I've felt this way for a long time, and I don't think my opinion has changed at all even in recent years. To me, whenever a Japanese-developed game offers dual audio with the option to choose either original Japanese spoken dialog or an English language track it's always 100% clear-cut that the JP audio is preferable. Now, I do understand that the "subbed vs dubbed" debate has raged on for decades within the realm of anime discussion, and full disclosure I feel the same when it comes to watching Japanese films/TV series as well.
It's just... no matter how good people insist that a particular game's English dub is, it always sounds pretty bad to me. Like 100% of the time. Nearly every single Japanese-developed game that I can think of that offers dual language tracks features the same kind of detached, awkward budget anime-style voice acting that just takes me out of every scene. The voices often don't align that closely with how the character looks. They also don't tend to sound as skillfully mixed into the game's audio as the JP track, with voices sounding like they're in a recording studio rather than using processing to blend them into the game's aural landscape. And then when you have English voice actors using honorifics or other language quirks that sound fine in Japanese but odd in English it just brings things down another notch for me.
I don't meant to disparage the voice actors who worked on this, but it sounds drastically inferior to the game's excellent JP audio.
I got to thinking about this after seeing countless people in the OT for 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim praise its English dub while also acknowledging the quality of the original JP voice acting as well. But honestly... I think it sounds SOOOOOOOOO much worse in English. 13 Sentinels was one of the best games I've played in years, and it physically pains me to know that a good number of people are experiencing it dubbed. It's such a dialog-heavy game with rather nuanced character writing/acting, and every scene I've watched in English just completely falls flat compared to the original audio for me.
Ah, much better.
I don't mean to insist that my opinion is superior to those who prefer dubbed English tracks in Japanese games that offer both options, so please don't read this OP as some kind of attempt to force my preference on others. I'm just genuinely curious to know how people feel about this subject. Do you relate to my stance on the matter? If not, could you explain to me why you prefer English dubs when they often exhibit the shortcomings that I feel they do? Is it just a matter of not wanting to have to read subtitles?
It's just... no matter how good people insist that a particular game's English dub is, it always sounds pretty bad to me. Like 100% of the time. Nearly every single Japanese-developed game that I can think of that offers dual language tracks features the same kind of detached, awkward budget anime-style voice acting that just takes me out of every scene. The voices often don't align that closely with how the character looks. They also don't tend to sound as skillfully mixed into the game's audio as the JP track, with voices sounding like they're in a recording studio rather than using processing to blend them into the game's aural landscape. And then when you have English voice actors using honorifics or other language quirks that sound fine in Japanese but odd in English it just brings things down another notch for me.
I don't meant to disparage the voice actors who worked on this, but it sounds drastically inferior to the game's excellent JP audio.
I got to thinking about this after seeing countless people in the OT for 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim praise its English dub while also acknowledging the quality of the original JP voice acting as well. But honestly... I think it sounds SOOOOOOOOO much worse in English. 13 Sentinels was one of the best games I've played in years, and it physically pains me to know that a good number of people are experiencing it dubbed. It's such a dialog-heavy game with rather nuanced character writing/acting, and every scene I've watched in English just completely falls flat compared to the original audio for me.
Ah, much better.
I don't mean to insist that my opinion is superior to those who prefer dubbed English tracks in Japanese games that offer both options, so please don't read this OP as some kind of attempt to force my preference on others. I'm just genuinely curious to know how people feel about this subject. Do you relate to my stance on the matter? If not, could you explain to me why you prefer English dubs when they often exhibit the shortcomings that I feel they do? Is it just a matter of not wanting to have to read subtitles?
