Friday, September 27, 2013

In this post: proof that the English voice acting in Bravely Default is all sorts of painful

Throughout the following, just-released trailer for the English version of Bravely Default, it's stated that players can choose between either English or Japanese audio.

I hate to say it, but after watching said trailer (which can be seen below), I'm definitely going with the latter, as the English voice acting seems ... well, let's just say it's not the best I've ever heard.



Who cares, though, when everything else sounds and looks so wonderful? I especially love the character designs and the backdrop art. Oh, and Revo's dramatic soundtrack, of course.

By the way, according to a recent Nintendo UK tweet, Bravely Default's still due for a 2013 release throughout Europe. Lucky bastards.

34 comments:

michaelstearns said...

Ah, English voice translation. Localized box art might have changed but you never will! I have to say I applaud any game that goes bilingual, though!



I wonder if those are the best, least-awkward voice samples for the characters they had? Why did they picked them for the trailer? Is voiced dialog even a feature they ought to be advertising? (They must be proud of it!)

thegaygamer.com said...

Oh, I'm willing to bet the box art has changed for this game's western releases, Michael--and I'm more than a bit scared to see them!

That said, as long as they use a piece of art created by Akihiko Yoshida, I think we'll be OK.



As for why they picked the voice samples they did: I have no idea. I also have no idea why it's a feature they feel they need to advertise.


Personally, I don't care if games like this feature voice acting or not--and in most cases I actually prefer that they don't. (Or maybe I should say I prefer that they allow you to turn it off.)


But that's just me, and I'm kind of weird :)

michaelstearns said...

Ah joke fail! What I meant was that in general US box art is no longer so embarrassing compared to its Japanese counterpart, but the voice acting remains as awful as ever. :)


I sure hope it isn't weird to not want voice acting in these games because (in most cases) I don't want it either. I don't know when it became an essential feature to inject voice into this sort of thing, but they sure do it all the time now. Does anyone really want this feature?

thegaygamer.com said...

Doh! Looking it over again, Michael, your joke makes sense. I just read it incorrectly the first time around :(


I don't know if it's actually weird to not want voice acting in these games, but it certainly seems as though *some* people want it. Case in point: all those folks who cry for Zelda to include more voice acting. Gah!

michaelstearns said...

It would be silly to suggest that a new talking Zelda would be like the TV show or the CDi games, but evidence so far is that a talking Zelda is a pretty bad idea. :)

thegaygamer.com said...

Yeah, I'm with you there, Michael. Sadly, sometimes I think we're in the distinct minority!

Monster_Hunter2882 said...

Yeah I'll probably be using the Japanese voice overs too unless they chose voice clips from when the actor was struggling to keep the same timing as the Japanese actor which is a common problem when dubbing something this issue even occurs with high quality dubs from time to time but I'm doubting that's the issue here. It's also disappointing to hear after hearing Nintendo's well-done localizations of Kid Icarus: Uprising, Fire Emblem: Awaking, and the trio of Operation Rainfall games . There's also the fact that smaller company's like Atlus would have probably done a better job (though Atlus does have the problem of using the same voices between all their games and I don't mean the same actors, I mean the actors voicing multiple characters the same way ). I was hoping since Europe gets the game first that NoE would of been doing the dub since European accents would probably make more since with this game the american accents.


Also there too many turn-based 3DS games that I want to play. Currently I'm taking a break from Shin Megami Tensei IV to focus on the non-turned-based Wii game Pandora's Tower and I have Radiant Historia (yes I know its a DS game but I gave away my DS so I have to play it on my 3DS) to play. There's also Pokemon X/Y out next month and I made the mistake of playing the Etrian Odyssey Untold demo and now I want that but I think I'll wait in till Christmas or something for it and I probably won't play it all at once with no other game in between like I did with Etrian Odyssey IV.

Monster_Hunter2882 said...

I want voice acting in a Zelda game but I don't want them to speak a real langue but Instead a made up langue like the one Zelda sings with in Skyward Sword. The reason I want it that way is because of an Interview that I read on IGN or Destructiod or some other major video game based website but I forget which one.I feel that would help give even more of a sense of Hyrule being it's own country with it's own culture. It would also be cheaper to localize since they wouldn't have to make dubs in other langues and there wouldn't be as much worry about the voice quality since they would be using Japanese actors and the ones used for the sounds made in the series are already famous voice actors in Japan. Though I do think they should include the option of having just the grunts and sigh play like the games do now for people who prefer that.

diaglyph said...

Thank goodness for bilingual voice option!
Though its strange they didn't use english voice actors (like in Xenoblade or Last Story) for this game.
Though who knows, the voices used in the trailer could've been initial voices and they've been updated since (but probably not likely).

And hooray for more turn based goodness! :)
Now I just wish I had money to spend ;_;

Monster_Hunter2882 said...

Do you mean like what they did with Kid Icarus: Uprising were they had different voice actors in the early trailers/demos. If so, I hope so too but I'm doubting this also since the English dub is supposed to be featured in the For The Squeal release in Japan on the 5th of December compared to Uprising that had quite a bit of time in-between it's announcement and release.

Monster_Hunter2882 said...

By the sounds of it a single play-through of SMT IV is shorter of course that game having a branching story line. Also I actually enjoyed what little story had EO IV had so the increased amount of story combined with those hand-drawn cutscenes that look something out of a movie makes the remake look compelling to me.

Zaphod65 said...

Eh. Could be worse. After the horrors of the original Resident Evil's verbal atrocities ("master of unlocking" *shudder*), I can overlook a voice actor who just sounds bored. lol

thegaygamer.com said...

Ah, well, I hope you're right RE: SMT IV. I really could use a shorter game sometime soon :) Also, thanks for the info RE: EO: Untold's 3D!

thegaygamer.com said...

Yeah, I'm also surprised/saddened that the voices aren't English/British. I can't imagine the ones included in this trailer are early or placeholder ones, though. If this is supposed to be out by the end of the year, they have to be wrapping things up shortly.

thegaygamer.com said...

Yep, I agree, Sam. I think the version released in Japan and elsewhere will be very similar, if not exactly the same.

thegaygamer.com said...

Oh, of course you're right. I was kind of being intentionally dramatic in this post :) Honestly, I would be more than happy with just localized text. Like Michael said earlier, who needs voice acting anyway?

Monster_Hunter2882 said...

I've heard a single SMT IV play-through on average is about 35 hours if you don't do a bunch of side-quests. I'm 17 hours in so I guess I'm half way through it. I wish it the game would give more in-game money though, I've been reluctant to fuse demons since it takes some of your yen when you summon a replacement if you want to make another demon using a same demon another requires. I think I've fused about 2-4 of them.

thegaygamer.com said...

35 hours doesn't sound too bad. At least I've played a few 3DS games for that amount of time so far (not including New Leaf, of course!).

2D2Will said...

The voice acting doesn't bother me. What bothers me is the horrible sound quality. Seriously, I've seen amateur projects mixed better than that. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out those voices were temporary.

Monster_Hunter2882 said...

In Twilight Princess & Skyward Sword they had Midna & Fi speak something that sounded gibberish so I guess in way they have experimented with it.

Monster_Hunter2882 said...

One thing I'm wondering about BD's localization is whether or not any names are going to be changed. NoA seems to do this alot not that I'm complaining since sometimes the names they chose are sometimes better than their Japanese ones.


I'm going to go a bit off topic here. An interesting bit of Animal Crossing localization trivia is that the police officers/gatekeepers Copper & Booker don't really have names in Japan, Copper is simply referred as Policeman A in GC/64 & New Leaf and is called Gatekeeper B in Wild World & City Folk while Booker is referred as Policeman B in GC/64 & New Leaf and is called Gatekeeper A in Wild World & City Folk. Also Super Mario series enemy Bullet Bill is named Killer in Japan.

thegaygamer.com said...

Ah, I wouldn't know, as my experience with Twilight Princess is VERY limited, and I've yet to even buy Skyward Sword :|

thegaygamer.com said...

As much as I find this game's audio to be questionable (based on the few clips in this trailer), retr0gamer, I'll still take questionable voice overs over no localization at all!

thegaygamer.com said...

I hope you're right, 2D2Will! At the very least, I hope we can turn off voices completely.

thegaygamer.com said...

OK, that is really weird info about Animal Crossing, Sam. Policeman A and Gatekeeper B? Is that supposed to be some sort of social commentary or something??

diaglyph said...

Oh my! I hope the rumoured euro release date of Dec 13 is true! (would likely mean 14th for Aus)

thegaygamer.com said...

Just noticed this, Igor. So, you're getting the game, right?

diaglyph said...

I have it!!!! :D
It's brilliant and the english isn't that bad actually.


Also check my posts in 3DS Miiverse :) (they're in 3D too!)

thegaygamer.com said...

Great! Really looking forward to playing it myself ... in February :P

diaglyph said...

You won't regret it.
I reckon you guys will probably get the demo in January. I recommend playing it (has no spoilers).
It will give you 7 bonuses (bunch of gear and potions) and if you StreetPass enough and get 20 villagers, they will transfer to the main game.
Also, slightly sneaky, but if you set up the demo on a 2nd 3DS it will StreetPass like normal with the actual game ;)

Lexinada said...

wow, sounds bad, I never had a problem with the voiceacting in english, except for maybe a few, but it didn't sound anything like that XD It sounded awful :O I would still say go with the japanese sound and english text :)

thegaygamer.com said...

Yeah, that's what I'm planning to go with, Lexinada! Thanks for the comment, BTW :)

diaglyph said...

I've been playing the game for a long while now. Have been switching between English and Japanese, and actually the english is not that bad. Maybe its the videos? (and I'm one to complain about bad english voice acting)

thegaygamer.com said...

Sorry for the late response to this, Igor, but your last bit is exactly what I did! Anyway, can't wait for the full game to arrive in a few weeks...