Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - "Die, Monster!"

[Edmond Dantes]

The PSP's Dracula X Chronicles redub of the famous scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf_ck-O3LyU

... I'll be honest, I kinda wish they had kept the voices and dialogue as-is.

The original lines were quick, catchy, quotable, and conveyed much the same point. This re-translation just sounds kind of pretentious, to be honest.

I had the same problem with Final Fantasy VI on the Gameboy Advance.

[Aussie2B]

The re-translation and dubbing was pretty pointless. The acting is still cringe-worthy, and they didn't change the translation in any meaningful kind of way. The script is saying basically the exact same thing, just slightly rephrased, so it's still painfully cheesy and silly sounding. I don't really care which is more literal; they both sound unnatural. Although it could be argued that being cheesy would be in line with the original goal of the series, to be a silly parody on old monster movies, rather than the serious, gothic tale of the occult that newer, younger fans seem to think Castlevania is (and the recent games reinforce that view), but SotN takes itself pretty seriously so I think the Japanese developers were going for a serious, dramatic scene here, which the US versions just kill. I think Konami just didn't care to put much effort into the localizations, not the original one nor the newer one. I mean, the English dubbing in the PSP remake of Rondo is cheesy and awful too. After I heard a couple scenes in English, I promptly switched the voice track to Japanese.

[Rev. Link]

Funny, I just got done playing through this again on 360. It had been a few years and I got the itch. When I first fired it up I had to apply an update. I thought, "What could they possibly be updating in this game?" Well, I just beat it and I found out.

They changed the ending music! Instead of the glorious "I am the Wind" I got some medley of classic Castlevania tunes. Fortunately I have the original soundtrack on my PC, so I just played "I am the Wind" on that. But what's the point of changing that? I'm sticking to my PSX original version from now on.

[Aussie2B]

Probably because "I am the Wind" was just as much the butt of jokes and received just as much criticism as the intro's voice acting. Which is a shame because as cheesy as the song is, there's nothing technically wrong with it. Cynthia Harrell is a great singer (same lady who did the main theme of Metal Gear Solid 3 [which is also pretty cheesy as far as the lyrics and all go]), and there's nothing wrong with the work of the musicians either, assuming you don't have some bias against jazz, which I guess is the main problem people have with it since they feel it's out of place (but, really, it's not like all of Yamane's tracks are in a single musical style either). Personally, I think it's nice when a credits theme does something unique, different from all the other music in the game.

[JakeM]

I Am The Wind wasnt too good of a closure to the game to me. Having different themes from other games sounds great. That said, I freakin love this soundtrack.

[TonyTheTiger]

Probably because "I am the Wind" was just as much the butt of jokes and received just as much criticism as the intro's voice acting. Which is a shame because as cheesy as the song is, there's nothing technically wrong with it.

I think the issue most people had was that it's ridiculously inappropriate. It came so far out of left field that it was jarring. The acting, on the other hand, I don't think is inappropriate at all. Given the game's visual presentation, the acting makes it seem like you're watching a hammy stage performance. Which is actually brilliantly meta. It's not like Castlevania was ever all that serious to begin with. The first game's end credits listed names like "Vran Stoker" and "Christopher Bee." And Rondo of Blood was practically a straight up satire. SOTN had an awful lot of gags itself. I'd say the original acting nailed it better than the PSP version.

So I don't get what the big fuss is about the dialogue. SOTN is one of the most quotable games ever for a reason. A really awesome reason.

[JakeM]

I don't get what the big fuss is about the dialogue. SOTN is one of the most quotable games ever for a reason. A really awesome reason.

The real question is.....do you think its grrRRREAT!?

[BlastProcessing402]

I wonder if there was some sort of licensing issue with I Am The Wind, because I remember hearing it was originally used on the XBLA version, but a later updated replaced it the same as on the PSP version.