JRPG's (and Anime too I guess). Japanese or English voices?

[balladbird]

Depends on the Dub, but usually english for higher profile games, and japanese for lower profile (like atelier), I still feel bad for playing Atelier Escha in english only to find in the 2nd walkthrough that in japanese EVERY EVENT IS VOICED.

That's a budget thing, really. As you said, lower profile games barely make enough money back in the US to justify the localization, so they save money where they can. Sadly, this means a lot of reading. I realize you were probably aware of this, but felt I should clarify just in case. XD


English in both. The days of god awful dubs are in the past, and while a few duds come out of the woodwork every now and again, the vast majority of dubbed work is perfectly serviceable to my ears. The only real complaint I have about english dubs currently is that the talent pool is pretty thin, which results in a lack of variety. I love the likes of Steven Bloom, Johnny Yong Bosch, Laura Bailey, or Michelle Ruff, but when I hear them in every single game I play it makes it hard to tell the characters apart after a while.

With games, I have a second reason for preferring english, aside from native-tongue preference, though: many games don't provide subtitles for unscripted dialogues, such as a character saying something over a menu, or characters gabbing during a battle. This can result in missing some awesome scenes.

Resonance of Fate comes to mind. If you play the game in japanese, no subtitles are present for the character's back-and-forth quips as they explore the dungeons, which means unless you speak the language, you missed out on some great characterization, as well as some of the funniest lines in the entire game.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Live action: subtitled, because I can't get over how wrong people sound dubbed, especially when I know what they actually sound like.

Anime and Games: Dubbed, because if Japan isn't going to put any fucking effort into properly animating mouths, I might as well listen to it in my own language. And I'm not pretentious enough to write off english because it's translated from something foreign.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Original language, always.


If a game doesn't have dual audio, I will simply import it from Japan.

 

[anthony87]

Varies depending on the show.

Cowboy Bebop? Fuck yeah, English dubs are awesome.

Kill la Kill? Ehhh, English dub over-pronounces everything and just doesn't sound right.

And from what I've seen they don't pronounce the "U" in several cases. Even if that's correct it just sounds wrong in English y'know?

 

[GloatingSwine]

Always original language if available.

I'm too sensitised to the artifacts of bad translation (awkward phrasing, usually due to over-literal translation or mangling the script to fit the differences in length between sentences), they stick out in my mind even in what are supposed to be "good" dubs.

You hear a scene and think "If this were written in English originally, they would not have said it like that". And that breaks immersion for me.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

You know, I keep seeing people saying Bebop has a good dub. I gave it a chance one time, it was my favorite episode coincidentally too. The one with Fay's backstory. It was just...horrible. When she was cheering herself on she sounded like a vapid valley girl. Like a dumb blond. All that positive earnest energy gone. There were other issues too but that one scene was completely ruined and it turned me off of the entire thing.

Maybe if you're an American you actually appreciate those "dumb blond" style personalities? Maybe this is how you saw Faye all along? I know I sure didn't!

 

[BarkBarker]

Artists original intention before dub, unless the dub has good word or the original misses the mark like Goku, I could never hear him any other way.

 

[Gatx]

It varies with me. Sometimes I enjoy seeing how English dubbers do it and sometimes it just doesn't hit the mark. The Gundam Unicorn dub is amazing, though at times it struggles with the ridiculously cheesy dialogue from the original, but the performances are all great.

Keith Silverstein does an amazing job as Full Frontal. He channels some of the performance Michael Kopsa performance but it's definitely a different voice, which makes sense as it's not actually Char. What would've been amazing though is if they got Kopsa and Brad Swaile to voice the "Amuro" and "Char" appearance at the end, but alas.

Also there were little touches, like when Cardias Vist talks about the history of the Universal Century and the English script has him say "J'accuse" when talking about revolution, were really nice.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I strongly prefer the original dubs most of the time. If I'm given the option to play a game in the original language, I'll take it. There are a ton of western games where the voice acting sounds phoned in and when you apply that talent pool to imported games it can lead to disaster more often than hilarity.

 

[SNCommand]

Original language is always the way to go, that goes for content originally from the US as well, dubbing is a crime against nature

 

[Michael Tabbut]

For the most part I prefer to watch anime dubbed. However if the series I'm watching doesn't have a dub yet I'll watch it subbed.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

I will often go to the native language of the game/show's origin.
That said, I am willing to play thing things that do not have Japanese voices, and even willing to acknowledge good dubbing.

Nier is one such example. Very good voice work.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

Regardless of country of origin or type of media I always go with the original voices. The few exceptions being where I've originally had no choice to have an English dub and have gotten used to it.

 

[Tanis]

It...depends.

I tend to multitask.
-Watching anime while I play a video game or whatever.

So I prefer dub unless it's so HORRIBLE, it takes away from an otherwise good series.
-SEE: Crest/Banner of the Stars.

 

[Casual Shinji]

With (Japanese) videogames I'm generally fine with dubs, and that's because concentrating on the gameplay AND reading subtitles in a second language is stretching it a bit. Plus, my favourite Japanese games tend to have killer dubs anyway, like Metal Gear Solid, or are English by default, like Silent Hill and Resident Evil.

Anime, except for a few titles, is always subbed.

 

[Hydrahunter]

For me it depends on what I've heard first. If I watch something in English first I generally get into my head that this is how the characters are supposed to sound like and then hearing them in Japanese is especially Jarring and visa-versa. That said I would prefer Japanese because, while the above is mostly true their are some occasions where I can start a game in English and the voice acting is so terrible that I think my ears are going to start bleeding if I don't turn the voices off or switch audio, Hyperdimension Neptunia is a prime example of this for me.

 

[Rozalia1]

English. Unless at some point I start understanding Japanese outside a few words than that isn't going to change.
There are a few things I play in Japanese though for example the Yakuza games as they are in Japanese (outside the first).

 

[CannibalCorpses]

I like japanese voices most of the time but when playing long jrpgs i like to have it in english so i'm not wasting time watching text when i should be paying attention to other things instead. Films...subtitles all the way, i love japanese voices!

 

[Sangnz]

Sub nearly all the way in both mediums. English voice actors often pull out cringe worthy performances and the voices often don't suit the character, dunno if the Japanese voice acting sounds as bad to native speakers, but i find the performance in the native language much more fitting and credible.

 

[Kingjackl]

I prefer to have stuff dubbed in English. Most mainstream games and anime have pretty decent dubs these days; I think most of the stigma against English dubbed anime is a holdover from the old days of doughnut-riceballs, lollipop-cigarettes and dudes getting sent to the Shadow Realm.

Even back then though, I preferred stuff dubbed English since I find it easier to gauge the tone of the voice. I can recognise good and bad English acting, but I can't tell with foreign voices in any language.