What voice language is everyone playing in?

[Rin]

I usually play Japanese games with Japanese voices since that's what sounds most natural for these games to me. However, I'm curious on what language everyone else is using for the voices. I played Automata in Japanese but I'm thinking of trying this one with the English voices.

[Noma]

Publicado originalmente por lessthanoff:

Publicado originalmente por Noma:

I know that you're probably not concerned by this description though, which means that the argument was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to begin with.

Never said anything about not being able to understand whether someone is happy or sad or whatever. I said those who don't speak Japanese aren't going to be familiar enough with the language and the many differences of its speech patterns compared to English to accurately determine whether something is coming across as "forced" or "natural." You can convey sadness while also doing it in a forced, unnatural way. They're not mutually exclusive. Japanese has far more differences to English than just words.

Anyways, I'm not here to fight with anyone about which is better. If you like listening to Japanese over English, that's cool. I just pointed out how I found the "Japanese is ALWAYS better than English" mentality funny, coming from people who don't speak Japanese. *shrug*

I don't think that the Japanese is better, I think the original is better, except for a few specific cases. Authenticity being as important, or even more, than the actors' skill, a game so fundamentally Japanese in its game design, world building, narration and character design as Nier makes the existence of the English dub an aberration. I do speak Japanese, having lived there a few years, so it may cloud my perspective on the language/emotional understanding matter, but it never made me be unable to decipher a character's intents in other languages either. I must be a psychic.

Nevertheless, I find English voice actors starring in Japan oriented Japanese videogames to be very lacking in comparison to the actors casted for Western or western oriented games.
The emotion range is narrow and stereotypical, and there's overacting at every lines. About Nier, just listen to Shiro and 2B in Japanese, then their counterparts in the English dub. They're not even the same characters anymore, and they're definitly trying to fit in convenient and more clearly defined tropes, as far as the dub goes. The authenticity is lost, therefore the dub fails miserably. It couldn't be any other way actually.

[JonWoo]

Publicado originalmente por Noma:

Publicado originalmente por lessthanoff:

Never said anything about not being able to understand whether someone is happy or sad or whatever. I said those who don't speak Japanese aren't going to be familiar enough with the language and the many differences of its speech patterns compared to English to accurately determine whether something is coming across as "forced" or "natural." You can convey sadness while also doing it in a forced, unnatural way. They're not mutually exclusive. Japanese has far more differences to English than just words.

Anyways, I'm not here to fight with anyone about which is better. If you like listening to Japanese over English, that's cool. I just pointed out how I found the "Japanese is ALWAYS better than English" mentality funny, coming from people who don't speak Japanese. *shrug*

I don't think that the Japanese is better, I think the original is better, except for a few specific cases. Authenticity being as important, or even more, than the actors' skill, a game so fundamentally Japanese in its game design, world building, narration and character design as Nier makes the existence of the English dub an aberration. I do speak Japanese, having lived there a few years, so it may cloud my perspective on the language/emotional understanding matter, but it never made me be unable to decipher a character's intents in other languages either. I must be a psychic.

Nevertheless, I find English voice actors starring in Japan oriented Japanese videogames to be very lacking in comparison to the actors casted for Western or western oriented games.
The emotion range is narrow and stereotypical, and there's overacting at every lines. About Nier, just listen to Shiro and 2B in Japanese, then their counterparts in the English dub. They're not even the same characters anymore, and they're definitly trying to fit in convenient and more clearly defined tropes, as far as the dub goes. The authenticity is lost, therefore the dub fails miserably. It couldn't be any other way actually.

Wait, are you saying the English VAs are the ones overacting?

[Ogami]

Publicado originalmente por Jonwoo89:

Wait, are you saying the English VAs are the ones overacting?

I would not say overacting but they change the characters quiet a bit.
Weiss in English and Japanese are like two completely different performances.
English is like a snobby English aristocrat with a stick up its ass and a constant "sneer" while the Japanese one is very regal, formal and more dryly sarcastic.
I vastly prefer Japanese Weiss but for other performances the English is equally good.

Only voice actor i really cant stand in the Japanese dub is Yonah. She sounds like she is 3.
Its not cute, its very annoying.
Vastly prefer her English voice.

[lessthanoff]

Publicado originalmente por Ogami:

Only voice actor i really cant stand in the Japanese dub is Yonah. She sounds like she is 3.
Its not cute, its very annoying.
Vastly prefer her English voice.

Yeah, English Yonah sounds so good (except for the fake coughing bits), but in Japanese she sounds like every other imouto blob character dialed up to eleven.

[Redblaze27]

Just so you know, Weiss in Japanese was recast from the original, so he's not authentic either.

[Ogami]

Publicado originalmente por Redblaze27:

Just so you know, Weiss in Japanese was recast from the original, so he's not authentic either.

He still sounds better then the English version. ^^

[Irrapture]

English version of Weiss has the absolute best voice out of any of them imo lmao

[Ogami]

Publicado originalmente por Irrapture:

English version of Weiss has the absolute best voice out of any of them imo lmao

He changes the character too much but its just a personal preference.
If you like the English more that is fine.

[Noma]

Publicado originalmente por Jonwoo89:

Wait, are you saying the English VAs are the ones overacting?

So among this wall of text, you chose to nitpick that ? Yes, they are overeacting. As I have written, they tend to portray characters in simplistic ways, often exacerbing traits of character which are originally more subtles. Prime example here is Kainé, who spend his/her time yelling in the English dub, effectively turning the character in ridicule.

Yonah's original VA is grating to the ears, but I guess she depicts her character accordingly, with her physical frailty, her love for her brother and her stubborness. I would have liked another actor though.

Publicado originalmente por Irrapture:

English version of Weiss has the absolute best voice out of any of them imo lmao

In that case, you're actually prefering the americanized parody to the original. It's fine, but know that you're not playing the same game. This "artistic" liberty from people who shouldn't have it is a bit concerning, but as long as it doesn't impact the real voice acting or the real script...eh, ignorance is bliss right.

[Skeeka]

I like to go with original VA with subs whereever and whenever possible, but seeing as this game has lots of dialogue during gameplay and combat, that's not really possible so english VA it is, same with Automata.

[JonWoo]

Publicado originalmente por Noma:

Publicado originalmente por Jonwoo89:

Wait, are you saying the English VAs are the ones overacting?

So among this wall of text, you chose to nitpick that ? Yes, they are overeacting. As I have written, they tend to portray characters in simplistic ways, often exacerbing traits of character which are originally more subtles. Prime example here is Kainé, who spend his/her time yelling in the English dub, effectively turning the character in ridicule.

Yonah's original VA is grating to the ears, but I guess she depicts her character accordingly, with her physical frailty, her love for her brother and her stubborness. I would have liked another actor though.

That's not nitpicking, it was a question and the only reason I asked it was because that's all that stood out to me as curious. The reason being I often find the inflection and gestures in Japanese media to be way over the top by comparison to western media.

[igyman]

Japanese all the way. I saw some clips of the prologue and part 1 in English and I couldn't stand the voice acting.

Funny thing is, I know those English VAs are good, but for whatever reason most of their performances are just not up to par when they are acting in Japanese games.

[Irrapture]

Publicado originalmente por Noma:

Snip

Yup! "Americanized parody" Weiss voice is the best voice in the game, glad I played it in English. Also really enjoyed Kaine's endless cursing

[MarkedMarkyMark]

I don't understand japanese, the subs are based on the english translation, therefore, pointless to play it in japanese, cause the subs ARE the dub, but written.

Only someone that can understand japanese a bit would actually experience the difference in translation. Dub quality are both good, so its down to you wanting the english weeb sounds, or jp weeb sounds and pretending you always knew the difference in translations after hearing someone else and saying that that's why you're playing in japanese, instead of admiting the weeb jp noises sounds better to you cause that's a bit shallow, but hey, who cares if you're shallow or not?

[Peelsepuuppi]

Publicado originalmente por Quadrado Macio:

I don't understand japanese, the subs are based on the english translation, therefore, pointless to play it in japanese, cause the subs ARE the dub, but written.

Only someone that can understand japanese a bit would actually experience the difference in translation. Dub quality are both good, so its down to you wanting the english weeb sounds, or jp weeb sounds and pretending you always knew the difference in translations after hearing someone else and saying that that's why you're playing in japanese, instead of admiting the weeb jp noises sounds better to you cause that's a bit shallow, but hey, who cares if you're shallow or not?

There is always a key point to this conversation that I just do not get. I do not understand how people don't bother addressing it.

You do understand that there's more to language and human expression than just literal meaning`? Humans have a lot of non-verbal communication and vocal cues. Voice actors don't just read lines in monotic voice (unless it's ♥♥♥♥ acting), they act.

Even if you don't understand the language you get to experience a very different type of non-verbal communication. tone of voice, emotion being portrayed, how the voice itself just sounds, whether the actor has a high or a low pitch. Even if you don't have a direct translation but a rough outline of what is being said it still enough to make you understand what is happening where as the original voice acting gives you a different experience when it comes to performance.

Japanese actors also have a very different style of acting. If you ask me it's worse as it's usually overacted and too theatrical, but some people like that.