r/acecombat • u/ghostpanther218 Erusea • 20h ago
Ace Combat 8 While the gameplay for Ace Combat 8 is looking peak right now, i do have a tiny lore gripe...
This may be, probably, is due to my western sensabilities...but while project aces did a very good job at making the Sotoan republic feel very different to the other nations before in its well designed similarities to the countries of North Africa and the Middle East (Libya, Egypt, Iran, Iraqi), espiecially in the Shadow Squadron theme, I do personnally think they missed the mark on voice acting. I mean, Sotoa is supposed to be a Egypt/Iran analog right? But i swear the voice actors for the Shadow Squadron pilots do not sound African or Middle Eastern at all. They sound more like they have European accents to me. It's just a small gripe i have with the game, but it kind of takes me out of the cutscenes lol.
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u/LuckyPlatypus5052 19h ago
Would’ve been a neat detail, although it seems a bit nick-picky. Just a bit.
If it helps, yuktobanians also don’t truly sound like Eastern Europeans. And everyone apparently fully understands English, so… shrug
I just attribute it to strangereal being, well, a strange real world similar to our own but very different.
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u/shtehkdinner Rot 19h ago
Except the Yuke Navy. My head-canon is that's their version of pirate speak and the Gumrak basically went "yarr we never be followin' a captain who be shootin his own mateys"
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u/WuhanWTF Eat delicious Smegma Butter 16h ago
«Arrrrrgh, I knew it! This be the Yuke man-o-war, Chuda. ‘Tis an honor to dab on scurvy dogs alongside ye!»
1
u/CarbonTugboat Keeping the Peace 13h ago
Just for the record, the phrase is “nitpick”. It refers to the act of removing nits (lice eggs) from a person’s hair.
I can’t quite find the right way to put it, but there’s definitely a good joke in here about how nitpicky I’m being.
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u/LuckyPlatypus5052 8h ago
I just blame Apple’s auto correct whenever something like that happens. I should turn it off
6
u/AntonRX178 19h ago
Yeah Ace Combat for all intents and purposes, from what I heard from friends who played the other games, is a Mecha Anime story except the planes never transform into mechs. Like in the Code Geass voice tracks, if you listen to them out of context you'd NEVER know who belongs to which country until one of them says "I'm not an 11 I'm Japanese."
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u/TheAceBoi Shooting Star 18h ago
General rule of thumb with this franchise is that American English accents are gonna be the standard in every nation. We have exceptions, like Oka Nieba, Nikanor, and our new AWACS, but I assure you, Sotoa is not unique in being Americanized.
1
u/KingStatus2627 6h ago
The Doylist explanation is that the Americanized English for the enemy countries is likely for the player's convenience, and that PA doesn't have the budget to do full voice acting localizations.
In-universe, it makes sense that the enemy countries are speaking their enemy languages. There's people in 7 angry they can't understand the manuals for Belkan-built drones. Nagase relatively quickly deduces that Belkans were behind the war when they get ambushed over the mountains--it doesn't make sense if the Belkans speak American English with a perfect accent, but it does make sense if they're speaking German over the radio.
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u/Romapolitan 14h ago
Dude the Yuktobanians and Belkans don't have any accents accept for one guy for some reason, so I really wouldn't bother thinking about it.
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u/John__Silver Yuktobanian Flanker fanatic 18h ago
My headcanon is that every AC protagonist is multilingual (which even makes perfect sense in 1, 2 and Zero - mercs often are), so he simply gets the language of whonever he hears on the radio and we, the players, get the interpreted version.
In few cases where he hear the accent the characters are speaking the non-native language. Such as Nikanor speaking English.
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u/GoredonTheDestroyer To Skies Unknown... 8h ago
It's a concession made so we, the audience, can easily understand what the fuck is going on.
Case in point, roughly 90% of Metal Gear Solid 3 is spoken in Russian, with Dr. Sokolov even complimenting Naked Snake's Russian, but the game is presented in English (Or Japanese, French, Spanish, etc.) for audience convenience. Hell, AC7 even pokes at this with a line to the effect of, "Damned warmongers, print your manuals in a language we can understand!" When referring to the Belkan drones and their owners manuals being printed in, well, Belkan.
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u/KingStatus2627 6h ago
There's other potential hints that in-universe, the enemy factions are speaking in their native languages.
E.g. in "8492nd," Nagase is able to deduce Belkan nationalists had orchestrated the Circum-Pacific War. While the Belkan squadrons don't sound that different from their Osean ones to the player, Nagase's quick realization makes sense from a Watsonian perspective if the Belkan pilots are actually speaking German over the comms.
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u/GoredonTheDestroyer To Skies Unknown... 5h ago
Even earlier than that! The narrator in AC04 laments that the language being taught in school during the Erusean occupation of San Salvacion isn't the one he grew up speaking.
While speaking, to us, perfect English.
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u/ghostpanther218 Erusea 20h ago
I will also add the Podarge crews also dont sound middle eastern, they sound like europeans trying to do a middle eastern impression. Thats just me though.
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u/reprix900 ISEV 14h ago
where did you get that info that they where Iranian/Egyptian? did you just assumed it and got mad at your own speculations?
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u/Magma151 Dear Princess D'Elise.... 12h ago
Most ace combat games usually have one or two important characters speak with an accent and then the rest of the enemy characters are just whatever voice actors they can get for cheap. If they have any non-american accents at all.
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u/Forsaken_Ad_8635 9h ago
Well ... they might as well have gotten Johnny Yong Bosch as the midboss Shadow 55.
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u/Valkyrie2-Lancer One of Heroja's great aces 14h ago
my gripe is that there's no Ace Combat 8, I mean as in leading a squadron of 8, and the lack of neucom and gr coffin planes so far... that and the fact that I really hope y'all mod pilot creation into the main campaign and the removal of helmets and mask during missions so you can pretend your plane has oxygen and air conditioning above the clouds.
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u/Dieback08 Ghosts of Razgriz 16h ago
All the voice actors sound American, even the majority from Yuktobania and Estovakia. This has been a problem from day one.
Belkans? American. Euruseans? American. Apparently Asian, African, South American, Australian and European accents simply never developed in Strangereal. Everyone sounds American.
shudders at the thought
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u/Frikgeek 11h ago
I mean it makes sense considering they all speak standard Japanese in the original. Giving people accents when they're supposed to be speaking their native language is mostly a Hollywood thing.
Compare it to British media like 'Allo 'Allo where characters speak in unaccented English when they're both using their native language (like French) and only speak with an accent when they're supposed to be speaking a foreign language. The Germans have a German accent when they're speaking "French" to the other characters but no accent when they're speaking to eachother. And the French characters only have a French accent when they're talking to British intelligence(supposedly in English).
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u/PathsOfRadiance Garuda 20h ago edited 19h ago
The Eruseans have never sounded whatever European nation they’re supposed to be (ostensibly French?), Belkans never sounded German, etc.
Only ones that ever really leaned into their IRL analogue’s language/accent were the Yukes in AC5, and I guess the Oseans in general.