Catherine Animation Being Lip-Synced To English Localization

Siliconera - Speaking with Siliconera, Ms. Ruff revealed that manual lip-syncing of the animation appears to be part of Catherine’s localization into English from the original Japanese dub, which is rather significant, given that the game emphasizes believable character interaction and drama.

[Scottyabanks]

At least we know they are doing it right.

[Yi-Long]

... it means we won't be getting the original japanese voices.

I won't be buying any game that's missing the original voices.

Seeing how the anime-crowd was looking forward to Catherine, and how anal they are about getting the original voices, I'm pretty sure I won't be the only one who's skipping this for that reason.

Why oh why do they keep fucking up western releases of japanese games by omitting the original voices!?!?

[Scottyabanks]

@Yi-Long

Well, I guess I'm just not an anime freak. I speak english, I like hearing other people speak english. If you want the original that bad, import it.

[dragonyght]

Lip-Synced To English Localization would mean much if the voice acting is still bad which is about every dub that ever made

[Biggest]

I thought the dub for Black Lagoon was pretty good. It's probably the only example I can come up with though. lol

[Reibooi]

I'm getting real tired of so many people complaining about the dub. I'm a very big anime fan and more often then not I prefer the dub and it's because more often then not they are just as good as the original Japanese.

Atlus has always been praised of the quality of the dubs they get made for their high profile games. No one once complained about the lack of the original voices the persona 3 and 4 releases and the reason was because the dubs those games had were damn good. To the point that anyone complaining about them were being nothing but elitist idiots.

Atlus is putting a ton of time, effort and money into making the dub as good as it can possibly be(I mean they got some of the biggest and best names in Voice acting for the game) and anyone who complains about that is obviously just gonna complain about anything.

After all 95% of the people who complain about not having the subs can't even understand them and have NO IDEA if what they are hearing is bad or not.

In my opinion skipping a game that has been praised for new and refreshing game play and story because of a dub that's well regarded is retarded. If it sounds good who cares if it's not the original. It's not like the story is getting changed or anything.

[wicko]

OR maybe some people don't enjoy being treated like morons who can't read a bit of text on the bottom of the screen. Not to mention 99% of the time the dialog is "americanized" because apparently it's beyond english speakers to understand anything foreign.

Maybe you don't mind getting treated like an idiot but I can't stand it.

[Redempteur]

I disagree i guess i'm one of those 5% who understand enough japanese to care

(and yes i buy japanese rpgs in japanese when it doesn't get translated ).

Sure atlus P3 & P4 dubs was alright but having played the UNDUB version it was better , superior no doubt.

What pains me in this affair is that's last gen the escuse was : ( we don't have enough space ).

Now the esucse is : ( we 're doing lip sync ) [FF13 has this very escuse ]...

I'm tired of escuses , sure some companies ( have better studio for voice than others when it comes to this kind of games [sony, SE , Atlus ] but that's a shame IMO , if only because i've already tried this very game in japanese .

My motto is to try to play games , /watch movies in their original dub , if only because i know that the producer/game director is supervising the voicing process . Obviously this can't be done for other voice dubs afterward and IT SHOWS ..

[Lavalamp]

@Wicko

Making rash generalizations about studios who localize foreign titles isn't a good thing, my friend. I don't believe Atlus views gamers like you and me as "morons." I mean, if they did, then they probably wouldn't be going to the extensive and expensive trouble of actually making an effort towards quality dubbing.

There do exist studios who put out games with horrible voice work (i.e. Star Ocean 4 and Arc Rise Fantasia), but then there are studios like Atlus who, I think you would notice, take pride in their work and understand the frustrations that gamers such as yourself share.

Take the Persona series for example. Those games don't have "americanized" dialogue. In fact, you'll notice that the script retains details like Japanese honorifics, correct pronunciations of Japanese proper nouns, and the retention of Teddy's "Kuma" references.

I respect your stance on the dub vs sub debate, but as a fellow gamer, I urge you (and others who aren't too thrilled by the lack of subs) to give the game a chance.

[Reibooi]

@wicko

Insulting my intelligence because I prefer dubs is pretty ignorant. More so when you are talking about ATLUS who keeps all the honorifics and Japanese terms in their games so you are losing NOTHING with the dub at all.

Fact is it's become increasingly common for dubs to not change any terms or lingo or anything. The Americanized dubs you are referring to are those done during the 80's and 90's and don't happen anymore unless it's from 4Kids which screw up anything and everything they touch.

Quite frankly the idiot here is you for not knowing the facts.

@Redempteur

Yes you would be in that 5%. I have no issue with someone who speaks and reads Japanese preferring to play the games that way. It's totally fine. What annoys me is that so many people bash dubs just to bash them and have no respect or appreciation for the actors who put in a ton of effort and get paid so little for it. I have many friends in the anime dubbing industry and they are the nicest people you will ever meet and they put everything into making the things they work on the best they can be. And yet so many people are ignorant and bash their performance for the sole fact that it's not the original which quite frankly is stupid. This isn't the 80's and 90's anymore dubs in games and anime have grown in leaps and bounds and with a few exceptions are easily on par with the Japanese originals.

I mean people don't bash the western releases for games made in the west like Mass Effect it's some of the same people working on those games that are working on the ones people bash. Also had people never given dubs a chance we would never have the iconic MGS dubs that more people know then the original Japanese because of how iconic the voices have become and again alot of those people work on the stuff that mindless fanboys bash for not being the original Japanese. It's just so frustrating.

EDIT: on the topic of your statement that the games original director/creator isn't involved in the dub. While I can't confirm that isn't the case for games I can confirm it's not the case for Anime. After casting is completed for anime 90% of the time the Japanese studio/director/licensor has to approve the casting choices and if they dis approve they have to recast the characters. As stated this is the case with anime. I don't know if it's done the same way in gaming but I would assume it is. After all Japanese companies are very protective about their products and like to have as much creative control as they can. Even once the game goes to a different country.

[Redempteur]

@Reibooi

for the japanese gaming coming into other countries in 99.99% of the cases the original director ( for the casting at least ) is absent.

Aside from Kojima and few others , most of the time they don't have any input on the voice work during translation/localisation.

even if it's the same voice actors in bioware releases ( dragon age - mass effect ) they don't have that same effectbecause they is a lot of work to do on voice direction .

It's not that they are bad it's the fact that they can't reach the same target as the original cast without the correct inputs .most of the time they ARE inférior.

thankfully they are getting accustomed to this point and are trying to solve teh problem ( helped by some companies that put the bar high )

But for us dubs we are far from being there.

[Yi-Long]

... I just want to have the CHOICE to play the game in the original voices.

It's as simple as that.

When I watch anime, I want the original voices. When I watch an american TV-series, I want the original voices. When I watch a Disney cartoon, I want the original voices. When I watch a french movie on TV or DVD, I want the original voices. And when I play a game, I want the original voices.

It's that simple. In this day and age, that option should just always be included, instead of forcing a dub on us that in my case is COMPLETELY unwanted.

Tonight Kung Fu Hustle was on TV here in Holland. Great movie. Which version did they decide to broadcast? English DUB. Hated and loathed by all. Fuck that. I obviously turned it off immediately.

If people prefer english dubs for whatever reason they might have. Ok. I don't understand it but it's OK. You like what you like and I like what I like.

And when we just get the choice to pick the option we want, then everything is OK.

But when the original language gets REPLACED by a dub .... well... that just sucks.

And obviously there isn't a chance in hell that they'll bother releasing 2 versions: 1 with the original language plus subs, and 1 version with the dub. Sadly.

Anyway, like I said. I won't be buying a dub-only release. Too bad, cause the game looked interesting, but when publishers make decisions like this, it shows a disrespect towards their intended customers.

Maybe in a year orso Hong Kong will get a version with japanese voices plus english subs, which was the case with Final Fantasy XIII. Not that I bought that piece of crap.

[wicko]

@ Reibooi

Umm, the ones who are insulting your intelligence are those who decide you should listen to dubs rather than the original language, I thought I made that pretty clear. Rather, calling people who don't like dubs elitist idiots is rather ignorant of yourself.

Saying "being treated like an idiot" is pretty different from actually calling you an idiot.

To say you lose nothing doesn't make any sense. Just recently I watched a swedish movie called Let The Right Ones In, and the official subtitles clearly cut some dialog that was clearly in the fansub, and also "slightly" changed some dialog but in doing that they changed the meaning of the dialog. Obviously some companies are better than others but you still run into issues where it doesn't quite make sense for an english speaker to act and deliver a line the way another might in a different language.

I mean, it's not asking much when we want dual audio. It is far more work to translate and record a dub than it is to just translate. There is plenty of space on Bluray for it. There really is no excuse.

Don't confuse me with someone who hates dubs for no reason and groups them altogether: there are dubs that I really do enjoy and would rather hear than the original audio, eg. Metal Gear series. It also hasn't bothered me in RE either.

@Lavalamp
I don't want people to confuse my argument to be for my reasoning not to buy the game, after all I didn't say I wasn't going to. I'd just like to defend my reasoning for preferring original voices.

[Reibooi]

@wicko

Ok see now your grasping at straws here. We are talking about a Japanese game from a Japanese company. ATLUS US is just a offshoot of the Japanese company and thus is better at keeping the game closer to what it should be.

Comparing that situation to a Swedish movie outright makes no sense to do. A game and a movie are 2 COMPLETELY different things and so are the languages being compared it makes no sense to do.

My issue is this. No one is doing anything but complaining about this yet admit themselves like you that they don't mind certain dubs like MGS and RE and what not. We never had the choice then either so why the hell does it matter? If the dub comes out good which all signs point to happening in the case of Cathrine it shouldn't matter. Yes I agree that in this day and age we should be getting dual audio but if you want someone to blame for that blame Microsoft because they are the reason it's not happening for most of the multiplat games from Japan. Blu-ray has PLENTY of room yes. But the DVD the 360 uses doesn't and companies don't releases games when one of the versions is clearly better. It just doesn't happen. So you want someone to blame? Blame MS not ATLUS or the people involved in the dub.

Be informed instead of spouting nonsense. To many people have been coming in here and going "WE SHOULD HAVE BOTH BLAH BLAH BLAH" And yet they either forget and conveniently leave out the fact that the game is multi plat and that is why it won't have dual audio and then just blame all the wrong people.

[wicko]

Grasping at straws? Just because it's a different language/medium doesn't mean it doesn't apply. There are quite a few overlapping jobs in the movie industry and the gaming industry and I hope you aren't trying to tell me because its Swedish rather than Japanese, they are more prone to those kinds of "adjustments". Right now you're just arguing brand quality which doesn't prove the same issues don't exist.

And you really need to stop lumping me in with people, in this case those who just blame whoever without thinking about what the actual problem is. I haven't actually blamed anyone yet.

As for the 360 DVD argument, I am perfectly aware that there isn't enough space on the DVD hence I claimed it should be on the bluray. And there are plenty of instances where either console had content the other didn't, or received the content much later.

Actually, in some cases there might be more than enough room for the audio depending on the bitrate used, or it could be added via a patch/DLC (yeah, i'd be willing to be a couple bucks for it). Resonance of fate managed it on both platforms.. you'd be restricted to 2.1 but voices are usually only recorded in one channel anyway.

[Redempteur]

I guess that rules out the japanese dub ..

[firelogic]

Most likely. I doubt this game has any space concerns, at least the PS3 version. But if they can't fit in dual audio for the 360, they'll leave it out of the PS3 version too despite having ample space to put it in.

[Tuxedo_Mask]

This doesn't necessarily rule out the original voices, but even if they aren't included is it really that big of a deal? I watch anime and sometimes the dubs are terrible, but this is Atlus we're talking about, and if I recall correctly Persona 3 and 4 didn't have the original voices either and they're still great games. I hope I'm not proven wrong on this, but have a little faith in a developer who is known for having good localizations.

[memphis2]

oh they better not take out Japanese audio!!!