# Assassin's Creed Unity: Why on earth does everyone speak with an English accent? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 15, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725 "2014-11-15T20:58:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/1 "2014-11-15T20:58:24Z")
While I certainly understand most folks would’ve been put off by a game had all of its dialogue in French with subtitles, and I certainly wouldn’t have wanted over-the-top, Monty Python-style ridiculous French accents, it takes me out of the game a tiny bit every time someone opens their mouth and sounds like a cockney. Would it have been so difficult to find, say, French voice actors who also speak English and thus just give everyone a bit of a French accent? Yeesh. Anyway, not a major complaint–just a mini-rant about a game I’m otherwise enjoying quite a bit (despite being a bit lost, since they decided they didn’t really need to explain the backstory…). ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/2 "2014-11-15T21:22:41Z")
It is stupid. I hate it even more because I love French and can’t get enough of it. ---
**Author:** ![2ManyTacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/3da27b/32.png) [@2ManyTacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2ManyTacos)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/3 "2014-11-16T05:03:42Z")
Yup, I’ve been playing it too and yeah, the British accents are weird. The thing is, the voice acting isn’t _bad_ at all; it’s just out of place for ACU’s setting. It’s strange that Ubisoft went this route for the game, given that they’ve generally been spot-on with voice acting until now. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/4 "2014-11-16T05:22:34Z")
Historical stuff has to have British accents. You could be in ancient Egypt and you’d have Ben Kingsley doing it. There must at least be a translatic accent. Yes, it’s silly. But it’s silly stuff that Hollywood does so Ubisoft will do it too. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/5 "2014-11-16T06:29:09Z")
Ubisoft is clearly prejudiced against French people. Including its many French employees, presumably. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/6 "2014-11-16T06:30:40Z")
An example of [The Queen’s Latin](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheQueensLatin)? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/7 "2014-11-16T06:34:44Z")
They’re saving the French accents for _Assassin’s Creed: Easter Rebellion_ ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/8 "2014-11-16T07:06:21Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Historical stuff has to have British accents. You could be in ancient Egypt and you’d have Ben Kingsley doing it. There must at least be a translatic accent. > > Yes, it’s silly. But it’s silly stuff that Hollywood does so Ubisoft will do it too. The thing is, if all of the voices in game were English, spoken with an English accent, it wouldn’t be as jarring. But almost all of the background conversation is in French. So having English accents really stands out against the Gallic background. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/9 "2014-11-16T07:44:29Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Ubisoft is clearly prejudiced against French people. Including its many French employees, presumably. Well, maybe that’s it… nobody thinks _they_ have an accent, so the French game designers couldn’t very well put out a casting call for voice actors with French accents. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/10 "2014-11-16T07:45:34Z")
That’s weird, especially as ACII, which was set in Italy, had everyone speaking English with Italian accents. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/11 "2014-11-16T07:57:51Z")
How pleasant/unpleasant to most people is the French accent in English? Nearly every time I’ve heard it, I’ve found it neutral at best. To add to Alessan: And when Russians talk among themselves in movies/games, it’s usually in American English, Russian-accented English or Russian with subtitles; no British accent. Same thing for Germans. ETA: [http://blog.ubi.com/assassins-creed-unity-accents/](http://blog.ubi.com/assassins-creed-unity-accents/) “The idea is that the Animus is translating everything into the language you’re playing in,” Amancio explains. “That’s why, since you’re an Anglophone, you’re hearing all the dialogue and cinematics in English. It would really make no sense for there to be a French accent because that would mean that this French character is trying to address you in accented English. Everyone in the game is not trying to speak English for your benefit.” But that raises the question: Why a British accent? The answer is simple. When trying to figure out what accent would be best-suited to the time period and the location, the development team took a tip from Hollywood. British accents, they determined, just have more of a period feel than an American accent would. It gives the distinct feeling of being set in the past in a foreign place." So, Ubisoft just did the equivalent of opening a hipster pub/tourist trap in Brooklyn and calling it “Ye Olde Englishe Pube” ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/12 "2014-11-16T18:30:07Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > [http://blog.ubi.com/assassins-creed-unity-accents/](http://blog.ubi.com/assassins-creed-unity-accents/) > “The idea is that the Animus is translating everything into the language you’re playing in,” Amancio explains. “That’s why, since you’re an Anglophone, you’re hearing all the dialogue and cinematics in English. It would really make no sense for there to be a French accent because that would mean that this French character is trying to address you in accented English. Everyone in the game is not trying to speak English for your benefit.” > > But that raises the question: Why a British accent? The answer is simple. When trying to figure out what accent would be best-suited to the time period and the location, the development team took a tip from Hollywood. British accents, they determined, just have more of a period feel than an American accent would. It gives the distinct feeling of being set in the past in a foreign place." Well, credit where it’s due that they took the trouble to come up with some sort of explanation. It’s not one that I find particularly satisfying, and the second part in particular manages to verge on the insulting. But at least it was a conscious decision, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/13 "2014-11-16T20:48:08Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > That’s weird, especially as ACII, which was set in Italy, had everyone speaking English with Italian accents. Didn’t Lafayette also spike angliche laïk a praupeur Frenchman in ACIII ? (…and French like a proper Canadien, admittedly :p) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2014, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/14 "2014-11-16T21:29:08Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Didn’t Lafayette also spike angliche laïk a praupeur Frenchman in ACIII ? (…and French like a proper Canadien, admittedly :p) Dunno - I quit that game before I got to him. But there were some French-accented Frenchmen in _Brotherhood_. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/15 "2014-12-24T01:52:58Z")
Briefly resurrecting my own thread, I was grumbling about this again the other night and got to googling around for Ubi’s rather rubbish explanation for it. That led me to the following: If you don’t care for the English in ACU, and you don’t mind subtitles, you can change the audio to French and use English subs. Not ideal–I’d rather just have non-outrageous French-accented English, overall–but better than hearing “OOY! ID YEW SEE THAT! E STOWL FROM ME!” several times per session. ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assassins-creed-unity-why-on-earth-does-everyone-speak-with-an-english-accent/704725/16 "2014-12-24T03:17:07Z")
I agree the English accents have been a bother, so I’m glad for the French with English subtitles tip. Thanks!