Would you purchase a JP VN with English dub only? (Without original VA)

[Codesterz]

Not a chance in hell. I won't even buy JRPG's that fail to include the original Japanese voices. I just wait for an undub and then...

[Darklord Rooke]

Considering I don't listen to the original Japanese dub, because it doesn't add much to the experience (if you don't know the language) and it doubles the length of your read time, I'll say 'yes'.

[Suzu Fanatic]

Xseed is actually pretty good about offering both, in many cases. (at the very least, I recall Akiba's Strip offering both).

@Rooke Give enough time and material (assuming said material is not utterly wrong) you can get a rough grasp through osmosis. I wont pretend to claim I understand japanese jsut from what I've heard - but I do have a rough idea.

 

As for my personal bias - I find the emotions absorbed in the words much more heartfelt and much less corny in japanese - but that just raises the opld sub versus dub argument.

[Codesterz]

4 minutes ago, Suzu Fanatic said:

Xseed is actually pretty good about offering both, in many cases. (at the very least, I recall Akiba's Strip offering both).

@Rooke Give enough time and material (assuming said material is not utterly wrong) you can get a rough grasp through osmosis. I wont pretend to claim I understand japanese jsut from what I've heard - but I do have a rough idea.

 

As for my personal bias - I find the emotions absorbed in the words much more heartfelt and much less corny in japanese - but that just raises the opld sub versus dub argument.

Xseed got moved to my shit list after failing me with the Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel.

[Darklord Rooke]

Heh, XSeed is probably my favourite localiser.

[Suzu Fanatic]

2 minutes ago, Rooke said:

Heh, XSeed is probably my favourite localiser.

Agreed, One of my favorites.

5 minutes ago, Codesterz said:

Xseed got moved to my shit list after failing me with the Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel.

I admit I never got a chance to play that one yet - I have a ps3, just been too lazy to go to a store to buy the game What dp you find wrong with it?

[nohman]

Yes.

Since I can't understand the language, visual novels will always be more of a reading experience than an auditory one for me anyway. If the dub were extremely bad, I can just turn it off/play it without sound. I wouldn't let something like an English only dub deter me from reading a VN I was looking forward to.

That said, there's some cues (and humor) that can usually be gotten from the tone and cadence of the original VA,  so it's not like its completely removed from the experience of reading a visual novel altogether - it's just not essential to me.

[Codesterz]

Just now, Suzu Fanatic said:

Agreed, One of my favorites.

I admit I never got a chance to play that one yet - I have a ps3, jsut been too alzy to go to a store to buy the game What dp you find wrong with it?

No Japanese voices I was forced to wait to get an undub for it.

[ShinRaikdou]

50 minutes ago, Nosebleed said:

You have to understand voice acting in Japan is a big deal. The original Japanese voices are a treat to the fans and can even be part of the reason they like the game. Heck, some voice actresses have such a huge following people will literally buy the things they participate in just for them. One of my friends is a Hanazawa Kana fanboy and he literally washes his money away to buy any CD, DVD or game that has her voice in it.

I have nothing against dubbing a game in another language, but please preserve the original voice acting as well for those of us who actually prefer the game that way, it doesn't hurt anybody to do so.

And before you say "but that will force devs to make subs and that costs money", well any decent game should have subs for the hearing impaired anyway so that's not really an argument.

I understand royalties can be a bitch, but dubbing an entire game from scratch costs a ton of money too.

What about if publisher can't get jap VA license ? XSEED for example - they just can't get permission from Falcom, simply because of contracts for not allowing to publish outside japan. So, it is better than nothing, huh...

I think there is majority of VN that can't be tl because of that...

 

[Nekolover]

26 minutes ago, Rooke said:

Considering I don't listen to the original Japanese dub, because it doesn't add much to the experience (if you don't know the language) and it doubles the length of your read time, I'll say 'yes'.

I disagree with you. 

[Codesterz]

4 minutes ago, ShinRaikdou said:

What about if publisher can't get jap VA license ? XSEED for example - they just can't get permission from Falcom, simply because of contracts for not allowing to publish outside japan. So, it is better than nothing, huh...

I think there is majority of VN that can't be tl because of that...

 

Honestly I think Xseed should just cancel their partnership with Falcom and partner with someone that does voice contracts right. Then simply tell Falcom to get in contact with them when they get with the times.

[Nosebleed]

22 minutes ago, ShinRaikdou said:

What about if publisher can't get jap VA license ? XSEED for example - they just can't get permission from Falcom, simply because of contracts for not allowing to publish outside japan. So, it is better than nothing, huh...

I think there is majority of VN that can't be tl because of that...

 

Obviously if the publisher won't let them then I have nothing to add to it. But I wouldn't buy the game if I knew they did that.

[FrozenRaven]

1 hour ago, ShinRaikdou said:

What about if publisher can't get jap VA license ? XSEED for example - they just can't get permission from Falcom, simply because of contracts for not allowing to publish outside japan. So, it is better than nothing, huh...

I think there is majority of VN that can't be tl because of that...

 

Could someone explain the benefit of those types of contracts because I just can't understand the benefit. 

[Suzu Fanatic]

1 hour ago, Codesterz said:

Honestly I think Xseed should just cancel their partnership with Falcom and partner with someone that does voice contracts right. Then simply tell Falcom to get in contact with them when they get with the times.

Whoa whoa whoa now - let's not wish for anything hasty Trails in the sky 1 and 2 are two of the best jrpgs I've ever had the pleasure to play through - I admit I prefer jap voices, but I'd gladly take english/no voices over the loss of such worls.

[Codesterz]

4 minutes ago, Suzu Fanatic said:

Whoa whoa whoa now - let's not wish for anything hasty Trails in the sky 1 and 2 are two of the best jrpgs I've ever had the pleasure to play through - I admit I prefer jap voices, but I'd gladly take english/no voices over the loss of such worls.

Then Xseed needs to step up their game, stop letting themselves get walked all over by Falcom. Trails of Cold Steel 3 hasn't been released yet in Japan. Before it does they need to be talking to Falcom ahead of time to make sure there won't be issues with getting the Japanese voices. They need to do this with all future Falcom games. Make sure these issues are sorted out before they become irreversible.

[shadowolf64]

If it was done well I would, but thats the main problem I have with all of the current JRPGs and anime dubs its typically not done very well.. I don't particularly care if it changes the original meaning some as long as it is done well and has quality actors. In fact I would prefer it in some instances where characters speaking Japanese doesn't make sense. In an 18th century Britain I would expect the characters to be speaking English so when they speak Japanese it take me a bit to suspend my disbelief. 

[FrozenRaven]

6 minutes ago, Codesterz said:

Then Xseed needs to step up their game, stop letting themselves get walked all over by Falcom. Trails of Cold Steel 3 hasn't been released yet in Japan. Before it does they need to be talking to Falcom ahead of time to make sure there won't be issues with getting the Japanese voices. They need to do this with all future Falcom games. Make sure these issues are sorted out before they become irreversible.

Maybe the community should get together and show Falcom that there is a market for Japanese voicing in the west. Maybe through social media or something. 

[DarkZedge]

24 minutes ago, Suzu Fanatic said:

Whoa whoa whoa now - let's not wish for anything hasty Trails in the sky 1 and 2 are two of the best jrpgs I've ever had the pleasure to play through - I admit I prefer jap voices, but I'd gladly take english/no voices over the loss of such worls.

This is pretty much my opinion as well, if I get to chose then I'll take the original Japanese voices over English dub any day but if the choice comes down to "English voices or No voices" then I'll take the English voices.

I always rather have the game with some voices than none at all.

[Codesterz]

14 minutes ago, FrozenRaven said:

Maybe the community should get together and show Falcom that there is a market for Japanese voicing in the west. Maybe through social media or something. 

Won't do anything. You do realize there is already a Facebook page dedicated to not buying Japanese games without the original Japanese voices.

https://www.facebook.com/UndubGamersINT/

They are fully aware how important those voices are to some people. In fact this should be common sense by now. The excuse 'there wasn't enough space to fit it on the disk' is no longer a viable argument with the standard now being Blurays for discs. Now that this excuse won't work they are going with 'contract issues' to save themselves a bit of money. A lot of people have gotten sick of being seen as just a vocal minority and have started to stop buying those games. Like they say 'you vote with your wallet'. Money talks far more than a post that just gets you called a weaboo.

[Darklord Rooke]

5 minutes ago, Codesterz said:

Won't do anything. You do realize there is already a Facebook page dedicated to not buying Japanese games without the original Japanese voices.

https://www.facebook.com/UndubGamersINT/

They are fully aware how important those voices are to some people. 

The problem is the page only has 1640 'likes'. That's not even a 'minority', it'd be a 'minority' when it grows up. So if it is a contract issue, they're probably thinking the increased sales won't cover the increased cost of trying to get them *shrugs*. But that's going off a few assumptions.

[VirginSmasher]

I wouldn't because then I'd actually have to listen to the entire voice clips. 

[Codesterz]

1 minute ago, Rooke said:

The problem is the page only has 1640 'likes'. That's not even a 'minority', it'd be a 'minority' when it grows up. So if it is a contract issue, they're probably thinking the increased sales won't cover the increased cost *shrugs*. But that's going off a few assumptions, like the assumption that it's a cost issue.

I can assure you there are more people that follow this rule than the number of likes on that page. For one I'm not one of those likes as I don't have a facebook account and never will. Not to mention running into that page takes random luck on google or you have to know it exists before hand. In order to help with the cost of the Japanese audio(if that is the issue) I and many others have no issue with paying for it as DLC. I've seen people who are willing to pay up to $100 for it. Hell I'm willing to pay up to $50 for Japanese voice DLC.

[Darklord Rooke]

9 minutes ago, Codesterz said:

In order to help with the cost of the Japanese audio(if that is the issue) I and many others have no issue with paying for it as DLC. I've seen people who are willing to pay up to $100 for it. Hell I'm willing to pay up to $50 for Japanese voice DLC.

Apparently hard-core fans don't like 'paying extra separately for parts of the game already in the original.' Personally I think a Japanese voice DLC is very sensible, but going by the history of the Fuwanovel forums, it will cause a shitstorm for some unknown reason. Even when the cost of the game was reduced with the option for paying extra for additional content (so the consumer gets more choices,) everybody grabbed their fricken pitchfork.

[FamishedPants]

If the voice-acting was Mana Khemia-tier, I would certainly buy it in a heartbeat. This assuming that the game itself looked interesting/had good waifus, and also that I had a job and could afford to buy anything at all. 

Actually, just ensure that there's Liam O'Brien and Johnny Yong Bosch and I would probably get the game regardless of any other factors.

[finiteHP]

Sure.  Japanese dub adds nothing to a game or vn for me.  Then again I'm in the almost nonexistent demographic that prefers to have no dub in any language for the most part.

Great English VA > no VA > good English VA > VA in a language I can't understand > bad English VA