Gamelore
Member
Will the original Japanese be available as an option for the voiced sequences?
I'm thinking of pre-ordering or importing this, but I'm an anime purist (as I'd guess a good percentage of players in this market are). I don't know how long the voiced sequences are, but English is much less preferred.
Mimana will be all English, all the time. There will be no option to switch to Japanese dialog.
Kunio-kun
Jumbocock: Can I Really Be the Hero?
"English - Who needs that? I'm never going to England!"
Xelloss
Member
masuto said:
I know man. If you want jp voice then go import the game. I'm tired of people asking for jp voice.
I am tired of people asking for english only, myself. I cannot abide low budget english dubs, and that is not intended as a crack on Aksys. It is just a fact that Aksys nor any niche localizer is ever going to spend the kind of cash on voice work that the likes of Bioware, Quantic Dream , JP game devs do.
And if the import had english TEXT, I would happily import. My understanding is that JP releases typically do NOT.
I will ask though, is there an option to turn off voices and turn on subtitles? Lack of voicework period is not a deal breaker for me on a PSP game.
Rogue Ninja
Member
Xelloss said:
I will ask though, is there an option to turn off voices and turn on subtitles? Lack of voicework period is not a deal breaker for me on a PSP game.
I'm pretty sure that's what Gamelore asked, and Belisarius said:
Belisarius said:
Mimana will be all English, all the time. There will be no option to switch to Japanese dialog.
I suppose you could always turn off all the sound if you have to.
Xelloss
Member
Rogue Ninja said:
I'm pretty sure that's what Gamelore asked, and Belisarius said:I suppose you could always turn off all the sound if you have to.
I thought Gamelore asked if it could be switched to JP, I was asking if you could turn off dialogue completely, and independently of other sound. ( keep general game sound, but no voices) It is not an uncommon feature, but also not standard.
Xelloss said:
I thought Gamelore asked if it could be switched to JP, I was asking if you could turn off dialogue completely, and independently of other sound. ( keep general game sound, but no voices) It is not an uncommon feature, but also not standard.
You can adjust (i.e., turn all the way down) the voices in battle, but not during story sequences.
Levi
Member
Xelloss said:
I am tired of people asking for english only, myself. I cannot abide low budget english dubs, and that is not intended as a crack on Aksys. It is just a fact that Aksys nor any niche localizer is ever going to spend the kind of cash on voice work that the likes of Bioware, Quantic Dream , JP game devs do.And if the import had english TEXT, I would happily import. My understanding is that JP releases typically do NOT.
I will ask though, is there an option to turn off voices and turn on subtitles? Lack of voicework period is not a deal breaker for me on a PSP game.
Have you played Dragon Age? Some of that voice acting is horrible, -your mother is a classy lady- horrible. Some of it is great. I thought that Aksys' dub of Blazblue was incredible, so I'm hoping the dub for Mimana is of the same caliber. I will agree that a language option is always a nice option to have, just to please people on both sides.
Hollow_Ninja
Member
I think a lot of people don't realize the issues involved with using Japanese voice acting. Japanese voice acting contracts require that they be payed every time their voices are used. Which means, for Aksys to use JP voices, they'd have to pay the original voice actors, meaning that the dub itself would be compromised in quality. Maybe the Aksys staff can clear this up, or maybe they're not allowed to talk about it, but this is what I've been able to gather.
So, the fact that there's no JP VA is a good thing. I can think of at least one game in which the JP voiceovers resulted in a sacrifice to the dub, namely Ar Tonelico 1 (which had amazing English voice acting but I could count the number of voiced scenes on two hands).
Xelloss
Member
Levi said:
Have you played Dragon Age? Some of that voice acting is horrible, -your mother is a classy lady- horrible. Some of it is great. I thought that Aksys' dub of Blazblue was incredible, so I'm hoping the dub for Mimana is of the same caliber. I will agree that a language option is always a nice option to have, just to please people on both sides.
Yes I played DA:O ,and sure everything wasn't perfect. Same with ME:2 , which really further emphasizes me my point TBQH. Biowares budget for voicework has at least one extra zero in the budget compared to a localizing publisher, quite possibly 2. They have huge talented staff and huge budget and still cannot please everyone. I find some of their work less than perfect, I find most dub work by niche localizers of all stripes typically less than tolerable. There are exceptions.
I try not to come across as giving localizers a hard time about the voice work though, many of them including Aksys IMO, do quite well with the resources available. Blazblue dub is indeed tolerable, but it is also a fighting game. For me, RPG games are about story and immersion etc - most dub work has to many instances of annoyance that I personally find distracting. Which is why I am fine if there are no voices (especially on portable games), that way at least I am not bothered by the dub.
Hollow_Ninja , you are correct that often there are financial and/or contractual obligations regarding use of JP voices in a localization. That is somewhat common knowledge, though only Aksys knows if it was that, or other reasons that precluded their inclusion here and they probably will not ever disclose that info.
Anyhow, thanks Belisarius for answering my question. I hope I am not coming across as bashing Aksys or anything, and might end up getting the game anyhow. I just have my own preferences and taste.
I also do occasionally buy dubbed games, even if I know I wont like the dub - a lot depends on how bored I am. Right now, with all the awesome game releases hitting one after another, a dubbed JRPG will have a much harder time finding its way into my budget. But in 6 months, chances of an impulse PSN buy are still good. Being dub-only just moves games down a few notches on my priority list. ^_^
Rogue Ninja
Member
Just curious Xelloss, as you obviously have a preference for original Japanese language in your Japanese games. Do you still buy them if they have bad voice acting? As I've heard some that are just cringe-worthy. Is it easier to play if you can't tell how bad it is? Nothing against "original language" games, as I sometimes have a preference too, I was just wondering why some people are so dead-set on Japanese track only.
Xelloss
Member
Rogue, I think you hit on something. Though some JP acting is very good, there is certainly plenty that is not. But yes, if the acting is terrible that can put me off somewhat in a JP game, but also yes, it is a lot harder to get an "eye-rolling moment" when you cannot understand what they are saying I think.
I am fairly positive that I have, unknowingly or half knowingly played games with JP audio that dished out lines that probably make every normal Japanese person cringe in pain to hear. Ignorantly, I play on because the way it reads in english text is not nearly so intensely cliche. I cannot say for sure that this has happened, but I am fairly sure it has.
Anyhow, I think the core of the matter is the original developer seems to do better casting for parts. To many times, for example, with villains especially- a dub for a fairly nefarious and sinister character sounds like my neighbor trying to sound sinister when he is half drunk at a Halloween party.
Like I said , there are exceptions though. Not all dubs are unbearable or even bad. It just seems to me that in this case the exceptions prove the rule. If the audio quality was good to begin with, I would just rather listen to that and read subtitles than get new voices that have an 80% chance of annoying me. The original acting might even be bad, but as long as the tone and timbre of the voice fits the character - I will never know that the actual acting is in fact terrible.
Gamelore
Member
Yes, I agree that the original dub is of higher caliber most of the time (as originally directed), so original Japanese (in this case) is preferred.
My reason for wanting original Japanese has evolved to something more, however. As a result of original dubs being stronger, I began studying Japanese a couple years ago so I can play imports. However, I primarily seek games that provide both Japanese voicing and an optional English translation so I'm not totally lost. The translation can either be an import with Eng. subtitles, or a US version with JP dub. Either of these options is preferred to a pure import or a pure Eng. dub.
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (DS), for example, had voicing in JP, but all voicing was deleted completely for US with no replacement. That was just offensive to me -- did they really think JP voicing + subtitles more annoying (and costly) than silence + subtitles?
There might be others in the same situation as me, but I don't think it's that common. Anyway, I also drop JP games with pure Eng. dubs down quite a lot on my priority list.
VioletWitch
Member
Guys, it's a simple answer, really; capacity. There's simply not enough room on a UMD to hold two entire language options. BlazBlue couldn't do it either. The maximum on these things is 1.8 GB, so there's really nothing they can do, unless they compress the -your mother is a classy lady- out of them...
Gaming King
Member
VioletWitch said:
Guys, it's a simple answer, really; capacity. There's simply not enough room on a UMD to hold two entire language options. BlazBlue couldn't do it either. The maximum on these things is 1.8 GB, so there's really nothing they can do, unless they compress the -your mother is a classy lady- out of them...
BlazBlue Portable is English only? -your mother is a classy lady- yeah! ^_^
Komali
Member
@Rogue Ninja
I don't mind if there is an English dub or not, actually it's great since a lot of people don't like tons of reading, and if it helps the game sell more, why not?
My problem is the choice of the company to REMOVE the original audio track.
Even if the original was worse than the English dub, I still would not buy it because I feel that it is an incomplete version of the game.
And I'm sorry, but no, there is not one Japanese game that I have ever played with "cringe-worthy" voices and I would really love to hear what game you are talking about...
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