Accents in Suikoden

[Dragonstar13]

Dear GOD no!
I hated the accents in Chrno Cross. Kidd was the one who annoyed me the most for some reason.

Having a bit of an accent is alright, but CC I felt when over baord with their stereotypes. Accents I like with voices. Like in FFX where they had Wakka with a slight Jamacian accent. I guess I find it more appealing maybe since I don't have to figure out what the character would sound like and what they're saying. Although, this is probably just my taste.

[Fragola]

Oooh... so there were no accents then... Well, that's ok. I think a little hint of an accent is good. I actually liked the accents in Chrono Cross, but I can completely understand how they might be perceived as distracting/hard to understand/annoying. I wonder if it would work better with dialects instead... But then those who are not familiar with the dialects might be confused by them. I wonder if there's any way to get around it?

Maybe when Suikoden 4 comes out we'll be able to solve this riddle, since we might have characters from the other countries join the party as well. Then we'd be able to hear what the accents from those countries sound like.

[Elc]

I really prefer text to be written without accents, particularly after reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" (a good book, nonetheless) where the accents were written into the dialogue, and it came to be pretty confusing to read at points.

[Sualtam Lugh]

[Ezekiel]

[Seraphblade]

I never noticed accents in suikoden if there were any.

However, I know how people feel with Chrono Cross. Sometimes, I have read the dialogue over again just so I can figure out what Harle is trying to say.

[Lyon Falenas]

Wow this is the return of a rather old topic.

As far as accents, pre suiko IV as there was no voice acting it had to be dictated by the dialogue. Accents do not necessarily show up distinctly in text. However you do have very different approaches from character to character in how they speak.

For instance, suikoden III had a bit of it in particular if you compare different factions. Lizards had their own awkward way of speaking compared to other grasslanders. Compare the Harmonians in the aristocrats versus the mercenaries. Kids speak differently and narcissists are well... narcissists.

Since we have now had a few games with voice acting, we do see some minor attempts at different dialects via the mermaids in IV etc. However, there wasn't a lot done and it works for convenience sake. Making up accents for each country would be tiresome and frustrating considering that there are a lack of these accents in Japanese even. Based on Lun, Subala and company in the 5th game I would not doubt they had Kansai dialect in the Japanese which explains the way they speak. But most of the Japanese language dialects are rather subtle changes. I would not wish to see localizations attempt to make accents that do not already exist. Heck, the localizations themselves have had enough problems over the years without attempting this.

[Ujitsuna]

Accents would be too hard to do in my opinion as each country tends to have a broad and far reaching mix of cultural influences.

[Ryusei]

Well, I don't think they would be too hard to do if Konami would just incorporate the accents in the voice overs. I think It would be better that way. Having accents in the speech a la Chrono Cross would just make the text difficult and irritating to read. Having the accents in the characters' VOs would be good enough. That is if they (Konami) decide to put in accents in some of the characters.