Localization fears.

[Deleted]

ninjarygar said:

There are a few fears that I have about the localization of the game. Some are probably nothing to worry about.... others.... I don't know....

1) Meta Knight
From what we heard so far, Meta Knight uses his voice from the Hoshi no Kaabii anime. Which is great. I loved his voice in that. In the localization for the anime by 4kids, Meta Knight spoke with a spanish accent. And this is what I fear happening. If Meta Knight actually speaks during win poses or cutscenes... I know he'll have his original japanese voice.... but they'll have no choice but to give him an English voice actor for the localization... probably the one from the anime.
I don't know about you, but I don't like his spanish accent. Call me crazy.... but I don't think it fits. Now, why do I think this is likely to happen?

Something that might alleviate your fears somewhat: Fox, Falco and Mewtwo also had speaking lines during/following battle. These lines were removed from the English mode altogether, but you could still hear then if you set the game's language settings to Japanese. Marth and Roy, as you said, were Japan-only at the time, so they got to keep their dialog. Since Fox, Falco and Mewtwo have been all over the world, their dialog got cut. My guess is, if Meta Knight has anything to say, it will be either in Japanese or not at all.

2) Solid Snake
Pretty obvious that Snake should be played by David Hayter. But what if they can't get him for some reason? I'm really surprised they never bothered to translate the trailer for the US site.... could it be that Mr. Hayter is too busy to do voices anymore? It'll probably be him.... because if anybody else does the voice, it just won't feel like Snake at all. They wouldn't let that happen...... would they?
Since Snake has the potential to be Brawl's most talkative character... this is a big concern for me. It won't feel like Snake unless David Hayter does the voice.... and if you've played Metal Gear Solid, I know you agree.

It depends. Will Snake talk? I thought for sure Pit or at least Palutena would have something to say, but judging by the Pit's Descent FMV, it looks like the game may full and well be silent. If that's the case, then Sakurai doesn't even need to worry about David Hayter. Which is a shame, because I think he's a good Snake (not great...sounds too much like Wolverine...but good).

3) Fox (and Falco)
One of the biggest things I disliked about Melee was the lack of localization for Fox and Falco. It's very annoying how they have different voices for their arwing conversations and for their playable appearances. I'm sure if the game wasn't rushed, they wouldn't allow this... but maybe they just don't care?
Starfox 64 was a talkative game... and while Fox hasn't had a consistant US voice actor... it would have still been nice for him to have a localized voice in Smash Brothers.
Falco was even worse. I know they at least bothered to remove his japanese taunt... but why couldn't they give him an appropriate English voice? It just doesn't seem like Falco to us English speaking users... and his taunt is lame. ("heh") Falco's personality is very fleshed out thanks to the Starfox series and it needs to be better represented in Smash Brothers. Don't half ass it this time guys.

This is the same issue as Snake, above, only the time constraints show. Yes, Fox and Falco should have been one way or the other--English or Japanese. Not both. However, given the voice talent--or lack thereof--being provided to Sakurai by Rare, I'd rather have the mixed batch than constantly having to hear Ben Cullum wheeze a nasal voice out that doesn't quite hide his hangnail Canadian accent. Falco deserves better. I hope that if they have English voices for Brawl, they use the StarFox Assault cast; I enjoyed Falco's voice a lot in there (he's ten times hotter with a New York accent), and the rest of the voices were passable. Most of them could act, which is something I can't say for the Rare-provided voices.

As for Luigi, like Snake, Fox and Falco--will he speak? Luigi is pretty talkative in Mario RPGs and certain sports spin-offs, but for standard Mario games, he barely says anything. Take New Super Mario Bros. for example--he doesn't say anything at all except for the grunts and end-of-level taunts. Super Mario 64 DS has Luigi acting mute as well. And one more thing to keep in mind for him is that Japanese Luigi does have a high-pitched, goofy voice. Similarly, Wario has a much deeper, scarier voice in the Land of the Rising Sun. So the past Smash games using Mario's sound bytes cranked up a notch in pitch is not only lazy, but it's serving the purpose it needs to for the game's primary audience: the Japanese.

Now, one thing has me hopeful about this situation: if you watch the E3 2006 trailer for Brawl, you'll hear Charles Martinet doing Wario's voice as soon as Wario's bike stalls. Does this mean Mr. Martinet will indeed provide Wario's voice? And does that mean Luigi, by extension, will earn his vocal stripes as well? My fingers remained crossed.

Also, Red is not Ash. I don't see them even going near Ash's anime voice actor. They'd probably grab some random kid, or kid-sounding adult.

[NinjaRygar]

Well, I think it's safe to assume Snake will speak in the game, since he had the dialoge at the end of the trailer.... and there was more talking in that trailer than in both smash brothers games combined! Metal Gear Solid relied alot of codec conversations, and I know they'll work those into the game somehow.

That's interesting about the Fire Emblem anime. I didn't know it even came out here. But I remember reading somewhere that Sakurai liked that fact that Marth and Roy spoke japanese because their games never came out here. That was a long time ago of course.... maybe he didn't know that anime was released here.... or maybe it just really doesn't matter since nobody heard of it.

And even if Luigi is the usual silent protagonist type... fine... he doesn't have to say alot... but still, his voice samples and win poses and stuff NEED to use his own voice. And is it true that his japanese voice is different? If so... I had no idea. Ever since Mariokart 64 he's had a lower voice than Mario... is it true that in all those games, he has a different voice in the japanese version?

[8bitretroshit]

Or you could just switch the language to Japanese if you don't want Spanish Meta-Knight. Unless you have the PAL version... then you can enjoy the silly German voices. Charizard, flammenwerfer!

[kirbychu]

I'm actually worried about Meta Knight's voice, too. I just want to forget that show ever happened.

As for David Hayter... if Snake talks, I'm sure they'll use him. Or at least use archive clips of him. He's still doing voice acting, since he's Snake in MGS4. And I'd imagine Konami would want Sakurai to maintain voice continuity.

[Flint]

Well, considering that Nintendo no longer has ties with 4kids, I really doubt we would hear 4kids voice actors in Nintendo games again, (unfortunately that means that most returning Pokemon will have to be redone, and i actually liked their voices )

[Flip]

flint said:

Well, considering that Nintendo no longer has ties with 4kids, I really doubt we would hear 4kids voice actors in Nintendo games again, (unfortunately that means that most returning Pokemon will have to be redone, and i actually liked their voices )

Nintendo wouldn't own the rights to that?

And, for all we know, they COULD just make their cries...

[Dasher Misire]

Have Meta not speak complete sentences. I believe he's even shouted English phrases in Hoshi no Kaabii.

Marth's voice actor was brought back for Melee, and I believe we got a sub version here too. I've seen the first episode subbed, very brilliant.