Ayup and BoA's doing this one too! And yes, I too have fallen in love with it!! *___* I listen to it on my Ipod at work during my breaks to relax :3
It's called 'Song 4 u' (Very sucky name) and here's the only link I could find. Not the full version, I believe, but rather just a clean version of the opening's short version '_'
....Wait, I thought BoA was doing this one. This one say Ayumi Hamasaki...now I'm thinking of a game that had a BoA opening. I don't know if it was Tales of Graces...gonna have to check now.
Edit: Yes, it's Tales of Graces: Mamoritai ~White Wishes~
Edit 2: "Acquired" Ayumi Hamasaki's "Progress", and I must say, I'm saddened that there's no English Vocal like Bonnie Pink's "Ring a Bell" and BoA's "Mamoritai ~White Wishes~". I hope they'll pull an "Abyss" route and throw in the off-vocal (aka karaoke) of the song, because I love the song that much. I wonder who they'll use for voice acting, though. Any english trailers available?
And nope, no english trailer yet... and probably not soon, either ^^' Though there are a few english-texted screenshots of the game that have been released, but the characters say pretty much what I'd expect them to say XD Knowing Namco Bandai, chances are pretty low of us getting an english trailer before the release date is announced.
So, Ted Tsung, the North American Producer for Tales of Xillia, announced on the Playstation Blog that all (Yes, ALL) of Xillia's english voice acting recording has been completed in a span of eight weeks. That was fast... which either means that the voice actors they picked are so damn good that they got their lines (Their many, many voiced lines) perfectly on a single shot or that they're botching it and maybe even not voicing all the same voiced dialogue... I pray for the first option.
Mr. Tsung had this to say about the 'liberties' they took with the voice acting “For example, we went with a much deeper voice for Milla. We needed her to maintain a very powerful and authoritative demeanor, so we didn’t find it appropriate maintaining the same pitch as her Japanese voice.â€
Now, that could be a good thing because a strong characteristic of Milla's and the fact that gets Jude to follow her in the first place is that, despite dressing up like she does (That is something of a wench) she has a very strong feel to her and has a powerful aura, if you will. However, Milla was never so high-pitched in the Japanese version, so... I wonder just how low-pitched they'll make her.
This was also said about Jude... "Similarly, we pitched down Jude a little bit as well. He maintains the same adolescent qualities as the Japanese version, but we figured the North American audience would prefer a lower, stronger voice." I hate this when the localization team thinks 'Americans will like it better this way!' because they don't seem to understand that most of the Tales fanbase, that is mostly people that love Japanese culture, WANT their localization to be faithful to the original Japanese! Why do you think so many jerks keep asking for dual voice acting?
But hey, at least they're done, right? Maybe I can finally pre-order the damn thing?
...I don't know how I feel about Jude having a lower voice. But TBH, I didn't like his Japanese voice that much. Every time I saw Jude's profile (picture, not his biography and stuff), I expected him to have a bit of a deeper voice, but not TOO deep. Same with Milla; she looks like a real powerful woman, and nothing totes badcarp like a slightly deep voice that screams authority every time she opens her mouth.
That said, Alvin seems like a Crispin Freeman type of guy. Mostly because he is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita, and I always find that they have a very close character type.
Cute, but... I dunno, that trailer really wasn't epic at all XD So I'm not very sad that we are indeed never getting that one over here ^^'
On another subject, it seems that Ludger can now casually destroy space-time continuum and end up where he wants and when he wants... so we kinda pop up all over the place. I think we brought Jude to meet a younger version of his dad, brought Leia to meet that one eveil girl she tried to save in the first game and so on. Also, we can fight as his monster-like form in battle, a pretty cool fact, but it makes the game so easy XD There were two battles that I was supposed to lose, one asgainst Chronos (The black-skinned-and-yet-very-caucasian-looking dude in the opening) and another against our very effiminate creditor. The cutscene following my victory for both showed the party in pain and beaten up... But I won. Obviously, they expected me to lose XD The thing is, when you're in Ludger's beast mode, there's a move you can do azn infinite amount of time (Up + X) that make you disappear from the screen for a second and strike down on the enemy for maximum effect. This is especially broken because the Beast Mode Gauge refills naturally over time, so you can just keep spamming it like crazy XD
So, I'm about 25 hours into the game and a lot of stuff has happened, but, basically, Ludger and the group are going around the world doing I-really-don't-know-what to collect little-shiny-sets-of-golden-cogs. Once we gather 5 of said golden-cogs, they form a portal-like-thingy but, before we can learn more about this mysterious portal, Chronos appears again and engages a battle. Now, this time, you pretty much can't win at all. When you come even a little close to beating him, he reverts time to the beginning of the fight like three times until the battle fades out. Some small green moon then collides with the regular moon to form a giant black eye. The giant black eye then turns into a GIANT EVIL FETUS!!! I am so not kidding, too. This is even weirder and more awesome than the Adephagos, a giant tentacle demon of darkness, hiding behind a fake sky in Tales of Vesperia. +10 points of originality, Xillia 2.
Anyway, game kick butts so far too especially now that I no longer have to worry about the debt. See, before, every time I'd get a decent amount of cash, Nova would pop up with the Debt Menu and ask for my money. It's not so bad the first time as you can just close the menu and carry on... but after some time, the menu will keep poping up and it won't go away unless you pay something. Now, you can just pay a single Gald and close the Debt Menu then, but as soon as you earn any other amount, be it from a battle or from a treasure chest or as soon as you just go to another area, Nova will pop up again and ask for your cash. Again. And again. And forever. I seriously cursed at the TV once because she just kept popping up during grinding, asking for money I just didn't have at all. However, problem solved: In the context of the story, we beat up/defeated/killed/murdered the dude that made us sign the debt to begin with and, after that, you no longer have any deadlines to pay up, just the debt itself. I'm nowhere near paying up everything (Still got like 19 millions...) but, at least, I can take it easy :p
There's a rumor floating around that, if you clear the debt and then beat the game, you get the 'Harem Ending'... Except for Milla, none of the girls are very much interesting to look at in that category, but I'm guessing this could be something. I'll probably have to poker the hell out of my debt, even though I still have yet to unlock the poker mini-game... My only source of income so far has been defeating the Giganto monsters.
Oh yeah, I didn't mention that: Like in Tales of Xillia 1, Giganto Monsters make a come back from Vesperia but in an absurd number! There's like 20 of them, so far, and some are hard as hell and earn you excellent sums of money like 175 000 Gald. They even carried over the Giganto music from Vesperia XD Lazy recycling or clever hommage?
So, the party goes into the Evil Fetus of Darkness and we enter the last dungeon... which is also the lamest dungeon. If there's one thing I hate in RPGs other than cheap status effect it's labyrinths... And the last dungeon is just that. It's a two-room long maze of branching, narrow paths with disappearing platforms and tons of monsters you can't really avoid. Most of those monsters are resistant to Blades, Hammer and Guns, so basically all of Ludger's normal attacks are worthless. The monsters are not only annoying to fight, they don't even give good Gald or Experience, so fighting them turns into a terrible chore. I really don't get it, what were they thinking?! 'Hey, it's the last level! Let's be lazy as hell and just spam the same graphics and disappoint the players! And let's make the enemies hard but useless, too!!' Very disappointing...
Anyway, then the last boss (rather bosses) arrive. The first we have to fight is Chronos. The trick to keeping him from reverting time back to the beginning of the fight is that, when you see him forming the glyph to revert time, you enter Ludger's super mode, which cancels his spell. After beating him, we fight Bysley (I think that's how his name is written...) who's the red-coat wearing big guy. He turns into a more demonic form like Ludger can but I actually like this boss. He fights like a boxer with short attacks but powerful strikes (I actually think he has a one-hit kill attack) so I just use the guns and keep my distance. After you beat him, it seems Elle has to make some sort of sacrifice. If you make your choices right, Ludger decides to sacrifice himself for her and Ludger dies. AND THAT'S THE 'GOOD' ENDING!! Seriously, I checked online, that's pretty much the best ending they've got other than an odd 'Cameo Ending' I still haven't gotten... That's depressing... Anyway, after the credit, we see a teenage Elle, who has apparently decided to dress up like a carp (That's just really creepy) and lives a hapy life taking care of a really old Lulu & baby kitty. The End!
AWESOOOOOME!!! So, we get to see bits of the english voices of Jude, Milla, Alvin and Leia and here are my impressions as a fan: While I was worried over a claim made by Ted Tsung according to which they had made Jude's voice deeper, I'm rather satisfied with the voice, even if it is much deeper than in the original Japanese, but he still sounds good. Leia sounds awesome and you can hear her at her best at 1:03 to 1:09 when she does a celebration pose with Alvin. The general consensus online is that she's voiced by Michelle Ruff, who voiced Rita Mordio in Vesperia, and while she does sound like Miss Ruff making her 'Happier' voice, I'm not convinced (Though I WOULD be very happy with that decision *__*) next is Alvin and he sounds alright for his character: Deep, kinda lazy and laid-back, so I'm satisfied with this one too. However, i saved the potentially worst for last: Milla. In the original, Milla did have a very mature voice: That was part of her character and one of the reason Jude admired her so much, but here... Well, it's very early to judge, but she almost sounds like a man, which isn't a very good thing. We don't really hear much to criticize yet, but Milla in the original did have a feminine tone that added an element of beauty to her strength. This voice is just... way too deep I dunno, I guess we'll see with later videos ^^'
So yeah, despite the minor setback of Milla's ManVoice, this is pretty damn awesome!! And hey, you know what leaks on the internet means? SOON TO BE RELEASED!!!
Actually, I pre-ordered my copy basically the day it became available at my video game store. Epicness *___*
Soon to be released, huh? Like...what, are we talking mid summer or fall? Because I just put down whatever money I had on Monster Hunter Tri U for the 3DS and Wii U. I'm SO not gonna have money by the time this game comes out...
By the way, that's Sam Riegel as Jude. He confirmed it on Twitter.
For those who don't know, Sam Riegel can be credited for such roles as Flynn from Tales of Vesperia, Silabus from .hack//G.U, a few voices in Fire Emblem: Awakening, every new incarnation of Teddie from Persona 4 as well as many incarnations of Donatello, the Teenage Ninja Turtle.
Heh, I wouldn't be that mad. Bryce Papenbrook actually did pretty well as Asbel, so much so that he got up a few points on my voice actor mental flowchart.
Also, for Donatello... I'm not really sure XD Seems the rights for TMNT were bought somewhere halfway through the series, soooo... I dunno.
I loooooove my new avatar XD I hated playing as Alvin during my playthrough of the Japanese Tales of Xillia, so I'm fairly sure I had never seen it before. Almost makes me want to constantly play with Alvin and Leia just for that XD
It seems the recent leaked video prompted Namco Bandai to be more proactive with their marketing ('Bout damn carp' time) as they've announced a 'Monthly look at characters' through gameplay videos. That's both a good and bad news: The good about it is that it might not only make for a nice publicity but it'll also allow us to hear some more of the localization. For example, we can hear Elize's english voice in this newest vid, although I fail to recognize anyone.
The bad about it is that a 'monthly' look at the main characters and keeping in mind that there are at least six mains characters means that the game might not be coming for another six months... which is terribly depressing. However, they HAVE posted both Jude and Milla's showcase on the same day, so that might be a good sign.
Milla's voice actress either sounds decent or absolutely bored out of her mind... which isn't in character at all, but let's not judge too hastily (I do like it when she says 'Onward!' though )
Yeah, this series usually has way better (or atleast more entertaining) voicing than that but it's not gonna destroy the game or anything. I'm just glad I don't have to buy another console this time.
Yeaaaah, Namco Bandai seems to firmly believe that the fact Vesperia was a 360 exclusive was what somewhat killed its sales, so that probably won't ever happen again XD
Also, a little trivia: Jude is going to be called Jyde in the German version of the game, mainly because Jude is Jew in German... which looks pretty bad considering a certain horrible event of the past ^^' The irony is that, according to a bunch of comments I've seen all around the interwebz, Jude and Jyde are pronounced pretty much the same XD
They may be pronounced the same but the meaning isn't there. Clever really.
Personally though, I see nothing wrong with naming a character Jew unless he's on the recieving end of major racial descrimination or killed off horribly at some point (some fans want this mind). You can't just censor all refferences to a religion out of german culture.
I'm guessing they're just playing it safe. Considering how whiny Tales fans can get (i.e Constant whining about wanting Dual Audio), I'm guessing they just don't want any complaints. Although Jude doesn't get killed or tormented or anything really bad in the game, better safe than sorry.
Actually, speaking of the fans biatching about Dual Audio, I wonder if this is a thing in other countries, too. Like, in Germany, do fans go 'ROLF WTFF The German voice acting suuuuuux!! Teh game better have japanese voices two or I'm not buying'?
So, Hideo Baba was present at Sakura Con in Washington State to do a Tales panel to reveal both the main voice actors for Jude and Milla (And do the general promotion of the game, I assume) We already know about Jude's voice actor, Sam Riegel, but I was actually quite curious to know who they picked to voice Milla, as she sounded very much 'Meh' in what little footage we had seen so far.
Turns out she's voiced by someone named Minae Noji. Who is that, you may ask? Well, you'd be right to ask, because I had no idea either, I had never heard of the woman before. Turns out she's some sort of a C-Class Actress and her biggest role is some doctor in the cheesy soap opera General Hospital. I am unimpressed by this choice but, like I said, it is a bit early to judge. Plus, Hideo-san was kind enough to show us a sneak preview involving new dubbed lines and one of the attendee was kind enough to film it:
It's a skit in which Jude asks Alvin about 'bazongas' (I'm fairly sure you can all guess what that refers to) We get to hear Rowen a bit more and he sounds much better than I had imagined! We get to hear Alvin too and I'm about 99% certain he's voiced by Troy Baker and, if that's not him, it has to be Matthew Mercer. As a lil' trivia, it's interesting to note that Matthew Mercer is actually an almost perfect clone of Troy Baker!
I was kinda hoping for a full english cast reveal, but it seems it won't be... Oh, and here's a link for just the Skit:
I already talked about Mercer and it does feel like a damn good choice, despite the guy's minimal experience, but Todd Haberkorn is a very surprising choice for me, though not a bad one. Mister Haberkorn has done some EXCELLENT voice acting work in such roles as Natsu Dragneel from Fairy Tail, Death the Kid from Soul Eater and Allen Walker from D.Gray-man, all fantastic performances from fantastic anime... What troubles me is that all those roles are of kids and Rowen is the exact opposite: He's pretty much the old, calm sage of the group and, although he has his quirky and amusing moments (Bazongas being one of them) he's usually very silent and composed. It's very odd for HIM to be voiced by freakin' Natsu Dragneel... But I'm sure he can do at least decently in this role. He IS a great voice actor
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I dunno, I guess we'll see with later videos ^^'
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