Does Dual Audio Matter to You (Gamers and anime fans)?
-
Fire Emblem Warriors is releasing in a few days, and I'm bummed out dual audio hasn't been 100% confirmed. In fact, Nintendo hasn't had a dual audio release since, I think, Fatal Frame on WiiU (European localization; I think you gotta go back to Bayonetta 2 or Bravely Default for the last North American localization featuring dual audio, and Fire Emblem Awakening for the last 1st party offering).
Personally, I'm all for options. I also see dual audio as added value that makes me more inclined to buy a game early / at a higher price. English only makes me avoid a game until it hits the super clearance bin. If something is Japanese only, then I don't mind as much (for instance, Tokyo Mirage Sessions).
What's your opinion on audio? Is it a deal breaker if it's one or the other? Or do you not care? What do you think of Crunchyroll's initiative to dub anime in other audio languages (Spanish)?
-
Not a deal breaker. No matter how much bigger and less niche anime and Japanese games have gotten in the west, they are still incredibly niche and being picky about this stuff only hurts the chances of them continuing to come west. I will complain about how bad English dubs are until the dead horse gets back up and bites off my head - but I will still buy the game or anime I want even if it's EN-only.
-
Not really unless the English VAs are horrendous or the game has a Japanese VA cast that I really like (like Atelier).
The issue is that most english localizations aren't 1:1. There will be changes/liberty made with the translation so its not like as if what the Japanese VAs are saying is what you are reading on the screen.
This is especially true once you know a bit of Japanese. Its actually harder for me to enjoy the Japanese VAs because of this, as I know what the Japanese audio is saying isn't what the text is saying at times.
-
Options are always nice, dual audio can rarely be anything but a plus (unless it's a Vita download and filesize is a serious issue). But dual audio is rarely a major selling point for me. Other languages is equally uninteresting, as other than English I can only understand a little Spanish.
For Anime, I prefer subtitles, although there are the occasional dubs that I like too. I think it mostly has to do with the over-the-top-ness of Anime voice acting, it frequently feels awkward in a language I can actually understand. So English only might turn me off?
For games, I don't necessarily have a preference, but I'll prefer the English VA if it's an option. I can only think of one or two games where I switched it to Japanese voice acting in a game. The strongest to come to mind is Ar nosurge, and that was because they English VA and text didn't even match, plus there was a lot more voice put in on the Japanese tracks.
I was reading a thread on another forum from a reviewer who has the English version of FEW, though, and it was stated there was no dual audio. It was on the internet, so it must be true, yes?
-
@flarecde said in Does Dual Audio Matter to You (Gamers and anime fans)?:
I was reading a thread on another forum from a reviewer who has the English version of FEW, though, and it was stated there was no dual audio. It was on the internet, so it must be true, yes?
There's a dude on Twitter claiming there will be a day one patch. He's probably full of it and "heard it from his uncle at Nintendo of Americo". I'm not pre-ordering the US game, but I may as well wait this out until day one to decide on any importing.
Japanese VA for Danganronpa series is ace (the English is ok, but the VAs in the JP voice cast are really major). Vanillaware stuff in Japanese is full of stars too. I can't wait to try Persona 5 in JP.
Zero Escape ZTD's VA in Japanese was a bit better I hear (never spent much time in English there). VLR, I actually liked a lot of the English work, particularly Zero the Third since they did their own little take on him that made him more interesting and funny to me. Not a big fan of Phi's English voice, though she's very popular among Atlus faithful.
Xenoblade for Wii I started in English, so now I just can't go back to Japanese (no subs for battle dialogue is a major bummer).
Pretty much all the other fully voiced VNs I've played have JP voice. I like it because you can learn a few words as you go.
And I don't mind hearing the difference in localizations. I'd rather hear both what they really say and see what they translated it as than just getting the English localization. Mmm, jelly doughnuts for supper. 🍙🍘
-
@terrence said in Does Dual Audio Matter to You (Gamers and anime fans)?:
Not a big fan of Phi's English voice, though she's very popular among Atlus faithful.
Aww, I liked Phi's EN voice in VLR. Note that I have no exposure to ZTD (yet) or VLR-JP :P
-
I don’t mind not having English in games, however, in anime series I find that subs make it difficult to really pay attention to the animation and notice subtleties. Particularly really well done backgrounds.
-
I don't care about this for games but for anime I don't like English dubs because they take away the characteristics /personality certain characters have. It's not a deal breaker I'll still watch English dubs but I prefer Japanese subs. I've gotten used to reading fast enough to pay attention to the animation and read the subs with no real problems.
-
I definitely prefer original audio in any media, whether it be anime, games, movies, anything, this might not mean that much to most people here but I'm from South America, my first language is Spanish. Cartoons aside, I've always preferred the original audio, dubbing, no matter how good, won't ever be able to 100% translate what the original VA (or actor/actress) wanted to achieve with his/her performance. Even if you can't fully understand the dialogue, subtle nuances due to intonation can make or break a performance and that's something that dubs completely take out of the picture. It simply is not the same. And this has been my stance for western movies/games from before I even knew anime was japanese (they entered on the cartoons category for me back then -> watched 'em dubbed on TV), after realizing that I've applied the same logic to anime and japanese games (at least when it was possible).
Then again, it won't necessarily make it a deal breaker for me, if there's a japanese game I really want and the ONLY option is English only, I'll take it just to be able to play the game, it's better than trying to play it without a translation and not understanding anything at all (I won't even talk about Spanish translations which are plain horrible), BUT if there's a choice between English only and dual audio, boy I'd take the dual audio anyday. I wouldn't mind Japanese audio only either, it'd be no different to me since I won't be using the dub anyways.
-
@paulnamida from South America aswell but haven't lived there in 15 years XD, either way yeah I agree what you said; hence when I said dub takes away the characteristics/personality some characters have . Although the difference from my perspective is it's not a deal breaker for me most of the time. As for games I totally agree with you on that 100%.
-
@terrence said in Does Dual Audio Matter to You (Gamers and anime fans)?:
There's a dude on Twitter claiming there will be a day one patch. He's probably full of it and "heard it from his uncle at Nintendo of Americo". I'm not pre-ordering the US game, but I may as well wait this out until day one to decide on any importing.
Launch trailer confirms day 1 download available for JP voice overs, so that's good news for people who wanted them.
~ flarecde
Reality is nothing; Perception is everything. -
@flarecde said in Does Dual Audio Matter to You (Gamers and anime fans)?:
Launch trailer confirms day 1 download available for JP voice overs, so that's good news for people who wanted them.
Nice! Thanks for telling me. =]
This, the fact that it's FE, and the apparent relationship system stuff has me wanting to get this despite not loving Musuo.
-
Xenoblade 2 has dual audio. Makes it much easier to support these games early (skipped the latest FE on 3DS since it didn't have dual audio). =]
Dual audio confirmed for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 http://nintendoeverything.com/dual-audio-confirmed-for-xenoblade-chronicles-2/
-
Completely missed this topic until now, but honestly I like dual audio. I almost never watch anime with English audio or play games with it (if they're a Japanese game), but I do also know that not having a dub can turn a lot of people off a game so it's probably better to always have dual audio when possible to make everyone happy.
That said I completely respect the times when we can't have dual audio because of space or whatever. What annoys me is how Nintendo went backwards with dual audio for Fire Emblem because Awakening had both, then Fates on haven't (discounting Warriors). It's super annoying.
-
@demelza said in Does Dual Audio Matter to You (Gamers and anime fans)?:
What annoys me is how Nintendo went backwards with dual audio for Fire Emblem because Awakening had both, then Fates on haven't (discounting Warriors). It's super annoying.
Xenoblade too. Really annoying to lose a "feature" like that, especially when the game appears at trade shows with Japanese audio only for so long.
Atlus and Persona will be an interesting situation to watch too now that P5 has dual audio. Zelda too I guess.
-
Xenoblade 2 out tomorrow!
Curious how much space the Japanese audio DLC will take up. Hopefully the initial storage is enough to hold it. xC
-
While I'm not a big player of Japanese games, I would prefer my games to have an English track. For DVD's I would rather have them subbed unless the dub is of exceptional quality. Cowboy Bebop or Your Name level of quality.
