Fran and Balthier?

[Aria28]

I'm sorry...but if none of you have played (or, at the very least, seen extensive sections of) the Japanese version of FFXII, I don't think you're in a position to compare Balthier's voice actors.

His Japanese VA is just far better: less affected, less foreigners'-stereotypical-idea-of-what-an-English "cool guy"-sounds-like, more natural, more nuanced, and, most importantly, MUCH sexier.

It's sad, because, by and large, I think they've done a decent job on the English localization. The lip sync is, of course, much worse; the general sound, as many others have pointed out, has a peculiarly tinny quality - as though it was recorded inside a phone box; Basch, Vaan, Penelo and Ashe have VAs that are about as good as their Japanese counterparts (though the latter three are considerably less emotional); so does Larsa; Vayne is poor - his speech to the people of Rabanastre was painfully lacking in charisma; rest of the cast is patchy; dialogue is overwritten - at times amusing, at others embarrassingly pretentious - and misses some of the subtleties present in the Japanese game, e.g. Vaan and Ashe's "don't call me you" conflict.

All in all, it's okay. The only two real sore spots for me are Fran and Balthier's voices. Fran sounds less like a centuries-old spirit-of-the-woods, and more like a poor imitation of Bjork - her every pause calculated. Balthier sounds like an errant public school boy; like Prince Charles, trying to be hip. Every time he speaks I want to knock his pompous, toffee-nosed lights out...instead of swooning, as I do when I hear his Japanese voice.

...Those are just my opinions. *shrugs*

I guess I'm just gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you completely.

I've heard Balthier's Japanese voice acting via clips on YouTube. I found his voice to be deeper and more monotone. Lacking the sly charm and humor that's in the NA version of the game. Balthier's voice shouldn't be so grave and deep as it is in the JP version. The more casual, "hip" accent as you call it, fits his personality much better in my opinion.

As for Fran, a poor imitation of björk? What are you talking about? She sounds EXACTLY like björk and it's so awesome. The accent is not one you hear everyday and it's different but it works. I find myself wishing that Fran would speak more because I love hearing her voice.

Having completed the game twice in Japanese (well, ok, not really twice, I have yet to finish the game for the second time, but I'm getting closer ), I must agree with Scooby, although I wouldn't go as far as she does in her assertion of both Balflear and Fran's English VA. I am disappointed with Fran, because even prior to hearing her for the first time in a japanese trailer, I had always imagined her with a deep, rather mature voice, and not with a teenager one. But I can live with it, it's just that since the japanese version seemed to go exactly the way I had thought was the most appropriate given the character's history, I find it weird that they'd do a 180° and give Fran a voice that's the opposite.

Balflear is another story because I like his English voice very much (but then maybe I don't react as strongly as Scooby because English isn't my language, so some nuances may be lost on me, or I just don't hear them the same), it's just that his Japanese VA does such an outstanding job that you're better off not comparing maybe (but you just can't help anyway ).

Maybe the reason why some people feel his Japanese voice lacks humour (you're not the only one to think that Miriel, I've read other similar comments on other boards ) is that first, you need to hear the whole thing - every single person I know who's said that had only seen clips. Based on that, I can understand the feeling, but the performance is outstanding because Hirata provides so many nuances throughout the game that I've lost count. In English so far (I'm past Lhusu Mines now in English), I think he pretty much always has the same way of speaking, a little pedantic and tongue-in-cheek at the same time. Don't get me wrong, it does work in a good way, imo! It's just that there aren't all the variations in voice and language depending on who he's addressing that you could originally find (also maybe due to the fact that you don't use levels of speach in English the way you do in Japanese?)

I think the other reason is language. Unless you're really used to listen to japanese VAs in games or animes at least (or better, that you understand somewhat the language), I guess it's normal not to enjoy the japanese VAs, not just because of the language barrier (duh!) but also because Japanese have a whole different way of speaking when acting, traditionally, which comes from their wildely different theater traditions. Of course, those differences have been erased slightly with the influence of western cinema, but they're still there, and even more so in voice acting. Maybe one of the reasons why Balflear, and Hirata in most of his VA perfomances, stands out, is because the voice acting sounds different from most you can hear in Japan (at least, that's my opinion).

And I agree: his performance sounds definitely more natural than the English one. There's a whole notion of "cool" that has been lost in the translation somehow, unless you automatically consider English accents as "cool", no matter what. He never sounds affected, unless he's joking. And yeah, his voice is sexy But apart from the sexiness, I imagine nuances are hard to tell unless you're used to hear japanese, as I tried to explain above

So, I'd say, apart from Fran where, for me, it's more than a question of language or quality of voice acting, but rather the voice that doesn't fit, I'd say all the English VAs did a great job in their own rights. Sure, a few things are missing from the original text (like the famous "you" running joke) but that was to be expected and, for a video game, I think there's been a lot more effort put into the translation than for most "text-intensive" games (as far as I can judge - I'm not perfectly fluent in Japanese either ). So don't feel bad for not having heard the wonder that Balflear's jap VA is Especially since there are chances you'll throw tomatoes at us because you'll go "What's so special about it in the first place?". But if you've got a chance to catch the story in Japanese for some reason, and that you're curious, give it a try