ASTRA: Knights of Veda Bids Farewell to English Dubbing

Effective January 23, 2025, following scheduled maintenance, ASTRA: Knights of Veda will discontinue English voice-over support. This decision, announced by developer FLINT on January 20th, aims to bolster game stability and enhance localization quality across other languages.

The update will remove support for German, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian, and Italian voiceovers. However, Korean, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, French, Thai, and Russian will remain. Crucially, while English text will still be available, in-game voice acting for players outside Korea will default to Japanese. FLINT assures players this change won't affect in-game chat functionality.

This move follows a trend among gacha games. Several titles, including War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, Aether Gazer, and Snowbreak: Containment Zone, have also scaled back or eliminated English voice-overs, citing factors such as resource allocation and player language preferences.

Square Enix's War of the Visions, for instance, removed English dubbing from new content to prioritize Japanese. Aether Gazer cited financial constraints as the reason for their complete removal. Snowbreak: Containment Zone's decision was based on an assessment of player preferences and optimizing the overall gaming experience.

The trend suggests a prioritization of either the most popular language or efficient resource management. Maintaining English voice-overs across years of content updates can be costly. By reallocating these resources, developers aim to ensure the game's long-term health and improve other aspects valued by players.