The Legend of Xanadu Dub Project - Auditions Wanted

[elmer]

And if we get a tidal wave of crappy auditions because of your post, I'm going to be very upset.     

I think people get it's sarcasm on the Last Alert style. ;)

Yeah ... I get that that was what you meant ... but that's because I know you, and know that you know us, and the work that we've put into the project.

But when you post like that on NeoGaf, where folks don't know us, don't know the project, don't know your sense of humor, and just see that you're an "authority" on what's going on ... then nope, IMHO it just comes across as though we're wanting to do a parody dub to mock Falcom's lousy writing.

We're not, we're trying to do an as-close-to-professional dub as we can, and that means attracting the sort-of-folks that might look at your post and turn-away because they weren't interested in being involved in that sort of mocking of other-professional's work, particularly when the original company is still in business.


<edit>

Apart from that, thanks for posting there, we really appreciate you helping out and keeping the thread there alive! 

P.S. Perhaps I'm being overly serious and just worrying pointlessly, but humor is such a very personal thing, and parodies are actually legit forms of dubs ... for gawd's sake, Falcom did their own drama/parody CD with the LoX characters and cast.

But that was a separate thing from the game itself, which is a serious story, but with it's own deliberately-humorous moments.

[NightWolve]

I edited in a clarifying "as-close-to-professional dub" disclaimer and an "/end sarcasm," etc. for you, ya sour puss. ;)

[SamIAm]

Truly, one of the reasons why elmer and I have such a great working relationship is that we are equal parts sourpuss. Also, equal parts worry-wart.

[elmer]

I edited in a clarifying "as-close-to-professional dub" disclaimer and an "/end sarcasm," etc. for you, ya sour puss. ;)

Thanks! 

Yeah, OK, I know, I know ... I'm a sour-puss and a worry-wart! 

[NightWolve]

Apart from that, thanks for posting there, we really appreciate you helping out and keeping the thread there alive! 

Yeah, and thanks to that voice actor, the thread got back on its intended purpose. A tangent was taken well before I got there after someone voiced an opinion that they felt betrayed by Falcom when they were forced to focus on development for consoles/portables starting with Ys 7 (after Ys Origin) given market conditions in Japan cost them their PC distributor, etc. He wants "Falcom to fail" although he has somewhat walked back this bitterness, which ironically is what I have been hoping for when it comes to XXXSEED Games... ;) But let's not derail this thread with that stuff either!

That voice actor would have seen my PM and post by now, and as of a second ago, nobody else posted in that thread pertaining to tryouts, but that guy does seem like somebody you could use at least for one of the roles, definitely! Really is a shame about Voice Acting Alliance too, about the only thing I could've recommended, and how unlucky is it that it went down recently... :/

EDIT: I'd get in touch with BurntLasagna, his brother is in this thread, LentFilms, and ask for his contacts, like the female actresses he found for Ys IV (with VAA at the time) since you're indicating there's a shortage there (understandable).

[LentFilms]

EDIT: I'd get in touch with BurntLasagna, his brother is in this thread, LentFilms, and ask for his contacts, like the female actresses he found for Ys IV (with VAA at the time) since you're indicating there's a shortage there (understandable).

I actually already directly contacted a small number of the actors/actresses that worked on Ys IV as well as some new people that I've heard in random fan projects over the years. I haven't heard back from anyone but that is understandable since I made it clear that I wasn't involved in the Xanadu dub and was just making them aware of the project, so they may have just sent some stuff to Sam or are just not interested. The thing is that a lot of people seem to have moved on to other things, are not that active online anymore or I have no way of contacting them since VAA is no more. My brother may be able to send some emails but those addresses are almost 5 years old at this point and may not be used anymore.

Not exactly sure how the auditions have been doing lately but last I heard Sam was getting swamped with auditions so hopefully trying to get old actors/actresses to return from Ys IV will be unnecessary.

[elmer]

Not exactly sure how the auditions have been doing lately but last I heard Sam was getting swamped with auditions so hopefully trying to get old actors/actresses to return from Ys IV will be unnecessary.

The auditions are definitely going well, but as-always, the more, the merrier!

We've had a couple of great older-actors audition, but I think that we're going to need more of both sexes in order to fill the cast.

I'm absolutely amazed that we're getting mentioned in some very-unusual places ...

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/04/casting_call_-_fan_translation_of_legend_of_xanadu_now_holding_auditions

That's wonderful in terms of getting people's attention, but the worry-wart in me is starting to get concerned that we might eventually attract the wrong attention! 

[esadajr]

Mondo tubuloso compadres! I can only send my positive vibes from here. Best of lucks with this.

[LentFilms]

I'm absolutely amazed that we're getting mentioned in some very-unusual places ...

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/04/casting_call_-_fan_translation_of_legend_of_xanadu_now_holding_auditions

That's wonderful in terms of getting people's attention, but the worry-wart in me is starting to get concerned that we might eventually attract the wrong attention! 

If you're thinking that all this attention might attract a C&D from Falcom I honestly don't think there is a chance of that happening. This almost never happens to fan translation projects and the two most recent examples I can think of were because the patches had copyrighted material in them, the Type-0 translation having the entire game in its patch and the Dragon Quest VII 3DS patch re-using the script from the PS1 game. These two examples were also cases where the copyright holder, Square Enix, was planning to officially localize the games around the same time the fan translations were being worked on.

With Legend of Xanadu I & II being such old titles at this point, over 20 years-old, I don't think Falcom would pay much attention to a fan translation being released. Plus they don't have a history of shutting down fan projects like Square or Nintendo.

[Dicer]

I've been hit hard with allergy season, did some recording but I wasn't happy with em, soon as this clears I'll have my goods submitted.

[SamIAm]

Good call on registering and making our intentions clear in the comments. 

As for the potential for a negative response from Falcom, while I'd just as soon not have them know about the project until it's done, two interviews with the company president always make me feel better.

The first is this.

JS: English speaking fans are so passionate they've made unofficial translations of Ys - what does Falcom think of this?

TK: We're really honored that people are interested in the Ys world so much. However, at the same time we always felt guilty for not being able to bring an official product to their hands. We're very pleased that after a long time we were finally able to bring over an official English version for this audience.

The second is this.

You might be the only hardcore gamer who started with a fan website and then became president of the company you were championing! Can you tell us how that came to be, how you met Falcom founder Masayuki Kato, and how you managed to take over his position?

TK: I had a school assignment to create an introductory website for something, which became the fansite for "Prophecy of the Moonlight Witch" (Known as "White Witch" in Japan - EG). There was an offline gathering and I was able to meet many passionate Falcom fans. Within the group, there were some people who worked in the game industry and by talking to them, after graduation, I thought about applying at Falcom. However, I was an economics student, so I applied for a position in the finance department. Once I entered the company, because I had some experience with the internet, I was placed in a position that dealt with the web. In order to create things like game introductions and manuals, I started test playing the games. This lead me to be closer to the development team and I was able to offer my input. Afterwards, I actually was able to take a position within the development team and after some time doing project and product management I found myself as the president - the position I occupy today. Apparently, the founder of Falcom, Mr. Kato, took a look at my fansite after I joined the company and wanted to teach me many things about the company philosophy and game development.

So the president of the company got his start as "one of us" and he didn't condemn fan translations when he had the clearest possible opening to do so.

I'm trying to find it right now and can't, but one of Square's lawyers said some really nasty things about fan translators, including the people who did Seiken Denestsu 3.

We are probably OK.

[esteban]

Falcom

Also, I am glad Nintendolife (and hopefully more) websites have been spreading the word.

[NightWolve]

Interesting, I didn't know that about Falcom's president, genuinely inspiring. What he said about the Ys fan translations has been around for a while though and obviously they wound up profiting from them given what XXXSEED did, so it'd be pretty hard to walk that back all of a sudden.

It does remind me however that Falcom deserves to know the whole truth about what XXXSEED did in their name so it never again happens to another fan team... I need to write a summary, get it translated to Japanese, and send it along to Falcom emails so it hopefully reaches him and/or those responsible for licensing... At least something in my favor has happened in 2017 with Falcom handing off Ys to a new US partner, NIS America, Inc. instead of XXXSEED!

For the next 4 years, every day that Tom Lipschultz wakes up, he has to wrestle with accepting the reality that Donald Trump is the president of the United States and that his despicable company lost the licensing rights to Falcom's flagship Ys series given an aggressive competitor... May I humbly gloat just a little bit, do you guys mind ???

[elmer]

I've been hit hard with allergy season, did some recording but I wasn't happy with em, soon as this clears I'll have my goods submitted.

Don't worry, you've still got plenty of time until May 19th! 

[in99flames]

Im definitely going to do an audtition. This is exciting stuff!!

[NightWolve]

Back in the Ys IV dub period, I wondered if I should try out myself, if not to add some novelty to the project, but I don't have any acting experience, didn't wanna embarrass myself with a Last Alert-esque performance and like most, I kinda hate my voice, heh, so I figured I should just let the best willing members of the public take on all the roles, preferably those with some experience, etc. hence I didn't raise the idea with BurntLasagna.

So, will elmer and/or SamIAm be heard in this dub by chance ? ;) Don't be shy like me!

So the president of the company got his start as "one of us" and he didn't condemn fan translations when he had the clearest possible opening to do so.

I'm trying to find it right now and can't, but one of Square's lawyers said some really nasty things about fan translators, including the people who did Seiken Denestsu 3.

We are probably OK.

If you're actually feeling nervous, even after something like the Ys IV project being fully completed (and I shared a translated screencap on Falcom's Twitter once) and how their US partner XSEED hijacked the PC Ys translations, I can understand as I went through that period myself many years ago, but it's really rather silly now letting a little paranoia get the better of you...

At worst it'd result in a C&D, which may have happened in S. Korea by a localizing partner for Ys VI in 2003/4-ish. But in that circumstance you had a competing Korean fan team trying to localize the same game on the same platform against a legit publisher (the publisher caused it!). It was always high risk in my case to take on modern PC games that could get localized by pros, but very low risk for other fan translators taking on defunct/dead console games/systems no longer manufactured like NES/SNES/PC Engine/etc.

Interesting if what you say about Seiken Denestsu 3 is true. Neill Corlett was the main hacker for it who I had in my #rigg chatroom for a few years, and is the reason I was successful in my PC projects, not to mention he helped make the "Ys IV: Dawn of Ys" PC Engine fan project possible - we dumped the Ys IV script together after partnering up and sharing experience/info/etc. We have him to also thank for the "Bahamut Lagoon" fan project. Incidentally, he wound up working at Sony for a while, but last I said hello to him 2 years ago, he was at Yahoo - the Yahoo Finance app for Android is partly coded by him. He mentioned he doesn't care about restoring his old website that had his Playstation Sound Format stuff hosted for a while which is too bad.

[LentFilms]

So, will elmer and/or SamIAm be heard in this dub by chance ? ;)

I remember in the old Xanadu II dub, Sam did the voice for Daimos and I thought it sounded pretty alright, although a little monotone. It would be fun if Sam and Emler put their voices in the dub somewhere, even if they just played a minor role like Townsman #1 & 2 or a voice in the backround during a crowd scene.

[SamIAm]

Oh god, I'm embarrassed to even think about the fact that I tried Daimos right now.

Suffice to say, we have much better options this time than to use my voice. Thanks for the "pretty alright" though. 

I don't even know what elmer sounds like, and I don't think he's interested in being in the final product...unless he's been secretly submitting auditions under a pseudonym!? 

[LentFilms]

Honestly I'm pretty embarrassed by some of the stuff I recorded for that original dub too 

[ParanoiaDragon]

I'm planning on doing auditions as well, might try my hand at most of the males, maybe eve some of the females just for kicks!

[elmer]

I'm planning on doing auditions as well, might try my hand at most of the males, maybe eve some of the females just for kicks!

Good luck! 


Looks like the dub project is beginning to get YouTube notice now ...

[JoshTurboTrollX]

Curious.  Would it be satisfactory to record audio for multiple characters and upload it to an unlisted/private youtube video and just send a link to that for the audition?

I've done that in the past and it's worked out well.  Then if you like what you hear we can move forward with a more professional style of recording.

[SamIAm]

I don't care too much about quality in the audition phase if you have access to better equipment later on, but it's 100x preferred that you just send us wav files of your stuff at every phase. The address is on the site. Thanks!

[elmer]

but it's 100x preferred that you just send us wav files of your stuff at every phase

Yep, definitely!

It would just be too hard to juggle all the different roles, actors, revisions and individual files if we start adding YouTube links into the whole process.

[NightWolve]

Looks like the dub project is beginning to get YouTube notice now ...

It seems a little strange/surprising to me the effort is getting this much notice (this did not happen with Ys IV). I guess the PC Engine circle of fans is much bigger than what I would gauge in the past beyond this forum and the few Facebook groups. Kudos to you I guess operating as a well-oiled machine.

[elmer]

I imagine that the continuing rise of social-media, the added awareness of "retro" gaming, and the idea that we're not currently in the middle of a scary recession probably all help.

I don't know what you Ys IV guys did to attract non-gamers, or English-only gamers ... but I've got to say that I'm really impressed with the website that SamIAm and Esteban came up with! 

It really gives the impression that the whole project is well-run (ha!), and that this is a worthwhile game for actors to work on.

[elmer]

OK, time for a bump! 

There is a little less than 2 weeks left for anyone to get in their audition for the dub.

Even if you don't want to be a part of the dub yourself, please consider mentioning the project to anyone that you know who has an interest in voice-acting, especially middle-aged and older folks, of whatever gender.

We've had quite a few semi-pro or better actors/actresses send in auditions, and we have a decent *chance* of doing a good job on this ... but at-the-end-of-the-day, it really will depend upon the quality of the voice-talent that we can find to volunteer.

One of the roles in particular that I should mention is that of Areios's Grandfather.

That role doesn't even need "acting" ability as such ... it just needs the right voice of someone's friendly old Granddad who loves telling stories to his grand-kids.

[Michirin9801]

I'd love to help spread the word a little more, but the only thing left for me to do would be to make a YouTube video about it, but that would take a while and I'm kinda busy with other stuff...
Doesn't help that I don't know any old people who could volunteer >~>';

Still, good luck with the auditions! I'll be cheering you on in the background ^^

[LentFilms]

If you need more actors/actresses of a certain voice type or want to hear more auditions for a specific character then I would highly recommend bumping all your threads on the voice acting fourms you have your project on and giving everyone an update. It is a good way to keep the project more lively on those fourms and potentially attract more volunteers. It was something my brother tried to do once a week with the Ys IV dub and we always got a few more auditions every time we gave an update, plus it helps people focus on parts that need more auditions.

[johnnykonami]

I want to try to get in on this before the deadline, I also have a friend who who is very good at voices who might  be interested who I'll pass this along to.

[LentFilms]

This is not a very realistic idea but what if you asked Mike Reynolds to read the lines of Areios's Grandfather? Reynolds is an old-school anime actor that did a lot of work for Streamline Pictures as well as many other companies in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s. I've been a fan of his voice for a long time and I think he would be perfect for the role. He's even done some work with Falcom properties in the past, playing one of the main characters in the old Legend of Heroes OVA from the 90s.

If you have no idea who I am talking about watch this small montage of his older work: https://youtu.be/jnHU4SJsMKw

I don't think he does a lot of voice work now-a-days but maybe he would be willing to read a few lines for Xanadu. He has a Linkedin page so maybe you could contact him through that, I don't know for sure since I can't look at his full profile because I don't have an account. The worst he could say is "no".

His Linkedin page is located here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-reynolds-2030a39

[elmer]

Still, good luck with the auditions! I'll be cheering you on in the background ^^

You've already been a huge help with your post on your blog!

At-least one of your followers there has auditioned, and who-knows how many more. That's highly appreciated! 

I want to try to get in on this before the deadline, I also have a friend who who is very good at voices who might  be interested who I'll pass this along to.

Excellent, thanks! You've got some time left, but not a whole-heck-of-a-lot! 

If you need more actors/actresses of a certain voice type or want to hear more auditions for a specific character then I would highly recommend bumping all your threads on the voice acting fourms you have your project on and giving everyone an update. It is a good way to keep the project more lively on those fourms and potentially attract more volunteers.

SamIAm has been crazy-busy with real-life, but I hope that he'll have the time to do that in the next day or so. It's a good idea, thanks!

This is not a very realistic idea but what if you asked Mike Reynolds to read the lines of Areios's Grandfather?
...
His Linkedin page is located here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-reynolds-2030a39

Cool, I think that I know the voice, but didn't know the name, or even think about spamming folks like that.

It's a really interesting idea, thanks again!

I've checked that linked-in, and it's not 100% certain that it's the same guy, and he's looking really-really-old from his photo there, and he hasn't updated the page since about 2010, so I'm not even sure if he's still alive!

My linked-in account can't send emails, but I might sign up for their free trial and try to get in touch with him.

Definitely out-of-the-box thinking! 

[LentFilms]

I've checked that linked-in, and it's not 100% certain that it's the same guy, and he's looking really-really-old from his photo there, and he hasn't updated the page since about 2010, so I'm not even sure if he's still alive!

I'm almost certain that that is his actual Linkedin page. Also, I think Reynolds is 87 year-old now and not dead from what I can tell 
It would be a real long shot to get Mike Reynolds to be in the dub but if this was a professional production I think he would be a perfect fit for the role.

If anyone wants to watch an old-school anime where Reynolds plays one of the main characters I would recommend Lily C.A.T., it is a decent Alien rip-off that you can watch on Crunchyroll: http://www.crunchyroll.com/lily-cat

[seieienbu]

I just sent in my girlfriend's auditions.  I'm not done recording the ones I'm shooting for yet so I'll probably bump the thread again later this week.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Maaaaaaaaan, I haven't gotten around to recording my attempts, I hope I can somehow do it in the next few days.  Trying to take advantage of my wife being on a business trip to do some super cleaning/organizing of the house, including my office where I do all my music & voice stuffs.

[elmer]

Please choose me for lead female role!

I look forward to receiving your audition ... we've had a couple of other transgender candidates.

Are you post-op, or just on the hormones? 

Maaaaaaaaan, I haven't gotten around to recording my attempts, I hope I can somehow do it in the next few days.

I can only say ...

[elmer]

I have absolutely no idea how we got this much interest ... but we got our 1,000th audition today. 

That's counting by actor/actress & character, and not just actor/actress ... most people (as expected) send in auditions for multiple roles.

The next few days are probably going to be really crazy! 

[Mathius]

I have absolutely no idea how we got this much interest ... but we got our 1,000th audition today. 

That's counting by actor/actress & character, and not just actor/actress ... most people (as expected) send in auditions for multiple roles.

The next few days are probably going to be really crazy! 

That's insane! Better eat your Wheaties.

[SamIAm]

I feel like I'm John Candy trying to eat the Old 96'er.

[crazydean]

I have absolutely no idea how we got this much interest ... but we got our 1,000th audition today. 

That's counting by actor/actress & character, and not just actor/actress ... most people (as expected) send in auditions for multiple roles.

The next few days are probably going to be really crazy! 

Amazing! Sounds like you have a lot of sorting to do!

[LentFilms]

I have absolutely no idea how we got this much interest ... but we got our 1,000th audition today. 

That's counting by actor/actress & character, and not just actor/actress ... most people (as expected) send in auditions for multiple roles.

The next few days are probably going to be really crazy! 

That is insane! I just sent in some more auditions, so I guess I've added a few more to that pile. Good luck you guys, can't wait to hear the final product

[elmer]

I just sent in some more auditions, so I guess I've added a few more to that pile.

Thanks! Yep ... judging by today's emails, we're definitely getting that "last-minute-rush". 

I feel like I'm John Candy trying to eat the Old 96'er.

Honestly ... I don't know how-on-Earth you do it. 

I'm just helping with the organizational tasks ... you're the one that's giving all of the detailed feedback.

I'd be gibbering in the corner of a padded-room by now, if I were you! 

[ParanoiaDragon]

A buddy of mine are going to record tonight all the roles on my equpiment.  My wife & his wife might try out for female & kids roles, but it won't be in time for the deadline.  I told them females are more scanty, so you might be willing to take more of em' after the deadline.

[elmer]

A buddy of mine are going to record tonight all the roles on my equpiment.  My wife & his wife might try out for female & kids roles, but it won't be in time for the deadline.  I told them females are more scanty, so you might be willing to take more of em' after the deadline.

Excellent, thanks! 

Yep, I suspect that you're right about the female and kid roles, especially for the smaller one and two line parts where we'd like to have a new voice, and not just over-use one of the small core of top-tier female applicants that are willing to commit considerable time to the larger roles.

Maybe anearth will be made great again. Xanadu's chance for greatness will likely pass by.

Apparently, Anearth doesn't need a dub. All of the spoken dialog is duplicated in message boxes. Yippee! 

So ... if your genius isn't available for Xanadu, we may all have to wait for the Spriggan Mark 2 dub before we can become your adoring fans! 

[Gypsy]

Tengai Makyou Fuun Kabuki Den also has all of the extensive voice acting duplicated in the dialogue window.

If the game doesn't use a challenging type of compression, hopefully that will make a translation more attractive to teams in the future. It's one of the most appropriate games to keep the Japanese acting in and one of the best games most epic RPGs in the library.

With that said, you could still take it a step further and dub everything that is spoken once the main characters arrive in London and Zeami casts a spell so that they understand and speak English.

This would excite me. The more fan translations the better.

Fantastic to hear how many submissions have been made on the voice acting...

[elmer]

Tengai Makyou Fuun Kabuki Den also has all of the extensive voice acting duplicated in the dialogue window.

AFAIK, at this point, "Tom" over at romhacking.net is the Tengai Makyou expert, and has already expressed his desire to translate all of the TM games on the PCE ... eventually. It doesn't seem to make much sense (to me) to just do one of the games, so he's the guy to watch.

If you don't hang out over there, you might not know that his TM Zero translation is finally finished and being beta-tested now, thanks to the involvement of a whole bunch of veteran SNES hackers joining forces and deciding to just make-it-happen.

Tom has apparently been slowly working on Ziria for years with EsperKnight, which doesn't exactly lead me to expect that much will happen on that project in the foreseeable future, without a similar kind of "intervention" at some point. But perhaps I'm wrong.

[Gypsy]

Tengai Makyou Fuun Kabuki Den also has all of the extensive voice acting duplicated in the dialogue window.

AFAIK, at this point, "Tom" over at romhacking.net is the Tengai Makyou expert, and has already expressed his desire to translate all of the TM games on the PCE ... eventually. It doesn't seem to make much sense (to me) to just do one of the games, so he's the guy to watch.

If you don't hang out over there, you might not know that his TM Zero translation is finally finished and being beta-tested now, thanks to the involvement of a whole bunch of veteran SNES hackers joining forces and deciding to just make-it-happen.

Tom has apparently been slowly working on Ziria for years with EsperKnight, which doesn't exactly lead me to expect that much will happen on that project in the foreseeable future, without a similar kind of "intervention" at some point. But perhaps I'm wrong.

Unfortunate. Thanks for the information though, because I do not frequent those forums. Too much drama typically, I'll just play the translation when it's released.

[Mathius]

Tengai Makyou Fuun Kabuki Den has one of my favorite intros of any JRPG in existence. It's so atmospheric and funny but the main game is way too full of Kanji for every menu option that it makes it inaccessible for idiots like myself.

But I'm so glad that people like Elmer are spearheading work to get some of these games like Xanadu into western hands finally. Thanks again, my brothers.

[esteban]

Good news

UPDATE: The deadline for initial submissions has passed!

However, we will continue to communicate with auditionees over the coming weeks to ensure that everyone has had a chance to respond to feedback and show us everything that they can do.

We have received over 1,000 individual character auditions from nearly 200 individual people. If you auditioned and are waiting for your first round of detailed feedback, we are deeply sorry for the delay.
While we can't promise responses by any particular time, we are sending out many responses on a daily basis, and we intend to give feedback to everyone before deciding on the cast.

The response exceeded our expectations, and we are delighted to say that this is shaping up to be a very good dub indeed. Thank you very much to all who have auditioned, and to the many others who have helped spread the word about this project.

Again, thank you.

(75KB .png)

[LentFilms]

Wow, 200 individuals sent in auditions for the dub!? Congratulations you guys! I don't know the exact numbers but I think only about 30 or 25 actors/actresses auditioned for the Ys IV dub back in 2012. Picking out the cast from so many people is going to be a lot of work but it is amazing the number of auditionees that have sent in their performances!