Did the japanese/english VA change how you perceive certain characters?

[know_naim]

Question for people that played the game using different language voice options, how did your perception of the characters change based on the different actors/actresses? I may be a bit biased here, cause I played two full routes in english and just started my third in japanese but my first impression of, for example, Caspar changed drastically after switching VA's. His english voice was seriously annoying to me, the japanese one instead was a pleasant surprise. 

Bernies screeching on the other hand is even more annoying in japanese, Ferdinand sounds more aloof and Ignatz sounds like a little child compared to his english VA! It's interesting how much of an impact the tone and timbre can make. English Edelgard gives off a rather serious vibe for instance.

If you haven't' considered playing with a different voice setting I highly recommend to try it, regardless what language you prefer. Makes you want to listen to all the supports one more time. 😉 

 

[Captain Karnage]

In B4 weebs start saying that the Japanese voices are always better and English dubs can never be good

 

as someone who regularly likes to switch between voice options I can never really judge the foreign voices as I can't tell if they're doing a good job or not. The only judgement I have is if I like the sound of their voices, which for 3 houses I'll say that both of them are pretty fair, I don't have many complaints on either side.

I'll always think that the English voices are better just because I can understand what's being said and can really hear the emotion in their voices. Yes, I prefer dubbed anime if you're curious. 

[Strullemia]

I haven't really switched the voices (I'll do that on my second Edelgard run) but I have watched let's plays in English.

This one of those games where both the Eglish and Japanese voices are top notch.

Well...aside from maybe two characters, those being Bernadetta and Mercedes. Bernadetta does the "anime shriek" almost every time and it's pretty bad at times. Mercedes started getting on my nerves when I realized that in some of her supports she said "Ara ara" almost every sentence.

[Etrurian emperor]

Its not the first time I heard people find Caspar's voice a bit annoying. I wonder if they also found that about Hayato since aside from the louder volume its pretty much the same sound and pitch. 

I'm very glad they made Ignatz sound like an actual teenager in the English version. His Japanese voice direction was just nonsensical. I'm sure Ignatz is one of the meeker boys in the monastery but he's hardly the youngest male in the cast so making him sound like a preteen child just sounded silly. His english voice catches the dorky, insecure nerd angle very well. 

Seteth soft english voice could be one of the reasons I immediately picked up on his nicer side even before he started trusting Byleth. 

[Rezzy]

I like to be able to understand the language so I always like English, or French or German sometimes, but that's rare for video games.

[Loki Laufeyson]

13 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Seteth soft english voice could be one of the reasons I immediately picked up on his nicer side even before he started trusting Byleth

His English voice is really sexy to me. 

I tend to play in English so, i cant really say much. But im not the sort who would enjoy Bernie in Japanese. Yikes

[Ertrick36]

Someone on GameFAQs gushed about how "cute" and "precious" Rhea sounds in Japanese.  I get the impression that Rhea's original dub didn't have an ounce of intimidation.  Her English VA, on the other hand, seems to better fit her personality - a kind yet imposing figure who is both warm and cold at the same time.

Not very unsurprising, as I don't think Japanese dubs make the voice acting for female characters all that intimidating.  Though maybe I'm biased and just think there are far too many female voices in Japanese media that are unnaturally high-pitched and squeaky.  That sort of "cutesy" angle with the voice acting makes me want to wretch.

[timon]

I honestly cannot understand how people play these games with Japanese dubs. They're always so high pitched and feel really, really forced. It's like every girl (+ignatz) is Bernadetta screeching, it's basically hell.

On English voices I can say I particularly love Dimitri, Hubert, Rhea and Ingrid. On the other hand, I liked Lysithea before hearing her speak, and Ashe as well sounds a bit weird (though it's more about the timing than the tone, it sounds like he takes a breath before each word? Maybe it's just me).

[georgetruman]

16 minutes ago, timon said:

I honestly cannot understand how people play these games with Japanese dubs.

I always use the Japanese dub because I can't tell if its bad or not. It seems that VAs are usually using a fake voice for their character (opposed to like Toy Story where its is pretty much the actors' natural voices) and I feel like its super apparent to me when they do.

On the other hand I don't know Japanese at all and never hear people speak it so I can't tell if the voice acting is good or bad. When someone does have a super weird voice (Like ignatz seems to) it just doesn't phase me nearly as much.

[berriicoco]

I play with Japanese audio and while I like Mercedes, her constantly saying “ara ara” sometimes really annoys me. And Bernadetta’s voice. Other than that I have no complains.

From what I’ve seen the English dub is amazing too. Again, I’m not feeling Mercedes as much here and that’s also the only thing that annoys me. 

[Wolfen09]

Don't get me wrong, the English voices are really well done, but no matter what language I look at a character and go okay I think this is how he/she should sound, and the Japanese version hits that better than the English for me.  While well done, I don't think seteth's English voice suits his look, while the Japanese voice fits better for me.

Since I read a little manga and don't watch anime, I'm left to make up the voices for characters in my head so I tend to do that for games too.

Edited August 15, 2019 by Wolfen09

[Fie Claussell]

Played with Japanese voiceover.

Ignatz was the most drastic difference between the Japanese and English voices to me. I was so taken aback when I first heard his English voice I did a double take to make sure that the it wasn't someone self-dubbing as a joke.

I prefer the Japanese voice acting because I think a lot of the voices are overall more fitting to their character, or just plain better (Mercedes, Annette, Felix, Hubert to name a few). I also just think the Japanese voice acting sounds more... natural? Obviously not to a native English speaker in the sense that it's more natural to me personally, but it feels less like they're trying to voice act and more like the character is talking. The English voice acting is fine of course, though.

 

2 hours ago, Ertrick36 said:

Someone on GameFAQs gushed about how "cute" and "precious" Rhea sounds in Japanese.  I get the impression that Rhea's original dub didn't have an ounce of intimidation.  Her English VA, on the other hand, seems to better fit her personality - a kind yet imposing figure who is both warm and cold at the same time.

 

I think this is pretty inaccurate. I would say Rhea very much felt like her voice was targeted towards being a motherly figure. Which, to me, felt accurate for her character. "Cute" never crossed my mind in the slightest when Rhea was talking.

 

[Ertrick36]

1 hour ago, timon said:

I honestly cannot understand how people play these games with Japanese dubs. They're always so high pitched and feel really, really forced.

I'm of the same mind, honestly.  I watched the first episode of Dragon Ball Z subbed one time, and I just couldn't do it after hearing Gohan's horrendous crying in that dub.  And all those high pitched voices just sound fake as all get out, I can't understand those who say "these voices fit better", at least whenever it's about basically any girl in an anime-style medium.

That isn't to say I'm always opposed to consuming media that's in Japanese.  I play Tekken, where at least a third of the characters are voiced in Japanese (takes place in the real world, so characters are given VAs that fit their nationalities), and it doesn't bother me.  But when I look at a lot of anime-style games and shows with cutesy girls shoved right in your face, part of what keeps me from indulging in that stuff is the worry that all the characters will have that awful "anime girl" voice I hate so much.

It's like they did the whole Yoshi routine of taking recordings of a VA and pitching them up with audio editing software, and then applied it to characters that are supposed to be humans.

[Tenzen12]

20 minutes ago, Cadros said:

Played with Japanese voiceover.

Ignatz was the most drastic difference between the Japanese and English voices to me. I was so taken aback when I first heard his English voice I did a double take to make sure that the it wasn't someone self-dubbing as a joke.

I prefer the Japanese voice acting because I think a lot of the voices are overall more fitting to their character, or just plain better (Mercedes, Annette, Felix, Hubert to name a few). I also just think the Japanese voice acting sounds more... natural? Obviously not to a native English speaker in the sense that it's more natural to me personally, but it feels less like they're trying to voice act and more like the character is talking. The English voice acting is fine of course, though.

 

 

I think this is pretty inaccurate. I would say Rhea very much felt like her voice was targeted towards being a motherly figure. Which, to me, felt accurate for her character. "Cute" never crossed my mind in the slightest when Rhea was talking.

 

Yeah, I think dub made Rhea much more ... I guess more shady sounding

In other hand while Jeralt voice is quite on spot, he use bit different rhetoric. Japanese Jeralt sounds  much more ok to return to knighthood not like he is on gunpoint, or something.

[Troykv]

48 minutes ago, Cadros said:

Played with Japanese voiceover.

Ignatz was the most drastic difference between the Japanese and English voices to me. I was so taken aback when I first heard his English voice I did a double take to make sure that the it wasn't someone self-dubbing as a joke.

I prefer the Japanese voice acting because I think a lot of the voices are overall more fitting to their character, or just plain better (Mercedes, Annette, Felix, Hubert to name a few). I also just think the Japanese voice acting sounds more... natural? Obviously not to a native English speaker in the sense that it's more natural to me personally, but it feels less like they're trying to voice act and more like the character is talking. The English voice acting is fine of course, though.

 

 

I think this is pretty inaccurate. I would say Rhea very much felt like her voice was targeted towards being a motherly figure. Which, to me, felt accurate for her character. "Cute" never crossed my mind in the slightest when Rhea was talking.

 

A motherly figure

Yeah; she has Kikuko Inoue's voice after all. She has the perfect voice for this role

 

There are more veterans in this game than I expected; but only Koyasu and Inoue doesn't voice old looking characters

 

[Etrurian emperor]

Rhea is probably a character that comes across way better in the dub. Its kinda hard to top Cherami Leigh. She has some amazing range and the mixed emotions Rhea displays are a very good example of that. She pulls of motherly, creepy  as Rhea and psychotic as Seiros in the opening. 

1 hour ago, Ertrick36 said:

I'm of the same mind, honestly.  I watched the first episode of Dragon Ball Z subbed one time, and I just couldn't do it after hearing Gohan's horrendous crying in that dub.  And all those high pitched voices just sound fake as all get out, I can't understand those who say "these voices fit better", at least whenever it's about basically any girl in an anime-style medium.

With the Japanese version of Dragonball I always end up bothered that the actors never seemed to be told that they weren't voicing children anymore. Goku and Gohan still sound like kids even as adults. 

Edited August 15, 2019 by Etrurian emperor

[Spectrum]

Yes. Voice acting greatly affects my enjoyment in the game and immersion. I prefer the Japanese voices mainly because I feel the English voices are quite cartoon-y, maybe? Not sure how to explain this, but then again, English isn't my first language, and I've barely watched dubbed anime or played dubbed jrpgs. I've always watched/played them with subs. So yeah, I'm just not used to English voice acting in anime-like games. It feels very weird for me, so I would always choose Japanese over English whenever it's available.

15 hours ago, Hekselka said:

Well...aside from maybe two characters, those being Bernadetta and Mercedes. Bernadetta does the "anime shriek" almost every time and it's pretty bad at times. Mercedes started getting on my nerves when I realized that in some of her supports she said "Ara ara" almost every sentence.

Oh yes. Finally someone noticed that. I also agree with you on Bernadetta. However, after the timeskip, it turns out fine. Kinda got used to it tbh.

[Thane]

While I think Japan has plenty of talented voice actors, I find that the direction isn't always to my liking, especially when it comes to female characters. There seems to be more effort put into making a distinct voice rather than trying to make the character sound natural, and while that definitely works sometimes, I often feel like it comes across as forced, unnatural, and strange. This is made even worse for young female characters most of the time, who have to sound cutsey and shrill to boot. 

My favorite Fire Emblem example of these kinds of voices just not being pleasant to listen to is the Fates Drama CD where Felicia, Flora, and Corrin have a brief conversation together.

 

[BDS]

Only listened to English so far but for the most part I loved all the voice work. The two characters that I liked going in but got turned off from because of their voices were Bernie and Mercedes though. Bernie came a bit more palatable after the time skip.

[xchickengirlx]

As someone who’s played JRPGs most of my video gaming life, my biggest issue with many English dubs, is that there is always one or two characters in the main cast, who’s English VA is so awful to me, it actually makes me hate the character lol. Perfect example is Teddy from P4. Boy did I hate him with a burning fury. It’s been ages since I’ve played P4, but that’s the only thing I could remember of his character. Same goes with every Tales of game I’ve played. Always one VA I couldn’t stand. I know it may sound petty to complain like that, but that’s just how I feel. I have plenty of other reasons why I prefer the JP audio, but this is my main reason for preferring the JP audio.

I’m on my GD run, and have no complaints about the JP VAs except for Igntaz and maybe Flayn. I just got to the time skip and am slightly weirded out by Claude’s husky voice lol. Will have to get used it.

I will agree that JP VAs for female characters tend to be hit or miss. If it weren’t for the fact that Lsyithea’s VA is the same VA for Tatsumski from the OPM anime, I’d probably dislike Lysithea’s VA, but I find it so fitting now, haha.

Recruited all the adults and professors, no complaints about their VAs. Although Alois will sometimes yell out a line of dialogue when he gets excited about something, and it is just too silly for me

Also, playing as M!Byleth, there’s no way I could bring myself to use the English dub now knowing what a horrible human being his English VA is. Byleth may not have many speaking lines, but it’s enough for me to not want to hear his English VA. I know a lot of folks don’t think it’s a big deal, but nah, screw that creep.

Edited August 16, 2019 by xchickengirlx

[Kliss88]

23 hours ago, Captain Karnage said:

In B4 weebs start saying that the Japanese voices are always better and English dubs can never be good

 

as someone who regularly likes to switch between voice options I can never really judge the foreign voices as I can't tell if they're doing a good job or not. The only judgement I have is if I like the sound of their voices, which for 3 houses I'll say that both of them are pretty fair, I don't have many complaints on either side.

I'll always think that the English voices are better just because I can understand what's being said and can really hear the emotion in their voices. Yes, I prefer dubbed anime if you're curious. 

Honestly, this is me too. If I cant understand the language,  I cant get the emotion or the acting from it. I stick with English dubs because of that. Plus I respect alot of our actors and want to encourage their work.

 

[cluesagi]

So far I've played through once (Edelgard route) in Japanese, but I'm going to try the English voices on my second route. Judging by what I've heard of the English voices so far, it seems to me like the Japanese voices play more toward anime character archetypes whereas the English voices are mostly more realistic. Bernadetta, for example, is really over the top in Japanese which was annoying at first, but I got used to it quickly and it was actually pretty funny and endearing after that. Petra's Japanese voice was really interesting because she speaks in broken Japanese just like her English counterpart and I'd never really heard Japanese spoken that way before. Caspar is great in Japanese, he really reminds me of shonen anime protagonists like Eren Jäger which really fits his personality and fighting style. From what little I've heard of his English voice, it's way too high and whiny. Haven't heard Dorothea's English voice, but her Japanese voice sounds suitable for her character.