Audio Interview of James Arnold Taylor on Youtube Part 1 Audio Interview of James Arnold Taylor on Youtube Part 2 Audio Interview of James Arnold Taylor on Youtube Part 3

The title for an interview with a great voice actor.

I got a chance to have a short interview with one of the gaming industry’s best voice actors, James Arnold Taylor. Although you may not know his name, but he is the voice of some of Sony’s best video game heroes. Currently the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Master Plo Koon in Cartoon Network’s Star Wars Clone Wars, James Arnold Taylor is also the voice behind the interstellar hero Ratchet (Ratchet and Clank Series) as well as Tidus (Final Fantasy X).

Me: This seems to be a bit of an obvious question, but do you play the video games that you voice the characters of? If so, which is your favorite?

JAT: Well it’s not necessarily an obvious question. It is a good question, because a lot of times you hear from actors when they do a film they say, “Oh, I never watch any of my work.” Or “I never watch myself on TV.”. Well I am a bit of a ham; I enjoy hearing what I have done. I do enjoy it because, I love to act. I love to be a part of the whole thing. But I also love getting to hear what other actors have done and how it all comes together. Plus I just enjoy all of this entertainment; I think it is all good fun. And I truly try to pick roles and projects that I would want to watch or be a part of. In that I definitely play the video games that I am in. I always love the Clone Wars games, and the Ratchet and Clank games and Final Fantasy. I am looking through my window in my booth, and on a shelf I have many or the games I have been in. I love Spiderman Friend or Foe I loved being Spiderman as well as many of the characters in the Shrek games. If I was to choose a favorite, which is a tough one it is like children I can’t pick a favorite. I really do love the Ratchet and Clank series. It is such a great series and has grown. So many things end up, as they go sequel after sequel after sequel and it gets old. But these are getting better and better, and I am so amazed at the work by all the people at Insomniac Games. The writers and harnessing the storyline before going and putting it out there it is sort of the way that Pixar seems to work.

Me: You have been the voice behind characters in over 50 video games, are there any that are more or less your favorite?

JAT: Well like I said before it is very hard to choose a favorite. I do love playing Ratchet and I love playing as Obi-Wan. But I would have to say an overall favorite, or one that I owe so much of my video game career to, would be the voice of Tidus from Final Fantasy X and the sequel to it. But yes, I would say that it is one of my favorites.

Me: You have been with the Developer Insomniac quite a bit; you have been the voice of Ratchet from Ratchet and Clank since Going Commando. How do you view Ratchet as a hero? Can you relate to him on a down to earth, personal level?

JAT: I absolutely can relate to him on a personal level. I think he is someone, like most of us that wants to be a good guy. He wants to be the hero, he wants to be the good guy but also is trying to balance that out with, “I want to be myself and hang out with my buddy.” and be relaxed and not have to save the world all the time. I relate to him on that level, I can relate to his great kinship to his buddy Clank. I love the relationship David (David Kaye) and I have been able to pull out of this, because he and I have only met a couple of times. Ratchet and Clank are just great characters, and I am so blessed to be a part of that. I am so happy that Insomniac has asked me to be a part of that and I will be involved with this as long as I have to.

Me: There is a new game coming out soon called, “Heroes on the Move”, which features Ratchet and Clank among other Platforming stars. Will you return to be the voice for Ratchet?

JAT: Yes I do believe it is safe to say I am returning as the voice of Ratchet. I have actually already voiced it and I had a blast doing it.

Me: How did you prepare for the role of Tidus? Can you compare to him in any way that gives you a more personal connection rather than it being a job?

JAT: Well absolutely, when I first was approached to play the role of Tidus, I was in the process of recording a show call Atlantis: The Lost Empire based on the Disney film taking the role of Milo Thatch. I was recording in the same building as they were recording the Final Fantasy film, Spirits Within. And at the time Jack Fletcher, the director was also going to be directing Final Fantasy X. So we became friends after hanging out some, and he said, “You know I really want you to read for this part.” So I got to read for it and I was amazed at how much Tidus and I have in common. *Chuckles* Not in the athletic realm at all, Tidus is an amazing athlete. But he has a lot of family issues that I can relate to. Coming from a divorced family, coming from a place where I didn’t really know my father. I could have had a lot of resentment towards that and have anger and frustration with just wanting that acceptance from a father figure. I certainly can relate to that, and sort of like Ratchet he is this reluctant hero and he really wants to do the right thing and he really does want to save his friends and family and the world if he can. I think we all have that desire to be seen and to be known and Tidus definitely has that. I am sure I portray Tidus differently than my Japanese counterpart; I think Tidus is a young teenage man that is searching for himself his identity. And we try to counterbalance that with “Listen to my story”, you know, the narration parts where he had an older more controlled sound. So it makes the audience wonder, “Well is he telling the story from later in time?”. Of course if you have played the game you will know what happens to him in the end. So I really tried to take it from those different aspects of his life and how he grows. You know, he first starts of cocky and sure of himself because he is a champion Blitzball player. And as his journey goes he gets more controlled, and when you play through the game you will notice how his voice changes. And we tried our best in doing that, as well as, still having to deal with a game that already has been done in another language. Particularly with the Japanese language, such a beautiful and so different from our American English language in ways of speaking, to convey information comes out so differently. So they would add words or take out words then time crunch it to make it match up and make it work. It is amazing it is almost been ten years since Final Fantasy X came out and I still get email about it, and I am just so touched by my involvement with it.

Me: Final Fantasy X is the first Final Fantasy to showcase voice acting, what was it like to be a part of a game that broke out of its shell like that?

JAT: It was amazing to be the first, kind of lead character in this series where there was going to be voice.  And I don’t think I knew at first how much of a big deal it was. I looked at it like, I knew the series and I knew the games and I knew the importance of the characters in the games. But I did not realize at the time how history making it would be. And, would that have made a difference if I knew? I don’t know probably not. I am still very pleased with the performance, would I have changed things? Of course I would. Have I had the opportunity to change them? Yes I have when we do different version of the game. Even in the Dissidia game we were still bound by the language barrier so you still lose some of the emotional aspects you get to do when you are an actor. When you are voicing a video game normally you will go in and get the script and here is the scene. They play it out for you, and the director is leading the other characters because you are always voicing alone. But normally when you go in and voice a video game you are still allowed to have more of a voice, more emotion. But when you do a dub such as the final fantasy games you have to fit it in and work with the confinements or that and still try to get the emotions and hope it allows players to get the emotion. It is tougher work than going in and voicing a character like Ratchet and Clank or the Ninja Turtle games or Shrek games.

Me: What is it like to be a voice actor? How do you prepare for huge roles like being the voice of characters like Obi-Wan in Clone Wars and other Star Wars games?

JAT: Well it is great, for Obi-Wan they are of course doing the Clone Wars TV series, on Cartoon Network that is always great to do because I get to be a main character as well as Plo Koon, In the Star Wars games I am always voicing Plo Koon and Obi-Wan. Usually their scenes are together so I always have to keep that in mind. Both are british, and you have to know that they are always talking to each other. And I will always concentrate to make sure they are different, I try to give them both different accents. The way I prepare for them is the way I prepare for anything. I study the script, if I have it. With video games you generally don’t get the scripts ahead of time. You get the script when you step into the booth, so you are reading most of your lines cold. There is no prep time beforehand. Recently Obi-Wan has been the exposition, the guy that tells the player what to do. He is always doing these narration bits, *As Obi-Wan* “Hold the Command Key and push ALT and Tab”. So when you are reading those things you just have to go cold. So you prepare by not being prepared, if that makes any sense at all. Because you never know what’s being thrown at you. You just do it the best you can. Voice actors are very different “breed” than on screen actors. We are ready to give you any emotion you want at any point in time. We are always there and ready to perform and to the best of our ability on the drop of a hat. So they will say, “Ok James now you are falling, now do one with your arms flailing. And now give us a laugh.” If you want to be a voice actor you have to know you are always in the spotlight and you just have to be able to do it. Don’t be embarrassed ashamed you just have to do it. I love being a voice actor, I am blessed to do it.

Me: You also lent your vocal talents to the game Kingdom Hearts 2 as the voice of Captain Jack Sparrow and Timon. Were you nervous to be the voice of such iconic characters?

JAT: Well being the voice of Fred Flintstone *As Fred* “Yabba Dabba Do” or Johnny Test *As Johnny* WOAH! Johnny Test is amazing!” or Obi-Wan or Master Plo Koon or Leonardo the Ninja Turtle, or Ratchet. These characters have become so iconic that when I get up I get on my knees and I am so thankful to be able to bring life to these characters in whatever way I can. It is a great honor to voice double and I just hope people will know how much we voice actors appreciate doing what we do.

Me: Is being the voice actor in a video game any different than in a movie or TV show?

JAT:  Yes it is, as I mentioned before we are in a room with just ourselves the directors the writers the producers and we just record. And with most animated TV shows you are all together as a cast. You get to joke around and play off each other’s lines. In movies it can be a mixed bag, sometimes you are alone sometimes you are with other actors. When we first recorded TMNT all four of us got to record together. But then later when Weinstien bought the movie and rewrote everything we ended up ADR-ing, which means Audio Dialogue Replacement and replacing every line that we previously did. But with a video game we have that freedom to just go for it. With video games it is very much based on time, like we have 1.5 seconds to get this line etc. And other times you are just recording isolated with not too much interaction with others, besides the director. Video game directors are coming into their own now. They are able to give a story rather than just catching the grunts and groans. They are telling stories that go far greater than films today have. They are getting it and the writers as well. They are coming up with great storylines. It is harder with video games because you are just concentrated by yourself. You know, you are in the booth for 4 hours just hitting every line and jumping from character to character depending on the game. Usually when I am doing Ratchet and Clank I am just ratchet so they go out and book 4 hours and we take our time and enjoy ourselves. We go through the story and really get it into my head. If there are games that I am doing multiple characters that can get very strenuous. And it is very different from TV or movie work. If someone does want to be a voice actor, take care of it and learn all aspects of their own voice before going out and trying to be 10 different, or 100 different voices, or 1000 different voices. If you can do your voice great then you can do any one you and it will all fall into place.

Many months ago, I wrote an article on the latest Metal Gear title. This one will feature Raiden, the whimp turned bad ass. There was much speculation about the game play,many thinking it was going to be a more action oriented title rather than the stealthy game play of it’s predecessors. I envisioned a Devil May Cry type of game. Now it’s a year later and another E3 is upon us, along with the first in game footage of the game since the teaser from 2009′s E3.

The trailer opens up with a foot stepping onto bullets. You see a machine solider roaming around with a gun arm, looking for something. The soldier is reminiscent of the FROGs from MGS4, with the same style mask and gear of the feet, which were the same that Vamp had as well. Walking in a factory setting, the soldier then sees a shadow from above and starts shooting and that’s when it is greeted by none other than Raiden. It is not a greeting I would want as Raiden quickly slices the gun arm, then slices the soldier in half, actually revealing that the thing is a machine and to finish it off, reaches into it’s waist, pulls out the spine and crushes it with his hand with glowing red eyes. And that’s just the beginning.

The trailer goes on to show some game play which makes alot of use out of the environment, being able to cut down stone pillars to collapse buildings onto enemy soldiers (of the human kind). Another neat feature is the use of the Sony MOVE controller. With the controller, it allows you to cut in any direction you wish. The game has a system to set up the cuts and see what would be affected in that particular slice. In one scene, Raiden flips a soldier in the air, making several cuts to cut off the limbs of the defenseless solider. The cuts are aligned with a blue sphere of sorts, much like the sphere used to aim grenades in the past Metal Gears.

The game system is called “zan datsu” which is translated to “cut and take.” This equates to cutting enemies or objects and being able to take key items from these. Such as the first scene of Raiden ripping out the spine of the cyborg soldier, it’s as if he absorbed the energy from it. He could use items to regain health, ammo if guns come into play and maybe some information from wounded soldiers or cyborgs’ CPU’s. This adds a whole new level of game play where in the past, you had to hold up soldiers to get these where now you just take it from them after horrifically mutilating their bodies.

Pretty much anything in the game can be cut. Scenes of Raiden slicing through a parked van and the end scene of slicing watermelons are just examples of the free slicing system. The system is partnered with a type of “bullet time” to make sure that precise cuts with the help of the blue sphere or geographical planes if you want to get a bit more technical, allowing for a maybe a bit more strategy than one may think for such a game. I’m thinking maybe a perfectly timed “bullet time” moment with a precise cut could help to disarm (both weapon and/or actual arms) the bigger enemies.

I’m eager to learn more about the story line which from the rumors I hear, it involves Raiden and a fourth clone of Big Boss. Maybe gamers will get to see how Raiden got to be so bad ass and just what he went through to become like this. I like the fact that he gets his own game because like Snake, Raiden surely has ghosts from his past that the game will surely reveal. Hopefully he’ll also have a great supportive cast such as Otacon and Colonel Campbell. With no real information given except for some minor game play tid bits, it’s all open to speculation. Still waiting on a release date, time will only tell if this Metal Gear first, both in game play and first without Kojima in the director seat (though he is still a producer) will be as successful with series fans as it’s legendary predecessors.

I love me some Harry Potter. I’ve read all the books at least a dozen times each, I have seen the movies, I’ve attended some of the midnight dress parties, and I even played the PC games that came out right as the first two movies were being released. Although, when it comes to the games, I wish I hadn’t. Let’s face it, Harry Potter is one of the biggest media franchises in the world, but the video games suck. Bad. The games produced, so far, are all just poor carbon copies of the movies, without any real thought or substance, and while you could sit down and play them*, watching the movies, reading the books, or even reading the Wikipedia articles would be more entertaining than playing those games. Until now…
*not recommended

To put all the cards on the table, this game looks awesome. Taking the Lego formula and mixing it with the easy-to-get-lost-in, very enjoyable, and super-well-known “Harry Potter World” just makes sense.  Usually at this point a brief plot synopsis would catch you up on what stands to take place in this game, but chances are you already know the story, so let’s skip the BS shall we? Here’s what matters;

• Of course you play as Harry Potter! It’s named after him for cryin’ out loud, but what if playing as the title character isn’t good enough for you? Do adding Ron and Hermione to the equation help? No? Ok… how do over 100 playable characters sound? Not bad right? Everyone, from the aforementioned ‘Big Three’ to Scabbers the rat, is reportedly available for you to commit some magical mayhem with. (Quite a few of which have some character unique ability to help solve the myriad of puzzles in store).
• The main setting of the game is at the castle Hogwarts, and does it look extensive. In a world of magic, damn near everything should be moving, and in ‘Lego HP’ it looks like damn near everything does. Furniture, walls, and of course the magical moving paintings. It’s all interactive, and can be manipulated, destroyed, or built by you. The castle is going to be your main area of residence in this game, but there is also Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade which you will be able to run around and destroy all look like they have many secrets just waiting to be revealed as well.

If you’ve played any previous Lego title before this next point isn’t going to come as a surprise…

• The developers have made it a point in every game so far to make it not only fun, but funny. And it looks like they’ve succeeded in this one as well. The semi-parody format that worked so well in Star Wars, Batman, and Indie is back in full force in this game too. Everyone should be able to find something to laugh at in this game; whether you read “The New Yorker” or still rock “Ren and Stimpy” every now and then. There is humor for everyone, even the dudes out there that are still giggling because I said the word “semi”.

From what I can see, this game has all the right ingredients thrown together. The essence of Harry Potter, the skin of Lego, and a pinch of humor all brewing together in a potion that I hope will be one hell of a good time.

With a trailer this good, I almost have to be skeptical

I’ll admit. I’ve been an oblique fan of the Ghost Recon series from Ubisoft/ Red Storm. They’ve been good but they haven’t yet captured the imagination and excitement on the level that the Call of Duty series or even Bad Company series has.

Part of the reason I think is that a lot of the other shooters out there have been fairly linear with a focus on micro-task completion. You need to go from one place to another place shooting bad guys and performing certain objectives. Each of the shooter games have accomplished those things with a certain level of success and polish. However, the Ghost Recon series seem to have a more tactical and squad level management that can distract the player from the tasks at hand and have them focus on squad movement, positioning and the real tasks of infantry based warfare. 

Now we’ve been given a look at the new Ghost Recon: Future Warrior live action trailer.

Holy hell does this look good. Now, before you say that this is a live action trailer and not representative of the actual game, I think what this shows is the level of interaction, interoperability and skills the player will have when making squad based combat decisions.

The scout will have control over aerial drones, the engineer will have mobile gun platforms, the sniper… will… kill things from very far away and the assault class will be an “F-16 on legs”. There will be some brutal takedowns and the missions will be varied.

Ubisoft and Red Storm have promised more of the amazing video footage for us later and I cannot wait to check it out. While the past games have always been competently done and great adaptations of modern squad warfare, they’ve yet to reach the collective praise and success of the entire gaming community. With this edition, I’m getting the impression that they’re doing it right this time.

Lastly, a multi-player beta is being planned to launch this summer and if you’ve already picked up Splinter Cell: Conviction, save your beta code… you’re already in.

It’s official! Civilization V is coming this fall, and the first trailer has been released for the latest in Sid Meier’s epic legacy. After the solid Civilization IV and it’s expansions, then the amazingly popular Civilization Revolutions for console (and soon to be ipad), Meier and Firaxis yet again look to bring the hammer down and set the stage for what is almost assuredly to be an instant hit.

Now I’ll be the first to say (and I’m sure the civvies are going to love this) that I do not like the Civilization series very much, particularly Civilization IV. Yes I know, I should be burned and doused with holy water for such heresy, but hear me out. Civilization IV isn’t a bad game; it just has several glaring flaws that can make or break the game at several points depending on how you play, and tends to suffer from a bit of melodramatic advertising. At higher levels (from about noble up) the series feels less like a game and more like an exercise in mathematics, micro-management, and patience. Expanding your empire becomes an experiment of trial-and-error to find the right formula to expand quickly and efficiently. Negotiating with enemy rules became a game of finding the magic number, and sometimes followed illogical rules (not taking peace when offered and outnumber 10:1 just because I’m three squares away from his cities instead of two).

The most frustrating thing however, was the military aspect of the game. Several million times I had to question if the visionary who created the formula controlling the outcome of different battles ever passed Algebra. When a simple rifleman can kill three units of modern infantry, you know there’s something wrong. Even without the usually impossible outcomes for certain matchups, the results of battles in general are often tipped heavily in favor of the CPU (anything under a 70% chance to win is usually a loss). This resulted in several huge stacks of troops being needed to pursue any real military campaign, even against small nations.

Why am I bringing this up? Because, as usual, Firaxis is claiming that their latest installment has fixed, improved, and revolutionized everything their last installment did. Perhaps it will this time, but let’s get into some detail as to what we’re dealing with first.
The first, and the most obvious if you’ve ever played a Civ game before, is that Firaxis has foregone the normal square tiles in favor of a hexagonal spread. This is already getting mixed reviews from players since it cuts off two directions of attack/defense. However this is likely a smart move because of this next new feature: Units will no longer be able to garrison within cities to defend them. Instead, all cities will defend themselves based on their current growth level and any defensive structures you may have built inside. All troops will need to defend the access to the city, holding chokepoints and building forts to aid any troops defending the routes to the city itself. These are some of the more drastic changes, and may be a welcomed change depending on how well the replacement features work.

Also making a significant change is the terrain and how it affects units. While no specifics have been released, it has been announced that mountains will now be traversable, getting rid of valuable choke points, yet giving a new layer of defense to mountaintop cities. This compliments the new abilities of artillery and archers, as they can now fire from a distance instead of needing to be right next to the unit they are attacking. No word yet on how this will work with the modern era and guns, but it is sure to be an interesting sight to watch a regiment of swordsmen charge up a mountain with arrows raining down from above (300 anyone?).

Oh yeah… that reminds me. No more stacking. Only one unit per tile people, be it friend or enemy. Now before you go saying that’s not enough, the majority of units have changed. Instead of two or three units in a small group, units will have anywhere from nine to fifteen troops formed into a variance of formations (no word on whether the formations will have an effect on combat).

With all these new changes, Firaxis and the Civ team have certainly stayed true to their reputation of taking chances. However, I find it a little hard to believe they have fixed all the issues, particularly with the military system, just from what they’re advertising. We’ll just have to wait and see, and with any luck fall will be here before we know it.

It’s been nearly 3 years since Deus Ex 3 was first announced, and in that time, one would think we would have seen even the slightest amount of information or footage from the game. Well Eidos has finally seen fit to give us a trailer, only not one with anything remotely resembling gameplay footage. It is still kind of cool though. Check it out on the other side.

It’s going to be hard to live up to the first game, but at least they’re using that game’s theme, hopefully that speaks tomore similarities to the original classic. Also watch carefully at the end for some images flashed underneath the logo. Maybe if we’re lucky this is the start of a viral campaign that will see the release of some real information on the game.

Hakan completes the new character roster

As I appear to be the resident messenger of all things Street Fighter, I have an important announcement to make. Here ye, hear ye! The tenth and final rumored new challenger to Super Street Fighter 4 is Hakan!

Not much is known about him, except that he is red, Turkish, and ridiculous. Of course, the last of those three adjectives I used for El Fuerte, until I played people online who tore me apart. Should be interesting for those who decide to master this slippery villain. Enjoy the trailer.

John Marston walks a lonely road. It’s the only one that he has ever known (except for that period of time he was with a gang). He’s not quite sure where it goes, but it’s home to him and he’ll walk alone. Did I just steal the opening verse from that terrible Green Day song and apply it to a video game character? Yeah, so? YEAH, SO!?

Red Dead Redemption is shaping up to be so much more than Grand Theft Auto in the old west. It’s set to redefine the open-world concept:

The first official trailer dropped on May 6th of last year, and it quickly became clear that Rockstar was once again pushing the boundaries of what’s possible to achieve with gameplay. They’ve taken the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) and NaturalMotion’s Euphoria engine to create the vast landscape upon which the game is built. Creating a city filled with buildings and cars is one thing. A sprawling, natural environment that can be fully explored is a different ballgame. They didn’t stop with rolling hills and luscious trees, either. They included an entire ecosystem of animals and random encounters that play out independently of the player.

Based on what I’ve read, the game throws you into the end of the western age to do one thing: whatever the hell you want. Yes, there is a story, but it’s not the main focus. True enjoyment will come from exploring the huge world Rockstar has graciously given us.

This month Rockstar released several new videos. They can be viewed here along with all the other Red Dead Redemption videos. The more I watch, the more excitement I can feel brewing inside me. It’s almost as if I’m impatiently waiting for April 27th to roll around so I can pick my pre-order up from Best Buy.

Open-world games have long been among my favorites, and I’m a hug fan of Rockstar. I don’t care that a lot of people didn’t like GTA IV, I thought it was fantastic. I also really enjoyed Bully: Scholarship Edition, which if you haven’t played it, is a creative romp through private school.

Knowing everything I can about Red Dead Redemption has become my life’s goal. Okay, not quite, but close. I just can’t get enough information about a game which promises to push limits I didn’t even know existed. IGN’s week of articles only fueled my lust to traverse the wild west.

As with any game, there are nay-sayers, but I choose to remain optimistic. Luckily I have Mass Effect 2 and soon God of War III to keep me busy in the interim. Otherwise I would just die, maybe.

She is so ready.

Hopefully you’ve heard of this:  Capcom in January released a newer trailer for its upcoming title, Super Street Fighter 4.  If you haven’t heard, you were right there with me until I saw it with some friends randomly on Monday.  “How did we NOT KNOW about this?!  It’s been out for a month!!” we screamed to each other at the same time.  And for good reason.

The trailer teases us with some slick new outfits, like colossus Zangief and pimped out Balrog (because one has to look fly before they fight).  Second piece of awesome:  true to franchise rivalries.  Okay…Ryu and Sagat is a rivalry true to the story of Street Fighter…but Ken and Rufus, as much as I love the Roof, is NOT.  In the SSF 4 cut scene, we see Ken and Ryu give each other the terrorist fist jab before they get it on.  Ken and Ryu rivalry FTW!  Also, the Guile and Bison cut scene is kind of epic.  Third piece of awesome, and this is my favorite:  visuals on new Ultra Combos!  The trailer only gives a few, and those few are amazing, but I wanted more…and I found them here.  Some of them are perfect – insert Ryu’s Metsu Shoryuken here.  Some are epic – insert any of Guy’s combos here…though I wish they’d have given Sakura her Cherry Blossom.  With Mass Effect 2 still fresh from the oven, and Bioshock 2 now released, it may be a while before anyone is ready to attack another game.  Do yourself a favor and pre-order it anyway.  It’s only forty bucks.

Addendum:  It is rumored that there are now ten, instead of eight, new characters being introduced.  Juri, Cody, Guy, Adon, T-Hawk, and Dee Jay have been officially confirmed.  Rumor has it there was an article in Famitsu a while back giving away four more names:  Ibuki, Hakan, Dudley, and Makoto of Third Strike fame.  Before anyone starts telling me I’m late on this too:  these are still unconfirmed.  No official statements or images have supported or denied these rumors.  However, my opinion is the more the merrier.