Merkava Voice Comparison (CV: Hidenobu Kiuchi) | Under Night In-Birth II [SYS:Celes]

Merk's Theme got better, his voice sure didn't. I also only now realized that Merk is completely SILENT when walking/crawling. That's horrifying to think about.
As the sole visual representative of what a Void looks like, not showing Merk's blunt teeth in his character select art was a big miss for UNI2. UNI1 had Merk restraining himself to hunt for the person messing with the night and making his life harder. UNI2 in comparison has Merk gone completely rabid and is making no effort to control himself anymore in devouring anything he comes across. Despite this, Merk's older lines sound significantly more threatening because of the deeper intonation, or maybe this is a sound-mixing issue. The old audio compression making his lines nearly indecipherable actually adds to Merk's performance as a whole while Merk now sounds like your neighbor's demonically possessed cat speaking in tongues.
This one was easily the toughest one so far and will probably remain so. Compared to other characters where I'm discerning spoken lines, Merk was mostly listening to noises. I don't think it's too outspoken to say this is the weakest voice rendition by far. The round win screeches and air-fireball screams being the worst offenders. The fireballs sound SO different that I just had no idea what to put next to the UNI1 takes so the comparison will just have to be discerned through just the noises. Before anyone says anything, Merk's 623x in UNI1 shared the same noises as 236x while UNI2 actually gave him 623x lines to differentiate from 236x. A couple of other lines didn't make it either like a number of normals and one variation of EX Kidnap's lines.
Hidenobu Kiuchi is a VA I'm the least familiar with on this roster. I only know him as Hei from Darker than Black and the weaker Hol Horse voice. Also Ethan if you play Resident Evil in Japanese.
#uni #unib #uniel #unist #uniclr #undernightinbirth #uni2 #unisc #undernightinbirthii #undernightinbirth2 #sysceles #merkava #hidenobukiuchi #kiuchihidenobu

[@Zwyrx_Hgqfyggz]

I like some of the new voices more but I do prefer Merkava's old one in basically every aspect.
Not to say he doesn't have a fantastic voice overall

[@zix65_]

0:21 my favorite line of his

[@galymkemali774]

DROOOOOOOOOO

[@hhaammzzaattaarraaff3313]

At first I founded the new voice bizzar and annoying but it has really grown on me now I find his current voice more fitting of a mad beast
While his old voice sounded more robotic like he was speaking (screaming) in a microphone
My favourite line in both versions iiiiiiiiis
IIIIEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHH🎉

[@Awesomot34]

Merk just sounded like a regular ass guy with a voice filter in the OG game and I always hated that. The new lines are so much better.

[@heckyou2105]

YATOTSU

[@heavymetalmixer91]

The new voice sounds a little bit more natural and less "robotic". I liked both equally.
Btw, I think you forgot about the line when doing Chain Shift.

[@DeepestDankest]

I don't normally include Chain Shift lines unless they're particularly noteworthy. Merk's j214x noises were enough to differentiate how much the voice has changed.

[@Wolfedge75]

Didn’t Kiuchi also voice Tenma from Monster?
Man, he’s seriously underrated as a VA.

[@doodlebugfour7070]

Yes. Also Hei from Darker than Black, Ren from Nana, and Ethan Winters in Resident Evil 7 and Village.

[@Fatih120]

Hey there, I hope you'd be able to excuse me but I had a feeling maybe you'd be interested in some datamine details for extracting audio assets or even being able to see Japanese voice scripts. If you're interested in that I've set up a github repo a while back or I've just recently covered a bit of it in my channel. I know I mentioned something in your last video but I dunno if YT is flagging me, happens a lot lately.

[@DeepestDankest]

I think I got the majority of stuff I wanted to translate posted but I still have a couple I wouldn't mind getting the scripts for. I think YT definitely did something to your previous comment because I don't remember seeing it.