There's a group that are releasing undubed versions of PS2 rpgs, with the original voices and English text.
Here are some examples:

Valkyrie Profile 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzVFsQYDIfE

FFX: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkW0ewPHj64

So far their list of games include:

Arc The Lad Twilight Of The Spirits
Seiken Densetsu 4 Dawn Of Mana
Fatal Frame 3 The Tormented
Shadow Hearts 3 From The New World
Shadow Hearts 2 Covenant
Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3 FES
Legaia 2 Duel Saga
Final Fantasy X-2
Rogue Galaxy
Valkyrie Profile 2 Silmeria
Tales Of The Abyss
Final Fantasy XII
Radiata Stories



Makes me want to play Valkyrie Profile 2, and replay FFX. My old original disc went missing, and English text is a lot less straining for the eyes. I just wish they released a FFX-2: Last Mission undub. Most people never got to play it because it didn't have an option for English text, like FFX: International.
I also want to try out Tales of the Abyss in Japanese. Especially since the skits have voice acting.

And Wein Cruz is prohibited from posting in this topic. "Naruto fillers are the best! English voices are the best!" etc.
Yes, yes. We know, we know.

I dunno, I think with a lot of those games the English Voice acting is adequate, and not only that I think people are stupidly biased when they believe that the Japanese voice-acting is always better. You've got to remember that the majority of those people probably don't understand Japanese so how can you honestly say that the delivery is really any better?

That being said I think I am one of those people who are stupidly biased, a lot of the time if I had the choice I'd switch the voice-acting to japanese, especially on games like Atelier Iris, but I also have ulterior motives. Usually both have their merits as well as their downsides. With a game like FFXII I could understand it because aside from Fran's voice, I really can't stand the voice acting. However, in FFX, I'm not overly keen on many of the voices but they suffice. The Japanese voices in the clips I've seen for FFX really didn't add much more.

Actually, I don't think they were able to get voices for the skits in the Undub version, IIRC. There was something in the US software that prevented that from happening.

Anyways, the voice acting for HALF of those games aren't nearly as bad as people want them to be. Just elitist snobs doing their duty. Though I'm sure in a couple of those I'd appreciate such an option. ;

I hate the English voices myself, but generally I think if there's room on the disc that developers throw the original language in. Releasing it without the English dub would be fine by me but who knows how many would disagree with that.

I already beat majority of those games listed. I'm not going to download these copies just to play a game with it's original audio. I have plenty of games I haven't been defeated that I can play. If possible, companies do add the option to change the dialogue back to Japanese. Not to mention dubbing isn't as emotionless as it use to be. You think English dubbing bad these days, then why don't try out Tales of Eternia? The English voice actors/actress have been getting better. In the end, it's just preference. A lot of people fail to see that.

I thought you mentioned that you did that with Tales of the Abyss though? Not sure. And something about a Persona 3 with different music and (maybe) voices. Not sure if you got it though.

I would have to agree with this. As most already know (since I've said it quite a few times now), I highly dislike the Japanese language. English is my favorite language ever. I'll take poor English dubs over professional Japanese any day. Besides, nowadays most games have decent English voice acting. Of course, there are exceptions. But I'm happy with the English voice overs with the majority of my games.

See: Making a mountain out of a molehill

Someone has too much free time. I still fail to see what is SO GREAT about Japanese dubs, it's just a different ##### language with different ##### tones. If you want over dramatized ##### go watch a soap opera.

This is nice to see, even if just for variety. Legaia 2... Surprised to see it on there, but it definitely does need the original voices. The lip-synching in battle is terrible, reaching the stereotyped level.

Ai-EEEEEEEEEEEE

lol...Legaia 2's battle voices ARE terrible. I have an original copy of the game, so that might be looking into...

IF I had swap magicks.

I'd much rather have B level voice acting in English than A level voice acting in Japanese. Never understood people's fascination with having Japanese voice acting in games. I'd much rather focus on the scene then turning my attention towards reading the subtitles.

Likewise, I never understood people's fascination with having English voice acting in games. The script is written for the characters in their original language, and many things gets lost in translation. And I honestly never heard a non american person complain about having problems reading subs and watch at the same time. You can't watch the whole screen? 90% of what's on TV here is subbed, so you're used to it ever since you learn to read. I guess this is a more common problem for you guys though. I don't have any problems with it. *shrugs*

Never got it to work. I did get Persona 3 to work, but I decide to wait until the FES was released. Not to mention that I had to play these games on the PS2 instead of PS3, which would upscale all my PS2 titles. Oh, also the fact my PS2 is broken again due too much dust on the lens.


It's all about preference.

Whether a voice fits a particular character or not or people simply prefer the original audio.

What I never understood is how people are able to tell what bad Japanese voice acting while they have little or no understanding of the language. I just prefer the original audio myself since I feel it fits most of the characters while I tend to have problems with English dubs, mainly problems with the selection of voices for female and children characters. Of course, due to my little knowledge of the language, I can't exactly tell you what bad voicing acting is in Japanese, whether it's grammar or pronunciation of words. You don't exactly need to understand the language to tell if the characters is being emotional.

I also never understood people strong dislike for English dubs.

You ever listen to Tales of Eternia English cast? No emotion. That's what I find to be bad voice acting.

of those games listed, i didn't mind the voice acting in the games i played- Persona 3, SH: Covenant, VP: Silmeria, Rogue Galaxy (what's wrong with Wil Friedle and Steve Blum?)... though SH: FtNW could have been better- especially Frank, Natan, and Roger's voices.

Out of the games on that list, from the ones that I have played I am on the same boat with the others that say they can not find any problems with the English dubs. I honestly think it goes back to what Flame about people being stupidly biased towards Japanese voice actors. I don't care either way what people prefer between Dub or Sub because that is what they like, but I do hate the crap about how dubs are always worse. It's like those people have been ignoring the improvements of English voice actors since this previous generation of videogames.

Personally, I have found dubs to be just fine the games I have been playing for the last 3 or 4 years. Valkyrie Profile 2, Rogue Galaxy and what I heard from Persona 3 are all just fine, and FFXII seemed to suffer from audio problems more than anything else. (And the really short bit I have played of Tales of the Abyss seemed fine as well.) In fact, the reason why I find myself muting a game most of the time is not because of voice acting, but embarrassing dialog I would rather not have other people hear.

Coming from people who were born and raised with the English language, I don't think it's in their best interest to call others 'stupidly biased'.
And speaking of improvements, have you heard Chaos Wars? I think that game sounds light years worse than anything I've ever heard in Japanese. It goes back to the fact that being a seyuu is a much bigger thing in Japanese culture, and people build careers around their voice to a bigger extent. That's why you don't see them picking up random bums from the streets to voice characters. That seems to be the case with the US Chaos Wars though.

And among the list above, some of the games are old, and I'm glad if I don't have to hear Tidus and Yuna's english laughing scene, or Seymours latino voice "with something stuck in his throat" again.

Well frankly, that makes at least as much sense as:


Granted, I can see how some people may be interested in undubbing, but I think the overall reasoning behind it is bull<bleep>. Seriously dude, "making games unplayable"??? Do you honestly believe that?


Everyone knows that Chaos Wars is the exception to pretty much all english dubbing efforts to come out within the last decade or so. Still, for those who want this, good for you. Hope you have a blast. =p

If you prefer some games with A quality Japanese over B quality English, I think it's worthwhile for those people.
I wouldn't call any of those games unplayable though.


I'll vote for Chaos Wars Karen as the best English voice actor of the year. And Uru as the most 'fabulous'. *With a lisp*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAtC1SzWSXg

Chaos Wars is a terrible example, and I think you know how unfair it is to use it as one. Obviously, there're still some terrible dubs out there, but compared to a handful of years ago, there're sure as hell a lot better dubs now than then, which is what Wein was implying.

And who published the US Chaos Wars, anyway? O3 Entertainment? I've never even heard of them before, so may I assume they're pretty new? Their list of games on Wiki certainly looks pretty short, and most of them seem like pretty low-budget games. That said, I doubt they particularly had the funds to hire the more well-known voice actors/actresses, if any at all. (Hell, judging by what I heard in the game, I would assume they just did it all themselves.)

If I'm wrong in assuming any of that, then very well. My point is that using Chaos Wars to represent English voice acting as a whole is terribly unfair. There's plenty of good English voice acting out there. Whether or not any of it is better than the original is totally opinionated, but there are plenty out there who would agree that there are indeed at least some good English voice actors/actresses.

In any case, for the games out there that do have less-than-desired English voice acting, this seems like a good idea. As I stated before, a game like Legaia 2 could certainly use the original voices. (The voices themselves weren't too terrible, IMO, but the lips were way out of synch.) I'd certainly like to see this done with games like the Naruto series' titles, for one example.

Honestly, I'd rather see Legaia 2 re-dubbed with better english voice actors. I think they'd be able to do a much better job this time around. Although personally, I thought Legaia 2's voice-acting pretty hilarious. It was fun to listen to that way.

"We can't afford..............to lose!"

You prefer English over Japanese, before you even hear it?
Well I take them as they come, and chose which one I prefer after I hear both.

But English re dubs is pretty unrealistic. The original voice actors are always available as an option though. At least as long as games include an option for both, or groups like this release them.
I think it's a good idea for most companies to give voice over options in the game if there's room for it on the disc.

I think Japanese voice acting is the best because I enjoy listening to them full of emotion when saying something I have no idea what it means.

I wish they spent all their energy into translating untranslated games rather than games that everyone outside Japan have already played years ago.

You would think they could translate games like Tales of Rebirth and Tales of Destiny PS2, but that would require time. From what I'm gathering, they replace the English dialogue with the Japanese dialogue. Not sure how difficult the process is, but I doubt it's that difficult.

I think they're basically just hackers. They don't translate anything themselves. Just take the audio from one version, and the text from the other.

I guess that's why they didnt do FFX-2: Last Mission, because the optional dungeon has no translated text.