Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

[Splintered]

There's very little that gets better than Gideon Emery as Balthier. But Rachel's Fang is a close second.

I think the speech style definitely gives it a flare, and using different kind of accents. I don't know if there was done similarly in the Japanese version (ie use of different styles of English and different accents).

 

[Fangu]

idk, I've been watching a LR:XIII speedrun today (as I've been in my sofa with fever all day) in Japanese, and I have to say, I think that at least for that game, JP Lightning > Ali Hillis, because Ali seemed kind of uninspired for LR (and I don't blame her ) I'm a big fan of Maaya Sakamoto though.

Fang's English VA is amazing, but so is her JP. She portrays a... kind of a different Fang? Just like JP Fran is very different from ENG Fran.

Overall I think XIII's ENG cast is amazing - even Vanille; the only quarrel I have with her ENG VA is that she simply wasn't experienced enough for the job, and it shines through. Her JP VA manages to portray the journey meant for Vanille much better. (She's meant to be all bubbly - overly bubbly, because that's just her surface.)

I have great love for Snow's ENG VA, but then again we all know what a booming career he had post XIII, so I'm not surprised at all I put him over the JP one.


I want to play XIII with JP audio because I want the experience. Quite often I find that the original dub of a game/show/movie, even if intended to be International, give off a unique feel that, looking at the total picture, can be hard to replicate (and I say replicate as in, mirroring the translation with words/VA's/etc to replicate the matching feel in a different culture, because translation is never ever literal) and sometimes, even if you don't understand the words, original audio might give off a feel that a localization in a language you know can't match.

Then again, nothing is ever dubbed into Norwegian, except children's shows. Everything is subbed, and dubbing has always felt like "the second choice" to me. Not that localization teams can't do an awesome job (XII is really amazing) but there's something about... idk, you can serve me Nasi Lemak in Norway, but it would still taste better when eaten in Malaysia?

This is very hard to explain and I'll keep doing my best. Sorry.

I think the speech style definitely gives it a flare, and using different kind of accents. I don't know if there was done similarly in the Japanese version (ie use of different styles of English and different accents).

Are you talking about XII or XIII? For XII, not accents or dialects (the "Archadians are British" thing was a choice from the localization director) but 'generation speak', aye. For XIII, I have no idea.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Given what we now know about the process of doing the recordings for XIII from that interview with one of the translators, I find it even way more impressive than before.

I want to play XIII with JP audio because I want the experience. Quite often I find that the original dub of a game/show/movie, even if intended to be International, give off a unique feel that, looking at the total picture, can be hard to replicate (and I say replicate as in, mirroring the translation with words/VA's/etc to replicate the matching feel in a different culture, because translation is never ever literal) and sometimes, even if you don't understand the words, original audio might give off a feel that a localization in a language you know can't match.

This is an interesting and valid point.

 

[Splintered]

Fang's JP voice feels more, eh, I think forceful? I like how laidback Rachel is, and she's good in all incarnations. Troy Baker and Reno Wilson are leagues better in the English version imo. I also really love English Lumina and think her va completely makes her, but that's moot for the original series.

I really liked Hope and Lightning's English VA in XIII, but felt it fell short in the next two games. I can't tell if it's because of the poor direction decisions for those characters (trying to make Lightning less human, Hope too adult and then too robotic) or if Ali and Vincent lost motivation, which also is fare considering how far off the mark they were.

I'm a big fan of Maaya Sakamoto though.

She's amazing, agreed. I've seen a lot of people argue that her Lightning is a lot more nuanced that Alli Hillis, and at least from Lightning Returns I agree. I'm just fond of Alli Hillis.

The NPCs are probably better in the Japanese version. I loved Bart's English voice actor, but Cid Raines and Yaag were annoying to listen to, I was surprised to hear that Yaag was Zevran, he's got talent but it's just that particularly voice he's making is urg.

Are you talking about XII or XIII? For XII, not accents or dialects (the "Archadians are British" thing was a choice from the localization director) but 'generation speak', aye. For XIII, I have no idea.

Yeah, I was talking about XII. So different areas had generational speak? Interesting :>

 

[Fangu]

Ugh, I wish I've saved all the stuff I've read on the topic of localization of XII somewhere

Wikipedia:

While still preserving the meaning behind the Japanese script, Smith made the decision to use different dialects of English to reproduce the regional differences in pronunciation found in the Japanese version.[70][71] He also tried to distance the game from the "flat reads" found in other dubbed work by casting voice actors who had experience in theatre work.

I can't find anything on it right now -- but in the original script, Vaan and Penelo speak more informally compared to Ashe, Basch and Balthier, who has a more mature way of speaking. (IMO it wasn't just 'regular' mature speak, but I think they speak kind of ye olden?') Damn I need to find those links, I've read so much on this topic X(

 

[Lex]

Fangu

There's a patch that allows you to play in higher resolutions which is cool, will you be using that? Also, since I won't be able to play this (I would actually buy it again if I had a PC that could run it lol) could you possibly stream it? I feel the same way you do about wanting to experience it with the JP voice acting. I liked the English fine but I'm excited about the possibility of listening to the original. Real laifu OPU!!! FANGU!!! RAITUNINGU!!! BANIRRUUUUUU!!! etc.

Also yeah the filesize is 59GB lmao. I think they've just dumped the PS3 version onto a PC and gone LET'S MAKE THIS WORK. It's that size because all the cutscenes are pre-rendered. I would argue that this is one of the main reasons XIII is so "shiny" compared to its sequels though.

As a small addendum I love Fang's JP VA but nothing will beat Rachel Robinson for me, I love her (absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she once sent me a PM, nothing at all).

EDIT: OOOOOO also also, did you get my snapchat from today because I was in many stores looking for DAII and I found 3 copies of EU FFXIII with 3 different covers which made no sense to me.

 

[Blade]

Considering Maaya Sakamoto is an "Army of One" when it comes to anime voice acting, I think her role as Lighting (forget Aerith) is pretty well done on its own, but...

If you've heard her roles in other shows (and even games)... you'd really appreciate her range.

Also it should tickle VA fans to know that while Maaya voiced Aerith her REAL LIFE HUSBAND Kenichi Suzumura voiced Zack Fair in the Final Fantasy VII Compilation!

Heh.

 

[Kuja9001]

When it comes to voices I like

JP Vanille=Eng Vanille
JP Lightning
JP Snow=Eng Snow
Eng Fang
Eng Sazh
JP Hope=Eng Hope
Eng Caius
JP Bhunivelze

 

[Lex]

*drools*

 

[Clement Rage]

I am not very good at this game.

Day 3 is now over,

Spoiler

I wasted an entire day looking for the fourth number that was in an area of the map I had no access to. In Yusnaan, I didn't get the fireworks in time, so now I have to go back again, and barely looked at the other three quests, (got to Chocobo Eater, lost the battle. Got to Noel, lost the battle. And they'll only get harder as time passes. Yay.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Oh man, I have to get this game on my PC if just for the architecture design. I love Cocoon's Art Deco/Futuristic design.

 

[Blade]

I am not very good at this game.

Day 3 is now over,

Spoiler

I wasted an entire day looking for the fourth number that was in an area of the map I had no access to. In Yusnaan, I didn't get the fireworks in time, so now I have to go back again, and barely looked at the other three quests, (got to Chocobo Eater, lost the battle. Got to Noel, lost the battle. And they'll only get harder as time passes. Yay.

My advice, don't worry about time limits and big quests and just do little tasks first. Eventually you'll get stronger to tackle the bigger stuff.

Also even on hard mode, it gets to a point where you're stuck grinding with all the high priority stuff out of the way, so no need to rush.

Ideally just take the game at your own pace and ignore the clock unless it's for appointments and stuff, which is mostly 10 am and 4 pm in certain places.

 

[Clement Rage]

Calling it now. The final boss is

Spoiler

God.

I'm liking how annoyed Light is at all these quests. "Yeah, yeah, you want me to do something too."

Why did Mission Control encourage me to kill guards? They're very easy to avoid, are no benefit to fight, and are fairly innocent people.

 

[Blade]

Killing Guards is fine because:

1. They drop good items.
2. It's funny to watch the people freak out and then act like nothing bad happened.
3. They give you EP in a bind for time (if you have EP boosting items equipped).
4.

Spoiler

You end up having to kill Guards on the final day anyway

 

[Kuja9001]

Question

How does the Ultimania of this game compare to those of XIII and XIII-2?

 

[Strangelove]

lr has only had one book, so in terms of sheer volume it's the most lacking (in contrast, ffxiii and xiii-2 had two strategy books [battle and scenario], and an omega book released later).

 

[Blade]

That's such a shame... since I really wish I knew what happened with Fenrir and how Yggdrasil came to be.

 

[Kuja9001]

That sucks aside from an overload of lightning crap does the book offer any interesting info that wasn't already known?(I don't trust the Eng guide book's description about Snow).

 

[Strangelove]

i will make it my life's work to go through each book and pick out anything interesting i can find

what do the english guides say about snow?

 

[Kuja9001]

Snow uses all his mental and physical powers to absorb the Chaos that threatens Yusnaan. The more days pass, the more chaos spreads to his body. This is why, if you save him later days in the timeline, he will be stronger and look more and more like a cie’th, the very symbol of the Chaos.

I understand everything but the bolded.

 

[Clement Rage]

Four out of five main quests done now, at 3AM on Day 9. The Wildlands boss is pretty difficult. Low HP, but hard to kill because of the healing.

 

[Blade]

There's two types of Chaos as far as I understand it.

There's the normal Chaos which is infusions everyone else can observe... the stuff Snow is absorbing in to himself (which is advancing his L'Cie stages). It's like a breakdown of existence (atomic structure maybe?)

Then there's the Unseen Chaos (which is basically Yeul). This has more to do with how emotions (the heart) are comprised of chaos and produce that endless redundancy from Etro.

 

[Clement Rage]

So, I got bored on day 13 and just slept until 6am. Final Boss Time.

Spoiler

Yep, God. Just like 13-1, 12, and 10. While I haven't beaten him yet, the bossfight is a bit disappointing, it seems very similar to the Orphan fight in the OG (unless there's a third form that brings something else to the table.) Completed one trial, but I think it's unlikely I can take an earth Eater in the second one. Probably a bad idea to go into the final bossfight with only four EP. Ah well.

 

[Clement Rage]

The final boss is proving challenging. Finished the trials

Spoiler

and got Ultima Weapon, Earth Eater was the hardest fight apart from the two Arcangels. Anyway, I can't beat form 4, the one where he stops taking ordinary damage. I presume you need to stagger him, but I can't manage it quick enough.

 

[Splintered]

The final boss is proving challenging. Finished the trials

Spoiler

and got Ultima Weapon, Earth Eater was the hardest fight apart from the two Arcangels. Anyway, I can't beat form 4, the one where he stops taking ordinary damage. I presume you need to stagger him, but I can't manage it quick enough.

Spoiler

The only way I managed to stagger him is to leave at least two overclocks free. After running out all your atbs on your -ra's, overclock, then overclock again. Debuff, if you can, throw on a potion with a strength buff and hopefully take out bhuni in one stagger's time