Petition to add French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish voice overs to Final Fantasy XV

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Andre_Mackowiak

Stiltzkin's Apprentice
May 1, 2015
11
1
#1
I started a petition to add voice overs in French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish to Final Fantasy XV. It was featured at several major gaming websites in my home country Germany, but I hope to spread the word internationally, as well. We work on several videos in different languages e.g., with the first video introduction in English and the second one in Spanish.


The petition is called "FFXV Voices". You can find the petition at www.ffxvvoices.com and share or twitter about it with the hashtag #ffxvvoices

Some FAQ on the petition:

Why do you want these languages?
Apart from English, the mentioned languages form the majority of the spoken languages in the western sales territory. Big publishers like Ubisoft and EA (and Sqaure Enix) offered full localizations with voice overs for these languages before and we believe that this would turn FFXV into the ultimate experience. We think that listening to characters in your mother tongue and not reading subtitles lets you enjoy the story even more and you feel more emotionally connected. We want to give players the opportunity to enjoy Final Fantasy XV just like a big blockbuster movie at your cinema.

Hasn't Square Enix dubbed previous Final Fantasy games internationally? (UPDATE!)
As far as I know, Square Enix only dubbed Final Fantasy XIV: ARR in French and German, besides English/Japanese. Other FF games got translated text in several languages. Final Fantasy XV could be the first ever (offline) Final Fantasy game to be fully localized for major western territories.

Wait, what happens to the Japanese voice track?
We know that there are true fans of the original voice cast and we dont wat to take it away. Hajime Tabata mentioned that the aim is to offer a bilingual release version in the end. I think that for example Japanese + each country's mother tongue could be on the disc (e.g. Japanese + Spanish). In terms of the English voice track, I think it could be possible to offer it as a free DLC online. Such an option was offered by Microsoft for the game Fable 2, for example. Just the German voice track could fit on the disc, but players could download the English voice overs afterwards.

But all of these languages won't fit on one disc!
As mentioned above, one idea would be to include the Japanese voice track + the voice track of each country represented on one disc, allowing e.g. English as a DLC.

Isnt this too late for a petition?
The game is in development since more than nine years but since the last year, Square Enix has demonstrated with regular updates, livestreams and surveys that there is an interest in the wishes and opinions of the fan community. I believe that the release of Final Fantasy XV is still about a year ahead, since core development is still unfinished and major promotions are set to begin in August 2015. There should be enough time for synchronizations.

But wouldnt this delay the release date?
I believe it wont. Until several years ago, Square Enix seemed to use a so called "post gold localization", which means that the team started the translations right after the game was completely finished. This was the cause for the delays between eastern and western releases.

The gap between international releases narrowed in the last years and Hajime Tabata announced that he wished for a nearly simultanous release worldwide. I believe that Square Enix has changed their strategy to a so called "Sim ship localization". It means that the team translates content on the fly, while the development status of the game progresses. The fact that Episode Duscae was released nearly at the same time world wide and the fact that they changed Noctis Enlish voice because of the fan feedback underline this assumption. Thus, all scripts, all subtitles for the mentioned languages are already work in progress. More international voice overs could be added on the fly since the scripts and dialogues they are based on already exist. This should not affect the release date.

Shouldnt I be afraid of bad voice acting?
Due to my contact with international fans during the course of my petition, I realized that the fear about bad voice acting is quite severe. Sure, you can never tell if the voice acting for your language will be bad, but bad experiences with voice acting should not stop you from requesting more and better voice overs in your languages. Publishers know that great games with great voice acting sell better than great games with worse voice acting. I say it is safe to invest some trust in Square Enix.
 
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LeonBlade

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Oct 25, 2013
2,026
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#7
This is so odd, I'm confused as to why you paid two people who assumingly don't play Final Fantasy to record voice overs for the petition, and why the second video isn't even a native spanish speaker.

That aside, of course the more VO localization the better, unfortunately VO is very costly. If what you say is true about only XIV being in French and German, it makes a lot of sense. XIV is an MMO, these costs aren't as substantial given that is less voice over work and more text. Full voice over work for multiple languages is going to cost A LOT of money. A petition isn't really enough to make this happen, as fans that would prefer to play in their native language would likely already play the game as it is with a language like English. Hiring a voice director and casting an entire crew of people to voice for these languages takes a lot of time and money. Voice actors aren't cheap, and getting proper voice direction isn't cheap either. A lot of throwaway NPC dialog might be cheap, but having to cast roles for main characters is going to cost a huge chunk of money. Unfortunately, Square Enix does not have the funding to afford this sort of localization with full voice over work.

Going back to the petition, as I said, simply asking for voice over work isn't enough to really show that the demand would bring in more sales of the game, as there is no way to determine how the sales of the game would impact from adding additional voiced languages to the game. Even if there was a demand for it, and it would increase game sales, it's highly likely that it wouldn't come as a net gain in any way, and that it would be seen as a waste of money for Square Enix to invest in something with such a small turn in profit.

Who knows, maybe they already have these planned, but from what it seems like, if they haven't announced it already or won't announce it at Gamescom, you won't be seeing these other languages in the final release.
 
Likes: buddhafied

Andre_Mackowiak

Stiltzkin's Apprentice
May 1, 2015
11
1
#8
You are right about the first two videos, but this was mainly to show how it could be done by fans. At the start I did not know many international FF fans willed to do a video. I wished that more real FF fans expressed their wishes in short clips about it, but most are shy, even when they supported the petition. But as mentioned before, I work on more videos and currently a Portuguese FF fan from Brazil mentioned his idea to record a video. I want to record a video in German, too, of course.

You are correct about the two other points, as well. Why should a publisher do this? It leads to the more fundamental question why any of the publishers did it, if it had no benefit. I mentioned EA and Ubisoft as an example. All Mass Effect games had full German voice overs, the Assassin's Creed games were fully dubbed in serval languages (French, German, Spanish, Italian) and even RPGs with hefty dialogues like Skyrim have been fully dubbed in German. Star Wars: The Old Republic holds the world record for the largest video game localization/synchronization afaik. The easiest answer could be that these are not Japanese games, since many JRPG fans seem to enjoy the original voices anyhow, so no publisher dubbed them.

The aim of the petition is not to show Square Enix what is better in terms of earning money - they know it better. The idea is to express the demand and hope that Square Enix is open enough for this feedback and maybe pick it up.

I won't say the Japanese voice over is bad and I really love the English voice cast, especially Ignis. I also enjoy movies and tv series in the OV, but good voice overs in your mother tongue can be a great improvement in terms of the overall experience. That is the main reason for me to start this. SQEX wished that another game could possibly be as successful and well received as FFVII. Nobody can foresee how good XV will be, but more voice overs could at least be the icing on the cake of a game, fans nearly waited 10 years for.

There are several fans, who wrote in the petition's comments or told me that their English skills are not good enough to listen to the dubs. Concentrating on the subs can be a bit exhausting for them and they can focus less on what is happening on the screen.

I know that some people point the finger on this petition and say "That is complaining on a high level, lets get this game finished!". I have to admit that its a part of a country's culture, as well. As far as I know other nations like the Netherlands are more used to subtitles and have less dubbed games/movies than other European countries. Germany and French on the other hand are quite "spoiled". Right now the Spanish and Portuguese supporters and comments are extremely motivating for me to keep this running.

And, as always, you never know what you could have achieved if you never tried. I am a true FF fan and wish that every gamer can experience FFXV in the best possible way, since we all look forward to it.
 
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Likes: buddhafied

Andre_Mackowiak

Stiltzkin's Apprentice
May 1, 2015
11
1
#9
Yep, that was me on Twitter, trying to convince you for a share :D. Actually I run a SQEX fansite, too and hope to get in touch with him on gamescom, as well.
 

Infest

Blitzball Champion
Sep 8, 2014
540
346
Germany
#13
As I already said to you before I always appreciate to have the option between different ( and well done) dubs (especially German in my case) in a game but this petition won't change anything regarding FF XV. They have an extremely tight schedule and even if they had the time to add additional dubs it would just cost them an enourmous amount of money (especially for an RPG like Final Fantasy).

But like I also said to you before, it doesn't hurt anybody if you voice your hopes/wishes. So feel free to work for this goal, just don't make yourself false hopes. And if there's really enough demand for it we'll eventually see a reaction to this in a few years. (I'm still hoping for a German dub in KH III. But it's Disney and not SE that can make this happen.!)
 

Andre_Mackowiak

Stiltzkin's Apprentice
May 1, 2015
11
1
#15
Honestly i hope you get your wish. But personally speaking, at this stage id rather not have them as they would prolong development even more. With the game hopefully being not to to far from releasing thats the last thing as a fan that i want.
It doesnt need to prolong development as mentioned above. Square Enix is localizing the game right now simultaneously for each market so you just need to add the voice actors.

We just reached the 1500 signature milestone with the petition and will continue.

EDIT: This is an overview of how the different language versions could ship:

 
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LeonBlade

Administrator
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Oct 25, 2013
2,026
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Blossvale, New York
#16
It doesnt need to prolong development as mentioned above. Square Enix is localizing the game right now simultaneously for each market so you just need to add the voice actors.

We just reached the 1500 signature milestone with the petition and will continue.

EDIT: This is an overview of how the different language versions could ship:

Congrats on the milestone, however I don't agree with how the languages can ship. What if I'm from Germany and I don't care about the German localization of the game and want to play in English? I have to get DLC for it? The problem with this, is that putting free DLC to download costs Square Enix money EVERY time someone gets it, unless it's not free DLC, in which money comes out of the cost for the DLC.

Now... who wants to buy voice DLC? Probably no one... because it enforces the idea that in order for you to enjoy a game that you just purchased you need to pay MORE money than you have for the game itself. I think that they would actually end up making the Japanese voices the DLC, as most people around the world speak English already.

As for the idea that adding more voice acting doesn't interrupt development time, that actually entirely true. While it doesn't interrupt the core development, having to QA and manage all of the different voice over work is going to take more time out of the development schedule. Not only do you need to hire voice actors and voice directors, but then you also need to work on lip syncing for the different languages.
 

Andre_Mackowiak

Stiltzkin's Apprentice
May 1, 2015
11
1
#17
Keep in mind that the solution mentioned before is for markets like Franche, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Fan communities there (forums, FB groups etc.) clearly stated they prefer the Japanese voice track so there is no reason of offering this in the mentioned countries as a DLC.

This chart from Wikipedia here shows the European countries, who usually dub any media in their own language (as shown in red):



Portugal usually dubs only for children (blue) but was the biggest fraction so far during the petition, which demanded voice overs in Portuguese in FFXV.

You may argue that the company is a platform holder, but as mentioned above Microsoft added the British voice overs for Fable 2 as a free download.

In NA, the Japanese dub for Lightning Returns was offered as a free DLC initially after launch and was a paid DLC afterwards. So there is no problem with doing it in English for FFXV in e.g. Europe, in my opinion.

You are right about the lip sync that would cost an amount of extra work, but the voices in Assassin's Creed, Skyrim or Mass Effect in German, Italian, French etc. weren't lip synced and maybe just personally speaking that was ok.
 
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