Your thoughts about Turbografx English voice acting?

[Naniyue]

  I actually liked the dubs by Working Designs, though I'm probably in the minority for that.  Otherwise, they were almost all lackluster.  I did like the choice of narrator for Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes, and work done for Ys I & II was surprisingly okay.  The voices in Last Alert are HORRIBLE, but nostalgia gives that one some charm.  I'll never get over the "OH! OH!" instead of "Uh oh!" in Final zone II, though.

  I don't understand why voice acting wasn't taken more seriously in most western releases of the time.

[Necromancer]

Ys is only 'surprisingly okay'?  Interesting take.

Most are rather cheesy and clearly not done by someone that actually knows English, but I don't mind.  There simply wasn't time and money for them all to be done by pros.

[Paranoia Dragon]

  I actually liked the dubs by Working Designs, though I'm probably in the minority for that.  Otherwise, they were almost all lackluster.  I did like the choice of narrator for Dragon Slayer: Legend of Heroes, and work done for Ys I & II was surprisingly okay.  The voices in Last Alert are HORRIBLE, but nostalgia gives that one some charm.  I'll never get over the "OH! OH!" instead of "Uh oh!" in Final zone II, though.

  I don't understand why voice acting wasn't taken more seriously in most western releases of the time.

According to Hiromasa Iwasaki, the director on Ys 1 & 2, NEC and Hudson had the tendancy to hire English teachers living in Japan, rather than actual English voice actors. But since he was director on Ys 1 & 2, he was able to take control of that. He said that the initial demo he received for the voice acting was absolutely horrible. He understands English pretty well, so he could tell how bad it was. So he was able to get them to give in and hire known English voice actors. He was also director on Tengai Makyou 2 which was supposed to get a North American release, so he would have been in control of that dub as well. However, he said there was no way that game was gonna get released in the west because of the enormous budget of the game and all the changes that would be necessary for the North American market.

One other game that I feel has pretty good voice acting is Dungeon Explorer 2, which technically is by Working Designs. The way it worked out, TTI did the text translation and publishing duties while Working Design handled the dub, but without jokes.

[Naniyue]

I never knew that about the Ys dub! Thanks!

Yes, I think the English voice acting in DE II is good.

So, it's all a money thing again, eh?  Way of the world!

EDIT:  Still, I think anyone here could do a better job.  Just act natural when you say the line!

[Naniyue]

LOVE the remark at the end of the Valis II episode of PCE Power:

Japanese game publishers: "Let's do an extensive talent search for a voice cast for our game."
American game publishers: "Who's in the office today?"

 

[seieienbu]

Last Alert is probably my favorite dub on the system.  On a scale of 1-10, it underflows and hits 255.  You can't hire my feelings, indeed.

Ys 1 and 2 is my favorite "good" voice acting.  Nothing really new to be said on that one from me, I think.

Most disappointing?  Somehow John Madden.  I'm far from the biggest fan of Football, but this one really should've had more dialog.  You'd think with the license they would've had him saying a bunch of his, uh, Madden-isms.  "That was a good pass, but at the end of the day it's the team with the most touch downs that wins" or whatever. 

[Paranoia Dragon]

I never knew that about the Ys dub! Thanks!

Yes, I think the English voice acting in DE II is good.

So, it's all a money thing again, eh?  Way of the world!

EDIT:  Still, I think anyone here could do a better job.  Just act natural when you say the line!

Probably a combination of money along with maybe some laziness? Hiromasa Iwasaki said he was one of the few at Hudson that had a good grasp of the English language. So all the others tended to think that everything sounded good and he really didn't have any say because of not being high enough in Hudson to object to every dub.