RPGCast – Episode 495: “Kingdom Hearts Crisis Line”

1. Oh hey, I’m getting over a cold, too.
   Generally like anime, I prefer Japanese games to be dubbed. It probably speaks to my poor ability to learn languages, but I feel a disconnect with the characters and story if I have to read what characters are saying at the bottom of the screen. I may switch to Japanese if the English dub is particularly bad, but this is rare nowadays.

2. As someone who’s fascinated by VO work and cherishes a deep desire to someday do VO work myself someday, I almost always use localized voiceovers. Good voice acting can convey so much, not just the words printed in the script, and when I can understand what the VA is saying it creates more of a connection for me. And bad VO work is not only a great sense of hilarity to me, and makes my job as a YouTube/Twitch Steamer easier when finding things to joke about XD, but also serves as good lessons and gives me practice as I’ll try to read the lines myself and try different voices and inflections to see if I can do any better.

3. I have an indie JRPG-style game to recommend to Kelley and other animal lovers: Earthlock. Mostly because of the playable stormdog Taika and the playable hogbunny Gnart. The game feels inspired by the Final Fantasy, and Taika reminds me of Red XIII.

   Earthlock’s story is OK at best, but its gameplay is decently challenging. It’s on pretty much every system now, including the Switch.

   QoTW: I used to prefer Japanese voices, but as the overall quality of English voice acting in games has improved, I’ve found that I’d rather hear English voices. Especially since most RPGs have some bits of battle dialogue that aren’t subtitled; it’s nice to understand any battle cries or quips during a fight.

4. Is it just me then? I mostly (but not exclusively) prefer listening to the original voice track with English subs, if I have the choice. JRPGs tend towards the melodramatic, and hearing those lines in English can sometimes make me cringe. Also, whether it’s anime or some arthouse film, I would always prefer subs to dubs – they give a better flavour of the culture which produced the work.

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