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Language of your choice in videogames

Heimdall_Xtreme

Jim Ryan Fanclub's #1 Member
When we have the choice of choosing the language, it is the best we currently have... before, in my case, it was impossible to see subtitles in Spanish in video games.

Currently we even have Dubbing... Mexico is one or even where voice dubbing is one of the best worldwide.

There are occasions like in Zelda BOTW I prefer the dubbing in Latin Spanish, because it is great.



Gears of war is one of the best




Depending on the atmosphere of the game, I prefer the English version of The last of us 1 and 2.

Sometimes in Japanese games I use their original language or change to English.



A plague of tale i use the french dub





The nature of The Town of light ... I feel that the Italian dub is great but is very heavy along with the theme of the video game.

 
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Topher

Gold Member
angry stan marsh GIF by South Park
 
There are occasions like in Zelda BOTW I prefer the dubbing in Latin Spanish, because it is great.
Proud The Karate Kid GIF

Absolutely. I'm planning on playing Tears of The Kingdom the same way because the Latin America Spanish in BOTW was/is so good.

Otherwise, in general, I usually try to go with whatever the "native" language of the game/world is. Games like Yakuza/Judgement or SMTV I'll play in Japanese, but something like Shadow of Mordor/War or the DOOM games I'll play in English.
 
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MadPanda

Banned
OP I honestly don't understand what you're trying to say. What's the point of this thread? We're you drunk when you wrote this?

Not trying to be disrespectful but it reads like some gibberish.
 

01011001

Banned
depends on the game,

for JRPGs usually the Japanese dub,
for Beath of the Wild specifically the German dub as the English ones were hot garbage and the German dub was astonishingly good,
for almost every other game English dub.

oh and Point and Click adventures I usually play with the German dub if it exists.
I am currently waiting for the German dub of Monkey Island to release on the 8th (tomorrow), they actually got the original VA of Guybrush back for it!
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
That depends, if the game takes place in Japan with Japanese characters like 13 Sentinels or even western game like Ghost of Tsushima then I play in Japanese voice even it does have good english dub. Other games with more western settings like Bayonetta, DMC, Resident Evil or Fantasy setting like Final Fantasy, Xenoblade and Triangle Strategy, if the dub is good then I will play it with english voice.
 
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rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Usually English. Only played sekiro in Japanese.
I tried metro exodus in Russian but it didn’t work for me. It wasn’t immersive being supposedly Russian in the game and not understanding anything. And Sam Russian vo made no sense
 

hinch7

Member
In almost every game English where it makes sense.

I used to toggle between Japanese and English in JRPG's like FF games.. but find its way too hard to keep track and read nearly everything said and processing it. Find it way more comfortable now just to sit back and listen to what the characters say, rather than constantly concentrate my eyes at the bottom of the screen. And in the process sometimes miss out on what NPC's say; when there's too much going on, or during a fight. And some instance where its not subbed at all.
 
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The more cringe the content is, the more I need it in English. It just sounds a little better or it is just better made, I’m not sure. Especially in racing games, the german speaking radio hosts and characters are often annoying as hell (Forza Horizon, Need for Speed, Dirt 4 – paying for the Donut Media people to appear in your game and then replace them with no name speakers in the dubbed version and have no way to change it … I hate that).

In story driven games I prefer my native language, as long it is well made.
 
most of the time English because that's what i read and speak. off the top of my head the games i didn't play in English:

BOTW - doesn't really really need to be played in japanese but i thought it'd suit it and while there isn't a lot of talking i do think it was the right choice to go with japanese.
Sekiro - in my opinion it's criminal to play the game in anything but japanese. it's set in japan and it's immersion breaking to have everyone talking english.
Shin Megami Tensei V - another game set in japan and it just sounds much cooler in japanese.
The Witcher 3 - played it in Polish because it's made in Poland, based on Polish books, and the world has a lot of Polish cultural/mythical references.

I tried to play Persona 5 in japanese but i prefer the english voice acting. There are a few times where a character says something like "you speak english?" and that takes me right out the game because obviously everyone is talking in english lol. My next playthrough i'll do in japanese.
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
It's tricky - original language should be a priority if possible, but most people don't speak it fluently. People have no idea about Japanese word and sentence structure so just putting Japanese to "be authentic" is pointless. Stick to the language that is either your native or you understand very well, otherwise there's no point.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
It's tricky - original language should be a priority if possible, but most people don't speak it fluently. People have no idea about Japanese word and sentence structure so just putting Japanese to "be authentic" is pointless. Stick to the language that is either your native or you understand very well, otherwise there's no point.
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. It also helps with immersion.

What you say is like saying "don't listen to music if it's not on your language". I listened to a lot of music in english when I was younger and I was able to enjoy it, and also learned a lot from it, which can also happen when playing a videogame.
 
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01011001

Banned
It's tricky - original language should be a priority if possible, but most people don't speak it fluently. People have no idea about Japanese word and sentence structure so just putting Japanese to "be authentic" is pointless. Stick to the language that is either your native or you understand very well, otherwise there's no point.

I speak a little japanese, enough to get the general tone of what is said in the japenese dub...

so I absolutely play with the Japanese dub in games like Sekiro or Ghost of Tsushima
 

Mister Wolf

Member
I always pick English the only language I understand. I have no interest in hearing incoherent sounds in videogames or anime. Experiencing it that way will always be a last resort.
 
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GymWolf

Member
Japanes games in jap language, they sound double cringy in english.

Everything else in english.

For some rare games like stalker 2 and atomic heart i'm probably gonna use russian VA.
 

brian0057

Banned
If the game has the option to play with Latin America dubbing, I choose that instead of the original.
Breath of the Wild has a superb LATAM dub. I like it way more than even the Japanese dub.
 
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NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
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.
 
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Zug

Member
Lipsync and acting is not really a thing in most games, so I'll choose my native language (French) by default. Movies/series will ALWAYS be subbed though.
France has a qualitative dubbing industry (by law, everything aired publicly must. be. FRENCH!) so most of the time it's on par and in a few occasions better than the original.
Sometimes though, the original language makes more sense : STALKER/Metro for the ambiance, games with an historical/cultural component (Yakuza, Sekiro...).
 

deriks

4-Time GIF/Meme God
Depends the game

I really liked brazilian portuguese in Last of Us, and should be a crime playing Yakuza in any language instead of japanese
 
I live in the Netherlands but i always use the spoken English lanquage and the English subs.
For Japanese games i always use the spoken Japanese language with English subs.
I must keep my English knowledge high cous its not my native language...
 
I like to play in the original language a little but if the dub in my language is not just serviceable, then I use that or English.

Now, it is cheating to use Spanish - Mexico. Everyone who knows about the dubbing scenes knows that Spanish (Mexico) and French are top-notch for anime-related media.
 

Hugare

Member
Always the original language

Lip sync is key for immersion, specially in games that are very narrative driven

The only exception would be Final Fantasy 7 Remake

The english dub is great, and they've adjusted the lip sync for both japanese and english. Amazing localization effort from Square.

Seems like FF XXI will also have english lip sync, so I'll go with that
 
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DaGwaphics

Member
@ Heimdall_Xtreme Heimdall_Xtreme in here trying to flex on how bilingual he/she is.

I play everything in English because that is the only language I sorta know. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

I do choose to watch some TV shows in the native language with subs, especially on Netflix. Many times the English voice overs sound like they were done by a grade school acting class or something, where the original is decent quality acting.
 
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Aion002

Member
I always play with the original audio.

Except on Ghost of Tsushima, even at launch without matching lip sync... It just didn't feel right playing without the Japanese voice over.
 

Fbh

Member
I tend to default to the original language in all media .
I do make exceptions when a dub makes sense within the context though, like Japanese for Ghost of Tsushima since it's literally set in japan or English for stuff like Binary Domain or Metal Gear where you are playing as an america soldier.
I also make an exception in games with a lot of dialog during combat, can't constantly focus on the fight and the subtitles at the same time.
 

22:22:22

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Japanese games in Japanese the rest in English. Can't imagine playing ANY game in a Dutch dub. Brrrrr.
 

Holammer

Member
Japanese games almost without exception in Japanese & voice. Everything else English.
Long pondered trying Deponia in its original German just for fun, but the English dub is so brilliant it feels redundant.
 

F31 Leopard

Member
Primarily English if given the option. I pick Monster Hunter language in Gen 5 MH games. For some Japanese games the audio is chalkboard annoying so I use English.
 

Neo_GAF

Banned
companies should make more efforts to localise games into other languages.
i know just too many german friends, who dislike that there are localisations etc.
of there there werent localisations, we would have never been able to play all those japanese games.
 

Reizo Ryuu

Gold Member
It kinda depends.
I played AC2 in Italian and it was great, though generally I just go with English.
I like cases like SF4/5 where you can set the language per character, because it makes no goddamn sense british ass cammy speaks japanese with that broken ass gross engrish lol, so she and others like her are set to EN.
Ideally it would be more like Tekken where everyone just speaks their native language.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
companies should make more efforts to localise games into other languages.
i know just too many german friends, who dislike that there are localisations etc.
of there there werent localisations, we would have never been able to play all those japanese games.
It comes down to time and money. These companies are only going to localize for regions where they believe they can maximize earnings. I think we'll see more subtitles in more languages as AI translation gets bette since it would be cheaper than having someone manually translate. I'm curious whether there will be more localization of spoken tracks as AI voices become more of a thing.
 
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.
 
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