I think the main idea is that most people are simply not going to get much out of a language they don't understand. The average American person does not get much out of Japanese inflection, nor do they understand the language enough to want to pay attention or even know if the voice actors are doing a good job. There are people who do like to just pay attention to the voices when it's available as well and it certainly can add more to the scene. This doesn't mean they're disinterested in Japanese culture or whatever else.
I mean, really, there are RPGs in Japan that take place in areas like France. Yet, magically, the dialog isn't in French. It's in Japanese. This isn't a concept that's unique to this area. Persona 3 takes place in Japan, but not a single character even looks Japanese.
At the same time, not being able to fit Japanese and English on a single DVD (which was probably the main issue), I would imagine any company localizing something would go with the latter... regardless of where the game took place. I think going from using full Japanese is a bit more extreme than trying to keep the rest of the game "authentic" in terms of interaction and locale (I mean, even "senpai" is not translated well and would probably require some pretty heavy sentence restructure to give the same idea in totally different situations).
It's just weird to me because despite every thing that has been done in this game, there's still this sense of "It's not Japanese enough!", but on the flip side I've read reviews were people seriously complained that they wished it was even more Americanized, including even the player names. I'm kind of happy Atlus didn't go into that extreme. It's funny because usually people are upset that localized Japanese RPGs are not as literal as possible lol.
As for the voice over stuff, yeah, there's some familiar people in there lol. I don't really mind, honestly, as long as it's done relatively well (I've not heard Ash Ketchum voice guy yet, thank god... but there's someone in there that sure seems to be Cam Clark -- if I spelled that right). I think in this case it is, although there's a handful of voices I've not been very big on. If you've heard the Japanese voices, though, I think they did a pretty good job of matching them... the Mysterious Boy, for example, has a similar sound going on.
Anyway, that's just my opinion on the matter. If it really bothers anyone, the voices can be turned off entirely.
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Logged Tony has 485 Posts (+10/-0 Karma) |
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^^ Awesome post. Agreed on all points. You wrote how some reviewers complained of how Japanese Persona 3 is. Off the top of my head I remember egm, and gamespot making this complaint. I was surprised the reviewers felt the need to note the presence of the Japanese culture in the title. Considering it's location is, y'know, JAPAN! I had no idea a geographic location and it's people, played such an important role in the consumer's purchase. Any gamer who reads the back of the box, or even glances at the anime front cover, will know this. I guess it just bothers some people.
« Last Edit: August 08, 2007, 10:08:26 PM by CountDofChinatown »
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Logged CountDofChinatown has 56 Posts (+10/-0 Karma) |
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I don't know if it was brought up already but I'm fairly sure I heard something about SCEA won't allow a game to be published here unless it's dubbed. You can have the multilingual option for dialog but It' can't just be Japanese with Subtitles etc. Not that it matter much, I can only think of one game off the top of my head that only had JP VA with subtitles and this was before that whole rule came up (GunGrave). The only game I've ever wished they had kept the original voice acting was Yakuza.
Some Things Just Never Burn, Some Giants Just Never Fall.
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Logged Tokubetsu EX has 25 Posts (+10/-0 Karma) |
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It's worth noting that, at least in my copy, the two different videos that play if you do nothing on the title screen are still completely in Japanese. So you can get some of an idea of how that sounds.
I sold my Japanese copy a long while back (before I even scanned anything in, which I stupidly realized the next day), but I do have video of the first hour or so of it. I can cut that down to the same game play span as this one, if anyone really cares to see such a direct comparison.
Just let me know.
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Logged Tony has 485 Posts (+10/-0 Karma) |
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The only voice I don't like in the English version is Orpheus's, he sounds a lot cooler in Japanese.
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Logged aerozero has 264 Posts (+11/-0 Karma) |
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Yeah, Orpheus in the English version sounds "WAYYY uncool", as Ryo Hazuki would put it. ;P
Labyrinth of sympathy in which I'm lost and can't leave
And too much truth overshadows the lime lies
Cos' what lies beneath the clouds is an
Altered perception and I'll pay for sanity
But sanity don't come cheap
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Logged Tetsuya has 39 Posts (+10/-0 Karma) |
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He sounds EXACTLY like Helios.
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Logged DemonAtmaNizzo has 72 Posts (+10/-0 Karma) |
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I think you hear from him a grand total of twice, so you guys don't have too much to worry about.
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Logged Tony has 485 Posts (+10/-0 Karma) |
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| DevilRy
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Being the most important can't be seen in the eyes |
For REAL?  You think piping in a entirely separate audio track in a completely different language is less extreme than just subtitling? The way that most people defend dubbing so whole-heartedly makes it a lot less surprising that everything that comes out of Japan now seems to be butchered in the audio department.
In any case, I don't really feel like arguing. I've accepted that fact that as a fan I've lost to an overwhelming tide of retards. I can't and won't watched dubbed anything (well, I have a dubbed copy of La Cage Au Folles but it was a freaking dollar for a VHS copy).
« Last Edit: August 13, 2007, 08:22:13 PM by DevilRy »
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Logged DevilRy has 435 Posts (+23/-0 Karma) |
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