Does Shenmue 4 need any Voice Acting ?

Also, don't voice actors get more money when they get more lines of dialogues?

If they don't use any voice actors then they can add more dialogues to the game much easier.(Also they don't have to do lip syncing for characters that much which allows them to add more cutscenes to the game.)
 
Sergeynest said:
Shenmue without voice acting isn't Shenmue and Shenmue is not Yakuza.
For me that says it all.
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The main differences between Yakuza and Shenmue is this that Shenmue is more exploration focused than Yakuza alongside this that Shenmue is less edgy.(Edit: and Shenmue being more open world)

Lack of voices don't make that much difference in gameplay.
When I play Shenmue, I choose Japanese dub and read the subtitles for every dialogue. If they remove the voices then I still have to read the subtitles.
 
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Dg1995 said:
The main differences between Yakuza and Shenmue is this that Shenmue is more exploration focused than Yakuza alongside this that Shenmue is less edgy.(Edit: and Shenmue being more open world)

Lack of voices don't make that much difference in gameplay.
When I play Shenmue, I choose Japanese dub and read the subtitles for every dialogue. If they remove the voices then I still have to read the subtitles.
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Honestly in my opinion it wouldn't work; at least for me.
It would break the feeling of immersion that I feel when I play Shenmue either if it is in english or in japanese voices.
I bought Yakuza 0 recently on a Steam sale and I played it for while. It is a good game, but in terms of immersion it doesn't even come near to Shenmue; mostly because of the lack of voice acting.
Almost every time I came across an npc with texted dialogue I would skip it.
The crowded streets are nice and give the feeling that you are in the busy streets of Tokyo; but the immersion breaks quickly as soon as you notice that almost all of them are just walking mannequins.
I never felt fully immersed in its world and if the same happened with Shenmue I believe it would kill the series for me; it just wouldn't be same.
I rather have a smaller but fully voiced and interactive Shenmue location than a big world that feels empty and shallow.
 
IMO if voice acting is ever scrapped Shenmue would lose a lot if its charm. The life lessons, martial tutorials and even the mundane process it sticks because of the voice acting. Compare other games that let you speak to random NPCs these encounters are never that enjoyable or not as enjoyable as they could be. Something as simple and mundane as,"Hey do you know where I can find some sailors." Its more believable more authentic and real, especially in a living breathing world like Shenmue.

TBH its not only voice acting Shenmue can't afford to lose any of its core gameplay mechanics even if some of them are outdated. Without key gameplay elements Shenmue is no longer Shenmue and thats the reason we love it so much.
 
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I'd take it with less voice acting and even less NPCs to interact with, but I think no voice acting would be jarring. If the next game is to be set in a large city, no big issue. We never got to talk to 'all' NPCs in Shenmue II or even Shenmue III. Dropping Japanese would be a mistake. Like someone else has said here before, these games aren't as unpopular in Japan as presented. They're also written IN Japanese, so you're still going to pay for two scripts at the end of the day.

My main argument against the English VO is that I assumed it took too many resources away from other areas that might've improved Shenmue III. I also thought it added to the many presentation issues that turned potential fans away from the newest entry in the series. But let's also be clear: the standard of the localization is well below average, which didn't help the cast at all. I don't think running the English script through a better team would much more.

I do think a more polished English script and cast is a must. There's room for humor, but I really don't believe Shenmue is intended to be as campy as the VO suggests.
 
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mjqjazzbar said:
I'd take it with less voice acting and even less NPCs to interact with, but I think no voice acting would be jarring. If the next game is to be set in a large city, no big issue. We never got to talk to 'all' NPCs in Shenmue II or even Shenmue III. Dropping Japanese would be a mistake. Like someone else has said here before, these games aren't as unpopular in Japan as presented. They're also written IN Japanese, so you're still going to pay for two scripts at the end of the day.

My main argument against the English VO is that I assumed it took too many resources away from other areas that might've improved Shenmue III. I also thought it added to the many presentation issues that turned potential fans away from the newest entry in the series. But let's also be clear: the standard of the localization is well below average, which didn't help the cast at all. I don't think running the English script through a better team would much more.

I do think a more polished English script and cast is a must. There's room for humor, but I really don't believe Shenmue is intended to be as campy as the VO suggests.
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There's humour in the Shenmue script. It's okay when the english VO sounds awkward when it's meant to sound awkward. The problem is to sound bad when you're supposed to sound good. And there's no charm in that.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
I'd take it with less voice acting and even less NPCs to interact with, but I think no voice acting would be jarring. If the next game is to be set in a large city, no big issue. We never got to talk to 'all' NPCs in Shenmue II or even Shenmue III. Dropping Japanese would be a mistake. Like someone else has said here before, these games aren't as unpopular in Japan as presented. They're also written IN Japanese, so you're still going to pay for two scripts at the end of the day.

My main argument against the English VO is that I assumed it took too many resources away from other areas that might've improved Shenmue III. I also thought it added to the many presentation issues that turned potential fans away from the newest entry in the series. But let's also be clear: the standard of the localization is well below average, which didn't help the cast at all. I don't think running the English script through a better team would much more.

I do think a more polished English script and cast is a must. There's room for humor, but I really don't believe Shenmue is intended to be as campy as the VO suggests.
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The main thing that turns away potential fans toward Shenmue is this that Shenmue is much more exploration focused compared to other open world games.

Adventure focused games as whole have a small market. That is why publishers stopped making AAA point'n click adventure games at the end of 90s.(In my opinion Sega shouldn't have made Shenmue their "killer app" game since killer apps should be in a mainstream genre.)

That voice acting problem doesn't in anyway make the game less successful.(Since only the internet crowd cares about this problem. If english dub bothers people then they will just switch the dub to japanese instead of complaining about it 24/7.)

Good localization doesn't make a game successful. Megaman X8 had far better english voice acting compared to other Megaman games and yet that game's failure was what that killed the franchise for a long time.
 
Dg1995 said:
The main thing that turns away potential fans toward Shenmue is this that Shenmue is much more exploration focused compared to other open world games.

Adventure focused games as whole have a small market. That is why publishers stopped making AAA point'n click adventure games at the end of 90s.(In my opinion Sega shouldn't have made Shenmue their "killer app" game since killer apps should be in a mainstream genre.)

That voice acting problem doesn't in anyway make the game less successful.(Since only the internet crowd cares about this problem. If english dub bothers people then they will just switch the dub to japanese instead of complaining about it 24/7.)

Good localization doesn't make a game successful. Megaman X8 had far better english voice acting compared to other Megaman games and yet that game's failure was what that killed the franchise for a long time.
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The main things that turned people away from Shenmue 3 were the lukewarm reviews and the fact that it’s the third game in a series that most of them have never played.

Sure, they could play through some ports of 20 year old games to get up to speed, but that’s a lot of effort for a game that failed to leave a positive impression on most critics and, by most accounts, sold pretty badly (at least according to the early reports on sales).

Spending $30 to play through two twenty year old games to get to a point where you can then drop another $60 to play a game that hasn’t reviewed particularly well is a big ask. Throw in the seemingly high likelihood that they’d be doing all of this to experience a story that may never reach a conclusion, and I’m not at all surprised that a lot of people skipped out on Shenmue 3.

If Yu and the team can make a top quality Shenmue 4 that garners good word of mouth and reviews well, that might incentivize people to go through all of the hassle of playing through the first three games, but I don’t think it’s at all a given. That some people here want to give these people another reason not to play a fourth game by removing the English dub is a little beyond me.

I get that some people prefer the Japanese dub and that others think that the English dub is downright bad, but I really do feel that anybody who is advocating for the removal of the English dub is putting their own preference over what is best for the series.

Thankfully, I think that Yu realizes the importance of the game having an English dub - something made pretty clear by the decision to bring back Corey Marshall being made as soon as it became clear that the game had hit it’s $2m funding target.

This wasn’t some high end stretch goal that the team saw as a luxury if budget allowed - but a necessity. Indeed, if you look at the actual stretch goals for the project, the first five were all focused on making the game as accessible as possible to a wider audience (recap videos and subtitles).
 
Do you really believe that people take reviews seriously ?

Days Gone got 70 in MC and yet that was one of the best selling games of that year.
 
Dg1995 said:
Do you really believe that people take reviews seriously ?

Days Gone got 70 in MC and yet that was one of the best selling games of that year.
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Absolutely. Reviews and positive word of mouth (which is something that Days Gone had in abundance). It certainly also helped that you ride around a post-apocalyptic world on a motorcycle killing zombies rather than walking around a small Chinese village catching chickens - as did the huge amount Sony spent marketing it.
 
To add to what @tomboz has said you've also got to consider the sheer volume of places giving reviews to show that it's still a relevant part of gaming.

I personally don't pay masses of attention to them, especially the mainline ones but you can't escape the fact it's still a lucrative business.
 
I remember doing a Shenmue fan chat with Corey during the beginning of lockdown he said that he and many of his fellow voice actors are such passionate Shenmue ambassadors that they essentially took a pay cut (or words to that effect; I was getting pretty drunk 4 hours in!). Obviously, you need to get paid, but I wouldn't be surprised if he took a pay cut if it meant the difference between doing Shenmue IV or not at all.

I think having text for NPC's would be a bit jarring at first, but i'd get quickly used to it.

As far as subtitles go, I have it on for everything as I get worried if I mishear something. The cinema is the only place I can comfortably watch a film without them (unless it's a foreign film obviously!)
 
Dg1995 said:
The main thing that turns away potential fans toward Shenmue is this that Shenmue is much more exploration focused compared to other open world games.

Adventure focused games as whole have a small market. That is why publishers stopped making AAA point'n click adventure games at the end of 90s.(In my opinion Sega shouldn't have made Shenmue their "killer app" game since killer apps should be in a mainstream genre.)

That voice acting problem doesn't in anyway make the game less successful.(Since only the internet crowd cares about this problem. If english dub bothers people then they will just switch the dub to japanese instead of complaining about it 24/7.)

Good localization doesn't make a game successful. Megaman X8 had far better english voice acting compared to other Megaman games and yet that game's failure was what that killed the franchise for a long time.
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Mega man X8 isn’t an adventure game where you spend 90% of your many hours talking to people. I don’t see any relevance. Quality VA and localization are a must, imo.
 
bcdcdude said:
I remember doing a Shenmue fan chat with Corey during the beginning of lockdown he said that he and many of his fellow voice actors are such passionate Shenmue ambassadors that they essentially took a pay cut (or words to that effect; I was getting pretty drunk 4 hours in!). Obviously, you need to get paid, but I wouldn't be surprised if he took a pay cut if it meant the difference between doing Shenmue IV or not at all.
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I was in that Zoom meeting too and IIRC Corey said he took a pay cut and Bill Black did things for much less than he would normally charge.

Eric Kelso pretty much offered to fund his own flights and stay to be Ren again but as we know this was turned down so I bet he would do it cheaply too, especially given the fact he's done voices for the fan mods of Shenmue III
 
I think it needs to have voice over, both language options if possible (personally, I prefer the Japanese voice over). But can they actually afford to fully voice another game? I think so long as the main story sections were voiced, and interactions with random NPCs like shop staff etc were just text it would work fine. As much as I would like to have it fully voiced, I don't know if it is a realistic expectation. If budget is tight I would rather the money went to fleshing out the story, or adding extra missions, rather than voicing 100+ shop staff characters.
 
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