Upcoming title Tales of Zestiria will have the original Japanese voice track in addition to a new English one. But for most past Tales games, this hasn’t been the case.
At Bandai-Namco’s Pre-Tokyo Game Show press event in Japan yesterday, Tales of Zestiria‘s producer Hideo Baba spoke a bit to us about the game’s upcoming Western release and highlighted how it will retain its original Japanese voice track for those who would rather listen to it than the English one.
This marks the second time ever that a Tales game has been released in the West with both voice tracks (the first was the Tales of Symphonia HD remaster collection which came out in early 2014).
When asked why other past Tales games haven’t included both voice tracks, Baba explained that licensing problems related to the voice actors’ performances prevented releasing the Japanese voice track abroad — not surprising given the popularity (and money making prowess) of voice actors in Japan.
Tales of Zestiria will be released for the PS3 and PS4 in Europe on October 16, 2015 and in the US on October 20, 2015. It will also be released for PC on Steam on October 20, 2015. Check out our in-depth look at the Japanese version of the game here.
Comments
3 responses to “Why Most Tales Games Haven’t Had The Japanese Voice Tracks In The West”
They should employ less famous actors, ones that will gladly have their voices released overseas. Then I won’t have to listen to the pisspoor American “acting”.
Did you like when Kingdom Hearts was voiced by famous actors? Or reoccuring voice actors in our english games? I would think japanese people like the acting skill of their voice actors over lesser known voice actors.
Nope