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[Upsidedown Fuji]

Are there bad Japanese voice acted games? Since I don't speak Japanese whenever I hear games/anime/movies in Japanese it all sounds the same to me I don't know if it's bad or cheesy like in some games here in the US when you know they spent as little as possible with the voice acting.

I think my issue comes down to personal preference more than anything else. Generally, Japanese voice acting work is pretty well done for their native markets as they often use popular celebrities and voice actors to fill their main character slots. I think my main gripe with Japanese voice acting is the over acting and exaggerated voices, especially female. I think I've just become a bit jaded.

 

[Hypron]

German isn't rooted in Latin...

As a matter of fact, English is a Germanic language so learning German should be easier for him than for someone from France, Spain or Italy for example.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

The next xbox needs a language translation app.

 

[RionaaM]

So... You never play Japanese games, or do you simply guess what to do and where to go?

Games in Japanese? No, I don't understand them. Games in English made in Japan? Yeah, I guess every Nintendo game, except the Metrod Primes and DKCR, was made there.

 

[cvxfreak]

I actually visited Belgium last week and was genuinely surprised at how conspicuous the Dutch and French language stickers are on the covers of many games. These usually pertain to the packaging, but it was still interesting to me for some reason.

I bought the Wii-French and 360-Dutch versions of the game my company developed as a souvenir.

 

[Mista Koo]

Thankfully all games here in Arabia are English. Import age was US/NTSC now we get official PAL releases usually with the European languages (except for Nintendo which uses US/NTSC officially).

On other had NFS: Most Wanted was the first game I ever get that has Arabic. Surprisingly it has Arabic voice acting too, even more surprising is the fact that it's actually decent!

 

[UrbanRats]

That's why i either buy my games from the UK (through Amazon, usually) or from stuff like Steam, GMG etc.

For movies it's painful though: no theaters and often the UK bluray don't have subtitles (which is fucking dumb) so if they mumble, or speak in a dialect i can't understand (everything set in Scotland), it's a pain in the ass.
Regional dubbing is idiotic anyway.

 

[ranmafan]

I know the feeling well since I also live in Japan and deal with this too. Thankfully most of the time I'm fine since I speak Japanese and when I want to play a Japanese game then I'm ok to go. But when it's a western game and I want to play I'm English I have a lot more trouble. Thankfully on the ps3 many games have both english and Japanese on them, but you pretty much never know until you get the game. That happened to me with gran turismo 5 which made me so happy since it was easier for me to play in English. But many big name western games just don't have it for one reason or another so I have to import the us release. Sadly it's gotten to the point lately where I'm starting to think next gen I'm just going to stick with Japanese consoles and games since dealing with trying to find certain games in certain languages will be too much of a hassle, especially with the west going more down the digital distribution path.

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

I just recall some rule that I can't find anymore. Maybe it was in the Persona 4 thread regarding the Europe release coming out next year insead.

A... rule? I'm sorry, but think about what you're saying. Who makes rules that everyone must follow? The only thing I can think of is UN. And I'd laugh my arse off if UN would set such niche rules regarding video games; that's hardly their area of work. It's not like there's some kind of Worldwide Video Game Authority or whatever.

Games in Japanese? No, I don't understand them. Games in English made in Japan? Yeah, I guess every Nintendo game, except the Metrod Primes and DKCR, was made there.

Seriously, what are you talking about? Nintendo doesn't make games in English. The original language for all games, except for those developed by Rare and Retro, is Japanese. Nintendo of Europe then translates every game to English, German, French, Spanish and Italian if my memory serves. English is most certainly not the original language.

 

[Deleted member 13876]

I actually visited Belgium last week and was genuinely surprised at how conspicuous the Dutch and French language stickers are on the covers of many games. These usually pertain to the packaging, but it was still interesting to me for some reason.

I bought the Wii-French and 360-Dutch versions of the game my company developed as a souvenir.

Did you visit Brussels or something? I've never seen one of those stickers where I live.

 

[Kinyou]

Really nice to live in Finland, with under 6 million people translating/dubbing games is not worth it... All games here are in English by default.
Umm. How many people in the Netherlands?

I've noticed that many GAFers complain about non-English voicing, i assume this is due to non-English voicing quality beinh bad?

EDIT BTW, games nowadays can't have many, if any alternate VOs due to space concerns. Not an issue on PS3, i'd imagine.

Yes. And it's surprising because in Germany the movie/TV Show localizations are top notch. It feels like they're going out of their way to find the worst available voice actors.

I'd wish that every game would do it like Mass Effect 3 and offer the english language as an optional free DLC.

 

[RionaaM]

Seriously, what are you talking about? Nintendo doesn't make games in English. The original language for all games, except for those developed by Rare and Retro, is Japanese. Nintendo of Europe then translates every game to English, German, French, Spanish and Italian if my memory serves. English is most certainly not the original language.

I know, I meant to say "English version of Japanese games". It all comes down to my preference for playing games in English, as it's the only language I understand apart from Spanish, and I hate reading or hearing things in the latter. If I knew Japanese I'd definitely play those games in that language.

 

[Canis lupus]

On the PS3 I know that games that didn't have the option, would use the XMB language. inFamous demo was the case I learned with. I never tested it in the full game, and don't know if any version had English absent.

Changing your ps3 system language to English didnot help, they fixed it through a patch.

Did you visit Brussels or something? I've never seen one of those stickers where I live.

I think in big store chains they explicitly say wich language the game is. I know they do it in MediaMarkt.

 

[Jackano]

Belgium and languages thread? This is not going to end well...

 

[Deleted member 13876]

Changing your ps3 system language to English didnot help, they fixed it through a patch.

I think in big store chains they explicitly say which language the game is. I know they do it in MediaMarkt.

Strange. Never seen it happen, still suspect it's because I live nowhere near the language barrier. I've never seen it in stores like FNAC, Makro, Bart Smit and FRS, but I haven't set foot in a Mediamarkt in quite a while.

 

[Canis lupus]

Strange. Never seen it happen, still suspect it's because I live nowhere near the language barrier. I've never seen it in stores like FNAC, Makro, Bart Smit and FRS, but I haven't set foot in a Mediamarkt in quite a while.

I know the MM in City2 in Brussels have them.

 

[Broder Salsa]

import them from the UK. They might even be cheaper

and then you suddenly can't play half the DLC for games, like Uncharted country locking the DLC, meaning the game from England was incompatible with the DLC from the danish store, a huge pain in the ass, worst was that it actually allowed me to pay for the DLC.

 

[Radius]

I too speak multiple languages, three well enough to play games in them (English, Japanese, and German). I don't think I've ever seen a single game that contains all three -- they're all in different "regions" so enjoying them all would typically require the game to be purchased three times over.

Many of Sony's PS2 games had voices in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Japanese on the disc. I remember Jak & Daxter and Arc: Twillight of the Spirits being such games. You could even choose to have Japanese voices with Spanish subs.

 

[Sentenza]

and then you suddenly can't play half the DLC for games, like Uncharted country locking the DLC, meaning the game from England was incompatible with the DLC from the danish store, a huge pain in the ass, worst was that it actually allowed me to pay for the DLC.

Well, that really doesn't happen on PC, luckily.

 

[Deleted member 13876]

I know the MM in City2 in Brussels have them.

That's Brussels though. Haven't seen any such stickers in the Flemish areas.

 

[cvxfreak]

Did you visit Brussels or something? I've never seen one of those stickers where I live.

Yeah. Probably was the reason why, plus the fact the shop was pretty big.