It’s been a tough few years for voice actors. While it’s perhaps never been more obvious how much value they provide to a game’s characters and story – the huge success of Baldur’s Gate 3 and its beloved cast put the profession in perhaps the brightest spotlight it’s ever had – voice actors and motion capture performers face a daunting threat in artificial intelligence. That’s just one of the reasons why we wanted to honor the art of performance in this year’s IGN Awards. Actors bring our games to life, and our digital worlds would be poorer without them.
As with our other awards, we asked the IGN team to nominate their favourite performances from across the past 12 months, and then we all voted for which one we felt was the very best example. These are our picks for the best individual performances in video games this year:
Runner-Up – Erika Ishii (Atsu, Ghost of Yotei)
The role of a revenge-seeking samurai is well-trodden ground, but Erika Ishii breathed refreshing new life into Atsu, the protagonist of Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Yotei. Lending the character a believable “rough around the edges” feel, Ishii ensures that Atsu’s bloodlust has depth.
Runner-Up – Aaron Paul (Robert Robertson, Dispatch)
Unlike Hollywood, which has long cast animated movies using celebrity movie stars, video games have predominantly held onto the idea that voice acting and performance capture is a distinct skill, and that hiring people who specialize in that is the way to go. But while Dispatch features industry titans like Laura Bailey and Matthew Mercer, it’s screen actor Aaron Paul who’s the standout; our review explains that he’s able to deliver “a nuanced performance as a man struggling to hold onto his optimism while reconciling with who he is outside of his giant mech suit.”
Runner–Up – Konatsu Kato (Hinako Shimizu, Silent Hill f)
Lending both her voice and likeness to Silent Hill f’s protagonist Hinako Shimizu, Konatsu Kato brought to life one of the series’ most tortured heroes. While many of us will have relied on subtitles to understand her Japanese-language lines, her delivery helped instill every scene with the heavy, complex emotions intended by the script’s nuanced tale.
Runner-Up – Ben Starr (Verso, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33)
In Verso, Ben Starr was able to take the gruff, dark hero voice he adopted for Clive in Final Fantasy 16 and perfect it. The maturity of Expedition 33’s themes, particularly in its final act, allow for Starr to explore a character who must revel in tragedy, but who carries enough optimism and conviction to never allow the dark to obscure the light.
Winner – Jennifer English (Maelle, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33)
Maelle is the heart of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and a major reason her journey rings so true is Jennifer English’s performance. Grief is a difficult emotion to wrestle with, especially when it’s part of a story that happily leans into the melodramatic, but English keeps Maelle eternally grounded and completely believable. Expedition 33 may be a game with flashy combat, monstrous deities, and an army of goofy paintbrush people, but what it’s really about is the human condition and, more specifically, how we deal with loss. As Maelle, Jennifer English ensures that Clair Obscur’s loftier, more literary themes and ambitions are never lost among the more video game-y, JRPG-inspired tropes.
While individual performances are important, a strong ensemble cast can help bring a level of consistent immersion to a fictional world. When everyone in an ensemble gives their A-game, there’s no fracture in your belief that these video game characters are genuine people. Our picks for the best video game ensemble cast are:
- Runner-Up – Ghost of Yotei
- Runner-Up – Hades 2
- Runner-Up – Dispatch
- Runner-Up – Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
- Winner – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Congratulations to Jennifer English, the entire cast of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and the team at Sandfall Interactive, as well as the casts and development teams of all the games we nominated. For more from the IGN Awards 2025, be sure to check out our complete list of winners.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Executive Editor of Features.
