NetEase released ‘Naraka : Bladepoint’ (also known as ‘Naraka’) worldwide in 2021 and it has been receiving a lot of attention locally and abroad and it gained popularity with sales exceeding 7 million at the time of its release.
나라카가 해외에서 큰 성공을 이룬 배경에는 유저들을 사로잡은 게임성과 함께 출시 국가에 맞춘 글로벌 현지화가 주된 성공의 요인으로 분석하고 있습니다.
With Naraka’s great success abroad, it is analyzed that global localization tailored to the target release country along with the game characteristics which captivated users are the main success factors.
Today, with Latis Global, a game translation and game operation company who localized Naraka into Korea, we will learn about Korean voice actor dubbing along with ‘Voice Actor Audition’ and ‘Online Observation’ processes for the successful localization of Naraka.
Naraka is a game with unique genre that blends fantasy with battle royale gameplay. This drew the attention of fighting game enthusiasts due to its unique concept, amazing graphics, and special controls which made it rank first in Steam charts upon release. Thanks to this, the translation and Korean dubbing conducted by Latis Global are currently being successfully serviced in Korea and continue to receive good reviews.
To maximize the immersion of the game, advanced processes such as voice actor recruitment, directing, dialogue, script choice, and audio QA are required. Also, the lack of know-how in the dubbing process will lead to miscasting and inadequate performance, and the whole game is undervalued. As such, assigning voice actors and directing the right characters are important tasks that cannot be overemphasized in localization dubbing.
How was Naraka’s Korean voice produced?
Naraka Voice Actor audition (Live Casting)
There are more than 10 player characters in Naraka. They have different backgrounds, personalities, and fighting styles. And this character’s personality is completed by being embodied in the character’s image and voice actor’s voice. Therefore, the most important part of Naraka’s dubbing of Korean localization was the character concept and voice matching.
Naraka’s voice actor casting, which is highly important as the main character, is a project conducted through voice actor auditions with the script of the actual character appearing in Naraka. Voice actor auditions can be more expensive and time-consuming than DB casting, as two or more voice actors play the same lines of the same character, to find the best voice actor.
Naraka’s voice actors were formed by auditioning up to three times depending on the character. The voice actors who participated in the audition were all people with great acting skills and portfolios. Nevertheless, to match the character setting more detailed than other games, the casting was conducted through voice actor auditions, considering not only voice actor tone and acting nuance, but also mother treatment according to the background of the times.
Producer’s online visit
The voice director analyzes the script and planning materials provided by the planner to fully incorporate the character concept into the voice. However, detailed information that has not been shared is sometimes reinforced with the opinions of the planner at the recording site. In addition, dubbing through translation may require each official to discuss translation issues at the recording site and find more natural expressions.
For this reason, recording characters with high importance may require the planner to attend. However, long recording times and poor access to the studio can make it difficult to see in person. In this situation, you can consider an online visit where you can easily exchange opinions online. Online viewing is a technical issue and is not a service provided by all studios, but it is a good alternative to indirect viewing.
Naraka’s producer NetEase, the production company of Naraka, was also in a difficult situation to attend offline because its headquarters were in China. Therefore, through Zoom, we proposed an online observation to transmit voice actor’s voice, director’s voice, and script screen together. Of course, offline and online have differences between face-to-face and non-face-to-face, but we were able to complete the project with high satisfaction by systematic preparation to check voice actors’ voices and exchanging opinions with each other.
“Voice Actor Audition” and “Online Observation” for the game we talked about today may still be somewhat unfamiliar concepts. However, these are processes that must be considered for high-quality dubbing and advanced localization to improve the completeness of the game. Many game developers are dedicated to providing the fun and excitement of games to users in overseas markets.
We hope that Chinese game companies, which are aiming to enter overseas markets in the future, will achieve great success with advanced thorough localization preparations.
