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[Fuz]

Anime games (doesn't matter if chinese, korean or japanese): Japanese
Everything else: English


And fuck those shameful italian voice actors. They're so bad it's unbelievable.

 

[synchronicity]

Just whatever is setting appropriate, assuming that's an option. I like for things to feel as authentic and cohesive as possible, and I have no issues with subtitles. (I mean, I'd prefer to hear and understand, but I don't know all languages. )

 

[Haggard]

Despite english not being my first language.I find myself usually going for the english line as that tends to be the one with the best voice actors. Exception: Japanese games.

 

[Moses85]

DEUTSCH

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

And fuck those shameful italian voice actors. They're so bad it's unbelievable.

AC2 was bad? I don't speak Italian so dunno.

 

[Fuz]

AC2 was bad? I don't speak Italian so dunno.

I don't remember AC2 in particular, but considering they're always the same few voice actors (which is... another sort of problem that I won't discuss here), they all act the same forced/fake theatrical and they all overdo it with "set voice" (I have no idea of how to translate "voce impostata", sorry) I'm gonna bet it sucked ass too and sounded like a parody of real italian.

English VAs have similar issues when dubbing anime games, by the way.

 

[Thebonehead]

Inclusive language of course

 

[spons]

Whatever the original language is for audio, but for subtitles Dutch is my preference if done well (Nintendo games), English for everything else.

Dutch audio on the other hand is done by the same people who dub Saturday morning cartoons. They're actually quite motivated and you can hear that they try, but it's just.... not my cup of tea. It's the same couple of actors for every game like someone mentioned, we don't have dubbing culture (everything is just subtitled on TV) so there's little talent to use for games.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Nah bro I disagree. By playing the game on japanese you get the original voice acting which is always better, just like in any other media.

But it's not better, if you have no idea what they are saying?

 

[AJUMP23]

English.

 

[Esppiral]

My native language if it is available, original VA does not always equals to better.... Stop that mantra.

 

[TintoConCasera]

But it's not better, if you have no idea what they are saying?

I can read subtitles, and it's better because you get the original actor's acting while working with the original script.

It also helps with immersion. Take the Yakuza series for example, all those japanese dudes talking perfect english would feel kinda weird.

 

[azertydu91]

There's only 2 cases for me to play a game in fench (my native language for the slowest in the back of the classroom).
1. Translation is good and the french voice actors are either on part or better than original VA.
2. My GF wants to play the game, follow the story and the english is too complicated for her.
Other than that, english or maybe japanese depending on the game.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

I don't remember AC2 in particular, but considering they're always the same few voice actors (which is... another sort of problem that I won't discuss here), they all act the same forced/fake theatrical and they all overdo it with "set voice" (I have no idea of how to translate "voce impostata", sorry) I'm gonna bet it sucked ass too and sounded like a parody of real italian.

English VAs have similar issues when dubbing anime games, by the way.

"Stage/coached voice"? I see.
JPN VA's do some thing similar (actually it's not just VA's it's live action as well), where they don't do actual voice, but archetypes, so even though there's a lot of japanese va's/actors, they all tend to approach characters the same way; it's not overly "theatrical" like a stage voice, but it does become tiring imo.

 

[Impotaku]

Mostly English for the text the voices depend on region game came from or other factors. If it’s a japanese RPG like persona 5 then I’ll pick the jpn voices. Rarely are English localised voices decent, only time I have been genuinely surprised was in dragon quest 11 where most of the English voicework was actually decent. If it’s a western based game then English for everything. If it’s an import from an old era then I’m happy to manage with japanese for both.

 

[A.Romero]

Original language all the time. The same as TV and movies.

The only time it didn't result in an overall better experience is Ace Combat 7 where I feel I missed a lot of the radio chat because I was focusing on playing.

 

[Fuz]

"Stage/coached voice"? I see.
JPN VA's do some thing similar (actually it's not just VA's it's live action as well), where they don't do actual voice, but archetypes, so even though there's a lot of japanese va's/actors, they all tend to approach characters the same way; it's not overly "theatrical" like a stage voice, but it does become tiring imo.

I don't speak japanese, so maybe that's why I don't get the nuance of that and they feel very natural to me (well, at least when they don't overdo it).
Italian VAs always feel completely unnatural and fake.

 

[RoadHazard]

Usually the original/default language with English subtitles, i.e. I play most games in English with English subtitles (I hate missing any dialogue, and being Swedish I'm used to reading subtitles for everything anyway). With Japanese games it differs. I wouldn't play Yakuza with English VO (do they even do that anymore?), but I do play all FromSoft games and such in English (not sure if they even provide Japanese audio in their western releases?).

 

[GymWolf]

It depends. Italian dubs can be done well, but in your usual AAA game it’s always the same dozen of voices that you hear everywhere from cartoons to dubbed American TV programs. Those people will often botch the characterization to the point that it’s a wholly different experience altogether. Dubs for Nintendo games such as BOTW are good, but I’ll stick to English voices for most other big games. Doom and Resident Evil in Italian are eeeeeehhhhhhh.

I used to be one of those “Japanese dub only” guys wherever available, but the Xenoblade games have been magnitudes better in English for me, so now I’m willing to give English a try even in the most anime of games. The average Japanese dub can get really insufferable in some games.

Ugh, italian dub are almost always shit in my experience.
Samey voices and they chose the wrongest voices for the role.

I would downright avoid to play a story driven game if italian dub was the only alternative, not even joking.

 

[rushgore]

English for all non-Japanese games, Japanese for JRPGs (though I often ask myself why I do this as I don't understand jack shit).

 

[wyvern_bloodfist]

Whatever the language the game was created in or, the regional setting of the game itself ; English , Japanese, German, etc.

 

[Knightime_X]

English. Always.
I'm not going to pretend one is better than the other.
If the preferred language is bad, then so be it.

 

[SSfox]

Most of the time and no matter what's the languages i go with Original voices. Either for games, movies or animes.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Sports games. Zero language.

Play EA Sports with play by play turned off and amp up the crowd noise, sound effects and arena music. So much better.

 

[Aenima]

Voices in English or Japanese if the story is in japan, like yakuza games. With Portuguese from Portugal subtitles when available. Otherwise english subs.

Im portuguese and all Sony 1st party games have option to use voices in portuguese, and while they use real well known actors for voice acting, most of the times, it feels like im watching a cartoon or animated movie for kids, they seem to always fail to make the tone of voice sound realistic for the setting.

 

[ungalo]

French dub is usually good (or at least okay), but there are less and less voice actors that i really like. A lot of legendary actors died or got old so they do less prominent roles. Most of the time i play with original voices in english, but sometimes i stumble on a game that has a surprisingly good french dubbing, Kingdom Come Deliverance is the last example that comes to mind.

Usually with japanese games i play in japanese but it's not an absolute rule. I have the habit to play Final Fantasy in english since i was doing that on PS2. It's the same with From Software games, Metal Gear Solid, most of Capcom IPs, suda51 games, Bayonetta...there's a lot now that i think about it.

Also i played Metro in russian because both english and french dubbing were terrible. It was great.

 

[marquimvfs]

I always go for the original language, with subtitles in my native language (Brazilian Portuguese) if available, otherwise i choose English. Sometimes, when the localisation work is flawless, like the one we see in Diablo 3, i play the game entirely in Portuguese. Unfortunately, even if the game has Portuguese audio, sometimes the VA job is soo poor (like Uncharted 3) that I choose English instead my own language.

 

[LectureMaster]

Japanese dubbing whenever it is available, it is factually supreme.

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

French is my native language but I always choose English by default. I'd really give it a shot if there was an option for Quebec French as it's where I'm from. We have great voice actors here.

 

[Sakura]

For western games I usually choose English. For eastern games I play in Japanese.

 

[Bartski]

I've never experienced my native dubbing that wasn't both trash and somehow also horribly mixed so no thanks, always English, no subtitles.

 

[Dr. Suchong]

Klingon.

 

[Kataploom]

Whenever possible, original language for voices (specially anime, those MUST be in japanese) plus spanish for text. I'm from Latam so I'll just use english for texts if:

1. There is not spanish text translation
2. I cannot change voices and text separately, then I'll be mad and just play it all in english

I'm totally used to subtitles so I'll mostly prefer games on languages I don't understand to speak their languages and read subtitles, I don't have that weird problem some people have that "then you cannot see what's happening" because once you have all your life watching subtitled content, reading the lines just take a fraction of a second and if it's a language you're very used to hear, you can even omit a lot of the text by hearing (happens to me with english and japanese).

I usually prefer the native language with subtitles because localizers love to change things, but even then, there are occasions where I enjoy a dubbed version.
Xenoblade Chronicles comes to mind where I actually like the dub full of heavy accents. The flavor changes from the Japanese voicework but I find it adds more character. Chalk it up to personal preferences.
Then you have games like Yakuza where the game is so blatantly and unapologetically Japanese that a dub would seem almost an insult.
For a lot of western written games, I'd really just like an option to just turn dialog off entirely, at least the dialogue where it's just the character droning on to themselves all the time.

I HATE Xenoblade localization, I'm not english native speaker so everything with anime style and english voices sounds a kick in my balls, srsly I'll rather skip entire master pieces if that was the only way I could play them (and have done so), so I put the texts in spanish and voices in japanese on Xenoblade... BUT someone in Nintendo thought it was a very "smart" idea to change names of places and characters, the stupidity about this is that we from outside the anglosphere have to eat that too, and I can assure you I can count way more people knowing what a "Suzaku" is than a "Roc" is... They localized it to avoid it being "too japanese", but then it's "too english" to the point people from outside those regions will understand even less, since the game appeal to anime fans which are very used to japanese folklore way more to english folklore (what is a Berchmork or whatever they call Byakko again?)... I hope they stopped doing so in Xenoblade 3, haven't played it yet...

 

[killatopak]

Usually it’s the first audio made for the game.

Exceptions would be games like Ghost of Tsushima where characters are highly inferred to use Japanese voices instead of English.

 

[Mobilemofo]

If I'm playing an old cod, I'll have my wife shout German abuse at me periodically.

 

[nikos]

I switched God of War 2018 to Greek.

 

[01011001]

the German dub for Return to Monkey Island released yesterday. definitely playing that in german just due to nostalgia as they got Guybrush's og voice from way back in the day