The Master of Unlocking…
I apologize if you don?t get the reference in the title, but here we are again, less than a month away from another release of Final Fantasy.? And Square Enix, churning ever so quickly on its hype machine, has blessed us with the second North American trailer of its storied franchise.? This one was supposed to be special because it showcased the new theme of the game, ?My Hands?, by Leona Lewis.? While it was fitting,? I would have liked to hear the original Japanese theme, but what really grated on me was? what would appear to be another round of terrible English dubbing.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XyghKl72R0[/youtube]
In the past, I was willing to let poor dubbing work slide.? Final Fantasy X had characters so clown-like and caricatured that in some cases it worked with the goofy voices.? The ridiculous ending compounded with the poor voiceovers only built my apathy towards Square?s flagship series.? I was spared XI through my general avoidance of MMOs and X-2 certainly didn?t resonate with me in the slightest.? By the time Final Fantasy XII rolled around, any fancy I once had for Final Fantasy had long since faded.? But seeing the discount price I picked it up and my faith was to be restored.
I could rave about the gameplay of Final Fantasy XII, but hundreds of reviews on the internet have already sung its praises.? For me, what really did it, it was the voices.? For the first time the characters didn?t sound overwrought, whiny, angry, angsty, overdone, hammy, or any other pejorative I could come up with for overly acted and poorly executed.? Some say it was the British accents, but even those characters that lacked accents were voiced to a reasonable quality.? It?s unfortunate that Final Fantasy XII did not spark a trend towards better English dubbing.
Lightning, lead protagonist of Final Fantasy XIII has been described by Tim Rogers at Kotaku as ?the best parts of Cloud, the best parts of Squall, the best parts of Auron, the best parts of Terra, and none of the bad parts of any of those characters.? She?s tough, and she?s hot.? She?s liquid-hotrogen.? She isn?t annoying or brooding?and she?s sympathetic.?? When I read that, I had to admit, I was excited, hard even, so I popped in my import copy of the game, played it for ten hours and came to the conclusion that Mr. Rogers was right.? Lightning, in spite of my lack of overall Japanese literacy sounded like every thing he mentioned.? Lightning was a complete character not a caricature, with reactions that spanned the emotional spectrum instead of spanning a character archetype.
What you say?
So why am I so disappointed about the English trailer?? It?s probably because the first words I hear from Lightning made her sound whiny, weak, and dare I say it, mildly brooding.? Perhaps I?ve let my bias get in the way, I shouldn?t let one small sample size of poor voice work ruin an entire game for me right?? Wrong, let me tell you why.
Good acting is the hallmark of a good movie, and I?m not talking about one of those so good it?s bad ham fests like Army of Darkness or Boondock Saints.? I?m talking about movies that are made to illicit a variety of emotional responses in each scene leaving you with a lasting impression and a desire to see it again.? And I even though I know you?re thinking it, I?m not talking about The Notebook, go away.? A necessary attribute for achieving such an effect in is actor/actress consistency.? You can?t have one hammy moment followed by a serious one.? Overdone emotional contrast like that can ruin films (Gran Torino anyone?).? The Final Fantasy XIII trailer has Vanille, another female lead sounding like a prepubescent goody two-shoes in once scene, while sounding heroic and self-sacrificing in another.? I?m aware the emotional context could have changed but what annoys me is that Vanille?s voice changes too.? It?s as if she?s being voiced by two different actresses and hence, compromises the character and the experience.
When this seeds of this article formed in my mind, it occurred to me that I would probably raise the ire of a lot of dubbing enthusiasts out there.? They would undoubtedly assail me with comments like, ?You don?t understand Japanese, so how could you tell how characters are feeling.? Subtitles on the bottom of the ruin cinematics!? I can?t read subtitles that fast,? or god forbid, ?You?re some faggot otaku lol.?? Okay, you got me, I don?t understand Japanese, I used to watch a lot of anime (subtitled), and I do read fairly quickly.? However, if you?re reading this, I assume you might actually care about what I say, so I?d like to put my two cents in.
First of all, I don?t believe that language has any sort of monopoly on human emotion.? We all laugh and we all cry, I understand the cultural processes that lead up to such displays of emotion may differ from language to language, but I do believe that people are capable of the same feelings.? It?s probably why music and films despite their countries of origins tend to deal with the same themes.? I love you, you love me, you don?t love me anymore, and I believe in something.? I find it very strange that I can hear that in the Japanese voice track but in English, a language I understand fully, I don?t get any balance of emotion whatsoever.? Everybody in the English trailer is decidedly one note reminding me once again of the traditional Final Fantasy character archetypes of angsty, angry, and goofy.
I understand that not everyone likes reading, but I am not unsympathetic.? I certainly don?t believe that anyone should be forced to read subtitles especially if they are unable to keep up.? And sometimes, it does annoy me to see text clogging up some of the most spectacular scenes in Final Fantasy XIII.? I might not speak Japanese, but I do speak Chinese, and while the dubbing of Chinese movies is poor, it usually because a lot of the meaning is lost or context can be omitted completely.? A lot of that I blame on the fact that in order to time words to mouth movement, sometimes context and meaning has to be sacrificed.? I feel that subtitles help alleviate some of those timing constraints.
It?s after writing all of this that it might have finally occurred to me why so many fans of Final Fantasy consider Cloud to be the best protagonist ever.? That reason is that he never talked.? Sure he was surly, moody, and oblvious, but without saying a word scored Tifa and Aeris, a wet dream for most fanboys.? And if you?re a fan girl, I?m sure the slash fictions have you covered.? While I don?t consider Final Fantasy VII to be my milestone Final Fantasy, it just seemed like that each subsequent installment soured the experience just a little more than its predecessor , perhaps it?s just that young effeminate angry boys are just more attractive when they?re silent.? Personally, I could be placated if they just spoke a language I didn?t understand.? Come on Square, wouldn?t it be cheaper anyways?
Ratings
- Kani Doraku
(5.00 out of 5)
- Kani Doraku
About Oyaji
I heard that Hope is just as annoying.
The voice actor for Vanille probably pleasured more than one director to get this role and frankly must have done one hell of a job, as I just cannot believe she was hired for her vocal talent, which just so happens to be currently massaging my aural passages with a cheese grater.
I figure there’s more than one casting director.
Good lord, a director casting an actor when he can’t even understand what she’s saying. Wait, maybe they are ruining the dubbing on purpose!
I’m not entirely certain, but I heard that Japanese directors often cast the North American voice actors, and have a say in how the audio is recorded, it could explain a lot. As for the casting couch, I highly doubt that there’s a bevy of young attractive voice actresses who are vying for lucrative voice over rolls with some overbearing director with Hollywood style clout who’s more interested in getting his weasel greased than doing a good job.
I too can (just about) read with my periphery but what about the average anime fan? Indeed, no enjoyment if the audio sucks. Let’s point the fingers at the casting couch! Perhaps the most attractive voice actors are sleeping their way to the top! Talent? What’s the use of that?
I disagree with your friend, you can read with your periphery, at least, that’s how I read subtitles. Plus if you’re just watching the image while the audio irritates the fuck out of you, I don’t see the point.
Well, you’ve read earlier drafts of this article, and you might remember that I touched upon how there’s a wealth of talent in North America. If you actually go down the cast list for Final Fantasy X, you have Tara Strong, Cree Summers, and a few other notables, but they either dialed it in or the directors suck. There’s something wrong in the dubbing industry and to be honest I don’t know where to point to finger.
There are good voice actors out there. Perhaps we should start blaming the casting directors. I once had an argument with a guy about dubbing. I argued about orginal soundtracks, leaving the cultural work intact, and how translations sucked anyway due to cultural differences and lack of equivalents. I had an added advantage watching Japanese works because I knew the culture and some of the language, so I could discard any text that was off. Then he pointed out that while you’re reading the text, nomatter how fast you are, even if it’s for a split second, you’re missing out on the image, which can arguably say more than a thousand words. I had to agree, and so I’m all for dubbing, as long as it’s good. Dual audio would be nice, but I don’t know if I’m going to play a game twice unless the plot is scorcese level. Dammit I hate the way we can’t break paragraphs in comments!
Looking and implementing are different.
There’s other source of revenue for free MMOs, of course, I’m not particularly familiar with any, other than the ones that offer items for money.
It was mentioned that World of Warcraft has finally hit a user plateau of around 11 million people, somehow I don’t see Final Fantasy XIV putting a dent into that, perhaps temporarily.
I wouldn’t be suprised if Squeenix hold off the DLC until XIV. Reports say it’s they are “looking” at a free to play model. Ahem. Not interested in making $$$? I won’t hold my breath – but XIV sounds like it will have unlimited DLC options. A game with no end… sheesh
FFX’s voice work was a bit off-putting. The little bit I’ve heard of FFXIII’s voice acting has me scared. Who am I kidding; I’ll have it no faster than I can purchase it.
Well, my friend was telling me that the Asian wide release might have subs. If they do, I’m going to import.
On another note, Squeenix mentioned that there are “no plans” for DLC for FFXIII. The consensus on the news piece seems to be that “no plans” = “plans”. I know gamers tend to be cynics, but when did they also become contrarians?
While not quite as big a game, Squeenix’s Star Ocean’s Last Hope International has dual audio. Really makes you wonder…
What amazes me is that, blue ray wise the disc can store between 25gb to 50gb of info in a single layered piece… Are you telling me that we can’t have dual audio with that amount of space? Specially since anyone can see just how much audio tracks can a ps2 5gb rpg store.