Anyway, for some reason, despite the first game in the Zero Escape series not being released here in Europe, the sequel Virtue's Last Reward was, on the PS Vita and the Nintendo 3DS. From what I've heard, the PS Vita version is better, due to the infamous save-erasing crash bug that is present in the 3DS version (which I've never ever come across and I've finished it twice) and because you can choose between the original Japanese voice acting and the English dub version. The 3DS version only has the Japanese audio.
In North America, both versions came with the English dubbed audio set as standard, with the CHOICE to change it to the original Japanese. There shouldn't BE A CHOICE. The original Japanese voice acting is AMAZING. The English dub is FUCKING AWFUL. Just like most animes and Japanese films, any dub is just terrible.
Here's my reasons as to why the Japanese audio is vastly superior:
1) The original was recorded with the original script. Some lines had to be changed for the English translation. Some examples are the character Zero III ending his lines of dialogue with "usa", the Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound a rabbit makes. In the English subtitles, he simply makes funny rabbit puns.
2) The voice actors are AMERICAN. They ham it up far too much and make the funnier lines simply cheesy and the more serious lines cannot be taken seriously at all.
3) In the original Japanese voice acting, the character Dio has a slick, sinister sounding voice. In the English dub, he just sounds like some American douchebag who is trying too hard.
4) In the original Japanese voice acting, the character Zero III manages a cute sounding voice while still managing to be evil and cruel. In the English version, it's just cheesy and makes me dry heave.
5) When the English voice actors swear, there's no feeling in their dialogue. It's like a little kid saying a bad word in front of their grandma.
6) The character models' mouths are synched to the original Japanese dialogue. Thus making for oddly synched mouth movements when they are "speaking" English.
7) The game is Japanese. It has a very Japanese art-style, storyline and characters. Why ruin the integrity by replacing the original lines of dialogue?
Just to prove my point, I've recorded a sound clip of the same point in the game of both the English dub and the original Japanese voice acting. The English one was recorded from a YouTube video, the Japanese one was recorded from my 3DS speakers. (They're embedded below, the Japanese one on the left, the English one on the right.)
I hope you agree with the points I've made and if you buy this game, change the DEFAULT fucking language to what it actually should be. You'll enjoy the game much more. I could NOT play it with the awful English dub, a serious game with dark tones like Virtue's Last Reward does not work with cheesy American voice actors.
I agree with you, the English dub is AWFUL! JP version all the way!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad someone agrees with me. :)
DeleteI actually think that it sounds alright though
ReplyDelete