ASTRA: Knights of Veda Bids Farewell to English Dubbing
Following a trend among gacha games, ASTRA: Knights of Veda will be removing its English voiceovers after maintenance on January 23, 2025. This decision, announced by developer FLINT on January 20th, aims to bolster game stability and improve localization quality.
The January 23rd maintenance will also discontinue support for German, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, and Italian. However, Korean, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, French, Thai, and Russian will remain. While English text will still be available, in-game voice acting will default to Japanese for players outside of Korea. FLINT assures players this change won't affect in-game chat functionality.
This move follows similar decisions by other gacha game developers. Square Enix's War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius removed English voiceovers from future content in May 2024, citing a prioritization of Japanese. Yostar Games' Aether Gazer eliminated English dubbing entirely in February 2024 due to financial constraints, redirecting resources to gameplay and future content. Snowbreak: Containment Zone also dropped English voiceovers in December 2023, citing an evaluation of player preferences and optimization efforts.
The prevailing rationale behind these decisions appears twofold: catering to the dominant player language preference and managing the long-term costs of voice acting. Maintaining English voiceovers across years of content updates can be expensive, prompting developers to reallocate resources to enhance other game aspects.
While this change may disappoint some players, the developers emphasize their commitment to improving the overall game experience.
