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Man,
I've just about had enough of crap voice acting spoiling classic games. Why can't they just bloody leave the game in Japanese or whatever home language it was originally in. Give us damn subtitles instead if you are incapable of employing decent actors, which is far more exceptable than the impaired acting abilities you choose to use. I'll give you some examples where such talentless acting is evident. Vampire Night for instance, is a great game but cursed with awful, cheesy, and retarded speech. Dead or Alive 2 (PS2) is an ace martial arts fiasco, but spoilt by voice-overs that were done by disabled people. And the up coming Soul Calibre 2 that has lines such as,"You want a fight", by a squeaky female voice."Ooo arn't you the rude one", replies a Greek male bloke.
Why-o-why are the developers so voice-deaf? Can't they hear when cheesyness emits from a character's lips? If I was in charge of a major development house and I saw what the audio people who translate game languages had done to my masterpiece, I would say... oi! Voice acters! Noooo!
This problem is rife in anime movies if you havn't noticed. Where such classics have been turned into pokemon sounding cute things. I mean, I bought Akira, an old classic, and was excited about watching it with english dialogue, so my tired eyes didn't have to look down at the subtitles all the time, and now I wish I hadn't! Hadn't bought the dubbed version I mean. Just awful it was. Spoilt a well and true classic. I have learnt my lesson though, and will never buy another dubbed anime movie again. And same goes for games.
I've just about had enough of crap voice acting spoiling classic games. Why can't they just bloody leave the game in Japanese or whatever home language it was originally in. Give us damn subtitles instead if you are incapable of employing decent actors, which is far more exceptable than the impaired acting abilities you choose to use. I'll give you some examples where such talentless acting is evident. Vampire Night for instance, is a great game but cursed with awful, cheesy, and retarded speech. Dead or Alive 2 (PS2) is an ace martial arts fiasco, but spoilt by voice-overs that were done by disabled people. And the up coming Soul Calibre 2 that has lines such as,"You want a fight", by a squeaky female voice."Ooo arn't you the rude one", replies a Greek male bloke.
Why-o-why are the developers so voice-deaf? Can't they hear when cheesyness emits from a character's lips? If I was in charge of a major development house and I saw what the audio people who translate game languages had done to my masterpiece, I would say... oi! Voice acters! Noooo!
This problem is rife in anime movies if you havn't noticed. Where such classics have been turned into pokemon sounding cute things. I mean, I bought Akira, an old classic, and was excited about watching it with english dialogue, so my tired eyes didn't have to look down at the subtitles all the time, and now I wish I hadn't! Hadn't bought the dubbed version I mean. Just awful it was. Spoilt a well and true classic. I have learnt my lesson though, and will never buy another dubbed anime movie again. And same goes for games.
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Man,
I've just about had enough of crap voice acting spoiling classic games. Why can't they just bloody leave the game in Japanese or whatever home language it was originally in. Give us damn subtitles instead if you are incapable of employing decent actors, which is far more exceptable than the impaired acting abilities you choose to use. I'll give you some examples where such talentless acting is evident. Vampire Night for instance, is a great game but cursed with awful, cheesy, and retarded speech. Dead or Alive 2 (PS2) is an ace martial arts fiasco, but spoilt by voice-overs that were done by disabled people. And the up coming Soul Calibre 2 that has lines such as,"You want a fight", by a squeaky female voice."Ooo arn't you the rude one", replies a Greek male bloke.
Why-o-why are the developers so voice-deaf? Can't they hear when cheesyness emits from a character's lips? If I was in charge of a major development house and I saw what the audio people who translate game languages had done to my masterpiece, I would say... oi! Voice acters! Noooo!
This problem is rife in anime movies if you havn't noticed. Where such classics have been turned into pokemon sounding cute things. I mean, I bought Akira, an old classic, and was excited about watching it with english dialogue, so my tired eyes didn't have to look down at the subtitles all the time, and now I wish I hadn't! Hadn't bought the dubbed version I mean. Just awful it was. Spoilt a well and true classic. I have learnt my lesson though, and will never buy another dubbed anime movie again. And same goes for games.
I've just about had enough of crap voice acting spoiling classic games. Why can't they just bloody leave the game in Japanese or whatever home language it was originally in. Give us damn subtitles instead if you are incapable of employing decent actors, which is far more exceptable than the impaired acting abilities you choose to use. I'll give you some examples where such talentless acting is evident. Vampire Night for instance, is a great game but cursed with awful, cheesy, and retarded speech. Dead or Alive 2 (PS2) is an ace martial arts fiasco, but spoilt by voice-overs that were done by disabled people. And the up coming Soul Calibre 2 that has lines such as,"You want a fight", by a squeaky female voice."Ooo arn't you the rude one", replies a Greek male bloke.
Why-o-why are the developers so voice-deaf? Can't they hear when cheesyness emits from a character's lips? If I was in charge of a major development house and I saw what the audio people who translate game languages had done to my masterpiece, I would say... oi! Voice acters! Noooo!
This problem is rife in anime movies if you havn't noticed. Where such classics have been turned into pokemon sounding cute things. I mean, I bought Akira, an old classic, and was excited about watching it with english dialogue, so my tired eyes didn't have to look down at the subtitles all the time, and now I wish I hadn't! Hadn't bought the dubbed version I mean. Just awful it was. Spoilt a well and true classic. I have learnt my lesson though, and will never buy another dubbed anime movie again. And same goes for games.
I agree and disagree in equal measures.
Whilst some games do have terrible voice acting, especially the vocal travesty that is Shenmue, but some games do have very well done voice overs, such as Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2 and Mafia.
Though in the end, the majority of games do have pretty average voice acting.
Regarding anime, yes some of them are fairly cheesy (like Hong Kong action flicks or Kung Fu movies), but again, some of them do have high quality voice acting.
Though the Japanese language option is probably better for most, films like Patlabor 1 & 2, Wings of Honneamise, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade and especially Cowboy Bebop do a great job in the english language versions.
Luckily, with dvd you get the option of listening to either Japanese or English versions.
Whilst some games do have terrible voice acting, especially the vocal travesty that is Shenmue, but some games do have very well done voice overs, such as Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2 and Mafia.
Though in the end, the majority of games do have pretty average voice acting.
Regarding anime, yes some of them are fairly cheesy (like Hong Kong action flicks or Kung Fu movies), but again, some of them do have high quality voice acting.
Though the Japanese language option is probably better for most, films like Patlabor 1 & 2, Wings of Honneamise, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade and especially Cowboy Bebop do a great job in the english language versions.
Luckily, with dvd you get the option of listening to either Japanese or English versions.
I knew you would bring anime into this so i will as well.
Martian successor nadesico has good voice-overs as does Neon Genesis Evangelion. Shame the themes are sung in japanese as they're quite catchy but you can't really sing along to them.
Martian successor nadesico has good voice-overs as does Neon Genesis Evangelion. Shame the themes are sung in japanese as they're quite catchy but you can't really sing along to them.
Manda†are wrote:
> I knew you would bring anime into this so i will as well.
:D When the subject was raised, I was in there.
> I knew you would bring anime into this so i will as well.
:D When the subject was raised, I was in there.
Final Fantasy X has class voice acting. Did anybody else realise that Murdoch from the A-team (Reg Barclay from Star Trek) voices Maechen? Seymour is very recognisable from a number of anime movies as well (in particular Princess Mononoke).
Shenmue was so bad that in the end the comedy dialogue was the best part of the game (and the only reason I would play it again).
The worst for me has been Onimusha. It's extra bad because the US version (which was out FIRST) had the option to choose the original Japanese dialogue, whereas we weren't given the choice.
Shenmue was so bad that in the end the comedy dialogue was the best part of the game (and the only reason I would play it again).
The worst for me has been Onimusha. It's extra bad because the US version (which was out FIRST) had the option to choose the original Japanese dialogue, whereas we weren't given the choice.
I thought GTAIII had good enough voice acting, well, for the subject at hand anyways. With a mixture of different cultures and accents they did a pretty good job.
Hopefully GTA Vice City will live up to expectations and show us how voice overs should be done.
Hopefully GTA Vice City will live up to expectations and show us how voice overs should be done.
Yeh, but that didn`t start out life as a Japanese game...
As for the rest of them, I agree about Final Fantasy. The lip sync is obviously out as the length of each word and sentence, as well as each mouth shape is bound to be different, but I`d rather listen to 100 hours of decent English than having to read a load of subtitles.
Like the original post says though, there are loads of games out there with poor voices, and you`re right, I have no idea why games developers don`t notice how bad they are, but then Army Men gets released, so the voices thing is a minor flaw in comparison :D
As for the rest of them, I agree about Final Fantasy. The lip sync is obviously out as the length of each word and sentence, as well as each mouth shape is bound to be different, but I`d rather listen to 100 hours of decent English than having to read a load of subtitles.
Like the original post says though, there are loads of games out there with poor voices, and you`re right, I have no idea why games developers don`t notice how bad they are, but then Army Men gets released, so the voices thing is a minor flaw in comparison :D
yeah on ffX tidus sounds like a right idiot
I'd rather have speech than japanese blabbing and text anyday.
It's the lip-synch that's more of a problem, not changing from the Jap version.
FFX was much more enjoyable without having to wade through pages of text like the others. Even if Tidus does sound like a complete tw@t, it adds depth to the characters.
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Here's a thing I was doing with my sister : putting dodgy accents (Soucer, scoland) accents on FF4.
We were pissin' ourselves.
"Eh, eh. Let's go kick Golbez's be-hind, allright?" kind o thing
It's the lip-synch that's more of a problem, not changing from the Jap version.
FFX was much more enjoyable without having to wade through pages of text like the others. Even if Tidus does sound like a complete tw@t, it adds depth to the characters.
*********
Here's a thing I was doing with my sister : putting dodgy accents (Soucer, scoland) accents on FF4.
We were pissin' ourselves.
"Eh, eh. Let's go kick Golbez's be-hind, allright?" kind o thing
How da ya mean? Idiot as in, can`t understand English, do maths, learn science etc... or do you mean like acting a fool, seems like a moron?
I might agree he seems a bit wimpy sometimes, but I think thats how he's intended to be, but characters like Auron show that they can create the opposite, with the tough warrior voice.
Its the difference between "bad acting" and "acting bad" that you need to see when Final Fantasy and other games like Onimusha/Dead or Alive are compared
I might agree he seems a bit wimpy sometimes, but I think thats how he's intended to be, but characters like Auron show that they can create the opposite, with the tough warrior voice.
Its the difference between "bad acting" and "acting bad" that you need to see when Final Fantasy and other games like Onimusha/Dead or Alive are compared
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