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"Gnhhh!"
"Whhhhaaaah!"
"Bah....ah....gahhhhhh..."
"Hmmmf!"
"Ehiehhh..."
"Mhaemm!"
These grunts, sighs, squeals and miscellaneous other vocalizations compose roughly 1/4 of the dialogues in the early hours of Final Fantasy XIII.
One one hand, they're to be expected; Japan is known for its plethora of exclamations and onomatopoeiae. On the other -- when translated literally -- they make for a poor localization.
These sounds are often louder and longer than their English counterparts, or they simply have no equivalents. As such, they're difficult to remove or replace and are usually left untouched. They've even become something of an accepted "quirk" among the more dedicated fans of Japanese media, but that doesn't mean they couldn't be handled in a friendlier fashion.
 - I think the localization team for FFXIII wanted to give Vanille a unique voice -- much like the Björk-esque Fran in FFXII -- but the voice actress' performance is a bit of a mess.
As things stand, vocalizations often come across as alien and awkward. They break the flow of conversation and the suspension of disbelief, and can leave a new audience feeling put off.
Sure, one can always argue for the purity and cultural authenticity of any given product, but that's being a bit of a stick in the mud. Literal translations lack context and social nuances, and those fully familiar with them might as well experience the original versions. In order to make the products easily digestible by a different audience, though, some things need to change. FF XIII in particular is a title Square Enix wanted to be a global blockbuster, not just a Japanese game released to a niche audience outside of its home country, so it stands to reason that they'd want to iron out these kinks.
So how can this be done?
A couple of points:
- If possible, simply remove the exclamations altogether. The ones that could easily be cut are left in to keep things consistent and speed up the localization process, so getting rid of them shouldn't be a big issue.
- Use local equivalents of the vocalizations if available. For example, make a character surprised by a hand on his shoulder utter a short "Huh?" instead of the original, "Mnhaaa?"
- Use actual words or sentences for sounds that have no local counterparts. A character crying out "Gwahhhhhhhhhhhh!" for three seconds after witnessing a car crash could easily be replaced with a quick "Oh my god!"
- Meld the exclamations into the speech itself. I'm not an expert, but I noticed many of the vocalizations were isolated within the dialogue, whereas in English they'd part of it, e.g., "Mmmm, I don't know about thaaaaaaaat."
- Finally, keep these points in mind when developing the game, and provide the team(s) with the tools necessary to port it. Automated lip-synching is already widely used, but I'm sure other functionality -- or just the permission to alter the in-game cutscenes -- would be appreciated.
Of course there are more issues to consider as well -- perhaps toning down on the dramatic, clenched-fist poses with characters uttering such phrases as "I'll do my best!" -- but those are a whole other topic...
Radek Koncewicz is the CEO and creative lead of Incubator Games, and also runs the game design blog Significant-Bits.
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One curious complaint that I've read the most surrounding Vanille's English VO, though, has to do with the VO's quasi-Australian/American accent. I don't hear it, but you see that complaint a lot from Australians. It doesn't have anything to do with what's being talked about in the post, but I thought I'd mention it.
I particularly agree with the second and third points, but in the past few years, I've been feeling more and more that a sign of great localization/voice acting in a game is signified by a very distinct lack of anime-esque exclamations.
I think the tone of these games contribute more to a "natural feel" in the localization than anything. Games like Valkyria Chronicles and Nier come to mind. But even with something like Metal Gear Solid 4, "English majors" nitpick at the oddities of the "writing," when in actuality its simply the compromise that the localization team came to (i.e. Snake's constant questioning/acknowledgment of something that another character just said).
Perhaps there's no such thing as a perfect localization when cultural "quirks" are in play without going into a cutscenes character animation and localizing it from there, from the "ground up."
"The war economy?"
"Yes, the war economy..."
That kind of repetition -- to the point of losing all meaning -- is not exactly a sign of great writing, but MGS4 had many other problems as well. As for Vanille, I definitely noticed her weird accent, but found it sporadic. One second she'd sound like the other characters, and the next her delivery was pained and guttural.
Anyway, I think a product's setting and potential audience should be kept in mind a bit more strongly. One of Yakuza 3's biggest strengths was its authenticity, and I expect many Japanese players were drawn to GTA IV's Americana. When a game is so inherently tied to a cultural setting, it makes sense to translate it much more literally. When it's a completely fictional world, though, there's no reason not give it a friendlier localizations.
It's a two-way street as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETYQ0UJ8e4Y
And yes, sometimes localizations require a bit more work than simply replacing a sound-bite, but games have the ability to alter how a scene plays out without taking noticeable liberties with the content and its presentation. It's something that's not possible in static media, and a feature that could be utilized more often.
What's your take on that sort of localization?
The recent Dragon Quest games are a bit of a different beast as they don't contain any voice acting. A lot of the issues I mentioned above are avoided or diminished by relying on text, at which point the pro's and con's of either approach (natural or stylized English) are a lot more even. On one hand, "accented" language can add a lot of personality for a very low cost, but on the other, it's harder to parse and might break the suspension of disbelief, e.g., why does everybody in this little town in a fantasy world use Scottish slang terms?
Personally I lean towards an un-accented translation, although in as lighthearted a series as Dragon Quest, I don't find it a big issue.
But yes, localizing onomatopeas are hard...
Here in Brazil we have several jokes about how strange are the US people because they say "Ouch!" when hurt, while everyone else in the world says. "Ooow!" or "Aaaah!"
Having separate options for voice-acting/subtitles is always nice (e.g., The Witcher), but I think it's more than an extra option rather than a solution. Most movie-goers are greatly put off by subtitles, and I expect the same is true for "mainstream" gamers.
I too watch anime/foreign films with subtitles rather than dubbing and I find it to be a much more convincing experience. It's too bad that mainstream fan-dom really does tend to scorn subtitles because that could be a simple answer to most game localizing that keeps the feel of the original material.
There's actually a "scene" for "un-dubbing" Japanese games with pretty brutal voice acting. Being able to play Persona 4 or Final Fantasy 4 DS with the original (and often better) actors and English subtitles allows me to suspend my disbelief much easier, since voice acting for games in Japan tends to be a more serious business than often cheap and rushed localizations.
Though I do consider MGS a major exception to that, if only because I love David Hayter! :P
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