In Japanese games, an option for original Japanese audio -- Y/N?

So I was looking at some Japanese voice acting for Final Fantasy games on youtube and I'm quite impressed with it, even if I have trouble processing Tidus with the voice of anyone besides Zachary James Taylor.

As a matter of fact, I think I even remember Disgaea Hour Of Darkness doing this, though I never used the option because I had the game as a little kid and wasn't interested in original vs dubbed audio back then. In any case, Laharl to me has only one voice.

I'm usually not impressed with the voice acting in older Square games, and sometimes yells and cries in newer games sound cheesy, so I'm always interested in seeing how the original audio pulled it off. After all, dubbing over existing animation is never the same as doing the original audio (which is usually done before animation).

So, an option to use Japanese audio?

While I prefer dubs myself, I see nothing wrong with including the original audio track in the game.

YES.

Sure, Why Not?

Is there a sufficient amount of memory on the disk? Yes? Why not?

No? Then heck no.

edited 25th Jun '11 9:13:02 AM by Usht

Yes, the dubs themselves maybe okay but sometimes an individual voice actor just doesn't compare to the Japanese one.

The only excuse not to do this is memory limitations.

Depends on the game. If it's something like a Final Fantasy game, then I'll stick to the english; it's not like they were designed to be listened to in Japanese. But if it's a game like Yakuza or Shogun: Total War, then hell yes; I'll keep the Japanese language on and just read the subtitles.

Preferably, yes. The same goes for Russian audio in Russian games.

Without a doubt, YES.

Don't see why not, but I'll use the english dub anyway.

I would purchase every single foreign game I own all over again just for the option to hear the product in the original language, provided there were reasonably competent subtitle options to go along with it.

I'm probably more extreme than most game fans in that respect - I like to treat my games like any other artistic product, and hence consider any unnecessary alteration from the original product's intentions to be distasteful. More pragmatically, America has yet to catch up with Japan in terms of casting high-quality voice actors for their games, and it really shows in stuff like Symphony of the Night and various rpgs.

I personally don't have a preference, but I don't see why there shouldn't be an option to have both audio sets. It's pretty common nowadays. What's actually a really good idea is the option to pick which characters have the English or Japanese audio; a few fighters such Street Fighter IV and Marvel Vs Capcom 3 have had such a feature.

edited 25th Jun '11 9:45:36 AM by Edmania

YES. I never even played Arc Rise Fantasia because the english voice acting was so bad. And a lot of time the Japanese voice track actually has a bunch of dialogue that the english actors never recorded... Enchanted Arms being one that comes to mind, and the little extra videos in Tales Of The Abyss where never dubbed either. So we get a bunch of floating heads "Talking" with no voice. That's incredibly lame. to the point that i stopped playing that too, until i can get some sort of ROM/Patch to have the english translation but the Japanese voices.

Another weird point is when they're speaking English and it's supposed to be Japanese. In Onimusha 3 and Dawn Of Dreams characters speak French and Italian, and it's represented by French and Italian voiceovers because the Japanese-speaking characters have no idea what's being said even if we get subtitles. It's weirdly jarring to have the Japanese translated into perfect english but the languages i can actually speak a bit of being left as is. Switch to the Japanese voice track, and everything's hunky-dory. Or it would be if 3 had a voice track... And i stopped playing that too...

You know, for someone that really doesn't get the subbing VS dubbing debate i seem to be abandoning a lot of media because it lacks a sub. Huh.

You know, back in the day I would've said yes, without question...but nowadays, video game dubs seem to be catching up in terms of quality in comparison to their Japanese counterparts. Tales Of Vesperia, for instance (yes I will cite this game at any and all opportunities possible) had a fantastic English dub, so much that when I eventually played the Japanese version it felt weird to hear Yuri not voiced by Troy Baker.

That said, if there's the memory for it (which, on PS3 games, there usually is) and if the game is specifically made in a Japanese fashion (someone mentioned Yakuza), then yeah they should definitely go for it.

Unless it's memory issues (as noted above), there's no reason fans shouldn't be able to pick and choose between Japanese and English. Superlative Dubbing can and has existed before, after all.

YES

English audio works best when the game developers have a good idea of what things should sound like in English (No More Heroes, Mad World, Metal Gear, etc). Which is not often. Even for games developed in the "West".

Hell yes. Thing is, there's a number of legit reasons why it doesn't always show up - and space is not the only one. So as long as a studio tries, I'm okay if they can't always do it.

What are the other reasons?

Its why I have trouble playing Gundam Musou 2

I cant stand the new english Domon!

Luckily 3 will have Japanese voices again

Yes, please.

Licensing is one that comes up more than you'd think - the Japanese audio may not be including in the localization agreement. In other cases, such as Final Fantasy, the Japanese developer insists on dub only international releases.

I like playing through games twice and comparing the actors.

So yes please.

edited 25th Jun '11 11:22:39 AM by SpellBlade

.... The Japanese VA were the only reason Chaos Wars was remotely playable for me. The English dubbers were family members of some producer that was in charge of localizing it, I think, and they didn't even voice for gameplay, only cutscenes!

Now now, the Chaos Wars voice acting isn't as bad as people make it out to be.

It's far, far worse.