Video games are filled with memorable characters, whose names recall their many feats of bravery and courage. Maria. master chief. Pac-Man. Tetris block. These icons, along with many others, are known to gamers around the world as heroes.

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But sometimes a name is memorable not because of who it’s attached to, but because the name itself is so unusual that you can’t help but keep it in the memory banks of your mind. And while many of these characters are icons in their own right, their names might be the most memorable thing about them.

ten Relentless Discharge, Dark Souls

Dark Souls has no shortage of bad bosses, but generally when we say “bad” in reference to this game, we just mean they’re hard. Not so with Ceaseless Discharge, which is nasty…that is, disgusting.

He’s in the Demonic Ruins, towering over you over a lava field. Its name comes from the open wounds on its body, which spit out lava – hence it constantly discharges molten rock. But there had to be a better way to communicate that than that.

9 Pizza Pasta, Punch-Out!!

Nintendo’s Punch!! The series has gifted us with several iconic characters, from the surprisingly powerful little Mac to the iconic bald bull, but Italian boxer Pizza Pasta hasn’t quite joined their ranks. With a name like “Pizza Pasta”, you have to wonder why.

Surely it’s not because Nintendo, in its lazy genius, chose to name it after two foods, is it? Surely he wouldn’t be so embarrassed by that goofy name that he’d choose never to bring it back, would he? Law? All we’re saying is it’s time to bring Pizza Pasta out of retirement for one last salty, salty fight.

8 Poo, earthbound

Earthbound was notoriously marketed by a campaign that said, “This game stinks!” And it’s actually a classic that still holds today, but between that marketing campaign and the Poo name, one would be forgiven for associating the game with smelly garbage.

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Poo himself is one of the four main members of your party, the brave and responsible crown prince of the distant kingdom of Dalaam. He even has access to some of the most powerful psychic abilities in the game, but if you were a kid when you played Earthbound, his name probably reminds you the most.

7 Noob Saibot, Mortal Kombat 2

Mortal Kombat has no shortage of memorable characters, with icons like Scorpion, Kitana, and Sub-Zero. In fact, according to games lore, secret character Noob Saibot was actually the original Sub-Zero before his death and resurrection under… a much dumber name.

To be fair, it’s named after Mortal Kombat creators Ed Boon John Tobias; flip their last names and you get Noob Saibot. But these days, it’s like playing with fire to name a character in a fighting game “Noob.”

6 Butz, Final Fantasy 5

Now, outside of Japan, Final Fantasy 5’s good-natured protagonist is known as Bartz…but if you translate his name directly from the original Japanese, you’ll get “Butz.” This translation of his name was even featured in some game guides and merchandise around the game, lending credence to the idea that the dude’s intended nickname was, indeed, Butz.

It’s probably a good thing that this game wasn’t localized when it was originally released. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue if you tried to talk about the cool new Final Fantasy hero Butz with your playground friends?

5 Linkle, Warriors of Hyrule

When the original trailer for The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild dropped in 2014, the internet was abuzz with speculation that the game featured a daughter version of Link. After all, the trailer showed him with long hair and a leaner, more feminine figure, and Nintendo said the game was about rethinking series conventions.

But Link was still a boy. Instead, we got a girl Link in the spin-off Hyrule Warriors, but to differentiate her from the “real” Link, her name was changed to…Linkle. The Wii U era was full of bad decisions, but this was by far the worst.

4 Guybrush Threepwood, The Secret of Monkey Island

In their heyday, the point-and-click gurus at LucasArts were known for the generous personalities and humor they could inject into their games. Exhibit A: Guybrush Threepwood.

The hero of the Monkey Island games (starting with the original, The Secret Of Monkey Island) has the kind of name you only give a character with enough humor to handle it. Luckily, the games are full of in-jokes and references; his name isn’t even the craziest thing about them.

3 Fayt Leingod, Star Ocean: Until the End of Time

Pretty much every RPG has a lot of talk about fate and divinity and whatnot, so you have to give Tri-Ace credit: they’re just blunt in naming Star Ocean’s third protagonist, uh, “fate”.

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To be fair, there are a few twists that recontextualize its name, making it a little less clunky. But only a little. This guy’s name is like a Grand Theft Auto protagonist called “Gunne Leincar”.

2 Sol Badguy, Guilty Gear

Guilty Gear games are known for their depth, gorgeous graphics, and absurdly deep story. What they’re not known for is subtlety. For proof, look at Sol Badguy. This guy’s backstory is complex, but suffice to say he finds himself on the wrong side of the law more than once throughout the series.

One could also say, given his long-running rivalry with high-ranking police officer Ky Kiske, that from Ky’s perspective, he’s… the only villain in the series.

1 Esty Dee, Workshop

The long-running Atelier series has slowly gained popularity through word of mouth in the West, but it remains mostly a niche concern. While they’re solid games with a lot to offer, they’re very out of step with Western tastes…and sometimes that extends to the English language.

Take Esty Dee, a supporting actor in the Arland sub-trilogy. Say his name out loud. Does that sound like something… negative, in particular? Something you might not want to experience? Yeah. Gust did him no favors.

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About the Author

Have you ever played a game when you hear a new character speak and they click. “I know that voice! You say. Claudia Black is the epitome of instantly recognizable voice acting talent in the gaming world.

Playing multiple characters in a huge array of TV shows and movies, Claudia has shifted her talent as a deep, resonant voice actor to video games. Her first voiceover appearance came in Farscape: The Game in 2002 (reprising her role as an actress from Aeryn Sun on the original TV show).

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Over the next two decades, Claudia Black appeared in several hit AAA titles. From the voices of characters alongside John Goodman and Nolan North in Rage, to the role of a certain well-known mage in the Dragon Age series…

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Tess Everis – Destiny Series

In Destiny and Destiny 2, you will find the voice of Claudia Black through the character of Tess Everis, an Awoken merchant who runs the Eververse Trading Company. Added as an update to the online-only Destiny game on October 13, 2015, Tess is an NPC who sells emotes in exchange for Silver in-game currency.

Although this is another relatively small part, Claudia Black plays Tess alongside other notable voice actors, including John DiMaggio (who plays Banshee-44) and Peter Dinklage (who originally voiced the NPC Ghost before being replaced by Nolan North).

9
Hélène – Crisis

In Crysis, a 2007 FPS game based in the fictional Lingshan Islands off the coast of the Philippines, players don nanosuits built by the US military to take down a race of evil organisms known as Ceph. Helena Rosenthal, voiced by Claudia Black, is the daughter of the doctor who is sounding the alarm that the islands are apparently being overrun by North Koreans.

The rest of the game follows Helena and your characters’ attempts to thwart the Ceph and endure the alien assault. They eventually escape the islands after launching a nuclear missile attack to bring down the Ceph.

8
Marwen – Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Queen Marwen was a relatively minor role in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, released in 2014, but Claudia Black’s voice-over skills made the role even more impactful. Chief of the tribes of Núrn, a kingdom of sea raiders south of Mordor, players encounter the queen who looks deteriorated in a very weakened state.

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It turns out later that Marwen was possessed by Saruman and forced to comply. It is implied that Marwen and her daughter Lithariel met a grisly end after an attack from the Black Hand of Sauron later in the game.

7
Cydaea – Diablo 3

In this 2012 hack-and-slash action RPG, Claudia Black lends her alluring voice to Cydaea, taking the form of a giant mutant spider. Cydaea is best known for her boss fight in the Tower of the Cursed during the third act of Diablo 3, taunting players while swinging a spider’s web above them..

Originally referred to as the “Mistress of Pain,” the character was actually removed during game development, but was added back to the game after positive reviews from fans. And to think that we almost missed out on this incredible performance!

6
Whitney Chang – The Amazing Spider-Man

Claudia Black entered the Marvel Universe in 2012 with her role as Whitney Chang, a New York investigative journalist who enlists Spiderman’s help in taking down Oscorp.. Together, they work to investigate Oscorp’s unusual and suspicious activity in the city and save the day in true Marvel form.

From uncovering the controversial science experiments undertaken inside Oscorp to flirting with Spiderman every step of the way, we love Claudia Black’s personal touch on the usual ‘journalist’ trope found in many other stories of the genre.

5
Audrey “Mac” MaCallum – Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare

Anyone who has played Infinite Warfare will be able to recognize Claudia Black’s voice in the blink of an eye. She voices the role of Mac in this Activision FPS 2016 game, an ally and chief engineer of the central spacecraft Retribution.

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Set in space with weightless gameplay mechanics, players join the Retribution team to survive through thick and thin against the story’s main antagonist, Rear Admiral Salen Kotch (voiced by the Game of Thrones Kit Harington). Mac sacrifices herself in a robotic ambush to save the rest of the surviving crew members.

4
Admiral Daro’Xen Vas Moreh – Mass Effect Series

Having originally voiced Morrigan for Dragon Age: Origins a year earlier, Claudia Black was no stranger to Bioware when she lent her voice to Admiral Daro’Xen for Mass Effect 2 in 2010. As a cold member, calculating and seemingly unemotional of the Quarian admiralty. Board, players will encounter her in Mass Effect 2 and 3.

As if one character wasn’t enough, Claudia Black also voices two other characters from the Mass Effect franchise.: Matriarch Aethyta, the bartender of the Eternity lounge on Illium, as well as an anonymous envoy of Queen Rachni.

3
Samantha Byrne – Gears Of War Series

Appearing as Samantha “Sam” Bryne, Claudia Black appears in both Gears of War 3 in 2011 and Gears of War 4 in 2016. During her brash and powerful vocal performance, Claudia transforms Sam’s Aussie accent to the max and packs a punch with general curses and chatter fans love to this day.

Sam Byrne forms one of the Delta Squads in Gears of War 3, which typically joins players in 4-player co-op missions to fight the Lambents to save humanity. She returns in the fourth installment of the series (in a full-fledged relationship with comrade Damon Baird) to witness a raid on the Swarm.

2
Chloe Frazer – Uncharted Series

Chloe Frazer plays a badass romantic interest in Nathan Drake, the main protagonist of Uncharted voiced by Nolan North, and in Uncharted 2 and 3 (and briefly touched on in Uncharted 4 from events leading up to the game’s main story) . She is also the main protagonist of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.

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Hailed by fans for her wit, independence, and sneaky nature, Chloe Frazer serves as a foil to Nathan and his romantic rival Elena Fisher. She is also praised by fans for her flirtatious demeanor and impulsive sexuality.

1
Morrigan – Dragon Age Series

As big Dragon Age fans, we had to keep our favorite until the end. Morrigan is a staple and highly regarded character in the Dragon Age series, first appearing in Dragon Age Origins in 2009 as a mysterious mage in the Wildlands of Korcari and daughter of Flemeth, the “Witch of the Wildlands”, and returning in Dragon Age Inquisition in 2014.

According to Activision lead writer David Gaider, during the development of Dragon Age Origins Morrigan was originally supposed to have a Persian accent, but after a few disastrous auditions the idea was dropped. Players and fans alike are quietly relieved that this wasn’t the case (with plenty of memes to prove it), or we would have missed a fantastic character in Morrigan and Claudia Black’s vocal performance.

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About the Author

The ODT‘s Ben Allan speaks with actor, voice and motion capture (MoCap) performer for video games Brandon O’Neill.

What was your career in dubbing? How do you find that he switches between work for theater and cinema, and games?

My journey was a bit strange. I was not actively pursuing “dubbing”. For Destiny, my agent first sent me a breakdown for an audition for an unnamed project in the Seattle area calling for a “Space Thief” I was like… that’s me! I did two auditions on camera – it was a lot like a movie audition. I didn’t know they were looking to use me as a role model for voice, performance and expression for [original Destiny character] Uldren. Heck, I was filming for over two years before Uldren even had a name.

[There’s] not a huge change needed to go from theater to voiceover (VO) to film other than the size of your performance. In the theater, you will hear the phrase “Louder, faster, funnier”. While this isn’t always the rule, it helps when your intentions need to be understood in the back of a 2,000-seater house. In original version and film, a more sober or subtle performance is necessary. When the camera or microphone is in front of you, there is no need to “project” vocally. In mocap, they will often want more dynamic physical action which can sometimes be connected to a very different body than yours.

Was it difficult to adjust to the scene / screen when you first started?

I have found my background as a theater actor to be the key to success in the performance capture or motion capture space. Knowing how to relate text to movement was a big plus. Mocap is like the theater, in that you rehearse and act and you have to use your imagination in an almost completely empty space, but it’s also like the movie, in that you have to be aware of the angles of the film. camera.

Making a complete “performance capture” is rare in the video game world. Many times the actor voicing the character is different from the person doing the mocap. Uldren / Crow is the only character I do both for. That’s why I feel particularly connected to him. He even shares some of my physical characteristics.

I also had to do MoCap for the performances of other voice actors. I did a lot of the Destiny and Destiny 2 MoCap for Lance Reddick’s performance as Zavala. (by the way … Lance, I love your job, man.)

What kind of context / direction do you get for your vocal work?

We always work with a director in original version. Kevin McMullan was my guru in reinventing Uldren as the Raven. In the VO sessions, he accompanies me every step of the way, making sure to fully understand the intentions of the writer and the creator of the story, while allowing me to discover and create new versions of the character. that they may not have considered initially. Usually we’ll be recording for content in upcoming seasons and that stuff is top secret, so yeah, I get a full story update before I start recording.

During the recording, I visualize myself in the world of the script. On a spaceship or a battlefield, in an intimate room. I also try to visualize the other characters in the scene, and especially I try to hear the words written in their voices. Most of the time, if we share a scene with other actors, we don’t have the luxury of hearing their performance while recording. So we react “as if” they just said the words on the page. It’s delicate. This is where the director is the key. The director can say… we’re not going to make the other actor scream over there, so you don’t have to act like he’s screaming… so I can change my performance to fit their overall plan. .

How do you get into character for voice work, but also for motion capture – especially non-human characters?

Enter the character for [alien mobster] The spider was unique. The biggest difference between working on Uldren and him was that for Uldren, I create movement at the same time as I record the original version. Everything is live and happening at the same time.

But for Spider, I had to play someone else’s voice. Robin [Atkin Downes, voice actor] had this fantastic performance as Spider. Full of breath, grain and comedy. After hearing that, reading the words, and seeing a render of Spider, it was easy to visualize. I was able to “put it on”, if you will, and it unfolded instantly. It also helped that they attached a big spider belly to my mocap suit!

What does a typical motion capture session look like?

Mocap sessions are generally full workdays, eight hours. We’re going to break it down into cinematic scenes for the main characters. Do the whole scene at once. Usually with the chat first, so everyone understands the shots, then the rehearsal in the MoCap volume, then we turn. It usually takes several takes to get everything they want. All other pieces are done at the end. Suppose the volume is only 50 feet – but your in-game character is walking at 200 feet – you need to make several passes while walking to get enough information to use in the game.

It can be very physically demanding. If you jump from a squatting position to shoot a boulder enough times, your quads will start to burn! While filming MoCap for a scene, they asked me to turn around in the air on a foam mat to capture information about what a body might do if hit by a fallen captain (or whatever. it would be). This one hurts!

The pandemic obviously meant that the Destiny Bungie studio was doing a lot of homework, including you. What was this experience for you?

Covid suspended the mocap sessions for me but it widened the VO. I had to reinvent Uldren as Raven using only my voice. It’s the same ship but with a completely different worldview. Her voice couldn’t change much because it’s the same voicemail box but her attitude could. A great writing challenge and an acting challenge.

Add to that doing everything from home. In a way, it’s cool. I can wear my pajamas without worrying about what people think of Crow with a Covid beard. On the other hand, it is a huge pain. Recording of the VO requires relative silence in a controlled environment. A house with single glazed windows, on a busy street, with two dogs and two children is not what I would call “controlled”.

We had to stop the sessions for barking, garbage trucks, noisy neighbors, people mowing their lawns and even just for the rain. I also have to set up my little home studio every time. It’s not ideal but I’m not complaining.

Is it weird watching your own performance in the game?

It’s fun watching the cut scenes in the game. Normally this will be the first time you see all the elements come together. Before that, it’s just basic renderings and storyboard elements. The music, most importantly, is the element that gives the chills.

Voice actors are called upon to create new characters (are we right to note that you recently did voice work for a new character on a secret mission for the game?) How do you go about trying to make a whole? new character with just your voice?

Yes, you get the scoop! It was me as an unknown guardian – Katabasis. Truth be told, I was embarrassed at the end of a Crow session. I didn’t know they wanted me to try to express another character. They said “we want you to try something for the last part of the session.” And they sent me the script right then. I had little experience with this character, so it was kind of a guess. I had a few minutes to watch it and then we started recording. It’s never ideal in this scenario, but it’s the gig. You have to be quick and make decisions on the fly. I had no idea if they would use the trick or not. Glad they did.

What will happen to Crow in the future? Give us a hint!

Hahaha! Bro, you KNOW I’m under this nondisclosure agreement. I mean you Kiwis are far away but not SO far. Good try. I’m certainly excited to see where Crow’s redemption arc could take him. It’s a worthy story and I think players and fans are eager to follow. I love the ’80s Tron vibes from the new Season of the Splicer artwork. I think the future is bright for Destiny. With the rules of physics bent with magic, literally ANYTHING could happen.