Undubbing

Undubbing is a type of video game hacking, which involves modifying the contents of an officially localized video game to match the audio and voice acting to its country of origin while retaining the translated text of the country in which it has been localized.

A typical candidate for an "undub" is a Japanese game which has been published in the U.S. with text translated and voice acting re-dubbed in English by the localizing publisher. The process of undubbing consists of reverse-engineering the contents of both the localized and the original versions of the game, locating the audio resources within a ROM or an optical media image in the localized game, and replacing them with the audio data from the original version.

Reasons for undubbing

Voice acting is a considerably bigger business in Japan than it currently is in English-speaking countries (see also Seiyuu). It is not uncommon for acclaimed TV animation voice actors to be signed by a video game publisher to provide voice acting for a high-profile game. In the United States, on the other hand, voice localization projects usually have smaller budgets and are not typically done by celebrities, although it is disputable whether that affects the quality of the acting itself. Still, due to the perceived notion that Japanese voice acting is usually of higher quality, many fans prefer to listen to the Japanese audio track while playing the game, even if they do not speak or understand the Japanese language. Undubbing thus caters to an audience who does not speak the original language or has not mastered it well enough to enjoy the untranslated text in an imported version of the original game, but still prefers the original audio for the reasons mentioned above. Because the localized text is left in place where present, an undubbed game usually can still be fully played by those who could not play the import.

Notable undubs

The U.S. version of Final Fantasy X-2, a 2003 PlayStation 2 game by Square (now Square Enix), was undubbed in April 2008, almost four and half years after the release of the localized version in the United States. On the other hand, the 2008 remake of Final Fantasy IV was undubbed almost instantenously, only a few days after the official U.S. release. A number of other Final Fantasy games have either already been undubbed or currently have undubbing projects in the works.

Other series that have been undubbed include various Mega Man (Rockman in Japan) games, .hack, Xenogears, Xenosaga, Megami Tensei, and Namco's Tales RPG series as well as many others.

ee also

* ROM hacking
* Fan translation of video games