Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. How the hell does being under 22, unmarried and not an orphan make a dependent? Where's the question about "Did your parents throw you out on your ass or otherwise deny you financial aid?" Don't say we didn't warn you.

I'm about to string together many, many words. Hence, no intro for you.

Look! Footsteps. Follow.

I sampled FFX voice acting? Where?

GIA doesn't have it/neither does RPGamer/neither does GameSpot/neither does PS2 IGN/neither does Magic Box/this mystifies me. My mom doesn't have any, either. -Bobrick Robertson

Dopey me. I keep forgetting that there are individuals whose very existences don't hinge upon whatever droplets of news Squaresoft is benevolent enough to piss out for the slavering, whorish group of freaks I associate with and belong to. Individuals whose very auras aren't shaken to their very karmic core, making them instantly, psionically aware of what's going on with FFX....

Individuals to whom I apologize - samples of FFX's English voice acting can be found at FFX's PlayOnline home.

We gotta believe!

About the FFX voice acting- No sir, I don't like it. And if I may respond to something in yesterday's column, I have to disagree with you and the reader who draw the conclusion that "3D can't capture the magic of glorious side-scrollers past". Many people will tell you that Devil May Cry has a lot of the same mechanical depth of the action-platformers of yore. One should play it for himself (or herself)before dismissing the idea. It's also my belief that many games do make a nice transition to the third dimension. Just don't ask for a direct translation - that third plane of movement can't help but affect gameplay. It's nothing personal. Mario 64 is of course the sterling example. An upcoming game I'd recommend those from the old school read up on is Capcom's Ghosts 'N Goblins tribute/revival Maximo. And although (apparently) many people are in the dark on this one, a 3D Ninja Gaiden is in development by Tecmo and has been talked about for some time. Ryu Hayabusa has been spent the last few years in the Dead or Alive series, after all. Lastly (I'm almost through bitching, promise.), even if "the industry's big dogs seem less and less keen on 2D with every passing year.", Konami has confirmed a 2D gameplay Castlevania for the PS2, and Mega Man X6 will hit North America shortly. Reports of 2D's death have been greatly exaggerated. Justin Speer, reminding gamers to do their homework, check their release lists, and most important, ya gotta believe!

You know... my bad. Now that you mention it, I do vaguely recall having heard something about Tecmo reviving Ninja Gaiden, oh, 2 years ago or so. As well they should - someone needs to rescue poor Ryu from all those supple, succulent, panty-flashing roughs...

As far as the 2D/3D debate - I don't want to get too heavily into this because it could quickly eat up the length reader tolerance allows me, but I wanted to note that my comment yesterday wasn't meant to imply that 3D titles will never have a "magic" all their own. Nintendo did an exemplary job, IMO, in helping their flagship franchises make the leap into 3D when the N64 launched. But it can't be argued that that all-important third dimension often drastically alters gameplay right down to its very emphasis. Zelda OoT, for example, was almost more of a cousin to the sidescrolling 2nd Zelda on the NES than it was a descendant of the top-down, isometric action RPGs that previously defined the series. Not that it wasn't a fabulous game - it just came off as more adventurish than RPGish.

While I was aware of the PS2 Castlevania in the works, you gotta admit Konami's willingness to stick by tradition with games like SotN and Suikoden is a rarity. Of course, maybe they just learned the hard way with those disastrous forays into 3D they forced the Belmonts (and the Fernandezes) to brave on the N64....?

Dammit. It's raining sacred cows again

Miss Mehlos, I heard the various clips and watched the assorted movies from the GameSpot and I only have one thing to say. SUBTITLES I mean, for the love of God, why can't they give us both tracks? There's a reason why many many Anime-connoisseurs like myself refuse to watch dubbed versions of our favorite movies and series. It's because in a vast majority of the cases, the American voice actors blow rancid monkey chunks. The simple fact is, animation and videogaming are much more mainstream and diverse forms of entertainment in Japan than in the United States. Being a voice actor in Japan requires greater range and maturity than it does in the United States, where most forms of voiceover work relate to Saturday morning cartoons. So while appropriately manly men and sensual women lend voices to characters in Japanese, we here in the United States are stuck with the actors that did GI Joe or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in their illustrious pasts. We can choose our poison in most anime DVD's nowadays... we should be able to do so in videogames as well. The voice acting in the clips I saw or heard weren't that bad, but I can easily see myself wishing hateful death upon Tidus after 10 hours of his pseudo-late pubescent whining (probably done by some 40 year old dude in Vancouver). And I don't think I'm alone. Auron, Kimahri and Wakka didn't sound half bad though. By the by, the only anime series that had truly excellent dubbing, imho, is Cowboy Bebop. -Joon Choi, who is so very glad that FFVIII didn't have voiceovers

Okay.. I cringe admitting this, but this was my knee-jerk, impulsive reaction to the English voice acting, too.

Now brace yourselves, because I'm about to embark on one of my [probably] insulting and ill-researched rants.

Unlike many gamers and American otaku, I can hardly speak English, let along Japanese. Occasionally I attempt an "arigatoo gozaimasu" at sushi joints (because I actually do appreciate the artistry that goes into making sea urchin look edible), but beyond that I try my damnedest not to slip along the inclination of niche culture snobbery and pepper my speech with ill-fitted Japanese phrases I may have half-assedly picked up, yelling "Nani?!" at my mom when she calls to tell me another of my pets has dropped dead. I don't speak Japanese, and any such aspiration to pass my Anglosaxon lips just makes me sound like an ass.

My not speaking Japanese also spills over into not knowing what the hell I'm listening to, exactly, when I hear it spoken. On a good day, I might be able to guess as to what 0.65-2% of what's being said may actually mean. I sure as all hell don't presume to know anything about various aural subtleties to do with inflection, emotion, etc.. So for all I know, the original Japanese voice track of a subbed anime may be just as laughably unconvincing as the English dub. I'm just too ignorant to be offended by its overall crappiness unless its in my native tongue.

Which is, I suppose, why I was faintly hoping FFX would be optionally subtitled instead of dubbed in English - not because Japanese is some divine sacred cow among languages, but because ignorance, as they say, is bliss.

"SHUT UP!"

I think that FFX's English voice acting--what I've heard of it, at least--is stupendous. It's not perfect, but it's universally not bad, with occasional moments of brilliance. Given the current state of the videogame voice acting market, this is about as good as anyone could expect or hope for. It's a good thing what we're getting is so good, too; having played through the Japanese version, there's a LOT of voice. The best thing I can say about voice in the Japanese version (and I trust this will carry over to the U.S.), is that it's seamlessly integrated and seems completely natural. At no point did it drag me out of the game; in fact, just thirty minutes into the game, I couldn't imagine the game--or the series, from now on--any other way. I want to take a moment to address the people who will undoubtedly write in whining that Square should have kept the Japanese voices: SHUT UP! To elaborate: the creative forces behind the series added voice because they wanted to increase the series' realism and the player's immersion in the narrative. For Japanese gamers, this means Japanese voice acting. For English-speaking gamers, English. An English game with Japanese voices may be what you want, but it's certainly nowhere near the experience the director intended. More importantly, there is nothing implicitly sacrosanct about the Japanese language. Final Fantasy X is not set in Japan, or even anywhere on Earth, for that matter. Final Fantasy X takes place on the fictional world of Spira; when it came time to record the character's dialogue, Japanese is just as arbitrary a language choice as English would be. We're not losing the "real" Japanese and having it replaced by "lesser" English. Both languages and both sets of voice acting are equally valid. Oh, one last thing: in the Japanese version, Tidus and Yuna were voiced by their mo-cap actors. Lovely people, I'm sure, but a pair with absolutely no previous voice-acting experience. And, bless their gambarimasing hearts, it sometimes shows. But for the most part, the Japanese dub adds a significant amount to an already excellent game. I trust the English voices will do the same. Rant off, - Andrew

Wow, Andrew. You pretty much said everything I was too verbally stunted to articulate on the subject of original voice track vs. English dub, and all from the subjective standpoint of a bilingual user who's played the Japanese version, too.

However, as is probably obvious by now, any concerns I may have with FFX's English voice acting are not some intrinsic issue with English taking the place of sacrosanct Japanese, but with the quality of the voice acting itself, and the suitability of the voices for their respective characters.

Ah do declayah, Herr Bond! The Cajun/Jamaican/Hispanic cuisine is hahdly to mah liking.

Erin: Master of Unlocking, Yay, it's time for another rousing round of "Name that Flame"! While this is certainly a great topic, it will also, without a doubt, require a flame-retardant suit to take part in. [straps on heavy, end- of-E.T.-looking suit] With that said, let me say that I don't mind the FFX English voice acting so far. Allow me to qualify that statement. When it comes to voice acting and the Japanese language, I'm kind of a purist. I refuse to watch anime or HK films in anything but they're original language, not because I feel that the dubbing is bad (which it usually is, anyway), but because I believe that watching anime in English is like watching Hollywood movies in French. It just seems... wrong. James Bond shouldn't sound German and Ryoko shouldn't sound like a southern belle. [shudder] While I still would prefer that FFX were subtitled (how difficult would it have been to include the original language track also.. it is a DVD, after all), I also realize that dubbing is a more friendly way of presenting the game. I'm certainly not saying "Oh... they're dumbing it down for the masses/mainstream", only that dubbing is much more accessible to a broader audience. [steps off soapbox] Having played through the Japanese rev, I'd have to say that most of the characters' English voices are pretty close to their Japanese counterparts so far. Tidus was whiny in the J. version and seems to be pretty whiny so far in ours. Auron was a total badarse in the J. version, and the English voice so far sounds equally deep and gravely. Ryukku was high-pitched and thoroughly annoying in the J. version... and nothing seems to have changed there either. The only two I'm not thrilled about so far are Wakka and Lulu. While Wakka's Japanese voice was rather generic and uninteresting, the irritating Islander stereotype they've thrown in to the English voice just rubs me the wrong way. Beside (or whatever they're calling it now) Island is NOT Jamaica. It's like Barret all over again. There's little I can say about Lulu's voice apart from it just doesn't have the "meow, roar" factor that the J. voice had. Saying anything more would probably reveal my unhealthy fixation on the character, so I'll leave it at that. Overall, a pretty good collection of voice talent, but it ain't no MGS. Griffin, going to bed at night and dreaming of Lulu.

Actually, Wakka's voice was one of the handful I minded least. Yes, he's got an interesting muddle of Cajun/Jamaican/Hispanic stereotypes goin' on... But hell, mixing Cajun/Jamaican/Hispanic is bound to give you some flavor.

Dude, Where's my Airship?

Erin, If there's anything I want to say about FFX's voices. It's that Wakka's voice kicks incalculable amounts of ass. It's by far and away one of the finest voices I've ever had the pleasure of hearing in a game. The guy sounds so laid back, upbeat, and all around a joy to listen to. My absolute favourite quote from him so far is: "Dude, our team is gonna rock eh?". That accent he has just fills that line with so feeling and soul behind it that I can't help but smile and agree with Wakka's sentiments wholeheartedly. If there's one voice though the game could do without, it's gotta be Yuna. Ugh....why is it that one of the two biggest characters has to sound so dead, and William Shatner like the whole time. The line "I want you to be my guardian." comes out from Yuna sounding like "I want (insert dramatic pause)you to be (insert dramatic pause) my guardian." I know she's supposed to be kind of demure and polite....but she sounds more than that. She sounds like yet another naive helpless little girl who wants the hero to be her boyfriend out of convenience. Yuck, didn't we go through this already with Rinoa from FF8? Thankfully though Tidus is blessed with such a great voice, but not as good as Wakka's =D -Lezard

Yes, Wakka's voice is about as laid back, upbeat and casual as any game VA I've heard thusfar, and despite his embarrasingly stereotypical accentuations, he ultimately sounds pretty natural, which, I have to agree with you, is more than can be said for Yuna.

Oh, no / There goes Tokyo / Borderline Godzilla!

Having played through the FFX demo several times now, i'd have to say that while Tidus's voice is noticeably annoying, the rest are pretty good. Wakka's voice in particular seems to fit nicely. Lulu on the other hand should sound a little more throaty I think. Give me six hours with the game and i'll have fleshed out my opinion a bit more. Now as for the lip-synching, i'll be honest, it annoys the hell out of me. It's borderline Godzilla bad at times, but i've watched enough anime to know that while i'll continue to notice it, it will stop bothering me after a while. I'm sure Square tried their damnedest to get it perfect, and I enjoyed the demo too much to pick at it overly. Hell, Lulu's victory pose alone. You'd swear Square had a DoA team member come in and handle the physics for that undulating mass of polygonal sex marketing. Provocative and hilarious at the same time. I can only hope that the rest of the game keeps me that amused. _Digital Vampire_

I'm definitely with you on the Lulu-as-a-mezzo-soprano issue. After so many month's speculation on the web as to whether this woman wears lacy black crotchless panties or some manner of ass-floss, I expected something with a little more sultry substance.

Tidus... well... what can you expect from Meg Ryan's butch twin?

What's Eating Charlie Tangora

Well, gee... Maybe if Tidus didn't sound so much like Fry... And, yeah, Yuna's stiff, but it's easy to see that that comes from the poor translation and not from lack of acting talent. I mean, "I am Summoner Yuna, from the isle of Besaid"? - it even looks stiff and unnatural on the page, and reading dialogue amplifies those sorts of problems (and of course brings out all sorts of new ones that are never apparent in the script). Looks to me like Square pulled out all the stops on the actors and then went ahead with the same old translators. Besides, when, for God's sake, will video game publishers stop boxing their actors in? I keep seeing spots in game dubs where any fool with ears should have known the line wasn't working as written, and any decent actor or director should have been able to throw out a new line. Or worse, spots where an actor was rushed to finish a line in the alotted time. I know there's a lot more involved in changing the text of a game once it's written and laid in, but, frankly, that's the price you pay for including voices. Now, compared to other dubs (both anime and game), what we've heard of FFX is pretty damn good. But, well, they pretty much fail by any other standard I can think of. It's hard to speak to the effectiveness of the voice work before it's married to the images (as a film student, I can attest that it makes a bigger difference than you'd think) and the final test will, of course, come when we see the game, we hear the lines in context, and we find out if those voices actually sound like they're coming out of the mouths of the characters on screen and not actors in a studio. Right now, though, I think I can say that the game won't be seamless; the voice acting will take me out of the game fairly often; and, overall, the dub will hurt the experience of the game. - Charlie "Watch me hit the 'turn off voices' button after fifteen minutes" Tangora Still hoping for a Special Subtitled Edition in a month or three. Hey, do you know a good address to write to and ask for one? (I mean a snail-mail addy; as a veteran of the Princess Mononoke letter-writing campaign, in which we had support from folk inside Buena Vista, I can attest that companies pay absolutely zero attention to email and web polls.)

I think you've hit on an important issue, here, and that being that the list of names lending their voices to FFX could read like the program of a Royal Shakespeare Company stage production and the English dub would still suck every bit as hard as the localized script they've been given to work with.

Leonardo DiCaprio's performance in Titanic god-awful unforgivable, but largely, I think, because of an unrelentingly bland script. Regardless of any contempt I may have had for his preteen heartthrob throne, I saw Gilbert Grape - I know the boy can act (although you could argue, I suppose, that mental retardation is an inherently easy malady for old Leo to portray). Yet Titanic's Jack Dawson failed spectacularly at giving the illusion of depth. Jack Dawson, in a word, sucked.

Ironing out the awkwardness that comes with a translated script is an area in which I've always felt Working Designs did a bang-up job with the two Lunar remakes. They took a cast with negligible to no acting experience (Voicing Ghaleon isn't Truitt's day job, despite his unquestionable knack) and through courageous tweaking of the translated script, came up with an admirably natural-sounding dub.

Of course, that's Vic for you.

I so hate to be the bearer of bad tidings

I think FFX teaches us how important a good Voice Over Director is. I mean, these are established actors right? Not movie stars in the slightest, but a far cry from the "Can you make noise with your mouth? You're hired!" mentality that's graced such games as Star Ocean, Maken X, and Megaman 8. You see, no matter how "good" your voice actors are, they'll still sound strange being directed by some hack not up to par. This is why Kris Zimmerman and her Metal Gear/Grandia/Soul Reaver entourage are so sought after. Not only does she have access to some of television and movie's top voice talent, but she just simply knows her stuff. Hell, she can make a line like "What the...?" sound natural. As for me, I'm praising the Square Boys for inputting a "Voices OFF" function in the options menu. -Duncan Burris

H'oh... you obviously haven't heard....

For spite, of course

You know, in some twisted form of logic, I can maybe understand Square's decision to leave out the Japanese Language track in Final Fantasy X. Hardcore fans can't make up that much of the audience, right? I figured, hey, I can turn off the goofy english voices (nothing against english, but c'mon, Frye?). Square is at least smart enough to do that. Well, that's what I thought, at least. The English version of Final Fantasy X does not even allow you to turn off the mind rapingly bad voices and play it like a classic Final Fantasy game. So I am, personally, boycotting Final Fantasy X. Yeah, I know, it sounds like one of those "MAKE FF7 GAIDEN WHERE AERIS IZ ALIVE" sorta things, but I seriously don't care who's with me on this. My boycott is not about creating changes, or turning the world on its ear, it's out of spite. Square wants to flip up their middle finger and say "Screw you!" to me, we ll then let me close my wallet and say "Screw you" to them. -- Shawn K., praying there will be a FFX international

I would have appreciated a voices-off option myself, because while I have a modicum of faith in the English cast after all the samples I've been exposed to, time may reveal them to be pretty smegging irritating and I would like the peace of mind that comes with knowing I can always turn the bastards off and fall back on my imagination for more palatable voices.

I think you're cutting off your nose to spite your face with your boycott, my man. You're not hurting Square any - FFX will undeniably sell like hotcakes to forgiving doormats like myself. I bought Castlevania SotN, which needed a voices-off feature far more than FFX, and somehow managed to enjoy it.

Tidus ... our next dark, Byronic jerk?

Scott McCloud, in his opus Understanding Comics, suggested that part of the success of manga and comics with simple character designs is that it allows the reader to project himself into the characters and be drawn into the story more easily. I am inclinded to believe this, but not exactly the way Scott describes. I think when a gamer empathizes with Chrono, or Terra, or any other poorly drawn, 2-D sprite, it isn't because he sees himself in Chrono's shoes, but because he is allowed, by the simple graphics, to envision features and details about Chrono that aren't given by the game's designers. Chrono's simple design and simple characterization that allow the gamer to "fill in the blanks", so that the Chrono becomes a product of the gamer as much as the designer. Chrono becomes heroic and endearing because the gamer's imagination makes him so. All the colors get brighter, all the shadows darker, and wacky looking characters, like Robo become prolific titans, not goofy sprites. When you add in details, you screw up the chemistry, and risk screwing up the game. Case in point, Squall Leonheart. Square puffed him up with details and personality, trying to make him dark and Byronic, but many gamers thought he was just a jerk and rejected Final Fantasy 8. Zidane, on the other hand, was also filled with personality and color, but Square did it right, to the point that one of my friends holds him as her personal hero! My point is this, adding voices to Final Fantasy is a gamble. It gives the designer more control over how the gamer percieves the characters, which is why Final Fantasy went "cinematic" in the first place, but it also pushes the gamer away. He is excluded, in a way, from the experience, and becomes more of an audience, than an actual game player. Flat characters and stupid stories work for gamers, but not for audiences, as FF: Spirits Within proved. If the gamble pays off, and the characters sound great, and the story is still engrossing, then cool, but I think that still goes against the foundations of video gaming. The game should be as immersive as possible, not something you sit and get fed. Otherwise, Metal Gear Solid would never sell, and we would all be worshiping Dragons Lair. Tokyoneon ~who still thinks Celes is a babe

Good points, but aren't movies immersive in their own right? More so, in some ways, because they tend to be markedly better at suspending disbelief? The old axiom "seeing is believing" still holds true for many - if not most - people. There's a certain undeniable connection made with sounds, imagery, etc. that closely mirrors the real world in which we live - and in the real world in which we live, people don't sound like we want them to in our head; they speak with the voices they were born with, and we take them as they are.

Well ... either that or become antisocial jerks like Squall.

Yes, sparer game design leaves more up to the player's imagination and is, perhaps, more of a personal experience because of it, but is vagueness really tantamount to immersion? For me, immersion and believability often tend to go hand-in-hand, and I will, as they say, believe it when I see it.

Closing Comments:

My cold rages on, and as the phlegm swells, threatening to engulf my very soul, my eyesight dims behind sheets of clouding mucus, and verifying whether or not I've hit the right key becomes ever more difficult.

So for tomorrow, I'm wussing out and going with a free topic Friday. If you would, guard my lifeless body till then, whilst I slip out onto the astral plane for a quick medicinal pint.

-Erin Mehlos