“Playing a Japanese game with Japanese voices is what the director had in mind“ is a misconception
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Oh yeah, japanese VA is complete trash. The people working on there as actors, the technology, the scene, the directors and choices and everything is better on english. Geez, and people say that the sub side of english speakers is the bad one when you have to read something like that.
It weird that people think they can judge acting quality of languages they don't understand.
Just say it sounds bad to you, that's about as much as you know
Just say it sounds bad to you, that's about as much as you know
I guess the sarcasm didn't catch, tried to clarify it by including the 7/10 thing.
I don't disagree with you, in most instances. I've only seen a few fairly poor Japanese voiced shows. (AoT I'm looking at you)
She is literally a robot. That is completely intentional, and if the Japanese voices dont sound stiff and uptight, than it's objectively worse for a character like 2B.
Already said, but since everyone is ignoring the point and complimenting this short sighted argument I'll answer again: because good acting is more about delivering your line with an appropriate and convincing tone than it is about understanding every single word.
Unless there's some form of autism or some other social impairment involved anyone should be able to tell apart someone screaming a sentence with a genuine hint of despair in his voice and someone being just loud with a flat tone, for instance. That will be true even in a foreign language.
Yu Yu Hakusho and Space Dandy are proof that the English dub is capable of being superior.
Even if the dub isn't the best I still usually prefer the dub because I don't like having to read subtitles. If I have to I will but I prefer the option. It's why I'm glad Cross Tag Battle was dubbed.
Even if the dub isn't the best I still usually prefer the dub because I don't like having to read subtitles. If I have to I will but I prefer the option. It's why I'm glad Cross Tag Battle was dubbed.
That has like almost zero to do with it.
Every person in this thread can hear the difference between someone who can't hold a tone, can't scream/sing/giggle/shout/etc. and someone who can. Has nothing to do with understanding what is said.
Maybe it's because most entertainment is made for the english speaking amrket from scratch but every country where english isn't the main language can tell dozen of stories about bad dubbing.
The reason why i'm consuming my entertainment in english and not in german is because nearly 90% of gaming/anime dubs are shit in german. You can hear when the studio paid enough for their talent. Stuff from Disney, Warner Bros. (Cartoons) and nickelodeon and many Movies TV-Shows have fantastic dubing and even most english dub fans love the german dubbing.
And i understand both but choose almost always english dubbing for my games because most german game dubs are not on the same level.
Disney dubs in german work because their talent is capable of screaming, crying, laughing and can act so it's believable. Has nothing to do with understanding the language. Feelings and tone of voice has nothing to do with the language that is used.
Same with japanese. Of course not all dubs are gonna be 100% better than the english one but it's mostly because of the money spend. Japan has a big pool of highly trained voice actors and, like with english dubs for big games, the money spend for the native dub is mostly way higher.
This is what i'm talking about. This level of voice acting has nothing to do with the language used but with how good the acting of the scene is. These are her real tears and she is going through that to get the tone of the scene right. That happens when directors don't use the 1 or 2 take because the clock is ticking and the actor is expensive. Most dubs in a foreign language can't get to this level because of money constraints.
If you can't hear the difference or simply don't care enough, that's ok. others can and honestly just want to experience the art in the best form.
Sorry then. It's just that the argument about people not able to see if it's good or bad when they don't understand the language is quite stupid because it's for some way only used when people praise the Japanese VA. But for the case of talking badly of it, you don't need to speak japanese at all.
I never thought about it before until today and well, it's quite ridiculous and hypocrite to say the least lol
I understand and speak Japanese. Quite a lot more than a bit.
But it's funny how many times I had to repeat it in this thread to people that just (wrongly) assume "if you think Japanese voice acting on Japanese games is generally better, then you must not understand Japanese."
PS: No voice acting, in any language, sounds like real people. That's why voice actors are *actors* and not common real people picked from the street.
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I think most people into Japanese culture already know this, as most anime voice acting take their roots from Japanese theater, instead of real life. One conversations with a Japanese person will tell you that the conversation speed is way faster in real life than it is in anine.
I don't care how "authentic" it supposedly feels I'm not listening to Japanese Rise and Teddie for some 40 plus hours.
Frankly I feel the opposite. Watching a subtitled anime vs the same anime dubbed, 9 times out of 10 I'll prefer the dubbed script.
The sub translations tend to be more literal and dry while the dub will add more personality. I'm sure there's arguments to be made about authenticity but I usually find it just helps the overall work.
Frankly I feel the opposite. Watching a subtitled anime vs the same anime dubbed, 9 times out of 10 I'll prefer the dubbed script.
The sub translations tend to be more literal and dry while the dub will add more personality. I'm sure there's arguments to be made about authenticity but I usually find it just helps the overall work.
It all comes down to subtitles, which are usually very poor. ALL dialogue should be subtitled, otherwise I'll stick with the eng dubb. If more games would be like Metal Gear or naughty dog games when it comes to subtitles I would be able to play them in their own way original language.q
for me i don't really like the voice tone of english VA in general, japanese dub most of the time feel way too overdramatic and trying really hard to sound cool or cute. tough, i don't really care about what language used in games as long as game dev put english subtitles.
You completely lose any nuance with a foreign language you don't understand. Like previous posters have said, you can't tell when it's cheesily melodramatic or subtle and grounded.
Okay. So we have one guy who actually knows what he's talking about in an internet awash with Japanophiles. You are the (apparently quite qualified) exception to the rule.
For me at least, I can't actually tell what is generally considered good Japanese voice acting from both those that speak the language and those that do not. It's easy enough to tell when the English dub is overly dry or dramatic, but not Japanese for me. I don't know if it's strictly a regional perference or what, but (this happens a lot in anime) the conveying of emotions rarely comes off as appropriate for the situation or natural in the games I've played with the Japanese audio left on. It's often full of high-strung sounding dialogue that just escalates out of control, or if it's supposed to show excitement, happiness or sadness, it just goes completely over the top in such a way that you would almost rarely hear a human in person talk.
So is it good voice acting compared to what might be really popular in anime? I don't know, maybe? But does it sound good compared to traditional English voice acting (or acting in general, in any language) that actually does convey thoughts and feelings well through inflections? From what I've heard at least, rarely. I don't listen to it, or refuse to listen to it just because I don't understand it. I stop listening when it just becomes grating, which has been more often than not. Plus, I also don't really have any reason to listen to the non English track unless it's just really bad. But having grown up with the poor English dubs we've had, maybe I've just built up a tolerance to it.
In live action movies though? Always the native language.
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A lot of Japanophiles study Japanese, because they like to understand their hobby. So you're still wrong.
I'm a big fan of particular seiyuu, so I like picking the Japanese voices so I can be like "woo yeah, it's this guy" and that's about it.
Lackluster performance from seiyuu definitely exist, but from they don't show up often in non-indies because they have the power to get seasoned veterans.
To me, the quality of the localization for the script is the most important in whether I enjoy the English dub or not. I think the Persona series does a good job but the fact that they keep in the honorifics kills me.
Lackluster performance from seiyuu definitely exist, but from they don't show up often in non-indies because they have the power to get seasoned veterans.
To me, the quality of the localization for the script is the most important in whether I enjoy the English dub or not. I think the Persona series does a good job but the fact that they keep in the honorifics kills me.
I study Japanese as much as any of these dudes. Anime fans have a horrible reputation when it comes to actual formal study of the Japanese language. As many genuinely good scanlation groups there are, there are magnitudes more of people who claim to study Japanese, but would struggle to pass the Jlpt n1.
No, in fact it's quite obvious to tell if it's in that way or not and it's easily able to do that be it in theater, musicals, movies, dorama, games or anime. You don't need to know the language to be able to read what the person is doing. It's the same in english and japanese, two foreign languages to me.
Yeah, it always amazes me how this side is massacred but you always see the other side being like that as well.
Metro: Last Light has Mark Ivanir as Pavel. Absolutely outstanding performance. Child characters aside, the quality of voice acting in the Metro games is generally top notch. (On a similar note, Robin Atkin Downes is outstanding in both STALKER and Metro.)
Lip sync animations in Japanese games are usually tailored to Japanese voices
Then other languages dub on top to the mouth animations so won't be as authentic have to change some words around to make it fit etc
Just like Western games lips animations are first tailored to English language then dubbed on top with other languages
Then other languages dub on top to the mouth animations so won't be as authentic have to change some words around to make it fit etc
Just like Western games lips animations are first tailored to English language then dubbed on top with other languages
Glory for mankind sounded better in Japanese than in English so went with that for NierAutomata.
Honestly it depends on the game and which one is done better. Games like DMC I can't play them in Japanese but would rather play a jrpg like SMT in Japanese.
Honestly it depends on the game and which one is done better. Games like DMC I can't play them in Japanese but would rather play a jrpg like SMT in Japanese.
No, you don't.
Or maybe you do, to some degree. But then again "losing nuance" is about, you know, *nuances*.
It doesn't even come into play when there is an immediate and apparent gap in quality.
Also, you may have doubts in some cases, but most of the times you'll know when you just heard a good delivery.
Of course you won't be able to tell the quality of these words, how well picked they are, what they mean, etc. But that's writing and that's where subtitles help. Tone delivery is a completely different thing.
And for the record, I'm definitely not a "Japanophile". That's a general concept I hold to even for things from other foreign countries.
Fuck it. English itself is foreign culture, from my perspective.
Both English and Russian are good in Metro, for Last Light anyway. I played the first one a couple of times with different audio and Artyom's voice is really quite different for both languages. He's much more gravelly in Russian, whereas he sounds more sad and pensive in English.
Every time I hear someone explain their reasons why they can't listen to english VA, Its always the same reasons I don't like Japanese VA. I don't consider it my loss or am I bothered if any game or anime is not available in my language, Is what it is. But I do hope one day it becomes standard for games out of Japan to have multiple audio tracks day 1.
I think the OP is generally right. I don't assume that a game's main language is "supposed to be Japanese" just because the game's origin is in Japan.
Especially in today's world where localization is thought out way in advance and the game may in fact have no "original language" with both English and Japanese recorded and implemented at the same time.
But if the setting of the game is specifically Japan, I might indeed play in Japanese. I don't want to hear people talk about themselves as Japanese in their Japanese setting in English. Doubly so if they use honorifics.
Especially in today's world where localization is thought out way in advance and the game may in fact have no "original language" with both English and Japanese recorded and implemented at the same time.
But if the setting of the game is specifically Japan, I might indeed play in Japanese. I don't want to hear people talk about themselves as Japanese in their Japanese setting in English. Doubly so if they use honorifics.
I don't really care one way or the other about voice acting in English or Japanese, but I do wish people would stop peddling this pucky about Japanese voice actors being Hollywood or even TV-tier actors. You're not going to be seeing Tomokazu Sugita or whoever in anything beyond video games or anime. The closest they'll get is dubbing foreign media, which is something often done by their English speaking equivalents across the pond. A lot of "top-tier acting jobs" in Japan go to members of whatever boy/girl bands are popular at the time or models, who often have little to no acting talent whatsoever.
This is funny because I'm not from an English speaking country. I am from a country that gets US versions because it's our closest gaming hub.
"Hate" may be a strong word, but we are in a thread where people are opining on what they think about what other people do. I 100% find it unthinkable to storm a company's Twitter account just because they didn't add a JP VA option.
Whatever you prefer. I really like the English dub, but some people prefer the original.
Language comprehension isn't binary. You can have enough of a comprehension of a language to appreciate its acting while not being proficient enough to listen to it without subtitles.
This is the key thing that people don't seem to understand. And I assume most of those people are unilingual anglophones.
LOL, I literally looked it up to be sure and still got them mixed up.
"reputation" is as solid an argument as perception. Which means not solid at all.
This brings up another question: Does anyone play any games with voices set to a language other than English and Japanese? I've just messed around with it a few times. I played Assassin's Creed Unity in French, and went through ACII once in Italian.
What are even examples of games where the original VA language is something other than English or Japanese?
Whenever I get around to playing Metro I plan to play it in Russian. And I'd like to find a way to play STALKER in Ukranian with English text.
100% disagree. US uses great voice actors for videogames or cartoons because all major animated-movie roles are given to known stars. Basically, videogames became a very necessary market for professional voice actors in the past two decades or so since Disney/Dreamworks movies are a no-show.
What a great point, if that point is to be embarrassing.
Yup. It's exactly the same to me. I could play everything on brazilian portuguese if it's available (I'm from brazil) but I prefer to play japanese games with japanese VA if they're available (but if they're not, I'm buying either way) and western games in english all the time.
And with that you should know that people have total right to ask for the original VA, just like if a game is localized, we have the right to ask for the english dub if it's not available. The only thing that people want is a option to play in the way that they like. If there's option for many languages in a game, there's no reason for a company to not include the japanese one or even in cases where it's localized and it needs the option of the english dub.
For me it's weird, I wouldn't play Yakuza in English even if given the choice, but I much prefer something like Persona in English despite it making way more sense to be in Japanese.
I guess it's a game by game basis for me, but I usually prefer English dubs. Provided it's well performed, I'm just able to pick up on the nuances/subtleties more easily (as a native English speaker) and get more out of it.
I guess it's a game by game basis for me, but I usually prefer English dubs. Provided it's well performed, I'm just able to pick up on the nuances/subtleties more easily (as a native English speaker) and get more out of it.
Dudes on internet: yeah, you should play with Japanese VOs. So much better.
Me: turns on Japanese language VO and hears supposedly grown women speak in childlike high pitched voices.
Yea, that's gonna be a no for me dawg.
80 percent of the time this has been true for me.
Me: turns on Japanese language VO and hears supposedly grown women speak in childlike high pitched voices.
Yea, that's gonna be a no for me dawg.
80 percent of the time this has been true for me.
Nine times out of ten, voices sound off in the localized versions of games. This goes both ways. Western games with Japanese dubs aren't any exception; Japanese Joel is totally wrong and makes it seem like the Japanese side of things didn't understand the character.
But this isn't true for every game. There are gems like Final Fantasy XII (though JP Fran is better) and the MGS games.
But this isn't true for every game. There are gems like Final Fantasy XII (though JP Fran is better) and the MGS games.
