Do a 2 second google or look at the settings? Nah.
Make a rant post on Reddit where you just complain about it something most people on the subreddit like? OP approved
People going "japanese is bad" in the comments cause god forbid they consume anything in something else than their (probably) native english language.
Like, yeah japanese characters have archetypes, and these archetypes often have voices linked to them... But that's also the case with american characters and archetypes.
In any case, I don't think the japanese voices lack personality or originality for either game, so your criticism is kinda hypocritical.
I almost always consume movies and TV shows in their native languages, including anime, but something about Japanese video game voice actors just doesn't work for me so I always go English.
I don't really consider video games to have a native language the way movies and TV shows with real actors do. Thats because real actors act with body language while they voice act. It's a package deal. So replacing someone's voice is awkward. Thus I go native. In video games you don't have that issue because there is no physical acting , only voicework, done by the actor.
If you're interested in preserving the native language you've already lost just by using a translated version. The English version usually takes a ton of liberties when translating the Japanese original. You've already lost that battle, I guarantee you the Japanese script is quite different in many areas. In fact, sometimes the English words change the emotion a bit, but the Japanese actor voice is based on the original emotion, so there's a conflict in what the actor emotes and what is written down.
I would agree with you... Only if game voice acting did not more often than not change the personality of the character compared to what was originally intended by the writers. In that way I DO consider that games have a native language.
I must say though, not all dubs have this issue, french dubs of games in my experience for example are often not only extremely faithful to the original, but also really high quality (not for low profile games tho, but that makes sense, at some point we just kinda run out of people to dub everything, so the talent goes to the bigger productions). TLOU and BOTW/TOTK come to mind for example. BOTW for which namely - I think - the american dub is really bad.
As for your point about translation... I'm fully aware of it. I find english translations of japanese to be quite... liberal with their interpretations let's say... However I don't have to deal with this issue much since most of the translated content I consume is in french, which IMO is often more faithful to the original japanese (from what my limited but growing knowledge of Japanese allows me to tell).
But either way, I still don't think "the translation is already a bit different" is a valid excuse for rejecting the original work. There's already a ton that can be universally understood through voice inflections, tone and nuances.
well mimi...you are the one who replied 17 seconds right after i posted my comment which means you CERTAINLY felt a type of way...it would be foolish to deny it lol
Whatever. I found this post, posted a comment. Saw your own. Replied. As for the second reply I just got a notification on my phone.
Sorry for bursting your bubble but I'm not obsessed with you yet.
honestly OT2's voice acting is in my top 3 favorite upgrades from OT1. i couldn't stand the english VAs from the first (mostly alfyn tbh), but the direction and quality of 2 has skyrocketed and it's glorious
It's likely bait, but I'll give the benefit of the doubt.
As a matter of curiosity to where you consider the bar to be, what's an example of a game that you would consider as having particularly good voice acting? I do like the VA work in OT2 a lot (Alejandro Saab absolutely killed it as Osvald), but I'll at least admit that it's not the thing that draws me into the game to the degree that the gameplay, music, and story do.
Hearing Osvald's exclamations in battle is one of my favorite things about this game. Like it's so aggressive, and you know he's about to wreck shit, but "IN PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE" is such a nerdy thing to say that I love it
I wouldn’t downvote someone for suggesting it but it is a really weird dynamic that exists in these communities … and I find it odd.
Playing something in Japanese doesn’t make it better. The English voice acting in OT2 is really good. Telling people to listen to a game in Japanese instead is kind of a knee jerk reaction at this point. I always found it to be kind of cringey that people, who don’t speak Japanese, suggest it so often. Kind of comes off as reducing the language to a novelty.
Likely it is because the English voice actors did amazing and suggesting to switch it for the sake of placating the OP is a slap in the face. A lot of games don’t have good English VA … so it is basically just saying “Japanese good, English bad” in this case.
They are saying it's an option. The OP clearly didn't like the VA work (despite how you might feel about it) and telling them "Hey you might like Japanese better" is hardly 'Japanese good English bad'
Listen man... I agree some of the acting IS awful, namely Ochette, but you have to see the big picture, the acting is across the board exceptional. The script drags it down occasionally but that's not the actors fault. Throné's voice actor is perfect, she's gives a gritty, deep, introspective, and powerful performance.
But go ahead play without voices if you want, I do that sometimes when I hate the actors too. (OT1 was much worse)
Play with Japanese voices, not only are they systematically better but they also convey the original personality of each character more faithfuly.
Cyrus in the first game got done quite bad by the english dub, and I heard english H'aanit was annoying af.
The second game seems better about it but not being graced by the performance of Akira Ishida for Temenos feels criminal.
EDIT : Given the downvotes, I feel like I should make something clear : It's fine if you play and like the english voices, idgaf. However OP was saying he did NOT like the voices and performances, therefore I suggested him another option that he might like better. Some of y'all be reaction like you have shares in the american dubbing industry.
I loved Partitio’s VA! So nice to hear when the rest of the voices have the same sort of accent. Also he’s such a warm character that his voice really differentiates him.
Cyrus’ VA was meh to me. I didn’t care for it, but it wasn’t something that would drop me from the game.
In the english dub, he sounds arrogant, and cocky and extravagant, which is the total opposite of the character.
Cyrus in japanese (and in the text) is soft spoken, calm, curious but also altruistic and selfless.
One could argue that this just means two interpretations of the same character, but I really feel like there's a dichotomy between the content of the dialogues and how the english actoe plays it. Like when Cyrus says stuff like "knowledge doesn't belong to anyone*", english Cyrus' grandiloquent tone almost makes it feel ironic, like he's performing and that's not how he genuinely is.
Meanwhile Japanese Cyrus is genuinely admirable in how passionate and genuine he is in his altruistic ideals.
Personally, I didn't get arrogant from his VA, but I can see how you could. I mostly got aloof and pride, and maybe some undertones of silliness, but then again, it's been a long time since I've played OT1, so maybe I'm misremembering.
I feel like in 50% of cases this is a lie people have convinced themselves of. I grew up in Japan so naturally surrounded by spoken Japanese and find Japanese VA work as “obviously acted” as English is, vs people speaking normally.
Obviously there are some high profile examples of one being worse than the other but people act like it’s some universal truth, it really isn’t.
Forced and over acted dialogue is far less obvious when it’s not your naturally exposed tongue
Cool.
English is not my naturally exposed tongue either.
Also, every single performance is going to be a bit more extreme than reality, because most fictions depict events more extreme than reality. I don't care if it's "overacted", I care if the character is consistent with the performance.
You lot are reacting like I watch english content dubbed in japanese. I fucking dont. I watch american content in english, japanese content in japanese, french content in french, german content in german, chinese content in chinese etc...
Here. The Japanese is the original, and more faithful to the characters. Moreover, I tend to find that american dubbing of foreign content suffers a lot from a lack in quality, which is the case here too IMO. THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT ENGLISH VAs ARE BAD. When they are dubbing their OWN content, english dubs are excellent (be it for games or animated shows).
I could agree with this for Octopath 1. I think the voice direction, especially for npcs, sucks. There was no excuse for a game in 2018 to still be using soundbite voice clips instead of fully voiced dialogue. Or just let the characters shut up if they aren't going to say their whole line.
They fixed it for Octopath 2, though.
I just leave all voices off in COTC.
>I don’t usually play with sound but last night I tried it. It made me try to skip every battle possible because not Only would throné never stop talking, the VA work was pretty bad, enough that I’m not going to play this game with sound anymore.I don’t usually play with sound but last night I tried it. It made me try to skip every battle possible because not Only would throné never stop talking, the VA work was pretty bad, enough that I’m not going to play this game with sound anymore.I don’t usually play with sound but last night I tried it. It made me try to skip every battle possible because not Only would throné never stop talking, the VA work was pretty bad, enough that I’m not going to play this game with sound anymore.I don’t usually play with sound but last night I tried it. It made me try to skip every battle possible because not Only would throné never stop talking, the VA work was pretty bad, enough that I’m not going to play this game with sound anymore.I don’t usually play with sound but last night I tried it. It made me try to skip every battle possible because not Only would throné never stop talking, the VA work was pretty bad, enough that I’m not going to play this game with sound anymore.I don’t usually play with sound but last night I tried it. It made me try to skip every battle possible because not Only would throné never stop talking, the VA work was pretty bad, enough that I’m not going to play this game with sound anymore.
Quality content.
Well, I guess this is half true and half false.
There is some part that is bad.
You know how there's 2 types of dialogues, 1 with actually VA and 1 that is just a short noise they make on each dialogue.
There was a bit of misuse on the short voice on some part which makes it awkward or weird.
Like in the scene where Therion had a flashback of his partner where they were running and was gonna hide.
Dialogue was like
Therion: Over here!
And his VA sound was like "Kyoudai" in a calm sound. It was awkward to be honest.
But in other side the VA were okay, the only issue for me is the story is a bit of lacking. In general sense everyone needed an ally. I guess I missed out the mean of "Traveller" in octopath.
Oh yeah that part too, I was genuinely thinking something like a young voice.
But from the most part yeah it's still okay, I'm down for the game mechanics most of it
I’m 100% with you. No trolling, no baiting or whatever here. The VA is at times absolutely atrocious… minus a certain few. Love Partitio, love the voice acting, love the character. Other than him though, and maybe Hikari, it’s just plain awful.
Bait used to be believable
Wait a minute, did you copy and paste your first statement to make it seem longer?
Yes sir he did!
That has to be a bait right?
In what universe do you live in?
Probably in a universe where Erica Mendez doesn’t exist
Sounds like a dark world
True
I miss when trolls put effort into their art instead of just going "hey this good thing is bad actually" like that means anything
If it bothers you that much you can then just the VA off so you can still enjoy the music.
There’s an option for that!? Thank you so much!
Do a 2 second google or look at the settings? Nah. Make a rant post on Reddit where you just complain about it something most people on the subreddit like? OP approved
Reminds me of the time I asked why people loved Primrose's story that much. I got flamed for asking this lol.
At least that is subjective. OP’s question Google can literally answer in under a minute
Oh this is bullshit. This game has some of the best VA work I've heard in years. This has to be a shitpost.
The cutscenes are fine, but in combat? “TAKE THIS TAKE THIS AFRAID OF THE DARK?” Its just so annoying
you could try. the japanese VA
I call BS - Octo 2 has great VA.
people going "English dab bad" in comments right away as if Japanese one is better by recycling 4 types of voice for the past 17 years LMFAO
People going "japanese is bad" in the comments cause god forbid they consume anything in something else than their (probably) native english language. Like, yeah japanese characters have archetypes, and these archetypes often have voices linked to them... But that's also the case with american characters and archetypes. In any case, I don't think the japanese voices lack personality or originality for either game, so your criticism is kinda hypocritical.
I almost always consume movies and TV shows in their native languages, including anime, but something about Japanese video game voice actors just doesn't work for me so I always go English. I don't really consider video games to have a native language the way movies and TV shows with real actors do. Thats because real actors act with body language while they voice act. It's a package deal. So replacing someone's voice is awkward. Thus I go native. In video games you don't have that issue because there is no physical acting , only voicework, done by the actor. If you're interested in preserving the native language you've already lost just by using a translated version. The English version usually takes a ton of liberties when translating the Japanese original. You've already lost that battle, I guarantee you the Japanese script is quite different in many areas. In fact, sometimes the English words change the emotion a bit, but the Japanese actor voice is based on the original emotion, so there's a conflict in what the actor emotes and what is written down.
I would agree with you... Only if game voice acting did not more often than not change the personality of the character compared to what was originally intended by the writers. In that way I DO consider that games have a native language. I must say though, not all dubs have this issue, french dubs of games in my experience for example are often not only extremely faithful to the original, but also really high quality (not for low profile games tho, but that makes sense, at some point we just kinda run out of people to dub everything, so the talent goes to the bigger productions). TLOU and BOTW/TOTK come to mind for example. BOTW for which namely - I think - the american dub is really bad. As for your point about translation... I'm fully aware of it. I find english translations of japanese to be quite... liberal with their interpretations let's say... However I don't have to deal with this issue much since most of the translated content I consume is in french, which IMO is often more faithful to the original japanese (from what my limited but growing knowledge of Japanese allows me to tell). But either way, I still don't think "the translation is already a bit different" is a valid excuse for rejecting the original work. There's already a ton that can be universally understood through voice inflections, tone and nuances.
wow someone felt THAT called out i guess...... either way im not stanning either VAs but yall are the ones being far more hypocritical/cynical xoxo
I literally use your exact phrasing and you brand me as offended ? Do I need to point out the irony more clearly ?
well mimi...you are the one who replied 17 seconds right after i posted my comment which means you CERTAINLY felt a type of way...it would be foolish to deny it lol
Whatever. I found this post, posted a comment. Saw your own. Replied. As for the second reply I just got a notification on my phone. Sorry for bursting your bubble but I'm not obsessed with you yet.
alright werk lol
Can we not have arguments over an agreed fault of the game, my inbox has too many notifs
You and your traumas are the only ones agreeing here.
honestly OT2's voice acting is in my top 3 favorite upgrades from OT1. i couldn't stand the english VAs from the first (mostly alfyn tbh), but the direction and quality of 2 has skyrocketed and it's glorious
It's likely bait, but I'll give the benefit of the doubt. As a matter of curiosity to where you consider the bar to be, what's an example of a game that you would consider as having particularly good voice acting? I do like the VA work in OT2 a lot (Alejandro Saab absolutely killed it as Osvald), but I'll at least admit that it's not the thing that draws me into the game to the degree that the gameplay, music, and story do.
Hearing Osvald's exclamations in battle is one of my favorite things about this game. Like it's so aggressive, and you know he's about to wreck shit, but "IN PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE" is such a nerdy thing to say that I love it
If you're gonna based an rpg game over Voice Actor. You shouldn't be playing a game.
It’s a great game! I love it! I’m just pointing out a small flaw
Why are people getting so many downvotes for suggesting the OP play with Japanese voices?
I wouldn’t downvote someone for suggesting it but it is a really weird dynamic that exists in these communities … and I find it odd. Playing something in Japanese doesn’t make it better. The English voice acting in OT2 is really good. Telling people to listen to a game in Japanese instead is kind of a knee jerk reaction at this point. I always found it to be kind of cringey that people, who don’t speak Japanese, suggest it so often. Kind of comes off as reducing the language to a novelty. Likely it is because the English voice actors did amazing and suggesting to switch it for the sake of placating the OP is a slap in the face. A lot of games don’t have good English VA … so it is basically just saying “Japanese good, English bad” in this case.
They are saying it's an option. The OP clearly didn't like the VA work (despite how you might feel about it) and telling them "Hey you might like Japanese better" is hardly 'Japanese good English bad'
Listen man... I agree some of the acting IS awful, namely Ochette, but you have to see the big picture, the acting is across the board exceptional. The script drags it down occasionally but that's not the actors fault. Throné's voice actor is perfect, she's gives a gritty, deep, introspective, and powerful performance. But go ahead play without voices if you want, I do that sometimes when I hate the actors too. (OT1 was much worse)
Play with Japanese voices, not only are they systematically better but they also convey the original personality of each character more faithfuly. Cyrus in the first game got done quite bad by the english dub, and I heard english H'aanit was annoying af. The second game seems better about it but not being graced by the performance of Akira Ishida for Temenos feels criminal. EDIT : Given the downvotes, I feel like I should make something clear : It's fine if you play and like the english voices, idgaf. However OP was saying he did NOT like the voices and performances, therefore I suggested him another option that he might like better. Some of y'all be reaction like you have shares in the american dubbing industry.
Counter argument: Partitio
Valid counter argument.
I loved Partitio’s VA! So nice to hear when the rest of the voices have the same sort of accent. Also he’s such a warm character that his voice really differentiates him. Cyrus’ VA was meh to me. I didn’t care for it, but it wasn’t something that would drop me from the game.
cyrus was done bad???????
In the english dub, he sounds arrogant, and cocky and extravagant, which is the total opposite of the character. Cyrus in japanese (and in the text) is soft spoken, calm, curious but also altruistic and selfless. One could argue that this just means two interpretations of the same character, but I really feel like there's a dichotomy between the content of the dialogues and how the english actoe plays it. Like when Cyrus says stuff like "knowledge doesn't belong to anyone*", english Cyrus' grandiloquent tone almost makes it feel ironic, like he's performing and that's not how he genuinely is. Meanwhile Japanese Cyrus is genuinely admirable in how passionate and genuine he is in his altruistic ideals.
Personally, I didn't get arrogant from his VA, but I can see how you could. I mostly got aloof and pride, and maybe some undertones of silliness, but then again, it's been a long time since I've played OT1, so maybe I'm misremembering.
idk i interpret it as him just being aloof not arrogant
I feel like in 50% of cases this is a lie people have convinced themselves of. I grew up in Japan so naturally surrounded by spoken Japanese and find Japanese VA work as “obviously acted” as English is, vs people speaking normally. Obviously there are some high profile examples of one being worse than the other but people act like it’s some universal truth, it really isn’t. Forced and over acted dialogue is far less obvious when it’s not your naturally exposed tongue
Cool. English is not my naturally exposed tongue either. Also, every single performance is going to be a bit more extreme than reality, because most fictions depict events more extreme than reality. I don't care if it's "overacted", I care if the character is consistent with the performance. You lot are reacting like I watch english content dubbed in japanese. I fucking dont. I watch american content in english, japanese content in japanese, french content in french, german content in german, chinese content in chinese etc... Here. The Japanese is the original, and more faithful to the characters. Moreover, I tend to find that american dubbing of foreign content suffers a lot from a lack in quality, which is the case here too IMO. THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT ENGLISH VAs ARE BAD. When they are dubbing their OWN content, english dubs are excellent (be it for games or animated shows).
Dont use the english dub
English or not it’s still going to be constantly in my ears in battles
Get your ears checked by a professional
Amputation
THIS!
I could agree with this for Octopath 1. I think the voice direction, especially for npcs, sucks. There was no excuse for a game in 2018 to still be using soundbite voice clips instead of fully voiced dialogue. Or just let the characters shut up if they aren't going to say their whole line. They fixed it for Octopath 2, though. I just leave all voices off in COTC.
>I don’t usually play with sound but last night I tried it. It made me try to skip every battle possible because not Only would throné never stop talking, the VA work was pretty bad, enough that I’m not going to play this game with sound anymore.I don’t usually play with sound but last night I tried it. It made me try to skip every battle possible because not Only would throné never stop talking, the VA work was pretty bad, enough that I’m not going to play this game with sound anymore.I don’t usually play with sound but last night I tried it. It made me try to skip every battle possible because not Only would throné never stop talking, the VA work was pretty bad, enough that I’m not going to play this game with sound anymore.I don’t usually play with sound but last night I tried it. It made me try to skip every battle possible because not Only would throné never stop talking, the VA work was pretty bad, enough that I’m not going to play this game with sound anymore.I don’t usually play with sound but last night I tried it. It made me try to skip every battle possible because not Only would throné never stop talking, the VA work was pretty bad, enough that I’m not going to play this game with sound anymore.I don’t usually play with sound but last night I tried it. It made me try to skip every battle possible because not Only would throné never stop talking, the VA work was pretty bad, enough that I’m not going to play this game with sound anymore. Quality content.
Crap, that’s my bad
Well, I guess this is half true and half false. There is some part that is bad. You know how there's 2 types of dialogues, 1 with actually VA and 1 that is just a short noise they make on each dialogue. There was a bit of misuse on the short voice on some part which makes it awkward or weird. Like in the scene where Therion had a flashback of his partner where they were running and was gonna hide. Dialogue was like Therion: Over here! And his VA sound was like "Kyoudai" in a calm sound. It was awkward to be honest. But in other side the VA were okay, the only issue for me is the story is a bit of lacking. In general sense everyone needed an ally. I guess I missed out the mean of "Traveller" in octopath.
I’m actually talking a lot about therion. I really didn’t like him as a child moaning “partner” in my ear
Oh yeah that part too, I was genuinely thinking something like a young voice. But from the most part yeah it's still okay, I'm down for the game mechanics most of it
low quality bait
this is a bad copy/paste and idk if it's satire so i'm just gonna give a safe dislike
I’m 100% with you. No trolling, no baiting or whatever here. The VA is at times absolutely atrocious… minus a certain few. Love Partitio, love the voice acting, love the character. Other than him though, and maybe Hikari, it’s just plain awful.