I got Jade Empire.

[A Black Falcon]

Which is why I said conforming to.

Anime still has themes you don't see in traditionally American stuff when presented in English.

Yes that's true, though I blame that more on the fact that people associate terrorism with Islam.

This is true... and is mostly not fair. But really, for Europe it's not just terrorism. It's also fears of their unique cultural identities being consumed under floods of immigrants... so they will keep out immigrants, even if the result is a low birthrate and dropping population. (as I said, this is the one problem the US doesn't have.)

Well just do what I suggested, keep the original English script for subtitles. Simple.

Uh... how does that solve the issue? What would the people be speaking, then? I'd expect the words on the bottom would be what is being said... this is one reason why some people prefer dubbed anime -- it changes most of those Japanese references into recognizable ones. The subbed version generally will not, to be more accurate... sometimes you get a choice, so it can be subbed in either version, but not usually... I'm not saying it should be done in English, but it's a more complex issue when the culture in question is not the one the developers are from.

At least in ED that transition from the original language to English, like as if there were Trek-like translators at work. Heh. Not very realistic, but it also wasn't a huge RPG with tons of voicework.

Stupid Star Trek translators! If it was really being "translated" their mouths would move LIKE THEY WOULD IN THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE... :) Definitely not very realistic. But yes, at least ED made the small effort to transition into English. It goes with the high attention to historical detail that game shows.

I think I have made my point clear. You think it's a major issue. Nothing wrong with that really, though as you have said you are willingly refusing to take any story seriously merley because they want you to focus on the stuff going on in the scene rather than subtitles. The idea is that they ARE speaking their native tongue, it's just that you have a universal translator in your head so you understand what they are saying. None of these instances are actually trying to say they really ARE speaking english. I've never taken it that way. It's just not that big a deal to me. Listen, if I KNEW other languages, I would ALWAYS prefer all my entertainment in the originally written language instead of a translation, but I don't, so it's nice to have the translation as something I can just listen to, especially during battle when I can't afford to take a split second to read something. No matter, I've said what I have to say. I don't mean to say you shouldn't love the study of language. I merely mean to explain the reasons behind such things and why I consider it acceptable and something easily ignored.

Um... as we have said, many times, it's called "subtitles". It makes it irrelevant that you can't understand the spoken language. What is it that makes it so hard for you to accept the concept that you don't have to understand every word that the people are saying? Isn't the written words on the screen that transcribe everything they are saying (while you take emphasis, emotion, etc from the spoken words -- easy enough, quickly) more than good enough? Yet you continue to say this... puzzling.

If you wanted a better argument, you could say 'I don't like reading subtitles'. This one I've heard before, and can accept... I disagree, but at least it's a valid point. "If I knew other languages I'd use them" isn't. If that's what you think, you're missing the whole point of our position, it seems to me. Why do you need to understand the spoken language for you to want to use it as the audio track? The only reason I can think of is if you dislike reading subtitles... but you haven't cited that as your reason, so I'm just left confused.

You are right that it's assumed that there are translators and that they're "really" speaking their real languages, but this gets kind of forgotten when they're speaking colloquial English, you know... I know, it's very hard for someone to write accurately as if they are someone of a different culture. Very hard. So I consider this at least somewhat excusable. But even so, it's there.

But none of that matters right now... I have started an argument between you two. My job is done *flutters away*.

Nope. "Argument" requires opposing positions. We agree on at least 90% of this issue. So it's not an argument. It's a discussion. :) There's an important difference there. You're the one with the contrary opinion, not us...