Well you suck too, bro.
On topic: I believe all games should not have "dual" audio, but AN OPTION TO TURN OFF THE VOICE ACTING. I have no idea why this is so hard. It's a flip switch in the options. Boom. Done.
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Do you think English voice acting harm Japanese RPG?
- Thread starter Dark_castle
- Start date
On topic: I believe all games should not have "dual" audio, but AN OPTION TO TURN OFF THE VOICE ACTING. I have no idea why this is so hard. It's a flip switch in the options. Boom. Done.
It's definitely killed my interest in JRPGs over the years. I'd much rather hear the voice actors that the team in Japan has chosen, unless you're talking about a Souls or Dragon's Dogma.
I also played Metro with Russian audio and AC2 and Bro in Italian, so it isn't just a JRPG thing for me though. I also watch tons of foreign films, so I'm pretty used to subtitles.
I also played Metro with Russian audio and AC2 and Bro in Italian, so it isn't just a JRPG thing for me though. I also watch tons of foreign films, so I'm pretty used to subtitles.
AnkiRendan
Member
This just reeks of hardcore weeabooism. Especially your last quote. There have been dozens of English voice acting that match the emotion of the scene. This whole topic is pretty stupid. I can appreciate both original versions and dubs. Yes, there are bad dubs out there but this is not the 80s and 90s.
WickedLaharl
Member
FUCK NO
If the game doesn't have a competent english dub i will not support it.
Agreed. I can only think of a few recent games off the top of my head that have had truly terrible dubs like arc rise fantasia.
If the game doesn't have a competent english dub i will not support it.
Agreed. I can only think of a few recent games off the top of my head that have had truly terrible dubs like arc rise fantasia.
OldAsUrSock
Banned
I agree, there needs to be an understanding of the character and consistency amongst the different languages. There are times where the voice actors are not portraying the situation like the original actors did. I do not fault the actors though since the director is the one who watches over those things. Even so, I prefer English because I speak English.
If this is indeed true it is probably because English is the common language.
It is. Korean and Chinese tv is too.
That's true in some instances. But what I mean is that in a native language they frequently have subtitles in that language. For example, it's not uncommon to see Korean subtitles on Korean language shows.
What? Yeah bad voice acting can harm a game, but a language like japanese is alien enough that I couldn't even tell you if the voice acting is good or bad. I prefer to understand the words that are being spoken from the game rather than have random sound in Japanese that I'm told is good voice acting but I honestly wouldn't be able to tell one way or another. I'd sooner prefer an undub than japanese only.
And yeah, I played Fate/extra which is japanesed subbed, so this isn't coming from inexperience. Fortunately it had an option to turn off the voice acting in all but the battles.
Nephitamine
Member
Bad voice acting can hurt any game, regardless of language. That said, I prefer English voices because, outside of a few rare cases, they range from decent to great. If I need to read subtitles, I'd rather there not be any voices at all.
Ha! Even that would be controversial! Do you use Vulgar or Classical pronunciation? What accent to the VAers have?
PolarGamer
Member
I switch to japanse every time I'm allowed. I once thought I could learn japanese by watching a shitload of anime and by playing video games. That's not gonna happen, but I love hearing the language.
And yes. I think english subs more often than not ruin the mood.
Kanedaaaaa! Tetsuooo!!
And yes. I think english subs more often than not ruin the mood.
Kanedaaaaa! Tetsuooo!!
Kamina
Golden Boy
It really depends. Usually i prefer the Japanese voice-acting. But Games like Metal Gear, were there is well done English voice acting that was supervised by the Japanese developers, then its just fine.
Exceptions are for example Dragonball: I hate Goku's japanese voice as he sounds like a kid. Doesnt fit his physical appearance.
When It comes to Games like Skyrim, where english is the Default language, i too prefer it over German for example.
Exceptions are for example Dragonball: I hate Goku's japanese voice as he sounds like a kid. Doesnt fit his physical appearance.
When It comes to Games like Skyrim, where english is the Default language, i too prefer it over German for example.
Always-honest
Banned
Yes. Subtitle it. That goes for all media.
Except for kids who can't read yet. Kids movies and kids games can use a spoken version in their language.
Except for kids who can't read yet. Kids movies and kids games can use a spoken version in their language.
It's not bad. I'm actually more surprised people are placing it at Final Fantasy XII and Xenobade level. Guys, decent is not synonymous with fantastic.
Because the characters don't at all sound like the teenagers they're supposed to be playing. Hearing Japanese honorifics with an English dub is also really off-putting and should never be done.
Matt Attack
Member
Ideally, dual audio would be an option so that everybody would be happy. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like this will happen anytime soon.
I consider myself lucky because I almost universally prefer English dubs, which are far more prevalent. Being able to understand the voices without reading is great. There are bad dubs out there of course, but I feel they've become less and less common in recent years.
I consider myself lucky because I almost universally prefer English dubs, which are far more prevalent. Being able to understand the voices without reading is great. There are bad dubs out there of course, but I feel they've become less and less common in recent years.
Crimsonsky
Member
Holy...what? Is this correct? At no time in FF8 does anyone say I love you? Wow. Mind blown.
durrrrrrrrrr
Member
the real question is can japanese voice acting make every wrpg better?
frozencool
Neo Member
Technically, already exists. I think it's free on the iOS store now but try out the first Infinity Blade. It's a weird sort of pig-latin if I remember correctly but doing the whole game in that strange language really gave it a unique feeling. Especially the God King himself, he had a really good way of making you feel like he wasn't someone to mess with.
Unfortunately Infinity Blades 2 and 3 threw the whole thing out and made it all english
BebopMcJigglypuff
Member
I would prefer the option to have both, I more often than not find that the English dubs are awful, and hurt the experience for me personally. I have no problem reading subtitles and watching things at the same time.
I also generally hate to watch movies (of any language) that have been dubbed, much preferring subtitles. I'm sure there may be cases where the dub is actually better but I feel those are few and far between.
I often turn on subtitles when given the option, even if they speak English.
I don't mind the high pitched voices as much as what often sounds to me like really awkward English dubs, and I feel like I can be far more discerning of the voice acting quality in English.
I also generally hate to watch movies (of any language) that have been dubbed, much preferring subtitles. I'm sure there may be cases where the dub is actually better but I feel those are few and far between.
I often turn on subtitles when given the option, even if they speak English.
I don't mind the high pitched voices as much as what often sounds to me like really awkward English dubs, and I feel like I can be far more discerning of the voice acting quality in English.
For me it all boils down to this; cultural differences harm JRPGs, the more obvious they are to the player, the worse it gets, particularly for the English speaking audience who will spend all their life in that particular bubble without any real threat, and are almost prideful about never leaving. Typically, when you slap English voice acting on it, it's almost like some alien product that's neither here nor there.
They're pretty much made to appeal to teenage audiences in the narrative which makes it appear all the more jarring, something which seems all but forgotten from developers outside Japan who are obsessed with the whole 'dark and gritty grown-up' stuff - I feel this goes over a lot of heads. I could be completely wrong though, maybe that can be chalked up to cultural differences too.
They're pretty much made to appeal to teenage audiences in the narrative which makes it appear all the more jarring, something which seems all but forgotten from developers outside Japan who are obsessed with the whole 'dark and gritty grown-up' stuff - I feel this goes over a lot of heads. I could be completely wrong though, maybe that can be chalked up to cultural differences too.
princemarth23
Member
No. I prefer english VA as long as it's halfway decent. BD's voiceovers are pretty good for me outside of some outliers (Agnes and some side characters).
Actually, that's sort of the point....
(Since he was introduced as a kid and grows up it would have been impossible to change the voice actor without anyone knowing. And maybe you already know, but it's actually a female who does his and Gohan's voice! Personally, I love Goku's Japanese voice - but to each his own).
Technically, already exists. I think it's free on the iOS store now but try out the first Infinity Blade. It's a weird sort of pig-latin if I remember correctly but doing the whole game in that strange language really gave it a unique feeling. Especially the God King himself, he had a really good way of making you feel like he wasn't someone to mess with.
Unfortunately Infinity Blades 2 and 3 threw the whole thing out and made it all english
Huh, that's interesting. I'll have to check it out.
What I think it's pretty great is well done fake languages. I really liked the languages used in Ico and SotC. They sound like a combination of Japanese and Latin. I thought it was really well done. It adds a lot of mystery to it. I wish Dark Souls had done this. It would have made it well... darker.
Fbh
Gold Member
I generally don't like Dubs in any form.
I preffer to see movies in their original lenguage, read books in their original lenguage (if I know it) and play videogames in their original lenguage.
Exception being if it's about a different country of the creator (say, if a Finish developer like Remedy makes a game about an american writen in the USA I will preffer to play it in english)
As for JRPG's I preffer to play them with the japanese voices if they are available, specially if the art direction is Anime inspired. The genre in general has an abundance of bad voice actors when it comes to Dubs. It's either guys overacting or guys putting no emotion into their performance, and when it comes to girls they try to imitate the "high pitched" japanese voices and it just sounds creepy.
BUT I think a lot of the fault goes to japanese writers. Storytelling in videogames has evolved and they haven't been able to adapt.
Jrpg's back in the SNES and PS1 era felt sort of like interactive comics/mangas when it came to storytelling because the dialog was written, and that's a format in which it is easier to pull off cheesy dialog without it being off putting.
You know how when you read manga/comics or even some books the dialog seems fine but if you really think about it you realize that no one talks like that? Same goes for JRPG's (and movies and other games,but in a MUCH lesser percentage). But the format has evolved and now they all have fully voiced dialog, yet the writing is still the same. Every cheesy line simply sounds 10X worse with voice acting, which I think is one of the reasons some people preffer to play them in japanese (the effect isn't as bad if you can't understand what they say)
I preffer to see movies in their original lenguage, read books in their original lenguage (if I know it) and play videogames in their original lenguage.
Exception being if it's about a different country of the creator (say, if a Finish developer like Remedy makes a game about an american writen in the USA I will preffer to play it in english)
As for JRPG's I preffer to play them with the japanese voices if they are available, specially if the art direction is Anime inspired. The genre in general has an abundance of bad voice actors when it comes to Dubs. It's either guys overacting or guys putting no emotion into their performance, and when it comes to girls they try to imitate the "high pitched" japanese voices and it just sounds creepy.
BUT I think a lot of the fault goes to japanese writers. Storytelling in videogames has evolved and they haven't been able to adapt.
Jrpg's back in the SNES and PS1 era felt sort of like interactive comics/mangas when it came to storytelling because the dialog was written, and that's a format in which it is easier to pull off cheesy dialog without it being off putting.
You know how when you read manga/comics or even some books the dialog seems fine but if you really think about it you realize that no one talks like that? Same goes for JRPG's (and movies and other games,but in a MUCH lesser percentage). But the format has evolved and now they all have fully voiced dialog, yet the writing is still the same. Every cheesy line simply sounds 10X worse with voice acting, which I think is one of the reasons some people preffer to play them in japanese (the effect isn't as bad if you can't understand what they say)
Xilium
Member
If an English voice track is available, that's what I'm going with. Even bad English VA can be interesting in a campy way (Arc Rise Fantasia). That said, children (pre-teen) VOs are almost universally annoying in English.
It's usually not the VA that grates on me in JRPGs anyway, it's the writing and that doesn't get any better with Japanese VAs. I'm generally OK with JRPG/anime cliche's/tropes but some of them have just been worn into the ground (power of friendship overcomes all (those conversations/speeches are always eye roll inducing), the traditional values/"No fun allowed" character (Agnes), children (pre-teen) characters in general, oblivious and/or clingy (stalker) love interest - usually male (Tiz), ect.)
It's usually not the VA that grates on me in JRPGs anyway, it's the writing and that doesn't get any better with Japanese VAs. I'm generally OK with JRPG/anime cliche's/tropes but some of them have just been worn into the ground (power of friendship overcomes all (those conversations/speeches are always eye roll inducing), the traditional values/"No fun allowed" character (Agnes), children (pre-teen) characters in general, oblivious and/or clingy (stalker) love interest - usually male (Tiz), ect.)
Why in the world would anyone want them to sound like actual teenagers? That would have made me dislike the dub, not like it.
Because they are teenagers? You're not playing as a bunch of people in their 30s in high school. It just feels really out of place having older-sounding people voicing Japanese teenagers in a rural Japanese setting using spoken English with honorifics.
I'll give you the honorifics part, but do you really want to listen to a puberty sounding voice for 60-100 hours? I mean, if you value the realism in a game about high school students going into a T.V. world to fight shadows more power to you.
I think the Japanese cast was really good for the most part. Rise's voice actress uses the same voice she uses in 95% of all her roles, though, which can be annoying. She's capable of better (Al in Fullmetal Alchemist, Shannon in Umineko) but they typically cast her in roles that don't let her use her full range, unfortunately. Teddie I can understand not liking, but he's supposed to sound like a wacky stuffed animal thing. Everyone else I enjoyed in Japanese, especially Chie and most of the older male cast.
Etrian Oddity
Member
A teenager doesn't have to have a cracking voice, you know. Also, actual actors (aka, not anime enthusiasts who are paid to use the same voice day in and day out) are able to do things like throw their voice, acting out a character different than than their own.
In general I keep to the original language/subs, however when a dub is marvelous (like FF XII or DQ VIII) they are god-tier.
doctorblurg
Banned
It's not always harmful but I don't really prefer dubbing especially in anime. OP has a point in that english voice actors really don't capture the strong emotions a japanese VA can.
ElectricKaibutsu
Member
I prefer subs over dubs nine times out of ten. Reading is fun-damental.
Gentleman Jack
Member
I like this idea. Would make some older PS2 era JRPG dubs much more tolerable. But I fear it would reduce the viability of quality English VA in the localization budget and we'd end up with worse product overall, like a reverse DQ8 situation where one version has voice acting and the other doesn't.
Yes. I'm sure a lot of dubbing VAs are good at voice acting, however their lines of dialogue have to be translated/adapted first which can often be a problem in its own. On top of that, they are not supervised by the creators of the show/game, they can't really have 1-on-1 time with the guy that wrote the script to clarify what emotions they should try to convey, etc.
I've seen a couple of interviews where French VAs described the dubbing process and some of it was just shocking. One of the guys said it was common practice to dub scenes without even getting to see them when working on games that get international releases. Like, the VAs are just given their lines with maybe a couple of words explaining what's happening in the scene, nothing more.
I think that JRPGs should get dubbed in more languages other than just English.
A good English dub is just as good as a good Japanese dub, but if I have to read subs anyways to get everything that's being said (because I'm neither English nor American, I'm Italian), I'd rather listen to the original dub.
So no, English dubs don't harm JRPGs imo, but I'd rather have the original VA, or dual audio or, perfect scenario, dual audio where one track is the original VA and the other is the VA in my language.
A good English dub is just as good as a good Japanese dub, but if I have to read subs anyways to get everything that's being said (because I'm neither English nor American, I'm Italian), I'd rather listen to the original dub.
So no, English dubs don't harm JRPGs imo, but I'd rather have the original VA, or dual audio or, perfect scenario, dual audio where one track is the original VA and the other is the VA in my language.
NHarmonic.
Member
I've personally not been annoyed by the VA in Bravely Default. I've been surprised by the inflections in some scenes, Tiz, and Edea specially, really good (though i'm just starting chapter 4 so i'm talking from what i've heard at the moment).
I feel like people ask too much: with the years they've really polished the dubs in games, though it's always better to hear something as it was originally planned out.
I feel like people ask too much: with the years they've really polished the dubs in games, though it's always better to hear something as it was originally planned out.
thewhitehawk
Member
In my opinion yes. There are some examples of very well executed english voice actors in jRPGs but more often than not, this isn't the case. That isn't to say it's always the actor's fault. Sometimes the translation isn't well done and things are amiss, sometimes they aren't properly guided or directed, introduced to the title.
I think subs are the proper way to handle english versions of jRPGs. They keep the costs of bringing over significantly lower, reduce the risk of being unable to receive further copies or revisions of the title in the future due to the licenses that must be made with the voice actors and it preserves the work and presents it in the way that the original developers originally depicted it instead of someone else's interpretation of it.
I think subs are the proper way to handle english versions of jRPGs. They keep the costs of bringing over significantly lower, reduce the risk of being unable to receive further copies or revisions of the title in the future due to the licenses that must be made with the voice actors and it preserves the work and presents it in the way that the original developers originally depicted it instead of someone else's interpretation of it.
i find english Tiz and Agnes fit their characters fine. Whether you find them annoying because of their personality is a different matter.
Also, FF10 and Xenosaga1 have had re-releases in japan where it was all english voices. why do you suppose that is? i bet it's because "it sounds cooler in a language i don't understand"
Also, FF10 and Xenosaga1 have had re-releases in japan where it was all english voices. why do you suppose that is? i bet it's because "it sounds cooler in a language i don't understand"
As an avid anime watcher it definitely drags down the experience for me. Slapping english VOs on Japanese designed characters which have their own way of expressing themselves just looks and sounds bad, I don't care if the dub is well made, it just doesn't fit. All I ask is if you are going to do more than one language for you game, include the Japanese track along with subs, dubbing is shit when it comes to movies as well, I allways prefer native language with subs.
I don't care about Final Fantasy 13 but I respect them for having the choice of dual VOs in 13-3 If a new game from Japan is on its way to the west, one of the first things I look up is if the Japanese VO will be included or not and that will weigh in on my purchase decision.
This so much, waste of time and money.
I don't care about Final Fantasy 13 but I respect them for having the choice of dual VOs in 13-3 If a new game from Japan is on its way to the west, one of the first things I look up is if the Japanese VO will be included or not and that will weigh in on my purchase decision.
This so much, waste of time and money.
Aaron-Lagann
Banned
I hate English voices in anything Japanese. It's just too awkward and American VAs can't properly pull off Japaness slapshtick very well and I find that most American VAs can't yell for shit. Every time I watch the Gurren Lagann dub it feels like all the actors are recording their dialog in their rooms at midnight while trying not to wake up their parents down the hall. This is especially noticeable in JRPGs since there are so many main characters with the hot blooded trope. It just doesn't work very well since that archetype is different in America.
The Japanese voice actors' performances have to be licensed too, possibly for an even higher cost if it involved big names. Sometimes it's not even an option if one or more of the actors refuse to license their performance to be used outside of Japan.
