Matthew Mercer confirms that he is the voice of Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
I just got the go-ahead from Nintendo, so I can FINALLY announce my absolute pleasure to be voicing Ganondorf in the Legend of #Zelda : #TearsoftheKingdom.
An immense honor that I have thrown myself into doing justice. pic.twitter.com/GDtoWRUHDx
— Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) April 14, 2023
by Turbostrider27
40 Comments
I am so down with this.
“Your right hand comes off?”
Edit: Oh wait that’s a different Leon voice actor.
It’s so funny to think that Ganondorf is voiced by the same guy who played such a mild mannered weirdo like Yusuke in Persona 5
Such a massive W from Nintendo. I love Matt Mercer, he is a nerd, a golden retriever and a talented voice actor all rolled into one man
“It’s Hiiigh Noon” -Jesse McCree
So if the Blood Moon mechanic comes back, Ganondorf could say “It’s High Moon”
Thicc-andorf
Cue the JoJo music when Ganondorf activates his Stand powers.
Nice but I wonder who voices the guy talking to Zelda. Almost sounded like Yuri Lowenthal but idk
Like there was ever a question about it.
I love Mercer but I struggle picturing his voice as Ganon. All I picture is a skinny man leaning over a table. I hope the gameplay changes that for me.
Am I the only one who thinks he sounds terrible? Lol ugh
Don’t think he was the right choice for this. Most likely going to be using the Japanese VA this time around
He’s a cool dude but I don’t like the voice. Would have preferred an unknown VA instead of one I can instantly recognize 🙃
To live well is to receive a reward from heaven every few years in the form of a new Legend of Zelda game from Nintendo.
Hah, reminds me of There will be brawl.
I hope he uses the Henry Crabgrass voice.
Ashley Johnson being the Rito female as well? Sounded similar to her
Nintendo saw him trending twice because of the trailers and figured they’d just let him say it huh?
At first I thought he was trending because of the Chrom Engage DLC reveal so seeing it was because of Zelda was quite the surprise.
Is he also the voice of zelda?
Honestly disappointing. He’s good but the English dub community really needs more diversity of voices. I’m so tired of hearing the same 20 voices in every game. Meanwhile Japan has literally hundreds of different seiyuu in their games per year.
I guess I’m the odd man out thinking his voice isn’t nearly deep enough. He doesn’t sound sinister or imposing to me at all.
I absolutely loathe the voice acting in zelda. I don’t think it sounds good at all.
The trailer absolutely slapped!
But most voice acting feels like a B movie, specially Ganondorf.
I hope I won’t hear him much during gameplay.
I dont have any strong feelings about Mercer as I don’t watch CR. I know the guys does voice acting but never really looked into what.
I just did a deep dive, and surprisingly I’ve seen so much stuff that he’s done! However, except for some of his bit roles, I either never engaged with the characters he voiced, or I chose to consume the media with the original japanese. Even here I played BotW with J.Voices as I didn’t like the English ones and intended to do the same with TotK.
Somehow, by accident, I’ve basically sidestepped this man’s whole career and I kinda feel bad about that as he’s seems to be such a huge figure in the nerd community. I’m usually really good at identifying VAs but I honestly don’t think I could pick him out.
I am glad the community is happy about this, even if, yet again, I probably won’t get to experience this guy’s seemly impressive tallent.
I love Matt Mercer. But this? Terrible casting choice.
Sounds like an average white dude trying to do a deep bass.
Again, not Matthew’s fault at all, but that voice should NOT be coming out of Ganondorf.
His voice should be a bass. Something like James Earl Jones, Idris Elba or Josh Brolin’s Thanos voice.
I would prefer a black or middle-eastern actor, as Ganondorf is Guerdo. But the depth is more important.
Ganondorf is built like a goddamn Talus! A neck that wide should rumble like a subwoofer.
After hearing the voice in the trailer my FIRST thought was: that is a terrible sounding Ganondorf. Sounds like a normal dude.
Is this the guy in the previous trailer saying the “Rise, rise…” thing? That didn’t quite convince me at least…
First second I put the cart in the console : settings -> voice language – japanese
I really hope he sounds different then how he talks in the trailer. He just sounds like a middle aged narrator to me.
Never could 100% conceptualize Ganondorf’s voice, since we really only ever heard him laugh, grunt, etc., but I’m really digging this guy’s work (from what I’m hearing so far).
Chrom
Is ganondorf.
This is something I am okay with
Critical role LoZ one shot when?
I like Matt, I think he’s a great VA. He’s a very good actor, does great voices and is an all around good guy, by all accounts.
This was is not the role for him. He’s done this voice a lot of times, this feels close to his usual bad guy voice and it may work for other characters, but not for Ganondorf.
Then again, I wasn’t and am still not too keen on the voice for Zelda. Thankfully there wasn’t much voice in BOTW and I hope we don’t have a lot of it in this one as well.
I love how Matt has gone full circle on Ganondorf.
He directed back in 2009 a web series called “There Will Be Brawl” which featured live actors portraying Nintendo characters so far removed from their original setting and instead in the love child world that draws inspiration from Sin City, Watchmen and Silence of the Lambs.
He played Ganondorf in that web series and now he’s being canonised as Ganondorf in the latest game. The mad man did it.
This entire thread seems to be full of people that think he sounds right as gannondorf 🤔
After hearing his voice attached to the most evil and powerful villain in the entire franchise, I gotta say Nintendo fucked that casting up. I said what I said 🤷🏽♂️
He‘s a great VA. But honestly I prefer the Japanese cast. Especially for Zelda.
Stupid sexy Ganandorf!
I know I’m gonna get flack for saying this, but I think this was a bad choice by the casting department.
As a long term fan of Critical Role (since around 2017) and the Persona franchise (specifically 4+5) I LOVE Mercer. He is a beautiful, wonderful, and immeasurably kind person. He deserves the best, but this IMO is a bad casting choice.
Mercer has some serious acting chops, but he is also one of those actors where you’ll recognize the voice after a hot second or two. That often detracts from a character and the impact they have. Usually it isn’t that important because the character isn’t someone that has a massive legacy behind them (Yusuke from P5 for example). In this instance though, it is one of the most legendary video game antagonists of all time. Having Matt Mercer (who isn’t known to do deep, imposing voices that genuinely inspire terror) voice the embodiment of hatred and rage encased in a 7ft. Adonis… it is going to distract and detract from Ganon. The actor will overshadow the character. You’re going to hear Matt Mercer. Not Ganon. This is a common problem with big time actors. When you go to a Mission Impossible flick, you don’t see Ethan Hunt, you see Tom Cruise. Same principle here.
I adore the man and he works so hard to give the fans 100%. I have zero doubt that he really does respect Ganondorf and poured everything he had into making the character as imposing and powerful as he could. That said, I ultimately believe they should have gotten someone with a less recognizable voice and cadence who has a deeper and more naturally menacing presence. I mean, we saw the trailer. Ganon’s voice came off about as frightening as a white dragon saying “Burt”… that a deep CR cut if you know it. (campaign 1 episode 19)
There are thousands of good aspiring VAs but all we ever get are the same 5 people because they bring a known name. It sucks
The entire CR subreddit flooded with “that’s Matt Mercer!” when the trailer launched. You can hear hints of Sylas Briarwood in there