FF XII

[kinn]

Wow...thats some great voice acting.

Really does seem quite bad.

[Mozgus]

Wow...thats some great voice acting.

Really does seem quite bad.

No. No one is allowed to complain about Persona 3's dub. I'm tired of this. It's great, and you need to appreciate it. jRPGs hardly ever get dubs this freakin' good. It's actually Adult Swim level of dub-quality. What more could you possibly expect? Go back just one generation. Go play Xenogears or Star Ocean 2. Get a taste for how things used to be.

[Funk, E]

Just because something is less-bad doesn't mean it's good.

[Gamerforlife]

Now your putting me off Persona 3! (kidding)

Well, before getting totally raped from a simple random battle, where the enemy spamed my weakness and got 20 something turns in a row before I could even enter a single fucking command, causing me to lose yet another hour or so of progress in the dungeon, finally convincing me to give up on this game.....I captured this clip. Enjoy:



So I moved onto FF12, and so far it's freaking amazing. It's like Vagrant Story 2, but with some chocobos and mogs thrown in. They probably slapped the FF brand on it just for sales.

Vagrant Story, now that was a cool game and if definitely had some influence on FF12. Remember that wicked intro VS had?

Anyway, I think you're going to get drawn into this game a lot once you start to see how much depth there is. It's wonderfully non-linear too. There are some areas and enemies you can take on way before your party is ready for them. And thus comes the fun, how do I get my woefully under-levelled party through this? There's always a way

[Mozgus]

Just because something is less-bad doesn't mean it's good.

It's good because it's good. Too many kids try to be cool by bashing all dubs in general. It doesn't make you look cool. It doesn't make you seem elite. It's pathetic. There was nothing wrong with the acting in Persona 3. There is a LOT wrong with the gameplay. Bash that. If you think you can do a better dub, then do it yourself. It doesn't take a degree in anything to voice act, so there's no excuse.

[lordofduct]

oh yey, the purist debate about dubs. Why so many debates about personal preference?

See personally I speak English, I like English, and I don't get Japanese puns and jokes. So I take the dubs... and I judge the quality of a dub to other dubs. Comparing it to the original is futile... if you like listening to a foreign language... have fun. I don't, I do when necessary... but I'll take my language any day.

The same thing happens in film. I have these purist friends who are always saying we have to put it in the original Italian or French to watch it because that's the way it was supposed to be seen. Why? Really? I don't mind subtitles, they aren't gonna kill me or anything. A lot of films I watch only come in sub-titled form. But when I can watch it in English, I'm happier, I can spend more time watching the film then reading the bottom of the screen and missing all the visual stuff.


[edit]
now of course, there are bad dubs. But just because there are bad dubs, doesn't make dubbing bad. A well crafted dub and localize a product very nicely.

[Mozgus]

oh yey, the purist debate about dubs. Why so many debates about personal preference?

See personally I speak English, I like English, and I don't get Japanese puns and jokes. So I take the dubs... and I judge the quality of a dub to other dubs. Comparing it to the original is futile... if you like listening to a foreign language... have fun. I don't, I do when necessary... but I'll take my language any day.

The same thing happens in film. I have these purist friends who are always saying we have to put it in the original Italian or French to watch it because that's the way it was supposed to be seen. Why? Really? I don't mind subtitles, they aren't gonna kill me or anything. A lot of films I watch only come in sub-titled form. But when I can watch it in English, I'm happier, I can spend more time watching the film then reading the bottom of the screen and missing all the visual stuff.

So many good points.

[opethfan]

Older Studio Ghibli films I only watch with subs. The dub of the Castle of Cagliostro is pure crap, it takes out half of the lines and isn't true to the original dialog. Others, like Laputa and Kiki's delivery service are given voices which seem far too old, or add or change lines subtly to make them more 'western', like changing coffee to hot chocolate etc. The newer dubs are much more true to the original, such as Spirited Away, but I always choose a subtrack for the hearing impaired, as it is a pure translation, while a normal English subtrack are just the subs of the English dub.

[ott0bot]

Wow...thats some great voice acting.

Really does seem quite bad.

No. No one is allowed to complain about Persona 3's dub. I'm tired of this. It's great, and you need to appreciate it. jRPGs hardly ever get dubs this freakin' good. It's actually Adult Swim level of dub-quality. What more could you possibly expect? Go back just one generation. Go play Xenogears or Star Ocean 2. Get a taste for how things used to be.

Maybe it was more the script and the voice acting combined. It seemed like a bad anime, and I would prefer subtitles to that. At least in Japanese it sounds interesting. Does it have optional subtitles?

I think Tales of the Abyss had really good voice acting for the most part. The Star Ocean 2 voice acting was soo bad i took it out after 20 minutes and sold it back. Suikoden Tactics when horrid as well, but I think the plot was the real stinker there. I didn't think Xenogears was soo bad, maybe cause it was on ps1 and I was just impressed that they had spoken dialog. But also there is a boat-load of text in Xenogears without dialog.

More about subtitles....
Personally I prefer subtitles on any medium, that's why I think it's great when games like Odin Sphere give you the option. I have no problem reading and paying attention to the game or film. Most languages you have to strech the dialog out or shrink it down. Japanese for example has several one word phrases that it takes an entire sentence in English to communicate. A good example is Ninja Scroll. The dubbed version make no sense in several scenes, and you just have to accept it because you don't an option. But when the DVD release came out and you had the subtitle option...i felt like i finally understood the whole plot and concept of the film because they give about twice the information.

Another big example is classic Italian film. If anyone has ever watched Felini's 8 1/2 or La Dolce Vita you can understand. The dubs are not outdated either, but the english is so crude and comparitively to the actual scripted dialog it doesn't even come close.

Everyone prefers something a bit different, but I think it's great when you have both options.

[Gamerforlife]

I always like to get things in their original language if possible. I'm not an elitist or anything, I just prefer it most of the time because I know that what I'll hear will sound good, while dub jobs for movies, anime and games are always so hit and miss in their quality.

Dubs for martial movies from Hong Kong, China or any other part of the world ALWAYS suck. Plus, in bringing these movies to American they typically butcher, edit or chop them up in some way so you're better off most of the time just ignoring the region 1 release and either getting an overseas release(if you have a region free dvd player)or just downloading the original version with a good fansub. I am SO sick of this. They edited stuff out of both House of Flying Daggers and Kung Fu Hustle before bringing them to American theatres. They forced Quentin to edit Kill Bill, and Shaolin Soccer was completely gutted and butchered for American audiences. Oh, and I can't forget the stupid, "hip" soundtrack they had to put into the so-called "International" version of Ong Bak, replacing the original score.

As for anime, I tend to avoid dubs too because a lot of anime voice actors approach every project like it's for kids, and that comes across in the kind of annoying, kid-friendly voices they use. Everybody sounds too young, and complex or intimidating antagonists end up sounding like silly cartoon villains

I don't hate the concept of dubs though, just that a lot of them suck. I think video games fare better than movies and anime, but it's still pretty hit and miss. You get the generally good dubs of the Final Fantasy games and Metal Gear Solid games, then you get mediocre stuff like in Tales of Symphonia.

I really wouldn't care if we just scrapped dubbing for all movies and anime. Typically I can throw my eyes to the bottom of a screen, quickly read what's there and get back to the image. It's something you get used to. However, with video games you often can't afford to take your eye off of the action for even a second. Dubs are a necessary evil for gaming. I wish they could all be of good quality