Best Games to Play with Non-English Voice Acting

geary

geary

Member
Lately I've been thinking about how much voice acting changes the feel of a game — and how often the English VA just doesn't cut it. Flat delivery, weird emotional tone, or just completely mismatched with the setting. So I started playing more games with non-English audio, and honestly, some of them feel way better. The Witcher 3 in Polish hits way harder — Geralt actually sounds like he belongs in that world. Metro Exodus in Russian is a totally different experience — more raw, immersive, and believable. Even Assassin's Creed: Unity feels more alive in French (why they gave French revolutionaries British accents is still a mystery). And of course, Japanese games like Yakuza or Persona 5 just land better with their original VAs. English dubs often miss the energy or nuance of the characters. Even Ghost of Tsushima, made by a Western studio, feels more grounded in Japanese. Sometimes it's not even about realism — it's just that the emotional tone fits better in the original or alternative VA. You feel more in it.

Do you play games in non-English voiceover? Which ones worked better that way for you? And is it just about immersion, or is the actual performance better?
Throw your picks in here — I'm looking to build a list of games that are meant to be heard in something other than English.
 
I played The Witcher 3 in German once because I just wanted to refresh my German a bit and found the German voice of Geralt way more fitting too than the English one. Also the Priscilla song in German is really good as well.

I like that CDPR have so many voice overs. Really nice if you want to learn another language and have already played the game, so you know the story already anyway.

See this video for differences btw:



And Priscilla's Song in all languages:

 
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If a game is anime looking or set in Japan, I'll play it japanese. The Yakuza games could be a good example, some good performances there.
 
I don't go to a lot of movies with subtitles (Inglorious Basterds is an exception), because I get tired of reading. I feel the same way about video games, but some of the best games force me to. Thankfully, Yakuza 0 on Switch 2 has David Hayter and a full English dub. While it might be more accurate with Japanese actors and dialogue, this is more suited to the consumer.
 
Xenoblade Chronicles. I'm no "subs over dubs" purist but I hated the English voices and greatly preferred Japanese voices with sub-titles.
 
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Dialog in a language I don't understand is not enjoyable for me. Bad voiceover that would make me want to use a different language with subtitles just makes me not want to play a game.

Tekken drives me nuts with everyone speaking their native language with subtitles and somehow everyone understands each other. I guess they read each other's subtitles.
 
Ghost of Tsushima is better played with the Japanese language than English.

I also played Witcher 3 in Polish.
 
I couldn't stand the English voice actors for Breath of the Wild so I watched it with South-American Spanish and it was excellent! Mostly because I don't speak Spanish so I could pretend it was their native tongue lol.
 
Game s like 13 Sentinels and upcoming Silent Hill f have Japanese setting with Japanese characters I play wth Japanese voices.
 
The Yakuza series is good in Japanese. I played OG Yakuza on PS2 in English.

I try out other Japanese games in English first, and if I don't like the VA, I switch to Japanese.

The Gothic games in German are good.
 
Danjin44 said:
I dont agree with that...
Click to expand...
uUq3APE.jpeg
 
Recently played Metro Exodus and Yakuza/Like a Dragon games in another(non-English) language.

Does depend a lot on the voice actor though.

Loved Witcher3,but never liked Geralt's English voice.
(When you take part in the dopplers salvation play..)😒
 
Kingdom Come: Deliverance


I usually play games in the language the developer originally intended - so I guess I would've had to play it in (Old) Czech.
But I actually played Kingdom Come: Deliverance in German, because I felt it really fit the setting, and it allowed me not to have to rely on subtitles.
I rarely play games in German, but this was a great experience.
 
Blasphemous in Spanish is great, it really fits the whole vibe of the game, totally recommended, although it would probably help if you actually understand Spanish
 
Generally I try to pick whatever the native language is. So for JRPGs, I'll play with Jp audio pretty much every time.
 
only really for japanese media set in japan. engrish sounds so incredibly cringe it hurts my ears so english if the setting is outside of japan.
 
I never buy into the game is meant to be experienced in a certain language. It's meant for you to be able to understand the words. Otherwise, it might as well be Zelda or Animal Crossing style mumbling nonsense.
 
The Chronicles Of Myrtana: Archolos is in Polish with english subtitles but very good standalone mod. If you liked Gothic 1 and 2 this is for you.
 
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Battlefield 1 - Russian, Female Russian or German for the announcer too.
 
Everything made in japan is the boring but obvious answer, but you can pretty much just say that every game should be played in it's creators language.
Sadly a dub existing at all mean that subtitles even when playing in japanese often changed far more than they need to. Saw Nier mentioned, and it's a pretty great example of that.

Danjin44 said:
I can't imagine playing Resident Evil games in Japanese.
Click to expand...



I can't imagine playing em without good voice acting. :messenger_winking:

To choose a specific example of my own though


FF7 Remake in Japanese is a must
 
That's something I do since forever. I have a rule that applies to every game, wheres the developer studio from? I pick their language.

Japanese game = Japanese VO
French game = French VO
Russian game = Russian VO

And so on
 
Most foreign games.

But dubtitles are damn annoying, Square Enix are guilty of this with FF.

FFXVI (not a big fan of either voices), Ni no Kuni, Kingdom Hearts, may have be exceptions.

I'm still disappointed Claire Obscjre wasn't French first. Such a missed opportunity jtt for talent French cast. Ben Starr already feels like the new overused voice in gaming, like Troy Baker and many others.
 
Boralf said:
I played The Witcher 3 in German once because I just wanted to refresh my German a bit and found the German voice of Geralt way more fitting too than the English one. Also the Priscilla song in German is really good as well.

I like that CDPR have so many voice overs. Really nice if you want to learn another language and have already played the game, so you know the story already anyway.

See this video for differences btw:



And Priscilla's Song in all languages:

Click to expand...

How they make such massive games in so many languages? Like witcher 3 probably has hundreds of thousands of lines, how do you dub it in so many languages?
 
Being bilingual myself (English+Russian), I've had a drastically elevated experience when there's a native-speaking cast:

Metro (the entire series)
Atomic Heart
STALKER (I try out Ukrainian now and again, I really should just sit down and study it)

As well, I found my experience with Black Myth Wukong to be infinitely better with the native Mandarin dialogue.
And of course, Clair Obscur in French is superb, albeit I prefer the English cast overall.
 
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Not really. In general there was no original audio so its not like one is necessarily more true or correct than another.
 
Hideous Snake said:
That's something I do since forever. I have a rule that applies to every game, wheres the developer studio from? I pick their language.

Japanese game = Japanese VO
French game = French VO
Russian game = Russian VO

And so on
Click to expand...
This is what I do generally, especially for movies, and that fucked up Clair Obscur's first half, then I changed it back to great english performance. French fits the atmosphere but it felt soulless compared to english vo, Gustave especially. And as I getting older, reading all that generally gibberish dialogues in games(except clair obscur) doesn't feel worth it. Also, I've realized I'm tired of Japanese, which I adored but didn't understand for like 20 years.

I can add Atomic Heart Russian vo to that list, it was cool.
 
But in general I'm not particularly interested in changing the language. Barring exceptions like RE4 Ada being a bit off, most VA is acceptable and has the added bonus of me actually understanding it. Maybe I'll give it a try for some repeat playthroughs.
grvg said:
Sekiro
Click to expand...
This the only exception I can think of, and IIRC it's because it defaults to it. I jumped back and forth a few times but Japanese felt right for it.
 
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Hideous Snake said:
That's something I do since forever. I have a rule that applies to every game, wheres the developer studio from? I pick their language.

Japanese game = Japanese VO
French game = French VO
Russian game = Russian VO

And so on
Click to expand...
This rule is flawed. There are exceptions like Resident Evil or Metal Gear series. Don't tell me Kojima picks Kiefer Sutherland or Death Stranding with all those well known actors and wants us to play in japanese or whatever.
Also i'm sure many western devs prioritize english with mocap/lip sync for the obvious reason. Remedy is from Finland, anybody play their games in Finnish?!

I try to play in what is intended by the devs or i prefer. 99,9% is eastern games in japanese and western games in english but sometimes it makes sense to play it in a different language.
I never play a Final Fantasy in english except for XII. Hearing russian while playing Metro it's just more natural. Stellar Blade in Korean. And so on.
 
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Judge Magister said:
This rule is flawed. There are exceptions like Resident Evil or Metal Gear series. Don't tell me Kojima picks Kiefer Sutherland or Death Stranding with all those well known actors and wants us to play in japanese or whatever.
Also i'm sure many western devs prioritize english with mocap/lip sync for the obvious reason. Remedy is from Finland, anybody play their games in Finnish?!

I try to play in what is intended by the devs or i prefer. 99,9% is eastern games in japanese and western games in english but sometimes it makes sense to play it in a different language.
I never play a Final Fantasy in english except for XII. Hearing russian while playing Metro it's just more natural. Stellar Blade in Korean. And so on.
Click to expand...
You are correct but these are not frequent situations. 90% of the time I do play the native language but in the games you mentioned its always English of course
 
Anything that contains weeb stuff I'll play in Japanese. The very nature of the content makes it completely unfit for English dubbing. It sounds too forced, trite and insufferable in English. In Japanese instead, everything sounds as goofy as it should. Can't imagine Yakuza or Danganronpa in English. Virtue's Last Reward was also awesome in Japanese.
Of course, the same is true for serious Japanese stuff, like Sekiro or Onimusha.

One notable exception for me is Xenoblade. For some reason, those games just work quite well in English.
 
I play Japanese (and Asian) games in Japanese. The only exception being MGS/Death Stranding. (well, MGS I can go either way). Other language games usually in English.
Judge Magister said:
This rule is flawed. There are exceptions like Resident Evil or Metal Gear series. Don't tell me Kojima picks Kiefer Sutherland or Death Stranding with all those well known actors and wants us to play in japanese or whatever.
Click to expand...
Resident Evil never had a Japanese voice over until RE6 or 7 I believe. The games were traditionally English dub only.
 
If im really enjoying the immersion, i change to a more 'authentic' language especially for samurai / yakuza style games. But if the game is mediocre, its not worth the effort of reading subs.
 
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