Monday, April 5, 2010

I take it all back! Nex time, I'll import the game!

Just a bit earlier I whined a bit about the pricing on some games (post here), but now I have to take it all back!
Despite my whining, the conclusion in any case basically was that I can get my hands on Japanese issues of new foreign games here in Japan at a price point much lower than those of locally produced games despite the foreign games having production values at least on par with the local games.

As most gamers, I had been looking forward to the next installment in the God of War series and was pleasantly surprised when I saw that the Japan release was close to simultaneous with the US launch (something which not always is the case...). To freshen me up on the gameplay, story and so I also played through the two first installments (yeah, I bought that collection, the US version) and felt quite excited about playing the new game, and of course it was always nice to see the low price point of the game as well.

So far so good, I get the game home and pop it in the Playstation and am looking forward to enjoying the game... Then, the shock! For some reason there is no selection of English audio in the game, the only available audio track is the dubbed Japanese voices! You might think that I was naive expecting English audio, especially if you remember my previous lament about this pressing issue (here), but for a game with such cinematic qualities and obvious effort that goes into the voice acting with big name stars etc.

Not only is the non-availability of English audio highly annoying since I have played through the previous games with the English audio, but the Japanese voice acting is really really bad... I am getting more and more convinced that there actually only is something like 5 people who do voices for dubbed games and that they already have divided up the roles among themselves (guy 1 does Hero, guy 2 does villain, girl 1 does heroine, guy 3 does other etc.)...

As I play the game, I get the creepy feeling that the people who voices this game are exactly the same as the ones that voiced CoD Modern Warfare 2 and Metal Gear Solid and that they don't really make any effort, they just say stuff the way they always do...

I think it was most accurately put by Mrs. Sunshine-Salaryman as she was sitting next to me and reading a magazine in the sofa while I was playing: "I have no idea what it is your playing and what the game it is, I'm sorry but I have to say that it sounds sooo stupid". I really need to check things up better before I buy; paying a few extra dollars for an import version with good audio would be a smart investment...

1 comment:

aimlesswanderer said...

I don't play many games which need dubbing, but have come across a few abominable efforts. Sometimes they are so bad they're funny, but only if they're really really bad.

Good that your wife tolerates your gaming.

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