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Final Fantasy XIII: English Voiceover and Leona Lewis

See, it really is coming out in North America!

Jan. 13 2010

Posted by: Brad

In This Episode:

Final Fantasy XIII

241 Comments

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Konanda

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Edited By Konanda
@RVonE: I disagree with you sir. I believe the English voice acting is just as good as the Japanese voice acting. Personally I prefer what I've heard of the English voice track particularly because of Vanille, Snow and Fang.
@endless_thought:
It also matches with Vanille having an Australian accent as well (albiet a normal one and not the stereotypical kind) and having them both come from Pulse. Also I believe the Japanese accent you are probably talking about is the Okinawan accent, which is one that is stereotyped quite often in Japanese media, therefore it's a likely analouge to giving Vanile and Fang an Australian accent. Not knowing enough about the differences between an Okinawan accent and one you would find closer to the dominant Japanese accent I couldn't tell you if this is true though.
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deactivated-5e49e9175da37

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Man, I was hoping for more action from Kanji, I mean, Snow.
 
I like that dude who is hanging out with the new Cid.  He looks pretty cool.  He looks like an anime version of Faramir from Lord of the Rings.
 
The male characters in this seem better than most Nomura-era FFs.  The teenage girls are still crap.  I think I enjoyed the black dude's "You this is gonna be sugar and rainbows?!" the most.  The villains in this seem alright, you have the Meganekko Dominatrix, crazy Hawkhair guy, Evil Pope, and then probably Cid and his pal for the first half of the game.

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NeoNaoNeo

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Edited By NeoNaoNeo

Probably been said already, but ---
 
Serah = Rise
Snow = Kanji
 
They're dipping into the Persona VA well

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tebbit

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Edited By tebbit

I like it!

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Legend

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Edited By Legend
@kagekage said:
" If I didn't play FF12, will I understand anything? "
Each installment in the main FF series has it's own unique story, so you don't need to play any of the previous games to be able to follow the story.
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tomte

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Edited By tomte

hmm, Lightning, Snow, vanilla, Fang and Zera really sucks, also wtf. is that song???
 
Zazzu and Hope works ok, i hated the jp version of Hope and this on is far better.
 
All the "villains" sounds awesome, CIDs voice is is also kinda neat

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kagekage

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Edited By kagekage

If I didn't play FF12, will I understand anything?

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Pappasman

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Edited By Pappasman

the song was a bit weak. same with the VO.  but Sazh's voice was awesome.
 
kickass trailer overall though.

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endless_thought

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Edited By endless_thought

 Jesus H. Christ, some of these comments are crazy.
 
 I'm not much of a Leona Lewis fan, but the song isn't terrible. It's pretty much the English equivalent of whatever song they're using for the Japanese version. =/ And I don't care what anyone says, Fang's Australian accent is awesome. I mean, what was the localization team supposed to do if Fang speaks in this Indian Japanese dialect or whatever it is another user was complaining about? I suppose she could have had an Indian accent, but people still would have had conniptions over it.  At least they're acknowledging the differences between the characters' modes of speech.
 
Ah, whatever. I'm pretty pumped for the game. The voice-acting isn't too bad, the story seems to be nice and cheesy and over-the-top dramatic, and the fighting looks as fun as ever.

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arnavdesai

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Edited By arnavdesai

That is absolutely gorgeous. I have never played a FF game in my life but will for sure try this one, just because it looks so pretty.

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Edited By shaunieo

If this doesn't get u all kinds of hype, u either have no pulse, do not like JRPG's, or are stupid. Possibly all 3....I got my computer chair pregnant after watching this..............

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ProjektGill

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Edited By ProjektGill

Wow there are a lot numbers flying around in combat. 

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CylonAndrew

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Edited By CylonAndrew

They need Samul Jackson for the black guy

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Konanda

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Edited By Konanda

Voice acting still sounds great, can't wait to play through this. Especially looking forward to Fang, Vanille and Snow's voices. 
 
 Also as has been said a dumb pop song has been in all the past main series Final Fantasy games since 8 and they all have been somewhat annoying, the Japanese one is just as airy and some pop and R&B mix so get over it.

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Edited By Addfwyn

Enjoying FFXIII a lot (been playing the import) but I think the Japanese voices are a lot better than the US ones.  But they are still satisfactory, and shouldn't ruin the game.  The game has probably some of the best gameplay of any FF yet, and a pretty decent story too.  Not sure if it rates as high as VIII or X in my book, but it's just a lot of fun to play. 
 
Really enjoy the soundtrack too, even if Uematsu isn't composing it.

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asurastrike

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Edited By asurastrike

I don't think I can support this.

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RVonE

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Edited By RVonE
@vidiot said:
Spare me. That's not my point at all. My overuse of punctuation in this situation illustrates my frustration. 
 
It's when your different taste overrides logic. I'm reading people freaking out of the inclusion of a pop song as if though this concept is brand new. Disregarding the franchise's history.
I'm reading people throwing in a quick complaint of not purchasing this product based upon the song in question, no context just a juvenile "Wah, the song is faggy and I hate it and why did they change it?!" 
To be fair, for the internet this is nothing new but I'll be dammed if such conclusions, based upon that set of logic, will go by unscathed.
 
This is GiantBomb, not some GameTrailer forum, and I deeply appreciate the fact you have a level head on your shoulders. In fact, our personal tastes are not very different:
 
I've been a very (I cannot stress that enough) vocal critic of Square's inability to stick a second audio track on a Blu-Ray. The interview with Kitase on GameTrailers infuriated me. Having a dual language option is not a "luxury" on a Blu-Ray disk: It's an embarrassment not to have it. I too wouldn't mind a second language track, complete with the original tune.  The lack of both, while understandably annoying, is not changing my overall perception of this project. It's a pop-song within a 50+ hour epic. A change of one piece of mediocre commissioned or not, to another piece of mediocre music does not crush my purchase. Nor should it for you. We will all live. "


Well, I can't say that I disagree with anything you wrote in this post. I guess your frustration just overshadowed the content of the post I initially responded to. I agree that people shouldn't dismiss a game of this scale just because of some song is not that hot. On the other hand, I do feel that the quality of the English voice acting can be a deal breaker; especially in an rpg of this length. In this case, from what I've heard it seems like the voice acting is just mediocre enough to pass.
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skippyscissors

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Edited By skippyscissors

Dub's not bad.

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vidiot

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Edited By vidiot
@RVonE said:

" @vidiot said:

"Did I miss something?! 
Final Fantasy has had a vocal pop song since Final Fantasy VIII, that was over a decade ago. Let alone the last trailer had a Japanese pop song. My mind can barely comprehend why people might be upset. Is it because of the quality of the song? You do realize that the original Japanese pop song wasn't anything to write home about, by Japanese pop song standards. Were not talking about the next "Eye's on Me" here. 
 
They bought the rights to have a Leona Lewis song. They also took the time torerender prerendered video of the characters talking in English. They want to appeal to the larger western audience. If this upsets you, I can understand that to a point (I have mixed feelings about it. I think it's still beyond stupid they don't have dual language anywhere), but you have to also understand the smart business and effort that has clearly gone into this release.  
 
So no, I feel no different with the inclusion of this song than any other pop song that has been attached to a Final Fantasy game. If you feel uncomfortable(???REALLY??? It's just a theme song. There is other music in the game.) listening to this while watching it, I can only assume you are still an immature J.R. High School student. Grow up. "

And your abundant use of caps, bold style, and question marks makes you the most grown up person I've ever encountered on the internet. Seriously, people can have different tastes. Why do you feel this need to come down on people who do not share your conception of what is going on here?  "
Spare me. That's not my point at all. My overuse of punctuation in this situation illustrates my frustration. 
 
It's when your different taste overrides logic. I'm reading people freaking out of the inclusion of a pop song as if though this concept is brand new. Disregarding the franchise's history.
I'm reading people throwing in a quick complaint of not purchasing this product based upon the song in question, no context just a juvenile "Wah, the song is faggy and I hate it and why did they change it?!" 
To be fair, for the internet this is nothing new but I'll be dammed if such conclusions, based upon that set of logic, will go by unscathed.
 
This is GiantBomb, not some GameTrailer forum, and I deeply appreciate the fact you have a level head on your shoulders. In fact, our personal tastes are not very different:
 
I've been a very (I cannot stress that enough) vocal critic of Square's inability to stick a second audio track on a Blu-Ray. The interview with Kitase on GameTrailers infuriated me. Having a dual language option is not a "luxury" on a Blu-Ray disk: It's an embarrassment not to have it. I too wouldn't mind a second language track, complete with the original tune.
 
The lack of both, while understandably annoying, is not changing my overall perception of this project. It's a pop-song within a 50+ hour epic. A change of one piece of mediocre commissioned or not, to another piece of mediocre music does not crush my purchase. Nor should it for you. We will all live.
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lucas_kelly

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Edited By lucas_kelly

Voice acting doesn't look great, apart from Snow.

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sublime90

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Edited By sublime90

giantbomb must be playing a joke on us with that song. looks sweet though

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RVonE

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Edited By RVonE
@gamefreak9 said:
If your referring to the ending song... well i have no idea why you are because it actually had great music in it... the voice was just ok granted but the music was everything... how it fit with the game... was just awesome... i mean maybe you've forgotten... listen...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmDt-EbFslo "

Wait, what? I was talking about the song in the trailer vs. the Japanese theme song. Why are you linking me to the FFVIII ending? The FFVIII ending was pure awesome; I have very fond memories of playing that game.
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Edited By gamefreak9
@RVonE said:
" @vidiot said:

"Did I miss something?! 
Final Fantasy has had a vocal pop song since Final Fantasy VIII, that was over a decade ago. Let alone the last trailer had a Japanese pop song. My mind can barely comprehend why people might be upset. Is it because of the quality of the song? You do realize that the original Japanese pop song wasn't anything to write home about, by Japanese pop song standards. Were not talking about the next "Eye's on Me" here. 
 
They bought the rights to have a Leona Lewis song. They also took the time torerender prerendered video of the characters talking in English. They want to appeal to the larger western audience. If this upsets you, I can understand that to a point (I have mixed feelings about it. I think it's still beyond stupid they don't have dual language anywhere), but you have to also understand the smart business and effort that has clearly gone into this release.  
 
So no, I feel no different with the inclusion of this song than any other pop song that has been attached to a Final Fantasy game. If you feel uncomfortable(???REALLY??? It's just a theme song. There is other music in the game.) listening to this while watching it, I can only assume you are still an immature J.R. High School student. Grow up. "

And your abundant use of caps, bold style, and question marks makes you the most grown up person I've ever encountered on the internet. Seriously, people can have different tastes. Why do you feel this need to come down on people who do not share your conception of what is going on here? That said, I do agree that the Japanese theme isn't all that great either, however, at least the Japanese song was specifically commissioned for this game while the English song was just some track on an album that was already out. Also, I thought the inclusion of the Japanese theme (translated or not) in the previous games gave it something extra; a quirk if you will.  EDIT: I forgot to add that I'm not against the inclusion of this song, but I prefer to have the original song included. "
If your referring to the ending song... well i have no idea why you are because it actually had great music in it... the voice was just ok granted but the music was everything... how it fit with the game... was just awesome... i mean maybe you've forgotten... listen...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmDt-EbFslo
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Edited By Irish87

I don't even know who Leona Lewis is, but she sounds like an FF character so I'm going to just go with it. 
 
The trailer wasn't bad, then again I'm not a fan of Final Fantasy. At least they've got drama, and what Highschool girl doesn't like drama? Well, I guess if they had Highschools in Rwanda... but they don't.

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gamefreak9

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Edited By gamefreak9
@dragonguyx:  your the idiot, the song is half the game. When i think of every final fantasy i hear every song of theirs individually. Musical composition was one of the highlights of the game... Soundtrack category is already dead, story has not been up to scale since like final fantasy 9. Not to mention character development... the only thing left is fighting. 
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meteora

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Edited By meteora

The music will have little to do with the quality of the game.
 
Its just like the whole Dragon Age: Origins trailer hate when the rock/metal music bashes in. Did that make the game suffer? Hell no. A less known example also includes the AC2 trailer with Justice.

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Nintendude

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Edited By Nintendude

English language lip syncing looks really nice this time around. I wasn't put off much by the pop song, it actually blended in well enough later in the trailer. I would definitely prefer the old style FF with completely turn based gameplay but I guess this real time approach works out fine since they continued to use it after experimenting with FFXII (and maybe even with XI). I was actually quite impressed by the trailer so I'll go pre-order the 360 version later this week.
 
I've owned only Nintendo consoles so far and now Xbox360 so these newer looking Final Fantasies are something I haven't used to. I've actually played only VIII and couple SNES games. This is actually the first RPG I've been really interested in since I got my 360 couple years back.

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BD_Mr_Bubbles

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Edited By BD_Mr_Bubbles

I really dislike people who do nothing but complain.
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El_Rickhead

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Edited By El_Rickhead

this game looks shitting great, it's easily the best looking game so far, and the people who are crying over the song... it's just a song, get over it?

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Y

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Edited By Y

Hmmm, the characters in this game appear to cater to the fruity teenage anime/manga consumer. Dreary conversation and touching each other up is clearly the order of the day with this game.

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Edited By nrain

Awesome, awesome to the max.

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Edited By Nick

I don't really like the song, but it doesn't bother me.
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Edited By Pakorn
@vidiot said:
" Did I miss something?! 
Final Fantasy has had a vocal pop song since Final Fantasy VIII, that was over a decade ago.   
 
God I loved that game. I heard that song play at the Chinese Buffet one time; I just about dropped my plate of fried cheese wontons.
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Edited By reptilia_kun

yes final fantasy XIII should be the next endurance run game; i thought the song at first was iffy until i saw it mixed in with cutscenes.

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oliver

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Edited By oliver

GOD WAYYYY TO EMO . but just in hair cuts .. i miss ff7

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Edited By SleepyDoughnut

Damn dude since watching persona 4 it seems like the girl that voices Rise is in everything. It throws me off every time I hear it.

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Edited By Jinto

Ugh, this shit is so sappy! Make a good Final Fantasy for once Square!
 
P.S. Weaboos shut up.

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delta_ass

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Edited By delta_ass

Lip synching's good... but what they're saying is complete gibberish. Ridiculous nonsense.

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Edited By north6
@KaosAngel said:
" Holy shit the VAs for NA/EU is bad.  What the fuck is up with the love song?!    So glad I got the JP version and won't have to listen to this...wow.  O_O "
lol japanophiles.
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deactivated-5e4c2a5a814e8

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What a jarring trailer..... im sold though! Really enjoyed that song too, roll on March!

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Edited By RVonE
@vidiot said:

"Did I miss something?! 
Final Fantasy has had a vocal pop song since Final Fantasy VIII, that was over a decade ago. Let alone the last trailer had a Japanese pop song. My mind can barely comprehend why people might be upset. Is it because of the quality of the song? You do realize that the original Japanese pop song wasn't anything to write home about, by Japanese pop song standards. Were not talking about the next "Eye's on Me" here. 
 
They bought the rights to have a Leona Lewis song. They also took the time torerender prerendered video of the characters talking in English. They want to appeal to the larger western audience. If this upsets you, I can understand that to a point (I have mixed feelings about it. I think it's still beyond stupid they don't have dual language anywhere), but you have to also understand the smart business and effort that has clearly gone into this release.  
 
So no, I feel no different with the inclusion of this song than any other pop song that has been attached to a Final Fantasy game. If you feel uncomfortable(???REALLY??? It's just a theme song. There is other music in the game.) listening to this while watching it, I can only assume you are still an immature J.R. High School student. Grow up. "


And your abundant use of caps, bold style, and question marks makes you the most grown up person I've ever encountered on the internet. 
Seriously, people can have different tastes. Why do you feel this need to come down on people who do not share your conception of what is going on here? 
That said, I do agree that the Japanese theme isn't all that great either, however, at least the Japanese song was specifically commissioned for this game while the English song was just some track on an album that was already out. Also, I thought the inclusion of the Japanese theme (translated or not) in the previous games gave it something extra; a quirk if you will. 
 
EDIT: I forgot to add that I'm not against the inclusion of this song, but I prefer to have the original song included.
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hellsing321

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Edited By hellsing321

Endurance run please!

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defaulttag

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Edited By defaulttag
@ShadowMountain said:
" The Good: 
-Lip-sync is amazing - well impressed with the effort put in
-Cut-scenes/GC looks stunning
 
The bad:
-Trailer WAY too long. When will SE learn that long trailers can bore an audience
-Volume of music need to dim when characters are speaking 
-Cocoon and  Fal'Cie are pretty dumb and clumsy words; again, not good trailer material
 
The Ugly:
-People complaining of the voice acting and stating that the Japanese VA is so much better - see 
Darkstar614's comment, he's pretty much bang-on  with the book analogy "
Totall agree
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Demonstride

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Edited By Demonstride

This trailer is crazy ridiculous. Perfect.

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lostaddict1993

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Edited By lostaddict1993

I thought this was a really cool trailer. It kind of encompassed the basis of the plot to tell us what it'll be about without giving too much away. Although it's going to bother me that they changed "Break" to "Stagger" in the NTSC release.

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Edited By dragonguyx

i just laugh at the idiots who won't buy the game because of a song.

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Edited By moush
@DocWattson:  prob with crappy J-drama in ur games?
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Edited By Bones8677
@PJ: It's Kanji man!
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DocWattson

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Edited By DocWattson

I still think the game will be good but this trailer is HORRIBLE

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PJ

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Edited By PJ

Who is doing the voice for Snow? Has he been in every JRPG to date? Since I'm pretty sure I have heard that voice in ALOT of JRPGs, one that comes to mind is Lost Odyssey.
 
Still on the fence on if I should buy it for the 360 or PS3. I like the 360 contoller alot more then the DS3 and Disc switching doesn't bother me at all. But if the game runs like Last Remnant on the 360 then I will get the PS3 version. Well, it looks like its not going to be a day one purchase since I want to know how well it runs on the 360.