Phantom Blade Zero’s Protagonist Soul Got a Last-Minute Voice Actor Swap, and It’s Sonic’s Roger Craig Smith

Phantom Blade Zero launched on October 29 for PC and PS5 with a different voice behind protagonist Soul than the one shown in the game’s own marketing. Developer S-Game swapped original English voice actor Jay Maksenuk, known for playing V in Once Human, for Roger Craig Smith, the longtime voice of Sonic the Hedgehog, in what turned out to be a last-minute change made during the game’s own review period.

A Switch That Happened Mid-Review

According to Game Informer, which first reported the change, Soul was still voiced by Maksenuk for most of the outlet’s review period. About a week before the embargo lifted, S-Game told reviewers the English voice for Soul had been updated, without initially saying who the new actor was or why the swap happened. The studio has not issued a public explanation for the decision, and Maksenuk’s original performance is still what plays in Phantom Blade Zero’s pre-launch trailers and earlier gameplay footage, even though it is no longer what players hear in the finished game.

Everyone picking up Phantom Blade Zero at launch hears Soul voiced entirely by Roger Craig Smith, not the actor shown in the game’s earlier trailers.

Who Is Roger Craig Smith?

Smith is one of the more recognizable voices in English-language gaming and animation. He has voiced Sonic the Hedgehog since 2010, Ezio Auditore in several Assassin’s Creed games, Chris Redfield across the Resident Evil series, and various incarnations of Batman, and he recently played Alden Dorne in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and Daigo Dojima in Yakuza Kiwami 3. His casting as Soul means Phantom Blade Zero’s finished English dub carries a voice many players will recognize instantly, even without official confirmation of exactly why he replaced Maksenuk so close to launch.

The Change Hasn’t Slowed the Launch

Whatever the reasoning behind the swap, it hasn’t dented Phantom Blade Zero’s momentum. The wuxia-inspired action RPG topped Steam’s pre-order charts ahead of release and surpassed 730,000 concurrent players on the platform in its opening days, backing up the strong critical reception the game has received since launch. Players working through the campaign can check out Gamersuniverse’s guide to the best Phantom Blade Zero PC settings to get the most out of it on their own hardware.

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Picture Source: S-Game