General opinion about the localized version

[Rapier]

Note to self: Improve on naming topic titles.

I haven't played much of the game as of yet (I got my hands on Conquest first), up to chapter 12 IIRC. I think the localization did a good job on improving the mood of the game, making the dialogue seem more "livid" and well written (or else this is just me and my impression based on the improvised translation patch version, which is obviously going to be inferior). For example, Mozume's Paralogue felt much more tragic to me than it did when I played the original, japanese version, and it is much easier to feel empathetic to her story. Again, it could be the translation patch that gave me this false impression, so I am not sure. I think it also helped "improve" the story of the game by explaining with better words what is going on and why the characters are acting like this and that, such as in Conquest's Chapter 6. It would be interesting to know if members who are proficient in japanese and have played the original version also share this sentiment.

The voice acting until now falls between "meh" and "good", imo. They're acceptable, but not amusing, for most characters. Most of the voices I've heard so far fit like a glove on their characters, though, and this is a good point I recognize. Even Hinoka, whose voice I dislike, does well in representing a "tomboy" warrior princess, and this is enough for me to give it some credit. That said, I think Gunter sounds way younger and I detect a strange cowboyish accent whenever he speaks, but he's the exception to the rule. Marx and Ryoma sound "bloated" and exaggerated at some parts (especially Takumi and the "You'll pay for your betrayal!" line), but overall they were acceptable and they did really well on the prologue cutscene. The only voices that I can say I really liked until now were Silas', Azura's, Sakura's, the standard Femui's and Elise's, and the only voice I can hardly stand is Camilla's.

Speaking about voice acting, Oboro's also much better than her JP version. I wonder how Pieri sounds, because her JP voice was the third that I really disliked.

Edited February 20, 2016 by Rapier

[MCProductions]

I didn't play the Japanese version to compare it too, but I honestly think I'm already addicted to localized Fates.

I'm loving the characters, the story so far, I ESPECIALLY adore the new weapon mechanics, all dialogue bar one line from Leo feels natural, and while the voice acting could be better, I do like most of the voices.

I'm on Chapter 8 Conquest btw

[Zerosabers]

Honestly my only complaint right now is how they changed Rhajat's F!Corrin support from something that's actually a little sweet to just be literally a Tharja clone.

[solrocknroll]

Gunter sounds young but DC Douglas has a voice like butter so I can easily overlook any downfall there

I do wish that Niles and Rhajat had S-Supports that were more like the Japanese versions but ah well.

[Esme]

I'm pretty ok with the localization. They did a great job with most of the characters, I think.

The only one I'm not happy about is Effie. Her voice is awful and her personality change isn't entertaining in the slightest.

[Azz]

I haven't played the localization cause you know.....Europe....But I like what I have seen. The only thing that does bother me is Tsubaki->Subaki and maybe Rinka->Rinkah, but that is just me.

[The DanMan]

I'm pretty ok with the localization. They did a great job with most of the characters, I think.

The only one I'm not happy about is Effie. Her voice is awful and her personality change isn't entertaining in the slightest.

The personality change at least explains her strength, while J!Effie being that strong seems very suspect.

Coincidentally, your forum avatar and title are themed around my biggest problem with the localization.

[Djing]

Gunter's voice makes me go "I am ok with people wanting to tap that".

I like Hinoka's voice a lot. It's definitely inspired by Buttercup/Rainbow Dash.

Felicia's voice is quite unique. I don't think I've ever heard that voice type in Anime before. I quite like it.

The voice acting is good but there's a couple hiccups here or there. I feel like the voice directing isn't as polished as Awakenings was.

[Esme]

The personality change at least explains her strength, while J!Effie being that strong seems very suspect.

Coincidentally, your forum avatar and title are themed around my biggest problem with the localization.

Eh, Hisame wasn't changed much. Only reason he's The Pickle Man now is because of his confession line. I mean, I guess I can see why someone would have a problem with that, but... I dunno. He still retains his other "grandpa" qualities.

Meanwhile, Effie has this horrible voice. I wouldn't mind her dialogue if it weren't for that.

Edited February 20, 2016 by Esme

[Anacybele]

I like Hinoka's voice a lot. It's definitely inspired by Buttercup/Rainbow Dash.

This is why I like Hinoka. lol

Also, whoever was the one that said Silas is voiced by the dude that did the Pits in Kid Icarus (was his name Anthony Del Rio?), I think you're right! Silas DOES sound a lot like them!

[Samias]

I was disappointed in the choices for Streetpass card locations. Despite being a North American copy, all the locations are either USA states or Fire Emblem locations. Nothing for Canadians. I can't recall if this was the case in Awakening but for the moment, I'm a little disappointed we didn't even get a nonspecific "Canada" catch-all.

Voices: Hmm... I feel like there may be a few too many grunts for dialogue. Wish it was a little more quiet sometimes as the clips can be rather abrupt. People I definitely like so far: Gunter, Silas, Ryoma, Xander, Leo, Jakob, Azura, Rinkah, Kaze, Saizo, Subaki (gimme back that T :(). People I'm iffy on: Hana, every female Corrin voice. Everyone else I'm ok with but don't love. I'm doing Birthright first so I have no opinion on the units of Nohr yet.

[spoiler=For supports, no plot spoilers]Personalities: I'm a little bit disappointed that some characters like Rhajat are more vicious than their JP selves. I think they made everyone a little bit more snarky overall, aside from toning down the characters who were a little *too* mean like Azama. I peeked at some of the child supports as well. I really liked how they handled Kana and Soleil. I like the return of platonic let's-be-friends S ranks as it reminds me of the olden days. The rage over Hisame and his pickles made me chuckle when I read the Japanese support with Corrin, as it was literally ALL about pickles. There was absolutely no depth in that support other than Hisame going "my father didn't like pickles so he gave them all to me, now I love them and please don't think I'm an old geezer." Some people outraged with Hisame and pickles seem to think Treehouse made the whole thing up. Now I can see why Treehouse thought it would be funny to just take the pickle love to the next level and use it for My room/Hisame's confession of love, though it probably should have been a joke left on the cutting room floor. Now we're memes. Speaking of memes, Izana is insanely memetic but it works better here, if only for the weirdness factor and also "You put a ring on Izana, gurl!" may be the best line ever uttered in all of video games.

[ZenithZX]

To me, the game and its localization is great; the only things I still can't stand is the removal of the female bikinis (even though the base female swimwear is one and is untouched) and Nyx's English voice is too squeaky. Despite the fact she's a woman in a girl body, the delivery makes her sound like just a little girl and nothing more. I guess I was expecting a level of maturity that belies her true self.

[Thor Odinson]

I think they did a lot of good things and some not-so-great things. It's not a perfect localization, but it's not bad either. I'll have my SE tomorrow so I'll have more insight into dialogue there, but as far as supports go I'm glad for them changing a bunch of the supports I really had gripes with because those do nothing for any of the characters involved. On the other hand, a few of my favorite supports I felt I got a bit nerfed, and I'm not too confident on Elfie's character given her myroom lines, but I'll have to reserve judgement until I go and read her supports. I liked JP!Elfie :c

[Glyth]

I haven't read the story script and I don't have the game, but from what I know, I don't like the localization.

There is of course the removal of skinship and I've mentioned before why I think it would be best to just leave it in.

There is the mindbogglingly irrational decision to remove the swimsuits. You can already see them in swimsuits. Why? The stupid bothers me.

The voice acting ranges from good to awful. I really dislike some of the voices, and a lot of them are just dry. I elaborated in the thread about it.

They changed the soleil and kanna supports a lot from what I've read.

They removed the lewd dialogue because we can't handle it.

The lesbian support was butchered. It went from a sweet support about rhajat(that name) dealing with fear of unrequited love to generic tharja stalker shit.

Effie is dead. Treehouse killed her. I hate when localization tries to be funny with personality changes, and it stings hard when it fails.

I really dislike how much was changed. Think of me as a anti-censorship spaz if you will. I don't feel that these need to be standard localization procedure. It shouldn't. I do understand how people who initially disliked these things would be happy because it "ruined" their fire emblem, but I'm not. This has caused me to really want another team to handle the localization for the next game.

I'm not going to go in with a negative bias against the localized script. I do hope that there are improvements from what I've heard to be an "awful" story.

I'm not saying I dislike everything despite my overwhelming(but justified) negativity, but I can't have a good opinion on it as a whole with these grievances I have.

[solrocknroll]

To me, the game and its localization is great; the only things I still can't stand is the removal of the female bikinis (even though the base female swimwear is one and is untouched) and Nyx's English voice is too squeaky. Despite the fact she's a woman in a girl body, the delivery makes her sound like just a little girl and nothing more. I guess I was expecting a level of maturity that belies her true self.

The male costumes got cut too. Why not be upset at the removal of male swimsuits and not just female ones? It seems like a double standard to only care about one gender's swimsuits.

[TheFantasm]

Meh at this point people just need to accept the changes and move on. I had my fair share of complaints, but now that I'm actually playing, I'm perfectly fine with the localization.

[Glyth]

The male costumes got cut too. Why not be upset at the removal of male swimsuits and not just female ones? It seems like a double standard to only care about one gender's swimsuits.

Lets be real. The female swimsuits are the only ones that matter.

[Pixelman]

From what I've played (Up to chapter 10), it's actually quite nice!

There are a few hiccups here and there, but overall it's not bad at all

[Sixsmith]

Gunter sounds young but DC Douglas has a voice like butter so I can easily overlook any downfall there

I do wish that Niles and Rhajat had S-Supports that were more like the Japanese versions but ah well.

How did the Niles support change?

Edit: Just read the M!Corrin/Niles support, and it seems to stay pretty true to the Japanese version. And also contains the great line, "Just another Tuesday for lil' Niles, sadly."

Edited February 20, 2016 by Sixsmith

[Shadowess]

in general I'm alright with localization

The only two things I'm generally annoyed with are Effie and Hisame's changes, albeit I suppose Hisame wasn't exactly changed too much. He did like pickles in the JP version, but…not so much from what I saw in his supports?

Effie just annoys me now oh god. I loved her in the JP version but now…ugh.

But I am pleased with localization in the turnouts! I like Jakob a lot more now…ha...

Edited February 20, 2016 by Shadowess

[zoned out]

I feel that the removal of skinship and the swimsuits was completely unnecessary.

There are quite of bit of supports I liked have been changed like Asama/Effie, Jakob/Gunther, Ignatius/Soleil.

I don't like how everyone but two kids will friendzone the Kanas.

The way they handled Niles' and Rhajat's same sex supports is lazy and worse than original.

I don't like how they ruined Effie and made the oyaji into the pickleman

There are a ton of voice actors that don't fit the character. Example would be Nyx who seemed cool and calm in the original and now sounds like a bratty kid or Forrest sounding having a much more masculine voice.

No dual audio after Awakening set the precedent even after removing 80% of the spoken dialogue.

And then there are all these changes that were made just for the sake of change including...

name changes (Harold, Marx, Leon, Tsubaki, etc)

class name changes (Sky Knight, Wolfssegner, Master of Arms, Great Master)

asset&flaw>boon&bane

I will admit that a lot of my complaints ultimately don't impact the gameplay which is the main reason why any of us play these games. However, I really feel that after reading the translated supports over the past 7 months and playing the fan translation for a month beforehand that this is a bad localization. All I hope for now is that the next FE is localized by a different group.

[FrostyFireMage]

Does anyone else not like JP!Effie? She acted like a demure and fragile girl yet spent all her time training and could suplex a cow for some reason.

It's like if they made Saizo into a Priest or Brady into a Knight.

I don't really like EN!Effie either but saying they butchered her character is a bit much.

[Thor Odinson]

She's not demure and fragile, she'll still kick your ass if you piss her off--but a much greater focus is on her tendencies to be very selfless and self-sacrificial in protection of others--while she has the strongest focus on Elise, she is also like that for her other comrades in several supports.

Softspoken, yes, but softspoken doesn't mean you're not strong. There's no one way a physically strong woman should act--and to do so is just stereotyping.

That being said though I went and looked up her supports and the whole selfless protector of others is still there, but her tone's drastically different. It'd be nice if her my room lines brought in some of that instead of just muscle jokes, and I like muscle.

Edited February 20, 2016 by Thor Odinson

[Ownagepuffs]

The personality change at least explains her strength, while J!Effie being that strong seems very suspect.

Her strength was already explained. The girl became strong so that she could be a knight strong enough to protect her childhood friend Elise. She continues to be strong so that she can defend her allies as well. It was an incredibly sweet aspect to her character that blended very well with how obscenely powerful she was, since it indirectly tells us the strength of her resolve. I loved her to pieces.

But now it's like

"Muh biceps"

Help me I'm dying.

[Espinosa]

Do-you-even-liftFE.

The new Effie is hilarious but I wish it were a joke separate from the game somehow...