Professor Layton and the Curious Accents
by JC Fletcher 
{ Jan 23rd 2008 at 6:00PM }
The bad news is the voice acting.
We really don't want to cast any aspersions on what looks like a truly fantastic puzzle adventure game, and we don't want to suggest that the game is in any way bad. But we just can't let voice acting like this go by without comment. Apparently, Nintendo wasn't able to solve the puzzle of where to find people who speak with British accents.
[Update: the trailer has shown up on Gametrailers, and has been added to the post.]
[Via NeoGAF]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
hvnlysoldr @ Jan 23rd 2008 6:49PM
Because unlike other Robin Hood's I can speak with an English accent.
Joshua @ Jan 23rd 2008 7:01PM
Did the Japanese version have voice acting?
TD @ Jan 23rd 2008 7:35PM
I don't know, the acting doesn't sound so bad to me.
TheFreak @ Jan 23rd 2008 7:37PM
Was the voice acting in that trailer really so bad?
Maybe I've just been tempered with the type of audio fare presented in Dracula X Chronicles...
Mog @ Jan 23rd 2008 7:41PM
The acting in the trailer wasn't that bad, IMO. Can't wait
HellsHammer @ Jan 23rd 2008 7:55PM
The music in this series is unbelievable. It fits absolutely perfectly. I want this whole trilogy.
Ramses @ Jan 23rd 2008 8:03PM
I actually like the trailer. The accents where actually well done, not too overly exaggerated.
mauroh @ Jan 23rd 2008 8:32PM
Funny... i didn't think it was half bad either... are our standards that low?
GatorSax2010 @ Jan 23rd 2008 8:40PM
I didn't much care for the woman's voice, but the rest wasn't half bad. Regardless, as a fan of Phoenix Wright, logic puzzles, and runaway ferris wheels, you better believe I'll be picking this up.
Feigr @ Jan 23rd 2008 9:28PM
When will they atleast put in the option of japanese voice and english subtitles? This is as far as I know the standard for anime (I rarely watch any).
Now this game maybe didn't have japanese voices in the original so it's a bit much to ask here, but for other games, like Castle Shikigami 3 that's coming out for the Wii I bet they will only have english voice acting in the NA/EU, if any at all.
Dave @ Jan 23rd 2008 9:55PM
Why would you want to have japanese voices in this game, I mean the game is completely un-japanese. From the setting to the art style it's all european. There's no point in having japanese voices in a game like this and anyway the animated cutscenes are probably only voiced.
JC Fletcher @ Jan 23rd 2008 10:20PM
Yeah, I just want... you know, European voice acting.
Ren @ Jan 24th 2008 12:07AM
I honestly had no problems with the voice acting AT ALL. In fact, I was sold when Layton said "My word....".
Waffala @ Jan 23rd 2008 10:53PM
JC Fletcher is right; I know Nintendo doesn't like Europe, but it would have been nice to have some British voices done by Brits, not British voices mimicked by Yankees. I'm surprised how many comments here are panning the concept of, you know... legitimacy.
Jamar @ Jan 24th 2008 1:17AM
I prefer the Japanese voice acting over this. Seriously.
Brent @ Jan 24th 2008 3:15AM
This game looks amazing. I can't wait. Voice acting is neither great, nor bad. Real Brits would've made too much sense, I suppose.
Hung @ Jan 24th 2008 4:05AM
I thought it was fine. I honestly couldn't tell the difference.....but I'm not British, so maybe it's just me.
Ethan @ Jan 24th 2008 6:28AM
Plummy works.
dAn @ Jan 24th 2008 6:54AM
The Professor's voice wasn't too bad, but dear Christ, the rest was quite horrible.
mauroh @ Jan 24th 2008 7:10AM
Yeah... I guess it WOULD be better with real brits, but if you compare this with other dubbed games [Lunnar Knights, Luminous Arc, etc..] we should be grateful as is... it's no secret that american dubbers pretty much suck anyway...
shaffy @ Jan 24th 2008 1:05PM
I think its been done pretty well suites the art style and sound just like them old british cartoons which it also looks like.
rikki @ Jan 24th 2008 6:24PM
Wow. I would have preferred plain old American VAs over Americans-obviously-faking-it. I know everyone's insisting that the feel of the game is European—but it isn't like the Japanese VAs attempted British accents, or even spoke English.
The woman was awful, but not the worst I've heard. The rest are tolerable...though I still wish they'd hired the studio that did such an excellent job on DQ8.
Salty Soil @ Jan 24th 2008 10:45PM
I admit the woman's voice just sounds odd. The rest sounds fine though.
Should we really be expecting triple-A voice acting on a handheld game? Especially since it's a new franchise for the West.
Dr_W@dsy @ Feb 19th 2008 9:24PM
At least it's better than MegaMan Battle Network on DS.
I finally gave up on that game when, for the 100th time, Lan (who is supposedly 12ish) yells "MegaMan, Jack In, Activate" sounding like a 28 year old crappy voice actor trying to remember his late teens.
worst voice evar......
Dio @ Feb 20th 2008 12:00PM
Are you serious? I've watched British television and I can only understand most of what they're saying. There's nothing wrong with the voices when you take into account the overall quality of voice acting in anime/video games. It's the standard.