furious. In the original Final Mix this dude was MAD. Every attack is accompanied by a roar. Every time you hit him he lets out extremely frustrated growls like he's just itching to get you back for it. Enter 2.5, and Roxas sounds like Sora just changed the channel without asking instead of being indirectly responsible for Axel dying. When you hit him he squeals like he's begging you to stop. He's totally a little bitch. He's totally Ventus.

Not saying Ventus is bad, his voice responses work for his character. But Roxas as a character fundamentally works only because he brings raw emotion when he'd on screen. You have one character who's defining trait involves the fact that HE'S HIM, NOBODY ELSE and you decide to give him another character's voice lines. Well done.




Watch these two videos and you can immediately tell the difference.

Original Final Mix (very angry and frustrated):
https://youtu.be/OI38y0o8YSU


2.5 ReMix (literally Ventus):
https://youtu.be/y4yQioUhk9E




So that was a rant. Yea, I messed up the title and said the word "character" a lot.
 

Grizzly

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I don't agree that the character of Roxas was messed up, as the voice acting doesn't fundamentally change who the character is and what his motivations are. Roxas is still the same Roxas, but I do agree with you that it does take away from the moment. The original fight is such a powerful moment in the series, and the remake does lose some of what made that so powerful, which was the emotion conveyed without direct words or actions. It's still a good moment, but it doesn't feel quite as emotionally resonating as it did originally.
 

VoidGear.

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I noticed that as well.
It's not like it reeeaaally bothers me that much - it's just battle quotes and mostly "HGUH" and "GAH" and such - I just don't really understand why it was chosen to do that.
 

Chuuya

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I noticed the major difference when I got 2.5 last year. It never bothered me very much, but my brother didn't like it (his opinion, not mine). I usually go with the flow on how Square changes a few minor things, unless the change is more noticeable or if Square changes the game in a wrong way.
 

Venx

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I always wondered why he screams like a bitch in the twilight thorn fight. Now when I play the original one, his screams is amazing.
 

BlackOsprey

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I always wondered why he screams like a bitch in the twilight thorn fight. Now when I play the original one, his screams is amazing.
Yeah... it's like the difference between "ah holy crud I'm gonna die" and "I'LL TEAR YOU TO SHREDS YOU OVERSIZED STRAIGHTJACKET"
 

Chuuya

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^ Changes exactly like that!
 

redcrown

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I completely agree with you with how battle quotes are pretty important for painting the picture of the character in video games; it gives a good subtle insight into their personality. If I cared more about Roxas that would piss me off to.
 

Sephiroth0812

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To be honest I never understood why they did this in the first place as it is indirectly also a jab against the voice actor.

I don't know how Koki Uchiyama handles it in the japanese original, but Jesse McCartney certainly pays attention to voice Roxas and Ventus with different inflections and emphasis to differentiate the characters.
Dubbing over some of Roxas' audio with Ventus' doesn't make any sense in this regard.

And yet that isn't the only oversight/fuck up they did in 2.5 as they also made an error with Ventus' first awakening platform as instead of showing the original one where he doesn't have his Keyblade and shoulder armor (reflecting his apprenticeship under Xehanort) and there are no wayfinders in the center circle they use already the second one which is normally only seen in the finale.
 

Alpha Baymax

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For my personal voice acting nitpicks, the one thing that did bother me in 2.5 is this particular line: "This world, it's just too small!". They could have used Benjamin Dinksin's voice version from Dream Drop Distance for Birth by Sleep instead of sticking to David Gallagaher. I find that glaringly inconsistent.
 

Wander

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To be honest I never understood why they did this in the first place as it is indirectly also a jab against the voice actor.

I don't know how Koki Uchiyama handles it in the japanese original, but Jesse McCartney certainly pays attention to voice Roxas and Ventus with different inflections and emphasis to differentiate the characters.
Dubbing over some of Roxas' audio with Ventus' doesn't make any sense in this regard.

And yet that isn't the only oversight/diddly up they did in 2.5 as they also made an error with Ventus' first awakening platform as instead of showing the original one where he doesn't have his Keyblade and shoulder armor (reflecting his apprenticeship under Xehanort) and there are no wayfinders in the center circle they use already the second one which is normally only seen in the finale.

Believe me, this is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my pet peeves about 2.5, it's just the one that directly influences what I thought was a big story element.

As someone who used to speed run KH2FM endlessly, there are a lot of performance issues that were never there before. The massive delay after going into a Drive Form (which actually makes some combos unusable unless you pause-buffer it), load times, the action command for Xemnas' final fight being completely broken, etc. Some have workarounds but it's still no excuse to have an HD port be technically worse than the original.
 

Launchpad

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Pro forum tip from the LAUNCHSTER!!!!!!!!!

People are more inclined to carry an interesting conversation if you're less intense about your points and concerns. It's a vid game, chillax
 
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