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Scyris
Jul 10, 2012, 04:26 AM
I have to wonder how badly they goung to butcher the voices, think they will allow you to switch between english and japanese? Lisa just won't be the same without her creepy as hell laugh she does. That and I hate dubs in general most of the time the voice does not match the char at all.

Coatl
Jul 10, 2012, 04:29 AM
I think we all know what to expect from the voice changes..
Just don't be too disappointed when the time comes.

I'd prefer english subs, but we all know we won't get that either. Or will we? Naw..
Let's not get optimistic.

Scrub
Jul 10, 2012, 04:29 AM
Most of the characters I've heard have sounded obnoxious enough that I can't imagine English will be much worse.

renrinken
Jul 10, 2012, 04:31 AM
Well for me I pretty much skip or ignore all mini cutscenes and havent even touched my Matter Board, I would notice very little difference. (assume we get to keep character sounds)

Seems very unlikely we will get a optional JP though, there are simply to many high profile VOs in PSO2, license would just cost to much.

((As for someone who absolutely adored PSU, I actually liked the NA Voices, they were oddly charming))

Yunfa
Jul 10, 2012, 04:36 AM
The only company that allowed both JP voices & English voices are NIS America series such as Disgaea; they know what their fans want. A while back I remember reading something on why Japanese videogame companies go through the trouble of dubbing English voices, something to do with not meeting one of the requirement of terms of something something, i'm sure its got politics injected in there where some old fart over in the U.S. thinks playing videogames from Japan will influence negatively on the population of U.S. soil or some rubbish along those lines.

Coatl
Jul 10, 2012, 04:37 AM
Well for me I pretty much skip or ignore all mini cutscenes and havent even touched my Matter Board, I would notice very little difference. (assume we get to keep character sounds)

Seems very unlikely we will get a optional JP though, there are simply to many high profile VOs in PSO2, license would just cost to much.

You are missing a lot..
The tempermental conversations that Echo and Xeno have together leave me ever so curious as to what actually goes on between them. Does Echo expect Xeno of being unfaithful? Is Xeno tired of Echo's strong attachment? They need a soap opra just for them.

We all know Lisa is a nutcase. So even translated, we'll never know what goes on up there.
I feel like this could be ruined in the localized version of PSO2 though. Just a feeling.

gigawuts
Jul 10, 2012, 04:40 AM
Most of the characters I've heard have sounded obnoxious enough that I can't imagine English will be much worse.

Don't get me started on the terrible tutorial elf.

UnLucky
Jul 10, 2012, 04:50 AM
Don't get me started on the terrible tutorial elf.

He did a great job as Ash from Phantom Brave, if it is the same guy.

But voices are not the main reason I'm worried about the US/EU release...

Hayde
Jul 10, 2012, 04:53 AM
Not sure what's up with the hate on the Japanese voice-acting. Maybe you guys aren't Anime fans or prefer Funimation dubs, but they sound about on track with what you would hear from voice-acting of the same character archetypes in Japanese animation or video game voice acting.

I don't know. I pictured Aflin as comparable to Hanatarou (SP?) from Bleach, or Velvet Waver from Fate Zero--apologies if I'm not spelling the names right; and they sound about roughly the same tone.

Xeno's your typical confident, shonen guy...and it sounds just like he would if I was watching him in a series. The list goes on, but you get my point.

gigawuts
Jul 10, 2012, 04:57 AM
He did a great job as Ash from Phantom Brave, if it is the same guy.

But voices are not the main reason I'm worried about the US/EU release...

I think it's the face. Like, the voice isn't THAT bad, but he's got a chin that could chisel marble and all of it together just makes me queasy.

edit: Don't misunderstand me, I almost always prefer subs over dubs. Japanese voice acting is typically pretty great. I'm just worried that if I dislike some of these voice actors, well, it's not like SoA will pay for better VA's.

Ferria
Jul 10, 2012, 05:00 AM
No dubs for me.. EW.

jooozek
Jul 10, 2012, 05:00 AM
Not sure what's up with the hate on the Japanese voice-acting. Maybe you guys aren't Anime fans or prefer Funimation dubs, but they sound about on track with what you would hear from voice-acting of the same character archetypes in Japanese animation or video game voice acting.
Where did this come from?

renrinken
Jul 10, 2012, 05:02 AM
Don't get me started on the terrible tutorial elf.

All I can hear is Akihisa from Baka no Test :x

I find myself regularly shouting at my screen "Stop infecting me with your stupidity!!!".

Rashiid
Jul 10, 2012, 05:04 AM
I really don't care. Last thing I'm paying attention to in Phantasy Star is VA.

GoldenFalcon
Jul 10, 2012, 05:06 AM
But voices are not the main reason I'm worried about the US/EU release...

So much this

Hayde
Jul 10, 2012, 05:36 AM
Where did this come from?

From:


Most of the characters I've heard have sounded obnoxious enough that I can't imagine English will be much worse.


Don't get me started on the terrible tutorial elf.

Though Giga went back and stated he typically prefers subs/original voices.

To a degree, there is reason to worry about voice acting as far as an NA/EU release goes. It has nothing to do with how terrible the voices sound--though part of me hopes they hire professional voice actors like Steve Blum and such (as Bioware did with SWTOR/ME) rather than having their janitors and customer service record a few lines. If big contents end up requiring additional voice work, that's simply going to mean that Sega is going to delay patches for the English-speaking side once again. As someone pointed out in another thread, I doubt SoJ would hold back simply so "everyone would get a piece of the pie at the same time"--this isn't SE and FFXI/FFXIV here.

renrinken
Jul 10, 2012, 05:43 AM
Honestly I thinked its flawed logic to compare PSO2 to SWTOR/FF11 in general. PSO2 story is pretty much nonexistent compared to those games. Doubt any MMO will ever reach the precedent that FF11 has set tbh.

(Not claiming anyone is)

As someone previously mentioned, Dialog in PSO2 equates to a soap opera, not a space opera.

terrell707
Jul 10, 2012, 05:54 AM
They'll probably just use the Sonic Team VAs. Might as well since I'm sure they under contact with Sega for awhile.

sugarFO
Jul 10, 2012, 05:58 AM
I think the Japanese voice acting is so cheesy, lol.

Dabian
Jul 10, 2012, 06:04 AM
I hope they leave the original voices in, and just sub the dialogue. It's probably a cheaper option too, in addition to avoiding the surefire horrid localized voice acting.

I want my Integra Hellsing voice over when tackling emergency codes. :p

Misaki Ki
Jul 10, 2012, 06:14 AM
I'm usually fine with dubs, but I don't think I can give up a yandere hanakana!

renrinken
Jul 10, 2012, 06:18 AM
A honest question.

I am not familiar with where the audio is stored, but if it isnt stored on servers I dont see someone cant just make a JP-audio mod.

ChronoSphere
Jul 10, 2012, 06:27 AM
Gameguard will probably catch the modification, just like it (partially) did with PSU.
I don't have much faith in SoA after I saw what happened to PSU, so I don't think we should be holding our breath on them providing timely updates and subs instead of localized voiceacting.

I just hope SoJ doesn't go and block foreign IPs once the US/EU version is released.

FerrPSO
Jul 10, 2012, 06:29 AM
They should put back the announcer of the Codes from the Alpha on the english dub, it sounds so much better IMO.

Sp-24
Jul 10, 2012, 06:33 AM
My only problem with this announcer is the "Emergency Code: Distraction". But most other characters sound so bland that I doubt SoA's voice actors will do a worse job at dubbing them.

Vashyron
Jul 10, 2012, 07:44 AM
I'm actually looking forward to getting Voice Actors that will speak in a Language I understand.

Also yes, I think the old Code guy would work well in the EN release.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3tbVKYd_IVE#t=836s

Gardios
Jul 10, 2012, 08:06 AM
The only thing I will miss is the current Code guy because I'm a Kakihara fanboy. e_e

I doubt the voices will be Chaos Wars bad so I'll be cool with whatever they're throwing at us.

NoiseHERO
Jul 10, 2012, 08:10 AM
I'm actually looking forward to getting Voice Actors that will speak in a Language I understand.

Also yes, I think the old Code guy would work well in the EN release.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3tbVKYd_IVE#t=836s

And they changed this... why? D8

This one sounds more chilled. But fits the Sci-Fi thing and it also doesn't sound stupid.

Reia
Jul 10, 2012, 08:28 AM
You have a mute option if you dislike. My real worry is how they are going to handle the servers, during my test I checked that SEGA use multiple chain hardware (Not sure the exact amount but it's over from 44 computers hence why maintenances take so long sometimes) for keeping the server, splitting much of the functions of client activity splitted in groups so the huge amount of players can't manage to stress the server and cause lag. Even with all that it still shows the limitations of this game's server and how much community it can handle. I'm VERY SURE that SoA don't nearly have the budget to have and mantain such huge amount of hardware, so I'm not sure how they will handle their own server, causing a lot of lag and disconnects if they go the same way they did with PSU PC/PS2.

Zyrusticae
Jul 10, 2012, 08:47 AM
I somehow get the impression they're not going to even bother with the dubbing... just like in PSU they just cut out most of the voice acting in favor of saving money.

gigawuts
Jul 10, 2012, 09:30 AM
I somehow get the impression they're not going to even bother with the dubbing... just like in PSU they just cut out most of the voice acting in favor of saving money.

Wait, they just cut out voice acting altogether?

If somebody comes out and tells me Kireek had a voice in JP PSO1 and I've been deprived of that all these years I'm going to flip my shit.

Meyfei
Jul 10, 2012, 09:38 AM
Dead Game is Dead ~_~ i swear it'll have the PS2 population that PSU had due to the many fails Sega's ever made. I'd normally wanna go on and learn the game but screw that knowing sega of america they'll make it free for a so-called beta and then charge monthly -.-

I know for a fact cashshop games ran by american companies FAIL. Look at Nexon. and ontop of that Has Sega of America ran any cash shop games? ( i dont know of any)

NoiseHERO
Jul 10, 2012, 09:42 AM
Dead Game is Dead ~_~ i swear it'll have the PS2 population that PSU had due to the many fails Sega's ever made. I'd normally wanna go on and learn the game but screw that knowing sega of america they'll make it free for a so-called beta and then charge monthly -.-

I know for a fact cashshop games ran by american companies FAIL. Look at Nexon. and ontop of that Has Sega of America ran any cash shop games? ( i dont know of any)

Nope...

Being F2P means anyone that knows about can (and probably will if interested) can just jump in. So it's community should be way better than PS2/PCs let alone most unpopular F2P games.

Also Nexon is a bad example of an american companies F2P stuff failing, aren't they like rolling in money? @_@

GamepotUSA however...

jooozek
Jul 10, 2012, 09:47 AM
I know for a fact cashshop games ran by american companies FAIL. Look at Nexon. and ontop of that Has Sega of America ran any cash shop games? ( i dont know of any)
You kinda lost me here, Nexon isn't an american company and they certainly don't fail (http://msupdate.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/nx-nexon-records-2011-revenue-of-us1-12-billion/).

Akaimizu
Jul 10, 2012, 09:52 AM
Nexon is pretty darn successful with their model, actually. One of the top companies using it. The Dungeon and Dragons MMO was not only saved by it, but it exists to this day on it. That's an example of one of the few Western companies that went that way and actually succeeded. Take note, there aren't a lot of Western games that went to that model, yet.

The main F2P games that failed were often due to an oversaturation of the market. Dividing the audience between too many games. Aeria games have shut down a few due to a bit of a flooding of the market (by themselves, actually). They started to go F2P crazy, and a number of their games had too much atmosphere and gameplay overlap, so they had to close the less successful ones. It doesn't pay to divide your audience too many ways.

But for the voices, I'm not against the dubbing either. This isn't the early 90s anymore; we now have a lot of examples of not only decent dubbing, but ones in which classic "one liners" come from the dubbed versions of things. I guess I used to be an all-sub kind of person until the days of El Hazard, Ranma 1/2, Outlaw Star...where some examples of dubbing beat out the japanese originals for classic line delivery to a western audience. I also find NIS and sometimes Atlus being good examples of fine dub work. True, SEGA has had some true missfires (No better example of horrible overdubs than Shining Force 3 Part 1). But for the most part, they were entertaining. Even Shenmue 2 (not Shenmue 1) was a SEGA example of dubs actually beating out the Japanese originals for overall vocal delivery and pronunciation of Chinese locales. In Shenmue 2, you hear from the vendors way more than any other person in the game, and the delivery was way better and more entertaining in the dub.

Cyrusnagisa
Jul 10, 2012, 09:55 AM
why are so many caring about the voices.... hell I would be fine if they just subbed it and saved some money on releasing it in other places. Besides no matter how good the dubs are, some people will never be satisfied.

EvilMag
Jul 10, 2012, 09:56 AM
Its funny how the people who whined about no voices in PSP2 are the same people who whined about the voice acting in PSU.

Dan Maku
Jul 10, 2012, 09:58 AM
I have to wonder how badly they goung to butcher the voices, think they will allow you to switch between english and japanese? Lisa just won't be the same without her creepy as hell laugh she does. That and I hate dubs in general most of the time the voice does not match the char at all.


Why do weeaboos assume that all English dubs must be bad? These people must've never heard Troy Baker, Yuri Lowenthall, Johnny Yong Bosch, Steve Blum, Laura Bailey, Monica Rial, Amanda Winn Lee, or Erin Fitzgerald in their whole lives, the poor bastards...

EvilMag
Jul 10, 2012, 10:00 AM
Johnny Yong Bosch is a pretty cool guy.

But the chances of Sega hiring someone like him or anyone else you mention is like 1 in a million.

Dan Maku
Jul 10, 2012, 10:16 AM
Johnny Yong Bosch is a pretty cool guy.

But the chances of Sega hiring someone like him or anyone else you mention is like 1 in a million.

They hired the guys who do Chris Redfield, Sakura Haruno, Roy Mustang, and Raiden from MGS to do voices in the Sonic series. Also, Mark Hamill in Yakuza.

Just sayin'.

EvilMag
Jul 10, 2012, 10:24 AM
What makes you think they'll use those people for PSO2? They didn't even use the 4kids cast for PSU and those guys were a fuckton better than the hobos they hired.

Polly
Jul 10, 2012, 10:39 AM
Just PSP2 it, I ain't even care. I can play games that lack voice acting, and it'd certainly take a bit of weight off of whatever budget they have for localization that could maybe focus more of a translation that reads well and is consistent.

PSO2 is pretty high quality for a free to play game, and I'd see no reason to whine if they just nixed voice acting entirely, though I sincerely doubt they will.

Dan Maku
Jul 10, 2012, 10:58 AM
Just PSP2 it, I ain't even care. I can play games that lack voice acting, and it'd certainly take a bit of weight off of whatever budget they have for localization that could maybe focus more of a translation that reads well and is consistent.

PSO2 is pretty high quality for a free to play game, and I'd see no reason to whine if they just nixed voice acting entirely, though I sincerely doubt they will.

What about the cutscenes that auto-play, like the D-Arkers' first appearance, and that one girl's echoing pleas for help? I'd rather they retain the Japanese VA than make all the characters mute.

Quadocky
Jul 10, 2012, 11:06 AM
I thought the Voice Acting in PSU was just fine.

And considering recent trends it would be very odd for them to mess up the voice work in this game.

Zinaida
Jul 10, 2012, 11:35 AM
Most of the characters I've heard have sounded obnoxious enough that I can't imagine English will be much worse.

This.

If you can't even understand Japanese don't even bother pretending to be aware of the quality of the voice work or not. There has been plenty of games with Japanese directors/writers who have *awful* voice actors/actresses simply because they can't understand English enough to know that the voice work is, well, bad. I rarely view anyone as a weeaboo, but when one says "Japanese voice over is better," and doesn't even understand the language, they get labeled. Jokes don't translate well through language, but they're not the only thing.

Vashyron
Jul 10, 2012, 11:40 AM
And they changed this... why? D8

This one sounds more chilled. But fits the Sci-Fi thing and it also doesn't sound stupid.

Wouldn't be surprised if they removed him to save him for the EN release.

Blackheart521
Jul 10, 2012, 12:12 PM
People need to realize that the market as a whole in NA/EU wouldn't be cool with no english dubs, nobody other than people who are used to watching subbed animes or playing japanese games wants that.

People in general like being able to understand characters in their own language and not everyone gets the emotion out of what a character is saying when they are saying it in a different language, not everyone enjoys reading a story.

So regardless of the fact that a lot of the people on this site want just subs for the localization, it is pretty much guaranteed that they will be doing dubs, because the mass of their consumer base is going to prefer it that way.

Nitro Vordex
Jul 10, 2012, 12:15 PM
I'm actually looking forward to getting Voice Actors that will speak in a Language I understand.

Also yes, I think the old Code guy would work well in the EN release.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=3tbVKYd_IVE#t=836s
I don't like the old code guy. He sounds bored out of his mind. And lame. The other one is like ALRIGHT TIME FOR EVENTS LET'S DO THIS.

Also known as ONE MORE!

ChronoSphere
Jul 10, 2012, 12:23 PM
Why do weeaboos assume that all English dubs must be bad?Because the majority is. Western people are unable to even pronounce Japanese names properly - that or they just don't care.

Do you like when someone speaks horribly broken English? I don't. I also cringe inwardly when someone starts speaking broken Russian, German or Japanese. Especially when they are adamant about their pronunciation being good/correct.

It doesn't mean Japanese voiceovers are always better though (their English.. oh god, their English D:), but the ratio is much higher on the English side, sadly. That was one of the reasons that motivated me to actually learn Japanese.

And not only English. I remember listening to some German dubs. The guy literally went "oh. no. we. are going. to die." in a completely monotonous voice. It felt like they were reading from a sheet of paper.

The reason some people think Japanese voiceovers are cheesy or feel weird could be because of cultural differences. Japanese speech flow and intonation is different from English, so it creates a weird feeling for some people.

Anyway, rant off :x

Rashiid
Jul 10, 2012, 12:28 PM
I'm with Blackheart. An undubbed game is VERY unappealing to new players that just want to play fun game they may have heard of. It leads to frustration. People shouldn't have to read a cutscene while the Japanese VA goes to waste because they're focusing on reading the text before it moves on. I'm well convinced it is only anime fans that want subs, which is probably less than 50% of the crowd, if not even less. The least they'll do is add an option to switch, but there will be a dub, whether you like it or not.

Thermalwolf
Jul 10, 2012, 12:35 PM
I don't understand how localization dubbing makes the English dub worse over the Japanese. Yes I'll admit, some companies get lazy and hire crappy voice actors, this is a sad fact... But anymore English dubs are turning out to be pretty good, and just because the voice acting doesn't match 100% with the japanese voice actors, it's pretty dumb to then take a hate just because you are BIASED on the Japanese side. My point, localization is localization, if you hate almost all English dubs then it's safe to say you hate the english language...

Also any language spoken poorly sounds like crap, and there have been plenty of dubs that I have preffered the English over the Japanese dub, AKA Dragon Ball Z. For real, everyone sounds like little whiney children... But then that's my Bias now towards the awesomeness that is Goku's voice. AND I DON'T CARE THAT Akira Toriyama HIMSELF, hand picked that actors. He can write amazing stories, but couldn't pick a voice actor if his life depended on it....

NoiseHERO
Jul 10, 2012, 12:35 PM
I actually like dubbed voices better.

The only thing that gets annoying is a few female voices that are impossibly hard to take seriously no matter what in certain situations (ALL OF RINGO'S SPEECHES IN DUBBED AIR GEAR e______________e...)

But I guess a squeaky Japanese girls voice is no different. At this point I can tell the difference between good OR bad acting in either language so that weaboo mentality of "JP VOICES ALWAYS BETTER" isn't always true and I'm kind of bored of reading words at the bottom in general.

Rashiid
Jul 10, 2012, 12:40 PM
That's the #1 reason I don't want forced Japanese voices. Many of the females have very annoying, high-pitched voices in games. Persona 4's Japanese Rise? I want to cut my ears off so bad.

If you really want Japanese voices, far be it from me to stop you. Don't blindly call all dubs bad just because it isn't Japanese.

Thermalwolf
Jul 10, 2012, 12:42 PM
That's the #1 reason I don't want forced Japanese voices. Many of the females have very annoying, high-pitched voices in games. Persona 4's Japanese Rise? I want to cut my ears off so bad.

If you really want Japanese voices, far be it from me to stop you. Don't blindly call all dubs bad just because it isn't Japanese.

THANK YOU!

ChronoSphere
Jul 10, 2012, 01:20 PM
I don't understand how localization dubbing makes the English dub worse over the Japanese. Yes I'll admit, some companies get lazy and hire crappy voice actors, this is a sad fact...
You just stated one reason yourself.


My point, localization is localization, if you hate almost all English dubs then it's safe to say you hate the english language..False. I prefer to have my PC in English and I also prefer to communicate in English over German and Russian, Russian being my mother language.


Don't blindly call all dubs bad just because it isn't Japanese.Who exactly is saying ALL of them are bad?

I'm not against dubs. The problem here is not English dubs themselves, but their quality when it comes to anime. For some reason, most of the dubs that are awful are anime dubs, while games and especially movies are of much better quality.

I think this might have something to do with a prejudice of anime being "for kids" and "kids won't be able to tell a difference anyway" so it's "good enough".

As for pso2 having forced subs + JP voices, I don't see it happening. Should we really get global servers, it will be most likely that you just choose your language and both the text and the video will have the same.

P.S.: the reason I personally prefer JP voices is not because they are better per se, but because I prefer to play/watch the original, not the dubbed version. The language doesn't really matter. If an American or a German movie is released I will try to watch it in English or German respectively.

IAmSecretSpy
Jul 10, 2012, 01:24 PM
Its simple Really just play the Japanese version...
You get Updates almost 6-8 Months in advance then the US release.
You can learn some Japanese too :)

Rashiid
Jul 10, 2012, 01:32 PM
It wasn't a direct attack towards you. just in general. I know people that want Japanese voices in games simply because "they like the way it sounds" when they don't know a single bit Japanese outside of "hai." I can excuse music because it's not all about lyrics.

I don't care for original stuff, because I doubt they'll change any of the story. Phantasy Star isn't deep enough for them to butcher story.

iwerkout
Jul 10, 2012, 01:45 PM
Guys, guys, guys.

[Mute Button]


...




(Seriously... Just mute it and READ the captions they ALL have.)

:) Just here to help!

Coatl
Jul 10, 2012, 02:05 PM
The reason I'm highly skeptical of how well the English voicing will turn out is because I've seen very sparse occassions in which the english dub was decent.

I don't think we have as many Anti-English dub activists here as people claim, but most of the people with experience already know what to expect of the English voices of PSO2.

Also, who can honestly replace Echo's original voice actor? No one! >:I


Words.

Also, judging by your signature you don't like Aigis' dubbing. :c
The entire Persona 3 voice acting was pretty good I think, besides Fuuka.

Alenoir
Jul 10, 2012, 02:13 PM
Also, who can honestly replace Echo's original voice actor? No one! >:I

I wonder if Echo will still be a huge tsun when the game becomes English. There's a certain scene from the second matterboard that needs to be recorded so you can rewatch later for all that tsun'ness.

Rashiid
Jul 10, 2012, 02:15 PM
I like Aigis's voice, I just find it cute when she says that when she's this badass android in every other situation.

Both Teddy's voices annoyed me, but I like Fuuka's voice.

On topic though, I think we should at least wait to hear what it is. Again, I don't care if y'all don't like the English voices, but can we at least (can't stress that enough) hear what they are first before we assume the worst. That is what is bugging me and gives anti-dub people a really, really bad name.

Mega Ultra Chicken
Jul 10, 2012, 03:34 PM
That's the #1 reason I don't want forced Japanese voices. Many of the females have very annoying, high-pitched voices in games.
This.

Chik'Tikka
Jul 10, 2012, 03:57 PM
i think Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Elizabeth_McGlynn) should do Shion's voice+^_^+ and Richard Epcar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Epcar) should be in there somewhere too+^_^+ both of them did VA in Xenosaga games (Doctus and Ziggy) as well as GitS va (Motoko and Batou) +^_^+

NoiseHERO
Jul 10, 2012, 04:01 PM
http://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Greg-Ayres/

Should do Afin's voice...

I'd play story mode over 10 times...

LOOOOOOL...

Vylera
Jul 10, 2012, 04:06 PM
I have to wonder how badly they goung to butcher the voices, think they will allow you to switch between english and japanese? Lisa just won't be the same without her creepy as hell laugh she does. That and I hate dubs in general most of the time the voice does not match the char at all.

Because we've been exposed to the personalities the Japanese voices have assigned each of the characters, there's pretty much no way a dub will be able to match it.

SEGA should save everyone's trouble and just translate the text.

Dan Maku
Jul 10, 2012, 04:20 PM
Zeno or bust (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Yong_Bosch)

NoiseHERO
Jul 10, 2012, 04:29 PM
TAKE MORE THAN THAT TO KEEP ME DOWN!

Garnet_Moon
Jul 10, 2012, 04:36 PM
I sure hope they get Wendee Lee to be LISA! :love:

Vylera
Jul 10, 2012, 04:45 PM
Translate the in-game text, and I'm fine. I'm here to play the game.

They've already got us.


I think these are pretty much the main reasons why hiring VAs just isn't worth the money. A crap ton of English-speaking players are already disregarding the fact that they're playing a game they can/can almost/cannot understand. A crap ton of other English-speaking would-be-players just want to be able to know what their quest objectives are and stats mean without having to ask someone or refer to bumped.org. I'd like to bet that most people just hit the ESC key during cutscenes anyway because no one likes wasting time. They just want to play.

Voice acting is never going to be perfect, but a Japanese voice following an anime stereotype is a whole hell of a lot better than an American dub trying to be an anime stereotype. I'd say it's something like the difference between unoriginal and complete garbage.

Reyva
Jul 10, 2012, 04:46 PM
As long as the grunts, getting hit grunts, and tech casting grunts are not as bad as the PSU ones, I'm fine. These days, prefer a game that has voice in its story and dialogue at times. At the same time, if you just use the JP voices for your characters, that would be fine. However, I don't see that many game companies doing that seeing as you'll have "one guy" who will complain.

Eh and like what some other dude said, I ain't a fan of having JP voices in the story and quest dialogue. Not only do I not understand whats going on, the voices sometimes get really high pitched or annoying at times. I remember playing Xenoblade EP2 in JP at the Albedo scene in that snow area and they are so high pitched and annoying that I just turned the volume to mute.

Then again, I'm kinda surprised what some people said about the JP voices. Normally, I get those people who are like JP Voices > anything for English games because all JP VA are perfect and all the English ones are always always always always bad. Then again, I'm speaking to the console gaming playerbase since thats where it comes from mostly.

Dan Maku
Jul 10, 2012, 05:46 PM
I think it has been said a few times in this thread that VA is not really that big of a priority for most players. Lets face it. What do we really care about at the end of the day? What we'd really like to see are content updates present and on-time in the English version.

True enough. I could still hope, though, that should the game be dubbed, it not be dubbed as terribly as Gotcha Force. :3

Ghost Inside
Jul 10, 2012, 06:08 PM
P.S.: the reason I personally prefer JP voices is not because they are better per se, but because I prefer to play/watch the original, not the dubbed version. The language doesn't really matter. If an American or a German movie is released I will try to watch it in English or German respectively.
I'm like that too. I'd rather just have the original language whatever it is than a translation because you loose things in translation, and oftentimes the translation sucks. (Plus the censoring!) I have seen shows dubbed where the dub stomped on the original VA though, but generally those were cases where the original VA was pretty cruddy.

And as a side note I also cringe horribly when people pronounce names wrong or do terrible mispronounciations of another language. So just trying to watch a dubbed anime say and then have character names completely butchered I just sit there gritting my teeth and then I have to turn it off because I can't keep watching it!

With books I don't have the same sort of options but if the original was in english then at least I'd get that version. ._.
No, english is not my native language, swede here.

watashiwa
Jul 10, 2012, 06:09 PM
If they decide not to dub the game again AND remove all of the Japanese voices, like they did with the western release of AOTI and Phantasy Star Portable 2, I will be very sad.

I really want to get deeply involved in the game and it's story... I just can't do that with no voices whatsoever.

If they decide to not dub but keep the Japanese voices in, I would be OK with that. Not happy, but OK. At least I could get a sense of emotion by hearing the tones of the voices, but I really, really, really want them to dub all of dialog that exists in the Japanese version of the game. I would be very happy then. :)

gigawuts
Jul 10, 2012, 06:12 PM
I demand a Samuel L Jackson option for casts.

That is all.

(I've had enough of the mfing noodle dragons in this mfing cave)

Dan Maku
Jul 10, 2012, 06:16 PM
I demand a Samuel L Jackson option for casts.

That is all.

(I've had enough of the mfing noodle dragons in this mfing cave)

What about Christopher Sabat doing his best "scary black man" voice? >:3

gigawuts
Jul 10, 2012, 06:18 PM
No, Christopher Nolan!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-7QsBWWpA0

WHERE ARE THE RARES

Garnet_Moon
Jul 10, 2012, 06:27 PM
Hot stuff comin' yer way!
Want some ointment for that burn?
Time to cool you off!
How ice of you to join us.
Shocking, isn't it?
Zappity zap zap!
Return to the earth!
You're grounded!

JeyKama
Jul 10, 2012, 08:29 PM
My only concern with dubbing is that they tend to be absolutely terrible with modulating sound depth. I've been playing Xenoblade Chronicles and thank god it has a Japanese voice option, because the English voices (while not -terrible, though they are pretty awful) are all full-blast in your ears while the Japanese voices sound appropriately at a distance.

PSO2's voice options are kind of spammy though... I wish that the sentence clips happened somewhat less often - only so much "nogasanai!" I can take EVERY TIME I SHOOT.

Also, Lisa's voice acting has no English comparison. Unless she sounded like GlaDOS. But even then it wouldn't be Lisa.

Kimil Adrayne
Jul 10, 2012, 09:35 PM
English voices please. I'd rather be able to understand what I'm hearing over the headache I get now.

Kion
Jul 10, 2012, 09:54 PM
You are missing a lot..
The tempermental conversations that Echo and Xeno have together leave me ever so curious as to what actually goes on between them. Does Echo expect Xeno of being unfaithful? Is Xeno tired of Echo's strong attachment? They need a soap opra just for them.

We all know Lisa is a nutcase. So even translated, we'll never know what goes on up there.
I feel like this could be ruined in the localized version of PSO2 though. Just a feeling.

Find the answers to all of this and more in the Translation Thread (http://www.pso-world.com/forums/showthread.php?t=197539). Xeno and Echo are childhood friends. They generally get up in arms at each other for doing things like Echo running off, or Xeno going the wrong way, but when they're apart they're always searching for the other.



Because the majority is. Western people are unable to even pronounce Japanese names properly - that or they just don't care.

Do you like when someone speaks horribly broken English? I don't. I also cringe inwardly when someone starts speaking broken Russian, German or Japanese. Especially when they are adamant about their pronunciation being good/correct.

It doesn't mean Japanese voiceovers are always better though (their English.. oh god, their English D:), but the ratio is much higher on the English side, sadly. That was one of the reasons that motivated me to actually learn Japanese.

And not only English. I remember listening to some German dubs. The guy literally went "oh. no. we. are going. to die." in a completely monotonous voice. It felt like they were reading from a sheet of paper.

The reason some people think Japanese voiceovers are cheesy or feel weird could be because of cultural differences. Japanese speech flow and intonation is different from English, so it creates a weird feeling for some people.

Anyway, rant off :x

The nice thing about PSO2 is that most of the games are pretty much in English anyways, so that's not a problem. I think the game actually has a lot of potential for a translation, it mostly depends on how much effort they put into it. The only consideration i have for this game is that it's a western sega release so my expectations are extremely low. Hopefully they'll leave the JP option open like the disgaea games.

As for dubs, it's not a matter of english dubs being inferior, it's more a matter of natural dubs have a huge advantage. Most anime have better Japanese dubs generally because they have Japanese characters, locations, cultural situations which are hard to equate into another culture. In Japan i've the the reverse, I've seen speed, kung fu panda, the matrix, shrek and a bunch movies dubs in japanese and they all suck balls. So it's not a matter of language it's just that aside from rare occasions non-native dubs suck in general.

Hucast-Kireek
Jul 10, 2012, 11:13 PM
If we get voice acting at ALL, I hated how in PSU online story mode had no voice acting.

Dan Maku
Jul 10, 2012, 11:15 PM
On the subject of pronunciation: how hard can it be for English speakers to pronounce "Echo" or "Zeno" or "Jean" or "Riza" or "Shion?"

ChronoSphere
Jul 11, 2012, 07:35 AM
On the subject of pronunciation: how hard can it be for English speakers to pronounce "Echo" or "Zeno" or "Jean" or "Riza" or "Shion?"zino (instead of zeno), shión (instead of shíon).

It's mainly not pronouncing the names with correct emphasis (wrong syllable) or americanizing pronunciation of japanese syllables.

The pronunciation example was mainly aimed at Japanese names/terms in general. PSO2 doesn't seem to have many of them if at all, so it won't be that hard to localize.

Ryo
Jul 12, 2012, 07:00 PM
It'd be pronounced like "Xeno", actually. It has a soft e sound.

Chik'Tikka
Jul 12, 2012, 07:25 PM
It'd be pronounced like "Xeno", actually. It has a soft e sound.

xeno-

Having to do with foreigners, as in xenophilia, or more commonly, xenophobia.
From a foreign place, as in xenolith

So i always thought it was Xeno (zee-no) +^_^+

Dan Maku
Jul 12, 2012, 07:27 PM
Either way, the names are hardly Japanese exclusive. Some are even western (Jean, Theodore, Rebecca, just to name ones off the top of my head).

Anywho, here's my list of VAs I'd like:

Afin: Gregg Ayers
Zeno: Johnny Yong Bosch
Echo: Wendee Lee
Shion: Erin Fitzgerald
Lisa: Monica Rial
Aki: Amanda Winn Lee
Theodore: Spike Spencer
Matoi: Stephanie Sheh
Jean: Steve Blum

Tessu
Jul 12, 2012, 07:28 PM
I'm mainly going to miss that Japanese lady with the nice voice that announces things that I don't understand. You guys know the one.

Thermalwolf
Jul 12, 2012, 08:06 PM
Guys how is it anyway fair to say that it's not hard for us to pronounce there words and claim us for being bad for it when most Japanese can't even pronounce English words properly? Ignorance man, ignorance... Must be bliss...

On a side note unless you know both perfect Japanese and English, you don't have a real right to criticize. Both sides do the best they can to localize, it's all they can do. Suck it up and stop being biased.

Zarode
Jul 12, 2012, 08:09 PM
Guys how is it anyway fair to say that it's not hard for us to pronounce there words and claim us for being bad for it when most Japanese can't even pronounce English words properly? Ignorance man, ignorance... Must be bliss...

On a side note unless you know both perfect Japanese and English, you don't have a real right to criticize. Both sides do the best they can to localize, it's all they can do. Suck it up and stop being biased.

Stop being so sensitive.

chiramu
Jul 12, 2012, 09:21 PM
The weird thing about the dubs is that it would surely be more expensive cause of hiring new actors; they should really just do subs to save money :<.

Kimil Adrayne
Jul 12, 2012, 09:40 PM
Edit, Already posted in this thread, I see.