HonkaiStarRail
Joshua Water's STELLAR performance with Phainon + a celebration of the great vocal talent within Amphoreus.
Let me preface this by saying there has been a lot of insanely talented VAs in this game. For fun, I once played through ZZZ's Astra story patch speaking out all of Astra's lines to see if I could either imitate Molly Zhang's excellent performance or "give the character my own spin" with my voice. I was GARBAGE. CRINGE. While Molly was able to bring levity/drama/charm to Astra's character with surgical precision, I know I must never quit my day job. I 1000% respect all the voices involved with this game, but this post will be focused on Amphoreus specifically.
Now I will start off talking about The King ...
Joshua Waters as Phainon
Simply put: a clearly amazing actor nailed an extremely difficult role. Phainon's story is arguably the single most demanding role in the game given Phainon slowly transformed from a puppy-energy, friendly/charismatic hero to a rage-consumed, tormented man. Phainon has had over 2,500 voice lines in Amphoreus(so far). This character has been on a journey that the word 'epic' fails to describe, and Joshua sold Phainon's transformation via his brilliant performance. I am stunned by him, genuinely. He's already an industry icon as far as I'm concerned.
Also, if there's any otome devs reading this, go ahead and hire him for your otome game. That last line of his little date teaser-trailer? Some smoking sexy-voice ability there. Cause, you know, perhaps nothing except possibly the role of a six year old female child is outside of Josh's wheelhouse(but shit, maybe he could do that role too).~~~
The second VA I want to bring up has to be an actress that made one of the Chrysos Heir characters with the least amount of screentime absolutely fucking shine.
Shea Fairaday as Cipher
WHAT a performance. Cipher did not get a ton of screentime but the writers/Shea made that time count. The vocal performance oozed personality. Shea was perfect as our wily cat burglar. Fun, beguiling, snarky, yet never missing the potent emotional beats either. I literally cannot fathom a different voice for Cipher now. Shea was awesome. Seriously.
~~~
STEPHEN-FUCKING-FU
Effing amazing. GREAT talent. He did such an expert job at creating a unique/perfect voice for Anaxa that I actually somehow missed that he does Wise's voice from ZZZ. I play Wise, and he has a weird strawberry head. I wanted to play Belle because she was cuter, but Stephen Fu just had SUCH a great voice that I had to commit to the Wise option for ZZZ.
SO good at being at being a helpful hero, so good at being a snarky scholar. Flexible, talented, cool as hell. SO DAMN GOOD. Epic talent.
PS. Stephen Fu was part of this list the whole time I swear. I totally had a complete list.
PSS Sorry Stephen Fu if you ever see this, I promise I think you're a god
~~~
Being real, I think all of Amphoreus main cast simply slapped.
Hayden Daviau as Tribbie + Crew
DUDE this actress did three separate children voices EXTREMELY well(and also was the drunk fountain in the Vortex -- rofl what a fun vocal performance). I really am not a person that typically appreciates child characters but between the writing team giving Tribbie a fascinating story along with Hayden providing such an excellent/emotional performance I left 3.1 a Tribbie-appreciator.
Morgan Lauré Garrett as Aglaea
UTTERLY enchanting. I could listen to Aglaea's voice for hours. Perfection as the goddess of romance. What a joy that she was a part of the Amphoreus experience. Smitten with her voice since day 1. Brought supreme elegance Amphoreus' goldweaver.
Gabriel Warburton as Mydei
This actor's ability to perform chest-heavy bellowing is insane, yet he also let me feel the nuanced aspects of Mydei's characterization. He brings Mydei all the rage, nobility and masculinity the character deserves(and that bathhouse performance was top-notch.. obviously). Anyway, it's not surprising that acting is in this guy's blood ...
Melody Muze as CastoriceA voice 100% befitting the character's sweetness/gentleness. A truly lovely performance for a character with an incredibly tragic story. I got more and more hooked on this character as time went on, and I credit that to both the writers and Melody's wonderful acting chops.
Holly Earl as Hyacine
Ahh! Holly conveyed Hyacine's passion and kindness so damn well. Hyacine had some HEAVY moments and Holly really delivered.
~~~
But let's not pretend only the main cast delivered during Amphoreus. There have been EPIC performances by multiple NPCs ...
Blythe Melin as Lygus
Disgustingly perfect. Disturbingly fantastic. Terribly wonderful. Much like Shea, he just exudes personality with his voice. He's got insane vocal aura. Condescending comments, maniacal laughs, awful declarations that can creep into brains ... He is so terrific at this role that I want to look him up in non-villain roles cause I am hella curious about him as an actor now. Fantastic work.
Hunter Peterson as Lord Gnaeus
Another actor that was a combination of an extremely distinct voice and an excellent vocal performance. There are two distinct lines I can remember from early patches. Tribbie's "see you tomorrow" and Gnaeus' "I am the scar this world needs."
And dude, that line legit gave me chills: Nikador Warcry #honkaistarrail #amphoreus #shorts
The acting was so insane(and probably part of the reason HSR's early Amphoreus presentation issues were so easily noticed -- the acting was so beyond the visuals)
Meli Grant as Gorgo(Mydei's Mother)
Another small role but Meli totally nailed the fierce female warrior vibe. Genuinely hope she snags bigger hoyo roles.
Mydei's Parents - Queen Gorgo & King Eurypon's Past (Cutscene) | Honkai Star Rail 3.1
Go to minute 1:30 of the vid to hear this woman's acting chops in full force.
~~~~~~~~~
So, kudos to the actors and kudos to the casting director for really delivering with the VA experience. I truly feel like there's been a lot of excellent talent in this game.
So gang! Feel free to share. What were your favorite performances? Are there any wildly awesome VA performances outside of HSR that you want to share? Let's discuss.
Discussion
There was a stream where Joshua Waters talked about his experience voicing Phainon. He talked about how Phainon has a knightly aura at first before he got called back in again to voice him more friendlier. They made sure Phainon was so bubbly and that he laughed a lot so you can feel the difference in his personality changing as the story went on. He talked about how he brought in that Batman-like feel when he had to voice that Khaslana darkness in his voice. I think he even talked about how he had to pinch his throat to get there. It's amazing how above and beyond he gave into Phainon's performances. When he was Velite (NPC IPC person in Argenti's quest) he was still studying in school and had to voice in his closet(?). Seeing how far he's come, I wish him so much more success moving forward! 😭😭😭
Oh shit I had no idea. I should watch his stream more. he's a super cool dude.
I think he mentioned it in the first Phainon pull stream he did to get him to E5 (so he can E6 Phai with the other VAs). Somewhere around there if you wanna have a look!
I LOVED Joshua's performance, but I watched this stream and thought it was way too chaotic, lol. Especially once Gabriel showed up
So it was lore accurate stream I see
A lot of voice actors will start off voicing in their closet for the noise dampening (bc small space, lots of fabric to absorb echo/excess noise) because they don't have the money/space for proper soundproofing and dampening materials! So it makes sense that he would start off that way, it really shows how much momentum a VA has to build and how far they go in order to pursue their dreams, I always find VA's stories to be quite heartening. Joshua Waters really is excellent and I'm so happy for him, Phainon has been an incredible character to hear given so much love and care in performance.
Oh my god I loved Velite, maybe this means he can make another appearance?? [hopium overdose]
Blythe Melin’s Lygus was PERFECT. It’s eerie and creepy with a robotic, monotonous tone to it. Urgh it’s so good. Him and Joshua have been absolute standouts in the story. The evolution of Phainon’s voice from 3.0-3.4, and the deep pain you can hear in his voice, it’s just masterful.
The most underrated Amphoreus VA is Holly Earl imo. Her voice as Hyacine is most of the time the run of the mill gentle girl, but her voice acting in the latter part of 3.3 from the reveal of the truth behind Aquila, all the way to when she merges with the sky was fantastic. There’s a subtle confidence and resolve to her voice that perfectly complements her story.
3.4 spoilers >! And Hyacine’s scream in EN in the boss fight was imo the only one that actually felt like a scream of pain and not just a moan. The voice acting in the segment between her and Phainon was just fantastic. The empathy she had for Phainon came across perfectly, she understands this man !<
Hyacine defo the most underrated Chrysos Heir imo.
Dude I got to rewatch that scene. It clearly left a major impression on you.
And agreed with everything said about Blythe. He brought a fantastic intensity to 3.4.
I am a massive Hyacine fan so maybe there’s a bit of bias there, but yeah her story was awesome and resonated with me well. Peak character fr
It’s eerie and creepy with a robotic, monotonous tone to it.
That's the thing though, I seem to notice that when it comes to robotic characters like Screwllum and Lygus, the EN VA department seems to put in a bit of robot sfx to make it sound more robotic. This is compared to JP that either have none or little that it makes these characters sound more like human than robot.
It's actually these kind of additions that make me like the EN dub and not just in HSR but a lot of other works as well. This Gundam Seed dub showed it well at 3:15 mark where they put it in the echo there that wasnt in JP, further cementing the emotional impact.
I love the original Gundam Seed Ocean Dub!
It's what got me into anime in the first place.
I always praise the Amphoreus cast, but I'm definitely guilty of not talking about Holly Earl enough. I absolutely appreciate that they didn't go with the usual high pitched bubbly girl route for Hyacine. I've heard enough of those from characters that look/feel like Hyacine and it was starting to get tiring. And then came her EN dub, it was so refreshing to my ears. I can't explain it properly, Holly really brought out the "sweet, must protect cinnamon roll" without sounding like she inhaled helium or something. It was a breath of fresh air to me, really added to Hyacine's charm.
When I listened to her and Seliose talking in 3.3 one cool and sweet, the other powerful and commanding, it brought out such a nice contrast.
Why is everyone hot
Right? Like, I didn't want to goon in the main post, but these people are really good looking lol ...
The voice talents between ZZZ and HSR is crazy tbh (I don't play GI so I can't speak for that). Hugo was also crazy with the voice acting, I personally think he basically carried 1.7 patch for the most part.
My favourites from HSR (edit to specify that HSR Amphoreus, because overall there are many many graet voice in the game before too like my bae Jing Yuan) has to be Phainon and Gnaeus. The line before the Strife boss still goes so damn hard. And Phainon is just
I think Joshua Waters would be perfect for Dante DMC tbh if they ever do a DMC3 remake. The animated short was so phenomenal.
Also honourable mention to the Herta as well. I love her voice. Got me to pull for her lollll
Love Hugo's voice. Eve, Lighter, and Astra too. Hoyo has pretty great casting choices across all its game if Im being real.
We could go back as far as 1.0 and find great VAs
HSR in general has a wide pool of amazing talent among everyone who voices characters and I wouldn't have it any other way
HARD Agree.
THRILLED Allegra is back, Kafka and Ratios voices are iconic, Camden killed it as Aventurine, etc.
After watching Camden streams for quite awhile now, I believe his role as Aventurine has left him physically unable to say FRIEND~ properly now
That is hysterical XD
Love Camden.
I love Camden's lil ✨friend✨
EXACTLY! HSR is definitely the first non-English media I have found that totally slay the English dub for me. All the casts are so good it’s crazy.
Omg Joshua Waters as Phainon did an amazing job! <3
Hard agree!
The dude has ridiculous skill.
this is stephen fu erasure 😭
HE HAS BEEN ADDED. APPROPRIATELY ADDED. FU IS A LEGEND I DUN FUCKED UP.
LMAO thank you for adding him in, the new section cracked me up (as did the deleted comment and subsequent chain 😂). i don't play zzz and had no idea stephen fu also voices wise... this might actually be the thing that gets me to download it LOL. ngl i spent a few minutes staring at photos of wise trying to see the strawberry head but all i see is sunday without his halo or wings 😭
[deleted]
Stephen Fu voices Anaxa.
OMG
I'm someone that thinks 90% of the EN dubs of anything anime related sound corny af and take me out of the experience almost all the time, but I gotta admit it, the guy that voiced Phainon did a stellar job and might be better than the JP dub in some aspects at times.
Who's your favorite JP actors in HSR?
I’m always curious in stuff like this, do you speak Japanese? Because to me almost all the corny parts of high effort dubs (which definitely exist I agree with you there) seem to be because of the writing most of the time, something that wouldn’t be much different in Japanese unless you couldn’t understand the words
I actually do speak japanese, not fluently but I did get certified in college and neither English nor Japanese are my native languages so I have no bias for either of them. I still find that the Japanese language is much easier on the ears and fits much more in the context it's used in anime adjacent media. My problem with EN dubs is that a lot of times they try to sound like anime and use a lot of japanese vocal tropers that don't translate well to that language.
And honestly, most of my problems come from American EN dubbing for japanese media because when they have gone with British dubbing I end up liking it even more than in JP.
Quick question then, have you played the Xenoblade games? And what did you think of their voice acting if you did.
Peak post
As someone that respects VA but rarely goes out of my way to looks at stuff about them it's interesting to see their faces. There are so many good VA in amphoreus
There were some cute pics easily found on google that I didn't want to use.
Mydei VA had a cute pic with a doggo but it didn't capture his face well(also its probably weird to post someone else's tiktok photos on reddit. I don't want to be weird)
The (English) voice acting in this game is unironically the best part about it to me.
The VA’s rarely miss.
Amphoreus, despite its many faults, has had impeccable vocal talent. But frankly… even the early game stuff still holds up. I know people were getting pissy with all this because of the recent VA disaster, but they deserve every bit of hype they get.
Dude the VA disaster was out of the hands of many of the actors.
And Im so damn thrilled a lot of them are getting to come back. Glad hoyo was understanding and -- being honest -- pretty damn patient.
I really needed old favorites like Nick L and Allegra to come back, and Im so thrilled its happening.
I never said it was the VAs fault. You’re assuming. I just said people were getting pissy. Which they were.
Im sorry I was just declaring things were not their fault to imply people getting pissy was unfair, not meaning to imply you thought they were at fault.
If any of these VAs get recast in the future Hoyo's gonna have me drawing Nanook's gaze because man, their exceptional performances made the character's emotions truly believable and added so much personality.
Agreed. I consider their presence in Amphoreus mandatory.
And Nicholas Leung would easily be a part of this damn list if he didn't get screwed by the union. >.<
Im gonna rewatch all of amphoreus in the future when Nick's voice is properly added. Its such a win to have him back.
Phainon’s role is so incredibly tough because it really is using his entire range. The key but subtle differences between Khaslana, 3.2 Phainon and 3.3 Phainon, jaded and burnt out Phainon vs desperate and hopeful Phainon vs stable and heroic Phainon. When he’s giving a speech to the citizens at the assembly you couldn’t dream of him falling as far as he had. Even in the delivery of his playable lines is magnificent, “Fury of innumerable coreflames CONSUME ME” is possibly just the coolest ult line EVER
Anaxa’s was seriously fantastic too, i love that low whispery tone like he’s permanently suffering, but still so prideful that he’d never tell you that himself.
All comments are based, but I will highlight this one: "Anaxa’s was seriously fantastic too, i love that low whispery tone like he’s permanently suffering"
SO ACCURATE!
Gorgo's VA even looks like a chad
Definitely. She's got boss energy. Not even girl-boss energy. Just straight boss energy.
EN Phainon moment where he says goodbye to the ones who already departed, made me love the character
Anaxa is Wise??? How
I HAD NO FUCKING CLUE. I've played ZZZ for several months and have been with HSR since long before Amphoreus and it NEVER crossed my mind that I have heard Anaxa's voice somewhere before.
Seriously!! The VAs and the people involved did SUCH an amazing job here. I don’t play EN but sometimes I just go to YouTube just to listen to their voice acting. Some of the lines really give me chills. When you play a game and you need to actually pause because of how amazing the voice acting is, the actors have really made it. Thank you for this appreciation post, I hope these reach the actors because they need to know they’re amazing as hell.
Probably my favorite voice cast out of not just hsr, but hoyo games as a whole. The VAs made amphoreus a lot more bearable with how the story was told, tbh I probably would've skipped 90% of the dialogue if weren't for them lol
Here's your obligatory reminder that Morgan Laure also voices Little Gui.
This is just a reminder to please keep in mind our spoiler policy during this new update window. We are going to be very strict with spoilers during this time. As a reminder, here are our spoiler rules.
Do not include spoilers in the title. All submissions which involve spoilers should be marked. Spoilers include all story content for the first three weeks after release.
Spoilers can be discussed in spoiler-flaired posts, but must be hidden in non-spoiler flaired posts.
If you think you broke the spoiler rules in the post you just made, you should remove your post now and repost it without breaking the rules. If you do not remove your post and it needs to be reviewed, you will be given up to a week ban for a first infraction and stricter punishments for any additional infractions. Please be considerate of your fellow Trailblazers and do not include spoilers in the title of your post. Do not forget to flair your post as spoilers if needed, and do not spoil people in your comments.
All posts with the Discussion, Theory and Lore, and Media flairs are automatically flagged spoilers for the first 3 weeks of this patch. Please remove the spoiler flag if your post does not relate to the new patch.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Is this... everyone but Anaxa?? 😂😂
GOD FUCKING DAMMIT
HES SO TALENTED IM SO STUPID ...
IM GONNA ADD
Hard agree!!! Everyone did such a memorable and amazing performance its actually very hard to pick favorites!!
Joshua is also a super fun guy irl, got to see him at the HSR panel at AX this past Friday. Ran into him outside the con and almost got a photo but understandably he had to run as the line was getting threateningly long
Amphoreus cast truly be like "oops all legends" 🔥 so many good performances. Josh's Phainon is probs gonna haunt me for the rest of my life genuinely as a performance that was so fun and endearing before absolutely crushing me, I will forever love the explosive and pompous energy Stephen put into Anaxa, Hayden gave so much distinct personality to each lil Tri-bb, Lygus's voice has been such a treat... I appreciate that u highlighted the actress for the voice of Gorgo! I remember finding her performance so stand out and fierce in her outrage. After everything we had come to learn about Mydei, I was like "yeah this is Mydei's mom for sure". Everyone did a wonderful job.
I literally said out loud while doing this story: “Whatever they are paying Joshua Waters, it isn’t enough, holy shit”
also if some romance audiobook casting directors could pick him up I think he’d do really well just SAYING!! (Does he have an agent?? I hope he does and that he sees this lmao)
I really didn't like Cipher VA, not the Japanese one or the English one.
Their voices didn't really change that much, or when we had the young Cipher she sounded exactly the same as her adult self...
Phainon on the other hand had an amazing English VA and so did the rest of the heirs (Tribbie was a standout as well).
The only voice that really didn't land for me was Aglaea. I just wish she wasn't forcing an accent, as it's utterly atrocious and painful to listen to, because otherwise her voice is great.
Honestly it just seems to be a matter of taste, cuz to me it was the accent that made me love the role hah Her elegant way of speaking convinced me early, but I do see a lot of debate online about it.
Rip no Cyrene, rip no Polyxia
It’s Amphoreus-adjacent, but Herta was at maximum-smug in the earlier patches.
As mentioned in the last thread, Cedrya’s (Va currently unknown) small role so far seems to be a vaguely Furina-like bratty type performance Im definitely looking forward to.
True. Herta's got sass for days. Very fun characters and big nod to the actress.
Isn't Herta's VA also Sylvanus' VA from WoW?
Yes. Patty Jenkins haa been a beast in this industry for a while now. Im bloody happy she got to bring to life our favourite Genius
Yep! Totally offtopic but Ray Chase, Neuvilette from Genshin is Sire Denathrius im WoW who was really the highlight of the whole Shadowlands expansion
Oh, I didn't know they shared a voice actress! Maybe my deep dislike for Sylvanas has made me instinctively not care for Herta all that much 🤔
Its also why she says 'i dont have time for games' in her combat lines