Dub English Plz

[Crazy Alchemy]

Seriously Koei it's not hard. Why do you not do this? Why does Xtreme Legends lack an english narrator? Why no english dub here? There are companies that do this work for cheap, and your english speaking customers often actually LIKE the silly over dramatized voice acting.

[Bone White]

I think it's just a case of being used to doing it. The more you use subs, the less you find them to be a distraction. The amount of minor things that I don't miss because subs clarify them due to accents and background sounds is quite profound. Me and my missus both watch films with subs on, because we're used to it and prefer it.

As to action games specifically, I'm probably operating the other way around. When text comes on the screen I'm reading it - and the fighting is what loses my mind's focus. The game has become so natural that it doesn't require much concentration, especially when officers aren't around, and depending on the weapon I'm using.

[Metal Izanagi]

Originally posted by Red Cyka:

Originally posted by Metal Izanagi:

You should consider not responding so negatively to someone for stating their own experience.

Well for one there are plenty of dubbers who make passible dubs and english localization is fairly typical even for low budget games that get ported so it's not like it's beyond the scope of what Koei is capable of. Also they make money by selling on PC otherwise they wouldn't be doing it in the first place, so customers shouldn't be acting like Koei is doing them a favor by taking their money for a lazy port.

Originally posted by Metal Izanagi:

Particularly, the "I bet you think that makes you better than all the unwashed casuals who prefer dubs." line.

Sub snobs are generally like that. They pretend to be baffled as to why people would prefer to watch Dubbed anime like it's some big ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mystery that people wouldn't want to squint and speed read and sit close to the screen, and they bring the same attitude to gaming. Also this is an action game, when people are in the middle of button mashing it isn't the time to read subs. Why should I respect sub snobs?

You might have a point, if the rest of your posts hadn't also come across as rather snobbish, and insulting toward the viewpoints of others. Sadly, they have, so that point you might have had is non-existant.

[Markus]

Originally posted by Red Cyka:

your english speaking customers often actually LIKE the silly over dramatized voice acting.

>implying on being only one Koe customer.

[Wolfie-san]

Well if you think about it, if they added English VAs to a fairly large cast like this, there is a high chance that it'll be very costly for them to do anything. Top it all of they have to pay the orignal VAs again for any regional transaltion they do. At least that's all I know about the Japanese VAs, but I'm not sure if that's true or not.

Also, if anything if we ever get a Warriors of Oorochi game here, don't start complaining about not having any English VA, because that cast is huge since 3 it would seem.

[XExarKunX]

yea man they brought a old game to a platform that comes after consoles.they dont care.usually when these games from asia come in to consoles and then to PCs we get shafted but its really only to give the fans something.and by now the fans expect this playing these types on PC lol.thats how it seems anyways.

[Monsieur Robert]

Having actually done some voice-acting myself, I will observe that voicing a game is not cheap at all. Voice actors don't work for pennies and it costs a lot of money just to find them in the first place. Recording facilities are not cheap in and of themselves, costing thousands of dollars to rent for the many hours that would be required for even a modest game like this.

Also, to dub requires someone to have translated, accurately, the original speech. Good translators are not cheap. Once translated, the translation needs to be edited because of different grammatical construction and cultural context. What the Japanese can say in one word may take several in English and what we Americans can say in one word may take a sentence in Japanese. Translation that could be used to create good dubbing is not simple and therefore not cheap.

Lastly, while you may not mind the desync between lips and speech that comes with dubbing, a lot of players do and that could hurt sales. Why would a company spend money on something that could cost them sales needlessly?

In simple terms, dubbing is not cheap and you are always better off with subtitles provided they are done competently.

[Crazy Alchemy]

Originally posted by Rob the Bearded Fool:

Having actually done some voice-acting myself, I will observe that voicing a game is not cheap at all.

There are decent dubbers and localizers that do manage to do it relatively cheaply.

Originally posted by Rob the Bearded Fool:

Voice actors don't work for pennies

Some of them do a good job working for just a few hundred dollars a month, and hit up a good college and with a little scouting you can find people who will work for college credits and feel privileged just to be in a studio and have their names on the credits.

[Moga CMDR]

It cost money to work with talent of any kind. So while people are trying to say there is cheap dubbing work, its not as cheap as some make it out to be.

There is the whole scouting talent issue, legal issues and insurance and such.

Just cause someone says they can do cheap decent quality VO in their basement doesn't mean that a well known company could use them for the price they envision. There is always more to it...

if it was so easy to do they would have done it because it would help sales in English speaking regions.

[Gormaz]

The thing that I do not quite get is that for about 90% of the time the lines of the DW characters seems to tbe same as in the DW8XLCE so why not put THESE English dubs in at least?
I do understand that the rest of the custom characters have to have new voices but thats really not "that" much.

[Moga CMDR]

Originally posted by Gormaz:

The thing that I do not quite get is that for about 90% of the time the lines of the DW characters seems to tbe same as in the DW8XLCE so why not put THESE English dubs in at least?
I do understand that the rest of the custom characters have to have new voices but thats really not "that" much.

Cause people complain its not fully in English. To count as being in English(dub), you can't mix the two. I've played games where the important quest dialog was English, and flavor text was left in Korean. Guess what, nothing but complaints for months about how low budget and half assed the game was. Even though the flavor text had no impact on the game and was always subtitled.

[Crazy Alchemy]

You know that's a good point they could just use the voice acting from the last DW so they'd need to record less lines of dialogue and if they can't get the same voice actors they could just get a voice actor to roughly mimic the voice then modify it with their computer to fit if it's not perfect. That'd be a great way for them to save cost even further.

[Jeffer'son Airship]

Originally posted by Wolfie-san:

Top it all of they have to pay the orignal VAs again for any regional transaltion they do. At least that's all I know about the Japanese VAs, but I'm not sure if that's true or not.

Only if they use the Japanese VAs. BTW, those costs are usually quite a bit higher than dubbing as the VAs get to dictate their price without compromise and many overestimate the worth of their acting (since within Japan the price is dictated completely by the union and actors/actresses themselves do not get to negotiate at all.)

Some companies in Japan are getting smart and including the outside of Japan price within the initial contracts, but you don't see that with the extremely "Japan first" companies like Namco and Capcom where they're not sure what games are coming to the west during development.

Also, if anything if we ever get a Warriors of Oorochi game here, don't start complaining about not having any English VA, because that cast is huge since 3 it would seem.

Oh definitely. It's very understandable why those games don't get dubbed. You'd either need to bring in a ton of VAs or get the few that are amazing at multiple voices (like Tara Strong) to handle many characters.

Bringing up the DW8 voicework is interesting as I think they'd have to pay royalties to the original English VAs to re-use those assets as well as pay them to record any new lines. Again, it makes sense why KOEI didn't go that route.

[Crazy Alchemy]

Originally posted by Dolt Moki:

Oh definitely. It's very understandable why those games don't get dubbed. You'd either need to bring in a ton of VAs or get the few that are amazing at multiple voices (like Tara Strong) to handle many characters.

On that note, it's amazing what you can do with a little software editing though. There are people who use voice mod programs now to make themselves sound exactly like Cleveland Brown or Peter Griffon just for trolling Call of Duty. I have a voice mod program called audiovox that can make me sound all sorts of characters, from Lisa Simpson to Gandalf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CMq8BZRzHc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzewhGHEWrA

[Farsight]

Great Thread Red, I was just about to post one these up to ask the very same question. Of course, I hate asking these kinds of questions since their a magnet for loyalists and trolls.

I'm really quite disappointed that they've decided to forgo the English Dubbing. I've always appreciated the overly hammy, sceanery chewing voice acting. It's about the only thing that justifies me paying Koei's high prices.

Seems like Koei has fallen into a similiar trap to Games Workshop, who raise their prices as a result of fewer folks buying their product, which results in a price rise to counter the fewer people buying their product, so on and so forth.

Koei is always skimping on the English, which means fewer sales, which means more cutbacks, which means fewer sales, which means more cutbacks. Ah, such silliness.

Oh well, que sera sera. Better remove this game from my wishlist.

[Tenshu]

Originally posted by Farsight:

Koei is always skimping on the English, which means fewer sales, which means more cutbacks, which means fewer sales, which means more cutbacks.

Er no, that's just being a tad delusional and not realizing the series is its own worst enemy in the west, not the lack of quality voice acting.