Subbed or dubbed: A look at Japan-America game translations

For many of us, this isn’t really such a big deal. For the purists and hardcore-fans, however, the topic of whether a localized game should be subbed or dubbed is a factor that can potentially alter the entire play experience. We’ll be taking a look at this matter a littler further, by way of a feature piece. Check it out in the full article.

Introduction
When a Japanese game manages to see an English rendition, up comes another major hurdle for the fans. Will it be subbed, retaining all the glory of its original Nihonggo tongue? Or, will it face the U.S. distributor’s splicers, arriving on retail with a completely new voice crew?

Some will face this predicament head-on and just turn down the volume when the sprites start talking. Some will shake their head in fury, and import. Most will probably just shrug, and resume play. Whatever the case, we figured it was high time we have took a look at some of the points often discussed when it comes to a game’s voice tracks.

Quality
Arguably the most violently conflicted point being stated for this particular argument. As many purists will state, dubbed games have a habit of churning lackluster English voice acting. The scars of the “Jill Sandwich” is still fresh in our memory, with similar titles (ZX Advent, Dynasty Warriors come to mind) only adding fuels to the fire. Even Atlus stumbled a couple of  times – Luminous Arc‘s cast felt lacking in intensity (then again, so did the rest of the game).

But much like the similarly styled U.S. anime industry (try not to think of 4Kids for a moment),  the quality’ is showing signs of maturity. After all, we’ve got talented people like David Hayter, who’s built up quite a fan base for his works in Hideo Kojima‘s Metal Gear Solid franchise.

Gamers will also remember Viktor Josef Mignogna (aka Vic Mignogna) – the English voice behind Full Metal Alchemist‘s Edward Elric.

Okay, so the FMA games were sub-par; but at the very least, actors like these fellows we mention indicate the level of refinement and dedication that’s being siphoned into Japan-English ports.

And who’s to say that poor acting is an ailment that’s exclusive to the U.S. market? As Anime News Network editor Ryan Matthews puts it for a relatively parallel anime industry:

The sad truth of the matter is that most Japanese anime voice acting is of average quality. This is not to impugn the Japanese; it’s merely Sturgeon’s Law at work. For every Akira Kamiya and Megumi Hayashibara, there are scores of actors giving uninspired, cookie-cutter performances.

Celebrity status
Of course, there’s the matter of star power. Many an anime fan will tell you that part of the fun in watching their favorite shows is based on the seiyuu. The same can be said for video games; plenty of these seiyuu lend their talents to some of your favorite titles.

It’s just more fun (and strange) playing a bout of Samurai Warriors, knowing that Yukimura was also voiced by the same guy who did Slam Dunk’s Hanamichi Sakuragi. In this case, the actor is Takeshi Kusao.

But as we’ve said in passing earlier, the same can be said (to a certain extent) for its U.S. counterparts. Mignogna himself has a whopping fan base (type his name on youtube if you don’t believe us) that would rival many a Japanese pop star.

And lest we forget, Kingdom Hearts‘ U.S. port was also proved to carry its own celebrity who’s-who. The crew consisted of names like Haley Joel Osment (A.I., Sixth Sense), David Gallagher (7th Heaven), and Christopher Lee (Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings).

Lost in translation
The gist is that if you try to dub game scripts instead of leaving them untouched, some subtle meaning in the dialogue is lost as well. In some cases, this can be a harmless nuance to Japanese culture, or a missed punchline. On a more severe case, this could mean gaping inconsistencies in the plot.

There’s also the candid effect of the character’s mouths (originally timed for their Japanese
voice) moving even as the character hasn’t uttered a word. A very strange ailment that’s plagued the run of Monolith’s Xenosaga, and its predecessor, Xenogears.

Here’s the territory gets a little iffy. While it does feel like something gets lost in the English translation, it’s not always as bad as it seems. Take Disgaea (or Disgaea 2), as distributed by Atlus, for example. The game’s English voices are pretty spot-on with the text, with certain gags being approximated to fit a more American setting.

And while this may not be an exact translation per se, this does mean that viewers can enjoy the humor as well as a Japanese audience. Different jokes with different cultural contexts can still equate to the same lols, after all.

On a more practical note, there’s also the matter of reading speed.Only those among us with above-normal coordination can usually read subtitles while still playing a decent match. For most of us, it just results in tired eyes and poor scores – can you think of a worse reason to hate a game?

Your choice:
Of course, in the end, this really up to the workmanship of the studio behind the localization. And much in the same way, up to the personal tastes of the players… and of our willingness to stomach the occasional ear bleeder to experience a potentially face-melting title. In my case, though, I’ll be sticking to subs, and keeping ZX Advent‘s volume down when the conversations pop up.