DBZ and other Games: English or Japanese?

[Super Sonic]

Not trying to start another dub or sub debate, but I just thought I'd ask with the DBZ games available in America with dual-language options, do you guys play with the English audio or the Japanese audio, and do you do the same for other non-DBZ games with the same options? I asked on others as I heard a few guys on here say they watch DBZ subbed, but other anime dubbed and wondered if some guys had the same thoughts with video games. For myself, I haven't played any of the recent DBZ games so I had no choice in the matter, and with other games I play with English audio mainly out of laziness, and the occasional other reason for certain games like Soul Calibur IV, MvC 3, Sonic Adventure 1, etc. What are you guys' thoughts?

[JulieYBM]

I play 'em with the original audio. I watch the series with the original audio so I don't see any reason to make games an exception, especially when the dialogue isn't hard to understand or the fact that games did once require us to read rather than listen to voice acting.

[MCDaveG]

Well, definitely in Japanese. I don't know. Maybe, if I was native english speaker, I would played with english audio.
But the english in Japanese game is more of alienation to me, also as Japanese is the primary language of the game, and fits more then redub.
Not to mention, lot of English dubs are awful in Japanese games.

In Final Fantasy X for example, I curiously found the english dub better then Japanese.
Really top-notch dub and James Taylor Arnold is simply marvelous and doing Cydus a lot of service,
because his Japanese counterpart is annoying as hell.

On the other side, I really don't like the FF XIII dub.
Most of the characters are annoying and sound little off.

In Crystal Bearers, the dub wasn't bad, but I liked the Japanese better. So there again goes + for the US dub.
Unfortunately, in FF series, there is no voice option, otherwise you will get the International Asian version.

Dragon Ball is no-brainer for me, I'm familiar with Japanese version more, so these are my primary voices I'm used to and like.

Well and the worst I heard are dubs in KOEI series Dynasty and Samurai Warriors!!!
That's something so damn bad, that I had to turn the voices off and reading the subtitles only.
Well, in the original, there are familiar names from anime, like the now passed away voice actor of Dragon Shiryu and Tenshinhan, Hirotaka Suzuoki (Damn, he is Doltakki in GT????!!) and lot more from Dragon Ball and other familiar classic series.
Again, no voice option.
Well, we have a lot of luck, to get change voice option in Dragon Ball games, because most of the games don't have it.

So on 90%? I'm going for Japanese

[VegettoEX]

What's the original language for the property? That's my choice.

For DBZ games and me, it's a no-brainer -- all Japanese, all the way. Hell, I bought a Japanese PS2 to go back and pick up the DBZ / Budokai games in Japanese since we originally got them all dub-only (this is before the Budokai 3 re-release). That paid off in spades when the Sparking! series got replacement music internationally...

Everything else is, as I noted above, whatever the original language is for the game/series/property. I gotta give mad props to Marvel vs Capcom 3 for the *amazing* "Original" language selection (I think that's what it's called...?), where it will individually toggle character voices (so, for example, Street Fighter characters will all be in Japanese, but the Marvel characters will all be in English).

(Kinda sucks that Toshiyuki Morikawa wasn't back for the latest games, but Hiroki Takahashi does a close-enough Ryu...)

[Kaboom]

The only reason I tend to switch my DB games (and this really only applies to BT3 anyway) over to English is to hear, and likewise understand, the clever pre-battle banter between the characters.

[DarkGokuZ]

The original language. When I play anime games like Dragon Ball its japanese, and when I play games like Infamous its english.

[Savage68]

With Dragon Ball, I don't really have much of a choice, but I would easily be listening to it with the original voices on. For games like Street Fighter IV and Marvel 3, I'll listen to a character's English voice if I like it more for that character (Cody speaking English, being able to understand Boxer). Kinda weird, since I used to be totally against that sort of thing and I would've just stuck with an all-Japanese cast on principle. But it seems to be working out so far.

[Thanos]

If it's something I'm familiar with, like Dragon Ball, it's Japanese all the way, except for text, of course. It still seems like many people are under the impression that there's the English dub, and then there's the Japanese voices, when in fact there are tons of dubs from all over the world. T the original voices are best all the way to me. Having replayed the same story innumerable times, it's safe to say that I'm not missing anything by not hearing their dialogue... but games usually have subtitles. Thank Atheismo for that (for what-if's).

But if it's something I have no familiarity with the property, or it's a new game with the option to switch between voices, I'll use English voices. I'm not really an anime fan outside of Dragon Ball anymore, so, I don't feel the need to always switch to Japanese if the option is available. The exception is if the English voices and acting are awful (which is often the case... especially for dubbed games). Chief example among such games would be Soul Calibur II. Goodness, what terrible acting.

For games like Street Fighter IV and Marvel 3, I'll listen to a character's English voice if I like it more for that character (Cody speaking English, being able to understand Boxer).

Ironically, the English voice actor for Ryu in Street Fighter IV is also the guy responsible for voicing Teen Gohan in the English Dub of Dragon Ball Z, which annoys me. I guess Street Fighter would be another exception for switching to Japanese voices--Street Fighter II was one of the first video games I ever played as a child, and the voices are fairly iconic... at least in terms of how the attacks are spoken in Japanese (if that makes any sense... I can't stand to hear an American shout "Tatsumaki Senpukyaku!"), or for Ken to sound like an arrogant yankee douche bag.

[dbboxkaifan]

Original language / Japanese audio always.

I was planning to play Ultimate Tenkaichi with the English dub when I'd buy it but they ruined my plans, Freeza's still got the old granny voice and Gohan's smoker's vocal.

And Travis voiced Cell, not Clarke. What a terrible thing they've done.

VegettoEX @ Really? Because I saw a gameplay video of Budokai 1 with Japanese audio and English subs (Taiyoken not Solar Flare -- surprisingly), there may've been an updated version, so. Still you got it better, original music than replacement international music.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

I choose the original voices in every game I play, so in anime video games, like DBZ, I choose Japanese. But in Tekken 6, some fighters speak English, and others Japanese. It's so funny when characters like Jin(JP) and Eddie(ENG) have a serious argument together.

[VegettoEX]

VegettoEX @ Really? Because I saw a gameplay video of Budokai 1 with Japanese audio and English subs (Taiyoken not Solar Flare -- surprisingly), there may've been an updated version, so. Still you got it better, original music than replacement international music.

Europe received versions of Budokai and Budokai 2 that had the original Japanese voice cast with English subs (though the subs weren't all that great -- pretty sure this is where the "aunt sallies" line from Vegeta came from).

[DonieZ]

When it somes to DB, I always play in English, I grew up with that and that only, so it makes sense. I think I've only watched the show in Japanese once, one of the movies, Slug; had it on video (and I didn't particularly enjoy it).

However, for other anime such as Naruto and other's, I prefer Japanese. I only switch between the two in the games 'cos I'm curious to see how the English voices of some character's sound. But then it begins to sound unnatural so I change back to and stick with Japanese. Aside from anime games, I think I usually use English or whatever's default. I like how Tekken is too with the mix.

[Rory]

VegettoEX @ Really? Because I saw a gameplay video of Budokai 1 with Japanese audio and English subs (Taiyoken not Solar Flare -- surprisingly), there may've been an updated version, so. Still you got it better, original music than replacement international music.

Europe received versions of Budokai and Budokai 2 that had the original Japanese voice cast with English subs (though the subs weren't all that great -- pretty sure this is where the "aunt sallies" line from Vegeta came from).

Slight correction; the European (at least the UK) version of Budokai 2 had the FUNimation voices, without an option to switch (though the Gamecube port has the original Japanese cast).

[dbboxkaifan]

That "aunt sally" got me stuck thinking what it actually meant, because Vegeta would never say something like that.

Aunt Sally: A traditional throwing game.

The game was traditionally played in British pubs and fairgrounds. An Aunt Sally was originally a figurine head of an old woman with a clay pipe in her mouth, or subsequently a ball on a stick. There are also other theories on how the game started, one such theory is that a live chicken was placed on the stick, and people would throw sticks at it. Whoever killed it, won, and took home the chicken. Another theory is that in Oxfordshire Port meadow at the time of the cavaliers, the cavaliers were bored with nothing to do and formed a game with sticks and makeshift materials similar to what the game is today. The object was for players to throw sticks at the head in order to break the pipe. The game bears some resemblance to a coconut shy or skittles.

Today, the game of Aunt Sally is still played as a pub game in Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. The ball is on a short plinth about 10 cm high, and is known as a 'dolly'. The dolly is placed on a dog-legged metal spike a metre high and players throw sticks or short battens at the dolly, trying to knock it off without hitting the spike. Successfully hitting the dolly off is known as a "doll", however if the spike is hit first then the score does not count and is called an "iron".

[Super Sonic]

In Final Fantasy X for example, I curiously found the english dub better then Japanese.
Really top-notch dub and James Taylor Arnold is simply marvelous and doing Cydus a lot of service,
because his Japanese counterpart is annoying as hell.

On the other side, I really don't like the FF XIII dub.
Most of the characters are annoying and sound little off.

Did they do things different for those games in Europe? Over here, while I don't know about PSP games like Dissidia, etc, but console games by Square/Square Enix are English only without a Japanese option.

I choose the original voices in every game I play, so in anime video games, like DBZ, I choose Japanese. But in Tekken 6, some fighters speak English, and others Japanese. It's so funny when characters like Jin(JP) and Eddie(ENG) have a serious argument together.

My friend had SSFIV with the Americans, Europeans and Bison and Seth speaking English, and the Asians, El Fuerte and Blanka speaking Japanese. Though he did also have Zangief in Japanese because he liked his Engrish.

With Dragon Ball, I don't really have much of a choice, but I would easily be listening to it with the original voices on. For games like Street Fighter IV and Marvel 3, I'll listen to a character's English voice if I like it more for that character (Cody speaking English, being able to understand Boxer). Kinda weird, since I used to be totally against that sort of thing and I would've just stuck with an all-Japanese cast on principle. But it seems to be working out so far.

Boxer? Do you mean Dudley?

Will have to say with MvC3 I never actually looked at the options screen so I didn't know you could change by individually. One of the reasons I didn't want it in Japanese as I didn't want to hear Spider-Man and Wolverine in Japanese. That's also why I do the same for SCIV as I play as Yoda and the Apprentice and don't want to hear them in Japanese either. That and Xianghua's Wendee Lee. (I'm a big Wendee Lee fan and will play a game or watch an anime with her in it on that justification.

[JulieYBM]

Everything else is, as I noted above, whatever the original language is for the game/series/property. I gotta give mad props to Marvel vs Capcom 3 for the *amazing* "Original" language selection (I think that's what it's called...?), where it will individually toggle character voices (so, for example, Street Fighter characters will all be in Japanese, but the Marvel characters will all be in English).

(Kinda sucks that Toshiyuki Morikawa wasn't back for the latest games, but Hiroki Takahashi does a close-enough Ryu...)

Ah, but what if the Japanese voices of the American characters are recorded first? Aren't they then the voices of the characters for the game? Of course, I'm no expert on how the game was recorded, but coming from a Japanese developer I'd think that all voice production is done at home in Japan first.

[Savage68]

Boxer? Do you mean Dudley?

Boxer, Claw and Dictator are helpful nicknames given to the three characters who've had their names switched around in the American versions of Street Fighter games. M. Bison became Balrog, Vega became M. Bison, Balrog became Vega...

Will have to say with MvC3 I never actually looked at the options screen so I didn't know you could change by individually. One of the reasons I didn't want it in Japanese as I didn't want to hear Spider-Man and Wolverine in Japanese.

None of the Marvel characters have an option for Japanese voices. And some of the characters on Capcom's side never even had Japanese voices outside of that game, oddly.

[Super Sonic]

Boxer? Do you mean Dudley?

Boxer, Claw and Dictator are helpful nicknames given to the three characters who've had their names switched around in the American versions of Street Fighter games. M. Bison became Balrog, Vega became M. Bison, Balrog became Vega...

Will have to say with MvC3 I never actually looked at the options screen so I didn't know you could change by individually. One of the reasons I didn't want it in Japanese as I didn't want to hear Spider-Man and Wolverine in Japanese.

None of the Marvel characters have an option for Japanese voices. And some of the characters on Capcom's side never even had Japanese voices outside of that game, oddly.

Oh, ok. Like I said I never looked at the options screen. Just went straight to playing and the occasional look at the extras. And I never heard those grand masters referred to by nicknames before. Though I know about the name changes, and get reminded at times when I cosplay Balrog.

[MCDaveG]

VegettoEX @ Really? Because I saw a gameplay video of Budokai 1 with Japanese audio and English subs (Taiyoken not Solar Flare -- surprisingly), there may've been an updated version, so. Still you got it better, original music than replacement international music.

Europe received versions of Budokai and Budokai 2 that had the original Japanese voice cast with English subs (though the subs weren't all that great -- pretty sure this is where the "aunt sallies" line from Vegeta came from).

Well, French HQ of Namco Bandai is responsible for retarded english subtitles, as France is the ataché for Japanese games from Bandai in Europe since SNES, nowadays it looks like we are getting simply US versions with added few European languages or simply PAL version.

(Budokai 1 subs) Always reminds me of Pascal Sauvage

[DBZ Mick]

I play the games in Japanese. I really, really wish that Sparking Meteor/ BT3 had the Japanese soundtrack... I would be playing it more often if it did...

VegettoEX @ Really? Because I saw a gameplay video of Budokai 1 with Japanese audio and English subs (Taiyoken not Solar Flare -- surprisingly), there may've been an updated version, so. Still you got it better, original music than replacement international music.

Here in Australia the Budokai 1 I owned for a day, had ONLY the original Japanese.