Lots of new info incoming from the NicoNico Chokaigi 2 event

[Vilhem]

Hi Rowyne and All,

I definitely empathize with your RP angle, and just anyone who wants an option in their native language. That's why I hope Square and Yoshi P make good on their earlier promise to allow the players to *choose* what Language and Subtitles they want, whether it's Original Japanese Language with English Subtitles, or English Dub, or French, German, etc.

Options are good. Everyone's happy.

I've definitely heard and appreciate great English VAs (e.g., Cowboy Bebop Dub, Nolan North (Nathan Drake) and the rest of his Uncharted crew, etc.). But IMHO, Square-Enix USA has had a horrible track record of Dubbing Talent in recent years:

Who can forget the horrific / annoying English Dub of Hope and Vanille and Final Fantasy XIII? I also though the English Dub voice of the Lalafell "Scientist" in Gridania's opening was horrendous, sorry.

On a side note, how do you feel about English Dubs if they decide to incorporate a "Southern Texas" accent? Or have a stereotypical Brooklyn Thug accent? Or an Irish accent?

Wouldn't those accents draw one out of the immediate world, and make one think of the Deep South, "Y'all come back now, ya' hear?!" or pull one into New York and Brooklyn of the 1930's "Howz uh' you all, uh' doin'?!?"

That's one area I dislike with some English Dubs I've heard where the English Localization Team decides it'd be "cute" to turn a character into someone from New Orleans, or Texas, or New York or Ireland.

Ultimately, though, I just hope we all get Language and Subtitle Options to Mix and Match as we please!

Japanese is not the "original" for this game -.-

Papalymo's acting was good as far as 1.0, its just the false strained sound that was annoying, though the miner twins suffered from the same thing.

There's nothing wrong with accents either, as long as they fit the character. As far as ARR, I don't think we'll be hearing any of the accents mentioned, since they wouldn't necessarily fit the lore. British, and of course, "pirate" accents would be more acceptable.

And even if they did decide to incorporate different accents, if they were convincing enough (ie. not flipping back and forth like Vanille), then there's really no problem.

[Andreas-Lycaeus]

I still can't believe Nolan North played Penguin in Arkham City! I'd love a surprise like that. Him and Troy Baker certainly seem to be the go-to guys right now, and after playing Bioshock Infinite I did feel that Troy did a good job. Nothing groundbreaking, but it felt natural. As other people have said though, big names don't mean a thing if they're not necessary. It's about fitting the persona of the character. Whoever voiced the Luteces in Bioshock though.. they were brilliant! I think they'd fit right in with characters like Yda and Papalymo.

[ArkhamNative]

... Original Japanese Language with English Subtitles, or English Dub, or French, German, etc.

I used the term "dub" in reference to films, but for this game the actual creators have scripted it in English, French and German, as well as Japanese. I consider the game's original language to be all four. (OK, I've never played it in French or German, but based on last month's all-points call for German-native beta testers on all the fan forums, I'd say they're serious about the quality of translation.)

On a side note, how do you feel about English Dubs if they decide to incorporate a "Southern Texas" accent? Or have a stereotypical Brooklyn Thug accent? Or an Irish accent?

They have used a number of "British" accents, both for voice actors and in NPC text, which is basically the same thing.

Ultimately, though, I just hope we all get Language and Subtitle Options to Mix and Match as we please!

Agreed. And that we can change settings before we replay scenes in our Unending Journey.

[Abriael]

It's just that you seem to be trying to push that preference onto people. If someone says they wonder who the English cast will be or that they hope the voicing will be good in their language, you respond with...

Push that preference onto people? I smell some paranoia here, and you seem very much keen on trying to do what you accuse me of doing. Or is it some form of twisted national pride that makes you mad because someone thinks voice acting coming from another country is in average technically superior to what comes from yours?

I really don't get what makes you so mad about people talking about the Japanese voice acting.

For some mysterious reason? You sound incredulous, like my personal dislike of something just isn't conceivable. That's like telling me I'm a freak if I don't like strawberry ice cream. You have to realize that not everyone has the same preferences.

There's a large difference between having a preference and disliking something. You clearly state that you dislike hearing Japanese voice acting, and yeah, I'm incredulous, because I can't really conceive disliking a language just because it isn't yours.

Mind you, you're entitled to dislike whatever you want, just as I'm entitled to frown at it.

I'm really not trying to be rude, so I apologize for having to point this out. But I think everyone here is already aware that Japanese voicing is an option. It doesn't bear anymore repeating.

Didn't know you were a moderator in disguise, with the power to judge what should be mentioned or what shouldn't?

There are some people that (for very sound reasons) enjoy Japanese voice acting, others simply enjoy watching media in its original language (like I always watch American movies in English, shunning Italian voice acting despite the fact that it's technically one of the best in the world), and they'll talk about it, since it's very much in topic.

As a matter of fact, this topic is about a Japanese event in which info about Japanese voice acting has been shared, meaning that Japanese voice acting is quite a lot more in topic than VA in localized languages.

This is a discussion forum. It's made to talk about things. Capiche?

[Andreas-Lycaeus]

Stop winding eachother up! I'm sure Rowyne doesn't dislike the Japanese language, it's just the fact that she can't immerse herself in a game when she can't understand the language. It's simple. Just accept you both have different tastes and be happy the option will be available for both of you

[Abriael]

Stop winding eachother up! I'm sure Rowyne doesn't dislike the Japanese language, it's just the fact that she can't immerse herself in a game when she can't understand the language. It's simple. Just accept you both have different tastes and be happy the option will be available for both of you

I got no problem with people liking VA in other languages, I'm just not exactly sure why he feels entitled to go for the eyes of someone talking about something absolutely in-topic just because he personally doesn't like it, but oh well.

I'm all for options, as options bring in more people, and more people mean more people to play with.

No one here advocated that they should remove the options. Luckily SE isn't Sega and has plenty money to voice four languages.

I used the term "dub" in reference to films, but for this game the actual creators have scripted it in English, French and German, as well as Japanese. I consider the game's original language to be all four. (OK, I've never played it in French or German, but based on last month's all-points call for German-native beta testers on all the fan forums, I'd say they're serious about the quality of translation.)

There's a reason why the localization team is called localization team. Because they're doing a localization from an original language, which is Japanese.

It doesn't matter if the original script is heavily adapted (which it is, at least for English), if the translation is extremely high quality (which it is, at least for English), or if some limited input is sent back from the localization team and gets implemented in the original script.

The game is 100% a Japanese game, which means the original language is Japanese. This doesn't mean the localization is bad, but it *is* a localization. Hence why they have a (great) localization team working on the English/German/French versions and not a team of scriptwriters.

[Rowyne]

Push that preference onto people? I smell some paranoia here, and you seem very much keen on trying to do what you accuse me of doing. Or is it some form of twisted national pride that makes you mad because someone thinks voice acting coming from another country is in average technically superior to what comes from yours?

Wow. I never got mad, in fact I tried to be polite in my post, even apologizing if it sounded rude, and you're jumping down my throat and trying to provoke me. Paranoia? Twisted national pride? Where is this coming from?

There's a large difference between having a preference and disliking something. You clearly state that you dislike hearing Japanese voice acting, and yeah, I'm incredulous, because I can't really conceive disliking a language just because it isn't yours.

I never said I didn't like certain languages just because they aren't mine. Otherwise, I couldn't truthfully tell you that I studied 3 years of French in school, which I think is an absolutely beautiful language. And that was actually my second choice of foreign language - I wanted to take German, which I find to be very different and interesting, and am drawn to because of my German ancestry, but it wasn't offered when I began to study.

Stop winding eachother up! I'm sure Rowyne doesn't dislike the Japanese language, it's just the fact that she can't immerse herself in a game when she can't understand the language. It's simple. Just accept you both have different tastes and be happy the option will be available for both of you

Well said, Andreas. It doesn't matter how I feel about a foreign language, whether or not I find it to be aesthetically pleasing. It's really all about the immersion factor and being able to instantly understand what's being said.

I merely asked you to accept that everyone has different preferences, Abriael.

Oh, and I'm a woman, so if you're going to insult me, please do it properly and quit calling me 'he'.

[Abriael]

Wow. I never got mad, in fact I tried to be polite in my post, even apologizing if it sounded rude, and you're jumping down my throat and trying to provoke me. Paranoia? Twisted national pride? Where is this coming from?

You sounded extremely aggressive. Jumping to someone's eyes and apologizing in the same sentence doesn't sound much less aggressive.

I merely asked you to accept that everyone has different preferences, Abriael.

You're fully entitled to the differences. I never advocated that non-Japanese voice acting should be erased from the face of earth or that the game shouldn't have the option.

I simply expressed the opinion (Judging from SE's track record in voice choices and from the cultural/tradition differences between JP voice acting and western) that it's unlikely that we'll see English/German/French voicing of the same star-level we're getting for the Japanese language. This doesn't mean that the English/German/French language will be an unbearable piece of crap.

You're entirely entitled to enjoy it as much as you like, and I'm not sure how my comments deny that in any way.

Oh, and I'm a woman, so if you're going to insult me, please do it properly and quit calling me 'he'.

Never insulted you, nor I tried, I apologize for the "he". I simply didn't make an assumption on your gender one way or the other.

[Fleurette]

You sounded extremely aggressive. I simply expressed the opinion (Judging from SE's track record in voice choices and from the cultural/tradition differences between JP voice acting and western) that it's unlikely that we'll see English/German/French voicing of the same star-level we're getting for the Japanese language. This doesn't mean that the English/German/French language will be an unbearable piece of crap.

of the same star-level

what.

i don't even.

Okay, um...look, I'm just as psyched as you are at the Japanese cast. Very psyched, actually. Very looking forward to hearing a good bunch of my favorite Japanese VAs. But I think you're doing waaaay too much assuming here, sir. I think, whether you think it's just "your opinion" or not, you're making a lot of assumptions about SE of America's and/or SE of Europe's VA choices.

Saying, "oh, they won't get actors of that caliber like SE of JAPAN did, wow no way that'll happen!" is very condescending to them--did you forget this is the same company that was able to get American actors like Haley Joel Osment, LEONARD NEMOY, JESSE MCCARTNEY, and ANGELA FREAKING LANSBURY (for like TWO LINES) who have done just as much work in movies and tv and music as these Japanese voice actors are. Now, yeah, they probably got some funding from Disney with that, but that doesn't mean they can't get the same caliber of actors again; Yoshi-P or Wada stated in an interview once that SE is one of TWO companies (the other being Blizzard) that can actually fund themselves for their MMOs and not need financial help from other companies because their profits are through the roof. So chances are they may well have the money to spend on actors like those by themselves, without any aid from Disney this time. They want ARR to be successful in every way possible; I don't see why they'd skimp out on the voice acting.

And even if they don't, it's not gonna be the usual JYB/Yuri Lowenthal/Laura Bailey as main characters faire. SE doesn't do that from my experience with them because they know that they want their characters all to have separate identities rather than having the same five actors in each Final Fantasy title. We can already see that in 1.0's few voiced cutscenes; they're not picking from the normal lot, they're gonna pick a voice actor that will match, if not exceed the personality of the character to rival their Japanese VA counterpart.

I am not trying to be defensive or aggressive, however Rowyne was correct in saying that you're doing a LOT to downplay other countries' voice actors and their potential whether you mean to or not. Yes, Japanese voice acting is cool! I very much enjoy it! However, that doesn't mean they're the MASTER RACE OF VOICE ACTING or something. I stated in the Merlwyb VA topic that many recent games and anime have blown me away with their English dub casts, an example being the Persona series dub. (namely 3/4/4 Golden/Arena). Their Japanese casts had a LOT of good VAs! (Rie Tanaka, Miyuki Sawashiro--one of my personal favorites, Paku Romi, Maaya Sakamoto, Akira Ishida, Daisuke Namikawa, Shoutaro Morikubo and a bunch more, just to name a few from the three games!) And yet, even with a simple cast with my 3 "favorite" English VAs I mentioned above, with the support of anime/game regulars like Troy Baker, Amanda Winn-Lee, Karen Strassman, etc., they still managed to make me laugh and even cry! So don't be thinking the Japanese are the only ones who can do good voice acting. Even the regulars do a damn good job of it, which is why, if by some weird reason they get regulars to do it, I will listen to BOTH English and Japanese voice tracks because I like both sets of VAs. Sometimes, yes, the Japanese track may excel in some areas, but it might also fall short compared to some areas of English voice acting.

honestly if i could i'd disable japanese voice acting on your arr client once it gets there and i'd make you listen to it in english. maybe then you'd realize that yeah, the Japanese are good at what they do, but that doesn't mean they're the best at everything.

anyways it's late and i need sleep. pardon the rant. i leave you all with my reaction to abriael's recent posts, as expressed by my good friend Merlwyb.



good night.

[Abriael]

"oh, they won't get actors of that caliber like SE of JAPAN did, wow no way that'll happen!"

I believe you need to check the difference between "it's unlikely" and "no way that'll happen".

It's a rather large difference.

The rest of your post is, just like that, full of over-emotional hyperbole.

No one ever talked about "master races" (lol, could you pull any more of a strawman argument?). No one ever said that Americans can't do "good" voice acting.

There simply are objective circumstances that give Japanese voice acting (and not just Japanese mind you, there are other countries that have a much more solid voice acting tradition over the US) an average edge over the American counterpart: much longer and solid tradition, more specialized training, radical cultural differences between the perceived prestige of voice acting jobs compared to film acting or even stage acting... they all play a role. Voice acting isn't just a matter of personal talent. It's a highly technical and specialized job based much more on organization, direction, efficiency and teamwork than any other acting specialization.

Denying that is like denying that Hollywood productions are in average technically superior to Japanese filmmaking.

The amount of personal outrage I see from some people because someone dares to tell them that Japanese voice acting is in average technically better than what you see in NA is hilarious, and very much akin to the reaction you get from a Justin Bieber fan when you tell her that there are better musicians around.

You enjoy NA voice acting? Good for you. No one's taking it away from you, so I'm not exactly sure what you're getting so emotional about.