I Always Preferred Japanese Voice with English Subtitles - Same for 3!

Vasid said:
It changes how the characters are portrayed, in the English dub characters will often act more over the top and silly than they do with the Japanese voice over which makes the whole thing feel a lot more grounded. The best example is how Ryo will literally say different things which sometimes drastically changes the dialogue. I didn't mean to imply it drastically changes the core story beats, just the characterization of the characters.
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I think they did it worse in Shenmue 3 this what you talking about than in past games.
Especially Nozomi...
 
mjqjazzbar said:
I tried to play with the English dub since it is what I’m used to, but I really don’t think I can stomach playing Shenmue like it’s a big joke anymore. Glad I switched to Japanese. I hope Ys Net makes the hard decision to stop wasting money on an English dub if they get the chance to make another game. It’ll disappoint Corey and his fans but it’s simply not worth the negativity it brings the game.
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We will never agree about the english dub but you know where they also wasted money ? backer rewards.
Yes it's nice and all for backers but 20-25% that don't go to the game is a huge number (taken from their kickstarter pie chart).
 
sbkodama said:
We will never agree about the english dub but you know where they also wasted money ? backer rewards.
Yes it's nice and all for backers but 20-25% that don't go to the game is a huge number (taken from their kickstarter pie chart).
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Without backer rewards Shenmue kickstarter would had never reached the 6 million it did.
Only few people would had brought multiple copies.
As well the backers reward seem very cheap...
The backers only version is cheap...
 
I don't care how much better the Japanese voices are objectively, I refuse to ever switch. Only played Shenmue 2 in Japanese so many times cuz I had to.

Awkward dub for life. It's part of the charm imo.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
I tried to play with the English dub since it is what I’m used to, but I really don’t think I can stomach playing Shenmue like it’s a big joke anymore. Glad I switched to Japanese. I hope Ys Net makes the hard decision to stop wasting money on an English dub if they get the chance to make another game. It’ll disappoint Corey and his fans but it’s simply not worth the negativity it brings the game.
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IMO I think just doing a better job on the English dub would be a better choice because the majority of players would prefer to play without reading subtitles and it can reach the largest audience. I think people have mentioned that the current English dub might be intentionally bad for Shenmue 3, which would be really frustrating if that's the case.

However, if the choice is make an English dub as bad as Shenmue 3 or go Japanese for all regions, I'd say go with the Japanese VO.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
I tried to play with the English dub since it is what I’m used to, but I really don’t think I can stomach playing Shenmue like it’s a big joke anymore. Glad I switched to Japanese. I hope Ys Net makes the hard decision to stop wasting money on an English dub if they get the chance to make another game. It’ll disappoint Corey and his fans but it’s simply not worth the negativity it brings the game.
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This would be a ridiculously shitty and dumb mistake. Corey Marshall IS Ryo to me and plenty of other people. I always hated having to play Shenmue 2 in Japanese when I had to play on Dreamcast.

Also, fuck changing things just to appeal to the masses.
 
I understand people like the dub, but it’s costly and continues to generate outside negativity. Most games don’t feature two entire language tracks. Low budget games shouldn’t have resources tied up on stuff like a questionable English dub. I apologize if that is an offensive opinion.
 
Shenmue is always gonna attract outside negativity. Most people will not like this series no matter what. They can eat shit tbh. Keeping the English dub is huge for me and probably other people. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it should go. The fact that they got the voice actor for the main character after 18 years was a huge deal to me. I only wish they had gotten more of the originals.

Edit: Not trying to attack you btw (that post felt hostile after i re-read it), but I'd be super sad if they killed the dub.
 
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Ren said:
I think they did it worse in Shenmue 3 this what you talking about than in past games.
Especially Nozomi...
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Nozomi was "almost" the worst, the worst was Guizhang, it sounded absolutely nothing like him, sounded way too happy and he was saying things like "great to hear from you.. call again soon!" etc.. not his low grumpy dismissive voice at all. how hard would it have been to get the voice actors to listen to a short recording of the characters they are meant to sound like. The standouts were Tom & Joy (obviously) while Fangmei and Goro were decent too.
 
RiGoRmOrTiS said:
Nozomi was "almost" the worst, the worst was Guizhang, it sounded absolutely nothing like him, sounded way too happy and he was saying things like "great to hear from you.. call again soon!" etc.. not his low grumpy dismissive voice at all. how hard would it have been to get the voice actors to listen to a short recording of the characters they are meant to sound like. The standouts were Tom & Joy (obviously) while Fangmei and Goro were decent too.
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Nozomi sounded like a jealous girlfriend trying to dig more info I found that so unusual!.
Agree with Guizhang.... I mean seriously they made Guizhang interested in women? He was telling Ryo he was thinking to meet Xiu Ying because Ryo said she was a beautiful woman!
 
chaos said:
This would be a ridiculously shitty and dumb mistake. Corey Marshall IS Ryo to me and plenty of other people. I always hated having to play Shenmue 2 in Japanese when I had to play on Dreamcast.

Also, fuck changing things just to appeal to the masses.
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But Corey Marshall ISN'T Ryo. At least not to Yu Suzuki. Masaya Matsukaze IS Ryo. It's like saying the proper version of Oldboy is the American one because you don't want to read subtitles. It's just factually incorrect and just like vouching for the American Oldboy you're basically backing a worse version. I mean I guess if you want to be laughing at every line because it's so bad I could see how that could be fun, but "so bad it's good" is a bad excuse when the original Japanese voice overs are "so good they're great".
 
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Removing the English dub isn’t appealing to the masses. Leaving it in is. It’s a sign of a project that’s too willing to please too many people rather than reign in costs where necessary. I am probably over estimating what the English dub cost, but if the trade-off were a painful English dub or Baisha, you guys are saying you’d ask them to stick with the dub?
 
mjqjazzbar said:
Removing the English dub isn’t appealing to the masses. Leaving it in is. It’s a sign of a project that’s too willing to please too many people rather than reign in costs where necessary. I am probably over estimating what the English dub cost, but if the trade-off were a painful English dub or Baisha, you guys are saying you’d ask them to stick with the dub?
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I don't think they spend a lot on the English dub.
Considering how bad the voice acting is.
Even though I do agree that Shenmue 3 a lot of budget was wasted when it should had been invested in the combat system instead which can use a LOT of improvement... As well Animations.
 
In my opinion, Corey is too old to be Ryo... They should had got a different younger person to do Ryo.
In my honest opinion, there would be no difference to me if he was changed, I think would been better.
After playing with Ryo in Japanese you start to see that Ryo sounds weird in English.
Like Ryo is too robotic while in Japanese he has more personality.
 
Vasid said:
But Corey Marshall ISN'T Ryo. At least not to Yu Suzuki. Masaya Matsukaze IS Ryo. It's like saying the proper version of Oldboy is the American one because you don't want to read subtitles. It's just factually incorrect and just like vouching for the American Oldboy you're basically backing a worse version. I mean I guess if you want to be laughing at every line because it's so bad I could see how that could be fun, but "so bad it's good" is a bad excuse when the original Japanese voice overs are "so good they're great".
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Yeah, he is Ryo to me because he's who voiced Ryo when I first played. That comparison to oldboy is extremely ridiculous. Compare it to a dub in an anime vs the original voices and you have a valid comparison.

I guess I'm making my stand in the wrong thread lol. My main point I guess being let people enjoy the game how they want to and don't shit all over it saying the way we enjoy it is a joke.
 
chaos said:
Yeah, he is Ryo to me because he's who voiced Ryo when I first played. That comparison to oldboy is extremely ridiculous. Compare it to a dub in an anime vs the original voices and you have a valid comparison.

I guess I'm making my stand in the wrong thread lol. My main point I guess being let people enjoy the game how they want to and don't shit all over it saying the way we enjoy it is a joke.
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Cute appeal to "live and let live" but you're literally appealing to let people play an inferior version where the characters aren't even properly portrayed. The English VO is a bad joke, and it's hurting review scores left and right. Just because shitty voice overs are how you first played it doesn't make it the definitive way buddy. Poor translations aren't a good thing. You even call it an "Awkward dub" in your first post but then get mad because I point out you only enjoy it as a joke? Shenmue isn't supposed to be a joke. Parts of it are funny, yes, but the voice acting it's self was never meant to be funny.

The comparison to Oldboy is apt, because the American Oldboy can only be enjoyed on a "so bad it's good" level, where the Korean Oldboy is legitimately good art. The same is true of the English and Japanese voices for Shenmue I, II, and now III. If you want to compare it to an Anime dub it would have to be a notoriously bad Anime dub. For the record the first version of Shenmue I played was in English too, doesn't stop me from realizing the English dub was terrible and that Ryo is how he should be in Japanese.

Also your "live and let live" statement would go over better if you weren't coming in to a pro-Japanese VO thread to push the English VO.
 
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Vasid said:
Cute appeal to "live and let live" but you're literally appealing to let people play an inferior version where the characters aren't even properly portrayed. The English VO is a bad joke, and it's hurting review scores left and right. Just because shitty voice overs are how you first played it doesn't make it the definitive way buddy. Poor translations aren't a good thing. You even call it an "Awkward dub" in your first post but then get mad because I point out you only enjoy it as a joke? Shenmue isn't supposed to be a joke. Parts of it are funny, yes, but the voice acting it's self was never meant to be funny.
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You'll be amazed at how many people turn down a game if they have to read.
 
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