I'm bored at work, so this is kind of a random thought that popped into my head. But people always look down on that laughing scene and use it as an example of "bad voice acting" or "bad localization. But really, how is it? The entire point of the scene was to be awkward and forced, Yuna and Tidus are forcing themselves to laugh when they aren't happy. The entire purpose of the scene was them forcing themselves to awkwardly laugh to try and cheer up the grim situation. Everybody I see bashing the scene is usually completely taking it out of context and just using it to say the voice acting is bad when it was purposely made that way. Even the other characters in the game are all standing off together looking at Tidus and Yuna with "what the hell are they doing" faces on.
Final Fantasy X
Game » consists of 13 releases. Released Jul 19, 2001
The first Final Fantasy game for the PlayStation 2 brought cinematic quality to the series with voice acting and fully 3D environments. The story follows Tidus, a young man transported one thousand years into the future to find a world quite unlike his own.
Why is the laughing scene so looked down upon?
Never really bothered me. Possibly due to a mix of it feeling very Japanese like and as you said, being a part of the story. Seen much worse in video games then that laughing seen.
@killacam said:
right after the forced laughing, tidus and yuna break out in real laughter, so that's always undercut it... but it's still a really awkward scene.
But it was always meant to be awkward and forced. The problem is, a lot of people don't understand that when fools post a youtube video of the laugh out of context as a supposedly representative example of the game's overall voice acting.
It bothered me because my family came into the room when I got to that point and the characters on screen were awkwardly laughing like fucking idiots.
It didn't stand out to me at all during my play through of the game. I didn't even remember the scene existed until people started posting that clip as an example of bad voice acting, even though it seems pretty easy to recognize that it all works in the context of the scene. So I don't know.
I think the scene is fine but it probably has something to do with the fact that the Luca part of the game is boring and dumb and that scene comes at the end of a very boring section and people were ready to hate on something.
I have never judged the game overall voice acting because of that scene but it sounds wierd as hell. Yes, they may be forcing laughter BUT come on, is that the most convincing fake laughter you can do? It feels like they are laughing like robots HA....HA....HA.... rather than faking real lagughter. That's why that scene allways been kind of of to me. BUT as you can hear in the end of that secene those voice acters a clearly capable of laughing in a more real and convincing way.
It never bothered me, personally, mostly because I understood what was happening and that it was supposed to be kinda dumb. The first time I saw it I did cringe a bit, but whatever, X is still a fantastic game to me.
It's cheesy and embarrassing, but I've always felt it was treated unfairly too, for the reasons you mentioned. The people that find it so bad probably haven't played the game. I actually really like the story of FFX, and Tidus. People complain about how whiny he is, and I get that, but it's also the point of his character. A spoiled celeb athlete who has daddy issues and is suddenly thrust into a crazy unfair world and forced to grow up. By the end of the game, he's pretty much a great hero/well-rounded character. It's a character arc like Luke Skywalker's; a whiny teen that grows up and becomes responsible.
@CL60 said:
I'm bored at work, so this is kind of a random thought that popped into my head. But people always look down on that laughing scene and use it as an example of "bad voice acting" or "bad localization. But really, how is it? The entire point of the scene was to be awkward and forced, Yuna and Tidus are forcing themselves to laugh when they aren't happy. The entire purpose of the scene was them forcing themselves to awkwardly laugh to try and cheer up the grim situation. Everybody I see bashing the scene is usually completely taking it out of context and just using it to say the voice acting is bad when it was purposely made that way. Even the other characters in the game are all standing off together looking at Tidus and Yuna with "what the hell are they doing" faces on.
The people who say that it's bad localization haven't seen that scene in Japanese. The scene in english is actually a MARKED improvement over the Japanese version.
The voice acting was poor and the scene was incredibly cheesy. People aren't taken it out of context by calling it awkward, it's awkward because no real people would ever act that way.
Although that's a problem with the series in general these days, none of the characters seem like humans. Having a painfully unlikable character and having him "grow" as the game goes on, also doesn't qualify as a character arc.
I didn't even remember it until I noticed the internet doing it's favorite thing of beating dead horses. The scene itself is not that bad. In fact I don't find it weird at all.
I actually know someone who stopped playing through FFX just because of this scene. Talk about lame reasons to quit playing a game that they were enjoying the heck out of.
A lot of people who don't know the context probablyy get the wrong impression, but I do know the context and I still say the voice acting in that scene was pretty bad. It was something I noticed, but not something that stuck with me and I probably wouldn't even remember it if people hadn't started posting that video.
I think having that scene in the game was a bad idea. It came off as just being really stupid. It reminds me of that scene in Star Wars Episode II where they spend a couple of minutes talking about fucking sand. I understand the main idea behind what the scene was suppose to convey, but the end result comes off as being weird and doesn't work.
Just because something has a 'point' doesn't mean that it was executed well. You defenders talking about the awkward forcing of the laugh being the point of the scene are right, but that doesn't justify horrendous animation and bad voice work all around. The context of the scene is pretty clear as well, but that doesn't suddenly justify the overall bad quality of everything going on in that scene. If you want people to feel a connection with the characters and their emotions, animation and the way characters move is just as important as dialogue. The era FFX is in was one of the worst times for that. It's a product of the times, not some fucking existential mood piece that should be defended for reasons other than the time.
I don't like it because I have always sounded horrible, I don't really care about whether it fits or it's context, the sound of it is awful D:
EDIT: Also in Japanese it sound super aggressive and in English it almost sounds like he is in pain and not laughing...
It's more the schmaltzy premise of the scene itself than how it was acted. "Don't forget to smile, sometimes, even when you're down!" Blech.
I also think it was awkward to a degree beyond what the text of the scene intended.
Part if it is because it's just annoying to look at and listen to. Tidus is also an annoying character so when he does something like that it just elevates how annoying he is. I never liked Final Fantasy though. Not my thing, so I might be a bit harsh on Tidus.
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