While the Super Robot Taisen fan community is usually starved for any English release of virtually any game in the series, even a weirdo spinoff like this, Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier has seen a mixed reaction from fans who are usually diehards. The issue at hand is that, contrary to fan expectations, there is absolutely no English voice acting in Atlus's version of the game. Whenever the character speak during combat  or occasionally during cutscenes, the original Japanese voices were left in. 

Why would a publisher known primarily for its high-quality localizations just not change the voice acting in a game? Fans are speculating about laziness and cheapness, but they're basically wrong. I went to source and asked Atlus's Aram Jabbari why the game had no English voice acting. Here's what he had to say:  

We fully explored recording English battle voices, but due to technical issues relating to the complexity of the game's sound design, we were unable to complete our dub.  This outcome was much easier to accept in view of the excellent quality of the original Japanese voice work, and we hope fans enjoy the final product.

Now, if this surprises you, it shouldn't. Remember that the Nintendo DS is still a cartridge-based system (even if it's using flash carts). The average DS game is at most 256MB in size and most are one heck of a lot smaller than that. For games featuring voice acting, the voice data is usually highly compressed and sometimes fragmented in order to save space. Endless Frotnier features tons of voice acting (by DS standards), so I imagine the voice data was stored in elaborately strange fashion. 

Basically, while it's pretty easy to swap out Japanese for English voices on disc-based media, for a cart-based game it can be really difficult. Whether Atlus just couldn't figure out how with Endless Frontier or decided it wasn't worth the effort, I'd just be happy the game got release at all. Remember that back in the bad old days of localization, an issue with voice data like this probably would've killed the game outright.  

Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier screens on GamePro.com

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sircrowbar

In a case like this, I would much rather have the Japanese voice acting than an English dub trying too hard to compensate for sound programming that have already been compensated for once over (I'm looking at you Suikoden: Tierkreis! I'm looking at you so hard you're going to grow a turn off voice acting option!)

Incidentally, how is OG Saga? I've been looking at it with mild curiosity, but I also admit to having a copy of OG2 that has stared at me with sad puppy eyes, as if the very idea of me not playing it right now is hurting the poor cart. :P

Lynxara

OG Saga is distinctly okay. The graphics are pretty and the combat system is good if you like action components in an RPG. The story is nothing to write home about, though, and I found the game actively annoyed a lot of the core Super Robot Taisen fandom.

KenTheGreat1

Lynxara wrote:

OG Saga is distinctly okay. The graphics are pretty and the combat system is good if you like action components in an RPG. The story is nothing to write home about, though, and I found the game actively annoyed a lot of the core Super Robot Taisen fandom.

That's the thing, too. I find that as far removed from the Super Robot Taisen formula you are as a fan, the more you'll enjoy settling in with OG Saga. Sure, there's no Gundams or Big O cameos, but the combat system is simply way too much fun to be ignored.

Lynxara

What annoyed most of the SRT fans is that most of the robot designs used in OG Saga weren't actually new. They were slight tweaks of Banpresto designs that longtime fans of the franchise have already seen quite a lot of. Had there been more new robots like JyakiGunOh I think people would've been happier. I myself was mostly disappointed in the identity of the final boss-- let's just say it wasn't remotely the first time I'd fought that thing as a final boss in an SRT game.

That said, if you're not deeply steeped in SRT series fandom series all this stuff won't bother you. The combat system IS pretty fun, though I find I prefer to play the game without using combo cancels to drive up the Frontier gauge quicker. Spamming Frontier attacks to win fights was just too boring for me, I much preferred trying to max out my continuous combo hits. Running a combo that involves all four of your party members and all three strikers is sweet.

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