Note: I'm using Kingdom Hearts as an example, but this applies to any game, obviously. My friend and I were watching the final Pete battle in Timeless River in Japanese a while ago, and I brought up how Goofy's battle cry when receiving knock-back damage in Japanese was not the same as in English, but he said it was, despite it sounding differently, because being hit is being hit. In English and other different languages (except Japanese), his receiving knock-back damage battle cry is relatively the same among all of them: "Owwwaaa!" In Japanese, he sounds like a clown when receiving knock-back damage: "Wahahaha!" I've included five videos below in various languages. What do you guys think? Do you think "Wahahaha!" is the same as "Owwwaaa!"? Spoiler: English - Skip to 1:41 Spoiler: Japanese - Skip to 19:33 Spoiler: Spanish - Skip to 2:09 Spoiler: German - Skip to 2:05 Spoiler: French - Skip to 5:26
I' ll leave this exemple aside (I don' t speak a word of Japanese) and move to the global case. I suppose your friend doesn' t know the first thing about Japanese nuances either, so basically he' s assuming the Japanese and American versions are necessarily saying the exact same thing ? If that' s the case then he' s dead wrong. Translators often change stuff on a whim, and sometimes they' re forced to since there' s just no way to translate the idea literally. Jokes for instance are often plain impossible to translate. As for the mysterious whims well here' s one : Star Wars is called La Guerre Des Etoiles in French. It doesn' t mean Star Wars, it means Stars War.
Well, I think the way he's looking at it is that phrases or sentences are obviously different, but yells are essentially the same. "Aah!" can't really mean anything else.
They' re fairly universal but even there there' s room to change things. The voice actor could have decided to downplay the pain and underline the surprise for some reason, or just picked one judging by the scene alone, without ever checking which one the original voice actor went for.
In Goofy's case, when receiving knock-back damage, Japan's "Wahahaha!" and other languages' "Owwwaaa!" are essentially the same "thing," because being hurt is being hurt. I think that's what my friend was trying to explain to me.
Japanese voice acting is serious out in the country. Some are household names. In the West, they're less crucial, or cared about. Most likely, Japan has its own soundboard worth of noises and homogenous lines like "Ahh" or "Hiyah!". Mainly because VAs are more treasured out there, so all voice acting even the stuff you can scuff over, will be recorded. In the West, these noises will be used over all language localisations. English, being the most frequent language in the west, will be the main language that pretty much every line will be translated and recorded, even the noises like this. And all the European based languages when localised, will use those noises. Because it's cheaper to do less lines, most studios will just use the foreign ones for those moments. I've noticed it. That's my argument fro why it happens. They're different in Japan because they're more popular there. Also, specifically for Kingdom Hearts, which I think you're overlooking here, is that the Japanese version would be recorded first. The English dub comes much later.
Is that why in Japanese video games males sound really manly and deep while females sound really womanly and high-pitched? So in this case, for Goofy, how is "Wahahaha!" (Japan) more serious-sounding in relation to what's going on (in this case, being hurt) than "Owwwaaa!" (English and other translations)? And as you, I think, mentioned, even though a line is the same, it will obviously still sound different because of different voice actors. What does release time have to do with it? Are you talking in the sense that the translators go, like, "Oh, this doesn't sound serious enough for when Goofy receives knock-back damage; let's change it"?
I have no clue. That's more dependent on the individual voice actor. But Japanese VAs do generally keep to stereotypical sounding voices, the heavy man, the teen voice, the squealing girl, the sultry vixen, etc. That or I'm racist and can't tell the difference between different VAs styles, but I do believe they stick to a more formulaic pattern. As I said, the English version will be the main international dub because it's the most broadly spoken language in the west. Not always though, sometimes the sounds are universal in all regions, dependent on the studio and business decisions. But i'm trying to say that the Japanese dub in a KH game will be different because it's the initial market release. Square aim to make money from their home country the most, it's usually where the highest percentage of their sales come from (on Japanese franchises at least, like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest). Western market share their second objective, and the game will be edited to appeal to them, like the whole translating and dubbing of it. So, the recordings will be different because it's been altered. Not necessarily the noises and sound made but in general everything would be re recorded. Especially by Disney Characters, because each region has their own Disney VAs that localise to a specific language. the Japanese Goofy is not the American voice actor speaking Japanese. to get an iconic Goofy, you'd redo the "Wahooough!" in English.
Ah, that would it explain the music sounding different. Although I don't think it's necessarily re-recording, but just adding more instruments or something. I think it's that the Japanese version uses more piano, maybe? That's what my friend said. Desire for All That Is Lost - Japanese: 18:47 Spoiler: Desire for All That Is Lost - Japanese: Skip to 18:47 Spoiler: Desire for All That Is Lost - English and other languages: Skip to 0:35 You can easily tell the difference.
It's like this. Battle cries are grunts. There is no script for that so it can be anything. Most likely what they do is say what ever line or grunt in one track with out pausing the recording and then send it off. What ever Square likes is what they will use. Another reason why you might see unused quotes.
Just to add to this, you have to bear in mind that, because you don't know/understand Japanese, you're going to be less attuned to the finer differences in voices. I'm sure if you asked a Japanese person about hearing people speak English, they'd tell you that we all mostly sound the same, despite us recognizing differences in pitch, tone, etc.
Anyone is welcome to respond, but I'm directing this toward Misty. This is something I contacted @hatok about regarding him having a hard time hearing Goofy's battle cries in Japanese, and I wanted to go into further discussion here. Goofy has three different battle cries for receiving damage: one for knock-back damage and two for any other damage. They are essentially the same in English and Japanese, but there are some differences. (Make sure to listen very carefully to the videos below so you can hear the battle cries I'm referring to.) In English: "Ooowaaa!" (knock-back damage) "Oof." "Aah!" In this video, at 2:45 you can hear Goofy's "Ooowaaa!" At 4:22 you can hear Goofy's "Aah!" Then at 4:51 you can hear Goofy's "Oof," though it sounds more like an "Ooh," but things like that are usually written as "Oof," so essentially the same thing. In Japanese: "Wahahaha!" (knock-back damage) "Oof." "Wah!" In this video, at 8:05 you can hear Goofy's "Oof" after Xemnas charges and attacks, though it sounds more like an "Ooh," but things like that are usually written as "Oof," so essentially the same thing. At 8:19 you can hear Goofy's "Wah!" after Xemnas slams down his weapon. Then at 8:52 it's Goofy's "Wahahaha!" though that's usually not hard to hear since it's not as soft in tone. Then if we go back to the video where hatok said he could barely hear Goofy, when he gets hit by the fire (not seen) at 19:44, you can sort of hear the "Oof." However, for the "Wah!" at 22:58 (there were two times he said that in the battle, so I just chose that one) it sounds very different than in the Xemnas fight above, huh? This is, at least from what I think, because of the music and because there were way more sound effects going on simultaneously. At 22:11, you can't ever hear Donald and Goofy yell from Pete's attack after Donald heals himself due to all of the sound effects going on simultaneously and because the part the music was at was higher-pitched. However, from what you're saying, Misty, Japanese-fluent people would have heard them yell there and for battle cries we have a hard time hearing from Goofy, at least in regards to his softer-toned ones, Japanese people would hear perfectly; vice-versa, they would have a hard time hearing Goofy's battle cries in English, whereas we have no problem. Is that correct?
Because I'm curious and like how things can be different, but yet essentially the same at the same time, between the Japanese and English versions (and other languages)?
That's fine, but that didn't answer my question: What's the discussion value here? Like, there's legitimately nothing to add other than "Oh okay!" and making excuses for your friend, and boy, those obvious Japanese is different than English posts.
I did write a lot, so I'll just summarize the point of my question, as I can understand how it might have been missed: Goofy's battle cries are sometimes hard to hear when there are a lot of sound effects going on simultaneously in the Japanese version. However, using the same scenario with the English version, we can pretty much always hear Goofy's battle cries even when there's a lot going on because the battle cries are in English and therefore use English tones and pitches, and it's our language. To the Japanese people, though, I bet they could hear what we English-speaking people have a hard time hearing; subsequently, they may have trouble hearing Goofy's battle cries in English when there's a lot going on.
Once again, there's no discussion value by saying that. That's like saying "It's 65 degrees outside. TOPIC." Like, I don't think you get that you're just saying really obvious things that are just things. What you're saying isn't a discussion. You're just saying a thing. YOU MEAN PEOPLE WHO SPEAK THE LANGUAGE.. UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE... AND PICK UP ON IT... BECAUSE THEY UNDERSTAND THE LANGUAGE!!?!? 'Maz balls dude.
