“Although the dubbing of video games differs from the classic one, the methods of approach are more or less the same”, says Martina Felli, voice actress of the princess in Zelda in The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. Famous for giving her voice to the haunted Hannah Baker from the Netflix series Thirteen, in addition to numerous films, TV series and anime, Martina has given, among others, a notable character to the female characters of Aloy from the video game Horizon: Zero Dawn, to Zelda, which this year marks the 35th anniversary of the saga, and recently to Miss V of Cyberpunk 2077.
Films, TV series, anime, video games, explains Martina: “Each product has different peculiarities, consequently even the difficulties encountered during the dubbing phase vary according to the type of processing. In a film, or in a TV series, we must try to faithfully reproduce what we hear and see, and the simpler it is the more talented the actor to whom the voice is to be given ”.
The better an actor is, the easier it is to dub him because most of the work has already been done: “The voice actor just has to stick to his face and let himself be carried away by emotions. On the other hand, a not very capable actor forces the voice actor to improve him, to compensate for his shortcomings “.
A different approach is reserved for Japanese anime, film or animated series, where the characters are always energetic and over the top, Martina tells us: “They require more technical effort, for example for laughs and screams, a good ability to correctly dose the breath. A feature of this type of product is the asynchrony between the original audio and the mouths of the characters, which continue to open and close even though the Japanese voice actor has already finished speaking. Consequently, it is up to the professional to correct the mistake in the room with the help of the dubbing assistant ”.
Video games, on the other hand, are an anomalous product, Martina explains to us: “The dubbing of a video game, in almost all cases, is based on audio. The professional has only a static image of the character for reference, the lines already recorded by the original actor, displayed in the form of sound waves. It will be the duty of the dubbing director to explain to the voice actor the character of the character and the context of each line, to help him identify with the scene “.
Preparing in advance for the dubbing of a video game is not possible for two reasons, explains Martina: “The first is that the confidentiality agreements, which every professional signs at the beginning of the process, are extremely strict and imply a ban on dissemination material related to the videogame under penalty of very high fines and, sometimes, even the replacement of the professional “.
The second reason concerns the processing times. Often the release date of a video game is contemporary worldwide and the dubbing takes place in the previous months which coincide with the final stages of development. Consequently, in the dubbing phase it is impossible to work on a finished product. The only ones elements available to the voice actors are the scripts of the dialogues, the audio files, the reference images of the characters, sometimes the cinematics, continues Martina: “However, I prefer to find out what I will find myself dubbing directly in the room and let myself be guided by my instinct and the dubbing director ”.
Many times Italian fans have complained about dubbing in video games, considering it less accurate than that in Japanese or English, explains Martina: “I don’t think our dubbing is careless. I think it is rather penalized by the processing times, which are increasingly tight, and by the lack of definitive materials which represent complex obstacles to overcome. Often the characters are literally built, through motion capture, on a real-life actor, whose absolute freedom of movement makes his acting more fluid and realistic. The Italian voice actor cannot enjoy the same privilege as forced to repeat lines already recorded by another person, in a different language, often having to respect the duration and internal pauses, without any video available, without being able to move away from the microphone and without being able to make large movements because any noises would ruin the registration”.
According to Martina, bearing in mind all these handicaps, for the success of a videogame dubbing both the contribution of the director who knows the story and has the ability to direct professionals in the right direction, and the experience of the voice actors over the years are fundamental. they have become more and more used to this particular type of processing. And to realize this it is enough to compare the dubbing of the early 90s with the recent ones.
.