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Monolith Soft's perspective on Xenoblade Chronicles X's localization, also Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is being localized by Nintendo of Europe and will have a global release date


Armagon
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http://nintendoeverything.com/monolith-soft-on-xenoblade-x-western-changes-nintendo-europe-handling-xenoblade-2-nintendos-localization-process/

If you don't have time to read it, to summarize, Tetsuya Takahashi, the CEO of Monolith Soft, gave his views on the western localization of Xenoblade Chronicles X. He said that he doesn't really mind the localization changes that were made to the western versions of Xenoblade Chronicles X. He also goes on to state that during localization, the developers of the game are always involved in it, and there is constant communication between Nintendo of America, Europe, and Japan during localization. The Treehouse also travels to Japan every two months to speak with the developers who are bringing their games overseas. There's also mention of how basically some changes are done to keep a game from avoiding an M rating, as an M rating could negatively affect sales.

Other than that, the interview also confirms that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is being localized by Nintendo of Europe (hence the British voice acting and i think i heard a Scottish accent in the trailer too) and that Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will launch in Japan, North America, and Europe on the same day. What day that is, we don't know, but it's surprising they are aiming for a global release date. In fact, big Switch games in general seem to be having global release dates. This is good, because now Japan can't spoil Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for me.

Edited by Armagon
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Take thueeeeeeiiiiiiis!

Any reason why Nintendo of Europe is handling the localization? Is it because they were in charge of that the first time around? I rather enjoy the different flair it brings, but damn was it painful to listen to the voice actors this time around. That in addition to the character design has completely put me off of buying the game. Wasn't the first Xenoblade Chronicles pretty competently voice acted?

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Just now, Thane said:

Any reason why Nintendo of Europe is handling the localization? Is it because they were in charge of that the first time around?

Basically, yeah.

Just now, Thane said:

but damn was it painful to listen to the voice actors this time around.

Yeah, the "take thiiiiiiiiiiis" part was really cringy. However, during the Treehouse livestream, it was straight-up said that the game will be getting more polish in the coming months of development. So i would personally wait until it's closer to release before i fully judge the voice acting.

5 minutes ago, Thane said:

Wasn't the first Xenoblade Chronicles pretty competently voice acted?

It was. I mean, it did also have it's cringy moments but for the most part, the original Xenoblade's voice acting was pretty damn good.

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1 minute ago, Armagon said:

Yeah, the "take thiiiiiiiiiiis" part was really cringy. However, during the Treehouse livestream, it was straight-up said that the game will be getting more polish in the coming months of development. So i would personally wait until it's closer to release before i fully judge the voice acting.

Does that include voice acting though? I feel like I've seen this argument being made many times before, often in regards to voice acting, and it never really gets fixed. I'm certain Britain can provide excellent voice acting, but something seems to have gone awry here.

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6 minutes ago, Thane said:

Does that include voice acting though? I feel like I've seen this argument being made many times before, often in regards to voice acting, and it never really gets fixed. I'm certain Britain can provide excellent voice acting, but something seems to have gone awry here.

Being the optimist that i am, i want to believe it does. But i don't really know. I heard somewhere that the voice acting in the trailer were added in at the last second but i have absolutely no proof for that.

Aside from what the Treehouse said, the other reason i'm waiting before i fully judge the voice acting is because, at the start of the trailer, before all the action scenes, the voice acting was alright. The voice acting in the action scenes were hit or miss (and even then, most of the misses were just Rex imo). So basically, i want to hear what the game fully has to offer in terms of voice acting before i judge.

Edited by Armagon
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21 minutes ago, Thane said:

Take thueeeeeeiiiiiiis!

Any reason why Nintendo of Europe is handling the localization? Is it because they were in charge of that the first time around? I rather enjoy the different flair it brings, but damn was it painful to listen to the voice actors this time around. That in addition to the character design has completely put me off of buying the game. Wasn't the first Xenoblade Chronicles pretty competently voice acted?

I mean, Shulk's voice acting is/was borderline cringey at times, but it was also pretty memey I guess.

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25 minutes ago, Thane said:

Wasn't the first Xenoblade Chronicles pretty competently voice acted?

There was some good stuff and some not so good stuff. Both Reyn's and Fiora's VAs never really emoted, and certain side characters also sounded just flat. Adam Howden (Shulk) was already something of an established VA and Jenna Louise Coleman (Melia) was a TV actress, with their experience holding up an otherwise rather middling dub.

The UK just doesn't have anywhere near as large of a talent pool as the US/Canada because the big voice acting/dubbing push didn't happen over there. Granted, the only voice I take issue with is Rex, but I still would've preferred an NOA localization and American dub (the variety complaint has become basically moot with a lot more VAs popping up in recent years and established ones starting to move out of pigeonholes).

They probably went with NOE because that's who localized the first game and because NOA was tired of being constantly crapped on and harassed over social media for every little thing (as can be seen elsewhere with this very announcement).

Edited by The DanMan
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10 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Being the optimist that i am, i want to believe it does. But i don't really know. I heard somewhere that the voice acting in the trailer were added in at the last second but i have absolutely no proof for that.

Aside from what the Treehouse said, the other reason i'm waiting before i fully judge the voice acting is because, at the start of the trailer, before all the action scenes, the voice acting was alright. The voice acting in the action scenes were hit or miss (and even then, most of the misses were just Rex imo). So basically, i want to hear what the game fully has to offer in terms of voice acting before i judge.

 

8 minutes ago, SatsumaFSoysoy said:

I mean, Shulk's voice acting is/was borderline cringey at times, but it was also pretty memey I guess.

So the main issues come from the protagonists? Dang. 

But hey, real Brits! I mean, sure, Bioware hires a lot of those guys as well, but they also make people fake British accents and...well, fake made up accents as well, which is just hilarious.

6 minutes ago, The DanMan said:

 but I still would've preferred an NOA localization and American dub 

I don't know man, I appreciate the variation at the very least. It feels like you hear the same voices over and over again, so a bit of a break from that is a nice change of pace. 

Edited by Thane
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22 minutes ago, The DanMan said:

The UK just doesn't have anywhere near as large of a talent pool as the US/Canada because the big voice acting/dubbing push didn't happen over there. Granted, the only voice I take issue with is Rex, but I still would've preferred an NOA localization and American dub (the variety complaint has become basically moot with a lot more VAs popping up in recent years and established ones starting to move out of pigeonholes).

Honestly, I'm with Thane here, I'd rather have some actual variety than just have another standard American dub, even if some of the performances are a bit off; that was one of the things I really liked about the original Xenoblade Chronicles (and Pandora's Tower and The Last Story). Sure there's some more variety in the US casting pool now that we have something of a newbie boom, but a lot of the older VAs are still working and would probably be prioritized if there was a US dub. See also Xenoblade Chroniocles X's localization, which had pretty much all the big names in it (that guy who's in everything Yuri Lowenthal, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Matt Mercer, Ben Diskin, Bryce Papenbrook, Keith Silverstein, Tara Platt, Kate Higgens, Kirk Thornton, Karen Straussman, Cristina Valenzuela, etc.).

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Will say, getting really tired of hearing Yuri Lowenthal in games, and I don't like his voice much, so maybe I'd be on the side that supports variety. Though I'm not sure if I'getting this in English.

Edited by SatsumaFSoysoy
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I can put up with whatever voice acting comes my way (not to say I don't recognize that bad VAing can hurt VGs- there was one twist scene in one game where there is a sudden voice change, and because I already knew the twist b/c I had the game guide, I paid more attention to the voice change than I should have- the character involved in the twist suddenly sounded a drug addict who finally got high after a day without one). Likewise I don't care about costume changes, but I prefer things to be more tasteful and less scanty for the heck of it.

Variety is nice- I don't paid attention to the names of VAs, but I've realized Einheria in Bravely Default is the same as Legretta in Tales of Abyss- and I don't care much for Legretta (though to be fair, Einheria and Legretta are typecast-able). Similarly, Lin and Edea I think share a VA- to the detriment of Edea (because we could do with less Lin in XBCX). And I think Murderess shares a VA with Odin Sphere's Gwendolyn, or at least Gwendolyn's "bird", though I don't mind this collusion.

I'm all for simultaneous release. And why not leave NoE to handle some of the most anticipated games in general? They do all the NA languages plus more, it eliminates redundancy. 

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2 hours ago, Thane said:

I don't know man, I appreciate the variation at the very least. It feels like you hear the same voices over and over again, so a bit of a break from that is a nice change of pace. 

 

1 hour ago, AzureSen said:

Honestly, I'm with Thane here, I'd rather have some actual variety than just have another standard American dub, even if some of the performances are a bit off; that was one of the things I really liked about the original Xenoblade Chronicles (and Pandora's Tower and The Last Story). Sure there's some more variety in the US casting pool now that we have something of a newbie boom, but a lot of the older VAs are still working and would probably be prioritized if there was a US dub. See also Xenoblade Chroniocles X's localization, which had pretty much all the big names in it (that guy who's in everything Yuri Lowenthal, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Matt Mercer, Ben Diskin, Bryce Papenbrook, Keith Silverstein, Tara Platt, Kate Higgens, Kirk Thornton, Karen Straussman, Cristina Valenzuela, etc.).

I appreciate the variety as well, but if the main character sounds consistently bad in the first footage shown I'd wish for something else-- as is the case. Heck, there was just as many american VAs heard as there were British ones-- I'm just not sure why they went with whoever it is for Rex. For an MC, I'd take a VA I've heard several times before doing a respectable job over someone new fumbling through it. I'd also take somebody I'd never heard of before doing a good job; TL;DR Rex's VA sounds bad and I'd prefer a better job done.

Edited by The DanMan
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6 hours ago, The DanMan said:

TL;DR Rex's VA sounds bad and I'd prefer a better job done.

I don't know, Danny-boy, I think you might just want an archetypical American hero everyone wants to be. Complete with sunglasses and hamburgers.

Edited by Thane
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6 hours ago, The DanMan said:

 

I appreciate the variety as well, but if the main character sounds consistently bad in the first footage shown I'd wish for something else-- as is the case. Heck, there was just as many american VAs heard as there were British ones-- I'm just not sure why they went with whoever it is for Rex. For an MC, I'd take a VA I've heard several times before doing a respectable job over someone new fumbling through it. I'd also take somebody I'd never heard of before doing a good job; TL;DR Rex's VA sounds bad and I'd prefer a better job done.

Bear in mind that the voices we heard in the trailer were probably not taken from in-game recordings, but instead recorded for the trailer. I expect the VA in the game to be far more polished.

I'm also not sure how can you equate "Wishing for an American dub" with "Wishing for a better VA".

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4 hours ago, Jave said:

Bear in mind that the voices we heard in the trailer were probably not taken from in-game recordings, but instead recorded for the trailer. I expect the VA in the game to be far more polished.

I'm also not sure how can you equate "Wishing for an American dub" with "Wishing for a better VA".

Because there's a far larger talent pool in NA than there is in the UK. Though yeah, I could have made things clearer.

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In the grand scheme of things with X's localization majority of the stuff that people were complaining about was so minor in the final build that it never affected the overall game at all.  Most of it were cosmetics were things that majority of the players could not obtain and most people never bothered attempting to get because they were post game cosmetics and it required a significant amount of grinding from the player that it really demotivates most of them.  They didn't affect much at all as very few people bother getting 100%.  As someone who got a chance to experience X in the english and the japanese version, the english version stayed pretty much true to the original japanese voices and dialogue and writing.  None of the party member's had any significant personality changes, their voice dialogues had relatively the same meanings and the so called "religious refences" they removed was only 1 tiny symbol in the game but the entire writing and dialogues in the sidequests all still talk about people worshipping and cults.  Most of the voice direction for X was amazingly done really well for NoA's standards considering how much I usually loathe NoA's voice direction any almost majority of the game they localize. X manages to make it feel natural for the majority of the characters and I would applaud them for it so I'm in the boat of at least they're getting better at it.

I'm personally aware of all the changes, things that were removed and a few minor so called "censorship" that people cry about but people made a really big deal out of it for nothing when the International version of Xenoblade X gave you ALL THE DLCS for free and fashion gear completely unlocked immediately which is a god send for cosmetic lovers.  Literally you would have paid almost an additional 20 bucks if you wanted all the content.

Personal opinion of Xenoblade 2 is still up in the air for me.  Not a fan of the character designer they hired, I'm not a fan of the boy and girl setup cliche story they seem to be going for and it seems like they're trying to stay safe with this specific story of the game.  Granted I wasn't a fan of Xenoblade 1's story either as I much prefer X's structure both gameplay wise and storywise.  In the end,  I still look forward to the game since I do like the combat in both games.  Just not a good first impression for Xenoblade 2.  Keep in mind, I had a good impression of Xenoblade and Xenoblade X when I first saw them.

Edited by kingddd
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I didn't want to make a new topic about it, so I'm posting it here. Gamespot did an interview with Tetsuya Takahashi- the father of the Xeno franchise. It covers a variety of topics, including part of his design philosophy.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/a-peek-inside-the-mind-of-xenoblade-devs-legendary/1100-6451138/?utm_source=gamefaqs&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=news_module&utm_campaign=homepage

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

In regard to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, eh, I'm on board. Was really happy with the British voices in the first game, and I think it'd be neat with having a JRPG series with British voice acting in general.

Also kinda excited about the character designer. I like how he draws characters, though I was first introduced to him through the Celica's Awakening artwork rather than through his other stuff, unlike some other artists I've had the chance to appreciate over the years.

Edited by Folt
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