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Do you ever set a game's voice audio to a language you don't speak? When and why?
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matrix-cat
Member
I'm learning Japanese right now, so I'm playing everything I can in Japanese. I'm trying to go with Japanese audio and Japanese text whenever possible. I did well with Breath of the Wild in all Japanese (with copious dictionary use as I played), but with Nier Automata I need the English subtitles because so much of the game's story is delivered in spoken dialogue as you play and there's no way I could keep up.
Not quite the what you're asking because it's not an option, but when Tecmo/Koei stopped bothering to do English VA in their Warriors games it was a relief on my ears.
Not only was the English VA atrocious but I also find it far less annoying to hear the same lines of dialogue repeated over and over (each character's equivalent of "I have defeated an officer!") when it's in a language I don't understand.
Not only was the English VA atrocious but I also find it far less annoying to hear the same lines of dialogue repeated over and over (each character's equivalent of "I have defeated an officer!") when it's in a language I don't understand.
Only if the English dub is bad or sounds off. It's hard to tell when another language has a bad dub most of the time. I usually stick with English first.
Examples:
MGS series in English only. Great dub and it fits with the American espionage story. Japanese is just weird to me.
Kingdom Hearts in English as well since Disney got their voice talents involved.
P4G in English cuz the dub was excellent. Same for DanganRonpa series and VLR. Both DanganRonpa 1 and VLR featured a unique take with the localization and dub that actually enhanced the games. DR1 had one character with a unique accent not heard in JPN dub and VLR has a voice used that made it even cooler once you know who's voice it was. It wasn't even used in JPN dub. Those were nice touches.
I cannot stand when people have a dismissive attitude about English dubs and localization. Sometimes they put more work into it than people expect and I appreciate it.
On the other hand,I couldn't stand the English dubs for SE games like WoFF and FFXV so I switched it to JPN.
Examples:
MGS series in English only. Great dub and it fits with the American espionage story. Japanese is just weird to me.
Kingdom Hearts in English as well since Disney got their voice talents involved.
P4G in English cuz the dub was excellent. Same for DanganRonpa series and VLR. Both DanganRonpa 1 and VLR featured a unique take with the localization and dub that actually enhanced the games. DR1 had one character with a unique accent not heard in JPN dub and VLR has a voice used that made it even cooler once you know who's voice it was. It wasn't even used in JPN dub. Those were nice touches.
I cannot stand when people have a dismissive attitude about English dubs and localization. Sometimes they put more work into it than people expect and I appreciate it.
On the other hand,I couldn't stand the English dubs for SE games like WoFF and FFXV so I switched it to JPN.
John Caboose
Member
Maybe sometimes changing to Japanese VO or something.
I played AssCreed Unity with French audio and I think it contributed to me finding the game better than pretty much all other AC games, albeit not by much. Skipping Revelations, III and everything but 5 hours of Black Flag probably helped a lot too.
I played AssCreed Unity with French audio and I think it contributed to me finding the game better than pretty much all other AC games, albeit not by much. Skipping Revelations, III and everything but 5 hours of Black Flag probably helped a lot too.
allintospace
Member
With fighting games I usually stick to Japanese voices, or if it's available, switch characters voices individually depending on they're nationality.
I recently tried the Nier demo in Japanese with subtitles but couldn't really read it properly what with all the action going on, so I missed a quite lot of it.
I recently tried the Nier demo in Japanese with subtitles but couldn't really read it properly what with all the action going on, so I missed a quite lot of it.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
Street Fighter V. I prefer Japanese voice actors, and it doesn't disorient from the gameplay.
Yup, the VO is great. The cast in the first game had Michael Madsen, Mark Hamill and a few more famous actors (iirc it wasnt that good).
DieNgamers
Member
I mostly select the langue native to the game. IF the German dub turns out to be better, I'll go with that option but I don't think I've ever done that. 
Wesley-Sigma
Member
I set Vanquish to French once and could not stop laughing while playing it.
Cameron122
Member
I remember playing Witcher I in polish
Doctrine Dark
Member
In fighting games, I almost always set the voice to Japanese. I just prefer it, though the dub is usually good.
I never play games in my native tongue. I speak Dutch and we don't have the tradition of dubbing film and tv. Some games get dubbed in Dutch (very rarely) end the result is always like nails on a chalkboard. It doesn't help they use Dutch actors, while I am Belgian, and speak another dialect. Also, often the translation is terrible with unnatural feeling dialogue and ridiculous translations of specific terms. (The reason why I never play games with dutch text too)
In Japanese games offering the option I often go for Japanese voices, depending on how good or awful the English vo is.
In Japanese games offering the option I often go for Japanese voices, depending on how good or awful the English vo is.
Bloodborne in Spanish.
I am actively learning Spanish so I do actually understand some of it, but I rarely consume media like this (meaning Spanish dub/subs/menu texts, not all games give a choice like the Uncharted series).
In Bloodborne you are visiting a foreign land, making you a stranger to all. It was much more efficient by not having the comfort of a language I am used to in all other games.
Someone mentioned Assassin's Creed Unity, which is a great example. I am French, so it's not what the thread is about, but I did mean to play it in English at first, as I don't ever deliberately choose French.
However the series kept on repeating the same mistakes with illogical accents and badly pronounced native words, which is distracting, so I'd had enough and switched to 100% French for the first time in at least 8 years.
Most likely would have done the same if I weren't French to begin with.
I am actively learning Spanish so I do actually understand some of it, but I rarely consume media like this (meaning Spanish dub/subs/menu texts, not all games give a choice like the Uncharted series).
In Bloodborne you are visiting a foreign land, making you a stranger to all. It was much more efficient by not having the comfort of a language I am used to in all other games.
Also, I fucking adore Spanish! Ahh, querida cazadora...
Someone mentioned Assassin's Creed Unity, which is a great example. I am French, so it's not what the thread is about, but I did mean to play it in English at first, as I don't ever deliberately choose French.
However the series kept on repeating the same mistakes with illogical accents and badly pronounced native words, which is distracting, so I'd had enough and switched to 100% French for the first time in at least 8 years.
Most likely would have done the same if I weren't French to begin with.
void_if_removed
Neo Member
With Japanese games, it is usually a no-brainer, as so many have already said.
A notable exception to that is Ni No Kuni, which had a brilliant English voice cast, especially Welsh Drippy.
A notable exception to that is Ni No Kuni, which had a brilliant English voice cast, especially Welsh Drippy.
LAKSCHADE RUILBEURS & Spiegeltje krak (burnout 3 / revenge (?)) was just nailbiting bad in dutch. So bad that i dont even know why the voice actress would not have mentioned that ,at one point, while recording, that it was horrifying bad.
yes im dutch too, i play all my games in english. But if theres a japanese dub available on it, i just use that with subtitles. (and METRO in russian is just awesome)
The only game i ever played in dutch are the uncharted ones (1/2/3) because of the voice actor, and it was exceptionally well done.
Infamous on ps3 in dutch was very cringeworthy too. and it didnt ship with english audio at launch!!! horrible.
SanSebastian
Banned
When i play in Spain in my FIFA Career Mode, then i put the commentary to spanish.
lel.
lel.
Crazy Diamond
Member
Japanese games, almost all the time. I wanted to for NieR: Automata, but the subtitles move a bit too quickly. The English dub has been more than fine though. I like it quite a bit, in fact. I've always played MGS in English, but spend as much time with the series in Japanese; I play V exclusively in Japanese as the most important character of all has a much more passionate delivery, not that there's a gauge for that sort of thing ...just my interpretation. The most awesome part of being a PC gamer is dual/multi-audio on just about every game available. It's awesome to get to play great games in their native language!
BlackAlbatross
Neo Member
Always japanese VA for japanese games when available. Many years of doing this in games/anime/variety shows has led me to some almost decent comprehension skills, so it's not like I don't understand anything.
The few times I tried english voices in a japanese game it always felt weird and "out of place" (just recently played Atelier Ayesha, the only one in the series without japanese audio, and it definitely felt "wrong").
As for the rest nowadays I always use english audio and subtitles, despite my mother language being italian, since usually italian dubs and translations are pretty bad.
Last month I played Mass Effect 3 for the first time and decided to go with the italian audio for the first time in many years since I had played the rest of the trilogy in my mother language, but I was shocked at how bad it was, with intonations all over the place.
The only exception I made recently was with Assassin's Creed Unity. I set it on french to get a better "mood", and it made a refreshing experience.
The few times I tried english voices in a japanese game it always felt weird and "out of place" (just recently played Atelier Ayesha, the only one in the series without japanese audio, and it definitely felt "wrong").
As for the rest nowadays I always use english audio and subtitles, despite my mother language being italian, since usually italian dubs and translations are pretty bad.
Last month I played Mass Effect 3 for the first time and decided to go with the italian audio for the first time in many years since I had played the rest of the trilogy in my mother language, but I was shocked at how bad it was, with intonations all over the place.
The only exception I made recently was with Assassin's Creed Unity. I set it on french to get a better "mood", and it made a refreshing experience.
MaxwellParrish
Member
More often than not, when I'm given the possibility to choose, I stick to the original audio version, whether it is a language that I understand or not. Somewhat releted, I usually skip lines of spoken dialogues as soon as I read the subtitle of that conversation (normally in less than a third needed to the actor to deliver the same line), so I presume my fix for original language as somewhat little to do with my respect for the original delivery and more with being afraid that the dubbed one may be distractingly terribad
With Japanese games I'll go subs if the English dub is poor. Would give anything to do this with Breath of the Wild.
In other instances I do it when the setting makes sense for it. For instance, I played Assassin's Creed II in Italian with English subs. Was a really cool way to experience that game.
In other instances I do it when the setting makes sense for it. For instance, I played Assassin's Creed II in Italian with English subs. Was a really cool way to experience that game.
Drilbit777
Member
I was bored and picked the japanese dub for Overwatch. Its surprisingly pretty well done and theres some good choices they made for it.
You want to have an idea why? Because of lip-syncing. This is especially the case in 2D animated scenes. I feel that this is likely a huge issue people have with BOTW's dubs. I personally don't think the voice overs are as bad as some would say, but they certainly don't sync with the character's mouths in cutscenes. This is because these scenes were only made with Japanese voices in mind.
KainXVIII
Member
I set VO to english by default, because Russian VO (my native) almost always sucks.
Just listen to this 😩
https://youtu.be/x9bi-fhFfDI
https://youtu.be/-PWAFma2wW4
But exceptions may happen (like English or German VO in Whispered World is SO bad, that even Russian is better). Also BOTW Russian localization is better than English, afaik.
Just listen to this 😩
https://youtu.be/x9bi-fhFfDI
https://youtu.be/-PWAFma2wW4
But exceptions may happen (like English or German VO in Whispered World is SO bad, that even Russian is better). Also BOTW Russian localization is better than English, afaik.
PuppetSlave
Member
Sure, often with replays trying out different VO. most common is perhaps between English and Japanese in rpgs. But it is worth trying it out with other languages as well.
Tip, angry german speaking Zeus in god of war 3 ps4 remake is amazing Zeus!
Tip, angry german speaking Zeus in god of war 3 ps4 remake is amazing Zeus!
katsubento
Member
Japanese. I'm half Japanese and understand some but nowhere near all, and it's easier to listen to bad voice acting in Japanese than English.
I sometimes switch the dub for fun since I like exploring different languages and sometimes it just feels more immersive, for example the polish dub for Witcher 3 really fits in with the slavic folklore aesthetic of the games' world (and for someone of slavic descent it's fun to listen to other slavic languages since you can recognise some similar words and phrases).
I've also been setting a lot of games to french lately since I'm currently learning it and it's a really fun way for learning new words.
I've also been setting a lot of games to french lately since I'm currently learning it and it's a really fun way for learning new words.
Diprosalic
Banned
I set it to japanese. I usually dislike the english VA in japanese games so having it in japanese, a language i don't speak, i don't really notice bad VA.
kraspkibble
Permabanned.
played Witcher 3 in polish. that's the way it's meant to be played so it just felt right. i always have subtitles on anyway for games/movies even if it's in english because of hearing issues.
not sure if it's possible but i'd love to play dark souls/bloodborne in japanese. at this point i know what to do and have experienced it all so don't really need to listen to npcs or read descriptions. i love japanese text. makes everything look 10x cooler.
not sure if it's possible but i'd love to play dark souls/bloodborne in japanese. at this point i know what to do and have experienced it all so don't really need to listen to npcs or read descriptions. i love japanese text. makes everything look 10x cooler.
Velurian
Member
I recently switched Fifa 17 commentary from English (which I understand) to French (which I can barely understand when spoken, can only read in French, really) because the English commentary was starting to get on my nerves because of the repetition. I've learned to understand a few words better in French thanks to this.
FelixTheSexranger
Member
Metro games with Russian + English subtitles. Forced Russian accent sounds so bad.
I played Atelier Shallie in Japanese with English subs because that game couldn't be more anime and its dub has AFAIK less recorded lines than the original voices. The later was a bigger reason for me than the former. I play most JRPGs, including Persona and Tales of with the English dub, so... yeah. Not that often.