Undub Eternia?

[Majutsuko]

The newest version of Abyss' undub actually includes voiced skits, and the movies were subbed. (This is pretty recent, like a few months maybe, the older undub didn't include skits)

I agree, I didn't mind the voices of Abyss and thought they were good, but when going through the game again, it's refreshing to hear a different set of VA.

I agree 100%. Abyss had excellent VAs that could actually act well (unlike a number of the ones in TOS). I have no particular language preference for Abyss, but as you said, it's refreshing to hear a new VA set.

And yeah about Eternia, I remember attempting to undub (both ways, adding english text to jp version and japanese voices into english version) and they ended up out of sync, and I just gave up because it didn't really matter that much.

What's cool though is that my ToE translation files (on page 2) have everything perfectly in synch. These files are dead simple to insert (copypasta job), but a patch would be even easier (and lighter), so I really hope someone volunteers to make the patch (this would take 1 minute once the ISOs are ready).

I do remember trying to insert the Japanese voices into the EUR version though and that did give me synchronization problems, hence why I went the other route.

That way around is actually easier? *confused*

Usually, it isn't easier to insert all the translated text, but in ToE's case it was VERY easy. Except for the menus. That'll take some hacking skills that are beyond my abilities. So unless someone wants to contact me and do something about menus, they'll remain in pretty Japanese characters.

[Kevassa]

I do remember trying to insert the Japanese voices into the EUR version though and that did give me synchronization problems, hence why I went the other route.
Usually, it isn't easier to insert all the translated text, but in ToE's case it was VERY easy. Except for the menus. That'll take some hacking skills that are beyond my abilities. So unless someone wants to contact me and do something about menus, they'll remain in pretty Japanese characters.

Wait wait wait, youa re still talking about a PSP patch, right? (gets exited for nothing) :S Well nonethless better than anyhting.. I guess

[oroboro]

I've tried to undub the PSP Eternia as well. Yeah, transferring the dialogue text is very easy (just a matter of transferring files) but everything else (menus, location names, item names, i.e. everything except the dialogue) is hard coded into the game.

Just some info about the audio, in case anyone finds it useful:
The dialogue audio is all VAG (untouched since the PSX version I assume) and is all stored in the s.v file. The s.v file is basically just a bunch of VAG files occupying a number of sectors (this number is an integer). A sector is 2048 bytes, so if, for example, you had an audio file of 10000 bytes, then the file would occupy (using integer division) (10000 / 2048 + 1) sectors = 4 sectors + 1 = 5 sectors (the remaining space is filled with zeroes). If the file size is exactly divisible by 2048 then it occupies exactly file.size / 2048 sectors.

I have written an extractor and rebuilder if anyone is interested for whatever reason (I tried replacing some individual files - still out of sync). Intrestingly, there are some missing audio files in the US version (and a few from the US version do not exist in the JP version). So even if the out of sync problem just had to do with the file positions in the s.v file, you would not be able to degrade the quality of the JP audio (most of the JP files are larger) and fit them into the US s.v file. I also encountered another problem with that - there are some JP files that even when reduced to minimum quality, are too large to be fitted into the US s.v file.

If you take a look at the EBOOT, you will find all the other text in "string tables". The EBOOT is ELF and I found an ELF specification document somewhere (easy to find with google) and it may be possible to just extract the string tables, edit them, and inject them back in. The document is very vague and short though so it will take some time to figure things out (I need to do a lot of experimentation). Someone who is also attempting this told me that if you modify some PSP system settings, the JP version will have English dialogue text. If that is true, then the JP version contains the  English dialogue text (I still need to confirm this - if confirmed I will post his instructions).

So, Majutsuko, do you think you could help me out with "undubbing" this game? Maybe, if there is a nice little debugger like ollydbg that lets you easily modify the referenced strings and save, for either PSP or PSX then this would be really really easy to do. If not, I'd have to figure out this ELF file structure and write a program to extract the tables. Either way, I will need as much help as possible (the ELF file structure especially).

btw, I just started playing the Tales games. I first got ToE for PSP but as soon as I heard that disgusting dub I stopped playing it. The ToE dub IS one of the worst dubs ever done. The piece of sh*t dub done for Farah, for example, does not match the character AT ALL. In most games, such as Tales of the Abyss, they actually try to get matching voices.

The only other game I know of that has dubs as bad as ToE is Kingdom of Paradise, which I did an undub for (even gamespot mentioned how horrible they were).  As for kotoba, yeah, they did do a lot of games that didn't need an undub (FFXII, Rogue Galaxy, etc. - the dub for Rogue Galaxy is one of the best I have ever heard) but they do it for people who prefer the original voices and I appreciate that.

[Kajitani-Eizan]

btw, I just started playing the Tales games. I first got ToE for PSP but as soon as I heard that disgusting dub I stopped playing it. The ToE dub IS one of the worst dubs ever done. The piece of sh*t dub done for Farah, for example, does not match the character AT ALL. In most games, such as Tales of the Abyss, they actually try to get matching voices.

wait wait what? it wasn't THAT bad... i mean, it was pretty passable when they weren't falling flat. which was a relatively small section in the middle of the game.

[ForceCube]

Seriously... I'll never, EVER understand why people hate Eternia's VA that much. It isn't good, but come on, one of the worst ever? That's absurd. Go play Magna Carta: Tears of Blood and tell me Eternia is worse than that. ._.

[Belegorm]

Worse dub than Star Ocean 2?  That's pretty legendary (haven't played it myself, got bored with 3, currently playing 1).

[Kevassa]

Seriously... I'll never, EVER understand why people hate Eternia's VA that much. It isn't good, but come on, one of the worst ever? That's absurd. Go play Magna Carta: Tears of Blood and tell me Eternia is worse than that. ._.

I will tell you why :

Meredy: Indignation....
Keele: Aqua EDGEEE!!!!!!
Meredy: Heal... (gasp gimme another cup of cofee..)
Farah: RAAAAWRRR!!! X3 TAKE THIIIIS! (maximum burst YAY)

In short, it isnt NEARLY as bad as Star Ocean 2.. that one is the owrst disaster in the whole gaming history, but you cant say it is a decent one, it is done with people who arent professional, you dont feel the emotion in their voices, unlike  some of the ToS or ToA  Voices

[Kajitani-Eizan]

RAWR! HAH HAH TAKE THISS!

c'mon, you can't be telling me you can't feel the emotion there. </notsarcasmbelieveitornot>

[Goshi]

Seriously... I'll never, EVER understand why people hate Eternia's VA that much. It isn't good, but come on, one of the worst ever? That's absurd. Go play Magna Carta: Tears of Blood and tell me Eternia is worse than that. ._.

Yeah there's worse but Eternia's is up there. Its no big deal though when you consider the fact you can turn off the voices though >_>

[ForceCube]

It might have to do with the fact that I didn't have that much experience with dubbed games when I first played Eternia, but the fact is I don't even consider it bad. *dies*

But you're right, turning voices off is the best solution. /o/ Too bad so few games have this option.

[Kevassa]

It might have to do with the fact that I didn't have that much experience with dubbed games when I first played Eternia, but the fact is I don't even consider it bad. *dies*

But you're right, turning voices off is the best solution. /o/ Too bad so few games have this option.

I gt no real problems on events, cause turning the voice off makes it really make your imagination go and make you think how they are talking, like Phantasia. BUt what really bothers me is in battle, but well NOTHIN NOTHIN worse than "I DID IT!" orrrrr "I HAVE NO CHOICE!!" but they really destroyed the best lines in the game like the Destiny summon, or the indignation line, Meredy in Jp says "Indiguneichiioooooooooooooon!" and in english it is "In-dig-na-tion" why does she split the words likem that?!?!? 

[Flamzeron]

I still don't understand why everyone hates ToE's English VAs. I liked them.

[Xiul]

Actually I like it too.     (for its time at least)

[Kevassa]

I still don't understand why everyone hates ToE's English VAs. I liked them.

Just hear the same line in Japanese and english IT IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, for instance waaay in the beggining, when the old man expels Farah and Rid, he is actually scared of doing so and you feel in his voice remordiment, in the USA he has no emotion on the voice, Meredys voice is much better in japanese becasue she sounds actually cute, and she doesnt speak all crampy, shizels va doesnt sound evil at all and IMO Race should sound more gentleman like Milhaust They are pretty similar

[me_001]

I actually liked the voices... They grow on you. Meredy's English voice was the best IMO, because she really sounds like an alien. She uses no pronouns and has bad grammar. Even though the Japanese was better, I still think her voice was wonderfull. Baiba!

[Flamzeron]

Just hear the same line in Japanese and english IT IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, for instance waaay in the beggining, when the old man expels Farah and Rid, he is actually scared of doing so and you feel in his voice remordiment, in the USA he has no emotion on the voice, Meredys voice is much better in japanese becasue she sounds actually cute, and she doesnt speak all crampy, shizels va doesnt sound evil at all and IMO Race should sound more gentleman like Milhaust They are pretty similar

It's not completely different. Reid's English VA in ToE actually sounded like the Japanese, and yes, I've heard the voices. Also, the Japanese tend to be overdramatic with their voice acting, so I try to avoid going into the typical anime fan, "All English VAs are monotone and emotionless". I hate the fact that so many fans tend to dislike the English voices, just because they seem emotionless. Well, English speaking people don't need to shout at the top of their lungs just to get the emotion right. I'm a voice actor, and I think English VAs do a good job. Besides, the recordings made the final project, so they should be good. I doubt a voice director dude would let some stuff slide.

Actually, when playing an English dub game, I rarely get the feeling that I get when I can feel the emotion from the voice, but that doesn't mean they show no emotion.