Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-25366375-20141130024720

64.33.250.214 wrote: I did some looking around to see if any VAs for main characters were double cast or recast for other major characters. Richard Doyle who voiced Big Boss originally voiced The Fury. Banjō Ginga who has voiced Liquid Snake in 3 games, also voiced Major Zero for 2 games. He has an as yet uncredited role on Wikipedia for MGSV. Robin Atkin Downes, as you mentioned, has previously voiced soldiers and a character named Jonathan (Portable Ops). Troy E. Baker has also voiced soldiers besides Ocelot. Lastly, Hideyuki Tanaka, the Japanese voice of Otacon and Huey, voiced another character named Jonathan (MGS4) in the same game he voiced Otacon. I was aware of Richard Doyle's involvement but didn't think it particularly noteworthy because The Fury doesn't really speak all that much. As for Banjo Ginga, I just discovered that today actually with the announcement of him being in MGSV, and I find that peculiar to be honest. I haven't heard the Japanese so I don't know how alike they do or don't sound, but I still think it's pretty odd.

As for Robin Atkin Downes, I was also unaware having not playing Portable Ops (I did actually buy a copy from Gamestop but it came faulty, but that's another story). Same goes with Hideyuki Tanaka because again, I've not played the Japanese versions. Troy Baker is much the same as Neil Ross (Colonel Volgin), in voicing soldiers previously but getting a bigger role in another game, and besides, Troy Baker is in just about every game that's come out in the past 2 years.

However, while I concede your point, there may have been recasting of major characters but never the main character with the technical exception of Richard Doyle as Big Boss. Are they doing roles prevalent enough to be heard and identified as the same actor? Yes, absolutely. But they've not been Snake. I'm not necessarily arguing that my point is correct, I'm just saying that there's an important distinction to make here between someone like Atkin Downes playing another character in a game where Kaz doesn't appear (and to a certain extent "Kaz" Miller didn't exist yet, just Master Miller), and Kiefer Sutherland voicing up to three potentially different characters, especially considering the controversy around his appointment as Snake, and the previous issue of directors not wanting Hayter to voice Solid Snake and Big Boss in the same scene in MGS4. Regardless, it's all a bit fishy.

64.33.250.214 wrote: Which makes it unlikely that will change for Akio and Sutherland in MGSV... but not improbable. Rather, it's improbable, but not impossible. And I agree, but as I said above, with what we know from past games, I seriously doubt it. Besides, look at how distinct Sutherland's voice is. Even with the pitch deepening which people needed to remove to prove to less-discerning ears, it was obviously him. All I'm doing is an estimate based on all available evidence.

Misterbunnsy wrote: If you consider the repertoire of voices that Troy Baker has (having voiced so many different characters and being able to distinguish between different voices in these roles), it's surprising that they didn't just use him in this case if the Medic was missing a VA (as opposed to using Kiefer at the last minute, who isn't really a trained VA and has difficulty performing alternate voices - at least, from what I know about him) Yeah, that's a good point. My guess is that Baker probably wasn't signed on as Ocelot at that point in time. Logic would say that they wouldn't want to include him so they could avoid confusion, but they ended up using Sutherland so that's kind of a moot point. That's certainly a mystery, because there were plenty of people doing voice work on Ground Zeroes who would have been cheaper than Sutherland, and who would have avoided the confusion and the theories. Maybe they wanted that and Medic is a redundant character, but it's certainly odd nonetheless.

64.33.250.214 wrote: If Medic were Solidus, Big Boss would have noticed. Medic was only obscured from our (player's) point of vision, but not Boss's. While it seems obvious, this is not necessarily the case.

Let's start with the most basic factor - Big Boss has one eye so his vision may not be so hot. Yes, he's been missing the eye for 11 years, but even so it's something to be considered.

It's actually highly unlikely that you would recognise somebody who is identical to you, and that is chiefly because your perception of yourself is based on mirror-images. In reality you are a mirrored version of what you think you are. Then, would you be able to immediately recognise a younger version of yourself, with a completely different hairstyle?

But, the issue is that Chico would have noticed. I'd say "he's been tortured extensively recently" excuse but that's precisely what it is - an excuse. To be fair to that point though, Chico didn't recognise Big Boss when he was rescued from his cage in Camp Omega. By the way, I'm hardly saying this "evidence" is irrefutable, and I'm reaching a bit, I just think it's a fascinating talking point. So I might not believe everything I posted, just adding it to the discussion for the sake of conversation.