Sooo the first trailers in French and German dub for FF7:R released...

[Tribes of Trusty]

...what's your take on these fellow French/German era ?

Here are the different trailers so you can compare - they're all from the Game Awards (didn't find a Japanese dub) :

English dub


French dub


German dub



First of all, I really like how the English dub sounds. The characters speak like actual people, and the intonation and dialogue is good.

I'm pretty neutral on the German dub, not speaking the language, but I like how Cloud sounds, kind of like a jerk. I don't like Jesse's VA at all.


As for the French dub...as a native speaker, I don't like it - at all.
The most egregious is Cloud; he souns apathetic, a far cry from the "I'm a cool soldier"/cocky persona he gets in the English dub.
Tifa just sounds bad and awkward.
Jesse sounds good.
Biggs sounds good but he has only one line.
Wedge sounds like a saturday morning cartoon character.
Aerith only says 2 words, not enough to form an opinion.
Barett is actually the highlight of the trailer for me, he's speaking exacty as how I pictured he would.

I'm pretty woried about this voice acting, because FF XV was really stellar on this aspect, and I fear FFVIIR won't be up to the part. Plus, a lot of sentences/dialogue in the French dub trailer are constructed weirdly, and sound really weird. Maybe it's because the script is radically different from the English one (like they did for FFXV, the localization was quite different) and they had not choice but to put in dialogue that sound strange with that cut ?

So what do Era think ?

 

[HK-47]

I have not been impressed with the English voice direction thus far.

 

[Yuntu]

German native speaker here. They casted a solid VA cast except Barret, he sounds too soft for me.

Still really like the english dub.

 

[CaptainKashup]

The French voice actors are the one from Advent Children, and a lot of them are usually really really good at their job.
But I agree, as someone who's really invested in French Dubs in general, this doesn't sound really good. And it's weird because FF XV French dub was absolutely amazing, the director of the game was directly involved with it actually, but that doesn't seem to be the case this time.

 

[Hanbei]

French dub is okay. Not terrible, not great either.

 

[LowParry]

English dub sounds perfectly fine. I don't understand the complaints. That new trailer make it sounds a lot better too since it's not some weirdly sliced trailer like the last one.

 

[hobblygobbly]

German dub is good but nothing exceptional

 

[zoabs]

English voice direction is ALMOST there. But it still feels anime/exaggerated in some instances.

But definitely some of the better JRPG voice acting I've heard just judging off the short snippets released so far.

French was better than German but I don't have too strong of an opinion of either. (As I don't speak either language)

 

[RisingStar]

I thought the French VA is fine. Then again, I don't play games in French at all besides say Heavy Rain so I wouldn't really be knowledgeable on French dub quality beyond say anime and some cartoons from the 80s and 90s.

 

[Tribes of Trusty]

The French voice actors are the one from Advent Children, and a lot of them are usually really really good at their job.
But I agree, as someone who's really invested in French Dubs in general, this doesn't sound really good. And it's weird because FF XV French dub was absolutely amazing, the director of the game was directly involved with it actually, but that doesn't seem to be the case this time.

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Eeeeeh that dub was pretty bad in my memory so I can't say I'm anticipating it knowing that now...

French dub is okay. Not terrible, not great either.

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I had hoped they would cast the same director as FFXV's, apparently not.

 

[Blackpuppy]

I just saw this on Youtube and that French dub is just.... ouch. The women sound too high-pitched for one. Barrett is alright.

 

[UnluckyKate]

Cloud sounds ok. The others soldiers sound like children

 

[jdstorm]

I typically play FF games in French (Native English speaker, okay at French) because I think the language fits the asthetic, so I hope it's good.

Edit: In terms of the French Dub. Barret and Tifa seem good. Tifa is a bit akward in that seen but I think that's the point. Cloud and Aireth are ???? But are probably fine over the course of the game

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

I typically play FF games in French (Native English speaker, okay at French) because I think the language fits the asthetic, so I hope it's good.

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What did you think of the french voices in the trailer here?

 

[Tribes of Trusty]

Cloud sounds ok. The others soldiers sound like children

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Especially Wedge but I figured he always was supposed to sound a bit juvenile

 

[JuanLatino]

i don't have to cringe when i listen to the english trailer - thats not a given when it comes to JRPG's so im happy

 

[Chamon]

No spanish?? 😢

 

[Tribes of Trusty]

No spanish?? 😢

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Apparently not, the only dubs in the making are Japanese, English, French and German. A lot of subtitle languages though...

 

[Nugnip]

They released a french trailer back during the Paris Games Week. It's cheap anime level of awful.

Edit: that trailer sounds way better than the PGW one. Still not great though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE_4zB6BKxU

 

[AuthenticM]

The previous French trailer had sold me on the French dub being better than the English one, but here it's much different. The English voice acting is not only better, but the localization is much more natural, and just better-written it feels.

I'll play the game in both languages, so we'll see.

It's a shame that the French dub isn't being handled by the same people as XV's, as that one had a really great localization.

 

[Turin]

English dub sounds perfectly fine. I don't understand the complaints. That new trailer make it sounds a lot better too since it's not some weirdly sliced trailer like the last one.

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Everyone has different tolerance thresholds for the anime style voice direction but I think the only consensus major complaint is Barret....

 

[Rynam]

For your correction iCham thats not the first Trailer in German. The Gamescom one was German already too.

 

[Ricker]

The French is okay,I just thought Barret was a little bad but we only hear like 2 lines from him and in one of them,the subtitle is not exactly what he is saying,which happens sometimes...the girls are fine as well...if the lipsynch is good,I see no problem.

 

[Cliff Steele]

Native German speaker. Really like the German VA and I will play it that way.

 

[Bedameister]

German Cloud is solid. The rest rather not. Hope I can chose the English dub

 

[thefragrance]

i don't have to cringe when i listen to the english trailer - thats not a given when it comes to JRPG's so im happy

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I feel the same but it still sounds weird. Compared to another Japanese developed game like remake2, Square still falls behind in the VA dept.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

French Barret is just the right amount of over the top. I love it!

And the best thing is, the French version is translated directly from the Japanese script, not from the English. This means less translation errors and strange localization changes.

 

[Ketaya]

German native speaker here. They casted a solid VA cast except Barret, he sounds too soft for me.

Still really like the english dub.

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Barret is the same voice as Kratos though, which I think is actually a pretty good choice in theory.

Have to wait for more material to say if I like or dislike the German dub, so far I'm mostly fine with the male voices but hate most of the female lines I heard, way to anime squeeky.

 

[Renfran]

I don't know. Sounds great to me. FFXV had great voices too. Final Fantasy, generally has really good voices. Cloud sounds great. They did good casting a full Hollywood cast and it shows, because the acting is represented there with the main cast. Can't speak for the other languages as I don't understand them.

As for why they're "anime" "over the top" It's exactly like the original FFVII on PSX. Barrett was always over the top nonsense. They captured it perfectly especially with that line where he was pointing at Cloud. That's Barrett. I don't think they're trying to go for realism here, they're trying to honor the original and it's great. Resident Evil 2 was the same. They kept all these cheesy over the top nonsense from the original. No reason to change what made the games so endearing in the first place.

 

[thefragrance]

The French voice actors are the one from Advent Children, and a lot of them are usually really really good at their job.
But I agree, as someone who's really invested in French Dubs in general, this doesn't sound really good. And it's weird because FF XV French dub was absolutely amazing, the director of the game was directly involved with it actually, but that doesn't seem to be the case this time.

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The French voices in xv sounded really good to me, and I don't even speak it fluently.

 

[Deleted member 721]

they uploaded in german and french but there's no japanese dub trailer?
if thats its, its very likely that the jump festa trailer will be the same, but in japanese

 

[JuanLatino]

I feel the same but it still sounds weird. Compared to another Japanese developed game like remake2, Square still falls behind in the VA dept.

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they definetely do.
But honestly im more worried about the cinematography and cutscenes than the VA
those weird anime movements...hope they don't overdo it

 

[Deleted member 15428]

...what's your take on these fellow French/German era ?

Here are the different trailers so you can compare - they're all from the Game Awards (didn't find a Japanese dub) :

English dub


French dub


German dub



First of all, I really like how the English dub sounds. The characters speak like actual people, and the intonation and dialogue is good.

I'm pretty neutral on the German dub, not speaking the language, but I like how Cloud sounds, kind of like a jerk. I don't like Jesse's VA at all.


As for the French dub...as a native speaker, I don't like it - at all.
The most egregious is Cloud; he souns apathetic, a far cry from the "I'm a cool soldier"/cocky persona he gets in the English dub.
Tifa just sounds bad and awkward.
Jesse sounds good.
Biggs sounds good but he has only one line.
Wedge sounds like a saturday morning cartoon character.
Aerith only says 2 words, not enough to form an opinion.
Barett is actually the highlight of the trailer for me, he's speaking exacty as how I pictured he would.

I'm pretty woried about this voice acting, because FF XV was really stellar on this aspect, and I fear FFVIIR won't be up to the part. Plus, a lot of sentences/dialogue in the French dub trailer are constructed weirdly, and sound really weird. Maybe it's because the script is radically different from the English one (like they did for FFXV, the localization was quite different) and they had not choice but to put in dialogue that sound strange with that cut ?

So what do Era think ?

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It's not the first trailer:

 

[Tribes of Trusty]

They released a french trailer back during the Paris Games Week. It's cheap anime level of awful.

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For your correction iCham thats not the first Trailer in German. The Gamescom one was German already too.

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I stand corrected, I had no idea. Was the French trailer released ?

It's a shame that the French dub isn't being handled by the same people as XV's, as that one had a really great localization.

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It's Dune Sound and yeah they did a terrific job on XV, but then again they also did Deus Ex Mankind Divided which wasn't good imho

French Barret is just the right amount of over the top. I love it!

And the best thing is, the French version is translated directly from the Japanese script, not from the English. This means less translation errors and strange localization changes.

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Right ?? I especially love how angry he gets in the second line lol.

The French localization being translated directly from the Japanese script would explain the differences and is in line with how previous FFs (save for the original FF7 of course) were localized. It's a bit of a shame the subtitles seem to follow the French dub, I would've like an option to have subtitles for the dub and subtitles for the original Japanese version (there is a game that does this, but I can't remember)

 

[Tyaren]

As a German speaker I am positively surprised I actually like the German dub. It is really not bad at all. In 90% of all cases German game dubs make me cringe hard.

 

[Nugnip]

I stand corrected, I had no idea. Was the French trailer released ?

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Yeah, I edited my post. It sounds worse than this one.

 

[CaptainKashup]

The French voices in xv sounded really good to me, and I don't even speak it fluently.

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It is very good. One of the great dubs in France, right up there with most of Sony's first party and the Resident Evil series.

 

[Morrigan]

I checked both and I normally hate French dubs, but here I think found the French VA to be better. The English one is stilted and awkward as all hell. Tifa in French wasn't great but the others were better, especially Cloud.

Although.... what's with the opening lines being completely different?? 😕

In English:
- Cloud: "Look, I'm involved in things. Dangerous things."
- Aerith: "So?"
- Cloud: "So keep your distance."

In French (my translation)
- Cloud: "I should warn you... I know how to defend myself very well."
- Aerith: "So?"
- Cloud: "I will not let anyone intimidate me."

????

, but here it's much different. The English voice acting is not only better, but the localization is much more natural, and just better-written it feels.

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lol I completely disagree... xD

 

[wbloop]

German Cloud is solid. The rest rather not. Hope I can chose the English dub

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Yup, this. I think Cloud sounds great, Barret is fine, too, the others suffer from the typical German anime voice acting problem of very stiff line delivery and over-acting to the point I wanna cringe.

 

[Exist 2 Inspire]

I don't really like Cloud in german, the rest is solid.

 

[Tribes of Trusty]

Yeah, I edited my post. It sounds worse than this one.

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Oh yeah
That mid-90 anime dub feel.

 

[JuanLatino]

I checked both and I normally hate French dubs, but here I think found the French VA to be better. The English one is stilted and awkward as all hell. Tifa in French wasn't great but the others were better, especially Cloud.

Although.... what's with the opening lines being completely different?? 😕

In English:
- Cloud: "Look, I'm involved in things. Dangerous things."
- Aerith: "So?"
- Cloud: "So keep your distance."

In French (my translation)
- Cloud: "I should warn you... I know how to defend myself very well."
- Aerith: "So?"
- Cloud: "I will not let anyone intimidate me."

????


lol I completely disagree... xD

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i noticed some differences in the german one aswell (tough the core of the statement is the same and its just a small difference)

in english: i'd worry less about the planet and more about the next five seconds

german: in your position I would rather worry about my own life

 

[jdstorm]

What did you think of the french voices in the trailer here?

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I'm not super familiar with FF7 characters so I'll probably mess up names.

Cloud: I'm not sure if they nailed it or not. He sounds like an uncool person trying to sound like what a cool person would sound like, I'm hearing more faux gravitas then apathy. That's perfectly in line with the character. So I'm optimistic

Barrett: probably the best of all the Barrett's. He seems natural, strong and tough but in control while the others typically range from enraged to Mr T.

Tifa: is very natural and a bit akward which fits the scene. Seems like she will be great.

Aeirth: seems like they are trying for a posh, graceful ladylike voice. I don't think they achieved it but that's just two words so hopefully that's just a weak scene.

Nate drake sounding soilder guy sounds fine as a cool Everyman type.

Armour girl (Jesse?) seems a bit high pitched/anime too.

 

[Kokoro]

The french dub really sounds bad. No way I'm playing with this! I still don't know if I'm gonna play with english or japanese dub.

 

[Deleted member 5596]

No spanish?? 😢

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A Square Enix game dubbed in Spanish? Looooool For years they barely did Spanish subtitles.

 

[Exede]

Im german, i like most of the dub, specially Cloud. Theres a but though. Tifa sounds like a 12 year old child.

 

[Morrigan]

i noticed some differences in the german one aswell (tough the core of the statement is the same and its just a small difference)

in english: i'd worry less about the planet and more about the next five seconds

german: in your position I would rather worry about my own life

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Well this is different wording but at least has the same meaning. In my example, the meaning is completely different.

 

[Rynam]

Wonder if there's a list of all the voice actors in the dub already. Only know the VA from
Cloud (Felix Mayer) German Voice of Ash from Pokemon, and Sabo from One Piece
Aerith(Manja Doering) Same as the Advent Children movie
Barret(Tilo Schmitz) German Kratos
Tifa(Shandra Schadt) Same as the Advent Children movie, Boomer from Battlestar, and Seras from Hellsing

 

[JuanLatino]

Well this is different wording but at least has the same meaning. In my example, the meaning is completely different.

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true maybe its a translation of the japanese version (is there any?)

 

[Morrigan]

true maybe its a translation of the japanese version (is there any?)

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So then the Japanese and English versions would be wildly different too? Which is the "original" (I assumed it'd be the Japanese, but nowadays some AAA Japanese games write the English version first, I think)?