I feel like Griffith's actual voice is okay, but yeah, he's kinda stuck in the same delivery for every sentence. Basically Gregory Peck syndrome. :P
If you've never seen other people pointing out Griffith's strange inflections, you've never seen anyone criticise him before. It's the go-to complaint of everyone that dislikes him. I genuinely love Smith as as Sonic though. I'll always say that it's never the voice I would have picked for Sonic and Drummond is probably always going to be absolute favourite (he's still got it in Sonic & Tails R, even), but something about Smith's voice just works. He nails the cocky side to Sonic, does an excellent job with everything cheesy and cool and reigns it in well for the calmer moments too. With Frontiers looking as 'whatever' as it does right now, the main thing that I'm looking forward to is hearing Smith in a plot-heavy game that Pontac and Graff had no part in writing. But yeah, Griffith always was and always will be a truly awful choice for Sonic. The guy's inflections are so bizarre, regularly adding extra syllables to words when his tone fluctuates. He sounds like the very definition of uncool and lame. Which is fitting, because his best-delivered line is probably "wELl, that was LAme". And I promise I'll stop moaning about Griffith in a second but there's one comparison between him and Smith that I never forget. When you choose to play as Sonic in any of the Riders games, he says "Alright! Bring it on!". Same line, same context, different VAs. Griffith delivers that line with with absolutely no gumption. What's his emotion there? It's just so weak. 00:24 Smith on the other hand delivers the line sounding so cocky. It's like he's accepting a challenge and is ready to win. Start of the video. Obviously both games had different voice directors. It's not like they're reading from exactly the same hymn sheet. But it's close enough to compare. And Smith nails it whilst Griffith flops. The point of this post? Well, if you look hard enough then you can find positive things to say about Free Riders.
It always amused how, after everyone trashed him for so long, that there was this sudden love for Jason Griffith out of nowhere with Sonic. I completely get that it's definitely the generation who grew up with him as their Sonic, and are old enough now to express that on social media. But man, the hate Griffith got when he was first brought on was something else. It's not unlike what Roger has had to endure right now, but Roger has to get it from the Drummond and Griffith fanboys who hate his interpretation of Sonic. The strange part about Griffith is that weird inflection he has is nowhere to be found in his Shadow voice, and it's much better for it. In fact, I think people generally agree Griffith was a much better Shadow than he was as Sonic. That said, Griffith in Black Knight absolutely blew it out of the park as Sonic (and Shadow) and it's a shame his best performance came in the last game he was voicing him. Roger is good though; never really had a problem with his voice and I never understood the vitriolic hatred he gets; like, as someone who had to watch the legendary trashing of Griffith in the mid 2000's, it wasn't anything new. But man, the whole discourse surrounding Sonic's VA's is one of the many reasons I decided to distance myself from the fanbase. Sonic fans get so tribalistic about the most minor of shit. The one thing Roger has going for him is that he's currently the longest standing VA for Sonic now, so at point people just have to get over it. Here's hoping Roger blows it out of the park in Frontiers.
Other way around - S3K gets re-released less often than S1 & S2 generally (even before) because it's not as popular. S2 has always been the Sonic game of the masses, it's just among fans that S3K is considered better. Go out of your way to... stop looking for big rings? It's strange because my complaint with Mania is that it just propels you through the game with little input and you have to fight the game and go out of your way to look for big rings.
I don't think the "tyson hesse" style is all that. Not even close to how cool Sonic CD's animation looked and it always looks a bit like twitter fanart to me. It's alright, could be worse. Find myself saying that a lot these days. Griffith is from the very tail end of the series being sincere and earnest. The actual portrayal is what they miss. I'm sure if Roger came in and the series didn't do a complete nosedive on the writing and dialogue a lot less people would be reminiscing.
Is not being a fan of Roger's Pizza Hut Sonic voice an unpopular opinion? Cos judging from all the Roger fans here, I'm guessing it is.
What pisses me off about Roger's Sonic voice is that it just sounds irritating and annoying to listen to, but every time I mention this, someone replies with "It's supposed to be annoying". Well, "supposed to be annoying" is still annoying. He sounds like Nathan Drake, and I'm almost positive the voice direction used that character for inspiration, but the problem with that logic is it assumes Sonic's entire personality boils down to unfunny wisecracks. The difference with Drake is that he's an actual character, and when shit gets serious, he SOUNDS serious. Roger makes Sonic he doesn't give a shit about anything, and "supposed to not give a shit" is still not giving a shit. Sonic gives a shit.
To be fair, there is no specification as to whether "unpopular" means "unpopular here" or "unpopular in the entire world". A lot of the opinions here may be agreeable on Retro, but they would not fly in the greater Sonic fanbase. Also I don't hate Roger's voice or think it's annoying per se, my issue with it is that he sounds like even more of a Cartoon Network-ification of the character. But again, a lot of that is probably the shitty scripts he's given, but even that Sonic Riders clip IMO makes Roger's Sonic seem like he doesn't really wanna be there, whereas in the OG clip he sounds super passionate and excited to take on a real challenge. I actually preferred the first one because Sonic sounds full of youthful cockiness, not condescent or disinterest. Even when Roger sounds cocky or eager to win, to me he comes across as a bit apathetic or like he's just going through the motions. And like Dubs said, when something serious happens I feel Roger's Sonic still kinda sounds like everything is an apathetic joke. Sonic Boom takes that a step further with character writing that sometimes makes Sonic seem like a genuine douche.
Really unpopular take- The Mega collection versions of Sky Sanctuary and Azure Lake are superior to the genesis versions The different lead instrumentation due to the sound emulation issues sound so much more triumphant and encouraging, whereas the genesis ones sound downbeat and subdued.
Settle down there, angery It means reducing a character down to a shallow archetype that takes one of their "signature traits" and molds them into a really narrow caricature of that trait, like when people complained about Teen Titans Go and similar shows. Granted, it's hard to do that with Sonic because he has always been sort of a one-dimensional character, but I think he feels even moreso when the writing and voice acting makes him seem like he never wants to be here. I'm hopeful that future games will do Roger more justice, since Sonic's characterization the last 10 years is also just a natural consequence of Pontac and Graff's writing. Also wow huh, I need to go back and listen to the Mega Collection versions now because I never picked up on that.
Not angry, I'm just confused by the terminology. I'm used to the more common term, Flanderization. In any case, I don't entirely agree. While you could argue the writing has been simplified as of late, Roger does have some genuine moments but his hatedom kind of refuses to see that and are just dead set on hating him no matter what. Just watch his work in Rise of the Wisps and some episodes of Boom, he absolutely does a stellar Sonic and its a shame how much hate he gets just because he's not or doesn't sound like someone else.
By the way, the extended camera used in Sonic CD is still confusing to me. I like to bring this up from time to time.
Speaking of Sonic CD, I adore the CD jump and skid sounds. Top that off with Sonic 3 sprites makes for an amazing, unique masterpiece for your fan-games/ROM hacks.
oh my bad for having an unpopular opinion, I should've posted this in the unpopular opinion thread so I don't get accused of inciting the Roger "hatedom" This thread is for opinions, not facts
