Random Dubbing in Video Games?

[Suwako Moriya]

I've been playing through La Pucelle Tactics recently and I've had it mostly on the English Dub. Okay so on occasion I put on the Japanese version for a change of pace during leveling up phases. Don't ask I'm just weird that way.

Still the strange thing is that only part of the "story dialogue" is dubbed. Which to me is kind of odd how they pick and choose what scenes to give voices to. This problem doesn't exist in just La Pucelle Tactics. It can also be seen in for examples Tales of Symphonia. There are several times I was wondering "When are they going to speak?". In fact come to think of it, Grandia had this problem as well.

I really wish when an RPG is dubbed, they'd fully dub the "story dialogue" and not half-ass dub it. However to be fair this problem is more on the Japanese side than the English side in the case of RPGs that come from Japan. After all I can't expect them to dub a scene that never had voice acting in the first place.

Also I'm not expecting the entire game to be dubbed. I mean seriously I don't need to hear the dramatic voice acting of "I like hamburgers" over and over again. I just think both in the original language and the languages the game is dubbed into that they shouldn't randomly pick what story dialogue to give voice acting to.

Okay so maybe this is more of a complaint about the general voice acting issue as opposed to the dub. Still one thing that's definitely important no matter how much voice acting a game has. Volume control on the voice acting. To turn it up or turn it down. Whatever may be needed.

[Nork22]

Don't forget limitation of the storage media. If only half the developers switch to DVD9s for their RPGs instead of the standard DVD5. Heck, I'll take 2 DVD5s too if you can have about 90% of the dialogue spoken.

Went back to play Disgaea again and by gods, Gordon whom I believe is played by Micheal McConnohie (or someone who sounds like him) is a crack up. I wish more of his dialogue was spoken. /images/graemlins/sdsmiley.gif

[Starwind Amada]

Go play Unlimited... wait.

[Clint]

There's a huge budget issue here, as well. I played the Japanese Tales of Symphonia, which had more voice acting than the English one. I know the "skits" weren't voice-acted in English, but in the Japanese one, every plot-related scene was voiced. Only non-essential scenes weren't.

Now I'm playing Tales of the Abyss, which, without a doubt, has more voice acting in it than any game I've ever played. It's almost absurd. I just got the character's swimsuit costumes, and they EACH have a skit (6 total) when you wear them. Same goes for the first time a character cooks.

Half of the game budget must have been spent on the actors. In Japan, where "Tales" games are big-sellers, that's great, but in America, they would break the bank just getting everything in the game voiced and probably not sell enough copies to cover the bill.

This might be why we see a lot of mediocre game dubs...

[martod]

[ QUOTE ]
Clint said:
Now I'm playing Tales of the Abyss, which, without a doubt, has more voice acting in it than any game I've ever played. It's almost absurd. I just got the character's swimsuit costumes, and they EACH have a skit (6 total) when you wear them. Same goes for the first time a character cooks.


[/ QUOTE ]
Tales of Destiny 2 has an insane amount of skits too. The skits aren't just at certain points in the story, several of them are available after every plot point, no matter how minor(they also function as a "talk to your characters to find out what to do next" system). All of them are fully voiced. If that game came out here, I doubt they'd leave them voiced.

[ QUOTE ]
Mimi Masuko said:
After all I can't expect them to dub a scene that never had voice acting in the first place.


[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, after Dragon Quest VIII, you can. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[Suwako Moriya]

Concerning the budget issue and how well certain games sell here. It's a suprise they even spend money on the dubbing. Not that I don't want them to. It's more of a case of being surprised they don't cut as many corners as possible to save money. Thus the feeling that perhaps it's lucky any part of a game is dubbed.

[Suwako Moriya]

[ QUOTE ]
marko said: Actually, after Dragon Quest VIII, you can. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I figured someone would mention that game, but nah I'm still not going to have that expectation. Still it is surprising they even went that route in the first place.

[Suwako Moriya]

Heh maybe when I replay Disgaea, I'll actually play the game in English. I played through the entire game in Japanese. Playing it in English by new game plus would give a nice change of pace. If worse comes to worse I can switch back to the Japanese. However it will be awhile before I get back to Disgaea. Wait I also need to do the side stuff in Phantom Brave. Which I probably should also replay in English. Of course when in both cases is unknown. My fault for having a back log and being indecisive sometimes.

[Nork22]

The dub for Disgaea is a class of it's own. I can't really play the game in Japanese after having gone thru the whole game in English. Especially during the cheesy moments.