Well, I do read 4 of them, but that's hardly omni-lingual. 5 if you count runes, but nobody ever does.Originally Posted by Depression Moon
Well, I do read 4 of them, but that's hardly omni-lingual. 5 if you count runes, but nobody ever does.
Western voice actors + Japanese names and words in the script = disaster
As far as games go, I can't really say I've seen an example of VA that was bad... but I could totally understand how it would annoy some people. I remember Dragon Quest VIII, all the actors seem to talk really slow so a young/slow reader could follow along, I'm assuming they really made that game for kids in the US?
I can't really say I have a preference for what I hear first, either. I know you're all dropping really esoteric or iconic anime series' which are good examples of translation, but I watched Gundam Wing as a kid and in the last year watched it in Japanese - I think they both have their own strengths.
For those who are not familiar with the game, Super Street Fighter IV allows you to choose the language of the voice acting on a per character basis once certain basic requirements are met.
This presents an interesting choice as you can set the voice acting entirely to English, entirely to Japanese, or mix and match as necessary. Naturally, I chose to outfit the Western characters with English voice acting and outfit the Asian characters with Japanese voice acting, and I am glad that the game gave me the choice. I do not see why Guile, a United States Air Force officer, would speak in stilted English.
The developers have stated their wishes to have characters eventually speak their native language in the future. Chun-Li, for example, would have a Chinese speaking voice actor.
I believe in the power of humanity.
I don't watch programmes in Japanese because I don't understand Japanese.
there was a picture here
US VERSION: Calm, collected, completly suits his "undefeated" reputation (even though he's actually been defeated three or four times).
JAPAN VERSION: Prone to shouting in mid-sentance, generally sounding retarded.
So yeah, sometimes it's actuall better dubbed!
Western voice actors for translated foreign games tend to be absolutely terrible at what they're hired to do. It could be due to the localization and all, but aside from that... there is a very obvious, definite lack of effort put in by the English voice actors for most of these translated foreign games [but to be fair, there are exceptions]. However, I believe that this has more to do with the English divisions of these companies and how they choose to handle it. I'm pretty sure that for the most part, a lot less effort is put into the English version of these games than the original. They may not roll with the bare minimum effort, but they won't put as much effort into it as they would for their own version, so they generally aren't going to put in much time and effort to rehearse and re-voice the English version anymore than they have to. This isn't always the case, but I notice that this tends to be the occurrence often.
I also agree with Roogle on his earlier comment. From everything I have seen, games that are made in English first tend to have high quality voice acting if I do say so myself. To take games like the Halo series, the Fable series, Dragon age, etc... these games on average tend to have pretty good voice acting [I'm saying in general to make a quick point - I don't want to open up a debate for nit-picking].
So people who complain about "English voice actors" are only referring to the very general and apparent side of it - which is to be expected from the average person, since most people aren't going to dig up info on the voice actors. They're simply going to hear the voice acting in the game and judge "good", "okay", or "bad". However, the primary issue at hand here is a lot more specific than just "English voice actors". In my opinion, it's mostly due to the English divisions of these foreign companies and how much time, cash, and effort they are willing to put into it. Since they primarily care about the gamers in their own country, we are secondary and therefore less important to them. It's also good business sense [technically] since voice acting usually isn't enough to deter someone from the game on its own. Even if people are complaining about the voice acting here, they still purchased the game and played it, which is all these companies need to accomplish. Therefore, there is no need to spend extra cash and time on better voice acting. Your dollar is just as green either way.
Star Ocean 4 is one such game that comes to mind for me. The two voice actors for the main characters were fine, but the voice actors for the rest of the cast were just absolutely atrocious. But to be fair, I usually don't see it get that bad. Most games that I can think of with bad voice acting left me with an impression of "the voice acting in it was kind of annoying" rather than "Ugh... the voice acting in it was smurfing terrible".
Sometimes this is true. It isn't a video game, but the anime series Tenchi Muyo is one such case where I actually loved the English dub quite a lot.
Xenosaga 1 and 3 have possibly the best voice-acting in all of anime or video gams when it comes to dubbing.
The only video game with voice-acting on its level is an English made one knon as the Legacy of Kain series. Simon Templeman, Michael Bell, Tony Jay, Richard Doyle... Ah, it's unbelievable how good they all are.
RIP Mr. Jay.
Yeah, that's pretty much the same way I felt about it in my post. I'm almost even afraid to admit that... I kind of... really like the voice acting in FFX. Hopefully this comment will be buried in obscurity in a relatively more quiet thread.
Those games are teh EPIC win of voice acting.
Its funny but I think the Resident Evil series makes points for both sides of this argument. The first game had -terrible- acting. Though most of you seem to be omitting early games with voice acting, as that couldn't have really went any other way without practically bankrupting a company for attempting it. PSOne's first voice acted game (whatever it was) was not expected to have Disney quality voicing. Though Resident Evil 5 had pretty good voice acting. Not sure if its better than the Japanese version. But it was believable and enjoyable enough for me
I'm surprised no one here has mentioned Metal Gear Solid yet.
Along with Legacy of Kain, it was one of the first exceptionally well-voiced games out there.
Cam Clarke as Liquid Snake is the best ham in gaming history.
I hate Cam Clarke as Liquid Snake or anyone else. What a terrible, annoying actor.
whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat you gotta be kidding me. He's the ham to end all hams.
He's gay, too, I thought he'd be your hero.
Cam Clarke was awesome. The only way to pull off the cheesy (and scientifically incorrect!) dialogue from MGS is to ham it up all the way to eleven, which he did an excellent job on.
This twenty-year-old boy was distinguished from childhood by strange qualities, a dreamer and an eccentric. A girl fell in love with him, and he went and sold her to a brothel...
Cam Clarke being gay doesn't make him my hero any more than that guy from Backbone Entertainment being an idiot makes him your hero.whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat you gotta be kidding me. He's the ham to end all hams.
He's gay, too, I thought he'd be your hero.
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