A way to get Japanese voices?

[EvaDelta]

I did some searching but I didn't manage to find anything so I figured I'd ask. Does anyone know if there's any way to replace the voices in the US game with the Japanese voices? I'd love to play through the story mode with the Japanese voice cast.

Also, while I'm being a n00b, is there maybe a way to turn off those NPCs that walk around in the distance in the online lobbies?

[Garnet_Moon]

Want the JP voices? Get the JP version and play with them.

[omegapirate2k]

On 2007-02-14 12:41, EvaDelta wrote:
I did some searching but I didn't manage to find anything so I figured I'd ask. Does anyone know if there's any way to replace the voices in the US game with the Japanese voices? I'd love to play through the story mode with the Japanese voice cast.

Also, while I'm being a n00b, is there maybe a way to turn off those NPCs that walk around in the distance in the online lobbies?



I recall being able to do that in sonic adventure 2, but I don't think they did the same for PSU.

[9lotus]

you can replace the english voice file with the japanese one, but the game's data integrity check won't let you use it

[Simmerl]

I just don't understand why they would dub this game anyway. The Japanese voice actors were good.
Sadly, no way without buying the Japanese version.

I thought I would buy it - but then again, Offline mode is done for in 40 hours max, and online you'll have no voice-overs at all.

[foamcup]

On 2007-02-14 12:55, Simmerl wrote:
I just don't understand why they would dub this game anyway. The Japanese voice actors were good.
Sadly, no way without buying the Japanese version.

I thought I would buy it - but then again, Offline mode is done for in 40 hours max, and online you'll have no voice-overs at all.



I've been told that the Japanese voice acting is poor.

I'm glad they didn't translate the voices for tech casting. I'm pretty sure everyone would get tired of hearing "Hot stuff coming your way!" every time they cast a tech. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif

[pineapple]

Everyone thinks Japanese voice actors are always better because they don't understand what they are saying.

The english voices are pretty poor though. It is so unnatural anytime they have to grunt, scream, or what have you. It's really not worth it to play through story mode again, even with different voices.

[Akaimizu]

Actually, I sometimes wish people would get more Japanese voice acting support, so they can finally tell when bad Japanese voice acting happens. Then they'll probably appreciate the english ones even better.

[Sinue_v2]

That should be amended Pineapple... the english VA's weren't poor. Compaired to many anime and other videogames, they were very "middle of the road". Some of PSU's voice work was quite good, such as Liina, Hiru Vol, Megashi, ect. The guy who did Ethan Waber's voice was also quite good, at least, when he wasn't trying to fit far too much dialouge into far too short a timespan. The VA's really shine the best at the end of each chapter (on your second playthrough) durring the episode preview banter.

The problem wasn't in the VA's, it was in the lack of direction and motivation given to the VA's who did the parts. They simply went it, read their lines, re-read if it wasn't satisfactory, and collected their paycheck. Some of them tried to get a feel for their characters by reading the script... but that was somewhat difficult considering that they didn't know the context in which these lines were being spoken. They had no "viewing" screen to show the action which was going on in any scene so that they could articulate their voices properly for the action. Their work was litterally based on nothing but a few lines of dialouge and some character art.

Considering those circmstances, I'd say the VA's did the best they could with what they were given.

[foamcup]

On 2007-02-14 14:41, Sinue_v2 wrote:
That should be amended Pineapple... the english VA's weren't poor. Compaired to many anime and other videogames, they were very "middle of the road". Some of PSU's voice work was quite good, such as Liina, Hiru Vol, Megashi, ect. The guy who did Ethan Waber's voice was also quite good, at least, when he wasn't trying to fit far too much dialouge into far too short a timespan. The VA's really shine the best at the end of each chapter (on your second playthrough) durring the episode preview banter.

The problem wasn't in the VA's, it was in the lack of direction and motivation given to the VA's who did the parts. They simply went it, read their lines, re-read if it wasn't satisfactory, and collected their paycheck. Some of them tried to get a feel for their characters by reading the script... but that was somewhat difficult considering that they didn't know the context in which these lines were being spoken. They had no "viewing" screen to show the action which was going on in any scene so that they could articulate their voices properly for the action. Their work was litterally based on nothing but a few lines of dialouge and some character art.

Considering those circmstances, I'd say the VA's did the best they could with what they were given.



Agreed.

[MaximumBurst]

If you would take a look at the cast list, you'd notice that the Japanese voice actors are top-notch. These aren't no-name people; they're big stuff.


On 2007-02-14 14:41, Sinue_v2 wrote:
That should be amended Pineapple... the english VA's weren't poor...

...

Considering those circmstances, I'd say the VA's did the best they could with what they were given.



Yes, I agree with Sinue here. The job was bad, but I could tell that it wasn't just because of the actors themselves. This became apparent because as you progressed through the story, you could tell that the voice actors began to get somewhat of a feel for the story and characters.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: MaximumBurst on 2007-02-14 15:30 ]</font>

[EvaDelta]

It would seem I didn't look hard enough.

Anyone who wants to keep updated on this endevor should look below.

http://www.pso-world.com/viewtopic.php?topic=125492&forum=20



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: EvaDelta on 2007-02-14 16:49 ]</font>

[PJ]

On 2007-02-14 14:41, Sinue_v2 wrote:
*snip*



Even despite this, I think the VA is pretty good in PSU. Especially if we compare it to pretty much ANY dubbed anime.

I think the exception isn't the good, but the bad.

[Sinue_v2]

Point being, it could have been much better with minimal effort. The talent was there, but not the ambition. How much does it really take to set up a screen and show the scenes being played which the VA's are acting for? How much effort would it have really taken to have someone there analyse the characters and provide the VA's with their motivation?

The LipSyching I'm not even worried about.. that was bad, but it would have taken quite a bit of effort to re-direct lip movements with the VA's moddified lines for what in the end is no big deal. It's not like SoA handles that sort of modification anyhow.

[BahnKnakyu]

I agree that the VAs more or less were "low budget" for this game. They were okay, they weren't good, they weren't bad, they were okay. And before we get get into the 'blanket of the blanket argument' (i.e. most people like JP voices better 'cause they don't understand anything mentality some people automatically use against JP VAing), the seiyuu for JP PSU were damn good. Ayako Kawasumi and Norio Wakamoto are pretty big names in the JP VA world, and it's fairly apparent that SoJ had a bigger budget to work on and therefore could hire bignames to do the VAing. If anything, SoA kind of shot themselves in the foot by more or less having to do the US VAing, because they simply didn't have the money to do so. I'm pretty sure it was done to "get it out of the way" rather than to closely integrate into the game.

Edit:

While PSU doesn't have a native language select option, the US/EU cutscenes CAN be modded to have the JP voices in them. You will need to obtain the JP version somehow and then install it alongside your US/EU PSU. Certain files need to be copied over and replaced. You will have JP cutscenes and movies, but the ingame grunts will still be in English (cos we all love the highly suggestive moaning that the Maya Shidou English VA does when she gets hit, right?) http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wacko.gif If you try to replace the files that contain the ingame grunts, the game will refuse to run (seems like the ingame grunts are stored with the data files and not as separate sound files, which makes them really hard to modify)


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: BahnKnakyu on 2007-02-14 17:12 ]</font>