Alternate speaking methods.

[MJN SEIFER]

This is another reason I liked FF games without voices, it forced the script writers to be creative.

I liked it whenever a character needed to have an accent, or some other alternate method of speaking, sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't. I got kind of bored with Faris talking like a stereotypical Pirate (which apparently isn't that frequent in the original version), I liked how they handled Barrett's accent in FFVII (I still don't know if the Mr T. thing was intentional), but you could imagine his voice simply by the way they spelled his lines, Cyan in FFVI had a sought of "ye olden days" type accent - this is actually true in the Japanese version too, except that one does a better job of it.

In FFVII (SPOILER)Reeve was supposed to have a fake accent when ever he talked to the team as (SPOILER)Cait Sith, but the translation missed that completly, and made no effort to differenciate the two accents. This creates a slight plothole - the only reason (SPOILER)Reeve got discovered is because he used his fake accent to talk to the rest of Shinra (Hence why they're all like; "Why's he talking like that?" ) and later talks to Barret in his real voice.

[Roto13]

You don't need to use spoiler tags for a 13-year-old game that everyone on the site has played anyway. :P

I hate reading accents. I don't want to have to decipher what these people are trying to say.

[Nevermore]

Cyan's mock old English was awesome to the bone. But for some reason, I always imagined that he has a Scottish accent, since he reminds me of Duncan McLeod so much. (Although I'm guessing he's based off of Ramirez.)

But I agree completely. I love using my imagination for dialogue, and that's why I pretty much abhor voice acting. That, and because it usually sucks. Yuna and Tidus laughing together, how pathetic. Waka's voice was actually the best in there though.

I also like how one may imagine a voice to sound like. I imagine that Shadow has a very deep voice, like as if he's talking through a toilet paper tube. But if they ever gave him a voice he'd probbaly sound like a prick.

[Roto13]

Tidus and Yuna's laughing scene was awkward and weird because that was the point. The best voice actors in the world wouldn't have made that any easier to listen to.

[Otis_Glicker]

Cait Sith in Advent Children.

'Nuff said. Get these voice actors out of my ears.

[Del Murder]

I noticed Reeve and Cait Sith's different 'accents'. His Cait Sith voice was supposed to sould like a cowboy wasn't it?

I also agree that this is one of the subtle things that gets lost with voice acting and I miss its certain charm.

[Wolf Kanno]

Accents are fine unless they are overdone. I'm playing through DQIV on the DS and they gave each region in the game its own accent which was nifty in the beginning but it makes reading the text a chore and sometimes the accents get ruined by other media. Because of this, Everyone in McRyan's kingdom sounds like grounds keeper Willie to me and everyone in the twins story sounds like pretentious assholes or occasionally Brad Pitt from Inglorious Bastards.

I usually hate VA work most, when its done on a retro title that didn't have it before, like IV and VII. While some VAs are not so bad (Cloud, Sephy, Cecil, Kain, and Golbez) I found a majority were out of sync with my impressions of what I felt they sounded like. I don't care what Nomura intended Red XIII did not sound like Sean Connery when I read his dialogue. This was an issue I have with Dissidia as well as I found myself really not satisfied with some of the older characters voices.

On the other hand, its a good thing sometimes that they don't bring over all the nuances of the language when they localize and translate. From what I've read, Relm has an odd speech pattern where she ends sentences with a certain word, much like the annoying catch phrase of Naruto who always ends his speeches with Dattebyo or in the english versions "believe it". This is fairly normal in Japanese manga and storytelling but its really awkward in English and I can imagine in other languages as well that are not accustomed to such speech patterns. So sometimes I feel we should be grateful that localization tams choose to spare us from the accurate translation causepure accuracy does not always equal good quality.

[Otis_Glicker]

His Cait Sith voice was supposed to sould like a cowboy wasn't it?

I always thought of it more as a high pitched Bugs Bunny. I know there's a character with the voice I'm thinking of that carried over to Cait Sith in my head, but I can't put my thumb on it for the life of me. Almost like a bad, cartoonish Joe Peshi impression.

EDIT: Scratch everything I said. I'm thinking of Curly Howard. I pictured Cait Sith with the voice of Curly Howard.

Just use the Edit button if you want to add to a post. The forum doesn't like W-Posts ~WK

[Del Murder]

Sometimes the accents can be a greataru meansy-weansy of characterization. But otherrrr times they arrrre just grrrrrating, wouldn't you agrrrree?

[Jessweeee♪]

You don't need to use spoiler tags for a 13-year-old game that everyone on the site has played anyway. :P

Some people still appreciate the courtesy

I will never watch that Soylent Green or whatever movie because I already know that (SPOILER)it's people because it was made decades before my time and it was spoiled for me. Like so many other good movies.

[MJN SEIFER]

You don't need to use spoiler tags for a 13-year-old game that everyone on the site has played anyway. :P

Some people still appreciate the courtesy

Yeah, what Jessweeee♪ said.

I always mark spoilers, if I concider them to be spoilers, I don't care if the suject is over 9000 years old! I never spoil, I always place warnings. For one thing, I want newcomers to experience FF like I did - not knowing what's coming.

[Mirage]

Sometimes the accents can be a greataru meansy-weansy of characterization. But otherrrr times they arrrre just grrrrrating, wouldn't you agrrrree?

I have no idea what you arrre talking about, midget.

[Bolivar]

Some people still appreciate the courtesy

I think we can all cross our fingers and hope that one day Roto will learn that a little courtesy goes a long way

On the other hand, its a good thing sometimes that they don't bring over all the nuances of the language when they localize and translate. From what I've read, Relm has an odd speech pattern where she ends sentences with a certain word, much like the annoying catch phrase of Naruto who always ends his speeches with Dattebyo or in the english versions "believe it". This is fairly normal in Japanese manga and storytelling but its really awkward in English and I can imagine in other languages as well that are not accustomed to such speech patterns. So sometimes I feel we should be grateful that localization tams choose to spare us from the accurate translation causepure accuracy does not always equal good quality.

Oh man makes me think of Fujin (or was it Raijin?) in FFVIII with "ya know" after every sentence, and how Zell accidentally starts doing it in one of the Balamb scenes. Kinda funny, and I thought it worked good b/c the game had a sort of manga feel to it, ya know? (oh crap).

Side note, DQIV ON DS IS INSANELY GOOD, i thought the accents definitely add to the charm, but i could understand them getting to ya eventually.

I always thought of it more as a high pitched Bugs Bunny.

This is exactly how I pictured Cait Sith in the original FFVII, then just gets slightly more normal when serious stuff starts going down like the (SPOILER)Temple of the Ancients (<- had to do it ). That's a really cool thing I never knew about the Japanese original, would've made things slightly more interesting if it was carried over.

Anyway, in general I think I just like imagining the voices better than having it spelled out for you, although FF has had some great voice acting. Especially when there's a special variance, like the topic of this thread, you're probably usually better off being left to your imagination. God knows what Fang, or better yet, Vanille would have sounded like if their lines were printed instead, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was better than the end result.

I mean seriously, what the hell kind of accent was Vanille putting on in that game?

[Hollycat]

You don't need to use spoiler tags for a 13-year-old game that everyone on the site has played anyway. :P

Some people still appreciate the courtesy

Yeah, what Jessweeee♪ said.

I always mark spoilers, if I concider them to be spoilers, I don't care if the suject is over 9000 years old! I never spoil, I always place warnings. For one thing, I want newcomers to experience FF like I did - not knowing what's coming.

I dont know how to use spoiler

[MJN SEIFER]

Oh man makes me think of Fujin (or was it Raijin?) in FFVIII with "ya know" after every sentence, and how Zell accidentally starts doing it in one of the Balamb scenes. Kinda funny, and I thought it worked good b/c the game had a sort of manga feel to it, ya know? (oh crap).

It was Rajin, and I thought it worked too, and yes FFVIII was pretty much the most manga/anime FF in whole series for me (not that's a bad thing).

I read that in FFVII Reno was going to have one too, but the site only gave the Japanese version of his phrase (something like "zo to"), but I have no idea what it would have translated as...