Talking with the voice of Jeanne D’arc

Remember Jeanne D’arc? Level 5? Original SRPG on the PSP? Back at Comic-Con I had a quick chat with Kari Wahlgren who did the voice of Ashe in Final Fantasy XII and Saya in Blood+ about her new role as Jeanne in Jeanne D’arc. Before starting the interview I completely butchered the game’s title by not using any French pronunciation when I asked how she liked her new role. Yeah, this was one of those spur of the moment things, but something I’m glad I can bring back to Siliconera HQ even if I made a fool of myself to get it.

So why did you decide to do the voice of Jeanne?

KW: This was one of those few games where I didn’t have to audition for it. They called and said “hey we have this part and we would really like you to do it.” And the character is based on Joan of Arc, a historical character that is very fascinating to me. So I was very excited about it. The game is loosely based to her story with some historical and fantasy elements mixed together. Yeah, I was pretty excited about it.

Have you got a chance to play the game yet?

[laughs] I have got a chance to play the game and I have to admit I’m a terrible gamer. I had to have some of the guys help me get to the next level because I would be like crap this is hard! It is a very strategy based game and I think the hardcore gamers that like that style of game will be very challenged by it. It’s cool. I’ve played it, but not well.

What was your favorite part about it?

Just the look of it. I mean it’s so clean, the storyline is great, the characters are very interesting. It’s got a little something for everyone. The gamers will be challenged, but it’s got enough story and character development for the people that like that kind of game are also going to enjoy it.

Who is your other favorite character? Besides yourself, I know you’ll pick yourself.

There is a great relationship between the two main female characters. She (Jeanne) has this best friend named Lea. There is such a great relationship between them that I would say I dig her character too.

Did you get a chance to hear the Japanese voice acting before?

Yes, we do get to hear the Japanese actors in a game like this where it is already been released in Japan, which is kind of nice because you get a sense of style with the character and personality. Before we dub each line into English we do get a chance to reference the original Japanese recording.

Is the Japanese language track going to be in this too?

In this one just English.

Sony Representative: It’s one of the situations where well they are French, so why are they speaking Japanese. Obviously people are going to ask why are they speaking English then. We decided not to put it in for artistic reasons. We felt the quality was so good I don’t think anyone is going to miss the Japanese.

You speak English in this right?

Yeah.

Did you have to learn pronunciation or do you already have a French accent?

We did do pronunciation in the game, which was very challenging. We had a French engineer in the studio making sure we pronounce things right and we don’t get too euh huh huh about it you know? So yeah we had help with the pronunciation.