Discussion: Japanese Language in Games

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Japanese language has come to videogames to stay. Ever since they began to make games in Japan we have felt somewhat excluded. Before we get to play the games, the Western world has had to wait for translations from a language completely different from ours. Those who visit Japan or perhaps download illegal copies from the Internet may get the games once they are released in their native land, but they are let down because the games don't have roman alphabet everywhere. Yes, I know many games do have some commands and such in English in the Japanese versions as well, but for instance most RPGs require a knowledge of Japanese if you want to play the original versions.

With animes, movies and other stuff boosting the growing interest on Japanese language and culture also videogames have followed the suit. Nowadays they speak Japanese even in European or US versions of games. In Dead or Alive series for instance, you may choose between English and Japanese and even the characters who are supposed to be native Europeans or such speak fluent Japanese. I played Tekken 5 today and noticed this Chinese girl Ling Xiaoyu speaks Japanese so quickly that subtitles are a must. We also see Japanese characters in walls, logos etc. in games, as in the Shinra company logo decorating Midgar in Final Fantasy VII (shinra = the net of gods).

Even in games of western origin like GTA2 we hear Japanese!

So what do we TPMers think of the usage of Japanese language in video- or perhaps computer games? What are your experiences in this? Have you ever played a game in Japanese?

As for myself, I started studying Japanese back in 1999 the reason being a videogame. It was originally because I wanted to play a pirate import of Final Fantasy VIII. I soon got a legal English version of the game, but I kept on studying. Next game I played in Japanese was probably Pokemon Green on emulator. I intended to play it through before trying the European versions, but gave up because I always checked the unfamiliar words from dictionaries and it took really long to play the game. I have also either played some other games in Japanese or helped friends of mine to play them. Of course, in games where you choose the speech language like Dead or Alive 2 I mentioned I always pick Japanese.

I think it's good that games have Japanese language these days. It brings good diversity in my opinion. Sometimes it's annoying because I see strange characters in walls or the persons speak too quickly but you can always learn something new. We Finns have a language quite different from English as well so Japanese in games must help you understand how we feel when we play English games. What's your opinion?

[Blademaster]

As long as I have subtitles or can at least understand the game well enough to know what the fuck is going on without having to read it in a FAQ, I'm good; they could put the game in fucking Maori for all I care as long as I can at least get SOMETHING out of it in terms of story.

[Drago]

Without subtitles, it's useless to me - if there's going to be a lot of dialogue, I want to be able to know what's being said. Whether or not I use the Japanese language option varies from game to game - in every Sonic game, I'll be sure to switch the voices to Japanese if I can, simply to drown out the horrible English voice actors. Basically, if the English voice acting in a game is good, I'll stick with it. Most of the time, I can't tell if the Japanese voice actors are doing a bad job, so I don't have to worry about it.
...Need more games like Star Fox 64. I don't care what anyone else says, I think it had fantastic voice acting. And if you didn't like it you could get them to say amusing gibberish. Win-win!

[PNT510]

I played the game Enchanted Arms for Xbox last year. It's a decent JRPG. The thing I liked about it most was I was able to turn off the English language voice acting and use the original Japanese audio with subtitles instead. I can't understand Japanese so I don't know if the voice acting was bad. I do know it was nice not having to listen to the screechy American voices.

[Starry Might]

First of all, are you sure there's English voice acting in "Dead or Alive 2"? I have that game for the Dreamcast, and as far as I know, it's all Japanese voice acting with English subtitles.

Anyhow, I'm NOT an otaku, and I don't hate most English voice acting in games. However, I'm okay with Japanese voice acting in games (["SSBB" Spoiler](Spoiler:) and I LOVE Marth's voice in "Super Smash Bros. Melee" and "Brawl!" <3 ^_^[/"SSBB" Spoiler]).

[Heald]

I don't usually import games and I can never really be bothered to check if I can change the voices in games. I did import the two Ouendan games and Jump! Ultimate Stars games and managed to play both with little difficulty, so it is hardly a concern to me. If the story is all in Japanese, I don't really mind. If it is unplayable because I can't understand any instructions, then I do have a bit of an issue there, but as I said, I don't really import games.

[Weasel Overlord]

For a long time, I wanted to import the Full Metal Alchemist game in Japanese. BUT then it came out over here and turned out to suck about as much cock as any game I've ever played. So now it doesn't matter.

My copy of Ouendan! should be arriving this week. Glee! (tis a Japanese language game, but since it's just a beat-dance game it doesn't matter).

OH wait, no, there IS a reason I want a Japanese import. Final Fantasy XII: International Zodiac Job System. Which, unlike its title suggests, is NOT international. The buggers put in 12 separate Licence Boards, one for each Job. Jammy Japanese! I want it soooo badly.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

First of all, are you sure there's English voice acting in "Dead or Alive 2"? I have that game for the Dreamcast, and as far as I know, it's all Japanese voice acting with English subtitles.

Well the PS 2 version has English speech at least. EVERYTHING IS MY DELUSION! I might remember wrong because like I said, I never play the game in English.

And DragoKnight, I liked the English voice actors in Lylat Wars, (it's the same game, isn't it??) too. Hey Einstein I'm on your side!

[Drago]

Ayane's English voice actor in DOA2 is enough to abandon the English language altogether. Absolutely dreadful.

[Starry Might]

Well the PS 2 version has English speech at least. EVERYTHING IS MY DELUSION! I might remember wrong because like I said, I never play the game in English.

Ah, okay!

[Little_Pikachu]

I would never bother getting a RPG that was all in Japanese or a similar, say, puzzle type game which was really text heavy.

Things like fighting games aren't so bad, they might have a story mode, but it will be irrelevant, all you need to do is have your guy beat up the CPU guy to advance, so you don't need to understand the story. I can ready Japanese so it's easy enough to work out how to start up the right game type for the most part for pick up and play games like beat-em-ups, but I couldn't be bothered with translating a whole RPG or flicking back to an FAQ every 3 seconds, so I'd wait for a text heavy game to come out in English.

As for Japanese speaking characters in games which are translated into English e.g. sexy Marth in SSBM I have no problems with that. So the masses playing the games probably don't know what he's saying, but he's a character from a game which hasn't been hugely Americanised in the way that the Mario characters have so it's ok with them keeping tradtional voices.

Bits and pieces in games, such as random kanji on signs etc in an otherwise fully English speaking game. People should know where their games come from, if it's an important part of the story then it will get explained to them, otherwise they should just sit back and soak up some culture of the country that brought them such niceties.

Spoken words in games, it's debatable. Games like Tekken where there are a few people from different countries, it'd be good if they all spoke their own language with subs and that should be the natural line of things, then you could have an English dub option, but if that's the case, there should not then be an additional 'Japanese dub' option on an English game as the original version would be everyone speaking their own language, NOT JAPANESE. But I don't actually know if games are like that, so that whole paragraph is probably a bit stupid.
But for games where all the characters are Japanese e.g. Dragon Ball Z fighty games, there should be a sub and dub option, as you are playing the English version of the game, but the orginal voices of all the characters were in Japanese.


I really hope this makes sense to someone, I was in Japan just 24 hours ago and I haven't slept since then so I'm still buzzing with ideas of things to do with it. Oh, Weasel, enjoy Ouendan, I just got back into it and i'm totally hooked again, watch out, it's too addictive.

[Mikachu Yukitatsu]

Spoken words in games, it's debatable. Games like Tekken where there are a few people from different countries, it'd be good if they all spoke their own language with subs and that should be the natural line of things, then you could have an English dub option, but if that's the case, there should not then be an additional 'Japanese dub' option on an English game as the original version would be everyone speaking their own language, NOT JAPANESE. But I don't actually know if games are like that, so that whole paragraph is probably a bit stupid.

In Tekken 5, there are conversations where they speak more than one language. For instance if I heard right, in one scene Asuka Kazama speaks Japanese to Feng Wei who replies in Chinese I think. And Marshall Law (who is actually Chinese) speaks English to Jinpachi who replies in Japanese. The idea sure brings diversity and perhaps they still understand each other, but is that a way people who don't know each other too well talk? I mean like in bilingual household the parents may speak different languages to each other but I don't know if it suits here.