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[Theonik]

I mean, it's crap to you because you clearly want C. So sure. But it's not crap to me because B is actually more useful than A. Aaaaaaaaaand one of my pet peeves with C is that often companies leave it as a dual-language toggle, but just for voice. There's no way to change the text, and when the Japanese track says one thing and the English text says another, what's the point?

Well this is a somewhat complicated topic. Usually the main reason B isn't offered is to curb reverse importation. With the switch being region free by default it will be interesting to see how Nintendo policies on the matter end up throughout the console's life and if other publishers react to this.

This is where I start making fun of people again because we're talking about Zelda, an international franchise where it is developed in parallel in multiple languages. This obsession with the "original intent/direction" doesn't really apply to a lot of game development because unlike films, for many big titles the creators themselves are working closely with multiple writers and editors in different languages to ensure that their intent is conveyed to as wide an audience as possible. It's so different. People are fooling themselves if they think the Japanese version is somehow more authentic.

That's not entirely true though. It is often for localisations to carry a lot more idiosyncrasies from the translators than would otherwise be there if the original staff was involved. And it makes perfect sense too. Unless you are a native speaker or hell a speaker at all of the language the game is being dubbed in it is hard for the original staff to be involved. If things were as you describe we'd have a lot more games end up like the original Shenmue dub which largely was the way it was because of that!

There is nothing really wrong with that but there is a lot of things you miss with regards to the original voice delivery, though that argument is greatly weakened when you consider that even with JP voices and Eng subs you are still subjected to say, Treehouse trying to add cringeworthy memes all over the script in their localisation. It's largely a matter of preference. Arguably option B is also significantly less valuable for US customers considering the JP version exists already so A and C are separate products that are not available to purchase elsewhere.

 

[Arc Christelle]

Really wish they had a default Hylian language like Klonoa or Starfox Adventures.

 

[Dylan Sexbang]

I think the reason Japanese sounds better and should be an option in BoTW is all the slight sounds in Legend of Zelda have always been done by Japanese voice actors anyway. From Link's "Hyah!" To Navi's "Hey Listen!" to Skull Kid's laughter.

I would much prefer JPN dub with English text. Nintendo, pull through

 

[Springfoot]

.

 

[Big0Bear]

This is really disappointing why no let people choose their language and text? Most western dubs of games don't fit not cause of the actors but the culture. Might not be a day one buy now

 

[Admiral Woofington]

Really wish they had a default Hylian language like Klonoa or Starfox Adventures.

Don't remind me about the hilarious Starfox Adventures language that somehow still had english words in it

HURSTA CHURKSTA BLERG

General Scales

 

[duckroll]

Don't remind me about the hilarious Starfox Adventures language that somehow still had english words in it

HURSTA CHURKSTA BLERG

General Scales

But it works for Ueda's games, and people tell me they're just like Zelda, except they're art!

 

[Big0Bear]

No matter what people prefer in this day and age if it fits and is already on the disc there is no reason why people shouldn't be able to choose what they want

 

[Bjoern the Smexy]

What licensing? The audio and text is in the game, only locked behind the globlal language settings of the console.

The European version of Virtue's Last Reward had only the Japanese voice track because of licensing issues with the English voice track.
Just throwing this out there.

Licensing issues are the problem most of the time when a Japanese game doesn't come over here with its Japanese voice track.

 

[snow in jamaica]

The European version of Virtue's Last Reward had only the Japanese voice track because of licensing issues with the English voice track.
Just throwing this out there.

Licensing issues are the problem most of the time when a Japanese game doesn't come over here with its Japanese voice track.

But as the thread's title, op, and the post you quoted said, the audio and text are available for use according to your console's language settings. The thing is that you can't, for example, use English text with Japanese audio. It has to be all English, or all Japanese, or all Spanish, etc.

 

[goldenpp72]

It seems amazing to me to have so much uproar over a series that really never utilized VA at all until now, clearly this game should have the option but people are acting like the Zelda series voice work is vital to the experience for them all of a sudden.

 

[robotrock]

It seems amazing to me to have so much uproar over a series that really never utilized VA at all until now, clearly this game should have the option but people are acting like the Zelda series voice work is vital to the experience for them all of a sudden.

if you watch that last trailer, it looks like it's kind of a big deal in the series for the first time

 

[Springfoot]

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[Big0Bear]

It seems amazing to me to have so much uproar over a series that really never utilized VA at all until now, clearly this game should have the option but people are acting like the Zelda series voice work is vital to the experience for them all of a sudden.

It just doesn't make sense. It was the same with xenoblabe chronicles x you can create a character but the black hair styles were only selectable on just a few avatars.,. Why?

It's already there why not just let people choose what they want.

 

[MadJackChurchill]

Wow, that's great. It means the English and Japanese versions of the game are both on card? Yesssssssss.

I'm saaaaved from all Japanese tutorials.

 

[thetrin]

Oh man, this is huge. Looks like they're following what Sony already does on PS4. This is great.

 

[crimilde]

There is not a single person on Earth who has ever learned a language by hearing it spoken while subtitles in their own language are presented. If someone wants to use this game as a springboard to learn Japanese -- which I'm all for! -- the ability to play it with both voice and text in Japanese is a big boon for that.

As I said before in this thread, I actually did learn English watching subbed shows when I was young. I was also studying it in school but my vocabulary and understanding of phrase structure and so on had significantly grown from TV (and games).

And I'm pretty sure most of us living in non-English speaking European countries have learned English like this.

When you hear that language constantly, as spoken by a native speaker, with the help of subs to guide you through, when you listen to the pronounciation and turn of phrase specific to it and so on, it really helps even if you're not conscious of it at first.

Especially since most teachers that I had were speaking like out of a literature book, with a native Eastern European accent to boot. From my experience, you don't learn colloquial language in school, nor do you learn how to speak with the correct, proper accent. This is where film, games and TV programmes give you a HUGE boost.

 

[enishi]

Wow, that's great. It means the English and Japanese versions of the game are both on card? Yesssssssss.

Same as 1-2-Switch but I think no one cares

 

[LowParry]

Surprised nobody's posted this yet:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=OFQQALduhzA

Spoiler

This guy does bizarre, surreal, knowingly hypocritical, half-satirical videos ribbing people who take themselves too seriously.

How did I miss this. Haha!

 

[shouamabane]

Surprised nobody's posted this yet:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=OFQQALduhzA

I made it about .5 seconds into this.

 

[BGBW]

Im still not sure what a weeb is, I understand in context but I s it a insult?

Weeb is short for Weeaboo and was the word filter for Wapanese on 4chan and managed to become the more popular term.

Wapanese being someone who wishes they were Japanese, cursing their non Japanese heritage, but whose views of Japan are usually only based on what they know from manga, anime and videogames.

Not to be confused with someone who just likes Japanese media.

 

[Springfoot]

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[Council Pop]

What the fuck? This isn't Fatal Frame or Persona. The Zelda franchise has had visual and thematic motifs inspired by medieval Europe and its mythology since the series' inception. Please show me examples of Japanese architecture that inspired Hyrule castle, or Japanese warrior garb reminiscent of of the armor worn by the castle knights. What about the titular character's royal dress or the ever present Master Sword and shield that are clearly European in their design inspiration. Hell, even the tiny dragon sprites in Zelda 1 are clearly based on those from European mythology and not traditional Japanese dragons. How about how Zelda and Link have always been depicted as resembling blonde-haired, blue-eyed Europeans with pointy elfish ears and how their helpful fairy companions are styled after the butterfly-winged sprites and fairies from European mythology and art unlike any of the typical creatures or spirits in Japanese folklore.

Not to mention the entire big gameplay hook in Breath of the Wild is that it's the first big Zelda title to take major gameplay inspiration and structure from Western game design. All the open world, procedural physics based stuff that everyone is excited about stems directly from what Western devs have been doing for the last decade or so (or several decades ago if you want to go all the way back to titles like Rogue and Nethack that inspired procedural design in modern Western devs).

This is the kind of "weeb life, Nippon uber alles" shit that results in the kind of backlash seen in this thread.

Wow, could you be any more aggressive? Of course Zelda is heavily influenced by Japanese culture and art (not to mention game design). Final Fantasy is also very Japanese, despite many of those games being based around a Japanese interpretation of medieval europe.

I have no idea what your problem is with subtitles, but maybe take your anger out on someone who actually deserves it.

 

[Springfoot]

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[Izuna]

This is really disappointing why no let people choose their language and text? Most western dubs of games don't fit not cause of the actors but the culture. Might not be a day one buy now

Wait, what?

Did you expect Zelda to have the option for JP voices, which is unprecedented for the franchise?

 

[Alexlf]

Man, what a pain. I don't really like a number of the english voices... If my japanese isn't up to scratch enough then I guess I'll play in french

 

[Council Pop]

You seem to have issues projecting your anger and being overly sensitive to when people call out your bizarre fabrications. If you're going to make stuff up, be prepared for people to call you out on it.

I'm not being overly sensitive, you're being bizarrely aggressive about something that doesn't even matter.

Sure, you think X and Y means that Zelda isn't very Japanese stylistically, and that's fine by me. But it's still a Japanese production, not an international co-production, so it literally is Japanese, which is why lots of people would rather have the original voice acting.

Anyone who is coming at this from the perspective of watching a lot of film will understand this. Dubbing just isn't a thing, and it would always be interpreted as either entirely disrespectful to the original language, or massively dumbing down for kids.

Like, the Ghibli film Porco Rosso is set in 1920s Italy, but I'm still going to watch it in it's original language because it's a Japanese film. The Tarkovsky film Nostalgia is set in Italy, but I'm still going to watch it in Russian because it's a Russian film.

I can understand why people who have never had much exposure to world cultures outside of annoying weeb stuff may find this confusing, but it's the most common approach to dealing with non-English language artforms. Subtitling is cheap, unobtrusive, respectful of other languages and preserves original intent as much as possible. That's all there is to it.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

I'm not being overly sensitive, you're being bizarrely aggressive about something that doesn't even matter.

Sure, you think X and Y means that Zelda isn't very Japanese stylistically, and that's fine by me. But it's still a Japanese production, not an international co-production, so it literally is Japanese, which is why lots of people would rather have the original voice acting.

Anyone who is coming at this from the perspective of watching a lot of film will understand this. Dubbing just isn't a thing, and it would always be interpreted as either entirely disrespectful to the original language, or massively dumbing down for kids.

Like, the Ghibli film Porco Rosso is set in 1920s Italy, but I'm still going to watch it in it's original language because it's a Japanese film. The Tarkovsky film Nostalgia is set in Italy, but I'm still going to watch it in Russian because it's a Russian film.

I can understand why people who have never had much exposure to world cultures outside of annoying weeb stuff may find this confusing, but it's the most common approach to dealing with non-English language artforms. Subtitling is cheap, unobtrusive, respectful of other languages and preserves original intent as much as possible. That's all there is to it.

mate, hows the air up there?

 

[Council Pop]

mate, hows the air up there?

What does this mean?

 

[WrenchNinja]

Sounds fine to me.

 

[Springfoot]

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[Spman2099]

So they have both sets of voices on the same card, but you can't access them with the appropriate subtitles. What an incredibly stupid company...

 

[Dragonslayer_023]

This discussion is bordering on the bizarre- seriously, people think that wanting subtitles and the original voice acting makes you an "uncultured anime fan"?

Firstly, anime is basically the only form of TV and cinema that is constantly dubbed, to it's detriment- with less of a dubbing obsession, anime could be much more popular and well respected in the west. I mean, even a film like Your Name, which isn't a kids film, didn't come west until there was a dubbed version. This is totally unheard of in any other world cinema, besides really populist kung fu/horror flicks. This is also why Hollywood now remakes popular pieces of world cinema; no-one likes dubs.

Secondly- why are videogames any different to world cinema? I want to hear the original dialogue because it's the original dialogue. It's closest to the original intent of the designers, the Japanese actors will have been chosen by the designers rather than localisation teams, and it shows respect to the original performers, and to the fact that not all artforms have to be specifically adapted for English-language audiences. Also- listen to the English dubs for Ghibli films. Some characters become entirely different in the dub; a good example is Jiji from Kiki's Delivery Service.

And I think the important thing here is that Zelda is specifically Japenese. It's not like I played Life is Strange in French or something, because that game was set in the US and made for an American audience. But Breath in the Wild's whole visual design is based on Japanese art styles, and is the sort of game that could only come out of Japan.

If you don't think the original language adds anything to a product of a certain culture, well, I'm not sure what I can say. But good luck with cinema, because most of the best films ever made don't have any English spoken in them whatsoever. Imagine asking for a dub of The Seventh Seal or Tokyo Story or Stalker. People would laugh in your face.

I mean, I won't cry about the fact that I won't be able to play Zelda with the original voice acting, but it's a disappointment for sure. With regards to the 'learning Japanese' thing- yeah, of course hearing Japanese will help, if you're already learning Japanese via other methods. But unless perhaps you're a small child and you're hearing Japanese all the time, video games aren't going to help you actually learn the language whatsoever.

This is a good post and whether dubs hurt the popularity of anime in the West is an interesting idea. I think wider audiences could definitely be turned off by how poor dubs are making them think that anime is low quality and not worth paying attention to.

If someone likes dubs that's fine. It's their prerogative and they should enjoy media the way they are most comfortable. But they're ultimately just limiting themselves and their enjoyment.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

I mean, there is a whole bit on people with anime avatars...

In all seriousness, I first saw this linked in some other GAF thread, and his style is definitely out there, but some of it is amusing in its satire.

Edit: Apparently he was the origin of the Harlem Shake meme a couple years ago. Go figure.

Not derail the thread but he's fairly popular. I guess not everyone knows him but he's also friends with a lot of big youtube names such as h3h3, jontron, and more of those guys.

He also makes some dope ass music and recently released his second album titled 'pink season' which was near the top in iTunes and Spotify for a while.

 

[purseowner]

I really don't get why some don't get the comparison to cinema. It's the jarring difference in approach between how this is handled in the two mediums that's the issue here for me.

I want the original art, not a version where the voice work has been replaced by voice work in a different language and usually of a different quality. That's not keeping the original work intact, regardless of your opinions of whether or not fully 'localising' to one's native language creates a similar experience.

I wouldn't watch a dubbed-over film. To me that practice is crass. I don't see this as much different.

 

[Mato]

One more trivial thing to bitch over. Some people don't need video games, they need therapy and medication.

 

[BGBW]

Imagine if Zelda was made in Sweden rather than Japan and someone wanted to play it with Swedish voices and English subs? Would you accuse them of being a weeaboo then? There's way too much focus on demeaning others for wanting the Japanese dub rather than actually focusing on the topic at of making language options for voices and subs independent of each other.

It's so strange that for some people the idea that some want to listen to voice work from the country of origin a foreign concept.

One more trivial thing to bitch over. Some people don't need video games, they need therapy and medication.

"I accept everything the videogame industry hands me and want to see no improvements whatsoever."

 

[Council Pop]

This is bizarre when my response that got you all worked up was in response to this:




What? Your arguments get weirder and weirder. It's being developed with a simultaneous international release in mind with the intention of selling well in the Western market, but you don't think the writers have the capacity to convey their ideas to translators? Try reading some of the earlier posts in this thread where the topic of videogames =/= film was already discussed when it comes to capturing actor performance. Not to mention this strange concept of "respect" you feel the need to show voice actors (but apparently only for Japanese products specifically, since the French-developed Life is Strange has none of these issues for you).



See above.



It's not confusing, you're just apparently extremely rigid in needing to show "respect" for Japanese multimedia specifically, which is an indicator of prototypical "weeaboo" behavior.

Life Is Strange is set in real life modern day America and had Americans working on the game, particularly the script- totally different to a Japanese interpretation of an entirely fictional generic European medieval setting.

Maybe take this argument to some film forums and see what people say. I imagine people would say your arguments are xenophobic and hinge on ideas of Western imperialism and nationalism.

Also, the weeb thing is weird- I don't watch any anime besides Ghibli stuff, I love Ozu and Kurosawa (who doesn't), but I'm not interested in Japanese culture more than other world cultures. Watching Bergman in the original Swedish, Fassbinder in German, Jancsó in Hungarian, Angelopoulos in Greek etc doesn't mean I have some cringey obsession with those countries, or want to actually be Greek/German/whatever.

 

[Javier]

I'm sticking to the Mexican Spanish dub because I was sold on it when they confirmed He-Man would be voicing the Deku Tree.

 

[Council Pop]

This is a good post and whether dubs hurt the popularity of anime in the West is an interesting idea. I think wider audiences could definitely be turned off by how poor dubs are making them think that anime is low quality and not worth paying attention to.

If someone likes dubs that's fine. It's their prerogative and they should enjoy media the way they are most comfortable. But they're ultimately just limiting themselves and their enjoyment.

Thank you! Yes, dubs in general are often low quality, and they leave the impression that something is for kids.

There is also the issue of 'Americanisation' via dubs- which can be very frustrating for English speakers who aren't actually American.

 

[Springfoot]

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[purseowner]

Maybe take this argument to some film forums and see what people say. I imagine people would say your arguments are xenophobic and hinge on ideas of Western imperialism and nationalism.

There is also the issue of 'Americanisation' via dubs- which can be very frustrating for English speakers who aren't actually American.

Excellent points well made. I hold these sentiments and it's why the issue of dubbing and 'localisation' grinds my gears so.

The latter is frankly cultural colonialism.

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

What does this mean?

it means get off your fucking high horse

I'm all for giving options, and it feels incredibly silly in this case where the tracks are already on the cart, but your reasoning and constant reference to respect and detriments has a horrid tone of superiority to it This is entertainment mate, shits not better the way you choose to consume it, no matter how many ways you can spin it to satiate your ego.

And then you post shit like this:

Thank you! Yes, dubs in general are often low quality, and they leave the impression that something is for kids.

There is also the issue of 'Americanisation' via dubs- which can be very frustrating for English speakers who aren't actually American.

 

[Council Pop]

it means get off your fucking high horse

I'm all for giving options, and it feels incredibly silly in this case where the tracks are already on the cart, but your reasoning and constant reference to respect and detriments has a horrid tone of superiority to it This is entertainment mate, shits not better the way you choose to consume it, no matter how many ways you can spin it to satiate your ego.

And then you post shit like this:

This is honestly the weirdest post I've ever seen on NeoGAF.

 

[Nepenthe]

The only reason I would've wanted the option for mixing subtitles and audio is because I'm used to hearing the cast use obviously Japanese voices. My mental image of Link's voice is Takashi Ohara's from Skyward Sword, and heck even in the English version it's apparent his voice track is of a Japanese actor's. Being locked out of English subs is dumb and sucks, but I'll deal. At the very least, I'm on the side of Zelda's English actor being better than the Japanese one. Her hollering while crying annoyed the shit outta me. The subtle sobbing was much more tolerable and convincing.

 

[Springfoot]

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[Venom.]

I found a video that compares the English to the Japanese voice acting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz_3WHxwFNs
Thankfully the English voice acting doesn't seem too bad at all - but given the choice I think I would play in Japanese with English subtitles.

 

[DCharlie]

hopefully this is the case with digital releases too - i'd assume so and that most games are going to be Universal releases now.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Firstly, anime is basically the only form of TV and cinema that is constantly dubbed, to it's detriment- with less of a dubbing obsession, anime could be much more popular and well respected in the west. I mean, even a film like Your Name, which isn't a kids film, didn't come west until there was a dubbed version.

You can't really believe this

 

[BGBW]

It's not foreign vs. English, this issue only seems to pop up when a bunch of anime-avatar sporting people complain about Japanese, and only Japanese, audio tracks. That's where the weeaboo criticism comes from.

The poster I was responding to above played the French-developed Life is Strange in English because it's set in the US, and apparently there were zero issues to be had conveying their original intent. Meanwhile, did you or 99% of the board bother playing the recent Wolfenstein games in Swedish? How about the Battlefield games, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, The Darkness, or any other Swedish games? Did anyone play the Crysis games or Ryse in German because those German devs couldn't possibly have conveyed their original intent to the non-German voice actors? How about Ubisoft games in French?

Oh, the answer is no? So it's just that Japan, and Japan alone is apparently worthy of "respecting" the original voice actors and "original intent."

I played the whole of Bygg bilar med Mulle Meck in Swedish.