Does the GOG version come with Japanese voices out of curiosity? I know the PSP version does not, as well as the steam version I have just purchased. Would love to hear the battle scenes in Japanese, the english voices in any RPG has always bothered me, as they are never as good and Japanese VA seem to be so much more passionate.

XSEED could not license the Japanese voice tracks for any release of the game.

Thank you for the reply, it's a shame that's the case. Shame this happens, but money is tight for everyone even for companies such as XSEED so completely understandable.

FWIW, it is reported to be possible to patch in the voice tracks from the Japanese re-release of FC (and some from TC I think?).

Also, you're not missing much -- it's just a few battle things, and they weren't present in the original 2004 Japanese PC version.

Most of the voice samples aren't even words. They're just grunts and yells. People who were actually well-versed enough in Japanese to form an educated opinion on the performances said the English and the Japanese voices are about equal in quality of delivery.

That said, the battle voices can be turned off if they bother you.

Also, it wasn't a case of lack of money. The Japanese voice actors were simply under contracts that disallowed them from having their contributions used outside of Japan.

For the most part they are grunts and yells till you finish the battle then theres the standard phrase that each character will say etc and I'm a stickler for that kind of stuff.

And about the contracts, that's somewhat true. Due to laws and regulations and rules in Japan, if you want to use the Japanese VA, you will need to form new contracts for all of them and give them the same amount that they originally received. If you noticed, none of xseed games have ever had Japanese voice acting, including The Last Story, which is a Shame. I had to use the undub patch and play it VIA emulator, which I still haven't done yet due to the performance I get with Dolphin with that game.

This is why I really respect nintendo, when they published Xenoblade in EU/NA they forked over the cash for us weaboos, and I gladly purchased it.

I just started playing. The English voices are most prominent at the end of battles, where they say stuff. They also grunt while attacking, and say a few things in the course of using arts and S-breaks.

One of Estelle's lines isn't really clear, and I don't think that Joshua's voice fits my mental voice of him, so I think I might just turn them off.

Or maybe I'll be too lazy to do so because I don't really find them that annoying. Only very mildly irritating. Who knows.

I found this last night:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/16srbajjpftaers/T*TS+FC+PSP+voices.rar

It's the Japanese voices in the PSP version ripped.

Apparently, it didn't stop them from releasing Corpse Party or Brave Story with Japanese VA.

This issue all depends on the talent agencies involved and what contracts exist - obviously with those examples and Akiba's Trip (an example of a dual audio game from XSEED) the contacts were different.

Honestly, from the limited knowledge I have of Japanese law, it seems these kinds of issues (restricting specific content to Japan only) seems to be the norm when any well-known talent in Japan is involved or the producer involved in the copyright talks only wanted JPN to have access to that content. As others have mentioned, even when some of these companies don't mind selling the content to other territories, they usually attach a large licensing fee so that it makes it unaffordable to those who want to distribute the content anyway.

It really is a case by case basis on whether or not certain content is available for release in territories outside Japan.

Well this *is* a bummer. Hopefully in the future when GOG gets more titles like this, at least put somewhere in big letters English voices only -- no japanese voices in these types of games and using english dubs is a right turn off for me....

I always find that it's better to assume the game is English-only and then be pleasantly surprised when it isn't.
It helps to avoid a lot of disappointment.