Eng VAs or Japanese VAs

[Boufa]

Which does the community prefer? Personally, I've tried both languages and always find myself going back to English. I feel much more of a connection to the English cast. I believe the English VAs do a good job and bring a lot of charm to the game.

[Punished Rusty Shackleford]

I prefer english so I can enjoy the visuals rather than just reading text the entire game.

[Forte224]

The English cast is some of the best JRPG dubbing I've ever heard. Props to the localization team and whoever's in charge of voice direction.

[Punished Rusty Shackleford]

Originally posted by Forte224:

The English cast is some of the best JRPG dubbing I've ever heard. Props to the localization team and whoever's in charge of voice direction.

when i heard they were going to be multiple dubs, i knew the team would do their best. Any German/French speakers to comment on those dubs?

[orthostatic]

I'm a bit of a sound nerd, so if I play a game enough to offer up forum opinions on voice-acting, I'll play the game through with at least two languages before offering an opinion. I'm still working my way through normal (mastering materia, ah, the drudgery that was better then than now) so I've only heard the Japanese VAs.

I was briefly exposed to the English VAs when starting. I think I recognized the guy who voiced the jedi in that one Star Wars game as the same fellow voicing Cloud. None of my objections to the Star Wars game's dialog related to his recordings whatsoever, more what they told him to say. He seems well suited for the task and sounds like he'll deliver, as perfectly as possible, whatever is asked of him.

idk, i guess it's important to me to distinguish the target of criticism. Is it an issue with what the voice is saying, or how they are saying it in relation to the time that sound is delivered to the user? Variable critique vectors here. If anyone of note even reads these things, it's probably best to target your critique as objectively as possible.

[StormEye]

English VA is fine. However, I do find the nuances to be different between JP and EN.
This nuance affects how the characters are portrayed.

That said, its non-issue if you are sticking with one or the other.

Personally, I tend to prefer JP VA in JP games (helps that I understand Japanese) as I consider dialogues/texts in Japanese to be whats intended by the devs and some things can be lost in translation.

[parent child bowl]

I play in japanese since it's the original voiceover and I happen to speak it. I generally play games with their original voiceover if I understand the language and otherwise default to english.

I can't play games or watch movies in my mother tongue because my suspension of disbelief doesn't work in that language. Everything sounds like utter nonsense.

[warmy bear]

I'm deaf in one ear but still play in ENG with subs -shrug- even if I think the script is...middling, the VOs do good work with what they've got and any "benefits" of a Japanese VO would be lost on me given that I wouldn't understand the nuances etc. Plus I guess the subtitles would be for the english script regardless.

[Edifier]

It's a japanese game so I'll pick Japanese audio with subtitles and have no problem reading subs and enjoying the scenery.

I have enough English games in my library so there is no shortage of that.

Not to mention every single time a Japanese game get English dubs they are often never as good as Japanese ones. Most of the time they are not even good.

[Tr0w]

Originally posted by Edifier:

It's a japanese game so I'll pick Japanese audio with subtitles and have no problem reading subs and enjoying the scenery.

I have enough English games in my library so there is no shortage of that.

Not to mention every single time a Japanese game get English dubs they are often never as good as Japanese ones. Most of the time they are not even good.

That is dependant on the setting, if it's a Japanese game set in the US or Europe, or some European fantasy setting i won't play with Japanese audio because the mannerisms, tones, and general way of speaking are completely out of place.

[NPC_LUKE]

Definitely English IMO. I was originally livid at the VA changes, but could never deny that Cloud and Sephiroth always felt emotionless with their English VA's. The new actors have no such problem.

Edit: I still refuse to play MGS5 to this day. David Hayter is the ONLY Snake. Period.

[Risky Bitness]

I've heard some people say the Japanese voice actors are better but I haven't checked them out yet. This time around I'm really enjoying the English voice cast. I think this is some of the best voice acting I've come across in a video game.

[Pyro3000]

Originally posted by Boufa:

Which does the community prefer? Personally, I've tried both languages and always find myself going back to English. I feel much more of a connection to the English cast. I believe the English VAs do a good job and bring a lot of charm to the game.

I tried English. I hated Barrets voice, and Jessie was a bit rough, too. The localization script is rough at times, too. Characters aren't really portrayed well in English. In Japanese, I find that the characters have more tone changes and are more expressive. In English, they're mostly one trick ponies. VAs picked a personality and decided every single line was going to match that as if there was no room for growth or for the characters mode to change.

So instead of a very well done Barret that struggles with his own beliefs and mission, we get carefree always joking Barret that will occasionally sound like he's pretending to portray another emotion as a joke. The English voice acting community really needs to get better, but it's probably an industry near entirely composed of the kids from school that always read things in weird "drama voices". I miss when voice acting, and regular acting, came from people with years of specialized training, but it seems Europe really lost the market on that at some point.

[kiteless 凧無し]

The voice work is neither good in English or Japanese.

Tonally this game is a mess, I’m not sure whether I’m supposed to get emotional or laugh at it.

Spoilers: I laughed when Jessie died, either I’m a hardened sociopath or I simply couldn’t relate to this annoying character enough to give a F

[Edifier]

Originally posted by Tr0w:

That is dependant on the setting, if it's a Japanese game set in the US or Europe, or some European fantasy setting i won't play with Japanese audio because the mannerisms, tones, and general way of speaking are completely out of place.

Not for me. If a Japanese game has Japanese voices available I will use them. They often fit the character better than the English ones.

English voice actor tries to the thing Japanese voice actors do from time to time but it does not go over well and it comes off as B acting.

[loganjamesalex]

Traditionally with FF7 media I use the English voices which is why it was noticeable right away that they changed the voice actors for some reason in this game. They have had the same English voice actors for FF7 stuff since 2002 in Kingdom Hearts when Cloud first got a voice until 2018 in Dissidia Final Fantasy. All the major media used the same actors Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis Core, Kingdom Hearts, etc. . . For whatever reason starting with this remake they changed all the English voices, even though the Japanese voices are for the most part unchanged.

I am still using the English voices cause I'm unfamiliar with the Japanese voices anyway but I almost wanna go back and play/watch the major FF7 media I am familiar with in Japanese just so I can have consistent voices in this game.

I did try and look up why they changed them and the only thing I could find is that the English voice actor for Cloud got fired from a TV show because he refused to get a COVID vaccine. . . Nothing mentioned Final Fantasy but I can imagine that had something to do with it. If they are gonna change Cloud, might as well change everyone.