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Googleshng - August 18 '04- 4:00 Eastern Standard Time
Random Accronyms Made Pronouncable!
Did you ever notice how often things are given large arbitrary names just so that the accronym is a nice
word? It really bugs me to be honest.
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Ranting about voice work, part 1
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Wait a minute. The English dub of Disgaea was hit and miss at best. First of
all, the Prinnies were god awful. Every line was delivered in the lamest way
possible. Second of all, Flonne is perhaps one of the more annoying
characters in recent memory. Even made worse by her VO. She sounds so cheery
it makes me want to stick toothpicks under my fingernails.
It isn't all bad though, as you mentioned Captin Gordon was okay as well as
Maderas, (wonder why.. they were voiced by the same person). But the real
star here is Etna. Her VA's work is some of the best I've heard in a while.
It still bothers when female VA's do male characters, (Laharl). But she did
fit the character despite a mediocre performance. On the whole, Disgaea's
voice acting was above average, but had plenty of room for improvment.
Tales of Symphonia on the other hand.. was pretty bad. The actual voices I
liked, but the dialogue should've been changed so that the word "Regenerate"
among others wouldn't be spoken every 2 nanoseconds. But at least I can just
turn the Voices down in the Configuration.
Okay, I think I'm done. I probably came off arrogant but I've done a little
ADR work (I'm not a VA, but I record them) myself plus I've seen over 200
kung fu movies. You don't learn nothing from that.
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Googleshng:
Right, but see, the thing here is, all those complaints you have also apply to the Japanese voices, and
on top of that Etna's Japanese voice kinda sucks.
The trend of getting girls to do voices for young male characters has always bugged me too though for
what it's worth. It happens all the time, and it never sounds right. You'd think by now people would
have come up with a better solution here. Possibly younger voice actors.
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Ranting about voice work, part 2
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Hey Goog,
I have some questions and comments for your viewing pleasure. About voice acting in video games: Well, it's true that Tidus and Yuna were terrible in Final Fantasy X, no use trying to deny that. But! Other character's in FFX, such as Auron and Kimahri, were superbly voice-acted. Other than that, I'd have to say most of it was bad. Although, as much as most people hate the game, FFX-2's voice-acting was much improved. If you don't like Hypello's, and God knows I love them, there's a part in FFX-2 that is the equivalent of an iron maiden-like torture device on the ears. Those who've played the game know exactly what I'm talking about. So all in all, FFX can probably be considered a game with some pretty lame voice-acting. When not judging from a game-to-game basis, we know that there are some developers who just NEVER get it right. You know who you are, video game fiends! But then there's guys like Square Enix who get it right from time to time, Kingdom Hearts is a worthy example of voice-acting done right. Voice-acting, in most games, is generally pretty good. I don't understand why RPGs don't factor into that statement as much as genre's like racing and even those stupid extreme sports games. Just the way it is, I guess. However, there are RPGs besides Kingdom Hearts that have good voice acting in them! One such is Grandia 2 on PS2. However, this is pretty much the only good thing the game has going for it.
As for sequels that didn't get released in North America, there are a few that stand out. The Front Mission games, as in the first 1 or 2 or however many that they kept for themselves, the greedy...er nevermind. Anyway, the Mana games they didn't bring over were probably pretty good too. To reiterate, those greedy, SNEAKY Japanese!
To wrap things up, do you leave a trail of goo when you move around? Is it sticky?
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Googleshng:
Right, there was some nice voice acting in FF10, it's just that it's all in the supporting cast. The two
people who you spent all your time listening to however are hideous. If you're going to have a couple really
awful voices in an otherwise OK lineup, you should really try to make sure they're extras, not stars.
Your comments about games not being released oever here however are a bit off-base. First off, there was
only one SD/Mana game we didn't get in this country, although yes, it was pretty spiffy. Second, if we're talking
about sequels that weren't released in this country, what brings up the Front Mission games? That's a series
that wasn't released in this country UNTIL a few sequels came out. Thirdly, I wouldn't really call deciding
not to release games you don't think people will like to be greedy. That'd be more for when you take a
game you know sucks, slap the name of a popular franchaise on it, and sell it to suckers. Which is pretty
much the opposite of withholding a sequel.
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Xeno Hearts
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Being the pirate scum I am, I've downloaded the Xenosaga II 'Cinema' soundtrack (They have yet to publish a disc with the 'in-game' music) composed by Yuki Kajiura, and for those who might be wondering--really, for those that care--the music is excellent. Different from Mitsuda, but still close enough in theme that I don't have much trouble envisioning it as appropriate music for any game with 'Xeno-' tacked onto it.
Personally, I just hope that, in post-production of the game, they didn't chop up the various tracks and make them so quiet as to be nearly inaudible--the way they did with Xenosaga I. (Those familiar with the track 'The Miracle' from the OST, and it's actual use in-game know exactly of what I speak. I hope they fired the guy who's responsible for what they did to it.)
On the subject of voice-acting, given the 'realistic' makeover they've given the characters in Episode II, I hope the US studio takes that well into account when they actually begin their own recordings. Imagining Shion's shrill, overdramatic English voice tacked onto her newer, more mature-looking incarnation is cringe-inducing.
Well, since this is Q&A, I suppose I'm obliged to ask a question. Alright--given the success of the cross-franchise Kingdom Hearts, and the almost-certain success of it's upcoming sequel, ever wonder about any other pairings that some might take a stab at and make a game about? Like, I dunno...'Earthbound' meets 'The Muppets' or something...
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Googleshng:
... Wow, that would be fantastic. I'd never happen, but wow.
I think a much more likely occurance though would be to see the sort of crossover trend hit RPGs as has
hit fighting games. Like say, some sort of Dragon Warrior/Final Fantasy game. Particularly since both
are now property of the same company.
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My Brain Hurts!
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http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/17/film.freddy.reut/index.html
Am I the only one that just really, really, really thinks Bubba Ho-Tep tops
that concept any day? I mean, geez... the guys got mojo and all, but how
far-fetched do we have to go before we realize that the publics brains are
shrinking due to the movies we produce? And when do we stop identifying
with the bad guys so that we stop using the first person plural?
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Googleshng:
In the future, when sending things like this, please try to make some attempt at throwing a question about
RPGs in along with it, just for the sake of not being totally off topic.
Anyway, here we have an interesting quandry. On the one hand, we have a movie pitch which is just insultingly
terrible. On the other hand, we have a movie pitch wherein the main character from a series of movies
I like is presented with the opportunity to beat up the characters from two movie franchaises I can't
stand. I suppose I'll just let my inner child arm-wrestle with my sense of decency or something.
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I think it's honestly why everyone who has a Saturn has a Saturn.
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Dear guy,
haha anyway, I love dragon Force that game was freaking awesome I gave up at least 6 months of my life to it. I just love watching all the little dudes run right smack into my dragons and get raped. hehehe. oh baby. It was the only reason that i even got a saturn.... which by the way sucked. Sega should remake it for another system like playstation 2 or the psp. I would totally buy that crap. Oh yeah by the way I saw Dragon Force two in the store once and wanted to buy it but considering that my japanese is how say non existent and i didn't ahve the 120 bucks it cost at the place I was sad to have to leave it. Is there anyway that i would be able to play the game here in the states like in english or something. You never know with those crazy rom folks. if not please tell me what it is like so I can a couple of days in bed dreaming about the sweatness.
Love
Sarius
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Googleshng:
For years, I have been wishing for a GBA port of Dragon Force with nothing at all changed save perhaps
an added multiplayer mode. Sadly however, I have seen no sign of it ever happening.
As far as DF2 goes though, you're out of luck when it comes to playing it in English. On the bright side,
you aren't necessarily missing out on much. On the one hand, it does some pretty freaking cool new things.
You can give generals mixes of two different troup types. Say, for instance, 80 soldiers and 20 archers.
There's a lot of new formations/commands, and nicer features with them. For example, if you disperse and
then regroup, you end up with a nice grid of troups again instead of a mashed up line. Then of course
there's more troup types, and a few interface improvements.
On the other hand, for some reason they decided to tweak the balance so that a commander can easily take
down 50 troups without really breaking a sweat. So as spiffy as the game may otherwise be, you're usually
fighting to win a slight advantage in a duel rather than an outright victory, and that kills a lot of
the appeal.
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You'd have to be there.
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"You're slower than a geriatric bowel movement." ^^
Cybernetic Empire
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Googleshng:
Yep. That would be the sort of thing that makes Jackal disturbing all right.
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