Why no english voices in Agarest?

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Why no english voices in Agarest?

(21 posts) (9 voices)

Started 1 year ago by aardbark
Latest reply from Griefy

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aardbark
Member

Now let me get this out of the way first, Ive already baught the game and I love it. I even got the special edition version.

When I poped it into my 360 and started playing, I was literaly stunned that there was no english voices.

Is it really that difficult to dub a game? I mean, Blaze Blue was dubbed. (which was totaly awesome) My biggest problem with it is the in battle dialog that there arent even subtitles for.

In order to make the game playible for me, I had to turn all voices off. Now its just like one of those classic silent characters RPG.

Its not really a big deal, Im just really currious how and why Aksys came to the deciion not to dub this excelent game.

Posted 1 year ago #
Rogue Ninja
Member

Can't please everyone apparently. You'll probably find a bunch of people glad that it wasn't dubbed. Personally, I can take it either way, so I'm fine with no English. It's not like they're running around a bunch and it's hard to follow what's going on.

Can I not elicit even a sarcastic quip?

Posted 1 year ago #
Quig
Member

I was glad that it wasn't dubbed. I have so many games where the english voice overs are so god-awful, that I would prefer to not hear it at all. I will give the distributers who brought Sakura Wars to the US (Sega, I think). They released the game with 2 disc, one is an english dubbed version and the other is strictly japaness language with subtitles. I probably will not even bother playing the english dubbed disc, but it is still nice to have. There are very few games where the english dub was done decently. I think Persona 3 F.E.S. and Persona 4 were really good, but there were still voice overs that were really bad...

Posted 1 year ago #
aardbark
Member

Yes, but that is a better way to releace a game. Have both english and japanese. That way everyone is happy.

I also find it very funny that for the most part, people in the online world hate dubbing. I will admit Ive heard some bad ones in my time. But for the most part, english dubbing is just fine.

Hell, to an english speking audiance, if the japanese dubbing was terrible, we wouldnt even know. We could only tell if it was like, completely monotone or something. I dont speak japanese, so how am I to know if the voice actors are good or not? Most of the time when I listen to japanese dubbing, it sounds like its terribly over acted. The actors might as well be chewing on the senery it sounds so hammy. But thats just my opinion.

To me it just seems to be a stupid move not to include an english track and a japanese one. Just look at sony. They wouldnt let Agarest be releaced on the PS3 because it wasnt dubbed. They got around that by making it download only. Seems pretty silly to me.

Posted 1 year ago #
Griefy
Member

Ok, first, its release (prime example why you should be reading to learn how to spell). Second, dubbing cost money as well as translating. Which of those two do you think cost more? There is also this thing called a budget as well. If it was in the budget I'm pretty sure they could have hired people for voices but generally, in a game like this its better to just read the story. People have become to spoiled since the PS1 era where everything must be dubbed. How about we start doing this instead, just dub the game and remove all the text associated with story. I'm sure that would make all these people who feel intimidated to read sleep better at night.

S-I-S-I-G-A-M-I
Shishigami Bang Bang!
PSN: OnesOwnGrief

Posted 1 year ago #
aardbark
Member

Im not applying for a job here, or this isnt school, its just a casual forum. Therefor I think some spelling errors are acceptible. I dont really feel like spell checking everything I write, just to satisfy some spelling nazi. You knew what I meant.

Also if youll note in my first post, I was currious as to what lead to the decision to not dubbing it. If budget (lack of funds, which I doubt looking at other Aksys games) was the answer, or the main reason that would be fine. I just wanted to know if there might possibly be other reasons, such as localization, or timeframe, or something I woulndt guess.

Posted 1 year ago #
x9248
Member

aardbark said:
Hell, to an english speking audiance, if the japanese dubbing was terrible, we wouldnt even know. We could only tell if it was like, completely monotone or something. I dont speak japanese, so how am I to know if the voice actors are good or not? Most of the time when I listen to japanese dubbing, it sounds like its terribly over acted. The actors might as well be chewing on the senery it sounds so hammy. But thats just my opinion.

Like you said, tone makes a huge difference. A lot of dub haters you see on the internet don't know a lick of Japanese either, but their tone is what sets them apart. Games like Agarest has a TON of talking (it's 9GB but only 1DVD for Xbox... lossless PCM audio prolly), a lot of them requiring emotional tones. Sadly in my experience English dubbers always mess this up. Certain characters from the latest Final Fantasy and Star Ocean are some prime examples... ugh.

I believe all new PS3 games should be dual-audio tho... you got a freakin' Blu-Ray disc to fill up which most developers don't even come close to using. Games like this tho I'm thankful doesn't have it. I'd rather not waste another 5GB of HDD space for a language I wouldn't use.

Posted 1 year ago #
Comandante
Member

For one thing, dubbing is MASSIVELY expensive. You have to pay actors a significant wage for just a few hours of work. A game like Agarest has a monumental amount dialogue and would take a long time to do making the release date take even longer. My guess, price and size of the project is what caused it to not be dubbed.

Posted 1 year ago #
salarta
Member

Or you could just be the CEO and pay your relatives to butcher the characters as perfectly as they possibly can. /ChaosWars

Posted 1 year ago #
aardbark
Member

Both the japanese and english for FF13 were terrible. But thats not mostly because of the actors, its because the dialog is terrible. The script that they are useing is just plain bad. No voice actor could make that sound good.

I havent played the newest Star Ocean so I cant comment on it. We have all heard terrible dubs such as Chaos Wars, but I must ask for examples of bad english dubbing. My expirience with games is the dubbing is fine, or there is one character or sceen that is not perfect, so people call the entire thing bad. What examples of bad english dubbing are out there?

Posted 1 year ago #
Hollow_Ninja
Member

The main problem was cost. It's a real shame Agarest wasn't dubbed, because the Japanese voice actors in it are absolutely horrible. And by that, I mean they're worse than the dub actors for Tri-Ace games.

I prefer to listen to dubs when they're good.

Posted 1 year ago #
aardbark
Member

Being a native english speaker, I perfer dubs too. Even if they are horrible. Not because I dont like reading. Ive read plently of books and played lots of RPGs that dont have any voices. But if there is going to be voices, might as well understand them.

There is a lot of dialog in this game, but a way around that is only dub the important sceens, and leave the rest as text only.

At the very least, give me subtitles for what the characters are saying in battle. I dont know if they are saying anything important, or just the standard "You defeated me."

Posted 1 year ago #
Griefy
Member

aardbark said:
Being a native english speaker, I perfer dubs too. Even if they are horrible. Not because I dont like reading. Ive read plently of books and played lots of RPGs that dont have any voices. But if there is going to be voices, might as well understand them.

There is a lot of dialog in this game, but a way around that is only dub the important sceens, and leave the rest as text only.

At the very least, give me subtitles for what the characters are saying in battle. I dont know if they are saying anything important, or just the standard "You defeated me."

If you've had a pretty good track record with japanese RPGs, especially those that do have voice, you'll notice that there's really nothing worth merit said during battle. If there was I'm pretty sure that Aksys would have done us the kind favor of throwing up a text box during said dialog.

S-I-S-I-G-A-M-I
Shishigami Bang Bang!
PSN: OnesOwnGrief

Posted 1 year ago #
aardbark
Member

Yea I figured that it was generaly pretty standard stuff. But sometimes it sounds like it could be something different. Like when the main character takes out one of his old friends or something.

Posted 1 year ago #
Hollow_Ninja
Member

Even then, it's not like you're missing anything.

Posted 1 year ago #
Kunio-kun
Jumbocock: Can I Really Be the Hero?

ROFL.

aardbark said:
Being a native english speaker, I perfer dubs too. Even if they are horrible. Not because I dont like reading. Ive read plently of books and played lots of RPGs that dont have any voices. But if there is going to be voices, might as well understand them.

The true mastery of the English language you've displayed in this topic certainly has swayed my opinion...

salarta said:
Or you could just be the CEO and pay your relatives to butcher the characters as perfectly as they possibly can. /ChaosWars

/Agarest by Ghostlight

Neil Hamburger(Il buono): Why did God send Terri Schiavo to hell? For the sin of sloth.
D.Plainview(Il brutto): I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.
Kakizaki(Il cattivo): [Edit] That's what I do when I feel threatened, because God gave me a baby penis.

Posted 1 year ago #
Hollow_Ninja
Member

Kunio-kun said:
/Agarest by Ghostlight

Not applicable, because Ghostlight didn't do a dub either.

Posted 1 year ago #
Kunio-kun
Jumbocock: Can I Really Be the Hero?

Hollow_Ninja said:
Not applicable, because Ghostlight didn't do a dub either.

Yeah, I realize, I have the Ghostlight version... I never mentioned a dub... You didn't see the humor, I guess, in Salarta commenting on bad translations (Chaos Wars) while vehemently defending Ghostlight's subpar localization of Agarest in another topic.

Neil Hamburger(Il buono): Why did God send Terri Schiavo to hell? For the sin of sloth.
D.Plainview(Il brutto): I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.
Kakizaki(Il cattivo): [Edit] That's what I do when I feel threatened, because God gave me a baby penis.

Posted 1 year ago #
Hollow_Ninja
Member

Kunio-kun said:
Yeah, I realize, I have the Ghostlight version... I never mentioned a dub... You didn't see the humor, I guess, in Salarta commenting on bad translations (Chaos Wars) while vehemently defending Ghostlight's subpar localization of Agarest in another topic.

*facepalm* Yeah, sorry, my bad.

Posted 1 year ago #
Quig
Member

After going back and reading some of his post, I am going to refer to him as Sheldon (Big Bang Theory) from now on.

Posted 1 year ago #

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