Willa Holland Recently in Recording Booth for Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue

[Chaser]

December feels a long, long way away for Kingdom Hearts fans who are eagerly awaiting the upcoming game Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue. It's the first game Kingdom Hearts in a few years to feature new gameplay, and offers players their first taste of what the eagerly anticipated Kingdom Hearts 3 will feel like.

While Square Enix have brought a demo of Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue to Gamescom for people to play, it appears that Willa Holland has been brought back into the studio recently to continue recording lines for her character, Master Aqua.

The E3 trailer for Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue featured English voice over for not only Aqua, but the the Foretellers and Ephemer from KINGDOM HEARTS χ [chi] Back Cover. Karissa Lee Staples revealed that she's playing Master Invi, Kevin Quinn is Master Gula, and Michael Johnston lends his voice to Ephemer.

While Willa didn't outright say that she's recording for Master Aqua, the background in the photograph matches the style of the room in Karissa and Kevin's photos, and the headphones match the ones Jesse McCartney used when recording voice over for Roxas in Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX.

Kingdom Hearts HD II.8 Final Chapter Prologue is a collection of three (3) Kingdom Hearts games. It will be released on Playstation 4 systems worldwide in December 2016. Follow Kingdom Hearts Insider on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr for the latest updates on Kingdom Hearts Unchained X, Kingdom Hearts 3, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue and all things Kingdom Hearts!

 

 

[Sora2016]

Interesting, I guess they only had her do demo stuff before? Maybe a bit more but not for the whole "game" I guess then. Hopefully she talks a bit more when walking and stuff like in the demo. I dig that a lot.

 

[Chaser]

Interesting, I guess they only had her do demo stuff before? Maybe a bit more but not for the whole "game" I guess then. Hopefully she talks a bit more when walking and stuff like in the demo. I dig that a lot.

Yeah that's what it seems like. I'm shocked by this but I guess they could have just brought the Back Cover people in for the trailer as well since their social media posts went up in May.

Master Spockanort thinks this could be for grunts and battle quotes but if it were me I'd just reuse them from BBS

 

[skyfoxx]

I don't know, I feel this would be more likely to be recording lines for KH3 than 2.8
The E3 demo was shown over two months ago which proved she already had her lines recorded. I highly doubt they would have waited a span of two to three months to finish recording because in the past it has seemed like they wrap up those recordings for the game pretty quickly (especially considering BBS 0.2 isn't that long of a game)


Either that or maybe she wasn't lying and she really is rapping.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

I don't know, I feel as though this may be a picture of her past recordings as opposed to her current recording. There's always the #throwbackthursday trend. Plus, people love to post pictures of past experiences.

 

[gosoxtim]

I don't know, I feel as though this may be a picture of her past recordings as opposed to her current recording. There's always the #throwbackthursday trend. Plus, people love to post pictures of past experiences.

she posted this picture on tuesday not thursaday on her instergram

 

[Xagzan]

I really hope we can also get Hayden back. We've already lost too many main voice actors in this series.

Nimoy, Lee, Zane... T_T

 

[Alpha Baymax]

she posted this picture on tuesday not thursaday on her instergram

Sure, that doesn't confirm nor deny as to whether it was a picture of her time during the recording or a recording that had been finished months earlier.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

I really hope we can also get Hayden back. We've already lost too many main voice actors in this series.

Nimoy, Lee, Zane... T_T

Well, Nimoy and Lee certainly have a very well founded reason why they're no more involved and as for that Zane guy...designating someone who only participated in one single title of the series as a main voice actor is certainly somewhat stretching it.

 

[Xagzan]

He was, once upon a time. Sigh.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

He was, once upon a time. Sigh.

Huh?
I don't recall him ever having many lines in the first place and maybe it is because I grew up with the originally German voice-over, but I never really understood the hype about this Zane guy, not even after finally experiencing those lines he had in KH HD 1.5.
In terms of English voice-over, I'm so used to Richard Epcar anyways that he's the main voice actor for Ansem SoD in my eyes since he voices him for more than 90% of the whole series.

---

On topic though, it is truly refreshing to see that they kept Willa for Aqua and I'm looking forward to hear her as Aqua again.
By now she isn't really a newbie anymore and with some better voice direction I'd say the criticism on her Aqua-voice from BBS may hopefully be a thing of the past.

 

[Dandelion]

Her performances in BBS was, I think, unfairly criticized but there were some awkward moments (though I dare you to find anyone in the series who hasn't had one) BUT, I think she's always gave strong performances.
In 2.5 she didn't have a single bad read, and her performance in the demo was incredibly touching.

 

[Chaser]

Sure, that doesn't confirm nor deny as to whether it was a picture of her time during the recording or a recording that had been finished months earlier.

I dunno.

Maybe it's just me personally, but I wouldn't look through my phone for a photo I took months ago in a recording studio and caption it "I rap". I would do that there and then.

Edit: I checked and she posted the photo at almost 9pm on Tuesday. She looks tired in the photo, which would match up with her being in the studio that late.

 

[gosoxtim]

I dunno.

Maybe it's just me personally, but I wouldn't look through my phone for a photo I took months ago in a recording studio and caption it "I rap". I would do that there and then.

exacly it wouldnt make no sense do to do that espiccally when it was posted on a tuesday and not on a thursday

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Her performances in BBS was, I think, unfairly criticized but there were some awkward moments (though I dare you to find anyone in the series who hasn't had one) BUT, I think she's always gave strong performances.
In 2.5 she didn't have a single bad read, and her performance in the demo was incredibly touching.

Tbh I think that many of the criticism leveled at the voice actors themselves, not only Willa, is misplaced as the arguably often mediocre script/dialogue writing itself combined with the voice direction plays a significant role in awkward performances as well.
I remember Jason Dohring constantly getting better in his role as Terra towards the end of the storyline.

Proper translation from Japanese to English also isn't that easy either so comparing the English voice actors directly with the Japanese ones might also not be feasible.

 

[Xagzan]

Huh?
I don't recall him ever having many lines in the first place and maybe it is because I grew up with the originally German voice-over, but I never really understood the hype about this Zane guy, not even after finally experiencing those lines he had in KH HD 1.5.
In terms of English voice-over, I'm so used to Richard Epcar anyways that he's the main voice actor for Ansem SoD in my eyes since he voices him for more than 90% of the whole series.

That's nice for you. To me, it doesn't matter how many games Epcar is in--I appreciate his dedication, but Billy Zane will always be the primary voice for Ansem to me, simply because I thought his performance is still unmatched.

Her performances in BBS was, I think, unfairly criticized but there were some awkward moments (though I dare you to find anyone in the series who hasn't had one) BUT, I think she's always gave strong performances.
In 2.5 she didn't have a single bad read, and her performance in the demo was incredibly touching.

Ehh, she and Terra were pretty wooden/awkward in BBS, but in 2.5's Secret Episode, it's true she definitely showed a strong improvement, even in only those few new lines. Whether it's the direction or more comfort with the character, I think she's doing a fantastic job now.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

I don't know, I feel this would be more likely to be recording lines for KH3 than 2.8
The E3 demo was shown over two months ago which proved she already had her lines recorded. I highly doubt they would have waited a span of two to three months to finish recording because in the past it has seemed like they wrap up those recordings for the game pretty quickly (especially considering BBS 0.2 isn't that long of a game)


Either that or maybe she wasn't lying and she really is rapping.

They often call them back when they need additional recordings. The game is still in development so it is easy to see them calling her back to do more lines if they've added something new or changed a line.

 

[Chuman]

I honestly cannot wait to hear the aqua rap song she's recording.

AS I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH

 

[Ven_Roxas]

How do we know its for 2.8 and not 3? Maybe this is just stupid optimism, but aqua is probably going to be in 3 so there's still a chance.

 

[LightUpTheSky452]

Well, this is certainly something to make my crummy day better. Yay! I'm really happy now! And here's hoping that this is a hint that II.8 is still scheduled to come out on time

Also, I'm right there with you about other voice actors in this series doing bad line reads, Tinny. For example, Haley Joel Osment's, "Forget it. There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart," bothers me to this day. He put the emphasis on "heart", when it should have been on the "forget it" or "no way" parts, probably.

Also, David Gallagher and Billy Zane's lackluster, "But first you must give the princess back her heart." They should have at least emphasized the "her" in that sentence, because Sora had just said, "Whoever you are, let Riku go! Give him back his heart!" and Ansem/Riku is now countering this by revealing the game changer that Sora has Kairi's heart within him, and he wants it before he'll do or consider anything else.

...Not to go off on a tangent here. Of course I love the voice work of HJO, David Gallagher, and Billy Zane in this series, and they're on point 99% of the time.

But at the same time, it always baffled me when people seem to think they're flawless and like God's gift to voice acting, because even though that's true most of the time... Well, they've had a few hiccups just like anyone else would.

(And also, it's probably not too fair to judge KH1 too harshly, I know, since the cast was so young back then and it was a lot of their first time voice acting--at least in this capacity. But you can also use a lot of that same argument to defend the BbS cast, such as Willa. Especially since Willa has been absolutely amazing in the Secret Episode and the 0.2 trailer/demo.)