Unskippable: Assassin's Creed Unity - Who Speaks French In France?

Graham_LRR

Unskippable, LRR, Feed Dump
Nov 13, 2008
4,296
0
0
Assassin's Creed Unity - Who Speaks French In France?

Who speaks French in France?

Watch Video
 

Skeleon

New member
Nov 2, 2007
5,410
0
0
It's a bit silly to expect them to speak French/with a French accent in an English translation of the game. Admittedly, though, it's also a bit silly to then give them a few token French words to say. That's why I play it in the original German! "Wer sei" is a very beautiful place, even to this day.
 

shrekfan246

Not actually a Japanese pop star
May 26, 2011
6,374
0
0
I wish his name had been spelled "Arnault".

Also, obviously dad got killed specifically because Arnault started wandering and exploring even after being explicitly told to sit still!

Skeleon said:
It's a bit silly to expect them to speak French/with a French accent in an English translation of the game. Admittedly, though, it's also a bit silly to then give them a few token French words to say. That's why I play it in the original German! "Wer sei" is a very beautiful place, even to this day.
I could be wrong, but I get the impression that Ubisoft generally script their games in English originally. I would understand if it's otherwise, though, given the fact that they are a largely French developer/publisher.
 

Roofstone

New member
May 13, 2010
1,641
0
0
What worries me is the French accents that very few people have.

...Are they super French?
 

FPLOON

Your #1 Source for the Dino Porn
Jul 10, 2013
12,531
0
0
I would totally play a game called Baby Assassin's Creed...

Other that that, isn't everyone traveling through time regardless if they have a specific pocket watch? Granted, it's only in the forward position, but I digress...
 

Darth_Payn

New member
Aug 5, 2009
2,868
0
0
That "No slouching!" bit had me confused whether or not Graham or Arno's dad said that! Brilliant! As for the accents, IMO, I find the English one to be more... pleasant to listen to. On the other hand, the Italian and Spanish accents from the Ezio trilogy were well done, so I don't know what Ubisoft's logic is now.
And in that modern day bit, I think that's Rebecca Crane talking to you through the pirate (no, not THOSE pirates!) signal.
 

Kenjitsuka

New member
Sep 10, 2009
3,051
0
0
Hehe, nicely done!
Now to resume that DBZ torrent!

Oh wait, no, first I have to complete this baffling CAPTCHA "Which one is a country?"
God, those are SO hard; everyone speaks English all over the place! :(

P.S.
Haha, it was France!
So, definitily English speakers. And known to scoff at anyone who tries to speak French, but doesn't sound 100% native (according to my former French teacher.).
 
Jan 12, 2012
2,114
0
0
That's why you always leave a note.

Also, can we talk about the fact that Arno works what is obviously a fairly basic job but still wears a sabre? Seems like a bit much, even (spoiler) for someone who was adopted by the Templar Grand Master.
 

Dalisclock

Making lemons combustible again
Legacy
Escapist +
Feb 9, 2008
11,228
7,007
118
A Barrel In the Marketplace
Country
Eagleland
Gender
Male
FPLOON said:
I would totally play a game called Baby Assassin's Creed...

Other that that, isn't everyone traveling through time regardless if they have a specific pocket watch? Granted, it's only in the forward position, but I digress...
Now that you mention it, I would love a game where you play a cute baby assasin who jumps down on people from high places, murders them and then when the guards come running, the baby is curled up asleep nearby or in a high chair or doing something cute, so the guards never suspect. I guess after a while it would seem strange that the exact same baby was at every since murder site, but then again, AC guards are dumb.
 

NinjaDeathSlap

Leaf on the wind
Feb 20, 2011
4,474
0
0
I don't know why Unity was so intent of giving their characters any other accents apart from French. I mean, at least everyone had cheesy and overdone Italian accents in the Ezio trilogy. Kinda silly, but not actually as silly as Yorkshire and Irish accents punctuated by the occasional word of French.

Unusual, considering Ubisoft is itself a French company. I mean, did they run a focus group that declared French by far the worlds most irritating and undesirable accent?

...

Actually, that wouldn't surprise me.
 

Auron225

New member
Oct 26, 2009
1,790
0
0
That last bit where he actually spoke French just made the whole thing weirder.

Had they stuck with English the whole way through then at least it would be reasonable to assume it's purely for our sake that they had everyone speaking English. We could assume they'd really be speaking French if we understood it. But now the distinction has been made! It's like "Wait, he speaks English AND French. So for 99% of this, people are actually speaking English and it is definitely not French".

Also, I'm forever astounded as to how many AC games there are. Is the goal to outnumber Mario?
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

New member
Sep 6, 2009
6,019
0
0
The Anusmus uses the knowledge of your spoken language to translate everything you hear in to your native language, from this we can deduce that that one word of French was a curse word so filthy, that the main character had never heard it before and thus couldn't translate.
 

scw55

New member
Nov 18, 2009
1,185
0
0
Probably like in that episode of Doctor Who where they visit Pompeii. Donna speaks either Latin or Italian (whilst under the TARDIS translation thingy) to a roman trader, and the trader asks if she's "Gaelic"; speaking a Celtic language.

Probably that. Mister protagonist probably spoke a Germanic swear word when he uttered a French word whilst under the British English translation matrix of VIDEOGAME.
 

Branovices

New member
Oct 15, 2008
131
0
0
It being in English without French accents bothered me, too... so I just set the language to French and turned on English subtitles. Problem solved. I actually really like French voice actor for Arno.
 

Seldon2639

New member
Feb 21, 2008
1,756
0
0
The explanation of the accents is the same as a lot of movies which feature English accents for characters speaking natively in another language: an American audience understands the cultural meaning of English accents better than the cultural meanings of other languages. It's a bit like how an American audience doesn't know what the hell an Osaka accent is, but sure as hell knows what a Texan accent represents.
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
9,909
0
0
Thunderous Cacophony said:
That's why you always leave a note.

Also, can we talk about the fact that Arno works what is obviously a fairly basic job but still wears a sabre? Seems like a bit much, even (spoiler) for someone who was adopted by the Templar Grand Master.
I get the impression he's basically considered to be a minor noble, the equivalent of a bastard son who doesn't have full access to the monies or titles but has certain rights such as that to be armed, after all he does still live in his adopted father's estate, even if he gets crap from the servants. What's more it can be argued the revolution is in swing through most of the game in one way or another, you have mobs, and bands of armed men (many of whom attack you) everywhere, law and order are breaking down, so it probably doesn't stick out quite as much. Then again it might also explain some of the wonkier aggression mechanics where people attack you for no good reason.

It's fantasy, so allowances need to be made to an extent, that's one of the easier things to explain though. The general wardrobe of an Assassin blending in somehow is a bit harder. It's more difficult in my mind to justify the way some of the female characters act, dress, and carry themselves, especially in public. Trained by the Templars or Assassin's they might be, but acting like that in public wouldn't fly, you'd expect the female characters to look a lot more normal and be acting as covert and deep cover agents, not chasing down their own leads, or walking around with a sword and pistol in public. I understand the whole PC aspect of this, but there is a point where it can be quite jarring in a game that otherwise goes out of the way to try and convey the period obviously my character thinks "oh well, I guess she must be important because she's wearing pants and has a gun and yet nobody seems to notice how she stands out even more than I do... obviously we must be in the same business as we have identical concepts of subtle, stealth, and covert operations" of course he is also the only one in the world who runs around with a hood who isn't a violent marauder, and carrying a giant spear over his back, which of course convincingly blends perfectly.

In my opinion Ubisoft REALLY needs to drop Watchdogs and just flat out make a near future "Assassin's Creed" title or something. Then they don't have to worry about women being too assertive, can justify walking around with a hood up in some places, and if they go outright cyberpunk even get flashy with the wardrobes as they tend to want to do and still say it blends (since old school cyberpunk is all about the crazy looks). Of course then again looking at watch dogs once they had a setting that could justify wearing a hood, they had to give the guy a bandanna/cap/collar combo that manages to be entirely ubsubtle again, looking less "covert hacker" and more like some idiot who watches too many music videos about to rob a convenience store, rather than ignore him, I figure every bloody cop in the world would profile him laws be damned because frankly anyone who dresses like that pretty much screams "about to be involved in trouble and too stupid to conceal it" which accurately defines the character come to think of it since he really is walking around with guns and periodically shooting his way into places like some cut rate Rambo.

In one of the recent games they had a faux-entry for "Assassin's Creed: Summer Of Love" that probably comes closest to an environment that could justify what they want to do in general, of course I'd imagine somehow Ubisoft would even find a way to make the protagonist too flamboyant to even pass as a parody of the era (Austin Powers would probably ask him to chill it out a bit...).
 

cathou

Souris la vie est un fromage
Apr 6, 2009
1,163
0
0
didnt they explain in like the first game that the animus was translating for the person Inside it ?

beside, i dont know what you are all talking about, in my french xbox, they all speak perfectly good french... but everyone in america in assassin's creed 3 have turn french too
 

Therumancer

Citation Needed
Nov 28, 2007
9,909
0
0
Auron225 said:
That last bit where he actually spoke French just made the whole thing weirder.

Had they stuck with English the whole way through then at least it would be reasonable to assume it's purely for our sake that they had everyone speaking English. We could assume they'd really be speaking French if we understood it. But now the distinction has been made! It's like "Wait, he speaks English AND French. So for 99% of this, people are actually speaking English and it is definitely not French".

Also, I'm forever astounded as to how many AC games there are. Is the goal to outnumber Mario?
Potentially yes, The Assassin's Creed concept seemed largely to have a very open concept based on conflict which could allow them to build a series of third person action games set in various historical periods. As a result they could effectively churn out endless numbers of them without ever being forced to end the story since everything is being "relived in the past" and of course not run out of game backdrops unless somehow they ran out of nations and time periods to set them in. The core gameplay which is pretty much "design a period open world, throw in some voice actors playing historical people from the open world, litter the open world with collectibles, and create a series of story missions where you kill people between cinematics rambling about Templars and Assassins as a justification". It's not a bad idea as far as such things goes because so far they have managed to carry the series on people seeing open world recreations of different time periods. It's become a formula, but a well conceived one that could in theory carry on forever unless people totally lose interest in history.

That said it would be nice if they put more effort into these games, since it seems the storyline continually lags behind whatever the new setting is, and these games really need both, since I tend to eventually get bored if one isn't as strong as the other.

As far as the language thing goes I don't much care for the most part, they have explained it with techno babble, but like most of the series the concepts fall apart if you stop to think about them too much. I think Ubisoft was mostly thinking in terms of accessibility, while they release in multiple languages English is the closest thing to a universal "human tongue" we have right now, namely because it's become the major language of business for the moment, and is typically the second language people in most of the world learn, which is why it's actually fairly practical for people to get around as being mono-lingual in English and why so many Americans have managed to remain mono-lingual, as the pressure to know more than one language fluently isn't as high right at the moment. Give that English is a language a lot of people without their main language being covered are going to be using, I'd imagine they decided they did not want to add a foreign accent to a lot of it because while this might have been cool to native language speakers, those who are already playing the language in a secondary tongue might have some problems with the accent thrown on top of it. I can't say for sure, but that's a guess.
 

Evil Smurf

Admin of Catoholics Anonymous
Nov 11, 2011
11,597
0
0
Does this mean that all my BBC dramas are french dramas? Is David Attenborough French?
 

ninja51

New member
Mar 28, 2010
342
0
0
Its episodes of Unskippable like these that make me feel like the videos need to be longer. It blows by so quickly with little in the way of actual commentary that just as it feels like things are getting started the video ends. It isn't the first time i've been left with nothing but an unsatisfied feeling after watching an episode either. A bit too often the cutscenes seem to just start to get rolling with the funny clever commentary also just starting to get rolling when things end abruptly. I feel like these videos need to be ten minutes long or so, possibly even with gameplay if need be. I don't really care if it isn't explicitly a "cutscene" these are more or less fun lets plays with scripted jokes on top. I've seen tons of Unskippable, but things do end abruptly too much just as true engagement in the game and commentary begin. That's just my two cents of constructive criticism, the videos are a bit too short to really get sucked into anything and this one in particular highlighted it. As things start to take full swing, as Graham and Stark just start to find a groove with the game, the video ends leaving an unsatisfied feeling.