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Com_Raven

Brand Manager
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
1,103
Europa
Pretty much. They played pretty fast and loose with authenticity on a general level, though. Like the game is extraordinarily historically inaccurate on a lot of very critical levels, so I'm not surprised they also went with English as the primary language for facial animations.

That is a weird criticism though. Of course a developer whose office language is using English as the primary language the game is developed in, because it is what everyone on the team speaks. I am sure the same happens in reverse with Eastern companies developing games set in the West. Calling that an inaccuracy seems far-fetched.
 

Expy

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,876
We discussed it internally and decided that merging it with the review thread wasn't the best choice.
721331394911141888.png
 

Zyrox

One Winged Slayer Corrupted by Vengeance
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,648
One of the points in the Famitsu review was something along the lines of "not enough pretty female characters". That's some incel shit right here. Yikes.
 

Eeyore

User requested ban
Banned
Dec 13, 2019
9,029
The score itself doesn't matter but it is interesting to see that a Japanese publication didn't take extreme issue with the game in terms of cultural sensitivity. Curious to see how that discussion shakes out as the game gets into more people's hands.

There seemed to be a conscious effort to get the Japanese correct based on some of the articles linked in the review thread. We had a thread where people were making fun of the start screen earlier and reading the commentary from Japanese people it seems like it was a non issue.

Sadly there also seems to be some interpretations out there of nationalism that can permeate the narrative. Which as far as I understand it, can be representative of Japan and its struggle to come to terms with its past issues. As an American I can fully understand this. I'd hope there would be some criticism around that which doesn't seem to be the case from what I'm reading? I'll be curious as I play it to see if I see that too.

One of the points in the Famitsu review was something along the lines of "not enough pretty female characters". That's some incel shit right here. Yikes.

I'd leave it up to cultural differences but to me I don't see how it's appropriate in any language. You should not value women solely for their looks (duh). It is rather overt though if that is the actual language, hard to say with my ignorance of Japanese.
 

Deleted member 58846

User requested account closure
Banned
Jul 28, 2019
5,086
Oh, I just saw that it was Push Square who called it "Japanese gaming bible Famitsu" (no clue how I missed it the first time).

Now it makes sense.
 

Dragoon

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
11,231
If the game is meant to be an authentic and realistic look at Japanese history and they only had the budget for one set of facial animations, the primary lipflaps should've been Japanese, not English.
In the real world where games cost 100m to make at a studio where everyone speaks English and most people playing will speak English, no it shouldn't have been. I don't know why anyone would expect this game to be close to 100% accurate, unless they love being disappointed at things on a regular basis and are being disingenuous.

Obviously it would have been nice if they did it for both languages for a game like this.
 

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
116,808
In the real world where games cost 100m to make at a studio where everyone speaks English and most people playing will speak English, no it shouldn't have been.

Obviously it would have been nice if they did it for both languages for a game like this.

I think English speakers would be able to stomach English being a dub in a game set in historical Japan.
 

jett

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,687
I'm kinda not that surprised. Japan is very receptive to the idealistic, myth-like depiction of Samurai. I remember The Last Samurai also being massively successful over there, even won "best foreign movie" in their equivalent to the academy awards.

The issue with the dub is unfortunate. Makes me appreciate Square Enix's effort with FFVIIR even more, since they went the extra mile to re-animate all of the lip-syncing for English VA. It didn't look quite as good as the facial motion capture used for the Japanese VA, but it was most definitely much better than the alternative.
 

cw_sasuke

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,547
Regardless of what you think of Famitsu scores - quite impressive to see a western developed Sony first party game getting a perfect score. Kudos Sucker Punch.
 

Ferrs

Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
18,830
I'm kinda not that surprised. Japan is very receptive to the idealistic, myth-like depiction of Samurai. I remember The Last Samurai also being massively successful over there, even won "best foreign movie" in their equivalent to the academy awards.

The issue with the dub is unfortunate. Makes me appreciate Square Enix's effort with FFVIIR even more, since they went the extra mile to re-animate all of the lip-syncing for English VA.

Pretty sure they didn't reanime but used some kind of learning AI. The result is impressive for sure, but the japanese lipsync looks better in that game.
 

OSHAN

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,947
I think English speakers would be able to stomach English being a dub in a game set in historical Japan.

I would like to believe this, but I have friends who just straight-up aren't interested in watching a movie with subtitles, and if the lip-sync was off with the English track on Ghosts, they wouldn't give a damn about "authenticity." They'd think the game is broken.

For the record, it bums me out immensely the Japanese track isn't synced, but I'll live.
 

jett

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,687
Pretty sure they didn't reanime but used some kind of learning AI. The result is impressive for sure, but the japanese lipsync looks better in that game.
That's what they said (and sort of showed) in a BTS video but I'm not 100% sure if it's just an algorithm, it kinda looks too good for that, at least during cutscenes.
 

ghostcrew

The Shrouded Ghost
Administrator
Oct 27, 2017
30,428
If anyone has any deep interest in how critics etc are perceived differently in Japanese markets compared to Western markets (beyond Famitsu! This isn't a gaming only thing), there's a really great chapter about it in the FANTASTIC book 'Quit Your Band! Musical Notes From The Japanese Underground' around how it works in music. Buy the book, it's great (post not paid for by the publisher).

In Japan, openly negative reviews are more or less taboo. Number Girl/Crypt City's Kentaro Nakao told me in an interview, "The worst review I ever had was on an info card in [CD rental store] Tsutaya. It wasn't exactly bad: it just read, 'I have no idea what's going on here.'"

So confused or ironic comments from minimum-wage CD store employees aside, there are basically two kinds of Japanese music reviews. The first type are the little mini-reviews that feature in fashion or general culture magazines. These are basically copied directly from press releases by overworked or lazy writers who have no particular knowledge of or interest in music – check through a few different magazines and you'll see the exact same wording come up again and again. These reviews are essentially worthless. They're little advertisements designed to teach readers the cultural accessories they need to go with their new outfits.

The other type are the sort that appear in music magazines like Rockin' On Japan, and these are worth paying a little bit more attention to. On the surface, they're not that different from the reviews in fashion magazines – short, descriptive reviews that don't analyse the music in any critical way – but they also provide insight into the way rock music business in Japan operates.

When it started out in the 1970s, Rockin' On was a genuinely revolutionary magazine. It covered new Western rock bands like King Crimson and Led Zeppelin, which people simply couldn't get detailed information about from more mainstream sources. Rockin' On also carried important debates about the internal politics of music and the direction it should take. Even in the 1970s, however, compromises were being made in the music press, and the idea that labels could pay to feature their bands took hold pretty early in the industry's history. As the 1970s wore on, sponsorship money and industry power increasingly compromised the newly formed music press' neutrality, with only the fiercely independent Rock Magazine really standing out from its more industry-influenced rivals. In 1986, Rockin' On split off its foreign and Japanese music coverage into separate publications, and the sister magazine Rockin' On Japan came about. This domestically-focused version of the magazine, along with two annual musical events it hosts — the Rock in Japan Festival every August and the Count Down Japan festival every December – makes Rockin' On Japan a leading forum through which new Japanese rock can get noticed. This position, particularly after the closure of many rival music magazines in the 2000s, means that Japanese labels have little choice but to suck up to Rockin' On Japan in return for coverage in their magazine and consideration for its festival lineups. At the same time, magazines like Rockin' On are left entirely dependent on industry money to maintain their business model.

That's not to say that good journalism doesn't sometimes happen in Japan, but there are obvious conflicts of interest within the music media. Journalists are unable to write honestly about music and readers subsequently can't believe a word they read. Meanwhile, many labels hate the magazines and can't wait for the system of payment for coverage to crash and burn.

Martin, Ian F.. Quit Your Band! Musical Notes from the Japanese Underground . Awai Books.

It's a great read (even beyond this chapter, obviously)
 

ghostcrew

The Shrouded Ghost
Administrator
Oct 27, 2017
30,428
As far as this generation goes:

Metro Exodus: Russian and English
The Witcher 3: Polish and English
FFVII: Remake: Japanese and English

Death Stranding is a bit 50/50. It's not fully lip synced but they definitely did some work to match up the mouth movements with the Japanese dub. You can tell that the lips are making different sounds but the timing completely matches up.

 

Raigor

Member
May 14, 2020
15,195
Honest question: are there games that actually animate characters lip sync in multiple languages?

Regardless of how many games are actually doing this, this is a Samurai-based title and published/funded by a Japanese corporation, not having a dedicated JP lip sync is...weird?
 

PlayBee

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 8, 2017
5,566
Regardless of how many games are actually doing this, this is a Samurai-based title and published/funded by a Japanese corporation, not having a dedicated JP lip sync is...weird?
Not to mention how much they pushed the game as a love letter to Samurai cinema
 

Kinthey

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
22,488
Death Stranding is a bit 50/50. It's not fully lip synced but they definitely did some work to match up the mouth movements with the Japanese dub. You can tell that the lips are making different sounds but the timing completely matches up.


That's probably the most you can do when you have a game that uses performance capture for the acting
 

Favi

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,996
Honest question: are there games that actually animate characters lip sync in multiple languages?
They usually do this when the native (developer) dub language may not be the most used worldwide, so they lipsync for a second language too, often English. Of course that's only for higher profile games, since it's not very cheap.

GoT wouldn't normally need this since you'd expect western games to be played mostly in English worldwide, but it's a very particular case of Japanese being prefered for many (and also advertised by Sucker Punch itself), so there's this disconnect.
 

Eeyore

User requested ban
Banned
Dec 13, 2019
9,029
Death Stranding is a bit 50/50. It's not fully lip synced but they definitely did some work to match up the mouth movements with the Japanese dub. You can tell that the lips are making different sounds but the timing completely matches up.



Huh I'll add it to the list, seems like this topic will come up again in relation to Ghost of Tsushima :).
 

Lord Azrael

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,976
Am I wrong to find it suspect that one of the only western games they give a perfect score is rooted deeply in Japanese culture?
 

bbg_g

Member
Jun 21, 2020
801
That is a weird criticism though. Of course a developer whose office language is using English as the primary language the game is developed in, because it is what everyone on the team speaks. I am sure the same happens in reverse with Eastern companies developing games set in the West. Calling that an inaccuracy seems far-fetched.

I agree with this. I don't understand why you'd expect an english native speaking team to not prioritize their own native language in making a game. People expecting 100% accuracy in everything is an impossible and exhausting endeavour. Especially for a fictional game.
 
May 7, 2020
2,819
That is a weird criticism though. Of course a developer whose office language is using English as the primary language the game is developed in, because it is what everyone on the team speaks. I am sure the same happens in reverse with Eastern companies developing games set in the West. Calling that an inaccuracy seems far-fetched.
also more crunch for no reason
 

Eeyore

User requested ban
Banned
Dec 13, 2019
9,029
I agree with this. I don't understand why you'd expect an english native speaking team to not prioritize their own native language in making a game. People expecting 100% accuracy in everything is an impossible and exhausting endeavour. Especially for a fictional game.

Yeah I understand why people want it, they want that full immersion. And the best of both worlds would be English and Japanese lip syncing.
 
Oct 25, 2017
14,741
That is a weird criticism though. Of course a developer whose office language is using English as the primary language the game is developed in, because it is what everyone on the team speaks. I am sure the same happens in reverse with Eastern companies developing games set in the West. Calling that an inaccuracy seems far-fetched.
Not true for Capcom games.
 

Prine

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
15,724
Not to take anything away from SP, but this is hardly worth anything. Famitsu is a joke.
 

Raigor

Member
May 14, 2020
15,195
That is a weird criticism though. Of course a developer whose office language is using English as the primary language the game is developed in, because it is what everyone on the team speaks. I am sure the same happens in reverse with Eastern companies developing games set in the West. Calling that an inaccuracy seems far-fetched.

Well, Devil May Cry and Resident Evil games are lip-synced in English.
 

Lightjolly

Member
Oct 30, 2019
4,621
Not to take anything from Ghost of Tsushima, but don't these guys just give high to perfect scores like candy