[Try it] Cutscene Audio > Japanese

[Remilia_Nightfall]

Oh, this thread again.

All the classic buzzwords are even present! "Original JP Audio". "English subtitles" "English Dub" "JPs voice acting better" "More emotion" etc etc. This isn't anime, leave the anime logic where it belongs.

Fact: All four tracks were produced near simultaneously. So there's no "original JP audio". Furthermore, as someone above said, the English version of the game isn't a direct translation, but rather it's localized. (if you don't know the difference, a simple Google search will tell). This means the "English subs" aren't really subs at all. They've nothing to do with the Japanese audio, or any of the others for that matter. They adhere to the English localization only.

It's interesting how a lot of people claim that the JP audio is superior, when majority don't know the nuances of the language, yet I see things like "the emotion is so much better". The only things these people are responding to are the exotic foreign accents (like someone else mentioned above), and not the actual content. Fact of the matter is, MUCH LIKE THE ENGLISH VERSION, the JP audio is embellished and overacted and cheesy sounding. The fact that Yoshida made the remark about JPs switching to the English audio is a testament to that. They are ignorant about the nuances of English, much like NA's are ignorant to the nuances of JP, and therefore claim the foreign one sounds "better". This isn't just between JP/EN audio though...interestingly enough, a French friend of mine claimed the same thing about the FR audio...that it's cheesy, overly acted...so he switched to the English audio. lol


The problem with all four voice overs imo, isn't the acting itself, but rather, the way it was produced. The cut scenes were written with a textual output, not with voice acting in mind, so the voice acting is pretty much like they're reading an audiobook, not like an actual TV/movie script. Take..for example, when Minfilia uses transitional words such as "However..." Who actually speaks like that? Lol

Other things that are missing, aside from the clunky text, is the absence of proper body language and sounds. Simple things like "Ah!" or "oh" or a chuckle here or there, is missing..so we get a lot of awkward "readings" without any feeling in them, then more awkward silence as the cutscene shifts to the next voiced text. It's all just really really bad design.

There is a small part where Minfilia's FR voice actor did a small chuckle, which was even more jarring because while it sounded natural audio-wise, her body nor mouth reflected it XD So I do believe the voice actors in all four languages were limited by the design of the cutscenes themselves.

I hope that all made sense.

Well, I speak and understand both English and Japanese, but I am neither, since not everyone here is American. What language should I prefer, then?

I can safely say that, in videogames and anime, Japanese dubbing is usually better for a very simple reason: budget.

When you have to localize, you are allocating budget in order to hire actors - and most of the time, since you have to localize into different languages (thus diluting the total budget for "Localization") you won't be able to hire local top-class voices - and the result will most likely be poorer than the original version.

I've been working for a videogame localization firm for years (that actually had something to do with this game as well), so I have a bit of knowledge on the matter.