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[WRITE-IN] Our Favorite Video Game Performances Ever | Firelink Podcast (Patreon)

Published:
2025-10-23 16:52:49
Imported:
2026-06

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It's a very special episode of Firelink today as we're all together in-person! We'll be talking about our favorite performances in video games today, along with the usual what we've been playing and watching!

Send in your thoughts, questions, or topics you'd be interested in us discussing! We won't have time to read and discuss everything, and please keep posts topical, safe for work and not huge walls of text.Submissions close at 3 PM CT on Thursday, October 23rd.

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Our Favorite Video Game Performances Ever | Firelink Podcast

This video is brought to you by Once Upon a Galaxy, the collectible card battler of cosmic proportions, available now on Steam. – https://galaxy.fun/d/300 This week on Firelink, KC, Nick, and Marty chat about what they've been playing, their gaming habits while traveling, and their all-time favorite video game performances. Keep up to date on the standings of our Firelink Fantasy Critic Draft -- https://www.fantasycritic.games/league/6093c943-c06e-4f44-8206-157e410d7914/2025 If you dig the podcast, considering supporting us over at Patreon -- https://www.patreon.com/SecondWindGroup Check out our excellent selection of merch over at our DFTBA store -- https://store.dftba.com/collections/second-wind Snag yourself an Adventure is Nigh! plushie over at Shark Robot -- https://sharkrobot.com/collections/second-wind

Comments

GayMountainBear

"Stray Gods" has so many great performances!

Donald Seaman

Andy Serkis as Renoir made me cry twice in E33 Neil Newbon as Astarion in BG3 also killed it, specifically in the scene when you face off with his Vampiric master

Klisstoriss

Hey guys, great subject. I may as well be the first one to say that I was floored by the villain for FC3, he's become a classic for a reason. But the first one I remember was the voice-over for Max Payne. Absolutely dripping with grit. Also Navy from Ocarina of Time, same level of performance in my mind.

Ryallen

Handsome Jack, because Daemon Clarke's performance was so good it elevated Borderlands 2 to mainstream success and the games have been coasting off that ever since. It was genuinely goofy or heartwrenching when the situation called for it and it felt as natural as a person can believably shift demeanors. It also had a distinct performative difference between each phase of Jack's life, which is not something we normally see in a game's performance

Far Too Many Frogs

I stopped playing star rail at the beginning of the year because admittedly I got hooked into gambling addiction. But the penultimate battle of the 2.0 Story in Honkai Star Rail was still the highlight of last year for me. Having the woman whose voice was gifted to her by the god of harmony descend on the battlefield against a clockwork conductor gundam was something else. Radiated overwhelming energy which was just unmatched. I haven't played many new games this year, and that game subsequently suffered from the SAG-AFTRA VA strike (as did a lot of games), so I couldn't tell you much on best performances otherwise.

Mirith

Logan Cunningham's Narrator in Bastion makes that game. Same with Yuri Lowenthal's Prince in Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. I bring these up, because they are an integral part of how the game's story is told in such a fun way.

Zandivya

The Soul Reaver series was the first time I really noticed how powerful a VA performance could be. Tony Jay and Simon Templeman in particular really nailed it.

Shane Z

Blinx The Time Sweeper. Blinx performed beautifully.

Jakob Hjorth Hansen

Female V in CP2077 when they realize that there is no salvation. It's really going straight to the heart

Cameron Ehteshami

Feels like Hades is cheating, so I'm going to Ash Sroka as Tali'Zorah in the Mass Effect series. Not just a great actress imparting both the pain of loss and hopefulness for the future in her acting for the character, but also did a great job "maturing" Tali through her experiences of the three games. Her VA work is a big part of why she is my favorite character in the game.

Mike Casey

Die-Hardman's speech in Death Stranding was incredible. I teared up not just from the content and delivery, but also from what felt like an insane jump in facial animation tech. It felt like a real achievement!

Fas

So many I could list but cherami leigh as female V from Cyberpunk 2077 is probably my all time favourite performance. Her performance is all rounder in terms of emotional spectrum and range. Tho I’d be be amiss if I didn’t also mention Jennifer Hale as Commander Shepard and Jennifer English as Shadowheart/Maelle

TooManySpreadsheets

What impressed me most about Clair Obscur's acting was how subtle the performances were, and how much emotion came through in a sigh or a pause. The Academy Awards often reward actors who do "the most" acting for their role, method acting especially. In some cases, video game actors are doing much "more" acting, given the sheer number of lines, barks, grunts, etc that they have to record, to say nothing of motion capture. What elevates a performance from functional to good to great, and are some of those factors out of reach for small teams with limited budgets?

KingRaptor28

Joe Kucan as Kane made me a Command & Conquer nut for a long time. And the opening cut scene from Tiberian Sun has this gem: "It would be a sad error in judgment, General Solomon, to mistake me for a corpse... "

Horus

William Salyers as Mordin Solus in ME3

Mopman43

Any thoughts on the recent news that Warner Bros-Discovery is apparently up for sale? (With the expected buyer being… sigh… Paramount-Skydance)

Cyan Goffin

Shout out to well...the entire cast of Red Alert 3. My god did they have fun, and it means you actually want to get to the next cutscene not skip through it. Tim Curry gets remembered the most, but they all knock it out of the park

Brian S

Nolan North in Spec Ops: The Line has to be one of the best performances in video game history. North’s portrayal of Walker’s change from a professional soldier to a madman and war criminal was epic, and his line reading of “Gentlemen, welcome to Dubai,” was chilling.

A Winged Potato

The narrator from Thomas Was Alone essentially makes that game

Steady Goblin Wood

Ellen McClain did an incredible job in Portal Voicing Glados, and sang "Want you gone", an unforgettable performance. I also want to give credit to Haley Joel Osment his flowers for carrying the voice of Sora across two decades. I still hear "there's no way your taking kairi's heart" rattling around in my head

Dean Pearson

Shootout to Wayne June, who I know as the narrator from Darkest Dungeon. He passed away earlier this year. Trinkets and Baubles!

Dread Pirate Mittens

Did you know that a young Ash Sroka (credited as Elizabeth Sroka) was in a episode of Walker Texas Ranger called Last Hope? Its always fun when a voice actor shows up in an unexpected place and you're like, 'I know that voice'.

Jakob Hjorth Hansen

It's just hard for me to pull a specific example of femshep. Hale really nailed that one. Just a shame she can't date Tali

Dread Pirate Mittens

I remember an episode of The Sigma Show where they were discussing Neil Newbon winning his Game Award and Superman Jeff said "Let me put it this way. My BG3 character was straight, and Astarion turned him gay."

Moff Muppet

I'll have to go with that one guard in Thief II who gets into such an argument with the guard on the opposite side of the road that his voice cracks from shouting so much. Search Youtube for "thief 2 guard argument" and you'll find it.

GayMountainBear

Oh, I'd also add the voice actor for Cidolfus in FFXVI. The English voice actor was okay, but the Italian VA was... I'll just say I felt sparks. The talent was electric. Bonus to Monoco for really selling being the best boy during his recruitment cutscene and before the final boss of his sidequests. "Pleasehelpme," will forever stay in my head as the funniest line I've ever heard spoken in a game.

Mochammad Santaka

Jennifer English's performance in Clair Obacur: Expedition 33 as Maelle. Some of her scenes in that game was just heart wrenching.

Tommy Salty

I implore you to discuss at length the performance behind Tidus in FFX! I believe that the wacky voice overs (Silent Hill 2) of the yester era were oftentimes what made the games more memorable. But on a more serious note, I think that Cherami Leigh is great as V and Makoto in Persona 5 (same actress!).

Ishterical

In the first Insomniac Spiderman game, the voice acting during the scene where Dr. Octopus revealed he knew that Peter was Spiderman the whole time gave me goosebumps. The heartbreak in Peter's voice made me angry, sad, and disappointed all at the same time. 10 out of 10. On a lighter note....God of War's (2018) , "Boy".

Inverse Skies

The stamper kids laughing during the title screen launch of Diddy Kong racing certainly sticks with you.

ImmenseCookie

Whilst lots of the VA in Telltale games is top notch, Jeff Schine as Javier in The Walking Dead: A New Frontier really stood out to me. I found him a particularly relatable character, and his performance really excellently delivered the whole range of emotions that Telltale games do so well.

KingRaptor28

Almost forgot. General James Solomon played by James Earl Jones.

OhItsWren

With so many of you in the same place, has it made you want to make a yearly Second Wind Summit, and bring everyone together (barring visa or political concerns)?

Samantha Yost

Parvati in Outer Worlds is one that really sticks with me...not just because Ashly Burch is the GOAT, but because of the extremely rare asexuality representation.

Insomnia Inc

Dameon Clarke as Handsome Jack. Sometimes it's tough to process the level he nails that.

Insomnia Inc

Absolutely incredible performance all around, I keep going back to his final scene at the end of tales one of my favorite performances in a video game ever.

Insomnia Inc

Could put too many shout outs but also Claudia Black's Morrigan in the entire dragon age series has always been amazing.

Jaridian

Most of the performances in the RCU(Remedy Connected Universe). The Alan Wake franchise I think has been stellar overall. Rose the diner waitress is one of my favourites. Ahti the janitor from Control and AW2 is amazing as well

Juicy Jeff

Less is more. FromSoft NPCs have so little dialouge but the amount of personality and character in each one always makes them charming and unforgettable.

Seba Kingmaker

This is what I came here to say. Maelle is in the thunbnail, and she's fantastic, but Andy Serkis as Renoir is one of those "Kathy-Bates-in-Misery" mindblowing performances that happens once in a lifetime.

Orange Generator

Still Wakes the Deep should get an honourable mention. For VA in general but you could pick Caz the protagonist.

melchar

Favorites? For voice acting, Neil Newbon killed as Astarion in BG3 - but all the voice acting in BG3 was awesome! For games in general - I went from a POS PC that strained to play solitaire to a chum loaning me his PS2 & a copy of 'Final Fantasy X'. I lost my mind, bought a PS2 & FFX - which for sheer beauty & decent story is still one of my top 5 ever games