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Grimsley-San

Do you prefer the English or Japanese voices?

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Japanese [JP] Voices.

Because: Original Voice & Acting.... Fits As Should Be.

 

Dubbing It To Another Language. Basically Ruins The Roll For "X" Character [in My Opinion]

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I'm not so sure about this thread. VA preference is a very volatile inflammatory kind of subject that usually doesn't end very well.

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English...I'd like to be able to understand what's being said without having to read subtitles below. Especially during animated cutscenes. Sure some characters might be better in Japanese, but that doesn't ruin the experience. English Ragna is better than JPN Ragna, where as JPN Terumi is better than English Terumi. It's win-win on either side. Besides it's a nice experience hearing English VA's try and adapt to the character as much as possible.

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Japanese. First thing I always do when I got a new BB is change audio back to japanese. I just can't stand the english voices; it just doesn't work for me. That’s why it’s very important for me a good translation in these games.

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Since the game isn't specified, I'll reply as thus:

BB - I don't have a preference. I think a lot of the English voices are done well, and the Japanese ones are mostly good. I don't think you can really go wrong (save English Platinum/Taokaka).

P4U - Japanese, though the dub is really good. Japanese Elizabeth is really godlike.

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When I first got CT, the English dub voices felt cheesy and awkward. Either they got better, or I got used to them, because I love them now. English Ragna is great. Same with Jin and a whole bunch of others. Kagura and Azrael are nice too; they're both laid back but have an undercurrent of steel to them.

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i imagine this topic could get rather..... argumental at some point.

 

but personally for me? i think it depends on my mood. some days i want to hear hakumen say unit cookie dough and others i want to hear him say WINDS OF DESTINY etc.

 

but i usually play games without dua; audio so it doesnt really matter to me. my TV is usually sound off... :psyduck:

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After listening to both languages for a good while, and getting to know the VA's on each region, I honestly don't have a preference; I switch back and forth depending on my mood. I feel both languages fit their characters and personalities, and do a damn good job at it as well.

 

 

That said, to give the English dub some credit(because nobody else will :V), its one of the better dubs in video games honestly. Each character sounds pretty natural, and the acting is pretty spot on. It is extremely rare to get dubs this good in video games, and I commend the voice direction for it. Patrick Seitz sounds like he was born to play Ragna, because he makes the character sound so natural when he talks. 

 

 

So yea...don't see why people hate the English dub...ya know beyond the standard "Sub vs. Dub" debates that never seem to die.

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Basically, it doesn't break out into a fight if people can accept that sometimes there can be a lot of factors involved. Sometimes, English dubs are terrible. Sometimes they're not. Even though Japanese is the "original", sometimes the English voice clicks more. It happens. Depending on how lines are delivered, etc. Sometimes, the Japanese voice has a spark that the English voice doesn't. Sometimes, it's the other way around. If people don't get all absolutist about it, then people probably don't really have to fight about it.

 

I think English dubs in general can have a tougher time because if it's an awkward, sucky translation in the first place, then it's not going to sound right no matter what.

 

For me, personally, I tend to use the English dub for Blazblue. Reason being, many of the move names in fight that are called out are not in Japanese. And because English covers far more of a range of sounds than Japanese does, it sounds less awkward having a native English speaker pronounce something in say, Japanese (if they have some sense of how it works [pretty much all of the VAs in this game do]), than it does for a Japanese native to say something in English (if they haven't been practicing for years). It just requires mouth muscles that need to be built up. And sometimes, even if they could pronounce it in English, they're probably just reading the Japanese characters which are as limited in sounds as the Japanese language itself.

 

Example: "Gauntlet Hades" becomes by necessity "Ga-n-to-re-t-to Ha-a-de-zu" and "Spark Bolt" becomes "Su-pa-a-ku Bo-ru-to" and "Nemesis Stabilizer" becomes "Ne-me-shi-su Su-te-bi-ra-i-za-a" when you write it in Japanese characters. The VA's pronunciation usually reflects this. I think we've all heard what happens when you get the native Japanese VAs doing the general announcing for the game (Ka-ru-ru Ku-ro-ba-a). lol

 

There are things in the Japanese language that don't kind of work in English, and I get that in the grand scheme of things. But, in general, the English voices end up sounding less awkward mid match and beyond for me.

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^ I agree with the top, but Idk sometimes it sounds better and more hype/awesome to hear the engrish words. "INFERNO DIVIDUA" sounds more hype to me than "INFERNO DIVIDER". None of this though, is hyper than "VOLCANIC VIPAAAA" and definitely not more than "POTEMKIN BUSTAAAHHH!!!!"

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If the dub of a fighting game is good in the first place, then I stick with it. You'll need skill to make dubs that are worse than every KoF game that was ever dubbed.

 

This thread won't be out for too long, given the very nature of this topic.

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This thread won't be out for too long, given the very nature of this topic.

 

I dunno, nobody seems to have been at each other's throat yet.

 

BB:

Personally, I prefer English these days. In CT I liked the Japanese version more since I used Haku-men and back then David Vincent's voice just felt too weird for me. They fixed that in CS and I played with English there for the most part. In Extend I used Japanese though not by choice since the English in it was messed up (not the VAs fault). As of CP, I used English exclusively. While I DO like the Japanese side just fine (in some case prefer it, like Kagura and Bang), the English side just sounds more fitting for these types of characters (hey D.C Douglas and your frighteningly-amazing Azrael). 

 

P4A:

English. Tara Platt voices Elizabeth and Mitsuru. All I need to keep the game permanently on English and never look back. The fact that they have Liam O'Brien and Erin Fitzgerald now only strengthens their hold on me.

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When I watch anime, I'm pretty 50/50 when it comes to dubs or subs.

In games, however, I usually play in english because playing in a language I don't understand kinda affects the immersion for me (call me weird but it does). I WOULD switch to japanese if the english voice actors were absolutely terrible, but it definitely isn't the case with Blazblue. Honestly, I think that those who call the dub of blazblue ''crap'' have probably never heard objectively bad voice acting, and should feel lucky.

Plus, CP has Erin Fitzgerald as Bullet, Yuri Lowenthal as Amane and Doug Erholtz's Terumi is very fun to listen to (yes I'm one of those who prefer him to Erik Davies). The only voice I have a problem with is (drum rolls) Bang's but I have this feeling that Steve Kramer really isn't the one at fault.

As for Persona 4 Arena: it has almost the same cast as in the original games (safe for a few voices I wasn't that fond of anyway; like Fuuka's) and I just love the cast of both P3 and P4, so I'd probably never switch.

If Guilty Gear Xrd does end up localized with english voices, I think it would be neat if you get the option to chose individual voice select like in Street Fighter. It offers the best compromise IMO.

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The only voice I have a problem with is (drum rolls) Bang's but I have this feeling that Steve Kramer really isn't the one at fault.

Wish that ARC could release DLC with the old Bang voice. :/

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I'm way too attached to BB's Japanese voice actors (mostly through BuruRaji) to switch the voices to English. Though I must admit, the dub is very, very solid across the board, with my favorites being Tager and Kokonoe.

For P4U, it's a little bit different: I'm fond of P3's English voice cast, since the original game is among my most favorite JRPGs ever, but I haven't played P4 that much, so I prefer the JP voices (and I also watched the anime, so the bias towards that is even stronger). Luckily, I don't play P4U that often, so I don't have to worry about it.

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Subs.

 

The few times I enjoyed English voices in the Fighting Games (and Japanese games in general) are from the series where the english voices are a planned part right from the start and not because of the localization: Marvel series, SF3, Devil May Cry and a few others.

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I'm not so sure about this thread. VA preference is a very volatile inflammatory kind of subject that usually doesn't end very well.

I don't know about that, the thread has been decent so far.

 

After listening to both languages for a good while, and getting to know the VA's on each region, I honestly don't have a preference; I switch back and forth depending on my mood. I feel both languages fit their characters and personalities, and do a damn good job at it as well.

 

 

That said, to give the English dub some credit(because nobody else will :V), its one of the better dubs in video games honestly. Each character sounds pretty natural, and the acting is pretty spot on. It is extremely rare to get dubs this good in video games, and I commend the voice direction for it. Patrick Seitz sounds like he was born to play Ragna, because he makes the character sound so natural when he talks. 

 

 

So yea...don't see why people hate the English dub...ya know beyond the standard "Sub vs. Dub" debates that never seem to die.

I'd definitely agree with you on English Ragna. I'd also say that when Ragna isn't being angry Seitz is much better at making him sound like a normal human being whereas the JAP voice actor always sounds sort of angry and bombastic no matter what. 

I definitely prefer the English Dub over the Japanese dub, mostly because I don't speak Japanese so you miss out on mid-battle quotes (Relius' ENG astral against Carl in Extend is god-like) and also because while the Japanese dub is overall really good, I can't stand JAP Taokaka, Makoto (Not that her ENG dub is THAT much better) and Platinum.

 

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Well, for me, I find the original Japanese voices are always far better than any dub could ever be, I just love the way they sound. I guess I also like to think that if I'm playing a Japanese game, I should play it in Japanese as well.

 

You can really hear that the Japanese VA's give it their all, and they're amazing. Plus, for me, they double as a language lesson, I've learned all sorts of fun words. (Thanks Terumi!)

 

I've never liked any dub, they just sound so....cheesy(?)and not well done to me.

 

I always change my games to Japanese audio, given the option.

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On principle, I always watch or play any media with the voices of its original language, so Japanese 100% of the time.

 

 

That's how I do it, too.

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As far as Persona goes, I tend to go with the English voices, simply because that's what I'm used to from the RPGs. Don't have an issue with any of the JPN voices, though, and I'll occasionally switch to those just to hear Romi Park be godlike with Naoto.

 

As for BB, I'll take either. Both voice casts, aside from English Bang currently, are absolutely fantastic at what they do. Asking me to choose between Isomura and Robinson for Makoto is like asking which of my non-existent children is my favorite. Same with Vee and Kondou for Noel, and Sugita and Seitz for Rags.

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P4A:

English. Tara Platt voices Elizabeth and Mitsuru. All I need to keep the game permanently on English and never look back. The fact that they have Liam O'Brien and Erin Fitzgerald now only strengthens their hold on me.

This. Im also a fan of Troy Baker as Kanji (You can blame Tales of Vesperia for that :/ )

Wish that ARC could release DLC with the old Bang voice. :/

This as well. Manly chest will never be the same.

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