Does Shenmue 4 need any Voice Acting ?

I remember when I first played Shenmue 2. It was at a friend's house since he had a bootlegged import copy of the game before it was feasible to import to NA properly. All of the cutscenes were fully voiced (in JP) but none of the other dialogue in the game was. I actually thought the game was supposed to be like that, I wasn't aware it was a result of the voice files not being on the bootlegged copy of the game. I initially thought maybe it was a budget decision since S2 was so much bigger, with so many more NPC's than S1. While it was initially jarring coming off the fully voiced S1 I was over it in minutes. Talking to NPC's on the street and simply reading their response was fundamentally no different to how I'd played countless RPG's before and it still had the fully voiced cutscenes which made the game feel cinematic.

I think people are placing too much importance on the technical aspects of the game which are fundamentally nice to have rather than necessities. I can't see how S4 can get by with the same budget as S3 so some concessions will inevitably have to be made. cutting VA from the game would work just fine by most people's standards if they retained it in the cutscenes.

Regarding the English v.s. Japanese voice acting, the fanbase seems divided on this. At this point it doesn't make sense to cut either of them. It would work to satisfy both camps to keep the option in for the cutscenes only reducing the amount of voice work overall and freeing up considerable budget.

It's the only compromise I personally see working.
 
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

Thanks for confirming! I knew something along those lines were said, but wasn't 100% sure. I think Corey said that if he was offered a choice between a part in a Star Wars movie or Shenmue, he'd pick Shenmue every time. And I believe him. We are lucky that he is as passionate as he is; I have no doubt that he's putting it on for the fanbase. He's clearly as big a fan as we are.
 
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.
The relevance is this that Megaman was known to have very bad english voice acting before that game.("What am I fighting foooooor!")
But then Megaman X8 came and had a much better voice acting but that didn't make the franchise more popular at all and became the last actual Megaman game for a very long time until Megaman 11.

Making better VA and localization doesn't convince reviewers to give better review scores to Shenmue. It will just force them to find other reasons to hate it. ("Story is dumb", "The game is boring", "Characters look bad" ,"Graphics are subpar", "Screen goes dark before every cutscene." , "The story didn't go the way that I wanted it to go.", "This game uses outdated QTEs." , "It's childish compared to Yakuza.", etc)

It also doesn't convince people to play an exploration-focused game. Grim Fandango had some of the best voice actings of all time and yet that game was a huge failure for Lucasarts.

Making quality VA requires more money. The money that can be spent on other and more important aspects of the game.
 
This is what you aren't quite getting.
VA is important to Shenmue. Just because you don't think it is, doesn't mean the majority of the fanbase don't either.
If everything need to VA, then probably, the scope of the city/town needs to be smaller in order to reduce people that can be talked and/or make non interactable NPCs.

I guess there would also be the means of launching a contest and let fans do some generic lines for VA (similar to ubisoft Beyond and Evil 2 asset creation contest) but I do not know if anything of that would go against the VA unions.
 
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 prefer the new voice actor for Ren, he sounds a bit deeper and edgier. Kelso's Ren is too squeaky. They should let him play Guizhang though, he was great in that role.
 
As discovered by @James Brown during my early twitch test streams, I actually play Shenmue a lot dialogue only. Simple way to change the experience after so many dozens of plays over 20 years.

Not to say I'd want to get rid all VA, but I actually don't mind the voices turned off--and i love both English and Japanese voices, to be clear.
 
Need? Obviously not. The only games that can be said to "need" voice acting are games where the characters talk while the player is focusing on other gameplay (ie: Prince of Persia Sands of Time where characters banter while you perform complex platforming puzzles) so it's not really possible to read text at the same time and pausing the game would screw up the pacing, which Shenmue never does.

VO does contribute to immersion but, as S3 demonstrates, it's not the only thing. Nonsensical dialogue exchanges, bad line reading, weird animation, and poor writing are also things that can break immersion with full VO. Fact is that Shenmue is being made on a tight budget now and VO is one of the most expensive aspects of a game to implement, especially in multiple languages. IMO it's impossible to justify VO as a primary concern compared to other aspects of the game (locations, animations, cutscenes etc.), especially when you consider that other aspects of the dialogue like lip sync, facial animation, and jarring camera cuts aren't really up to snuff in the first place. Plus this is all for nothing as you rarely have actual conversations in Shenmue; you ask people basic questions and 99% of them say they can't help you.

Apart from the conversations with Shenhua and the cutscenes there's no reason to have VO imo, there are a million other things that money should be spent on instead--the first of which is the writing. Why anyone would choose to have VO with the same caliber of writing in S3 is completely baffling to me.
 
Need? Obviously not. The only games that can be said to "need" voice acting are games where the characters talk while the player is focusing on other gameplay (ie: Prince of Persia Sands of Time where characters banter while you perform complex platforming puzzles) so it's not really possible to read text at the same time and pausing the game would screw up the pacing, which Shenmue never does.

VO does contribute to immersion but, as S3 demonstrates, it's not the only thing. Nonsensical dialogue exchanges, bad line reading, weird animation, and poor writing are also things that can break immersion with full VO. Fact is that Shenmue is being made on a tight budget now and VO is one of the most expensive aspects of a game to implement, especially in multiple languages. IMO it's impossible to justify VO as a primary concern compared to other aspects of the game (locations, animations, cutscenes etc.), especially when you consider that other aspects of the dialogue like lip sync, facial animation, and jarring camera cuts aren't really up to snuff in the first place. Plus this is all for nothing as you rarely have actual conversations in Shenmue; you ask people basic questions and 99% of them say they can't help you.

Apart from the conversations with Shenhua and the cutscenes there's no reason to have VO imo, there are a million other things that money should be spent on instead--the first of which is the writing. Why anyone would choose to have VO with the same caliber of writing in S3 is completely baffling to me.
Shenmue 3 has some really good voice actors like Cam Clarke and DC Douglas, (who are VA royalty IMO) so I agree it's more the dialogue.
 
The fact that everything being VA being a key element of Shenmue's DNA aside, unfortunately due to the direction of the industry, and how spoiled/babied new school gamers are, anything that warrants a script to keep track of, need VA or it will be written off, nomatter how good it is.
 
Need? Obviously not. The only games that can be said to "need" voice acting are games where the characters talk while the player is focusing on other gameplay (ie: Prince of Persia Sands of Time where characters banter while you perform complex platforming puzzles) so it's not really possible to read text at the same time and pausing the game would screw up the pacing, which Shenmue never does.

VO does contribute to immersion but, as S3 demonstrates, it's not the only thing. Nonsensical dialogue exchanges, bad line reading, weird animation, and poor writing are also things that can break immersion with full VO. Fact is that Shenmue is being made on a tight budget now and VO is one of the most expensive aspects of a game to implement, especially in multiple languages. IMO it's impossible to justify VO as a primary concern compared to other aspects of the game (locations, animations, cutscenes etc.), especially when you consider that other aspects of the dialogue like lip sync, facial animation, and jarring camera cuts aren't really up to snuff in the first place. Plus this is all for nothing as you rarely have actual conversations in Shenmue; you ask people basic questions and 99% of them say they can't help you.

Apart from the conversations with Shenhua and the cutscenes there's no reason to have VO imo, there are a million other things that money should be spent on instead--the first of which is the writing. Why anyone would choose to have VO with the same caliber of writing in S3 is completely baffling to me.

"especially since you bought merchandise"

...

Sorry, was it Shenmue III which introduced this? Kappa
 
I remember when I first explored Hermit's Nest in Shenmue III, and realized most of its inhabitants were elderly people, I was really excited because I expected they would remember Iwao and they would tell me lots of interesting things about him. And of course none of that happened, and it probably was because of budget reasons.

So, in retrospect, I would have gladly traded full VA for having a bigger amount of dialogue which would have made the game more interesting and cohesive. So I'm totally in in the team of no full VA. They could keep the first Ryo introductory phrase ("excuse me") and the last one ("I see"), and of course in cutscenes. And the charm would be almost intact.

P.S: I think Corey Marshall speaks Japanese, in fact they picked him for the role because he lived in Japan at Shenmue I's time. So, if they dropped English VA (which I'd also do), they could still bring him in another role. Maybe of a foreigner like Mark or Tom.
 
I'd be pretty upset if they dropped the VA, while I Have played many games which don't feature it, I think Shenmue 1 especially is a great example of how diverse the VA can be. Okay it's not always noted for being the best, but I still feel they did a good job at given each character their identity.

Looking at the Yakuza series, many of the side stories lack VA and honestly many of them feel very low budget and sort of brings the game down for me at times - Not to say they're not enjoyable! But often a lot of the dialogue scenes around these side stories just seem poorly animated and the lack of voice acting only shows makes it more apparent.

If anything this thread makes me grateful that Shenmue III was fully voice acted. I would settle for Japanese only if we really had to cut corners to get Shenmue IV but to be text only would be quite underwhelming.
 
I think they should have VA for cutscenes, and also...

If you don't have the budget to do it right, focus on a single language VA for the whole game. Back in 2001, I got an imported version of European Shenmue 2 for Dreamcast. And it was only subtitled in English, with japanese VA.

Not only did I NOT mind having to read, the acting was SO much better. I feel like, this game was made to be played in japanese.

But that's my personal opinion, and I'm nothing, so. Just thought I'd share what I think as a long time fan.
 
I remember when I first explored Hermit's Nest in Shenmue III, and realized most of its inhabitants were elderly people, I was really excited because I expected they would remember Iwao and they would tell me lots of interesting things about him. And of course none of that happened, and it probably was because of budget reasons.

Maybe Iwao was a wall-flower rarely socializing with anyone aside from Sunming Zhao?

No one really knew him so they had no stories to tell about him. Iwao was just a boring guy I guess.... just spending all his time practicing martial arts in Ternary Spring with Zhao... lotta good all that training did him anyway.
 
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