... and while I'm waiting for that to finish (oh, why are you so damn slow at installing games, PS3?) I'd like to share my thoughts on Ayesha before playing the game and then we'll see how much they might change (or not) while I'm playing through it... ;>
- I'm a little disappointed that the game has no dual-audio. I'm not exactly that much into Japanese dubs, tho I admittedly have this huge crush on Takehito Koyasu's voice, but I do find a lot of American dubs rather unpleasing to the ears. It's mostly the girl characters, with way older woman trying to voice a teenage girl, that get annoying to me easily... Japanese voice actresses can somehow pull this off, but I've never heard a good dub in a non-Asian language where a 30+ old woman can pull off a 16 y/o girl's voice. I haven't heard any of the US voice actors besides Ayesha's so far, but I'm a little scared that I won't like the voices much. I think British voice actors would suit the Atelier series' style so much more, since the city designs always have such a European style (and I think the original PSOne games were set in Germany?) - but oh well, let's see how I feel about the voice acting when I play the game... maybe it's not that bad. :)
- I really love the new art style. As I've seen many mention before, I agree that the new artist's style suits the 3D cel shading models a lot more! The animations of the characters still feel a little bland tho, from what I've seen in videos and lip synching is pretty much non-existent. But still, I think it looks the best out of all the Atelier games so far and I like the simplistic menu design a lot as well.
- I'm looking forward to the story and characters a lot, since this time the theme is a bit more mature compared to the Arland series... not that I didn't find the cuteness of the Arland series charming and all, but I really like me some good drama, so yay!
Well, game's installed, so let's see how much I'll love this game then... :)
I have to get through my other Atelier games first! Too... many... games... I'm sure it's a 'problem' most people won't sympathize with, lol
ReplyDeleteThe dual audio thing - I've been seeing that come up a lot. I only use the English, so it doesn't bug me, but I know a lot of players are annoyed with it. Looking forward to your impressions!
I don't mind if there's only an English dub, if the English dub has high quality, like blockbuster movies and games, but sadly, video games rarely have great dubs and the Japanese voices are often times a lot more bearable (or easier to blend out?) than the US ones... of course there's a few reaaally awesome English dubs (like, basically everything these guys had their hands in: http://www.side.com/work/video_game_work/) and if this was the standard for video game dubs, you wouldn't hear me complain at all.
ReplyDeleteBut often you get something like this, which can be utterly game destroying: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zygDzAkothQ
And I really hate being forced to completely turn off the voices coz they sound awfuly, why bother with dubbing a game anyway, if it's just a half-assed dub that no one wants to listen to... and pay for.
Well, German (video game) dubs are most of the time even worse (but if they are good, they are incredibly awesome..), but only like 1 out of 10 games even gets one.
I think there's this HUGE difference between voice actors that had a proper education at a good acting school and those that didn't. And a lot of video games end up being voiced by those that didn't... or at least it sounds like that. All of the Atelier game US dubs sound like that. (I'd really recommend playing them in Japanese, especially the Arland games, since there is just SO many cute/moe characters that sound absolutely ridiculous in English... and there's the fact that Rufus is voiced by Takehito Koyasu in Atelier Meruru.... ;D)
So far I don't really like Ayesha's voice, she sounds forced... like the voice actress is trying way to hard to make her sound bubbly and cute... Ernie sounds like a douchebag and the only one with a great voice that even shows situation-fitting emotion is Keithgriff. He sounds like a proper older gentleman, voiced by a dude of a similar age... I'm not far into the game yet, but so far I really like it. And maybe Ayesha would be a better start for the Atelier series than the other ones. There's a lot less pressure about time (whereas the Arland series, especially the first two games, has you constantly keep track of the date so you won't miss events/quests etc...) which means you are more free to do what you want, which is a huge plus if you've got no idea how these games are played. :)
Well, miruki, count me in as someone who's looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this game! I've never played an Atelier game myself, but I've long been curious about them. Who knows, maybe your posts about this one will give me the push I need to pick one up :)
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