[chaosblade]

Voice acting in JRPGs is completely optional in my opinion. It's more often a detriment than a boon.

I'd definitely hate to see a game not get localized because the publisher is unable to add in appropriate voice acting, for example. Or waste time and money adding in bad or mediocre voice acting that adds nothing to the experience other than the player spending 6 seconds in the menu looking for the option to turn it off.

[Mihos]

For JRPGs, battle system trumps all for me. I can sit through the worst crap dialog imaginable if the battle system is good.

[Labadal]

I could live without voice acting. FFXIII would have been a better game without it.

[LuchaShaq]

A game relying on story without voice acting? I'd rather read a book.

[Meccanical]

I could live without voice acting. FFXIII would have been a better game without it.

Nah, Im pretty sure it would still be the same.

[Montresor]

As long as there's gibberish being voiced over... like with pretty much all of Banjo Nuts N Bolts, or with Midna from Twilight Princess.

[Atmej]

I always skip through dialogue as fast as I can read it, so voice acting isn't necessary for me.

I usually do the same. There's really no need to voice every single line as it only increases the development budget and lowers the chances of localization without adding that much to the experience.
I would be completely satisfied with voice samples (ala Skyward Sword) or if the VA was only used for a few FMV/anime cutscenes that played at key points (begging, ending, major plot twists...,).

Final Fantasy XII? Kingdom Hearts of course has fantastic voice acting, but I'm not sure who is really responsible for that.

I wouldn't really use KH as an example of a game with great VA. The original characters stand out like sore thumbs compared to the Disney ones. Not to say that their voice actors are bad but the difference in quality is so obvious that it sours the experience quite a bit.

[Esura]

For the sheer amount of dialogue in JRPG's in particular, having every line voiced can run a fair bit. And the best way to get a budget under control isn't to say, 'We're spending lots of money already, so let's just spend more!' It's a question of looking at what things can be cut altogether to save money, and what can be done more cheaply. And cutting voice acting (or limiting it to the cutscenes) would definitely result in savings. That becomes even more relevant when we're talking about a JRPG that's been developed by one company/branch and is being localized for english-language release by another outfit with a separate budget for the localization. If it's a question of getting JRPG releases in English with limited/no voice-acting or not getting them at all, I'll gladly take the unvoiced version. Would you say that you sit and listen to every line of dialogue in an RPG like that as it's spoken, or do you fast-forward through some of it at your normal reading speed? Is it something that you'd personally miss if it wasn't present, or would you say it's more a question of 'feel', as in 'any modern JRPG without this feature just 'feels' cheap/low-budget/etc. to me'?

Say if we go by the hypothetical game the OP proposed to us. Yeah, voice acting can be expensive but what is the need of cutting voice acting if the project has a huge budget allowance anyways? What would that actually accomplish beside essentially killing off their chances of being successful and opening up the gates for said game to get lambasted hard for lacking something which is essentially a standard for nearly all console games regardless of genre (besides Nintendo's stuff)?

I actually do listen to every line of dialogue if it is voiced, particularly if the characters are voiced by my favorite voice actors and actresses. Yeah I'd already read the lines but I like hearing the characters perform their lines. It adds to the flavor of the game personally.

Its not really just any modern JRPG I demand voice acting from, just made-for-console JRPGs, especially a big budget one like in the OP. It would be hard to say the game would feel cheap if the game would be as big and graphic intensive as the OP proposed but the game would definitely feel off. It just seems, for the lack of a better word, ass backwards.

Basara Bailey is best Bailey.

I got this game but I never ran into Oichi yet so I didn't know she was voiced by the awesome Bailey.

[Conciliator]

No voice acting is better than awful voice acting as has been said, but I much prefer actual good voice acting. In fact, good VA can make so-so writing seem better, and really good VA can create character development that doesn't even exist on paper(as it does in Persona 4 especially, but also some in Xenoblade). So, I would say put the investment in for good VA. It makes a huge difference. Xenoblade is on the right track. I think the absolute last thing the JRPG needs to continue doing is clinging to the past and arbitrary traditionalism. A fully-featured, fully-budgeted JRPG with modern but still complex gameplay, polish, genuinely decent writing and characters and a bit lighter on the anime-ness could just explode all around the world. Basically a Xenoblade that's a little better in every category.

Xenoblade's half-and-half approach is fine, though the heart to hearts really ought to have been VA'd.

[InvincibleAgent]

So, another Tales of Symphonia? Since, as everyone knows, playing with voices off is the best way to play.

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

Was just wondering how most of the demographic would react to such a game. I'm talking, full-on HD, top-tier graphics, high-budget, but dialogue boxes with gorgeous hand-drawn portraits (with multiple expressions) and absolutely zero voices. FMVs/Cut-scenes can have text too. I'd personally be up for it. I have nothing against voice-acting (when it's good), but something about dialogue boxes that just let you imagine what characters sound like, play at your own pace, set the controller down, enjoy the music, character portraits, and graphics cannot be replicated with other methods.

I'm fine with it.

[Moaradin]

Good, quality voice acting > text

[nincompoop]

Voice acting adds nothing to my enjoyment of a game, except when it's hilariously terrible a la MM8/MMX4/SOTN/RE. Games that use voice acting would be better off without it 99% of the time.

[SatelliteOfLove]

For the record, I think Zelda's approach is perfect, and I hope they never change it. People who want Zelda fully-voiced completely baffle me. It would be a train-wreck.

That and the crowd that blows a fuse at the very thought that a Tales game coming over might not have voiced skits.

Voice acting tiers are something like this. From worst to first: Janitor, Porn Actress tier. "English" done by Japanese studio in Japan. Celebrity paid to read a few lines with bad voice direction. Cheap voice actors. Well paid famous ones. Then there is the British tier. The last four JRPG games with voice acting that I really liked were all British. Coincidence??? Probably. Script and voice director can make or break a project. Good actors with a good director and a good script is the best possible scenario.

INDEEGUHNASHUN

Grandia was truly legendary.... I played it recently and I was truly amazed at how bad the English dubs were back then. The situation now has greatly improved, but still is far from what I'd like it to be.

Atlus went from this to this in just one generation. Amazing.

I haven't played any handheld JRPGs this generation.

Fixed to be a little less vague.

For JRPGs, battle system trumps all for me. I can sit through the worst crap dialog imaginable if the battle system is good.

Ah, a fellow ToGf alumni. Glad to meet ya. Badges are on the table, the buffet is free, but please get a new plate for every trip.

[disappeared]

I'm still an avid reader, so written dialogue will always take precedence over spoken. And let's face it, a lot of voice acting is terrible.

[Rahxephon91]

I'm still an avid reader, so written dialogue will always take precedence over spoken. And let's face it, a lot of voice acting is terrible.

Except it isn't.

[SamVimes]

Can i get wrpgs without voice acting, please? At least they can put all the dialogue options they want instead of being limited by that stuff.

[disappeared]

Except it isn't.

Different strokes, I suppose.

[mclem]

I think full voice acting has become the standard for big-budget RPGs though. A good compromise though is Demon's Souls - full voice acting, minimal dialogue to keep costs down.

I'd personally prefer more dialogue and less acting, but I think that highlights where there's an awkward tradeoff; if you decree that all the dialogue needs to be voiced, that's going to be a significant budgetary hit in a text-heavy game.

It boils down to using your budget in the ways that lend itself best to the game you want to make, and I feel that being open-minded about which way they make that call is better for the industry as a whole.

[CrunchyFrog]

I'd rather have no voice acting than terrible voice acting myself. I'm okay with reading.

.

[Rahxephon91]

Different strokes, I suppose.

No it really isn't. How is video game voice acting bad? Compared to what even?

[Syril]

That and the crowd that blows a fuse at the very thought that a Tales game coming over might not have voiced skits.

Those wouldn't be nearly as much of a pain if they weren't still synced to the Japanese audio with no way to advance them manually.

[Utako]

Xenoblade is the best argument for this that ever was.

[Rahxephon91]

Xenoblade is the best argument for this that ever was.

How? The voice acting in Xenoblade is great. Some of the cutscenes are great as well. It would be terrible if Xenoblade had boring "here's some illustration talking while nothing goes on in the background" or whatever the hell Tales does with it's poor animation. The cutscenes in Xenoblade are very entertaining to watch.

[shinkansen.3000]

Atlus went from this to this....

...to this!! (and this)

If someone is still skipping on this incredibly wonderful game because it doesn't have dual voice acting, you don't know what you're missing!!

Atlus has been doing a great job lately.
All in all during this seventh generation the only really big screw up dub wise was Arc Rise Fantasia I believe...

[Etrian Oddity]

Hell, if Crispin Freeman is to be believed most professional VAs are theatre trained or radio trained.

Well then I guess not all voice actors are trained equally, because goddang there are a ton of bad ones employed out there. :l

Surprisingly, one of my favorite voice cast efforts ever was Halo 2. There was a gold mine of talent in that game (I mean, look at the names).

[MikeE21286]

I'd rather have no voice acting than terrible voice acting myself. I'm okay with reading.

Exactly what I came to post.

[Dark Schala]

Hell, if Crispin Freeman is to be believed most professional VAs are theatre trained or radio trained.

God, I miss Crispin Freeman so damn much.

The last game I played with his voice was God Eater Burst. He needs to do more stuff. :(

[CielTynave]

Hell, if Crispin Freeman is to be believed most professional VAs are theatre trained or radio trained. I do like voice acting in some circumstances. I really love the battle dialogue in Xenoblade - it just feels like they're a team, y'know?

Yes, that's something I hear at almost every panel where someone asks about advice for aspiring voice actors. It's almost an immediate "YOU HAVE TO BE AN ACTOR." Also, I remember hearing somewhere that having a background in theater is actually a requirement for getting a job with FUNi, although I've never actually checked if that's true or not.

[PumpkinPie]

I'd prefer text. The 'Saturday morning anime' voice acting that we so often get lumbered with has long overstayed its welcome.

[BGBW]

I'd rather have the opposite.

Low budget with voice acting? WOuld that be a recipe for disaster since they'd end up relying on the programmers to voice the cast.

Has there been a jrpg where the 'body language' didn't looks so canned?

I find there's a charm to looped animation of RPG NPCs.

Or Zelda-like quips as well. I'm with the camp that prefers that Zelda games don't have "proper" voice acting; just little sound bytes that give you a feel for the texture/pitch of their voice.

Truth. If the pirate guarding Tetra's room in WW didn't make that "Oohuuumm" sound I'd never remember him. since he hardly appears on screen. But that one sound made him one of my favourite characters.

Text-only is fine, as long as there's a cool "bleebloobleebloo" sound as each letter appears.

Really depends on the noise. Sometime this can be really really grating.

[Syril]

Has there been a jrpg where the 'body language' didn't looks so canned?

There's Koudelka on the PS1. Unfortunately, it's much better to watch than play.

[chaosblade]

Really depends on the noise. Sometime this can be really really grating.

Females in Golden Sun had terrible "voices."

[kayos90]

Nay, for presentation reasons. I feel like it's a sloppy way of showing dialogue and it's uncreative when you can show motions for characters making scenes and conversations more interesting.

[ZombiePlatypus]

Some interesting points brought up here. I definitely forgot about the fact that opting to voice everything almost always results in a smaller script with less branches, and just less content overall when it comes to dialogue, narration and story. I think this alone would be enough to ditch voice-acting if it becomes an issue.

I like the fake-language idea though. It avoids localisation issues and I think adds to the effect of a fantasy-universe the game is taking place in.

Also, just wanted to clarify that the game I'm proposing still would have full-on FFXIII like visuals with body-language, movement, facial-expressions & character protraits in the boxes. Kinda like a modern-day FFVIII but with character art. I understand it may seem shocking to some to play something like that, but I honestly believe that with the right direction, it can be fantastic. It'd be like a great book but animated and with gameplay portions to boot.

And just wanted to stress that I'm not advocating the idea that every RPG should be sans VA. It's still enjoyable, but a lot of JRPGs' VA has been atrocious.

[Akuun]

I'd rather have no voice acting than terrible voice acting myself. I'm okay with reading.

Yup.

[ZombieSupaStar]

FUCKING YAY.


the taking of the weird animu hijinx that was cute and tolerable in the 16/32 bit era, and transforming them into hyper detailed AND voice acted cut-scenes, made JRPGS absolutely intolerable for me.

[2San]

I like VA and in general I think we do get good VA. Some games do have pretty terrible voice acting. I think;"Do some publishers need better voice casting?", is a better question. My answer would be yes. I think there are a lot of talented aspiring voice talent that can't find a job, because only famous or some pub's cousin get cast.

[charsace]

Should just do it like LO. Save the voice acting for cutscenes please.

[ZombiePlatypus]

FUCKING YAY. the taking of the weird animu hijinx that was cute and tolerable in the 16/32 bit era, and transforming them into hyper detailed AND voice acted cut-scenes, made JRPGS absolutely intolerable for me.

Don't blame that mess on anime though. There's a lot of work in anime that's as sophistecated and well written as more famous non-anime material. Trainwrecks like FFXIII or Star Ocean VI are just embarrassing to witness though (let alone play) and really showcase the worst of genre in terms of VA. (Among other problems these games had...)

[Kikujiro]

Talking about cut-scenes:

Good voice acting >>>>> no voice acting.

Good voice acting makes things more engaging. Persona 3 & 4 without the voice acting would lose a lot, the same FF games. I remember playing Devil Summoner and thinking how the lack of voice acting was a let down.

[The Hermit]

I played Zelda Skyward Sword after Xenoblade and SS felt really off with the lack of voice acting... until then I was one of the few people who defended mute Zelda, but I changed my mind. But Link won't have VA obviously

And After playing Kid Icarus, that is even more urgent.

[BGBW]

The one voice type I cannot stand is that cutesy voice that females do. Basically they are trying to mimic the high pitched Japanese counterpart but it comes off terribly. Probably doesn't help that I can pick up what they are saying but at the end of the day it is something that should be left to the Japanese.

[Syril]

I played Zelda Skyward Sword after Xenoblade and SS felt really off with the lack of voice acting... until then I was one of the few people who defended mute Zelda, but I changed my mind. But Link won't have VA obviously And After playing Kid Icarus, that is even more urgent.

If Zelda has voice acting, I'd rather it be in Hylian as a made-up language, like the clips of her singing.

[Parallax Scroll]

I prefer no voice acting over bad voice acting, and there's waaay too many JRPGs with bad voice acting.

[shinkansen.3000]

Regarding the fictional language choice like they do in Zelda and Ico I'm all for it!
My first preference when it comes to language selection in a game is always on the language the characters should be speaking. Is the game set in US/UK? English! Is the game set in Japan? Japanese! Is the game set in Italy? Italian! (if only we could have good voice actors for games...) Is the game set in a fantasy world? Use a fictional language! For me it contributes to the immersion, it's something that makes the game more unique! As long as the dub is good in the first place of course...


A game that made me effectively miss the good old text only times was Radiant Historia. It was fun trying to assing a voice to all the characters, especially with Stocke since I took a while to understand what kind of character is and what kind of voice would fit him the most.


An other interesting point of view is the one taken by Zero Escape 999: 9 hours, 9 persons, 9 doors. The characters there dont's have any kind of voice acting, but as the text scrolls it beeps in a different tone for each other. Even if it's not a JRPG it's still a dialogue heavy game, i've found it very original.

God, I miss Crispin Freeman so damn much. The last game I played with his voice was God Eater Burst. He needs to do more stuff. :(

Now that you reminded me of it, how was the English dub on that one?
I haven't heard exactly good things about it around, is there an option to turn Event Voices off, just in case?

[Hcoregamer00]

I prefer no voice acting over bad voice acting, and there's waaay too many JRPGs with bad voice acting.

This, voice acting has gotten better over the years but it still is a distraction.

Some of the best parts of Tales of Graces and Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 was when I read dialog boxes instead of hearing voice acting.

[hertog]

Nier, DQVIII and FFXII were all so elevated by good VA. So I can't agree

[Zekes!]

I usually end up sk I don't usually have the patie So no I wouldn't mind if there was no voi

This is me

[CorvoSol]

TWEWY had mostly text boxes with just a bit of voiced dialogue here and there. It felt like a comic book, and I liked it.