For those of us who prefer the Japanese VO.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alberel

Most notably in the most recent patch there is a point where Raubahn calls Lolorito by name in the spoken Japanese VO but merely says 'You!' in the written English which causes a significant disconnect when following the dialogue.

---

This is actually a cultural thing. In English of course we use "you" a lot when talking directly to someone. In Japanese, you would almost never say "あなた" (anata) to a person whose name you know. It was jarring to me when first learning Japanese, constantly referring to people by their name repeatedly, but thats the normal way. (Whereas in English, if every sentence I replaced "you" with someone's name it would sound kind of stilted and maybe formal)

So translating from name->you is actually correct in terms of "this is how it is spoken normally in each language".

If you do speak both languages (English is my native language, and my Japanese is not perfect but I can understand the characters maybe half the time) it is interesting to see the differences. Sometimes it is actually a much bigger difference than pronoun usage. I can vaguely remember a few cases where the meaning was quite different, but I don't remember the specific examples unfortunately.

I personally use the Japanese voice overs so I don't have to listen to some of the English voice actors.

Minfilia sounds significantly less like an annoying librarian in Japanese than English.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Alberel

Most notably in the most recent patch there is a point where Raubahn calls Lolorito by name in the spoken Japanese VO but merely says 'You!' in the written English which causes a significant disconnect when following the dialogue.

---

I'm not familiar with the particular scene you're referencing, but frequently, the most direct translation of a name is indeed the word "you". Japanese doesn't have the sort of pronouns English does, so to reference the person they're speaking to (which is what the word "you" is for in English) they'll say something else to indicate the person. It might be their name, a title, or a descriptor of some kind, but if it's function is to indicate that the person they're speaking to is also the person they're speaking about, then the English equivalent, and therefore the proper translation, is "you".

Then there's also how the name is said to consider. What suffix (and therefore politeness level) did it have in Japanese? Was it part of a sentence or did it stand alone?

The English "you" can be used politely in a sentence, but using it by itself (particularly with that exclamation point) to call out to someone indicates an aggressive demand. Using someone's name in English is awkward (almost to the point of nonsensical) within a sentence, and inherently polite when used on its own as a form of address. So was the Japanese Raubahn's use of Lolorito's name part of a sentence (in which case it would have to become "you" in English)? Or an aggressively abrupt call (in which case his name in English would totally change the meaning, so it would have to be something else, of which "You!" certainly works)? Or was it a polite term of address (which would be the only case where the name could be kept in English)?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JakzChurchill

I'm a big fan of the Japanese VA's in this game, they made some of my least likeable characters some of my favourite by skewing the characters more towards my likes, Alphinaud being a good example. The problem is it's very obvious the character I am hearing is not the character I'm reading, this makes a very disjointed story experience.

so could we have the option for a more literal translated subtitles, rather than reading the dubtitles currently used.

---

I have a bit of the same issue. I prefer the sound of the Japanese voice actors as well, but as someone who knows a bit of Japanese but not fluently, I try to follow it on its own but then need to be able to periodically glance down to the subtitles just to pick up the word or phrase I missed when they exceeded my limited vocabulary. When the localization changes what's being said enough that the word/phrase I need to fill in my understanding of the Japanese sentence isn't in the English sentence because of the extent to which they restructured the dialog, I can lose track of what's being said in either of them. So yes, I get this disjointed problem too. (It's the reason why, despite preferring the Japanese, I usually just leave my audio on English for simplicity.)

I'm not sure what could be done about it, though. It seems a bit much to ask for a second English translation purely for those of us using it to better follow along with the Japanese version.

I haven't even watched a single cutscene in Japanese yet but I find all the English voices cringe worthy and actually read the dialogue and skip their vocal mid sentence as I hate it. Perhaps I might take a liking to some of the other characters if I try watching it in its native language, I think I might go and find out now.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FoxyAreku

Waste of resources.

I never saw the appeal of japanese VA as well, but that's just me. Maybe if I actually spoke japanese and could understand what they are saying I'd be fine with it, but I'm not sure why some people prefer to listen to a language they can't understand. Especially when english sounds perfectly fine in this game.

---

While I'm okay with the English voices and translations used in this game, I wouldn't mind having the option to listen to other languages.
It's not necessarily that JP VAs are more appealing, it's that sometimes people feel that other actors can express or fit a character better.

Like heck, if Raubahn were voiced by James Earl Jones, and the lines didn't have terrible acting or stilted delivery like for the English Yuna in FFX, then I wouldn't care what language he's speaking or if there's any lip-syncing at all. If a voice sounds pleasing and matches well enough with how I'd imagine a character would sound, then I can enjoy myself because the character feels more natural.

In contrast, in any language, if a female makes their voice high-pitched and squeaky in an attempt to sound cute, then I tend to lose my lunch.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by FoxyAreku

Waste of resources.

I never saw the appeal of japanese VA as well, but that's just me. Maybe if I actually spoke japanese and could understand what they are saying I'd be fine with it, but I'm not sure why some people prefer to listen to a language they can't understand. Especially when english sounds perfectly fine in this game.

---

If the translations were faithful to the original Japanese, there would be no need to switch between languages.

I'm just more disappointed in the fact that, supposedly, the Japanese version has more cutscenes with VOs than the English version does.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by TheRogueX

I'm just more disappointed in the fact that, supposedly, the Japanese version has more cutscenes with VOs than the English version does.

---

Wait... How on Hydaelyn can they afford that with Aya Endo and Yuichi Nakamura (just to name the ones I recognised immediately) on the payroll when they can't afford servers which can handle larger inventories? Those two aren't exactly cheap voice actors. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Norna

Wait... How on Hydaelyn can they afford that with Aya Endo and Yuichi Nakamura (just to name the ones I recognised immediately) on the payroll when they can't afford servers which can handle larger inventories? Those two aren't exactly cheap voice actors. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

---

I dont think this is true, but if anyone knows or thinks they know of a cutscene where it happens it would be easy to test (just go watch it in Inn once with English VA and once with Japanese VA).