I've been out of touch at about the worst possible time, Lunarwise. >_< But my spouse is currently playing the US demo, so I've heard the beginning (he's still in Burg).
I haven't checked out the official website yet, so the only English voices I've heard so far are those first two cutscenes and the opening song. My heart sank when I recognized Jenny Stigile's voice, as I've never cared for her renditions of Lunar songs at all. This one was done a bit better than the previous ones, but not great. The extra syllable was painful.
Alex is okay, I guess. I'm not overly fond of the earlier versions, but am not thrilled about him sounding so teenagerish even if he is a teenager.
Nall does sound more like he would in EB. But I don't think that the lower voice is an improvement. It makes sense for him to have a high voice, due to his size -- short vocal chords. He should sound like a little kid. (I also felt that in SSSC his voice should have been shifted the other way later in the game.)
Luna... ugh. Her voice in the intro scene might be okay for Jessica, I suppose, but the personality suggested by her voice here is a type that easily gets on my nerves.
The spring scene is also extremely winceworthy. Luna's singing sounds like it's straining, and I'm not sure it was much in tune. The ocarina sounds really bad. It may well be that the line as originally written just isn't very easy on ocarina, but a simpler line better played would be preferable to that clumsiness.
[Edit: Yes, this is apparently XSeed's doing. The Japanese cutscene, as noted above, was untouched.)
Quark -- sounds way too much like a human, and a not overly friendly one at that. He might do for TSS Damon, who died of old age during the game. Don't like the dialogue much.
Spouse has been reading lines out now and again to inquire whether they're different or not. He's not enamored of the changes; nor am I. Given that a fair bit are taken directly from the WD translation, the ones which are different seem changed only for the sake of change rather than for any good reason or improvement. I also really don't get why they'd change the names of items and locations, unless there was some legal issue involved. The only purpose that serves is to irritate the people who are already familiar with the series, except for a probably very small number who didn't like WD's name renditions and changes. Players new to the series wouldn't know the difference anyway unless they played the import (how likely is that for someone who hasn't played the previous versions?) and expect the more exact renditions of Honmel, etc. Ghoto is particularly stupid because it was Goat in DS, so even if they didn't want to use WD's name there was still a reasonable English name for the place. These decisions sound more like they're intended to show independence from WD or something, because it's idiotic to release a remake of an old game which therefore has an already existing fanbase and change things which don't need to be changed and which aren't improved, thereby alienating that fanbase. Unless, as mentioned before, there's some bizarre legal issue involved. In which case the protagonist should be Arhes.
Spouse comments that the end of battle shows a rather odd thing: the words are anti-aliased but the numbers aren't. Wonder if that will be more consistent in the final release.
I hope Xseed continues to have him talk on a regular basis; I've seen Japanese players joke about how their very reticent Alex suddenly becomes a master orator at the end of the game.
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