... Not only do they withhold a lot of games from us Americans, but it's as though they also think some of the awesome themes they put into their games are just too cool for us to be able to handle or something, so the said game has its spiffy Japanese vocal theme botched and replaced by an inferior score that sounds as though it was very quickly thrown together somewhere along its trip across the Pacific to the U.S.

For instance, the MegaMan X4 intro. as I had always known it here in America ->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7-KGcOYpt4

... While the X series usually comes through with its many rock/guitar type themes (the theme from X3's Toxic Seahorse stage is always going to be awesome), this one pretty much sucks.

I just accepted it all this time because, well, the rest of MegaMan X4 makes for a great game, and besides I didn't know any better all these years. ... But then, a chance meeting with a rare little gem of a music file that I had found on Limewire a few years ago forced me to realize that maybe us Americans just get the finger when it comes to the game industry sometimes; I had no idea that there was another version of the MegaMan X4 introduction theme that existed out there, and I can only assume that it was the original ->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed4dzY7Ez9g


... Worse yet (and it's all thanks to the magic of torrent technology that I found this one), this ending theme to Wild Arms: Alter Code F was apparently dropped when it came to American store shelves, and was replaced by some lame arrangement of miscellaneous Wild Arms themes. What the heck for?! ->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc1zKPHiTdQ


... Just wanted to get that off my chest. I just don't see why so many good pieces of music in games appear to be dropped in favor of something far inferior when they make the jump from Japan to here. After hearing the original ending theme to Wild Arms: Alter Code F (I had heard it entitled "Footprints"), it had easily made my list of the five best scores in all of RPG's. Dropping perfectly good music themes in some games is kind of along the same lines as there being no save point in the entire last dungeon of Final Fantasy III - whose brilliant freaking idea was this?

I blame laziness on the developer's part to bother translating, and translating music while trying to keep in sync is more difficult than translating simple speech. Case in point: Final Fantasy X, Suteki Da Ne. It played twice in the English translation of FFX, once during its love scene at the spring, and an alternate version for the credits. Neither instances was the song translated.

If we go into TV shows, it also comes down to expense. In some cases, people bringing over animé find it cheaper if they recorded their own tracks instead of using the Japanese original. Biggest offenders being the original running of Dragonball Z, and the majority of the Pokémon animé. Speaking of Pokémon, I read an article somebody wrote about how a lot of Japanese references and stuff were altered or edited out, like a lot of signs that had Japanese writing instead were redrawn... blank, of all things.

Yeah, I think Dray has hit the plane on the windshield with the translation thing. But these things are complicated and it's not always because of laziness. Maybe the developers were just out of budget for a translation.

And there's more, if the songs were indeed translated, it would always sound much worse than the original one, and that would raise complaints (case in point, compare the original and the translated version of that weird FFX-2 intro pop song; the translated one sounds like crap).

And also maybe the developers don't want to keep the original because it looks weird and out of place, a japanese song in the middle of a game that's in english. And maybe it would raise cultural complaints, or something along those lines.

Let's face it, dubbing anything is a terrible idea. It has like a 1% chance of working out.

Yeah, well, that's definitely true.



.... But there are a lot of games out there that kept their vocal themes in Japanese, right? Final Fantasy X and La Pucelle Tactics did, from what I can think of off the top of my head, and I don't remember there being complaints about them.

You're right, though; dubbing really does have a low chance of success. ^_^

I meant more like the guys responsible for the localization think that a song with english vocals (as bad as it is) will appeal to a larger customer basis than a song in japanese.

Maybe. Some indeed don't care about that and keep their original themes. I like it that way.

Personally I'd rather the songs get translated so I knew what the heck they were singing.



I dunno, I thought Eyes on Me sounded pretty good. (Then again, I also liked Memories of Life, yet it seems like a lot of people think the English singer of it didn't do too well.)

Come to think of it, FFX had another song in it, Otherworld. But I could never understand what was being said during the lyrics, so I wouldn't know whether the Japanese original was better or not.

I can think of a few instances where a change in music wasn't even due to localization from Japan to America. Remember the Megaman X Collection and what they did with Megaman X3? Seriously... the game was already released to America with a perfectly awesome sound track. And in the Collection, they re-made most of them to sound worse and completely replaced the end credit theme (my favorite megaman credit song ever) with something made of nothing less than 100% fail.

That's what subtitles are for



A dubbed song may even sound good... but it's not the original anymore, you know. You already are playing a different game than the one that was released by its creators.



I thought Otherworld was in latin / some weird language?

Lantis and I had a huge b*tch fest a while back about getting the finger from Japan. I believe the thing that spurred it on what an completely awesome looking Tale's game that was not released in America.

Honestly I get more upset about the things they don't let us have then I do the things they botch when they bring them over. I mean, at least we get to play the botched translations and so on.

But yeah, I get your point. Does suck something fierce.

Fine, I want the translated sung version of the original. Besides, I don't like subtitles. They're so distracting.

As opposed to, you know, a completely different song like they did in SK's example.



Nope, it's in English. I found the English lyrics online, and sure enough, that's what they're saying. Man, that song is so unlike anything heard elsewhere in Final Fantasy. Made a good final boss theme, though.

Of course, you're probably thinking I'm talking about Liberi Fatali, which also happens to make it stand out from other FF games. But at least it fits within the game itself.

... That's right, by Serena!

It was one of the worst ideas ever thought of in gaming history in my opinion, and we're only talking about ruining one track, not an entire game or game franchise here. That's how truly awful an idea it was to take out the X3 ending theme entirely. And what about replacing the most awesome boss intro sequence ever that was in X3 with those lame-ass, choppy animated sequences, huh?

.... I'm find that I am getting insanely furious just thinking about it! You just might just see Id return, after all! *GROWL*


...

*calms back down after reading the lyrics to "Otherworld"*

... You know, I always wanted to know what the heck it was that that guy was singing in this song, for some reason ....

I'm sorry, but this is just because you guys are spoiled. Because all the movies come from your country. People everywhere else in the world learn to deal with subtitles when they're 13, at most.

And I still think a translated sung version of the original is not the original anymore. Come on, it's sung by a different artist! It's like I want to show you this great song but I show you a cover version of it. It's lame.

I personally love subtitles. I leave them on on my tv even when I'm watching something with a language I know. I guess the reason why is I like to tune in and out of lots of different things when it comes to sound, so sometimes I find myself listening for something else but still watching a show.

Not to mention most shows are better in their native tongue, and I watch a lot of different stuff. So watch it on the you guys comments. >.<

And personally I'd agree that a translated sung version is not the original anymore. Though I will say I've heard many a cover, and sometimes they can be better than the original, so don't go knocking those around.

Doesn't mean you have to like them.



Oh, I'd never be able to do that. I lack the concentration ability. I'd be either too focused on reading to be able to understand what the person is telling me, or unable to focus enough at all that I fail to understand both the book and the person.



I still want it.