It kind of disappoint me that they did this once, and never did it again through out the rest of the story
Despite having Nation/Region base world setting
Genshin lack representation of there language in there character
This came to my attention while i was playing the new released game Arknight:Endfield
The character there has accent and speak different language base on there origin
like Wulfgard and Rossie sometime speak Italian
or Avywenna haveing British accent
I really love to have a character that speak or have accent base on there region, like French accent for Fontaine character or Snezhnaya character speak Russia
Genshin lack representation of there language in there character
This came to my attention while i was playing the new released game Arknight:Endfield
The character there has accent and speak different language base on there origin
like Wulfgard and Rossie sometime speak Italian
or Avywenna haveing British accent
I really love to have a character that speak or have accent base on there region, like French accent for Fontaine character or Snezhnaya character speak Russia
Commentaires
and because that's an incredibly unnatural and jarring way of speaking.
Except it is in some language, and as a dane I can tell you that you are lying cause we are one of those that do it.
Lauma pronounces kuutar with a soft t and emphasis on the first syllable (koo-tar) and other characters use hard t and shorter first syllable (ku-taar). It never feels unnatural.
To me it just feels counter intuitive to use words from other languages but make them sound different deliberately to "fit"? The only semi valid reason i accept is inability. Which still doesn't make it "make sense"
This doesn't apply to word that have to changed to match the language, only those borrowed as is.
However, giving them Italian, Russian or UK accents means nothing. English is just a medium for us to understand the characters. Canonically, people speak the language of Teyvat. Those accents would mean nothing once you play in JP or CN, and they wouldn't make sense, since not every region is based on 1 single country.
Unless a game has its even occur in real world setting, general English is enough. The accent should just come naturally from VAs, not forced into region.
Also, its not like Hoyo hasn't done accents before (remember Estelle?), they just rarely try with playable characters, normally only NPCs.
> not every region is based on 1 single country
They're still based on a limited group of regions and cultures. You could simply give characters different accents reflecting this. It's hardly unusual for regional dialects to exist in a single country.
> giving them Italian, Russian or UK accents means nothing. English is just a medium for us to understand the characters
You know that foreign accents are a thing in *all* languages, right? Accents happen because the sounds of each language don't map onto each other 1:1, so people speaking a foreign language have to use the closest approximation they can make.
You can still have a French or Italian accent in Chinese.
> Those accents would mean nothing once you play in JP or CN
While JP and CN definitely do still have foreign accents, sure, accents might not carry the same meaning in JP or CN as they do in English.
But if that's your excuse, then you might just give up on translating altogether. I mean, Japanese and Korean both have multiple levels of politeness that English doesn't. So, then what, Genshin shouldn't use polite language in the JP and KR dubs because you can't directly translate that into English?
A competent localization/translation team takes all those things that are not directly translatable and finds a way to express that in the destination language.
> The accent should just come naturally from VAs, not forced into region
Absolutely not.
Even within "general English", different accents carry different meanings. If a VA naturally has a Cockney accent, but they're playing a character that's supposed to be nobility, their accent would clash with the character in a way that speaking in Received Pronunciation wouldn't.
Foreign accents likewise carry such connotations.
Managing that, and making sure that the accent of a character matches their actual character is the job of whoever is directing the game's voiceover.
Ignoring accents altogether and just demanding a generic General American accent just makes your VO performance flat and boring.
Like if the VA had the accent and it fit the context sure but otherwise don’t. At least I thought so. Seems like you’re reaching there.
Me: "If the character is a round hole, you should ensure your VA is a round peg"
You: "If the character is a round hole and the VA is already a round peg, then it's fine to let them be natural, but if they're not, then force them to be a round peg.
I'm sorry, are you disagreeing with me? It sounds like you just don't like my tone.
That's still incorrect. The VA doesn't know what the vision for the character and how they fit into the overall narrative.
It's still up to the voice directors to guide the VA into what the game's dev team want the character to be.
Also I think that second statement was disproven. iirc they are given great detail on that type of stuff (this is through leaks though so take it with a grain of salt).
Were you saying something about jumping to conclusions or misinterpreting what people were saying?
> If that’s how you choose to interpret it, I’m not going to try to change it.
"You're wrong and I can easily prove it, but I'm not going to"
Here is the current in-game dialogue with the NPC Ninan the courier at People of the Springs:
>"Gong Hei fat choy" "please pass on my regards to all the Uncles and Aunties"... So that's how the people of Liyue write to their families...
Player: "Are you learning a foreign language?"
>"Haha, no, I'm not doing a formal course of study or anything. This is just to satisfy my own sense of curiosity.
>And please don't misunderstand me - I'll never open a client's letter to peek at what they're saying. Everything I know the clients themselves told me to help me with my learning.
>I can't leave Natlan easily, so of course, I've got to learn as much as I can from the tourists who are here to visit
>In return, I'll also teach them some phrases in our language.
>Writing down some blessings in our language for the outlanders is always a fascinating experience"
This dialogue and other evidence like Flins speaking Fae, Furina singing in French, another Fontaine NPC being given a French accent, KoF knights signing in German and names in different regions being taken from different areas of the real world suggest there are multiple languages being used in Teyvat, despite it never being used as plot point or obviously discussed.
I have 2 potential explanations of this
1) There are multiple languages in Teyvat, but currently there is a common language that everyone learns, at least as a second language, and this is the default language used for spoken communication. Communities have different traditional languages that are used for written communication, or spoken at home.
2) The situation is left intentionally vague like character age, because the game wants to reference real world places and imply that different regions do each have different languages. However they don't want to commit to specifics, like assigning one country for each region when most reference several or have all the VAs perform in a specific regional accent, which may be hard to pull off. Obviously they don't want the VAs speaking in a different language in each region forcing players to read subtitles either.
Regardless of the explanation, I agree with OP & would like more regional accents rather than everyone's accent just being American.
I don't think every playable character & NPC should sound the same in each region though. Instead, give some NPCs different accents and give VAs with different natural accents a chance to use them in game ( *cough* Escoffier! )
The snowland Fae lore will be probably expanded better in Shnezhnaya, so we might get another scene like this, but don't expect much.