Tales of Xillia English voice recording complete

Tales of Xillia is on track for its 2013 western launch thanks to the passing of a major localisation milestone.

Writing for the PS Blog, Namco Bandai's Ted Tsung said the US team recently completed voice recording for the English version of the RPG.

The producer said the delay between the Japanese and English release puts extra pressure on localisation teams as many players go in already familiar with established voices.

"I’m very much aware that it can be very jarring to someone hearing the English voices when they’re used to hearing the Japanese voices. However, I think our English cast matches the original intention of their character’s persona," he said.

"For example, we went with a much deeper voice for Milla. We needed her to maintain a very powerful and authoritative demeanor, so we didn’t find it appropriate maintaining the same pitch as her Japanese voice. Similarly, we pitched down Jude a little bit as well. He maintains the same adolescent qualities as the Japanese version, but we figured the North American audience would prefer a lower, stronger voice."

Tales of Xillia is a PlayStation 3 exclusive and has not been dated beyond calendar 2013. It is the first in the venerable Tales series to take a more realistic anime style, and allows players to choose Milla or Jude as primary protagonist from the get go. A sequel hits Japan soon.