English voices in fighting games

[Jessweeee♪]

I like how in Tekken eveyone speaks their native language, even if it is a little silly that they can all understand each other. I think the wood noises Mokujin makes are adorable. Also Paul and Panda in Tekken 5 is the cutest thing ever.

[Roogle]

I play Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition at the tournament level. I hear the voices a lot. I think it works best if you put the fighters from English speaking countries in English and the fighters from Asia in Japanese. This is kind of like what Mirage is saying. Street Fighter IV has had that option since Day 1, luckily. It is unfortunate that they cannot recruit voice actors familiar with each character's background, but it is something that Capcom expressed interest in at some point.

Interestingly, the Tekken series has characters speak in their native language. The story clashes with this as characters will converse with each other in entirely different languages and still seem to be able to understand each other. This causes problems when an animal character is speaking to a human.

[SuperMillionaire]

Yes, the Street Fighter IV series allows each character to switch voices accordingly. The same goes in Street Fighter X Tekken. Also, remember that Ken is supposed to be American.

And in the Tekken series, the characters speak several different languages? I thought they only allowed English and Japanese voices.

[krissy]

sorta related

Tekken director speaks to gamers who are bitching about the voices used in the port of the 15 year old game:
Tekken Head Unleashes Twitter Tirade

I have something I want to say to the people who spam me with requests to "switch back(or Bring back) to the voice actors used previously".
I believe that, before whining and complaining about everything, you need practice at taking a step back and analyzing things objectively. And also at being an adult.

First, the voice you were listening to was 16 years ago, during the PlayStation period. The current generation of consoles are totally different in how they play back sound; both software-wise, and the internal circuitry
The playback program is different, as well as the sound effects added; reverb and 5.1 are examples of this. The comrpression rate, as well as the sound rate, is different today. Are you playing games on the same TV you used 16 years ago? What about your speakers? Headphones? They are all the same as 16 years ago? I wonder if it will sound like the same voice as 16 years ago, even with that data..

Also, you are assuming the voice actors themselves can reproduce the voice the recorded 16 years ago? Many voice actors decline work because their voice has changed since the original role, some have even retired. Sometimes they won't accept, even if we ask.
The recording studio and the equipment they use is also different. With all of this in mind, you still thing it is possible to recreate these voices?

Some might say "just pay them to reuse the voice data".
But, often the voice actors decline this, or their agency declines.

For example, Brian's laugh is the actual data from Tekken 3. As fans have requested, we've kept using the original, adapting the data recorded 16 years ago to be used on the PS2, and then PS3.
Even so, some people said it is a different voice in Tekken 6 than the original.
It can't be helped they might think that. As explained above, even though the master data is the same, all of the equipment used in adapting it has completely changed. That said, it isn't a good idea to try to reccreate the older recording environment because then the data sounds heavily compressed, with noise. More than that, it would sound out of place next to the voice data of the newer characters.
WHAT? You say some of the voices sound like they haven't changed at all?
I guess you didn't notice that the development team has re-recorded them, but made efforts for it to sound as close as possible to the original. And you probably didn't even notice.

Do you know that all of the voice work for a character is not always done by just one voice actor? Using Brian as an example, the laugh you guys love so much uses the original data from Tekken 3, but the short kiai voice uses a different voice actor, and the "come on!" voice also uses a different voice actor. A lot of other characters also use different voice actors for the spoken lines and for the shouts.

I did the voice work for Marshal and Forest for 15 years.
However, I can no longer produce that voice after Tekken 5, so we had a different voice actor for Tekken 6.

The Tekken series has continued for 17 years. The development environment, as well as the environment in which you all play games, has changed.
There are so many characters, and we can't keep using he same voice actors every time, for a variety of reasons.
I have even complied to the requests of you all spamming me to "bring back characters" from previous installments. You often say, "let's show the dev team how sincere we are by buying 2 copies if they bring back character X", but did you really go through with it? Expecting you to at least pre-order the game, I was met with more spam, after you apparently didn't notice that Jun and Michelle actually return.

I still have some characters left to be revealed that comply with some of your requests, even "bringing back" several others. Even so, none of them are paid DLC. I will continue to sincerely comply with fan requests.
However, I can't continue to engage the negative ones that, without knowing what you are talking about, or even thinking about what you are saying, blindly repeat "bring back, bring back, bring back..."
After this lengthy explanation, I will be quite surprised if there are still people who still don't get it.

Thanks for understanding or not understanding. Whatever.

[ReloadPsi]

Having the English voices on is kind of funny because I imagine it's giving you some decent insight into how equally ridiculous the Japanese dialogue is.

[SuperMillionaire]

Having the English voices on is kind of funny because I imagine it's giving you some decent insight into how equally ridiculous the Japanese dialogue is.

What exactly do you mean by that?

[Kaspian69]

I generally go with Japanese not because I think it sounds better or anything, but because at least then I have no idea if the acting is bad, as opposed to in English where bad acting sticks out like a sore thumb. I guess for me it's more an "Ignorance is bliss" thing than anything else. =/

[ReloadPsi]

Having the English voices on is kind of funny because I imagine it's giving you some decent insight into how equally ridiculous the Japanese dialogue is.

What exactly do you mean by that?

Some games have characters say entire sentences for such mundane actions as taking a hit while blocking, and it gets even crazier when they interrupt said sentences with the exact same sentence while they're CALLING THEIR- CALLING THEIR- CALLING THEIR- CALLING THEIR ATTACKS. The one that really stuck out for me was Guilty Gear 2 (granted, not a fighting game) when Izuna kept yelling "Mind if- mind if- mind if- mind if- mind if I CUT in?!"

Call me crazy but if I parried a punch I don't think my first instinct would be to murmur to myself "Simon, I think you're going to lose."

[Jessweeee♪]

sorta related

Tekken director speaks to gamers who are bitching about the voices used in the port of the 15 year old game:
Tekken Head Unleashes Twitter Tirade

Holy trout.

[krissy]

Having the English voices on is kind of funny because I imagine it's giving you some decent insight into how equally ridiculous the Japanese dialogue is.

What exactly do you mean by that?

Some games have characters say entire sentences for such mundane actions as taking a hit while blocking, and it gets even crazier when they interrupt said sentences with the exact same sentence while they're CALLING THEIR- CALLING THEIR- CALLING THEIR- CALLING THEIR ATTACKS. The one that really stuck out for me was Guilty Gear 2 (granted, not a fighting game) when Izuna kept yelling "Mind if- mind if- mind if- mind if- mind if I CUT in?!"

Call me crazy but if I parried a punch I don't think my first instinct would be to murmur to myself "Simon, I think you're going to lose."

1) gg2 was totes a fighting game wasn't it?

2) your friggin sig ruined ff9 for me >:{

[SuperMillionaire]

Having the English voices on is kind of funny because I imagine it's giving you some decent insight into how equally ridiculous the Japanese dialogue is.

What exactly do you mean by that?

Some games have characters say entire sentences for such mundane actions as taking a hit while blocking, and it gets even crazier when they interrupt said sentences with the exact same sentence while they're CALLING THEIR- CALLING THEIR- CALLING THEIR- CALLING THEIR ATTACKS. The one that really stuck out for me was Guilty Gear 2 (granted, not a fighting game) when Izuna kept yelling "Mind if- mind if- mind if- mind if- mind if I CUT in?!"

Call me crazy but if I parried a punch I don't think my first instinct would be to murmur to myself "Simon, I think you're going to lose."

Really? I've never heard such a problem in any of the other fighting games I've played (at least in my experience). Sometimes, during certain rival fights in Street Fighter IV, the characters say special lines to each other during battle, but from what I've seen, it hasn't experienced that problem (probably because these special dialogue lines override what they would typically say).