That's unfortunate. Teddy, who of course also had his voice recorded historically, is on point. (Can't comment on Laurier and Curtin, who I'm sure are also on record.)
Yeah the Teddy sounds extremely good indeed. Even though I'm not a native English-speaker it sounds well done to me. Another point where I don't like the Dutch version is the word "Floreert" (flourishes). Technically, it's correct, but I have never heard a Dutch person say it, and 70 years ago it would even be rarer, since English loan-words were far less common. The dumbest thing is, we have a perfectly common word for it that is a literal translation: (op)bloeien. In this context the conjugation would be "bloeit (op)".
In one of the livestreams (I think Inca) FXS said how they not only have voice actors, but coaches too, so that the language is depicted correctly. Not all people who can act the language properly would know perfectly how to speak it. But to be honest, I think with modern people like Wilhelmina, FXS just thought the native Dutch person doing the voice acting would know enough, but frankly, she does an impression of what a typical person would mimic a current royal to be. To make matters worse, all her phrases (aside from Floreert which is BS, sounds modern) don't have any spicy old-timey feeling to them. Let me illustrate by these examples:
Original Wilhelmina,
Skip to 2:42 - 3:02
Ik dank alle aanwezigen, voor hun tegenwoordigheid, alhier op dit ogenblik. Thans loopt dit tijdperk voor mij ten einde. De strijdende taak, die wij allen tesamen gehad hebben, die wij zovele jaren tesamen hebben vervuld, ga ik neerleggen.
Translation: I thank all present, for their representation, here in this moment. Now is the time my era has come to an ende. The fighting task, we all shared (had together), that we have completed so many years together, I will lay down.
Civ VI Wilhelmina,
0:00 - 0:15
Ik ben Wilhelmina, koningin der Nederlanden. Het is mijn grote eer, u eindelijk te ontmoeten.
Translation: I am Wilhelmina, Queen of The Netherlands. It's my great honour, to finally meet you.
Some notes to listen to in the original clip, are three things especially;
- In the 1950's you'd hear the N constantly on radio and tv broadcasts, and so the queen uses it too. Nowadays, Dutch people always swallow the N at the end of the word. Compare the original in words like "aanwezigeN" / "tesameN" / "hebbeN" / "tesameN" / "neerleggeN" en the Civ VI version in words like "NederlandE" and "OntmoetE". Note how the spelling still uses the N in modern Dutch, but the pronunciation doesn't. This is such a simple, yet crucial detail. When I hear people pretend to be a broadcaster from the 1950's, this is the first thing they do, because it's the most obvious.
- A second thing is the R, which is subtle but to Dutch people extremely noticable, I reckon. The South of the Netherlands uses an extremely hard R, that's pronounced way back in the throat in a gutteral sound. If you want a good example, listen to Harald's R at the end of his words; it sounds very similar. This R is highly noticable in Limburg and Noord-Brabant. In the 1950's, they did the same still. Current Dutch in the central and North-West of the Netherlands, is extremely similar to the American R (as in the end of the word Car). You hear the voice actess trying to get the R right, but to be fair, she doesn't quite get there.
- Also, the G at the end of words like "dag" (day) later on in the Civ VI video, is way too harsh. People from the west/north-west use a very hard G, that sounds in the back of your throat. People from the south east use a soft, very frontal, G. Royals in the 1950's had the same G. It's neigh impossible for people pronounce, if they didn't grow up with it, without training. Guess they didn't feel the need to train the voice actress.
Some small details are;
- the i in "Ik" (Ik ben Wilhelmina), where she almost pronounces it like an E (as in Hell) to sound more posh. It's a caricature move, and it makes the voice sound way to comical.
- the fact that Royal Dutch sounded way flatter than the average modern Dutch speaker. The corners of your mouth are stiff when speaking, and the jaw does not move down all that much. The voice actress here does the opposite. Again, brilliant if you want to do a caricature, horrible if you want to represent the Queen of a country in a Civ game.
- there are no old school words which we barely use nowadays, but were not uncommon in the 1950's. Words like "thans" (now), "alhier" (here), and "tesamen" (together).
Honestly, my mate and I should have been paid to write the dialogue and coach the voice actress, and the result would have been 100% better. Guaranteed : P
Victoria, Harald and Frederick sound good to me (haven't heard Kristina that much yet), and I don't speak/know the other languages, so I hope the Dutch one is just the dark horse of the lot...