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[Battlechili]

Koei Tecmo recently confirmed during a press event that the upcoming Western release of Atelier Lydie & Suelle on March 30 will only have a Japanese voice track Traditionally, the series has had dual audio tracks in both English and Japanese, however this will be the first Atelier game to only feature a Japanese audio track.

Source

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WHY
Are English dubs dying? Seems like they've only been getting less and less popular over time ;_;
This depresses me. Tbh I was annoyed that the English dubs in the Atelier games didn't voice as many lines as the Japanese equivalent, but I was hoping that'd eventually change. Not for the opposite to happen to where now all we have is the Japanese audio track.

 

[Yagami_Sama]

Not a problem for me.I always prefer the original dubs over the english ones.

 

[wipeout364]

I wonder how this series is selling these days. I wonder if sales are getting so low it's no longer viable to dub them.

 

[Sakura]

I imagine sales aren't particularly impacted with the lack of a dub, especially with niche titles like this. When you have a bunch of people choosing to play with the Japanese audio anyway, why bother spending money for a dub?

 

[Spirit Icana]

It's very unfortunate, but expected. It would not surprise me if the numbers showed Atelier Firis bombed hard last year, in North America. Franchise fatigue coupled with the release of Horizon Zero Dawn, Nintendo Switch, Zelda BotW, Nier Automata, and several other big, mid, and niche titles all releasing within that end of Feb, and all through-out March time period, success for Atelier Firis was looking very unlikely at that time. The game itself was a very low budget and flawed attempt at a more open-world take on the Atelier formula, had a low quality 'Actill' localization, and a poorly directed English dub.

The English voice actress of Firis actually came on the Atelier discord last year and mentioned how she was forced to incorrectly pronounce "Atelier" the way you hear in the game, despite her attempts to correct her superiors on that word's proper pronunciation.

Anyway, I'll be picking up the Switch version this coming March. From the vids I've seen, the Switch version appears to run at a steady 30fps, and the visual's look on par, if not better, than the PS3 Atelier offers. Lighting and texture appear to be the main sacrifices compared with the PS4 version.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

I was thinking of getting into the series but now I will stay away.

 

[NahaNago]

I was thinking of getting into the series but now I will stay away.

Yeah... This is like the 4th game in the series to come out for this gen. So I kinda doubt it.

 

[bigedole]

What are these games even like? I'm a huge JRPG fan, I've played almost everything that we get, but I never took the plunge and tried any of these games. I actually prefer Japanese with English subs and I'm just about done getting platinum on Tokyo Xanadu EX+ now (which has been a lot of fun) so I'm starting to think about what I'll play next.

 

[bufkus]

I don't prefer Japanese dubs. This is disappointing to hear.

 

[Battlechili]

What are these games even like?

The Atelier games are simple JRPGs that emphasize collecting resources found in the environment and using them to create new items and equipment for jobs given to your alchemy shop. Any action you do passes time, and generally speaking, with some exceptions, you must learn to manage your time wisely between moving out in the field, exploring the local town, and completing jobs before a set time limit for some major job objective. While out in the field, beyond just collecting them from the environment, you can also find ingredients for performing alchemy from monsters you fight in battle. You'll see monsters representing a mob in an environment that, once touched, will take you to a turn-based standard JRPG style battle. In these battles, you'll be able to use standard attacks, set skills, or items to help win battles as well as gain the support of your allies for special attacks and abilities. While the combat is pretty unimpressive and the stakes are relatively low (at least in Sophie anyways, you just wake up at home if you lose), one more satisfying aspect of this is that you can use items and equipment you created using alchemy to fight the enemies. Its really satisfying to create a really powerful bomb and be able to wipe out enemies quickly using them.

I guess the closest game to compare to this series is Recettear: An Item Shop Tale if you've ever played that, only you're running an alchemy shop, not an item shop.

 

[OuterLimits]

Kind of disappointing news. For the most part I enjoyed the English voice acting in the series.(haven't played all of them)

 

[IpsoFacto]

Or they could sell the english dub as DLC... I could totally see them doing that.