British voices are common in video games, and I've never played a video game that hasn't been in English. Even wordless affairs like Tetris use English for the menus. All this means I've been pretty spoiled when it comes to video games, always hearing my own language and fighting alongside my fellow countrymen. But at the same time, I've rarely heard anyone who sounds like me. Being from Newcastle, at the extreme north of England, has left us high and dry for video game representation. Most regional tones are brushed aside for cut-glass British aristocracy or generic English delivery, but even amongst beggars, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Geordies have been short on scraps. Enter 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 16.
I had heard ahead of launch that Geordies would be in the game, but I was apprehensive. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Assassin's Creed Valhalla was set in England, was influenced by the works of Newcastle monk Bede's historical texts of the era, and came from a studio with offices in Newcastle, yet the map of England stopped at Jorvik, AKA York, some 92 miles south of the Geordies. This is also factoring in that the North East was a key landing site for the Vikings and the first port they would come to from Scandinavia, and the fact the North East has the barrier of Hadrian's Wall that might have offered a more thematically resonant stopping point for the map. Galar, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Pokemon's British region, also i🙈gnores Newcastle entirely, though admittedly it had less obligation to remember us.
168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy however has not let me down. After a slow start (a sluggish pace I fe�💜�ar the game is still holding me to), I met up with Cid, and with him Goetz, and Goetz's fine North East accent. It sounds slightly South Tyneside to my ear, maybe even closer to the Wear than the Tyne, but it's a lot closer than Assassin's Creed ever got. I've been pretty vocal that Final Fantasy 16 is not working for me just yet, but Goetz's voice (and the potential promise of more like him) has kept me going.
Final Fantasy 16 does Geordies well, but there's more to it than that. It has respect for the rich variety of English accents, and it's very strange that a Japanese game set in a fictional mythical kingdom is the first triple-A game I’ve played that does that. Part of that stems from its 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Game of Thrones inspiration, where regional accents were commonplace (Geordies arrived late then stole the show with Ser Davos), and it gives me a lot of hope for the rest of the game. Not for the shallow reasoning of hearing these voices - although it doesn't hurt - but because so far it has mimicked Game of Thrones in ways that lack nuance and understanding. Getting the array of accents right to showcase a living, twitching world suggests a greater appreciation for its inspiration than I first thought.
When I wrote about the Geordies before launch, I made the mistake of making it all about myself. Oh, how neat it was that I, personally, w𝔍ould finally see some representation in the game. As fantastic as it was to hear Goetz, tꦿhe issue here is bigger than that. Goetz is not just one lone Geordie asking you "if Otto needs owt" in a sea of southern warbling - there is a tapestry of voices appearing right before my, erm, ears.
What most stands out is how the writing has been shaped by the accents. Localisation is an art and often the job of the team is to translate each sentence not only into the new language, but into a way that makes sense within context, accounting for flow, delivery, and idioms. However, it feels like Final Fantasy 16 has gone one step beyond and has considered not just the translation into English, but has given each accent a chance to shine. I'm not sure Goetz will be telling me to 'gan canny alreet' any time soon, but there are already flourishes that make him feel more vibrant than a man reading lines out in a regional accent chosen at random.
Some of the most intriguing and complex parts of Game of Thrones are absent here, but I have a long way to go and they could yet appear. In the meantime, it's the accents that are keeping me going. Now, let iz gan see if Otto needs owt, eh?