Introduction
When a Japanese game manages to see an English rendition, up comes another major hurdle for the fans. Will it be subbed, retaining all the glory of its original Nihonggo tongue? Or, will it face the U.S. distributor's splicers, arriving on retail with a completely new voice crew?

Some will face this predicament head-on and just turn down the volume when the sprites start talking. Some will shake their head in fury, and import. Most will probably just shrug, and resume play. Whatever the case, we figured it was high time we have took a look at some of the points often discussed when it comes to a game's voice tracks.

Quality
Arguably the most violently conflicted point being stated for this particular argument. As many purists will state, dubbed games have a habit of churning lackluster English voice acting. The scars of the "Jill Sandwich" is still fresh in our memory, with similar titles (ZX Advent, Dynasty Warriors come to mind) only adding fuels to the fire. Even Atlus stumbled a couple of  times - Luminous Arc's cast felt lacking in intensity (then again, so did the rest of the game).

But much like the similarly styled U.S. anime industry (try not to think of 4Kids for a moment),  the quality' is showing signs of maturity. After all, we've got talented people like David Hayter, who's built up quite a fan base for his works in Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid franchise.

Gamers will also remember Viktor Josef Mignogna (aka Vic Mignogna) - the English voice behind Full Metal Alchemist's Edward Elric.

Okay, so the FMA games were sub-par; but at the very least, actors like these fellows we mention indicate the level of refinement and dedication that's being siphoned into Japan-English ports.

And who's to say that poor acting is an ailment that's exclusive to the U.S. market? As Anime News Network editor Ryan Matthews puts it for a relatively parallel anime industry:

The sad truth of the matter is that most Japanese anime voice acting is of average quality. This is not to impugn the Japanese; it's merely Sturgeon's Law at work. For every Akira Kamiya and Megumi Hayashibara, there are scores of actors giving uninspired, cookie-cutter performances.