Language Preference for Cutscenes

[Caspar]

All this talk about the staff tailoring the voice actors to the very specific nuances of the characters...

 

And none notice Rie Tanaka. She's the Japanese version of Tara Strong. Or Atsuko Tanaka. Not to tread on any of their stellar abilities, but to assume someone like Rie Tanaka was chosen to voice someone with as many lines as Kan-E-Senna for anything but her star power is a little on the naive side.

 

As someone who has spent time in Japan, has friends move back and forth between there and being an extensive weeb anime connoisseur since the 1990s, I can tell you with full authority that literally everything that isn't farming in Japan is fanservice-related. (No. Not that kind of fanservice—but outright pandering to a base.) Most of these 'seiyuu' are really just pop idols, screen actors and the like—retired or not—doing filler work. It's not like they work for a voice studio.

 

I mean, by the numbers... The West has a much, much larger pool of voice talent to draw from than Japan and that, statistically, is going to bump up the number of voices that not all of you are going to agree with. Personally, I found most of the voices outside of Merlywb, Hydaelyn, Lahabrea, Gaius, Livia and Alphinaud to be very wooden and/or over-acted. Then again, Hydaelyn, Lahabrea, Gaius and Alphinaud are voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Kyle Hebert, Richard Epcar and Sam Riegal, respectively. It honestly felt like some of the lesser-known voice talent tried to go with the obviously-acted, 'epic', 'anime-voice' angle.

Oh yeah, totally. I've never been that huge of a fan of Tanaka, though she's good. I mean, she definitely fits the character, but there are a lot of other VA who could do Kan-E-Senna just as well. I think in terms of skill and role archetype she matches well, but I agree she was picked probably because she's famous lol.

 

Actually, now that I think about it, I forgot she was even in the game. Shows how much I care about the Adders.

[K'nahli]

All this talk about the staff tailoring the voice actors to the very specific nuances of the characters...

 

And none notice Rie Tanaka. She's the Japanese version of Tara Strong. Or Atsuko Tanaka. Not to tread on any of their stellar abilities, but to assume someone like Rie Tanaka was chosen to voice someone with as many lines as Kan-E-Senna for anything but her star power is a little on the naive side.

 

As someone who has spent time in Japan, has friends move back and forth between there and being an extensive weeb anime connoisseur since the 1990s, I can tell you with full authority that literally everything that isn't farming in Japan is fanservice-related. (No. Not that kind of fanservice—but outright pandering to a base.) Most of these 'seiyuu' are really just pop idols, screen actors and the like—retired or not—doing filler work. It's not like they work for a voice studio.

 

I mean, by the numbers... The West has a much, much larger pool of voice talent to draw from than Japan and that, statistically, is going to bump up the number of voices that not all of you are going to agree with. Personally, I found most of the voices outside of Merlywb, Hydaelyn, Lahabrea, Gaius, Livia and Alphinaud to be very wooden and/or over-acted. Then again, Hydaelyn, Lahabrea, Gaius and Alphinaud are voiced by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Kyle Hebert, Richard Epcar and Sam Riegal, respectively. It honestly felt like some of the lesser-known voice talent tried to go with the obviously-acted, 'epic', 'anime-voice' angle.

Oh yeah, totally. I've never been that huge of a fan of Tanaka, though she's good. I mean, she definitely fits the character, but there are a lot of other VA who could do Kan-E-Senna just as well. I think in terms of skill and role archetype she matches well, but I agree she was picked probably because she's famous lol.

 

Actually, now that I think about it, I forgot she was even in the game. Shows how much I care about the Adders.

 

I really admired your replies and ability to coherently convey many of my own personal impressions on the matter much better than I could have myself....

 

 

 

 

 

....but then I read this....

 

Shows how much I care about the Adders.

 

Petitioning to have you removed from the forum outright and asap.

[Zyrusticae]

Part of the problem is that the acting cannot be divorced from the direction and instruction the actor receives. The two are intrinsically linked because, obviously, they have a HUGE impact on the final result (see Casper's remarks about "Tominospeak"). Some of why the generic 'I don't like the voice acting' complaints grate on me is specifically because they could just be complaining about the direction they went in rather than the actual acting. And of course, the casting itself is a whole 'nother ball of wax (though great actors can make any role work even when they're playing something completely against type).

 

And then there's the script itself. Trying to act "naturally" when you're using a dialect that's so alien from your own that it may as well be another language is not even remotely an easy task. You might not even have a conception for what a 'natural' sound for that particular character would be, because they don't exist and no living individual exists who speaks like that.

 

On the other hand, maybe I just have really low standards. Growing up, I listened to a lot of wooden acting and LOADS of kids who just... couldn't... read out loud worth a damn. Pausing every other word, over or underenunciating, not even being able to project even the slightest amount of emotion... it's pretty funny in retrospect how much better-read I was than pretty much everyone else. Funny... and pretty sad, for that matter. That experience colors my perceptions and I now consider pretty much anything that isn't blatantly over-acted or completely awful to be adequate, and anything that sounds even a little bit natural to be 'good'.

 

All that being said, great acting still definitely gets a rise out of me. But I don't expect it, and frankly, no one should, because it requires extraordinary circumstances with extraordinary people and an extraordinary story with an equally extraordinary script. Too many mitigating factors for that to happen more often than once in a blue moon. As long as things aren't grating or boring me to tears, I'm happy enough.

[Berrod Armstrong]

I, uh.

 

I don't watch the cutscenes.

I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU ANYMORE

---

Given that the actual dialogue is written out into British regionals according to the localization, using Japanese voiceovers would be erroneous, as I'm pretty sure they're not actually saying the displayed text in Japanese.

 

Also with subsequent patches, I have felt that the English voice acting has improved considerably. Nanamo Ul Nanamo for example (she is terrible in 2.0, but 2.2 onwards is neat). New characters too, like Moenbryda and Aymeric, the latter especially being incredible.

Agreed, Aymeric shocked and delighted me, listening to him and Alphinaud speak was great.

[Zyrusticae]

Oh yeah, Aymeric makes me swoon. His voice is like liquid gold unto mine ears. I could listen to him speak about nothing all day long. :blush:

[Melkire]

Fourth'ing Aymeric's English VA as an unexpected and very appreciated gem.

[Imo]

You can switch language tracks? Brb, gotta rewatch some cutscenes in Japanese. Some of the characters have Japanese voice actors I really like - Minfilia is Miyuki Sawashiro and Pipin is Nobuyuki Hiyama, both of whom are freakin' amazing seiyuu.

 

And only recently I realized that Kan-E-Senna is Rie Tanaka. Lacus. I guess you could say she's a... SEED-seer.

[Gabineaux]

I really liked the German voices for the newest stuff. A+, everyone sounded great.

[Kaniko Niko]

Just recently I finished up the 2.0 Main Story Questline and have traversed about three quarters of the way through Into The Maelstrom.

 

By the grace of the gods has the voice acting been bumped up several notches.

 

Yugiri Mistwalker sounds like she's phoning it in, though. Raubahn is still charmingly Raubahn and Nanamo actually sounds quite wonderful. As far as Lalafell go, I don't believe I heard Papalymo yet, but he's got some serious ground to cover to catch up.

 

I'm actually rather much a fan of Alphinaud's voice. It was wooden at first, but by the time a certain event rolls around with a primal near the end of the 2.0 MSQ, I could say he was busting some serious chops. You could practically hear him trying not to vomit from the fundamental wrongness of how things turned out.

[Clover]

Japanese voices, hands down. Several reasons:

 

1- Most importantly, it's the original (and therefore, the real) version. The creators wanted the characters to be and sound that way, and nothing really beats the original version of anything. I don't watch Game of Thrones in Spanish, just like I wouldn't play a Japanese game in any other language that's not Japanese. Original voices are sacred to me.

 

2- It's not just that the original version of anything is better and true to the creators' vision, but also that dubs tend to sound plain bad to me. Many characters just don't translate well in different cultures.

 

3- Japanese must be the only language that sounds good to my ears *laughs*.

[Warren Castille]

English. I don't speak Japanese. Plus I read faster than everyone speaks, so I clip the end of their sentences before anyone finishes anything.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Japanese voices, hands down. Several reasons:

 

1- Most importantly, it's the original (and therefore, the real) version. The creators wanted the characters to be and sound that way, and nothing really beats the original version of anything. I don't watch Game of Thrones in Spanish, just like I wouldn't play a Japanese game in any other language that's not Japanese. Original voices are sacred to me.

 

2- It's not just that the original version of anything is better and true to the creators' vision, but also that dubs tend to sound plain bad to me. Many characters just don't translate well in different cultures.

 

3- Japanese must be the only language that sounds good to my ears *laughs*.

 

1. Japanese is not the "original" version. They are all made simultaneously, as stated by Square Enix. (And said again at the Lore Panel at the Vegas Fanfest 2014). Lore and Localization share staff at SE, which is why English-made lore is "back-translated/localized" to the Japanese localization. It was already linked previously, but here's Fernehalwes talking about some of it. http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/219094-Various-english-titles..?p=2804270&viewfull=1#post2804270 You'll notice in the credits, all the voice actors are grouped together for each character. It isn't as if the Japanese is dubbed and a script is handed off to English, French and German. They work on it together in-house.

 

Fanfest video/transcript:

 

http://gamerescape.com/2014/10/18/final-fantasy-xiv-fan-fest-lore-panel-live-blog/

 

 

Note: Language preference is all fair and game. Each team has a few characters that I think portray certain characters best. (As in, I cannot stand Minfillia in English, but Japanese and Frech sound pretty good. Urianger is awesome in English, but I don't really care for the other languages. I've heard Moenbryda was great in German, but haven't gone back yet to rewatch). What I am calling out is that the Japense isn't the "original" script. Because it isn't. The lead lore creator is Japanese and speaks Japanese, but he's not the one making the NPC dialogue in most cases. It's the localization teams working together.

[Clover]

It is a Japanese game, made by Japanese people. There are games and movies that are released at the same time around the world; it doesn't mean that every dub is actually the original version. As for the listed voice actors, the very first ones listed are the Japanese ones. It is natural to also list the ones from the dubs to other languages, as those are released at the same time, but I still consider them dubs because -again- the game is Japanese.

[Gegenji]

English. I don't speak Japanese. Plus I read faster than everyone speaks, so I clip the end of their sentences before anyone finishes anything.

 

I do that so much. "Okay, read it, skip the talkies." It's usually Minifilia prattling on about something or another, so I don't mind not hearing the last few words in either case. Need to get the quest so I can walk right outside her door to talk to someone before walking right back in!

[Warren Castille]

It is a Japanese game, made by Japanese people. There are games and movies that are released at the same time around the world; it doesn't mean that every dub is actually the original version. As for the listed voice actors, the very first ones listed are the Japanese ones. It is natural to also list the ones from the dubs to other languages, as those are released at the same time, but I still consider them dubs because -again- the game is Japanese.

 

The scripts are still all written together.

[Kage]

It's a false equivalency to believe that because the development team is Japanese means that the Japanese voice acting is the original or real version.

 

It's true though, I find Keeper of the Lake and Haucherfant to be the more... questionable choices though they can be explained away. A little.

 

According to some posts I've read, the dialogue in Keeper, doesn't completely change it though it makes explicit what the English localization kept implicit. When I read the Japanese I realized that it didn't say anything that the English didn't. He's testing us. He's not our complete enemy.

 

The Haucherfant... Ok times were exceptionally trying during the Coethas ordeals. I mean his friend was about to be executed etc right? Now he's... less stressed about it.

[cuideag]

I hear the German dub is actually pretty good but I wouldn't know because I don't know a lick of German. All sounds pretty terrifying to me.

 

... maybe that's why it's good???

[allgivenover]

It is a Japanese game, made by Japanese people. There are games and movies that are released at the same time around the world; it doesn't mean that every dub is actually the original version. As for the listed voice actors, the very first ones listed are the Japanese ones. It is natural to also list the ones from the dubs to other languages, as those are released at the same time, but I still consider them dubs because -again- the game is Japanese.

 

Dub is a misnomer here. With a dub you take the existing material and sync your acting to the mouth movement that is already animated or filmed. 

 

In this case, the movements of the mouth are altered or simplified from the start to accommodate the different languages, so dub isn't quite right here.

 

Getting off track here, but let's be clear that no one voice acting language in XIV's case is "original" or "correct". XIV has been a global project from inception.

 

If you never listen to the Japanese, you're missing out on the glory that is Aya Endo and Shuichi Ikeda.

If you never listen to the English, you're missing out on the glory that is Gideon Emory.

[Kage]

At the end of 2.55, in terms of voice actors I was just @_@ how Pipin Tarupin is

 

Also him.

[allgivenover]

Yes I recognized Pipin immediately and was delighted~

 

He was also Viral in Gurren Lagann.

[Kismet]

I'm only here to agree with others in that Aymeric's voice (in English) is vocal honey to my ears and I would marry it if I could.

 

I mean, I'd marry him in general. And have his children, too. No questions asked! *shot*