• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

No JP voice track in Xenoblade Chronicles 3D

Are the British among the people who hate themselves with a passion? Because otherwise I can't understand for the life of me why Eurogamer would call the dub "slightly amateurish". Whether you think the British accents fit the environment is one thing, but it's done highly professional. "Slightly amateurish" is probably among the worst insults for a professionally made dub.
 
I thought Final Fantasy XII and Dragon Quest VIII sounded absolutely fantastic, but Xenoblade was really underwhelming.
I think those're the only 3 games with British tracks I've played.
 
alvis.exe said:
Haha Chaos Wars' dub is so bad it's good.

Here's one of Nintendo's very own horrible RPG dubs.

One of the few times replacing the voice actor in Smash would have been a great idea lol.
Click to expand...

The thing with FE POR is that there is only around 5 cutscenes in the game and only 4 of them actually have voice acting while battle dialogue is silent. For the most part they aren't awful aside from Mist and Elencia's voices and you rarely hear the voices so I didn't mind them.

Also Jason Adkins actually voiced Ike in POR/Radiant Dawn and Smash bros so they didn't replace him lol.
 
ohlawd said:
man, if you're gonna use an Atlus title, at least use Catherine or Devil Survivor Overclocked
Click to expand...
Eugh.

British dubs of Final Fantasy XII and Xenoblade are so awesome yet I didn't care for Dragon Quest VIII =/

TI82 said:
I enjoy the persona dubs, avatar the last airbender and Korra, I'm sure there's a million examples of good English VA. Xenoblade isn't one of them
Click to expand...
I like the Persona dubs but I would never put them above Xenoblade.
 
ohlawd said:
hahah oh gawd using Persona 3 and 4 as examples of good voice acting

man, if you're gonna use an Atlus title, at least use Catherine or Devil Survivor Overclocked
Click to expand...

The Digital Devil Saga games probably have their best voice work. 2, in particular.
Devil Survivor Overclocked has Spike Spencer, so loses quite a few points.
 
wrowa said:
Are the British among the people who hate themselves with a passion? Because otherwise I can't understand for the life of me why Eurogamer would call the dub "slightly amateurish". Whether you think the British accents fit the environment is one thing, but it's done highly professional. "Slightly amateurish" is probably among the worst insults for a professionally made dub.
Click to expand...

Well we do, but not out loud. Bad form from Eurogamer, this.
 
Dunan said:
I love the British voice actors in this game. They vastly outshine the Japanese originals.
Click to expand...

I've been replaying the game on Wii lately and Reyn just won't shut up with his favourite quote
"Sharla! Did you see that?! DID YOU?! HUH?!?!?!"
must of heard it near hundred times now. Really starts to get annoying after a while
 
Wildean said:
Disappointing. Size constraints are understandable, but I hope one day that keeping games in their original language will be the default, and dubs will be seen as an extra option to be cut if needed.
Click to expand...

One of the worst things I have ever read.

iamverificationimage said:
I've been replaying the game on Wii lately and Reyn just won't shut up with his favourite quote
"Sharla! Did you see that?! DID YOU?! HUH?!?!?!"
must of heard it near hundred times now. Really starts to get annoying after a while
Click to expand...

I'm sure Japanese Reyn would be saying the same thing over and over again too. Only difference is that you wouldn't understand what he would be saying so it's less "annoying"
 
Drilbit777 said:
The thing with FE POR is that there is only around 5 cutscenes in the game and only 4 of them actually have voice acting while battle dialogue is silent. For the most part they aren't awful aside from Mist and Elencia's voices and you rarely hear the voices so I didn't mind them.

Also Jason Adkins actually voiced Ike in POR/Radiant Dawn and Smash bros so they didn't replace him lol.
Click to expand...

I was saying that they SHOULD have replaced him. Ike's star KO scream cracks me up every single time it happens haha. "Ohhhhhhhhhhh~" lol. Thank god they replaced Pit with his new voice actor. Maybe one day it'll happen when PoR/RD get HD remakes with shiny new voice talent.

I didn't really mind the voices either but just saying that Xenoblade's could have been far worse haha. Obviously certain other JRPGs from the previous gen would have been better examples in terms of how long you have to suffer through bad voice acting though. Luckily NoA seems to have really stepped up their game recently. Well that and the budget for PoR/RD was probably close to zero. Cautiously optimistic for Xenoblade X's dub. Hopefully they won't go for the same old boring anime cast though. I'm getting really sick of hearing the same voices over and over again.
 
Didn't even know that the game had dual audio when it released back on Wii. Wasn't going to play it in Japanese dub anyway, because I need to hear the English dub. Though I did learn today that the reason I stopped watching Doctor Who is a voice in Xenoblade.
 
iamverificationimage said:
I've been replaying the game on Wii lately and Reyn just won't shut up with his favourite quote
"Sharla! Did you see that?! DID YOU?! HUH?!?!?!"
must of heard it near hundred times now. Really starts to get annoying after a while
Click to expand...

You'd be hearing the Japanese equivalent nearly a hundred times as well. And it will be annoying.
 
I think some people are remembering the battle cries and associating that with the entire localization efforts.

Xenoblade as a whole had an amazing localization.
 
charlequin said:
Even comparing Xenoblade's dub to the first Baten Kaitos suggests you do not have a particularly discerning ear for this subject.
Click to expand...
I'm reminded of when I heard the Japanese dub for the first Baten Kaitos. All I can remember is Aq Roberto (Aqua Burst) and Righto Flair (Light Flare).

Neiteio said:
Eryth Sea footage at GameXplain. Looks every bit as magical as I remember. Do the press already have review copies? It would seem advisable to hand out review copies a couple months early, if possible, just because the game is so incredibly long.
Click to expand...
I don't think we can conclude either way. How are they capturing the footage? As far as I know there is no New 3DS capture card available to the public yet. Also the sound mix is really odd (almost like the system settings are surround but they are capturing stereo I don't remember the waves drowning out the BGM) and the border is not a thing GameXplain usually do.

Are they even playing the game or is this basically exclusive footage?

Also 12 hours on the dot to reach Eryth Sea. Yeah its really doable (IIRC Anena did it on her English playthrough) but that and the save made on 14/06/2013...wait a second that is the European dating format, what a bunch jokers.

Btw, Bionis' Leg save is 04:49 saved on 03/05/2013 @ 16:41.
 
I hope the combat dialogue is mixed differently, at least--or give me a volume slider for it specifically. It drowned out the music so much that I switched to the Japanese VA for awhile so that I could actually hear what the battle themes sounded like.
 
I actually don't mind in the slightest, Xenoblade has some of the finest English voice acting that I've experienced from any jRPG. Really hope Xenoblade X will go the same path using Brit voice actors, but it seems unlikely.
 
I used to care, and I mean a LOT, about keeping the original J-dubs, just because in my mind it would be like trying to watch Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark in another language... it would change the feel, tone, etc. of the entire thing. My mind is still so scarred from early anime dubs that I just assumed they would always be awful. Not sure when I stopped caring (or started caring in a different way, rather), but it might have been during the last gen or so when I actually enjoyed several English dubs, like P3P's. It was probably earlier when I saw Spirited Away in English and found it to be more engaging than the Japanese one. Who knows, but honestly, all I care is that we're getting XBC 3D, and that's more than I can say about Dragon Quest VII. Sigh. OK, time to sulk.
 
alvis.exe said:
Eh I love Ryo Horikawa but the particular voice he used really didn't fit Dunban very well. Kept feeling like I was listening to a Kansai accent-less Hattori Heiji lol. I want to say his Vegeta voice was deeper but it's been a while since I've listened to the Japanese DBZ dub.

Rufus Jones doesn't do the yelling and battle cry stuff even a tiny bit as well as Horikawa but his normal speaking voice just fits Dunban so incredibly well and luckily Dunban doesn't have a lot of battle cry cutscenes so the cringing is kept to a minimum.

Anyways, even as someone who pretty much turns on the subs whenever possible when watching anime, I absolutely loved the English voicework in Xenoblade. A lot of the Japanese voices just felt very generic in comparison - like holy shit Alvis' Japanese voice just sounds like the stereotypical mysterious young man with the soft kind of high voice while Blake Ritson gives him this deeper tone and plays up the mechanical-ness instead to provide that sense of "mystery". Definitely preferred Howden to Asanuma for Shulk - the former's sounds a little older and more mature compared to the more INNOCENT YOUNG MAN PROTAG vibe they were going with the Japanese version and Howden just did an incredible job with emoting and battle cries and screams of rage/pain lol - that's normally the main thing that makes me turn on the subs right away so his work as the protag was very appreciated. Reyn is of course a loooot more entertaining in English than in Japanese. And I really really enjoyed Jenna Coleman's Melia. Fiora and Sharla could go either way and while I appreciate what they were doing with Riki's Japanese voice, his English voice just cracks me up all the time because it's so ridiculous lol. Definitely enjoyed a lot of the supporting voice cast too as well even if their performances weren't always as good as the main cast's. Like English Kallian has a few awkward line performances here and there but he just sounds better than Japanese Kallian's really high and way too young-sounding voice. As great as Norio Wakamoto is, Tim Watson really knocks it out of the park with Metal Face - he just sounds like he's having so much fun voicing this delightfully evil villain lol. Helps that Norio Wakamoto is basically always Norio Wakamoto wherever he goes so Watson's Metal Face is kind of a breath of fresh air.

tl;dr Xenoblade's English cast was awesome. Anyone who doesn't buy this game solely because there's no Japanese track should go watch some Arc Rise Fantasia and Star Ocean 4 videos. I won't say that the performances were absolutely perfect (can't say that of the Japanese either) but the casting definitely was. A little worried about Xenoblade X's dub but NoA has been doing pretty well as far as dubbing goes so hopefully it'll be OK. We're quite a ways removed from the hilariously horrible dubs for FE9/10 lol.
Click to expand...

While I do enjoy the English dub, I've gotta disagree with you on both Horikawa and Wakamoto. I thought they both turned in fantastic performances.
 
wrowa said:
Are the British among the people who hate themselves with a passion? Because otherwise I can't understand for the life of me why Eurogamer would call the dub "slightly amateurish". Whether you think the British accents fit the environment is one thing, but it's done highly professional. "Slightly amateurish" is probably among the worst insults for a professionally made dub.
Click to expand...
We're self patronising but that's usually reserved for oneself and the country not other people. So really being a cynical nation doesn't excuse Eurogamer for calling the XBC dub amateurish.
 
evanmisha said:
While I do enjoy the English dub, I've gotta disagree with you on both Horikawa and Wakamoto. I thought they both turned in fantastic performances.
Click to expand...

Haha you misunderstand. I'm not saying they didn't. They're absolutely amazing voice actors and they turned in their usual stellar performances. Heck wasn't Horikawa the voice director as well? I may be remembering wrong though.

But when I hear Japanese Dunban I can't help but hear a 17 year-old high school detective, not a 30 year-old war veteran. I can even say that Horikawa out-performed Jones in all regards - in the delivery of emotions, and definitely in the battle cry/yelling aspects (the less I have to hear of Jones doing battle cries the better) but ultimately, I prefer English Dunban's deeper tone of voice because to me, it just better fits my image for the character, even if he's not as great at the technical stuff as Horikawa.

As for Metal Face, like I said, I think Watson and Wakamoto were both great. Hell has Wakamoto ever been NOT great? But in the end, Watson was just a fresher experience for me and I think the nasally snide tone really fit his character.

So yeah I don't think we're disagreeing at all really. Unless you vastly preferred the Japanese for both those characters to the English, but that doesn't seem to be the case?
 
Tidus_Great said:
the JP VA in FFX is nothing special. Tidus sounds like a crow. I didn't find the dub all that bad TBQH. and i'd much rather hear my native language as it's more immersive than reading subtitles off a screen.
Click to expand...
FFX VA is pretty good and most seiyuus are known for their quality, Tidus is "Ichigo" and Auron is "Itachi" :x

As for this game, it's very animeish so it doesn't matter how try they hard, jp will always be better...
Eng dub of games like FFXII, on the other hand, surpass the originals because the tone fits the english style better, imo
 
alvis.exe said:
Haha you misunderstand. I'm not saying they didn't. They're absolutely amazing voice actors and they turned in their usual stellar performances. Heck wasn't Horikawa the voice director as well? I may be remembering wrong though.

But when I hear Japanese Dunban I can't help but hear a 17 year-old high school detective, not a 30 year-old war veteran. I can even say that Horikawa out-performed Jones in all regards - in the delivery of emotions, and definitely in the battle cry/yelling aspects (the less I have to hear of Jones doing battle cries the better) but ultimately, I prefer English Dunban's deeper tone of voice because to me, it just better fits my image for the character, even if he's not as great at the technical stuff as Horikawa.

As for Metal Face, like I said, I think Watson and Wakamoto were both great. Hell has Wakamoto ever been NOT great? But in the end, Watson was just a fresher experience for me and I think the nasally snide tone really fit his character.

So yeah I don't think we're disagreeing at all really. Unless you vastly preferred the Japanese for both those characters to the English, but that doesn't seem to be the case?
Click to expand...

At this point I'm admittedly just looking for excuses to praise the Japanese voice cast and balance out the Japanese culture expert diatribe.
 
Tempy said:
I liked the English dub in general except for Riki. I'll also miss Norio Wakamoto.
Click to expand...

Damn, Wakamoto did VA in this game? Wow this hurts a bit more now... Who did he voice?

charlequin said:
"Purists" play a game with voice and text in the original language so that they can make their own determinations of the initial intended meaning. Putting on a voicetrack you don't understand is just an affectation.
Click to expand...

This is actually a really good point that I've never thought about. I always prefer to play/watch everything in their native language if possible. But I have no problems with a dub if it's done well. From what I've seen of XBC's it seems really good. Whether or not people prefer it to the Japanese one is obviously subjective but it's weird that people are saying that it's downright terrible. These people must not have been around during the early 2000s to know what true awful dubbing is like.
 
Wildean said:
Disappointing. Size constraints are understandable, but I hope one day that keeping games in their original language will be the default, and dubs will be seen as an extra option to be cut if needed.
Click to expand...

Luckily the exact opposite seems to be happening (outside the ultra-niche otaku stuff, anyway): Japanese voice tracks (i.e. the voices that the target audience can't understand) are a bonus you squeeze in when you have space left over, or (even better) offer as paid DLC so people who desperately need it can pay their own money and bandwidth to get it.

Aeana said:
The Digital Devil Saga games probably have their best voice work. 2, in particular.
Click to expand...

Agreed: great cast, good direction, adds a whole extra level to the experience.

ghibli99 said:
My mind is still so scarred from early anime dubs that I just assumed they would always be awful.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Fandoms of Japanese content have a lot of vestigial terror of dub tracks for exactly this reason. Video media are harder to dub well due to the need to sync mouth movements and shot lengths, and early on they were almost universally atrocious -- it's hard to blame someone for preferring subs in that context. Most videogames, on the other hand, have none of these obstacles to good dubs, and since the PS2 generation most larger studios have been able to get high-quality work.

In general, anyone who says that the dub of almost any major, voice-heavy JRPG from recent years is "atrocious," "awful," etc. etc. is either misinformed or hyperbolic enough to exclude from a reasonable discussion of the voice track's merits.
 
Were those early reports of 3DS cartridges going up to 8GB bullshit?

Cause we have never had one above 4GB. Is it a hardware limitation or just cost cutting?
 
ohlawd said:
hahah oh gawd using Persona 3 and 4 as examples of good voice acting

man, if you're gonna use an Atlus title, at least use Catherine or Devil Survivor Overclocked
Click to expand...

Nope. Chidori ruins that dub for me. Catherine on the other hand is solid. I'll throw in that Digital Devil Saga has a really good English dub.
But yeah, P3&4 are no were near the best English dub Atlus titles.
 
uncredited male said:
Were those early reports of 3DS cartridges going up to 8GB bullshit?

Cause we have never had one above 4GB. Is it a hardware limitation or just cost cutting?
Click to expand...
Nintendo themselves only ever confirmed 4GB. The 8GB max number came from a source at Macronix who supplies Nintendo with mask roms.
 
I'm kind of used to Shulk's English voice from Smash. I'm fine with the English dub if it's as good as the Kid Icarus one.

...which from the comments sounds like it is! :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Xenoblade chronicles X switch 2 edition apparently has massive issues as reported by reddit users/xenoblade fans.
News  2
82
1K
Odysses replied
RTTP: Xenoblade Chronicles DE
29
1K
Arsic replied
Nintendo issuing refunds for Xenoblade Chronicle X Switch 2 upgrade
2 3
129
1K
Fermbiz replied
Xenoblade Chronicles X - Switch 2 Edition Trailer (Upgrade available now for $5 for existing owners; Physical release on April 16)
News Trailer  2 3 4
199
1K
The_hunter replied
Xenoblade Question
Opinion 
44
643
Fbh replied
Top Bottom