Japanese Gamers Divided on Subtitles vs. Dubs

[cathou]

Huh. I always find it interesting to look at things from different perspectives, and this is no exception. I usually prefer original audio with dubs when it comes to anime, but the question never crossed my mind as to what Japanese people like when experiencing Western media. I can't say I'm surprised, but I do find it interesting. On this note, I wonder what French people think of playing Ubisoft games, which often seem to be made for a primarily English-speaking audience, even though the company is French.

actually, you may never have noticed it, but most games are dubs in french. but in modern gaming system, they dont show you the option, it just follow your system preferences.

Mty xbox is in french, so each time i put a game in it, gears of war, scene it, bioshock, borderland, etc... they all play in french without having to change an option. and in some games that are heavy in language, i buy the french copy and i dont have the english option at all(mass effect 1 and 2 for exemple)...

Some are good, some are bad. depend on the quality of the actors. We have very good french actor specialised in dubbing movies. Etzio in Assassin creed 2 was dubbed by the same guy who do the voice of johnny depp in most of his movies for exemple, and assassin creed 2 was one of the very good dubbed i heard in a game.

 

[Doug]

The English translation of a non-Western game can be hard enough to understand for those of us who have English as a second language. I can understand subtitles every time, so that's my preference. And honestly, reading a spoken line and watching the animation at the same time won't take up all of your mental capacity (I hope).

I have to ask, what did the other 4% think?

I suppose, "I don't care either way".

True, true...

As for dub vs sub... I dunno. The only time I've had to have a sub is when I was watching Downfall, which is German-only dialog. I suppose it added to the experience, but it might have been just as good with a good dub.

 

[Lullabye]

For ff13, I just wanted the Japanese opening, not freakin Leona Lewis. Ugh, I don't know what they were thinking...../my opinion
As fro Sub vs Dub, I like them both equally. Some things I preferred dubbed, somethings I liked subbed. I mean, I know the Finnish prefer the subbed digimon. And I preferred the dubbed DBZ and Detective Conan. Death Note was iffy for me, but I originally saw it dubbed so...

 

[Aardvark Soup]

In the Netherlands, every single foreign movie or tv show not aimed at young children is subbed, causing almost everyone here to have an aversion against dubbing. Still, almost all Japanese games released here are English dubs (with English subtitles), which is very annoying.

There are some games that are dubbed very well, though. I actually find the American voice acting of the Metal Gear Solid games, for example, better than the original Japanese voices.

 

[Phoenixlight]

As long as the audio is sybchronised properly it's better than subtitles.

 

[Phoenixlight]

For ff13, I just wanted the Japanese opening, not freakin Leona Lewis. Ugh, I don't know what they were thinking...../my opinion
As fro Sub vs Dub, I like them both equally. Some things I preferred dubbed, somethings I liked subbed. I mean, I know the Finnish prefer the subbed digimon. And I preferred the dubbed DBZ and Detective Conan. Death Note was iffy for me, but I originally saw it dubbed so...

Are you joking? leona fucking lewis? she has no right to be in a game like that.

 

[Witty-Name]

One of the things that seems off to me about FF13 is that the European version contains the English dub, and subtitles for the other European languages. It makes me curious about whether the subtitles are translations from the English audio or the Japanese audio, seems wrong to me if it's the English.

Anyway, as for me, original language is my strongly prefered option. Most of the time it has nothing to do with my perceptions of voice quality, and everything to do with the context that it provides. Besides that, when it comes to English and Japanese there's some stuff that just doesn't translate. Nothing can really substitute for the varying politeness levels, differences between masculine and feminine speech, or the common Japanese phrases that don't have any English equivalent (itadakimasu => I'm going to eat, yes that's a fair translation but that doesn't cover the fact that one's a commonly used expression before a meal and one isn't). Fair enough subtitles don't really reflect this stuff either, but least then the original's there for you to pick up on, with a dub it's gone forever.

Anyway if there's a lesson to be learned from this, which when you think about it applies well to pretty much all of life anyway, it's choice = good.

 

[Lullabye]

For ff13, I just wanted the Japanese opening, not freakin Leona Lewis. Ugh, I don't know what they were thinking...../my opinion
As fro Sub vs Dub, I like them both equally. Some things I preferred dubbed, somethings I liked subbed. I mean, I know the Finnish prefer the subbed digimon. And I preferred the dubbed DBZ and Detective Conan. Death Note was iffy for me, but I originally saw it dubbed so...

Are you joking? leona fucking lewis? she has no right to be in a game like that.

...Yeah, that's what I said.
I don't know what they were thinking putting her on as the opening. Maybe it has some profound meaning(as every aspect of a FF game does) like "Even crap deserves a chance" or someting.