TALES OF ZESTIRIA: AN INTERVIEW WITH VOICE ACTOR CHRISTOPHER NIOSI

I have been a huge Tales supporter for years, and the thing I admire most about the franchise is that there is something in it for everyone. Tales of Zestiria hit our shores on Tuesday, and in this interview we get to know the character of Dezel who was voiced by Christopher Niosi.

Note: This interview may contain spoilers.

Christopher Niosi is an independent animation artist, but got the opportunity to lend his voice to various projects when he lived in New York. More doors started to open once he moved to California.

“Once I moved to California, things really picked up. Voice recording was one of my personal favorite parts of the creative process for producing cartoons online and even though I didn’t have a traditional acting background in theater or radio, I did a lot of studying and developed a fairly strong sense of what makes a good and bad performance. Once I had the chance to start auditioning for stuff, I was prepared to take the challenge,” said Niosi.

Tales of Zestiria was Niosi’s first audition once he moved to Los Angeles, and shares what went through his mind as he lent his powerful vocals to the character Dezel. “Thankfully, I don’t think I knew what the project was when I came in to read for the available characters (I read for Sorey, Mikleo, Dezel, Sergei and Lunarre) so I just went in with a positive attitude and had a blast,” he began.

“They let me go wild on all five characters I auditioned for, so it was a really great experience. Funnily enough, when I was reading for Dezel I think I just spoke with my natural voice and he might have even been the one I put the least amount of thought into and when I booked the part. I didn’t even remember which character he was until I did a quick Google search. I left the audition thinking maybe the only one I had a fair shot at booking was Sorey, but I wound up getting cast as a character type I never got the chance to do back in New York.”

Niosi was familiar with the Tales series before he even got the chance to audition, and said he played a fair amount of Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube though expressed his regret for not finishing it, along with what he enjoys most about the franchise. 

“I always felt like a moron for not going back to pick up on it because I remembered really enjoying it; I thought the combat system was incredibly unique and cool. What I love about the franchise is its diverse team of playable characters in each game and the interactions between them. It almost always tends to be half female and half male, and each one really has a story of their own to tell, with all eight of them intertwining in various ways. The gang in Zestiria was a different approach that lent itself very well to the armatization aspect of the gameplay and I love the interactions that came about with both humans and seraphim.”

Niosi then went on to share a few memories when he went to record Dezel. “We had many sessions; the first of which was doing a lot of the early game stuff. Then I had to do a lot of the particularly dramatic scenes of (which I dare not spoil), that were challenging but so much fun, very proud of my work on those. Then we saved the fight reactions and battle prompts for the last one, which made the “kid in me” jump for joy. We also came back to do all the DLC, which was a blast. I hadn’t played Tales of the Abyss, but I got to do an impression of Yuri Lowenthal for Dezel’s Luke Fon Fabre costume. that gave me a good laugh, since by that point Yuri and I had worked with each other on our respective web-series projects.”

As Tales fans know- the games have a lot of content that are voiced, and Niosi explains how he took care of his voice throughout the experience.

“My familiarity with a lot of JRPG formatted stuff allowed me to keep track fairly okay. Our director Wendee Lee would help keep things moving along and the three representatives from Bandai-Namco would be present to help provide context on everything. The skits were lots of fun, especially when I got to explore Dezel’s sensitive side with his love of animals and cooking good food. The main story was really satisfying because I felt Dezel had a really amazing and impactful arc for his part of the overall plot. Sometime during the second session I think I was given some special droplets to keep my voice from giving out too, and our engineer Danni Hunt introduced me to “Throat Coat” tea, which has been a huge help for before I go into future recording sessions.”

An engaging part of the Tales series is the unique cast of characters. Everyone has their favorite character that they can relate to in one way or another, and for Niosi he says he can relate to Dezel in more ways than he would like to admit.

“Dezel’s a sad story of when your selfishness gets in the way of what you believe in the right thing to do for other peoples’ best interests. When the people you care about and get deeply attached to that you want to put before yourself, and what you “want” blur together in a bad way. Rose, who Dezel has great adoration for, in some ways is lucky to have him around to protect her, but at the same time she may not have landed in so much trouble if he hadn’t been there in the first place. After a particularly traumatic experience, he becomes the vengeful, bitter man we know him for in the game. He’s tremendously screwed up in the head and keeps ‘trying’ to do the right thing. His solution isn’t exactly the way I’d personally go about fixing a problem, but I can very much identify with all of the things he’s feeling throughout the story. You can tell though, underneath the stern front, he’s having a good time hanging’ out with Sorey and the gang. HE’S the lucky one.”

Looking back at his performance as Drezel, Niosi pointed out what he wanted to do differently. “At worst, maybe just some of the early stuff when he first shows up, as I think vocally I sounded a bit too casual and not as much like the character should’ve been. I didn’t hear much of Daisuke Ono’s performance until after the fact and I realized he’s MUCH lower-sounding than I, but Dezel and I were the same age when I recorded the game, so I think it was still fitting. Honestly, I’m just grateful I got to do the character and be part of such a milestone as the 20th Anniversary,” he said.

This experience really helped Niosi grow as an actor since his days of working in New York. “It put a new type of character I hadn’t really gotten the chance to perform in a professional gig to the test and the massive amount of hours I spent on the project was more than anything else I’ve ever done. A daunting challenge with a fair amount of pressure, but one I feel I was able to overcome and really get a solid performance out of. I hope those who play the English version of the game enjoy what I did and that Dezel leaves a lasting impact on them.”

Niosi leaves us with a shout out to all the Tales fans.

“Support the game and pick up a copy! Zestiria’s got a fantastic story I think anyone can enjoy with a cast of characters I really grew to love as I experienced it for myself. Show your support to the folks at Bandai-Namco who made this thing happen, they deserve all the praise! I’m happy to just be a small cog in the machine. Keep on keepin’ on!”