Was the english voice acting necessary ?

sbkodama said:
But not everyone that like shenmue waited 15 years for shenmue 3.
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Yeah, I became a Shenmue fan from last year.
mjqjazzbar said:
Anyone who waited 15 years for Shenmue 3 and didn’t buy it because it lacks an English dub would be a very small minority. I really have trouble believing otherwise. Plenty of people here played Shenmue 2 without an English dub.
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There is a main reason on why big franchises such as Final Fantasy have english dubs. Because majority of gamers in western countries never play a game that only has japanese dub.(Maybe that's one of the reasons that Shenmue 2 failed in europe)

Yakuza doesn't get english dubs which is one of the reasons it never became that big outside of Japan.
 
Final Fantasy also has a huge budget and sells millions of copies. They can afford that luxury.

Yakuza 0 doesn’t have an English dub and sold better than Shenmue 3 ever will and is the most popular Yakuza in the West. The first Yakuza had an atrocious English dub that actually had real actors (Wasn’t Mark Hamill in it!?) and it still sold like shit. Don’t just make stuff up...
 
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mjqjazzbar said:
Yakuza 0 doesn’t have an English dub and sold better than Shenmue 3 ever will and is the most popular Yakuza in the West. The first Yakuza had an atrocious English dub that actually had real actors and it still sold like shit. Don’t just make stuff up...
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But then it released like 2 years later than the original release in Japan. So the game was also cheaper to buy than Shenmue 3 at launch.

It also had more budget and more advertising than Shenmue 3.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
Final Fantasy also has a huge budget and sells millions of copies. They can afford that luxury.

Yakuza 0 doesn’t have an English dub and sold better than Shenmue 3 ever will and is the most popular Yakuza in the West. The first Yakuza had an atrocious English dub that actually had real actors (Wasn’t Mark Hamill in it!?) and it still sold like shit. Don’t just make stuff up...
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Yup, Mark Hamill was in the first Yakuza.
There are a lot of successful games without an english dub. And as you said, Yakuza 0 is the most popular entry.


Dg1995 said:
But then it released like 2 years later than the original release in Japan. So the game was also cheaper to buy than Shenmue 3 at launch.

It also had more budget and more advertising than Shenmue 3.
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"Was also cheaper to buy". No. Yakuza 0 released at 60€/USD, same as Shenmue 3. In fact, Shenmue 3 was discounted faster than Yakuza 0. :)
More budget and advertising than Shenmue 3 ? That's also wrong. Yakuza serie is a low budget one, which relies heavily on assets recycling. Yakuza 0 localization was so low budget that it is english only for the texts. No FIGS language.
 
It sold well because it reviewed well and picked up great word of mouth by virtue of the fact it’s an amazingly fun and playable game. It’s actually an interesting case in graphics not mattering that much. You rarely hear criticism of Yakuza 0’s graphics game because it’s just such a good complete package. That’s generally what determines whether or not a game is a success.

If Shenmue 3 picked up that kind of word of mouth, I have no doubt it would’ve been at least been a little more successful. Eyes were definitely on the game due to the miraculous Kickstarter.
 
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There is a main reason on why big franchises such as Final Fantasy have english dubs. Because majority of gamers in western countries never play a game that only has japanese dub.(Maybe that's one of the reasons that Shenmue 2 failed in europe)
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Not really, when Shenmue II was released Dreamcast was virtually dead, since February 2001 announcement of Sega killing until late/early 2001 every game released on Dremcast was really difficult to sell. That and our old friend Utopia. The fact that Shenmue II was even released in Europe is a miracle.
 
I'm not trying to trivialise the points raised maliciously but I genuinely believe the VO quality/language options are the least of the issues raised by the various publications/influencers in reviews/articles etc. regarding S3 and it's content.

The whole positive reviews argument weren't going to be straightforward because of the amount of time and the crazy amount of expectation. You can't help but feel disappointment because ... Drum roll please.... It's a mid tier game at best with triple AAA aspirations. Did I feel that disappointment myself? Not a bit. Why? Because the game is at the level you would want S3 to be if it was released directly after S2. Imagine if S3 came out in 2003. We'd be discussing another triumph of a game I'm sure.

I'm not Mr Suzuki but I am confident he looked at the budget and said "Let's make S3" not Triple A S3 but the S3 the fans would expect. There clearly is not the budget to make a game with all the design and art sensibilities you would expect from a modern game.

I think that the English VO makes S3 an authentic experience true to the spirit of the original games. Having said that it's not a VITAL component of the experience. Put it this way: I would still buy S3 without English dub. But it's really cool that it does have an English dub. I revel in the nostalgia every time.

I appreciate the negativity. I respect the issues. But temper the criticism with the reality of the task and relatively modest budget. Also +1 for Mr Marshall etc lol.
 
I'd buy it WITH or WITHOUT either dub, just to be clear and my personal opinion about the quality of either dub aside. I just think two tracks is excessive.
 
Dg1995 said:
But then you would have still complained that the story of Shenmue 3 isn't good.

And Shenmue 3 would have sold less copies compare to the way it did.
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I would've still had issues with the game, granted. But I don't think I would've been as disappointed as the end segment left quite a sour taste... And I think that is echoed by many fans and quite a few of the reviews referred to the story so it could've improved scores and actually may have increased sales.

It's very difficult to determine whether English Dub or improvements elsewhere have more impact on sales... My comments are purely where I perceive the money would've been better spent, I appreciate English Dub is more important to some though
 
I haven't finished S3 yet so I'm really keen now to see what the fuss is about with the ending.

Could it be as bad as the cave in S2?

I will definitely express my opinions on the ending. I'll be as harsh as I can be... Lol
 
gamesbloke said:
I haven't finished S3 yet so I'm really keen now to see what the fuss is about with the ending.

Could it be as bad as the cave in S2?

I will definitely express my opinions on the ending. I'll be as harsh as I can be... Lol
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If I were you, I wouldn't visit forums until I have finished Shenmue 3.

Because forum guys may make you feel disappointed in some parts before you even play those parts.(For example if I visited the Tomb Raider Forums, the members there would teach me to hate Paititi in TR 12 without even playing it. But I played the game without reading those comments about Paititi and I enjoyed that section a lot.)

I personally enjoyed the ending and had no problems with it at all.
 
I'm old enough and crazy enough to make my own opinions and not care about everyone else's. The only thing that'll disappoint me is another damn cave.... (It won't really lol).

Tomb Raider......????? That Saturn game that got relegated to PlayStation? (Imagine it's 1996. It'll make the question funnier.)

I quite like airing the books in S2. Statistically that makes me a crazy man. I genuinely thought they'd be a pivotal task such as that (aka a mundane task with a story specific goal) in S3.

Service???????
 
Lets be honest, It wasn't the English Va that cost them , it was that they spent the budget poorly.

During development i felt bailu was a bad location and should of been cut. After finishing that section of the game , i felt my suspicions had been confirmed. The game should of started in a different location like niwao and moved on to Baisha. Bailu was a section that should of been shown as a cutscene imo. That would of saved a whole bunch of budget. Enough to make 3 what yu promised, emember his quote, 'baisha will show what Shenmue is all about' or something like that.

What actually happened in Bailu? Barely anything. The few bits of story info there could of been transplanted to another location easily.No memorable characters there either. Imagine all that time developing all the fishing etc was put int the main game. I know most people didnt fish much because of the weird rent a rod mechanic

Regarding other mistakes. Paraphrasing here but he said something like 'two different character artists had two different styles, so i just let them do their thing separately' How would that ever lead a c consistent visual style? And in the end it didn't. . He should be making them marry their styles so there is continuity in the visuals. Also, talking about no throws, he said it was due to the motion suits used. Choose different ones then. They are not crazy money.

Also, the food system. More time wasted. wasnt needed, and made the game unplayable for many. Hence the popularity of the no sprint health drain mod.

Also, the herbs. Another thing easily cut with negligible impact.

EDITED: loads lol
 
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Some of us like Bailu. Guess you have your own agenda as well. Or we all value different things...

I don’t get how pointing out two fully voiced dubs for a low budget game is kind of ridiculous is any worse than anything you posted...
 
gamesbloke said:
I quite like airing the books in S2. Statistically that makes me a crazy man. I genuinely thought they'd be a pivotal task such as that (aka a mundane task with a story specific goal) in S3.

Service???????
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I actually didn't mind airing the books out either just as a mini game I kind of enjoyed trying to get them to the table and sprinting at the right moment to put them on the table before a QTE was triggered same with the Forklift work from the first game. Carrying the crates on the other hand...
 
mjqjazzbar said:
Some of us like Bailu. Guess you have your own agenda as well. Or we all value different things...

I don’t get how pointing out two fully voiced dubs for a low budget game is kind of ridiculous is any worse than anything you posted...
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I edited and expanded my comment so it explains more.


Also, yu said 'baisha is where you will see the real shenmue'. It was cut. Would you honestly not trade Bailu for Baisha?

What about Bailu would you miss? What story part? What action scene? What Character? What location?
 
SparkThaMetal said:
Also, yu said 'baisha is where you will see the real shenmue'. It was cut. Would you honestly not trade Bailu for Baisha?

What about Bailu would you miss? What story part? What action scene? What Character? What location?
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Fans would've lost their goddamn shit if Bailu wasn't in the game, or if all we got was a tiny glimpse and then moved on. We didn't spend 3 hours walking over mountains and then wait 18 years in a cave just to skip over our destination. It's the one location we've been certain exists since II...the place Shenhua lives, where the mirrors were created etc. There's just no way they could've taken it out.
 
I prefer to play it with the English Dub, because that is what I was used to from the first 2 games. However, if budget required Shenmue IV (and Shenmue V) to only be in Japanese, or even have no voice acting at all, I would be fine, as long as I can play Shenmue until it is finished.
 
I was wondering about this topic too after finishing the game yesterday, I don't mind the English dub but have preferred the Japanese dub since Shenmue II on Dreamcast. It would be interesting to know the true split on how many players prefer the English or the Japanese dub because I think at this point you can't really cut either for plenty of reasons already listed here numerous times. But I did think to myself if only they'd had more time/money to spend on certain things like expanding on certain characters (Niao Sun, Shiling come to mind), or expanding on the Old Castle section. Or maybe just apply some more polish here and there. I don't know how game development budgeting works so I don't know how much of that is achievable with any money saved from sacrificing a dub. Could something have been achieved also but cutting something else? like cutting down the number of shops or something in Niaowu?

In any case, I do think we still need to keep both dubs if possible as they both have their place. That being said perhaps they could cut it down in some ways? In Yakuza for example not all the side quests have voice acting, just text, but I don't know how that would work if you're not playing with subtitles on already and you suddenly get text for certain sections, perhaps it would be weird to play like that.

As a side note, as this is an English language forum I guess we have mostly posters from the Americas, Europe, and Australasia, I wonder what the perspective on this issue is with players from Asia? Do they like the Japanese dub over the English one or visa versa? Just a thought.
 
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