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How did we go from FF12 quality voice acting to FFtype 0 VA?

T

Tidus_Great

Banned
FF12 came in 2006 and featured some of the best VA in gaming , it would even be some of the best if not the best by todays standards. never mind 2006. After playing and beating FF type 0 the game took me 18 hours and some of the VA was legit unbearable. Jacks and Cinque in particular. but overall the vast majority of the cast were very subpar. FF13 wasn't bad btu a noticeable step below FF12. FF15 so far, again it's not bad it's just not on FF12s level. Some of the deliveries seem phoned in. FF type 0 was really bad though to the point i'm tempted to play with japanese language :(
 
N

Nyoro SF

Member
Tidus_Great said:
FF12 came in 2006 and featured some of the best VA in gaming , it would even be some of the best if not the best by todays standards. never mind 2006. After playing and beating FF type 0 the game took me 18 hours and some of the VA was legit unbearable. Jacks and Cinque in particular. but overall the vast majority of the cast were very subpar. FF13 wasn't bad btu a noticeable step below FF12. FF15 so far, again it's not bad it's just not on FF12s level. Some of the deliveries seem phoned in. FF type 0 was really bad though to the point i'm tempted to play with japanese language :(
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I'm afraid to say you're wrong. Final Fantasy voice work is done by master-level craftsmen who have the ultimate appreciation for the art and strive for maximum accuracy and locale adjustments. To say they're bad means you're out of touch with the modern era.

sarcasm
 
W

Wagram

Member
Do you really believe a title like Type-0 should have the same budget as FFXII?

The VA isn't the best but seriously there is far worse out there people.
 
J

Jonnax

Member
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-xii-vets-talk-game-localization/1100-6216923/

Give a read of this article about the translation of XII. Seems like the people in charge of that really knew their stuff and were passionate about it.

Extract from that article:
To pull off the accents, finding the right voice actors was also part of their job. They recruited several British stage actors to fulfill the roles of the judges in the game, as well as child actors to voice the younger characters. In Japan, it is common to have female actors instead of children play the role of the child, but Smith and Reeder agreed that while trained voice actors can be extremely good at what they do, they were happy with the decision to cast a young actor to voice the character Larsa in Final Fantasy XII.
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T

The Emperor

Member
I know it's so disapointing.

A story with the tone of Type-0's deserved the FFXII quality Voice work which was very controlled and well delivered.

For better or worse FFXIII's VA direction suited it.
 
D

Durante

Member
FF12 was the one point in time where I thought the "dubs aren't so bad" people were actually on to something. But it was all downhill from there.
 
L

Lupin the Third

Member
Wasn't the PSP English version recorded years ago, just unreleased? It wasn't targeted for a major console release until much later, right? Why would they spend FF12/console-sized budgets and resources on what was then a handheld game localization?
 
T

threelights

Member
The Silver said:
FF12 is an anomaly, I don't know what the hell was going on there, Square never reaches its heights before or since.
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I can't really think of many other games with the same quality in localization in the industry as a whole really.

Too bad the lead guys left Square =P
 
Z

zennyzz

Member
It's largely vocal direction with teams. Most folks you hear that do a phenomenal job on one game or anime can do an abysmal job on another. And it's all down to vocal direction.
 
B

badcrumble

Member
Because the sort of people who thought it was all Elizabethan English got upset about FFXII's stellar but slightly more challenging localization.

But also, A.O. Smith is probably fairly busy and expensive to get at this point.
 
R

Ravidrath

Member
shark sandwich said:
If they're charging $60 for it then yeah.
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Type-0 VA was recorded for the PSP version years ago, and has just been sitting around since.

When it was originally recorded, it was going to come out long after the PSP was dead in the US, and really struggle to break even. So it made sense to do it as cheaply as possible.

They didn't know it would be reused in a full-price HD remaster then, and it wouldn't make sense to just throw the work away, either.


Reveirg said:
FFXIV: ARR's was worse than Type-0 IMO, and that had plenty of budget.

It's gotten better in latest patches though. Hopefully, Heavensward's will be decent.
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From what I'm told, FFXIV in Japan gets a massive voice budget and all the time they need. Then, the US gets a fraction of that budget and has to rush to get it done in time.
 
T

Tidus_Great

Banned
zennyzz said:
It's largely vocal direction with teams. Most folks you hear that do a phenomenal job on one game or anime can do an abysmal job on another. And it's all down to vocal direction.
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yeah i get that. Like Troy Baker he's a god tier voice actor. but in FF13 he came off as average due to them trying to make him sound like a cocky jackass type character. but even then his VA was still good and consistent and he read the lines properly. in FF type 0 the VAs sound like they were sucking on helium or bored out of their minds reading off cards :(
 
Z

zennyzz

Member
Tidus_Great said:
yeah i get that. Like Troy Baker he's a god tier voice actor. but in FF13 he came off as average due to them trying to make him sound like a cocky jackass type character. but even then his VA was still good and consistent and he read the lines properly. in FF type 0 the VAs sound like they were sucking on helium or bored out of their minds reading off cards :(
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Again, vocal direction. Most localization efforts aren't on the level of FF 12.

And FF 12 itself isn't far and away above what's currently standard for jp anime.
 
F

Femmeworth

Banned
I think they only have access to like one or two good voice directors and there is a lack of talent in the industry in general (as far as localizations go at least).
 
S

Supermanisdead

Member
i dont understand how budget can lead to blatantly bad grammar though. like, rem's voice actress doesn't have an accent so she's most likely a native speaker. why wouldn't she just change the words????
 
X

XANDER CAGE

Member
Was it really an issue of budget? I thought that FFXII was just a radically different approach to VA casting, similar to when the US dub of Baccano! had virtually none of the usual game/anime dub suspects.
 
1

18-Volt

Member
FF12 VA was good but it was nowhere near Dragon Quest VIII. British accent completely changes how the game feels.
 
H

Hades Hotgun

Banned
First take in to account that Matsuno's games tend to have much more competently written stories and more fully realized characters than what you find in games in general and Type-0 in particular.

Then consider that the renowned A.O. Smith localized FFXII, whereas Type-0 wasn't rvrn treated as a major release by Square, who instead just used it as a vehicle for the FFXV demo.
 
Z

zennyzz

Member
XANDER CAGE said:
Was it really an issue of budget? I thought that FFXII was just a radically different approach to VA casting, similar to when the US dub of Baccano! had virtually none of the usual game/anime dub suspects.
Click to expand...

raically different casting doesn't make anything better or worse. Baccano had a number of new voices, but also had quite a number of veterans. What defines how well a VA cast does is ultimately how good the director is and also the liberty given to the cast when needed.

Hades Hotgun said:
First take in to account that Matsuno's games tend to have much more competently written stories and more fully realized characters than what you find in games in general and Type-0 in particular.

Then consider that the renowned A.O. Smith localized FFXII, whereas Type-0 wasn't rvrn treated as a major release by Square, who instead just used it as a vehicle for the FFXV demo.
Click to expand...

I love FF12, but this is a joke and a half in regards to it
 
S

Squire

Banned
Yeah, I dunno. Type-0's really bad; in terms of the acting and a number of other things, but yes, the acting feels really phoned in to me in a way that not even XIIIs acting does. I mean, I honestly think the acting in XIII is better, based on what I've heard.

It's a different game, but on the whole, Type-0 is really no better or worse than XIII. Way, way overhyped for me.
 
X

Xevren

Member
I'm gonna go so far as to say Jack's VA may be up there as some of the worst I have played with. Holy shit.
 
Stilton Disco

Stilton Disco

Member
CambriaRising said:
Cheap, trashy localization for an already half assed port.
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That's harsh. They may have made some dodgy decisions on translating the atmosphere and prioritising some assets over others, but for a sodding PSP to PS4 port, they've overall managed an incredibly impressive remaster.
 
S

Squire

Banned
XANDER CAGE said:
Was it really an issue of budget? I thought that FFXII was just a radically different approach to VA casting, similar to when the US dub of Baccano! had virtually none of the usual game/anime dub suspects.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure it was, yeah. They were casting people that had backgrounds in theatre, much less so anime/video games. Most of the voices in that cast are still incredibly rarely found in games/anime. It's very atypical and its a shame we probably won't get a cast like that again. I really think it's the way to go.

Stilton Disco said:
That's harsh. They may have made some dodgy decisions on translating the atmosphere and prioritising some assets over others, but for a sodding PSP to PS4 port, they've overall managed an incredibly impressive remaster.
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I think it's less that that poster is harsh and more that people are cutting them way too much slack. Type-0 is the worst remaster I've played to date. It reminds it's a PSP game on a console at every opportunity it's given.
 
T

Tidus_Great

Banned
Xevren said:
I'm gonna go so far as to say Jack's VA may be up there as some of the worst I have played with. Holy shit.
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any scene he's in he ruins.
nines over the top dumb brute VA isn't great either but at least he makes a good comic relief. Jack just has no redeeming qualities. I always took him into battle first just to get him killed :)
 
U

Uhyve

Member
All I can remember about the VA in FFXII was that the narrator's accent was hilarious, it was like some odd mix of British English, super stereotypical Indian and a splash of Irish every now and then.

Seriously though, just play Type 0 with the Japanese VA.

Stilton Disco said:
That's great if you understand Japanese, not so much for the overwhelming majority of it's audience outside Japan.
Click to expand...
... With subs.
 
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