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Is Nintendo ever going to stop being stupidly cheap and hire good union VAs.
- Thread starter ItWasMeantToBe19
- Start date
It's hardly reductive when VA is usually the highest cost of localization (when voices are involved at all).
If you look at the budget, they will use the same translation for text localization for different regions. US and UK usually get the same text despite having varying dialects just within our own countries, Spanish is usually Castellano which is very different from most Latin American Spanish (even though it's referred to as Castellano in most Latin American countries), etc. In these cases it ends up coming down to more of a translation than a localization.
I actually thought Zelda was the worst VA by far. So much so that I had to switch to French which was so much better.
But yes overall I agree with your sentiment
Even Treehouse people on Twitter said that the LA dub was the best one, too bad the script lost a lot of flavor in the translation.
I think the thread title should put focus on the english dubs since, for example, the japanese voice casting of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was very stacked and I doubt it was cheap at all.
Here's where I stand regarding union VAs for Nintendo games...
- Not all non-union VAs are bad, with the likes of Funimation & Bang Zoom proving that. Going non-union is perfectly fine for more niche games like Fire Emblem.
- With regards to games like Zelda & Smash, they should definitely be unionized. Street Fighter V was a union production as far as I'm aware, so Smash Ultimate doesn't have an excuse as to why it's non-union.
- ADRs are just as important as the VAs themselves. Look no further than Fox in Smash Wii U/3DS as an example of an ADR doing a poor job directing a great voice actor (Mike West has been Fox's VA since SF64 & sounds fine in Star Fox Zero & Smash Ultimate).
Well, one of us has bad info on how unions work, then. The thing is, I find SAG-AFTRA portal hard to navigate, so I can't confirm it...
I'm pretty sure "union productions" have to be based only on union actors. There are exceptions, but they're weird. "Non-union" productions are supposed to ne other way around. But... you know. Pseudonyms.
So Smash would outright have to be non-union, unless Nintendo wanted to flip all union.
There are points where you can tell that they were rushed for time (Rex screaming, pretty much everything out of Perun's mouth), but both from the actors themselves and the efforts they went to differentiating all of the different continents in terms of accent diversity, NOE did a great job of creating something distinct and memorable for all the right reasons. Honestly, all of the Xenoblade games have had very, very good localizations, so I guess there's just something about how Monolithsoft communicates with whomever they're working with on the efforts that translates very well.
Where do they cast for non-union VAs? I mean don't you still have to have an agent to get cast by Nintendo? Its not like they're literally picking up random people on voices.com or posting a want ad in the Seattle Times to scrape people up off the street who haven't invested time in learning the craft I hope?
To be Union—in this case SAG-AFTRA—you first have to start off non-union. You can't just walk into the SAG office in LA, hand over $3,000, and then voila! you're Union. It has to be earned and there are various ways to that. Remember, all Union actors started off as non-union, even the biggest ones you're familiar with.
And yes, it is cheaper to higher actors who are non-union as their pay rates will be different, sometimes significantly so. But that doesn't mean that they are worse than those who are part of SAG. Less experienced, probably, but not inherently bad.
If anything, Nintendo hiring non-union probably really helped those actors' careers as they would most likely be SAG eligible following the work they did.
And yes, it is cheaper to higher actors who are non-union as their pay rates will be different, sometimes significantly so. But that doesn't mean that they are worse than those who are part of SAG. Less experienced, probably, but not inherently bad.
If anything, Nintendo hiring non-union probably really helped those actors' careers as they would most likely be SAG eligible following the work they did.
I dont know if they need union VAs, but they defintely need better people directing the voice actors. Xenoblade 2 sounds like it was either done on one take or the actors had no context.
English VA bad = Bad VA.
All other languages were fine, so maybe it was just some English VAs.
Entitled much? So if the game is only in Spanish or Japanese for its setting that is bad?
To use Capcom as an example, they have various games that range from unionized to non-union. Even with Nintendo, they unionized the productions of some games like Kid Icarus: Uprising & Code Name: STEAM. What we also have to consider is that not all Nintendo games are recorded at the same studio.
Voice acting is more about the direction than the voice talent. You do not need union voice actors in order to get a good performance. It helps but it is not necessary.
I think that it's fair to say that Xenoblade 2 was rushed to make the 2017 release date, so I'm more inclined to believe that they just did not have time available for more than a couple of takes. Some of the VAs nailed it right away, but yeah, you can tell that there are a few that needed a bit more time to pull off the right emotion for the scene.
Heheh, no.
Most anime dubs are STILL cheesy as hell. The VAs and/or direction are still below the level of Western cartoons. Even Hero Academia's dub - with good performances of All Might and Deku - had sounds and inflections that made me instantly switch back to Japanese.
Remember that Japanese VAs voice anime, games AND Japanese dubs for Hollywood film. They're far, far more respected as an industry than the people we have over here.
When Netflix and Amazon get a clue on the value of good VAs, hopefully they'll hire better VAs like Disney has with their Ghibli dubs.
Can you think of ANY scenario where a good argument against criticism and trying to improve is "well some might still not be satisfied"?
I agree a lot. A lot of the time it slows down the game and adds little value. Reading and clicking through dialogue is only a step or two removed from playing a game proper, while just listening to voice acting crosses the line into being passive and dull.
You still gotta respect dubs like the ones for Dragon Ball, JoJo Part 4, & Mob Psycho 100.
I dunno, I feel like the act of hiring Hollywood A-listers for dubs on anime is a bit of a dead end in terms of where you can go with it, especially when a lot of the folks that have done Ghibli dubs are one-and-done for VO work in general. Not to say that they're bad dubs by any stretch, and I'll even go as far as preferring Billy Crudup as Ashitaka over Yoji Matsuda, but it's hard to shake the feeling of stunt casting when you focus that much on star power over folks with real VO experience.
Jup.
I played the game in Latin American(I don't even speak the language, it's personally the best sounding.)
Hell, I listened to some English cut-scenes and Zelda seemed to be the worst of the bunch.
I have switch I love it but I got to admit nintendo isn't cheap with just VA... they check the cheap in every category. Nintendo needs managment team to be fully reworked. I seriously love nintendo titles but not the nintendo we know now.
Nintendo's English dubs are really all over the place lately. The English dub of BotW was really, really rough. I don't know what the hell happened there. Of the more recent games, I love what I've seen for NoE's work on Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and it seems like a worthy follow up to XB1's English dub. Fire Emblem Awakening was great (I have no idea if it was union or not back then?), but the Fire Emblem Fates cast was really hit or miss. I didn't realize Fire Emblem Echoes was non-union, though, so kudos!
I do agree with users saying that good direction helps a lot, as there are a lot of talented VA out there that can sound great in one game, but quite stilted in another.
Eurrghhhh, god no, the Ghibli dubs rely way too much stunt casting. A good screen actor doesn't automatically make a good voice actor. Howl's Moving Castle is a great example of the pros and cons of stunt casting - Billy Crystal was fantastic, but Christian Bale has the emotional range of a piece of wood. (I say this as a huge fan of Bale's.) Positively, I think Spirited Away is a good balance of screen actors with experienced voice actors, and it's my favorite English Ghibli dub.
I do agree with users saying that good direction helps a lot, as there are a lot of talented VA out there that can sound great in one game, but quite stilted in another.
Eurrghhhh, god no, the Ghibli dubs rely way too much stunt casting. A good screen actor doesn't automatically make a good voice actor. Howl's Moving Castle is a great example of the pros and cons of stunt casting - Billy Crystal was fantastic, but Christian Bale has the emotional range of a piece of wood. (I say this as a huge fan of Bale's.) Positively, I think Spirited Away is a good balance of screen actors with experienced voice actors, and it's my favorite English Ghibli dub.
It isnt a question of hiring better VAs, it is a question of better direction and schedule.
Thank you
Pretty sure I've read somewhere before that the lack of VA is part of Nintendo's charm or something.
I'm just glad I'm not hearing Troy Baker in a game for once. Not that I have any problem with his work, but he seems to be the go to guy for video games.
The VA in Nintendo work so far has been fair to good overall. They don't need stars to be the voices. For what it is, it works.
There's part of that too. Not every game has to be a big cinematic experience like a lot of people who jump in these threads want.
The VA in Nintendo work so far has been fair to good overall. They don't need stars to be the voices. For what it is, it works.
There's part of that too. Not every game has to be a big cinematic experience like a lot of people who jump in these threads want.
Yeah this is me. The VA wasn't really terrible to me but it could have been a lot better. Overall it didn't bring down the game's enjoyment for me.
Also OP Nintendo probably doesn't care because most of their games don't have VA in mind? Outside of like Xenoblade and other RPGs like that.
It's not necessarily only a matter of cost. I don't know the details of the union, but there may be stipulations on ownership, or specific rules about allowed re-releases or whatnot that Nintendo doesn't want to deal with.
That said, I really wish they would take whatever hit is necessary and work with unions. They could really do so much better in the voice acting department. When a tiny Atlus game like Etrian Odyssey V has way better voice acting than Breath of the Wild, you know there is a problem.
That said, I really wish they would take whatever hit is necessary and work with unions. They could really do so much better in the voice acting department. When a tiny Atlus game like Etrian Odyssey V has way better voice acting than Breath of the Wild, you know there is a problem.
