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Enchanted Arms Preview
Via Some dark corner of the www.
For every Japanese centric title that makes it over to the Western world, translation is always a touchy subject -- especially so when it comes to the Japanese role-playing genre. When we last saw Enchanted Arms (in episode 13 of The 1UP Show), it was memorable more for its off the wall voice work than its rather average trappings. An effeminate character, Makoto, stood out from the cast as a blatantly homosexual man, pining for the love of a fellow party mate. Jane Pinckard was quick to point out that he was more or less played for laughs and she wasn't mistaken. When Ubisoft originally announced its acquisition of Enchanted Arms for the U.S. market, many were curious to see just how it would handle this over the top personality. It is safe to say that it did so with flying colors, without censoring the game for local tastes. Makoto is still about as festive as Christopher Lowell trapped in a Queer Eye sandwich. As for the whole picture, the switch in language has been relatively painless.
Truth be told, Enchanted Arms is not the most original RPG and to actually get to the point where the player might just care about this ho-hum cast of misfits, solid acting is exactly what it needs. Overall, the U.S. cast of Enchanted Arms does an admirable job in fueling the relatively lifeless mannequins with a bit of spirit. The main character is of course the typical loser that inhabits every Japanese RPG, but his voiceover never sounds as whiny as you almost expect it to be, even when he is being something of an unruly child.
The overall feeling the talent produces is that of restraint. It may not achieve greatness, but it also never feels forced, nor does it feel like you're watching a Saturday morning Anime. The effort given is pleasing to the ear as well as the senses. As for those who simply can't hang with the new voices, it should be noted that Ubisoft has included the original Japanese voices as well.
For being such a manila envelope of a game, Enchanted Arms' trip across the Pacific was made relatively unscathed. Ubisoft has done a commendable job in both maintaining the original material as well as not insulting anyone with the typical band of RPG voice work that we're so used to seeing. As for the gameplay, our In-depth preview of the Japanese version is still very much a valid source of information until our final review.
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About time they come out with a good looking game.
