[Game] [PS3] Umineko no Naku Koro ni ~Rondo of the Witch and Reasoning~

[KanonTheFurniture]

Originally Posted by SonozakiUshiromiya

Isn't Akaaska voiced by John Burgmeier?

As a matter of fact, he isn't.

*realizes probably no one will get that reference*

Ahem. I actually enjoyed the Higurashi dub, because that's the version I saw first. I agree that many things about it weren't particularly good (like Rena's VA trying waaaaaay too hard to be cute), but it had a charm to it. And I absolutely loved Takano, and hope that if Umineko ever gets dubbed, they get the same woman to do Eva and replicate the situation with Miki Itou. Some characters feel completely different among the two versions merely by their voices (namely, Ooishi and Irie), but somehow I think it works well enough. Certainly not one of the better dubs I've seen, but not the worst, either. I remember having an extremely hard time adjusting to watching Kai after seeing the entire first series in English because it was so vastly different, even though the acting in the Japanese version is unquestionably superior.

Sometimes it's whatever version you latch onto first that you get attached to, and you have a hard time liking any other, even if it's also good (for instance, I despise the Death Note dub, while most people seem to praise the voice cast above and beyond...I think it was just absolutely terrible; on the same token, a lot of Naruto fans got into the Japanese version first and rag on the dub, when the dub is actually a considerably good one, and I personally think his English VA sounds like the exact same voice only, y'know, speaking English).

But yeah, for Umineko, I've tried creating a fantasy English VA cast in my head before, and it really is difficult. Especially for Beatrice...I just can't imagine her voice as anyone but Ohara. Actually, the only English voice I ever heard in a fan production (in any language; the fanmade ending of EP4's VA is grating to me, I hate it) that 'felt' like Beatrice to me was in this skit. That's the 'type' of voice I'd be looking for in an English Beato (her acting was definitely part of it too, I thought she was fantastic), personally...but even then, nothing can touch Ohara. I really hope that if this ever does come to fruition, they either choose not to dub the vocal track at all, or leave the Japanese selectable

[Renall]

I'm sure they could find people, but I think the suggestion of "they give the roles to whoever wants them" is pretty accurate given that the industry is pretty incestuous (for good reasons, mind, it's a harsh mistress) and the casting directors for dubs are almost all actors themselves. I don't think they cast primarily on standard casting decisions like "who provided the best reading."

[Baru]

Originally Posted by Renall

I'm sure they could find people, but I think the suggestion of "they give the roles to whoever wants them" is pretty accurate given that the industry is pretty incestuous (for good reasons, mind, it's a harsh mistress) and the casting directors for dubs are almost all actors themselves. I don't think they cast primarily on standard casting decisions like "who provided the best reading."

This isn't true... they hold auditions. And then the ADR Directors and/or Casting Directors decide on a cast based on said auditions.
They don't usually just give roles away... this is a job, just like any other, it's not that easy.

I've listened to some great ADR Directors talk about what they do, and I can say they put a lot of thought into their casting.




On a more related note, if Umineko were to get a FUNimation dub, I'd totally love to hear Colleen Clinkenbeard voice Beato. She's played a role of Ohara's before, and she was fantastic.

[Klashikari]

As someone who is not really into English dubs, my opinion may be a tad biased. That said, I still believe making a dub would be a very poor choice for whichever publisher is doing, -regardless- of the quality of the dub.

The reasoning:
1) Let's face it: the fandom is mainly made of VN readers. And suffice to say that a good portion of it prefer original japanese than english dub (whether or not the reasons are fine or not is not my concern).
As far as it goes, a dub for Umineko will make more discontent fans than actual pleased ones.
And let's be frank: it is very unlikely that a non-niche public would be interested in a VN: the VN market is already pretty questionable in western side, so having such kind of stuff on PS3 will hardly attract your average joe who has no idea what a VN is: therefore, expecting a dub would attract those who aren't in touch with the franchise is null and void.

2) Dubbing a game is always something that will delay the production of the localized game

3) Dubbing a game costs a lot of money, and Umineko is no joke: you have like 50 characters overal, which would involve a incredible long casting (the original japanese game has it easier due to the Anime). As far as it goes, that will definitely turn the budget of the publisher in peril.

4) Probably the biggest issue I see with that: accuracy.
As you should know, Umineko has no "winning formula" for the translation, and we have to retcon a lot of things over time, because of new terminology and facts used in episodes released later.
In this day and age, this would leave into a true problem: what will happen if there was a mistake in the translated scrip that require an emergency correction in the future?
Text can be corrected with ease considering the DLC possibility, however, do you really think you can do that with voices? That's really not possible in term of manpower and budget. But leaving an inconsistency with the voice is by no mean something possible either, considering the nature of the game.

I personally see the "benefits" of dubbing way too small and insignificants compared to the faults and issues that will definitely show up in that process.
No matter how magnificent a dub may be, the above issues will kick in.

[Renall]

The issue is that for certain companies, a dub may actually be required, if only by company policy (and companies like Atlus do in fact generally require them). This wouldn't be an issue with a PC or doujin game like the original, but a PS3 release may bump into that problem. There's a lot of games that'd make more sense to release with just the original track (especially when the target audience almost exclusively is following it for the actresses), but outside of PC VNs you will practically never see that no matter how economical it is.

If anything, Umineko PS3 would probably get an "incomplete" dub, with certain characters just not voiced at all on the English track. And I imagine many people would rather they not halfass it if they're going to bother at all, but that's the wacky way the console industries work for some reason. Even though the target audience - VN readers - probably don't care.

[rogerpepitone]

As for the "consistency with future releases" part:

By the time an English company could finish even negotiating a contract, EP 8 will be out, and all mysteries will be revealed. Even ignoring the imminent release of EP 8, I think that Ryu will be more willing to reveal things to a commercial translator under NDA than he would to The Witch Hunt (similar to how staffers on the manga and anime knew some future details). (IIRC, translators of Harry Potter knew future details of the series to be able to translate things like RAB.)

[Marion]

I agree with Klashikari on this- there's little to no chance Umineko is going to be localized and brought overseas. Umineko is a Visual Novel: there isn't any choice system and you can compare it to a digitalized picture book with a giant storyline. It would attract the current fanbase, but that's it. The chance of it garnering a new crowd is very slim in a market where the most popular games are fighting/first person shooters at this current time.

On that note Higurashi's Alchemist ports were never localized either and it's still considered to have a larger gathering than Umineko in terms of fanbase. If those games never got localized what makes you think Umineko will?

[Renall]

I don't think they're unaware. They just want it to be. No harm in asking, right? It's a company's decision if they take a risk on it and get burned by poor sales, after all.

[sona-nyl]

Originally Posted by Marion

I agree with Klashikari on this- there's little to no chance Umineko is going to be localized and brought overseas. Umineko is a Visual Novel: there isn't any choice system and you can compare it to a digitalized picture book with a giant storyline. It would attract the current fanbase, but that's it. The chance of it garnering a new crowd is very slim in a market where the most popular games are fighting/first person shooters at this current time.

On that note Higurashi's Alchemist ports were never localized either and it's still considered to have a larger gathering than Umineko in terms of fanbase. If those games never got localized what makes you think Umineko will?

The difference is that most higurashi fans haven't read the VN and most of those who have certainly haven't payed for it.

But Umineko had a large western fanbase even before the anime and a lot of the fans had bought the VN (In fact I think most had)

While the higurashi VN is heavily pirated.

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by HanyuuChan

But Umineko had a large western fanbase even before the anime and a lot of the fans had bought the VN (In fact I think most had)

I really don't want this discussion to continue this way, but I must say that this kind of comment is really naive.
For all it is worth, I would be really surprised if even 30% of the fanbase actually bought the doujin game.
We saw a lot of people sharing their pictures of their bought copies, but honestly, I can't see it past 1000-2000 persons doing that among the western community.

[Witch of Uncertainty]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

I really don't want this discussion to continue this way, but I must say that this kind of comment is really naive.
For all it is worth, I would be really surprised if even 30% of the fanbase actually bought the doujin game.
We saw a lot of people sharing their pictures of their bought copies, but honestly, I can't see it past 1000-2000 persons doing that among the western community.

Well, the PS3 is near impossible to hack (it as done once, but a patch quickly fixed that), so anyone who would be interested in playing that version would pretty much have to buy it, though.
How many people who are willing to pay for it, however..

[sona-nyl]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

I really don't want this discussion to continue this way, but I must say that this kind of comment is really naive.
For all it is worth, I would be really surprised if even 30% of the fanbase actually bought the doujin game.
We saw a lot of people sharing their pictures of their bought copies, but honestly, I can't see it past 1000-2000 persons doing that among the western community.

I meant of the ones who are active in the fan community but I agree that my comment was childish, I'm not really that good at english and have a hard time puttng my feelings into words in that language. But I agree with you most probably didn't buy, but if you look at the VN community as whole (especially the eroge part) there is even fewer who actually buys their games.

[chronotrig]

Well, I've managed to get in touch with NISA, and it sounds like they aren't interested in Umineko at the moment. If a localization is to come, it looks like it probably won't be coming from them.

[catastrophe8]

Originally Posted by chronotrig

Well, I've managed to get in touch with NISA, and it sounds like they aren't interested in Umineko at the moment. If a localization is to come, it looks like it probably won't be coming from them.

Awww... Thanks for the news though

[Kite22]

I don't think an English dub would really prevent people from buying Umineko because they don't like the voices, as long as a Japanese audio option is included they can switch over whenever they feel like it. Voice Acting wouldn't be a problem since that would follow the script, and if their was an error (as mentioned that's very unlikely since 8 will be out long before it would be released, assuming it WAS licensed. Even then one would assuming They would be in contact with Ryukishi who would make sure no mistakes are made) they could easily change it via a patch.

[Used Can]

Spoiler for Just Saiyan:

[Qaenyin]

Originally Posted by Kite22

I don't think an English dub would really prevent people from buying Umineko because they don't like the voices, as long as a Japanese audio option is included they can switch over whenever they feel like it. Voice Acting wouldn't be a problem since that would follow the script, and if their was an error (as mentioned that's very unlikely since 8 will be out long before it would be released, assuming it WAS licensed. Even then one would assuming They would be in contact with Ryukishi who would make sure no mistakes are made) they could easily change it via a patch.

I think that although an english dub wouldn't prevent people from buying Umineko it would be unlikely to draw in people who wouldn't buy it anyways, whereas making it dub only would potentially alienate people if they botch the casting.

There really is nothing wrong with releasing stuff stateside in their original language. Heck, look at Ever17. That had some translation and formatting errors and was in japanese audio with english text and was probably the best selling visual novel stateside to the point where it basically kept hirameki afloat through like 3 or 4 failed other projects until they went bankrupt.

[InternHertz]

Mine's preordered for a while now, with the two pens to boot. Wanted the dakimakura cover also but that wasn't possible.
I'll probably never use the pens though, I want to keep them in mint condition.

[MainCharacter]

Originally Posted by chronotrig

Well, I've managed to get in touch with NISA, and it sounds like they aren't interested in Umineko at the moment. If a localization is to come, it looks like it probably won't be coming from them.

That's a generic response any company would give at this point. I mean, I'm in the "yeah this is never going to happen" camp myself with this, but it's definitely not like we have been told it is never going to happen. NISA will probably at least consider it given the fan movement going on at their forums.

[winkel]

Originally Posted by chronotrig

Well, I've managed to get in touch with NISA, and it sounds like they aren't interested in Umineko at the moment. If a localization is to come, it looks like it probably won't be coming from them.

Honestly I am not surprised. The forum topic has about 122 pages, yet also only 122 votes for yes. That proves that it is simply a vocal minority that exists that want the game. No company is going to take the chance and work on a game like that unless they see the hype and interest level is worth the effort, as in large numbers of people, not just the loud voices of a few fans.