it kind of feels like even when dubs are done well (nier, bayonetta) it takes away or cheapens the experience a little. if you have really good music and really nice graphics going together well with the gameplay, voice acting almost breaks down this wall/level of immersion and snaps you back to reality a little bit.
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FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 |OT| Change the Future
- Thread starter Kagari
- Start date
I'm the opposite. Reading bad dialogue is more immersion breaking than hearing it.
Seriously. Georgia is a fantastic VA, and it sucks that she gets so much hate. In fact, the 6 main VAs were pretty awesome. Ali Hillis was a solid Lightning, Troy Baker is Troy Baker (even if you hated his character, Snow had a good voice) Rachel Robinson is an underrated VA, and she did a great Fang (in fact she's a huge fan of her character!) Vincent Martella Hope was incredible and Reno Wilson nailed Sazh.
IMO the pitfalls in voice acting came from the NON main characters.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Gonna have to go with Kagari regarding Maaya Sakamoto. I liked her interpretation of Lightning's character a lot better than Ali Hillis's. Hillis felt boring and single-toned a lot of the time. :/
But regarding the English voice actors... I loved Vincent Martella as Hope. I'd like to see him do more game VA than FF13. Sazh's English voice actor nailed the character; so much better than the Japanese voice actor's interpretation, imo. Troy Baker is Troy Baker, enough said (this is a good thing). And Fang's English VA was great too. Honestly, I thought the split between using American VA for the Cocoon characters and the Aussie VAs for the Pulse characters was a pretty smart decision.
If only they didn't have Georgia seemingly emulate Yukari Fukui's voicework from the Japanese version and let her do her own thing (or use her own voice for that matter), people probably would have liked the character's voice more.
But regarding the English voice actors... I loved Vincent Martella as Hope. I'd like to see him do more game VA than FF13. Sazh's English voice actor nailed the character; so much better than the Japanese voice actor's interpretation, imo. Troy Baker is Troy Baker, enough said (this is a good thing). And Fang's English VA was great too. Honestly, I thought the split between using American VA for the Cocoon characters and the Aussie VAs for the Pulse characters was a pretty smart decision.
If only they didn't have Georgia seemingly emulate Yukari Fukui's voicework from the Japanese version and let her do her own thing (or use her own voice for that matter), people probably would have liked the character's voice more.
I prefer japanese voice acting since I can't tell whether or not it's bad. I enjoy listening to foreign languages, though.
I thought it was pretty fitting all things considered. Lightning isn't governed by emotions, she's quite, calm and collected so having her flat and emotionless was definitely acceptable imo.
Hmm as for Sakamato... I didn't play the Japanese version of FFXIII but I did enjoy her in Dissidia 012, she did a solid job so I can see why you would like her more.
EDIT: Oh man I 100% Dark Schala, WHY OH WHY didn't they let Georgia do her own thing.
Hmm as for Sakamato... I didn't play the Japanese version of FFXIII but I did enjoy her in Dissidia 012, she did a solid job so I can see why you would like her more.
EDIT: Oh man I 100% Dark Schala, WHY OH WHY didn't they let Georgia do her own thing.
That's the exact reason I don't like Japanese voice acting. I miss so much when it's not in a language I can understand. Even the poorest dubs have voice inflections or tonalities that I can catch aurally and give me more sense to the thoughts and emotions of the characters.
Nothing against Japanese VA or people who prefer it.
Once you get good enough at Japanese to understand all the voice acting with little effort, the fact that voice actors speak utterly unlike real people will start to stand out a lot more and you'll start hating Japanese VA. TV dubs of live-action shows are worse because you're seeing ordinary people but they're not talking like ordinary people. Watching 'Seinfeld' dubbed into Japanese with those voice actors and their distinctive unrealistic style was really jarring at first.
Perfo
Thirteen flew over the cuckoo's nest
Full Final Fantasy XIII-2 soundtrack tracklist released, who tells me if there are re-used tracks from the first in there? I don't want to get spoilers by looking at it
Never have I wanted a character to shut up as much as I wanted Vanille to.
YuriLowell
Member
Please tell me I don't have to run around as Sarah doing that incredibly annoying walk.
RPGCrazied
Member
Hopefully its mostly Noel, that you control.
Rahxephon91
Banned
Yeah pretty much. As much as I am a fan of hers, I don't think she effectively pulled off the tough somewhat bitchy attitude of Light very well. And to me she does sound like a teenager. Maybe I just can't remove the fact thar teenage girls is mostly what she has performed, or what I've heard her in.
Other then that, I thought Troy Barker was much better then Japanese snow. He brings a broness to the character that I feel is better for Snow. Japanese Snow sounds like a big brother character for a giant robot anime. Nothing wrong with that.
As Vannile. Well both are pretty equal. But in Japanese it's the same chick who did Nono in Diebuster or so I think. Well she was fine, but at parts it goes into overly cute Japanese girl voice. It's fine and I'm not saying the English
was better.
Szah's Japanese was a lite too old man for me. English sounds a lot more natural.
Hope is fine in both.
So yeah I thought the English VA was pretty good.
I really liked Fang's somewhat hick Australian voice. So as far as I'm concerned, much better in English.
Szahs
Thanks, Zoe -- it looks like my guess was on target! That wiki says that the yuna flower (Japanese oohamabou; biological name Hibiscus tiliaceus) *is* the one that blooms at night (plus 夕 yuu, coincidentally, means 'evening').
Dark Schala said:
It was a great decision, as it highlighted the fact that Vanille and Fang come from a different culture
and different era
In the Japanese versions all these characters talk in basically the same anime-speak manner (which itself would never be mistaken for real-person speech) despite being from different places and cultures. If I ever get to be in charge of taking a western game and translating it into Japanese and then "localizing" it for them, the first thing I'm going to insist on is to make use of different varieties of Japanese.
Has anyone heard about what the voice acting is going to be like in FFXIII-2 in this regard? I'm hoping to see (well, hear) Aussie accents for the Pulsians in past eras, North American accents from Cocoonians including those who move down to Pulse, and then maybe some Aussie-NA mix from a subculture of "hyper-Pulsian" people who have moved down from Cocoon and are looking to replicate Old Pulsian culture in its entirety, including speech and accents. But they can't quite get it right, and maybe Fang mocks them for it.
QFT. In Japanese he sounds about 70, not 40. And his accent is way too comic-relief in Japanese. In English he was just perfect -- probably second only to FFXII's Balthier on my list of favorite SE voice performances.
Yoshichan
And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Love the title screen and the Cactuar
Looks highly detailed.
Zoe
Member
WTF, he does not sound 70 in the Japanese version. He uses the exact same voice he uses for Guy in Naruto.
Cactuar!
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
Warning: some minor location spoilers
Does this confirm that pretty much every area has night/day cycle?
Has anything been mentioned about this aspect? Is the cycle tied down to the story, or is it a natural time-based change?
Yoshichan
And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Thanks a bunch
xion4360
Member
could be different time periods of each level.
Yeah, you shouldn't read those names. Some of them seem a bit spoilery. Especially a couple of the Disc 4 names might hint at what will happen by the end of XIII-2. But yeah, I don't think I noticed any repeated songs from XIII, but some XIII-2 songs do have "Aggressive Mixes". Not sure how different those will be in comparison to the... non-aggressive versions.Full Final Fantasy XIII-2 soundtrack tracklist released, who tells me if there are re-used tracks from the first in there? I don't want to get spoilers by looking at it
Nora Kisaragi
Banned
Yoshichan
And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
What?
Nora Kisaragi
Banned
Yoshichan
And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Wow! Very nice!
Dead Prince
Banned
it's a mixture of both but mostly 360 version.
It has both. Honestly, if you have both consoles though, the PS3 one still better.
Zoe
Member
It's both.
The 360's problems generally weren't in real time rendering (though there were still issues). The differences were most notable during the cut scenes due to the shitty compression.
Nora Kisaragi
Banned
Man, sticking with PS3 until the end huh? Your reaction when FF13 went multiplat was priceless.
Which version is "better" is an opinionated term. It all boils down to efficiency and quality. They both have similar features, though only the Xbox version supports an optional install, which reduces wear and tear on the CD and shuts the console up so it's not as noisy running; that's in addition to benefits in load-time and keeping data stored if your disc gets scratched.
These are all points supported by duckroll and others
That, however, is just optional installs. How compression effects the game is also a factor, to which the ps3 version may be superior. Judging from this video, the Xbox version looks stunning and the compression doesn't seem to be that much of a problem, the graphical differencies aren't as diverse as they were in FF13.
I'm really glad this video was released so we can see there really isn't that much of a divide in graphics.
edit: also, party chat woo!
Dead Prince
Banned
this will be good.
Huh, so this is a thing?
When ever I watch something from japan dubbed into english, be it video games or anime, it always just sounds weird, and all the conversations are super awkward, like the person writing the dialog has never had human contact before, but I always thought it was a lost in translation type deal.
Anyway I prefer Japanese VO, cause ignorance is bliss.
Zoe
Member
Isn't all of that footage direct from SE via trailers? I would trust actual play footage more.
Yoshichan
And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
Is superior, not "may". And you can't judge compression by a Youtube video since those are already compressed as fuck. Watch that video on a 50 inch and you'll see what I'm talking about.
I don't think a Youtube video is the basis for which you should draw such a conclusion.
Yoshichan
And they made him a Lord of Cinder. Not for virtue, but for might. Such is a lord, I suppose. But here I ask. Do we have a sodding chance?
I thought it was running on the exact same engine? It's not necessary in that caseBy the way, are we gonna have a FFXIII-2 PS3 vs. 360 thread like what we had for FFXIII?
Dead Prince
Banned
By the way, are we gonna have a FFXIII-2 PS3 vs. 360 thread like what we had for FFXIII?
We should have one for nostalgia.
Go_Ly_Dow
Member
IIRC, PS3 FFXIII load times >>> 360 Installed load times.
By the way, are we gonna have a FFXIII-2 PS3 vs. 360 thread like what we had for FFXIII?
Probably not. You guys can discuss it in here, or whatever, but as Yoshichan said, it's the same engine, so results will be close to XIII.
That said, having seen both running side by side, the 360 one is a little improved from XIII, but the PS3 version holds the edge in graphics... and obviously FMVs/audio. Anyone who's had a chance to view both, be it at any of the conventions the game was at, can tell you as well.
As for loading times, I asked Square Enix PR about it and they said they're exactly the same on both. No installs on either system. "the load times are equal among the two platforms. Unfortunately there are no installation options for both. Although you’d experience loading when traveling to worlds from the Historia Crux initially after that the majority of the loading are reduced and generally unnoticeable during gameplay within the worlds as it occurs real time."
AngelSoldier
Banned
Ugh. There is no question, PS3 version is teh win. Have fun with your compressed A/V.
runlikehell
Banned
I thought it was running on the exact same engine? It's not necessary in that case
Looks like it'll be the same as XIII was, 720p on PS3 and 576p on 360. :lol