RE4 vs. RE5: Voice-Acting

[Becky's Butt]

Well inevitably the two games have been compared quite a lot but one category I see neglected a bit is voice-acting and script.

People can say what they want about the cheesy dialogue in RE4 but Irving AKA Jerry Lewis' line when he transforms about his "extreme makeover" was worse than anything in 4.

I am only on Chapter 5 and I know the plot so I expect many more cheesy lines to come.

As for pure voicework, Josh and Chris seem like the best thus far. Dunno if I'd say they were better than RE4's best however.

[REmaster]

Jeez that's a tough one. I think all the voices in RE5 matched their characters perfectly. Irving's voice was just as over the top as his character was, Sheeva's voice was decent, Josh's voice was good, Chris's voice was excellent, Excella's voice was good, Jill's voice was meh...but she didn't have that many lines anyways, and of course Wesker's voice was awesome for the most part. If I had to pick I'd say RE5 had a better voice cast, even though RE4 is damn close in my opinon. Leon's voice was pretty cool, Ada is well, Ada...good voice acting as usual, Wesker was decent for his small bits, Saddler I thought was great also, but Krauser's voice is probably my favorite from RE4. Oh, and of course we can't forget the merchant, his voice was brilliant lol.

[Dark_Chris]

both re4 and re5 heve GREAT voice acting, but re4 had some bad dialogue

btw Irving VA was good

[Darkmoon]

Well, I never thought Irving's lines were worse than the ones in RE4. He wasn't trying to look cool and be super awesome. It came across to me as a desperate and frightened man trying to put up a false front, bravado in the face of two people who've literally killed hundreds of monster trying to catch him. And with at least an idea of about what's gonna happen to him if he doesn't get rid of them...

I'm going to say that yes, the voice acting in RE5 was better. I simply enjoy listening to them more than I do the dialogue in RE4, although I do admit at least some of that might be the script of RE4 turning me off. I'm biased, but I can admit that. The voice actors in both games did a good job.

Personally, though, I felt there was a bit more emotion in the voice acting in RE5. True, it was a more emotional game, but it made the characters feel more real for me.

[REmaster]

Personally, though, I felt there was a bit more emotion in the voice acting in RE5. True, it was a more emotional game, but it made the characters feel more real for me.

This is very true, I could here the desperation very clearly in Chris's voice (especially when he's confronting Jill ), as well as the hatred in Wesker's voice lol.

[Mr. Spencer]

I don't think I have anything negative to say about RE5's voice acting, with the exception of Dave Johnson - the BSAA member who drives the jeep and is later killed by Ndesu. If you listen to the opening conversation segment in Chapter 2-3, the part that you cannot skip, it almost sounds as though Sheva is making fun of his syntax, how speeds up on certain words yet delivers others a lot more slowly.

Johnson: "I HEARD ABOUT IRVING, tough break..."

Sheva: "Yes, but there WILL BE OTHER OPPORTUNITIES."

Irving was made far more interesting by his VA, to the point where it's a real damn shame that he never had a much larger role like Excella. He was an arrogant yet unstable character, in fact he struck me as someone who was always sure of himself and always knew what was going on, and then suddenly he was faced with a situation where he DIDN'T know what was going on and he wasn't confident about things. I think that pushed him a little over the edge, to the point where he panicked and went to such extreme lengths like blowing up his own oil refinery.

All he wanted was to take the money which he had - legitimately - earned, then to cut and run. I don't even think he cared if Wesker's plan worked or not, though part of me thinks that he hoped it wouldn't, if only so he could live out the rest of his days with the megabucks he earned from his life as a "businessman with standards". Irving wasn't evil, it was just business.

Wesker's VA did a very good job, much better than Waugh. I really didn't like Waugh all that much, in fact I think he was the weakest of Wesker's voice actors - the only who brought this almost forced camp laugh to the character. Peter Jessop in REmake accurately portrayed this devious antagonist, and D.C. Douglas did a superb job in RE5 - a wonderful combination of calm egotism and borderline madness, he brought a Max Zorin like quality to the character. Professional, yet insane.

Chris was also well voiced, he really did sound heroic. If that's possible to do with a voice alone. The voice helped to bring to life a lot of the character's positive traits - justice, righteousness, heroism. Sheva was solid too, though there were times when the voice actress felt bored, such as the beginning of Chapter 5-2 (I think), when she delivers the line, "This must be the facility that Excella was talking about". But on the other hand, she's also done much better, like when reflecting on her past with Chris on the boat - "There's only so much one person can do...even a superhero like you, Chris". In fact, that dialogue is probably my favourite vocal exchange in the game. Something like that usually feels forced, but it actually worked in the scene and felt very natural. The music helped immensely.

I think that just about covers it. Oh, and Adam D. Clark's portrayal of Spencer was priceless. I liked the Ian McDiarmid approach he took with the character, it seemed to fit almost perfectly. Spencer is a very similar character to Palpatine, so good call on Clark's part there.

[Corrin]

There's no contest. Resident Evil 5 was simply the best acted RE game to date. Resident Evil 4 was classic, schlocky horror dialogue and acting. I would have preferred if RE5 had been cheesy, but it simply wasn't.

[Becky's Butt]

Well it was more of a cheesy action game than a cheesy horror game.

"Only you can stop Wesker!!!" No he can't. He's clearly demonstrated that several times now.

And one of RE5's failings was the fact they tried to make you take it seriously.

[Mesker]

I think the "extreme make over" -line was perfect for Irving even tho it was what it was, but it fit for him. And i think that the voice acting in RE5 was really good! Best in the series. RE4's was ok, but not as good as RE5's.

[Alexia_Ashford]

RE5's voice acting is much better. The characters felt more real, there was more emotion in the game and it didn't feel stupid, which a lot of RE4's voice acting did. I was very impressed with Wesker's VA in RE5.

[Daargoth]

re4 had more cheezy 1 liners. re5 had some but it also is king to Wesker's amazing quotes

[Henry Spencer]

REmake is probably still the best in the series for voice acting, but between RE5 and RE4, I'd go with 5. Chris' VA sounded really involved in the role and Wesker's VA in 5 is probably the best VA for an antagonist in the series yet. Sure there were duds (Excella's voicework sounded really forced and had a terrible accent) but for the most part, I liked it all. Josh is another one with a good VA, that I never hear about.

[Becky's Butt]

Right to be God is now mine!
CHRISSSSSSSSSS!!!
Global..SATURATION!!!!

Ugh. He was like a comic book villain indeed.

Overall Chris and Josh were probably the best. Everyone else was mediocre. But perhaps that's because of the script.

[Alexia_Ashford]

Right to be God is now mine!
CHRISSSSSSSSSS!!!
Global..SATURATION!!!!

Ugh. He was like a comic book villain indeed.

Overall Chris and Josh were probably the best. Everyone else was mediocre. But perhaps that's because of the script.

That's not down to the voice acting, they were the lines he was given. If those are your issues then that's down to a bad script, not the voice acting. Considering he was in molten lava being burned alive, I think if he'd have said the "Chris" line any different than screaming, it would have seemed odd to say the least.

[Becky's Butt]

I said right at the end of my post that my opinions of the VAs might have been tainted by the script.

But maybe the same is true for other posters here but in regards to RE4.

Either way, I don't have an opinion on which I prefer in terms of voice-acting.