Tendo City

You're thinking of Wario World. Wario Ware (GC) isn't out yet, and it's going to be $30 new.

Ah. Well yeah. But Wario Ware doesn't have much more content than the GBA Wario Ware, except multiplayer, while Four Swords is supposedly more... or it better be, with them charging full price and dropping one of the three modes from the Japanese version!

Sure it's not the exact same situation as WW, but they're charging more for it than they did for Twin Snakes!

But TS was special... don't know why. Nintendo always charges $50 for new games... until very recently. So either this is bigger than we think or they're just going back to the old ways...

It's because Konami published the game.

Seriously, removing an entire mode of gameplay JUST because they don't feel like regonalizing it is something I haven't heard of since the SNES days, having been done since the NES days. I THOUGHT NOA had learned! Guess not! "Oooh, it's a lot of work to translate it, so rather than do our jobs let's just remove it and act like it never existed! The little kids will never know!"

I mean, the sheer idiocy! This sets a BAD precident! What's to stop them from removing larger and larger chunks of games due to difficulty?

We have companies like Square-Enix actually RERENDERING the FMVs in Final Fantasy X-2 so the lips match the translated voice, but NOA is so lazy about finding voice actors, or cheap, whichever one, they decide they should just remove the whole thing?! I honestly don't care WHAT the difficulty is. We should demand more of NOA and they should demand more of themselves! Really, NOA has dissappointed me many times in the past (mostly restrospectively reading about the transgressions online), for example the censuring we got for many games that Nintendo of Japan had NO problem with. (Remember, Final Fantasy 4 wasn't censored and made easy because Nintendo the family company had a problem with the content. It was completely uncensored in Japan after all. No, it was NOA that said the US version should be censored and simplified.)

Seriously, NOA has only two saving graces. They came up with Mario's name, and they found Rare. Japan should really consider either specifically ordering NOA to completely turn itself around or finding some new staff for the US outlet. I will admit that the Zelda series has had some very accurate translations. They do still censor it, apparently it wasn't a necklace Link was trying to find for that mermaid (let's just say there's a reason she didn't leave the water until she got the "necklace" back), but in general Zelda has kept a more accurate translation record than Final Fantasy.

NOA should make me their president. I'd fix all the crazy stuff that they do.

Nintendo games don't usually use voice actors so maybe poor NOA couldn't afford such a huge expense...

Does NOA even HAVE any voice actors?

Hmm... I don't know. Can you think of anything with English voice acting that wasn't done at the original studio (ie Eternal Darkness)?

I can't think of any.

Well poor NOA should face reality, because I have a feeling that soon enough Miyamoto or the new guy in charge of developing Zelda games may just decide to add full voice acting, as opposed to the grunts and such used now. NOA would either have to keep the Japanese voice acting (which Capcom has been known to do with a few of their later PS1 games), or strip them all out and JUST have the subtitles (much more likely because NOA has a habit of trying to keep the fact that their games are from Japan a secret from the little kids...).

NOA does some dumb stuff sometimes.

Oh, before it's misinterpreted, I do prefer the grunts to nothing at all, and they do a great job. Voice acting though would be a great addition if you ask me, as would a fully vocalized song like RPGs these days ALL have.

Ya know though, the Stadium games on N64 had translated voice acting. Didn't NOA translate that game?

Obviously they got voice actors from somewhere to do those games, so why don't they do that now? Laziness, probably.

Far as I can tell, NOA is either being lazy, or they are woefully understaffed or underfunded, OR they are obeying some really old and outdated company guidelines from the NES days, OOORRR, a combination of some or all of the above.

Seamus Beakly (sp) was right when he said that Nintendo is like a big movie studio right who a little while after sound was introduced to movies refused to use sound because "the old way worked fine for us for decades so why change?". Nintendo (not just NOA) has mentioned in the past why their games don't have extensive voice work, and it's because they'd have to do voice work in a dozen different languages for all of the main territories. Unfortunately for Nintendo that's what all of the major studios are doing, and they're not lazy and cheap like Nintendo is. Yes it's hard work, but last time I checked Nintendo was the single largest developer in the world. It's inexcusable.

I don't really have a big problem with not have extensive voice work [given that a lot of the voice work out there is at best adequate], but to take out a whole section of game because they didn't want to translate the voice acting? That's crazy.

Yes, and they're even charging us more for our incomplete game than the Japanese version (which can be bought from an import store for $40).

Crazy!!

I know!

Thing is, they could just leave in the Japanese voice work and do subtitles. I just don't get why this is supposed to be an official reason. Nintendo overall only really needs to translate it into English. All the OTHER territories don't count because they aren't America or the country that made it :D. Yes, it's funny, but it's true and you know it.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure voicework wouldn't take anything away from the game's development, well except money. And well, I guess that's Nintendo's main reason for not doing it. Eh, I can live without it just fine anyway. It's just something nice I hope they add eventually to the Zelda series. A lot of Japanese companies only make important scenes voice acted anyway, with standard talking to townspeople text only. No problem with that myself, considering the sheer amount of text involved. Anyway, it's just something that would really add to the mood. Not needed, nor was cel shading needed. Just something nice to add.

I'd be happy if the game costed $30 here, but the fact that it's more expensive than the Japanese version and it's missing one whole game mode really pisses me off.

I won't be happy, because we are missing out on something we will never EVER see. Making it a little cheaper wouldn't make up for it.

It would certainly be better than paying full price for an incomplete game!

It still sucks. Honestly just because being stabbed in the brain is a nicer way to be murdered than being stabbed in the legs and left to bleed to death doesn't make the first one better. I won't even admit to it being relatively better, 'cause it sucks! :D

Absolutely.

I think a better, less extreme example would be ordering a nice bowl of pasta and meatballs in a restaurant and getting just the pasta but for a cheaper price than it would be with the meatballs, than just getting the pasta only and being charged even more for it.

Nintendo = stupid. Here's just another reason... there's no reason to leave this out. It looked okay. Not great but not so bad it should be dropped! And it's less in Japan? Absurd! Normally games here are CHEAPER than there, not more expensive!

Oh, and ou're right, they could have just translated and left in the Japanese. But you're also right -- Nintendo tries to remove everything Japanese they can from their games... which means they'd never do even that. :(

Oh, and I don't really mind the lack of voice acting most of the time, but it is nice to have it spoken... or at least some... you can't do everything in voice, but you can do some. It's really too bad. 'it costs a lot' is the dumbest excuse ever... but hey they use the same one for plenty of other things, so why not there too...