While many are no doubt looking forward to Xenoblade Chronicles 3D which will show off the power of the New Nintendo 3DS, it's worth looking further ahead; Xenoblade Chronicles X for the Wii U appears to be shaping up to be something rather special. Not just visually, but also sonically.
Producer Shingo Kawabata recently took to Twitter to assure eager fans that the game would feature an outstanding voice cast:
I wasn't really informed of this, but it seems we're planning on updating the official site every week. I wonder if we'll be all right? Then again, Nomura and the web design staff are extremely motivated, so I'm sure they'll work hard for your sake. As we present our characters, we're also revealing the people that have lent us their voices. We've managed to acquire an outstanding cast, so you can look forward to hearing their work. As there was such a large amount of text, recording [the voices] took a lot of work, but the entire cast was exceptionally professional. The end result, of course, is perfection.
So far, the voiceover artists which we know about are Houko Kuwashima as Elma, Mariya Ise as Lynlee, Daisuke Sakaguchi as Tatsu, Nao Takamori as Irina, and Tessho Genda as Van Damme.
It's likely that Nintendo will add an English dub of the game during the localisation process, while its Wii predecessor also had the option to switch to the Japanese voice track. If the dub is as good as the English voices used in the original Xenoblade Chronicles, then we are in for a treat when X releases later this year.
[source siliconera.com]
Comments 80
I wish wii u had this game now!
I actually preferred Japanese voices over the English ones in original Xenoblade. I hope they will still be available for the 3DS makeover and to includo both would be a great feature for X.
@Beechbone What if the English voice acting is really good though? It would seem trivial to include the Japanese voice acting then.
@Ryo_Hazuki-san They are talking about the Wii U game and the voice acting. The n3DS game is a port, same voice actors that wwere used on Wii.
As for the great voice actor cast for Xenoblade X = Star Fox 64 voice actors confirmed!
I actually really enjoyed the British voice work on the previous game. Translating from Japan to "Murican English" usually sounds pretty bad. I've never understood the Japanese obsession with emphasizing things that should be subtle. Like a girl merely reacting to something with an exasperated "uhh?!"
It's like Japanese writers and directors have no concept of subtlety.
This can only mean the future is near...So many games this year, of the wiiU!
@BlatantlyHeroic Sure! But it's always cool to have options.
@Quorthon That's really a cultural stuff. It's not like they act it to sound fake or something. This is how Japanese people actually talk. It's sometimes hard for Western audiences to evaluate acting of Japanese actors because it's so different than what we're used to.
@Quorthon Careful, your ignorance of the Japanese culture is showing.
i wouldn't care if it only had subtitles as long as the game come out this year
@Beechbone
I'm sure it is. But after, what, 30 years of translating games from Japanese to other audiences, they'd be better at this by now, and understand that the audible noises (see: Hyrule Warriors, every single sound made by a character) are quite jarring to Western audiences. In most cases, it just feels out of place and unrealistic. In the worst cases (again, Hyrule Warriors), it becomes annoying. I started skipping story sequences.
And this doesn't even count the decades of dubbing films like Godzilla and shudder 60's-era Gamera. You'd think by now there would be a system in place that doesn't just translate dialog and cultural inflections, but actually aids in rewriting the dialog to better appeal to your audience. I recall Xenoblade 1 feeling this way, which may be why I've long held it as one of the best dubs of a Japanese work that I've encountered.
@BlatantlyHeroic
Careful, your post is almost completely useless.
Please let it be Resident Evil PS1 outstanding.
I hope it's British. This is easily my most anticipated game of the year.
> Outstanding voice cast
> Houko Kuwashima
Pick one.
I hope it's British as well. There is enough stuff out there with American accents.
I'm hoping for the European accents as well. At least let it be an option like japanese is in Xenoblade Chronicles if you have to americanize it.
Clara from Doctor Who was the voice of Princess Melia in the first game.
Considering the main city of the game is called Neo Los Angeles, it would be pretty silly to use an entirely British cast.
I'm most likely going to be playing this in Japanese anyway. Didn't enjoy the original in English at all.
If they use a mix of accents, that's acceptable. Just British or just American? Not what I want at all.
It's beyond time for Nintendo to commit to voice acting in (almost) all their games and I think they knew it awhile ago. I'm guessing part of the problem is Metroid Other M set the whole plan back.
Hyrule Warriors' solution is an extension of how other Zelda game's non-voice acting... grunt-acting I guess? has evolved. They added character and voice to conversation without having to translate. In those games it was usually at the start of a conversation or an occasional highlighted moment. In Hyrule Warriors they then really tried to make sounds for all sorts of conversational moments. They should just be speaking the words... especially in that game where hearing the events of the battle would be more powerful and useful.
So, Nintendo, put it in the budget and develop a good trusted team of directors and casting directors over a few non-risky games and then it will be in place for future games. A good place to go looking is people who have been previously involved in the excellent Ghibli english dubs. They will have just the right kind of experience. Maybe it's already happening. One can hope.
I loved the British accents of the first one, but, I notice a whole lot of "United States" going on in the videos, so are we getting American english voices this time I wonder? It would at least make more sense imo...
Saw "Outstanding " thought uppercut from MK! Is that wrong?
@DiscoGentleman
Yeah, I just think at this point, we should understand the concept of a translation with the audience in mind, not just blanket copy-paste job with a new language. I have the same issue with some 70's Italian horror films with bizarre dubs. The cultural nuances are different from Japanese, but still obvious. Italian culture is closer to English/American culture, but there's still an element of an "uncanny valley" vibe to the whole thing, granted, without the automatons. There's this post-apocalyptic one from 1982 called 1990: The Bronx Warriors that's just ridiculous. I get there are a lot of Italian heritage people in New York, but it was still pretty obviously not made by Americans. With the more "global" aspects of our modern world, we shouldn't still be seeing dubs as bad as 70's horror films or old Gamera movies--or badly ported Genesis games.
Pertaining to Hyrule Warriors, well, there is no actual dialog as you know, just cutscenes filled with emotive noises, and I found those extremely jarring. It may well have come off as more jarring because of the lack of dialog.
In what capacity do you work? Game translation, films, books?
@XenoBlaze
I originally did, but the city in the game has an American flag on it.
Darn I thought this post as talking about English speaking voice actors at first until I got to the names. Well, as long as they are close to being as good as the originals I'm good with it.
@MeloMan
It does appear that they've distinctly targeted an American audience for the game, which would bolster my hypothesis that this one has cost a pretty hefty chunk of change (obvious from the scope and graphics anyway) to develop and that they need to stack the odds in favor of higher sales.
I expect an American voice cast this time.
Hoping for British voices. I liked the British voices...
Although British voices would be preferable, they'd be out of place, since most of the in-game characters will be American. The giant spaceship they crash to the planet in even has 'United States' printed on it in giant letters, as well as an American flag. http://i1.minus.com/ibeLJ8lzidBW6r.jpg
@Quorthon
It's actually cultural differences. Not everything revolves around western ideals
@Quorthon
Oh yes, very American with the giant mechs like in gundam and the cutesy alien nopon race.
Yep, that singular American flag because from the fact that all humans I earth left. Definitely just as American as apple pie
is "im really feeling it!" included in the amazing voice acting?
I just can't get into this type of JRPG. :-/
I've never been a huge fan of voice acting, but that's just me. Maybe it's because, in any game I've played, it's all been terrible and emotionless, on account of the actors having to do way too many lines. Maybe it's because I like to read, and sometimes fill in my own voice inflections to the text. Maybe, when I'm playing a game with good gameplay and terrible generic story, I don't want the characters shouting it out for my neighbors to hear. I dunno, one of those.
Can't wait to play this new entry, the original Wii Xenoblade Chronicles was epic.
Better give us the option of JP audio with subtitles so we too can listen to the premiere voice talent the developers intend us to hear. The British VA in XC was awful and resulted in several memes that highlighted how bad they were.
Hopefully good quality like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XIII voice actors.
Outstanding. Perfection?! YUSSS
Please no British people. They all sound like fools.
I really loved the brtish voices in Xenoblade Chronicles for Wii.
Hope the new voices un X, won't sound like "a bunch of jokers" xDD
It's reyn time!
I thought the English cast of Xenoblade was some of the better voice acting out there but I'm worried the authentic English accents will be replaced with that abomination of a cockney accent from Bayonetta 2. The best I've heard recently was Lego City.
It's Reyn time!
To everyone who didn't like the English acting/accents in Xenoblade on Wii,
I used to live on a planetoid made from the bodies of two great titans locked in eternal battle and the inhabitants spoke exactly like they do in Xenoblade so I think Monolith did a fantastic job..
I don't understand when people say that they like the Japanese voices better than the English voices. So you like listening to a voice that you don't understand? You would rather spend the whole time reading instead of watching the action? This is why I only watch English dubbed anime. I can't read and watch action at the same time.
The last bit about the dub being as good as the one from Xenoblade Chronicles...that was a joke right?
@Robotron2084
I have ... eclectic... movie tastes.
@DiscoGentleman
Actually, I think Xenoblade may qualify as first-party. I think Nintendo owns Monolithsoft outright. They are referred to as 1st party on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nintendo_development_teams#Software_Development_Subsidiaries
Rare was second-party as they only owned a "controlling stake" in the company, not the actual company. MS, however, owns the company outright after buying out both Nintendo's shares and the Stamper Bros shares.
I agree with you that voice acting doesn't need to be in every game, but it dons on me that, even with my flagging interest in Zelda, it'd be fascinating to see a game spoken entirely in Hyrulean, with subtitles. Sort of like the movie Apocalypto.
And I hope you can one day achieve your goal of translating games, be it with Nintendo, or somewhere else. Unfortunately, American (indie) teams cannot self-publish in Japan, but you never know, you may be able to freelance for indies to have the translation done ahead of time if they can find a publisher. I'm not exactly sure how that stuff works. Haven't looked into it yet. Maybe the publisher handles all the translating.
There's a character named Van Damme? XD
Don't worry, there will surely be British accents.
Who else could they find to voice the evil, genocidal antagonists.
Why are people wanting British voice acting? I mean I get that the first game's VAs were good. But it would make absolutely no sense to have British guys talking in an American city-ship thing. I'm with everybody that says they should have many different accents and cultures. After all, modern LA is a melting pot just like NY. And it would make sense in the "people of Earth gathering to escape" plot.
Outstanding
@Robotron2084
I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan, but I'm always interested in weird horror films, especially older ones and a lot of foreign films. Fulci's Zombie/Zombi 2 (depending on the DVD release) remains a perpetual favorite, however.
I have to admit, I don't have the patience for the over-stuffed modern "torture porn" horror sub-genre. And remakes. Damn, I hate remakes. I tend to really enjoy 80's creature features, so I'm eager for Harbinger Down to finally be released.
My girlfriend dyes yarn and sells it in an Etsy shop, and last October, she made one based on Suspiria after I showed it to her. The soundtrack to that one is pretty good, too.
I hope they have a good English voice cast, and in this case I hope they're American (not British). Don't get me wrong, I liked the British voice actors for the original Xenoblade, but this is based in Neo Los Angeles...to me, the characters speaking Japanese or with a British accent would just be a big atmosphere breaker to me. Especially since I live near LA...and well, let's just say they don't talk ANYTHING like a typical British person
@DiscoGentleman
I was unclear, so I looked it up. I was fairly certain I read they were first party, and it seems that they are. I think it happened during the GameCube era.
Ownerships of some of these companies is complicated sometimes. I also thought Monster Games was 1st party, but apparently they are not. Retro is evidently the only US company that is considered a Nintendo 1st party.
And I double-checked Rare just to be sure, and yes, MS does own them outright. They went from 2nd party for Nintendo to 1st party for Microsoft. Which I had suspected by the Stamper Bros selling their stake in the company, as well as Killer Instinct being developed by Double Helix instead of Rare.
Just release the damn game already. These waiting is freaking killing me.
@DiscoGentleman We are worlds apart on opinion on what to have voices for, I see, and I did almost qualify the "all games" thing, but really... I think I mean it. There are very few that wouldn't benefit from well done voice acting.
Any game with a paragraph of text needs a voice in addition to it, imo. It's just silly. I can talk to my phone and it helps me and talks back to me but I have to read while playing an interactive video game? I love reading, but stopping everything to read while engaged in a game is feeling very disjointed and strange nowadays.
Having some hyrulean language in a Zelda game could be cool if it was wonderfully done like the elvish and dwarvish and languages of mordor from LOTR as I like the texture and nuance and culture that emerges from hearing a spoken language, but I'd want most of the talking done in the language I understand. Because that's the language I understand, and story and character and emotion rides on that understanding along with the visuals.
Also, I like stories with no speech, but, again, once the game decides to show you a paragraph of text, it's wasting an opportunity to enrich the experience at best and at worst taking me out of the game and putting me into a book just to be pulled right back out again.
Most games could benefit. Party games? Definitely. Nothing kills a party like an invitation to everyone to suddenly stop and just start reading to yourself. Sports games? Every televised sports game is covered in commentary, but even without that (as some people don't like it even in real sporting events) sports are a very vocal entity. Puzzle games? Explanations are much better when there is emotion and emphasis.
Imagine if Kid Icarus didn't have voice acting throughout. Totally different (worse) game experience, IMO.
Anyway, I'm just rambling on. I'm going to go read a book.
I for one loved the English voices for the Wii Xenoblade Chronicles and wouldn't mine if this game had similar sounding voice actors. Either way this game is sure to be excellent regardless.
Man please don't let this game be a Q4 release! Seems like I waited forever for Smash lol
The american actors they had for Eternal Darkness were really good. I thought that that what was this article was implying, but with more well known Hollywood voices for the english dialogue soundtrack.
Most epic voice acting ever:
@aaronsullivan You have summed up my thoughts perfectly. Some Hylian would be cool, but a whole game of it would be stupid. Zelda could use some English acting!
And I hope there are some British actors in Xenoblade X!
I can understand people wanting to hear something in their own language, but personally I like things to be in the language they were originally created in. My wife is Japanese and feels the same way. So if we watch a Japanese movie, we watch it in Japanese with English subtitles. If we watch an American or British movie, we watch it in English with Japanese subtitles. And if we watch something in some other language (or when there aren't English subtitles), then I get to test my Japanese reading ability and wish that I had been a better student in college.
With Xenoblade Chronicles, I listened to enough of the English version to decide that I didn't like it. But what really surprised me is that the Japanese voice acting is VERY good. Every member of the main cast other than Fiora sounds like a REAL person (or Nopon), rather than sounding like some voice actor using a fake voice. And that's a very rare thing in Japan.
For those of you that don't speak Japanese, voice acting in most games, movies, TV shows, etc. here is terrible because most of it is incredibly over-acted. But because those are the voices that people are used to hearing, no one seems to notice. It's like the people producing things here see someone else's work and go "yeeaah, that's TOTALLY what it sounds like when people are sounding cool/important/serious/emotional/whatever!" and get people to do the exact same voices for the work they're producing.
Anyway.... "outstanding voice cast" or not, the way I see it, avoiding the same stereotypical character voices that we've heard a billion times before is the only way to truly make Xenoblade Chronicles X outstanding, and from what I've seen so far I'm not sure that'll happen, but after the fantastic job they did with Chronicles, I have high hopes.
@kurtasbestos I partly agree with you and live action movies dubs almost never work for me. There's so much more subtlety that comes from actors' visible interactions. Video games aren't there yet. Not even most cg animated movies are there yet. I'd rather hear it.
My problem is that reading is taking your attention away from the moment. There's a rhythm you can get into and skill you can develop to get more out of subtitled entertainment but it's an extra layer of detachment that is causing you to focus on something other than the what creators of the story were hoping you'd be focused on.
Like you I find overwrought voice acting just as distracting so this is all predicated on the hope I'd be getting great voice work and natural nuanced performances in my own language.
Also, the option for the original native language performance with subtitles is always welcome.
I prefer to think of this game as the first in it's series. Of course Xenoblade Chronicles came first, but it was so rare and expensive that the general public hardly ever got their hands on it. Hopefully Nintendo aces it with Xenoblade Chronicles X this time around. I can't wait to feel the power!
Shulk's voice actor is freaking amazing I don't care what anyone said, he's English voice actor put in emotion and passion into that role.
As long as I get option for Japanese voices I'm good.
@Robotron2084
Ah cool, I have roughly the same weakness. I'm a fan of 80's slashers (have sets for Child's Play, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th, and my girlfriend bought all the Halloween movies last October) and those monster films. I'm a fan of something I've generally referred to as "suburban horror," which was horror that revolved around "regular people" in largely suburban environments, families, and the like. Fright Night is one of my favorites, and the House movies fit, as far as I'm concerned.
One of the things I went to school for was animation, and in that, we learned a lot of filmmaking techniques and standards. It re-ignited a love of films for me, and I've kind of bounced back and forth a bit between my love of movies and my love of gaming. Currently, I'm focused on gaming, but if this works out, with any luck, at some point I can "take a break," and do something with film. I still have the drive--it's just subdued.
What do you do in film, if you don't mind my asking?
Mmmh, I wonder how long before coming to the west, then? 2015? U sure?
@S3OL
Same here. I really don't care for the English dubbing, didin¨t use it in XC more than had to (changed to Japanese first thing when it was possible) and same is going to be with this one.
Besides, even I do watch lots of English spoken shows without subtitles, those are still easier to keep up with than spoken language (well there is probably subtitles on/off even with dubbing)
@abbyhitter
If you've grown up with subtitles then it's not a problem to read while watching at the same time. Kinda like using peripheral view to look at street signs when driving a car. You don't focus on it, it just happens.
Also most of the time there will be timing issues when dubbing from Japanese to English. How many times haven't the English actors had to say something really fast, because the scene is short and the Japanese actor doesn't have to use the same amount of words.
So unless the developers re-adjust the scenes in length to match the voices then it'll just sound bad. And not many developers will put down that time and money. Maybe these will, have to wait and see. But I'll stick to the Japanese cast anyways.
I already figured the voice work would be incredible, but this reassures me.
@Robotron2084
I actually always wanted to work in gaming, but have a sad, depressing story about why it's taken so long. Way back in the day, there was only one place that taught game design in North America, and it was the Digipen Applied Computer Graphics school, which was sponsored by Nintendo. But my parents didn't believe in a future in video games, didn't like the idea of me moving halfway across the country, and I was routinely ridiculed for wanting to make video games in the small-town Country-Western farm community where I grew up. Basically, I got beat down from all angles and saw my dreams foiled. The next decade was marked by going to school for graphic design because it was the closest thing for me in computer art, then being inspired for 3D animation due to, of all things, Transformers: Beast Wars and ads on TV where I learned I could go to school for it, so I did. Then there was some more missteps, bad decisions, and general failure to mark my growth as a human being ultimately culminating in me having a kid out of wedlock, paying child support (literally 45% of my income), and ultimately seeing my life hit rock bottom. As anyone at the bottom eventually does, they get desperate, so I joined the Army National Guard in a final bid to turn my life around, and for a long time felt like my dreams were so far away I would never reach them. One deployment to the Middle East later, I returned home, promptly divorced the wife that left me while I was gone (not my kid's mom), found a new woman in my life, and one day, after showing her some of my old 3D animation stuff and talking about how much I enjoyed that, I discovered that I could go back to school for game design, and thanks to my deployment, even had the money to do it. At the school, I met some cool people and we formed a team.
It often sounds as if I have a chip on my shoulder and a stern anger towards certain developers on here, but I have spent too long in my life clawing at a goal that seemed unreachble--making video games--and it disgusts me to see people so shamefully use this medium for zero-quality, meaningless shovelware. It still feels like someone pissing on my dreams. I finally stacked the odds in my favor, and am no longer clawing at my dreams--I am finally able to have them within my grasp.
The moral of the story here is, do not question a kid's passion in something. If they love it and want it and are focused on it, encourage them. I shouldn't have let people crush my dreams, and I should have given my parents no option but to support that dream, but I was a stupid teenager, and bad at standing up for myself.
Betcha didn't expect that answer.
Oh, and my kid's mom and I are on great terms these days as we realized it was unhealthy for him for us to be at each other's throats, and we tossed the child support and simply choose to work together because no place is worse for families than the family court system.
@Robotron2084
By the way, I think it's awesome you are able to be so well-rounded and pretty clearly dedicated to filmmaking. Have you directed anything that can be seen anyhere?
I bet the English dub will be voiced by a complete buncha jokurrs.
I hope for Japanese voice with English subtitles as an option.
Our Main Character (male or female) will have multiple voice set options. I'm kinda worried if that will affect their decision with cramming the voice files of both English and Japanese. Aside from battle dialogues, there's nothing else we know when our Main Characters speak out. Speaking of battle dialogues, I wonder if those being audible is gonna be important.
The Character creation menu lists the names of the JP voice actors providing the Character voice. They probably will just list a voice description (in English text) if they intend to implement dual audio, though.
I haven't played Xenoblade Chronicles, so I'm not particular about the voice acting. However, I am kinda picky about lip-syncing (which was not developed for the English voice in Xenoblade). I imagine this would greatly affect the dubbing, but plenty of voice directing overcame that in the past. Still, I prefer original voice-overs with subtitles.
@MeloMan me too, i really hope there is a British voice cast on this game, it was so refreshing on the first one, and the baddies voices made me laugh a lot too!
I expect nothing less than a South African / Zimbabwean selection of accents. Otherwise it's not a day one purchase
@triforcepower73 This
@Robotron2084
Ahh gotcha. It sounds like you're in the same place as my girlfriend with her yarn shop (Cyborg's Craftroom at Etsy), my dev team, and another guy I know who has a band (though, he's actually released two albums and some other stuff on BandCamp). We're all right on that first step into reaching our goals. You should do a documentary on all these indie start-ups!
I'd say "best of luck to yah!", but after two years of this indie work, I've very much come to understand that only about 2% of this stuff is luck, and the other 98% is stacking the odds (by working your ass off) so that you have a better chance of seeing that 2% of luck actually work out. So, keep up the dedication and hard work!
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