Is anyone else just a little bit disappointed by how much Haley Joel Osment's voice changed in III?

[SquareDisney]

Haley Joel Osment is a great actor and his voice changing is none of his fault, but I just wish his voice didn't changed as much as it did since Dream Drop Distance.

To me anyway, his voice just doesn't fit Sora anymore. It just sounds weird to me hearing that voice come from Sora's mouth.

Just watch this Kingdom Hearts III trailer, and you will see what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBDsGjCpknw

 

[Audo]

He sounds better than he did in DDD and I don't notice all that much difference between KHII and KHIII. I think he sounds great in the trailer you linked and fits the character fine.

 

[Luminary]

I love how he sounds in this game. Much better than the past few entries.

 

[Shogo-Kun]

He sounds a tad higher than in KINGDOM HEARTS II, but he's better than Dream Drop Distance and he sounds vaugely close to Miyu Irino this time around.

 

[disney233]

Are we just gonna forget the fact that Haley isn't a kid anymore? Dude's gotta do what he can to maintain the voice of Sora, despite the fact that he's just not at age anymore. Sora's 16. Haley's 30. If anything, I'd say it's an improvement to DDD.

 

[Sakuraba Neku]

Until now, I'm just disappointed with his performance in KH3D. I don't know what happened but good lord, that was horrible. I couldn't be more satisfied with his performance in KH3 from what we heard so far. I barely hear any difference compared to KH2.

 

[robotman]

I love how he sounds in this game. Much better than the past few entries.

This, I think the voice totally suits Sora. He sounds great.

 

[Seadrin]

I actually liked Haley's performance in DDD quite a bit, didn't find anything lacking for me. And as far as KHIII goes, he's killing it! Very impressed.

 

[Elysium]

I've never had a problem aside from that adjustment to the deepening of his voice between KH1 and KH2, so no.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

I'm more thankful for the fact that he's willing to voice Sora for every Kingdom Hearts game to date.

 

[kaseykockroach]

Anyone else tired of threads devoted to nitpicking one single little inane aspect? We have a whole thread for KH Nitpicks, we don't need more!

 

[Fatal Mode]

I actually really love how he sounds in this game!

 

[kirabook]

Not too long ago, people did terrible things to young boys to keep their voices high well into adulthood, I don't think it's a good idea to put pressure on people to keep their voices high or to even imply it's disappointing that it's not anymore.

For whatever reason, Sora's voice never bothered me. Sure, there were a few lines that could've been delivered better here or there, but the deepness of his voice is fine. I just hope in the future Nomura will finally move past KH1 Sora. I feel it was completely unnecessarily in DDD to be honest.

 

[AmaryllisMoth]

He sounds a tad higher than in KINGDOM HEARTS II, but he's better than Dream Drop Distance and he sounds vaugely close to Miyu Irino this time around.

*spits out my water a little bit*

A-ah, uh...as a massive Miyu Irino fan I would have to disagree with that assessment, but maybe that is because I am ridiculously biased about my voice actors and I can pick Irino out of a crowd...

Not saying Haley J. O did a poor job, though. I think he sounds fine.

 

[alexis.anagram]

I'm more thankful for the fact that he's willing to voice Sora for every Kingdom Hearts game to date.

Yeah, he could've left the role ages ago but he's kept it up and even seems to still be enjoying it, so more power to him.

I think HJO's performances are one of the highlights of the series actually. He can't do anything about the physical fact of his voice changing over time, but his delivery is nevertheless consistent and he works with the voice he has...as well as the script he's given, which is usually the larger problem with Sora. There are some lines that just don't play well no matter how you try to read them, but HJO manages to provide Sora with an effortless, natural charm that a lot of leading guys (as well as girls who voice guys) in voice acting have trouble establishing. They might know how to sound "young" or more generically "shounen" but often fail to capture that earthier, human quality: HJO grounds Sora, even though, as a character, he isn't especially grounded.

 

[VoidGear.]

Dude sounds amazing (tons better than in 3D, which might also partly be because Sora's current model is better than the 3D one) and all I can think of is how delicious his Vanitas-voice will be.

 

[Londonbridge115]

Haley Joel Osment is a great actor and his voice changing is none of his fault, but I just wish his voice didn't changed as much as it did since Dream Drop Distance.

To me anyway, his voice just doesn't fit Sora anymore. It just sounds weird to me hearing that voice come from Sora's mouth.

Just watch this Kingdom Hearts III trailer, and you will see what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBDsGjCpknw

I agree! I mentioned this on these threads before. It sounds like his voice got HIGHER and it sounds squeaky.
I didn’t want to harp on it though due to the fear of being attacked, lol

 

[SentimentOfTruth]

Haley Joel Osment's voice changing has never bothered me, it's to be expected with the number of years between games. It's moreso the voice direction that tends to irk me more than anything else. I always assumed they asked him to try and sound younger when he voiced him in the games post-Re:CoM, which is the last game I can remember where he sounded closest to KHII (probably because their localisations were fairly close together). And while it sounded pretty bizarre hearing that voice come from a younger Sora, it sounded like a more natural speaking voice, y'know?

I think that his Sora sounds significantly better than it has in recent years going by the trailers we've received in the past several months, but the difference between his current performance and previous ones is fairly clear to see. Especially since battle quotes in the localised KHIII trailers have been a mix of 3D's and KHII's.

 

[ImVentus]

He's voice sounded identical to KH2 in BBS. Which was 8-9 years ago.

From the promotion of the game, he sounds like he's a mix between fitting and sounding too excited. On the contrary, he does sound like he's having more fun with the role this time around.

 

[Pokie]

To be fair, he's a 30-year-old man trying to voice a 15-16-year-old boy. Not going to be easy.



Not only that, but he's trying to emulate his own teenaged voice from 2002.