Persona 5

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Atlus's PR says the game will only have an English dub. Although they are trying to include the Japanese voices, it's apparently a "monumentally massive task". Yeah, I'm sure it's a lot harder, costly, and time consuming than to dub the entire game into English

I'd be interested to know just how many Persona fans actually prefer English voices to Japanese ones. To me, it's like dubbing Yakuza games - it makes very little sense given the target audience. It's not like they don't know who the audience are, given that they keep terms like "sensei" or "sempai" in the dub, which just makes the whole thing all the more grating.

Honestly I never expected the original voices. Thus why I never cared about announcements about who the Japanese VAs were, not like we're going to hear them outside of trailers.

They just never do it. And I doubt it's overly expensive for them considering the titles that get sent to the west with only the original voices included. I'd love to have the option, but I've given up on that. At least the English dubs are usually good. There may be a voice or two I don't care for, but as a whole the dubs haven't stopped me from replaying P3 and P4 a ton of times.

Such is. I wish we'd get the option, but never really expected it.

[Kanon]

The dubs definitely aren't bad, but are they worth the effort and cost? I believe the game would sell just as well with Japanese voices. It's an anime game we're talking about, not a game with wide appeal like Final Fantasy (and even that one's getting dual audio now!). I don't really get Atlus's obsession with dubs.

It sucks even more for Europe, since English isn't even the mother tongue of the majority of us.

[MCAL]

Considering the amount of money voices cost in all those visual novel kick starters, I guess they actually cost a lot. I imagine its compounded even more by them being such big name seiyuus.

That being said English dubs that keep in Japanese honorifics are indeed very annoying.

[Kanon]

Originally Posted by MCAL

Considering the amount of money voices cost in all those visual novel kick starters, I guess they actually cost a lot. I imagine its compounded even more by them being such big name seiyuus.

That being said English dubs that keep in Japanese honorifics are indeed very annoying.

Then I guess the question is: does licensing Japanese voices cost more than making a dub from scratch?

Given that a lot of games have either Japanese voices only or dual audio nowadays (and some of them do have popular seiyuus), Atlus's inability to provide Japanese audio is quite puzzling to me.

[Mad Pierrot]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Then I guess the question is: does licensing Japanese voices cost more than making a dub from scratch?

Given that a lot of games have either Japanese voices only or dual audio nowadays (and some of them do have popular seiyuus), Atlus's inability to provide Japanese audio is quite puzzling to me.

I've been wondering that too. Apparently, having the Japanese dub would too much many based on how they regionlocked Persona 4 Arena which had the two dubs.

Also, about the covers, it really feels to censore small portions from the girls' cleavage if it will be rated "M". Even the cover of Catherine was more suggestive

Edit: Or maybe the censorship is because they are underage. I think there was some censorship in Chie's breasts in Persona 4 Golden during the Epilogue. I'm not too sure since I only played the PS2 version

[Tokkan]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Then I guess the question is: does licensing Japanese voices cost more than making a dub from scratch?

Yes, renegotiating for Japanese voices to be included does usually cost either the same or more than just making an English dub from scratch. Programming the ability to switch between audio languages is no small task either.

Also worth noting that the Japanese side of Atlus is notorious for being highly resistant in even allowing Western releases to even have Japanese voices due to reverse importing fears; P4U even had to be region locked because it had dual audio everywhere, while P4U2 wasn't region locked because only Japan had dual audio.

Originally Posted by amaterasu4

Edit: Or maybe the censorship is because they are underage. I think there was some censorship in Chie's breasts in Persona 4 Golden during the Epilogue. I'm not too sure since I only played the PS2 version

The official reason given for moving Morgana in front of Anne's breasts is because Morgana's face would end up mostly obscured by the ESRB rating if they kept same positioning as in the JP boxart.

[FlareKnight]

At this point I don't think there is a good reason for them to not have both voice options. So many more games coming over manage to leave both there as options for people to go with. I'm sure there are things to deal with and real costs involved. But I think it's a worthwhile investment.

I suppose it is a miracle to see the PR manager on twitter admitting to discussions on including it as a DLC option. That's more than I expected to hear out of anyone connected to Atlus.

Of course I could throw out complaints about gouging people that should be in the darn game. But, considering Atlus seems allergic to including that stuff period, I would gladly accept that option. We'll see what happens. Honestly I think we'll have to count on greed a bit. That kind of option could cover whatever costs are holding them up there.

[Jazzrat]

Originally Posted by Kanon

The dubs definitely aren't bad, but are they worth the effort and cost? I believe the game would sell just as well with Japanese voices. It's an anime game we're talking about, not a game with wide appeal like Final Fantasy (and even that one's getting dual audio now!). I don't really get Atlus's obsession with dubs.

It sucks even more for Europe, since English isn't even the mother tongue of the majority of us.

Despite the anime visual, the last entry manage to gain a lot of fans in non anime audience. You still need to have English dub for that portion of the fanbase. No reason to drop English dub just to move up the release date. For the series that still growing in popularity, it does need to appeal to the wider market instead of shrinking to its niche fanbase.

Also translation probably takes a lot more time and effort than VO recording sessions.

[Duo Maxwell]

Originally Posted by Kanon

The dubs definitely aren't bad, but are they worth the effort and cost? I believe the game would sell just as well with Japanese voices. It's an anime game we're talking about, not a game with wide appeal like Final Fantasy (and even that one's getting dual audio now!). I don't really get Atlus's obsession with dubs.

It sucks even more for Europe, since English isn't even the mother tongue of the majority of us.

Include Asia region now. That's also a growing userbase for console gaming.
I'll just try to spread the word about the DLC/addon possibility in hope that enough people will bug Atlus about it to the point they consider it. I wonder why such a big title like Persona can't afford the cost of including Japanese voice.

I do wish the miracle of FFXIII Asia version happen with P5, but that will remain a dream I guess.

[Klashikari]

Originally Posted by Tokkan

Also worth noting that the Japanese side of Atlus is notorious for being highly resistant in even allowing Western releases to even have Japanese voices due to reverse importing fears; P4U even had to be region locked because it had dual audio everywhere, while P4U2 wasn't region locked because only Japan had dual audio.

Reverse importing issue isn't exactly something to mention here considering it is a RPG after all, which involve toncrap of text and descriptions regarding actions, skills etc. Even if the battle system wouldn't be too hard to decipher for a JP player, the rest would be a nightmare for them. This is very different compared to P4U where you really don't care much about the interface language considering it is a fighting game.

That being said, it is very likely they just don't want to deal with seiyuu agencies, be it for contract renewals for the english version and/or additional cost with said contract and extra programming (although language switch shouldn't pose an issue depending how they code that).
There is also the usual trend "if it still sell without the jp voices, why bother with the effort/money with dual audio then?" to consider.

[Mad Pierrot]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

Reverse importing issue isn't exactly something to mention here considering it is a RPG after all, which involve toncrap of text and descriptions regarding actions, skills etc. Even if the battle system wouldn't be too hard to decipher for a JP player, the rest would be a nightmare for them. This is very different compared to P4U where you really don't care much about the interface language considering it is a fighting game.

This. I think this is main difference of Persona and Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy games tend to take about 40 hours to finish. On the other hand, Persona 4 took me almost the double and by my second playthrough I reached 100 hours

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by Duo Maxwell

Include Asia region now. That's also a growing userbase for console gaming.
I'll just try to spread the word about the DLC/addon possibility in hope that enough people will bug Atlus about it to the point they consider it. I wonder why such a big title like Persona can't afford the cost of including Japanese voice.

I do wish the miracle of FFXIII Asia version happen with P5, but that will remain a dream I guess.

Yeah, I think just spreading the word around a bit is the most we can do. After that it's just hoping for the best. Be nice if they thought it was worthwhile to get some additional sales by having that as a DLC option.

I know they make good sales even without it....but hopefully possible to convince them that you can get even more sales if you give people the option.

[Kismet-chan]

I'm happy about the NA release date because it'll give me more time to save up and actually afford things. @_@

[SidVicious]

Persona 5 details story, dungeons, Velvet Room inhabitants, and more

http://gematsu.com/2016/06/persona-5...habitants-more

[Twi]

Futaba character design is pretty nice when I look at it. She doesn't look as passive as the girl in Persona 3, but not as energetic as Rise in Persona 4.

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by Kanon

Then I guess the question is: does licensing Japanese voices cost more than making a dub from scratch?

Given that a lot of games have either Japanese voices only or dual audio nowadays (and some of them do have popular seiyuus), Atlus's inability to provide Japanese audio is quite puzzling to me.

That depends on the contract. Some seiyuu and recording studios only allow their voices to be used in Japan. When localizing companies like XSeed try to bring Trails in the Sky over years after the fact, it is a difficult task. However, given that Atlus should be fully aware the game is going to be released overseas during development, that kind of problem shouldn't apply to them...

That's not to mention how the seiyuu industry in Japan can be as big as actual actors and singers, while in America voice acting is an afterthought. It's easily possible that licensing big names like Mamoru Miyano and Mizuki Nana overseas costs more than hiring non-union actors in the States.

Originally Posted by Kanon

The dubs definitely aren't bad, but are they worth the effort and cost? I believe the game would sell just as well with Japanese voices. It's an anime game we're talking about, not a game with wide appeal like Final Fantasy (and even that one's getting dual audio now!). I don't really get Atlus's obsession with dubs.

It sucks even more for Europe, since English isn't even the mother tongue of the majority of us.

Persona may not be an AAA worldwide top seller like Final Fantasy is supposed to be, but it's far from niche. At least, not anymore. Mainline SMT, which only sells 500k copies at the most is niche. Persona sells up to a million, and has since Persona 4.

While the game itself may be distinctly Japanese anime in style, not every buyer is distinctly an anime fan. And out of all those anime fans, not all of those anime fans are hardcore moe-loving, always Japanese voices over dubs fans.

When it comes to choosing between Japanese or English dubs, they will choose English dubbing for the more casual fans all the time.

[MeoTwister5]

So the protagonist has a juvie record of sorts. The rest of the cast probably have something similar to that. I have to say the criminiality angle gets more and more intriguing with each new detail.

Also... is that P4 Brotagonist I see in the fast food screenshot?

Futaba is best girl if you do not agree then fight me.

[FlareKnight]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

So the protagonist has a juvie record of sorts. The rest of the cast probably have something similar to that. I have to say the criminiality angle gets more and more intriguing with each new detail.

Also... is that P4 Brotagonist I see in the fast food screenshot?

Futaba is best girl if you do not agree then fight me.

I'm not surprised at that. Think it'll be a unifying theme of the cast all having things that make them clash with normal society. Either pasts, personality traits, or aspects of themselves that they suppress.

I won't disagree, since I haven't really decided on one yet. Will have to wait until playing the game. May also pull back a bit on the thread just to avoid too much information. They've already got my purchase here. Just have to release the game .

[Wandering Soul]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Futaba is best girl if you do not agree then fight me.

Won't fight you on that. Based on the information we have so far I definitely agree.

[Akashin]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Also... is that P4 Brotagonist I see in the fast food screenshot?

I don't know about Yosuke, but I'm pretty sure I see a black haired Narukami.

And more of the Protagonist resembling Vincent, too.