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ArcSys Voice Acting [This thread has rules now]

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14 hours ago, MaximusMurkimus said:

Fairly certain most VAs are on call, unless they have directing experience or some other studio role. Even then, it would probably be handled through Strangely Compelling/Cup of Tea VA studios rather than Akysys themselves.

Then who handled Calamity Trigger and Continuum Shift I-II

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1 minute ago, Domayv said:

Then who handled Calamity Trigger and Continuum Shift I-II

Aksys themselves did. If I remember everything correctly, at some point in between CSII and CSEX Arc System Works established it's own branch in the US and took over the localization directly/outsourced it to Strangely Compelling and Aksys was demoted to just being the publishers. It sucks because Aksys was so much more efficient (CT and CSII were released only 5 days after the Japan while the original CS took less than a month). Compare that to Arcsys (CSEX and CPEX took two months while the original CP took 5). I have a feeling that if Aksys was still in charge we could have gotten CF with dub in 3-4 months at the most, even with it's insane scale.

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So no dub eh?

While I want to sympathize with those who want/need dub but unfortunately I'm one of those who are unaffected by the company's decision.

GGs guys. Don't want to sound like a douche but I'll enjoy the JP voice acting because I understand what they actually say. I do hope in the future a patch will add the dubs for every other's sake.

But for now just think that your watching an anime on one of those video sites. Nothing too different right?

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22 minutes ago, Argent Zero said:

So no dub eh?

While I want to sympathize with those who want/need dub but unfortunately I'm one of those who are unaffected by the company's decision.

GGs guys. Don't want to sound like a douche but I'll enjoy the JP voice acting because I understand what they actually say. I do hope in the future a patch will add the dubs for every other's sake.

But for now just think that your watching an anime on one of those video sites. Nothing too different right?

I only watch anime that gets dubbed

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3 hours ago, Ogiga99 said:

Aksys themselves did. If I remember everything correctly, at some point in between CSII and CSEX Arc System Works established it's own branch in the US and took over the localization directly/outsourced it to Strangely Compelling and Aksys was demoted to just being the publishers. It sucks because Aksys was so much more efficient (CT and CSII were released only 5 days after the Japan while the original CS took less than a month). Compare that to Arcsys (CSEX and CPEX took two months while the original CP took 5). I have a feeling that if Aksys was still in charge we could have gotten CF with dub in 3-4 months at the most, even with it's insane scale.

which studio handled CT and CSI-II for the voices? Bang Zoom?

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1 hour ago, Argent Zero said:

But for now just think that your watching an anime on one of those video sites. Nothing too different right?

Actually it's completely different. In every possible way.

For one thing you're not considering the differences between the mediums. Anime is broken down into a series of 24 minute episodes that can either be watched one at a time as they come out or binged once it's finished. Either way you have a convenient way to break up the experience and pick up at a later point. A 30-40 hour visual novel like BlazBlue is a different story. We get the entire package at once with the game's release so we can't watch it over time and it is not formatted in a way that is nearly as conducive to balanced play times. By giving us the game all at once we are expected to binge on it and not given as easy a stopping point. This makes the amount of time we have to deal with not understanding the language and stare at the bottom of the screen for subtitles much longer.

For another thing, anime only has subtitles for dialogue and occasional onscreen text. The rest is shown purely through visuals. BlazBlue however has extensive narration in addition to dialogue, making that much more to read and unlike with a dub, where all the dialogue has another means of being processed, that means we have to focus on the bottom of the screen at all times instead of just narration.

Furthermore, missing anything is much more punishing in a game like BlazBlue than an anime. In an anime you can pause and rewind to a previous part at any time but in BlazBlue the best you have is the ability to scroll through previous text in story mode, which doesn't give you the visuals or the voices. And arcade mode is much worse since you can't pause cutscenes so if you miss anything aside from the ending that gets saved to the gallery, you will have to play through it all over again. Considering there are at least 97 of them and BlazBlue is so complicated, odds are this is going to happen more once.

There's also the issue of dialogue that is not translated in a video game. In anime everything gets translated with the possible exception of some background chatter that is hard to make out anyway and some non-essential text. In games however you only get cutscenes that have a dialogue box, no in-game dialogue is translated. This is because it would be impossible to play something like BlazBlue while dozens of different subtitles are scrolling along the bottom and the lines are cut off by getting hit or using another move and overlapping constantly. This also includes the unique character interactions before a battle and the victory quotes so there is important dialogue that is simply lost to us.

Another major thing is the issue of how we choose the language track in the first place. For anime, within a day of an episode airing in Japan a subbed version will be available to watch. For new shows this gives us the option of instant gratification if we choose subs, otherwise we would have to wait for the entire show/season to end before then waiting the several months it takes for a dub to be released. This is why I always choose subs for shows that are ongoing or have new installments regularly, since the option is there. For games on the other hand, we have to wait for an English release. All we can get story-wise from a Japanese release is spoilers from people who can translate but not the whole experience so if a game is getting a dub it is available to us at the very same time we can actually experience the story properly. But even if you do want to wait for an anime, you have the option of doing that while others have already had a chance to watch the show in another form. You can choose to watch it now, wait until later or watch it now and then rewatch it with the dub. However, since a game is only released once, from the first time you can get a proper experience of it, if the dub is not present you will never get one (provided we don't have a situation like this one where we might get one post-release but that is really rare and not guaranteed).

Lastly, and most importantly, is the fact that we are not just choosing to watch something in Japanese. We are losing the audio track we have been listening to for 8 years at the climax of Ragna's story and are being forced to have a completely different (and to many, worse) experience. Watching subbed on it's own is fine, either because you watch it when it comes out or it never gets dubbed in the first place, but watching it after becoming attached to a set of performances and those versions of the characters will simply not be the same. Tomokazu Sugita is fine as Ragna and I was okay listening to him in the anime and as arcade modes were released before the console version because I'm impatient and we don't get the whole story from that but to me Patrick Seitz is and always will be Ragna the Bloodedge. Having to play the entire game and experience the conclusion to his story for the first time without him there would make the experience hollow.

Sorry to go on this long rant. I completely respect your right to not care about the dub but it is not something as simple as you make it out to be. I will gladly dodge spoilers and wait on the story mode for 6-8 months or even a year if that is what it takes to enjoy it properly, to see the insane twists and nonsense Mori will pull my first time with the actual versions of the characters I've come to love over the course of this series.

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51 minutes ago, Ogiga99 said:

Actually it's completely different. In every possible way.

For one thing you're not considering the differences between the mediums. Anime is broken

 -Omitted- 

Sorry to go on this long rant. I completely respect your right to not care about the dub but it is not something as simple as you make it out to be. I will gladly dodge spoilers and wait on the story mode for 6-8 months or even a year if that is what it takes to enjoy it properly, to see the insane twists and nonsense Mori will pull my first time with the actual versions of the characters I've come to love over the course of this series.

No need to apologize, you're absolutely right to feel that way. Just because it has little impact on my experience, doesn't mean another's experience will be intact such as yourself.

My apologies for rubbing salt into your wounds, I meant in no ill-will. But, as you respect my opinions and as I shall respect yours, no matter how this situation plays out, for better or worse, my experience will not be affected.

I do pray for everyone's hopes to be answered in the near future.

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3 hours ago, Domayv said:

which studio handled CT and CSI-II for the voices? Bang Zoom?

Yes. Aksys contracted Bang Zoom back in the day to handle the dubbing.

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17 hours ago, Argent Zero said:

No need to apologize, you're absolutely right to feel that way. Just because it has little impact on my experience, doesn't mean another's experience will be intact such as yourself.

My apologies for rubbing salt into your wounds, I meant in no ill-will. But, as you respect my opinions and as I shall respect yours, no matter how this situation plays out, for better or worse, my experience will not be affected.

I do pray for everyone's hopes to be answered in the near future.

You don't need to apologize. My rant wasn't really directed at you, it was more me trying to get out all my thoughts on the dub and why it's important. I knew you had no ill-will towards us or the dub and I apologize for making you think I took it that way. You are not one of those assholes who insult the dub and its fans because "all dubs suck, Japanese version is the best evar" so you have every right to not be personally invested in this. In fact, I am a bit envious of you that this won't affect your enjoyment of the game. All anyone could possibly ask of you is that you understand our position and are civil, which you have done so thank you.

 

13 hours ago, MaximusMurkimus said:

Shoryuken.com has also posted about this. Anything that can help spread the word and gather more support is good in my book.

 

3 hours ago, Rotlung said:

I can't say that that's the most flattering picture they can use to represent the fans.

Perhaps not but in a way it makes a bit of sense. Cosplayers are in a way a representation of the fans' support and love of a series. The picture shows that this is a fan-driven issue and conveys how important it is to them (plus cosplayers are really the only visual way to easily say "this is a fan"). Of course I'm probably a bit biased since I've cosplayed Hazama in the past and admittedly the picture of Patrick Seitz of in front of the Central Fiction poster from the petition would have probably been better.

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22 hours ago, Argent Zero said:

So no dub eh?

While I want to sympathize with those who want/need dub but unfortunately I'm one of those who are unaffected by the company's decision.

GGs guys. Don't want to sound like a douche but I'll enjoy the JP voice acting because I understand what they actually say. I do hope in the future a patch will add the dubs for every other's sake.

But for now just think that your watching an anime on one of those video sites. Nothing too different right?

Well, speaking as a guy that lives in Japan, I am no stranger to listening/watching stuff in Japanese. But, that's what makes the English that much more fun. It provides a change of pace since a lot of animu tropes and character types get around (understatement). Having the changes in inflection and even just English jokes and references can make it more interesting for me.

Also, some Japanese VAs do show up a lot and it helps to split the difference with the English VAs who also show up a lot.

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On 8/29/2016 at 3:36 PM, Argent Zero said:

So no dub eh?

While I want to sympathize with those who want/need dub but unfortunately I'm one of those who are unaffected by the company's decision.

GGs guys. Don't want to sound like a douche but I'll enjoy the JP voice acting because I understand what they actually say. I do hope in the future a patch will add the dubs for every other's sake.

But for now just think that your watching an anime on one of those video sites. Nothing too different right?

If you have to preface something with "don't want to sound like a douche" then chances are you're going to sound like a douche.  And boy do you sound like one.  You really need to work on your wording and delivery if you want to sound even remotely sympathetic to people affected by this.

And let's get that inevitable jibe from somebody or another out of the way that no, I'm not bitter about you being able to understand Japanese or whatever--it's my second language, so I can understand the shit either way.  I am pissed, however, that the company is removing something that's been there from the start at the climax of this story at least, and that now it'll lose a lot of the impact and won't be as enjoyable due to completely different voices.  Inferior ones, too.  The JP cast just sucks.  Beyond Sugita at most, none of them could act their way out of a paper bag with their emotionless delivery that's devoid of personality, with half the voices not even fitting the role.  So yeah, I'm pissed that ArcSys willingly downgraded the quality just to save money and has the convenient excuse of "WE'RE GETTING IT OUT EARLY TO THE FANS!!!11!!!1" to fall back on.

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2 hours ago, Orihalcon said:

The JP cast just sucks.  Beyond Sugita at most, none of them could act their way out of a paper bag with their emotionless delivery that's devoid of personality, with half the voices not even fitting the role.

I get that you're mad but you sound exactly like the dub-haters with this. Are you really going to say "none of them could act their way out of a paper bag" when the cast includes people like Tetsuya Kakihara, Kana Ueda, Yuuichi Nakamura, Junichi Suwabe, Akira Ishida, Keiji Fujiwara and Yukana? If so I hope you don't watch a lot of subbed anime because you're going to be hearing these supposedly terrible voices a lot. And are you really going to pretend everyone has "emotionless delivery devoid of personality" when including things like Jin's "nii-san" mode, Nu's yandere mode, Terumi's over the top insanity? Whether you like them or not, they do not fit under your blanket statement of "emotionless" which renders everything you say as hyperbole that I can't take seriously. I agree with you in considering the dub better overall. Heck BlazBlue's Japanese dub is one of the few series with voices that I actually do not like listening too (usually I'm indifferent at worst). Tao is way too scratchy and her "nyaa's" are more annoying than the dub's peppy "meow" at the end of some sentences, Valkenhayn sounds like he has throat cancer and despite how good Aoi Yuuki usually is, she cannot do a little boy voice and Sena's weird falsetto is actually painful. I would hate to have to play through the game with this but at the same time I cannot stand completely dismissive claims like yours.

3 hours ago, Orihalcon said:

ISo yeah, I'm pissed that ArcSys willingly downgraded the quality just to save money and has the convenient excuse of "WE'RE GETTING IT OUT EARLY TO THE FANS!!!11!!!1" to fall back on.

We've been over this. The issue of the 6-8 month delay is perfectly in line with previous evidence. If all of the previous games were released as quickly as CT and CS I would be willing to call BS but CP took 5 months for us to get. CF has a story mode that is supposedly 1.5 times longer and has over 70 more arcade stories. Since Arcsys/Simply Compelling clearly hasn't gotten their act together yet, a 6-8 month delay to do all of that is 100% believable. They cannot be "falling back on" something that is true, especially when there are fans who this does cater to. Go reread the rules of this thread. All we know is what we have been told so stop with the conspiracy theories that everyone is out to get you. There is no basis for the issue being them trying to scam us just to save money besides insane rants about "da evil corporashuns" so just stop it. You can be angry but that doesn't mean you have to be ignorant.

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I'm a little concerned at how many signatures will it take for Aksys/ASW to even care. We're at 2626 now, but would they want to see 5K? 10K? Higher? Patrick seems to be pleased at how far it has gotten though, so maybe it's not as much as I think.

Also, a confession. The worst part if doesn't get dubbed is not hearing Izanami troll, get trolled, and troll people to death now that she has a bigger role. Also, I would forever wonder if Es could be able to not sound like a Murokumo unit. 

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Good lord I only heard about this today and frankly I'm shocked.

I was sitting here thinking the english voice actors have been working on this for months now only to get this horrible news dropped on me. At this point, I'd rather wait for the english dub and get it even next year, never mind in the next few months without it. Already signed petitions and shared the news and said petition to facebook. I really hope we get some serious steam here. It would have been one thing if they did this in chrono phantasma but its a complete low blow to do this on the climax, the final chapter if you will. 

Gotta work at it though. Nothing will get done if we do nothing but complain. 

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After having a couple days to simmer down, I think this might have just been a bad situation for most of everyone involved. Cutting the dub might have been the only method ArcSys and Aksys had to minimize the damage, so to speak. Of course, I am obviously not happy that now I won't be getting my preferred audio. But at the same time, this petition and passion that went into the responses that I've seen is a bit more uplifting. It might not amount to much in the long run but I'm kinda glad to see the small sector of the community band together for something like this.

But hey, fingers crossed and all that jazz.

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3 minutes ago, swordsman09 said:

So no dub for sure then? I guess it can't be helped. They made their decision. Goodbye, ENG Makoto :MK:... :(

Not for sure. While there will definitely not be a dub at launch, Aksys has said that is still possible for them to add one in as a patch or DLC (but it would take at least 6-8 months) and urged fans to petition Arc System Works to convince them to do it. Whether or not this will actually go anywhere is unknown but the possibility of a dub is not zero.

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The issue I have with ASW/Aksys is the didn't inform the voice actors as well fans of BB there was not going to be dub if they had told not only them and us fans from the start when they were working on CF it would save them all the mess they cause and they now see that the dub is important and we want it if wasn't then we wouldn't be petition it but I'm glad that it got the VO themselves are supporting it they can't sign it but they are backing the fans up in wanted it to happen.

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If you have to preface something with "don't want to sound like a douche" then chances are you're going to sound like a douche.  And boy do you sound like one.  You really need to work on your wording and delivery if you want to sound even remotely sympathetic to people affected by this.

And let's get that inevitable jibe from somebody or another out of the way that no, I'm not bitter about you being able to understand Japanese or whatever--it's my second language, so I can understand the shit either way.  I am pissed, however, that the company is removing something that's been there from the start at the climax of this story at least, and that now it'll lose a lot of the impact and won't be as enjoyable due to completely different voices.  Inferior ones, too.  The JP cast just sucks.  Beyond Sugita at most, none of them could act their way out of a paper bag with their emotionless delivery that's devoid of personality, with half the voices not even fitting the role.  So yeah, I'm pissed that ArcSys willingly downgraded the quality just to save money and has the convenient excuse of "WE'RE GETTING IT OUT EARLY TO THE FANS!!!11!!!1" to fall back on.

I know my statement came out all wrong and I regret saying it but you're saying things with a pretty sharp tongue too. I can understand your frustration now that I had time to collect my thoughts and look at the situation in a broader spectrum so I'll leave it at that.

I do hope that they put back the ENG voice option. The voices were with us from the very beginning, doesn't make sense to cut it out now really (I know Hakumen went from that to Darth Vader but that was enjoyable on its own). It's which ever version you hear first that you tend to lean on (first impressions are always important and memorable)

Don't know if it's comparable, but this more or less feels like the time when Arc System Works only ported BBCP for the PS3. A little disheartened that they did that for whatever reasons they had, but still felt betrayed. Enjoyed the JP and ENG versions of the same character duke it out. 

Long story short, they removed another element that fans enjoyed. Not cool... also unrelated with VAs but give me back training mode while I wait for opponents in player rooms.

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16 hours ago, MaximusMurkimus said:

Also, I would forever wonder if Es could be able to not sound like a Murokumo unit. 

I would be so upset if we never got to hear English Es. Hopefully, if they do dub it, she won't be given a voice similarly to the Murakumo units. Definitely somewhat monotonous, but not 100% robotic is how I always perceived her voice.

Personally, I've always thought Christine Marie Cabanos would be a great choice for Es, especially if she did something similarly to her performance as Chiaki from Danganronpa 2.

Oh well, only time will tell!!

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17 hours ago, MaximusMurkimus said:

I'm a little concerned at how many signatures will it take for Aksys/ASW to even care. We're at 2626 now, but would they want to see 5K? 10K? Higher? Patrick seems to be pleased at how far it has gotten though, so maybe it's not as much as I think.

Now that you mention it, he is surprisingly enthusiastic about our progress so far. Not sure if that means the petition is really doing well or if he's just trying to be encouraging.

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1 hour ago, In&Out said:

Now that you mention it, he is surprisingly enthusiastic about our progress so far. Not sure if that means the petition is really doing well or if he's just trying to be encouraging.

I'd imagine it's likely a bit of both, personally.

Some of you may be aware that this account runs a netplay tournament series for BlazBlue called AniClash, and one of our series organizers created a new video on the Central Fiction dub issue that you can find here. It's already gotten a fair amount of exposure from various figures within the anime FGC on social media; please do feel free to share it with fellow fighting game enthusaists, the voice actors themselves, Aksys, etc. maintain momentum around this movement if you're so inclined.

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2 hours ago, In&Out said:

Now that you mention it, he is surprisingly enthusiastic about our progress so far. Not sure if that means the petition is really doing well or if he's just trying to be encouraging.

To be honest even having people signing this petition to begin with should be a surprise to him. Especially, when you have people saying that no one cares about a dub in fighting game which to be honest people don't usually care about one. Blazblue is special only because it has tons of dialogue in it and people been with the dub for a long time. So it makes sense for him to be encouraging of the progress of it even if it may not amount to anything since it show some people do care about the work he has done in it.

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