Was the english voice acting necessary ?

Joined
Dec 19, 2019
I personally just played Shenmue 3 with Japanese dub.(Since I didn't like it's english dub that much)

I don't mind if Ys Net removes English dub from the next Shenmue games.

Shenmue is now a low budget franchise,removing the english dub would allow them to have more budget to spend on cutscenes and gameplay.(Since english dub forces them to hire like 100 voice actors for 100 characters of each game.)

So I think it's a good idea to not add english voice acting for the next games since it would allow us to get a better product in the end.(Also that English voice acting won't make Shenmue more popular due to how cheesy it sounds.)

Edit: My opinion has been changed on the subject:
 
Last edited:
It’d free resources for other things if they didn’t have to record two fully acted language tracks, but there are definitely people who seem to prefer keeping the English dub. I personally think it does more harm than good in such a small project. Would’ve happily given up bad voice acting that makes the game look like a campy joke for more writers or better mocap hardware.
 
I'd be up for that as a budget and time saving exercise. I mean S2 came out in the west on DC with Jap Dub only so it's not like it hasn't been done before...
I started in English Dub but the lip syncing was way off and it was just distracting... Plus Shenhua's English Dub was awful imo so I just switched to Jap Dub anyway.
 
It is, particularly if it’s at the expense of a higher quality game. I can only imagine how much money was set aside for two dubs. But I know this idea upsets some fans, which is why I don’t envy Ys Net. They really can’t win.
 
I think we touched on this in another topic but a price branded about was around $500k per dub. That's a heck of an amount of money.

That resource could have done elsewhere but as stated above we know some fans were desperate for the Eng dub. So YSNET really couldn't win.

Would it not having an ENG dub have stopped people buying the game? I suspect not but we dont know for sure
 
Last edited:
I can’t think of a single publication that had anything positive to say about the English dub. I know that’s a shitty standard to go by, but think about the damage it does to the series’ perception and think about the kind of resources that are spent on it...
 
From a personal standpoint having played both dubs the JP is better but I did think Corey and Brianna did a good job of Ryo and Shenhua.

Personally I would happily take a properly localised/English subtitled JP voices for Shenmue 4. It's my preferred way of played the previous entries anyway.
 
I can’t think of a single publication that had anything positive to say about the English dub. I know that’s a shitty standard to go by, but think about the damage it does to the series’ perception and think about the kind of resources that are spent on it...
Yeah, I remember one of the main complains of the whole Shenmue 1 and 2 were the bad english dub.(It was the time that Japanese developers were starting to make a good english dub for their games. Guess SEGA never really cared about it since SEGA was also responsible for the bad voice acting of House of The Dead 2.)
 
If they could re-allocate the funds used for the English dub and hire better writers who understand all three games' stories, as well as focus more on actual story scenarios and not fetch-based sidequests (something I always loved about Shenmue is that it did NOT have pointless sidequests and instead had hidden scenes and branching paths), then yeah, I say get rid of it.

The thing is these things don't have to be mutually exclusive. The English dub was serviceable, and while some video games have exceptional VA many don't, especially Japanese games that get translated and dubbed in English. I think Shenmue gets unfairly dinged for this, I doubt critics will be as harsh on FF7 but didn't that trailer indicate abysmal English VA?

I like that we have a choice, even though I much prefer playing in Japanese.
 
Last edited:
I was never a fan of the English dub and think it has been a source of mockery for the series since the beginning. Once I played the import version of Shenmue 2 I was never able to go back. Of course there are some people who have mentioned that they prefer it, although ironically. I think the number of sales lost for this decision would be negligible.

That being said I think going forward the series shouldn't have full voice at all. As much as it's a Shenmue trademark to have full voice acting I don't think the series can afford it anymore.

Have fewer NPC's that can be spoken to and have only main characters and cutscenes be voiced. This would save a lot of money that could be reallocated to other areas.
 
Last edited:
The localization is really poor. That is the biggest issue. I assume the Japanese writing isn't amazing since the story is what it is, but the acting 'sounds' better to me.

I was never a fan of the English dub and think it has been a source of mockery for the series since the beginning. Once I played the import version of Shenmue 2 I was never able to go back. Of course there are some people who have mentioned that they prefer it, although ironically, I think the number of sales lost for this decision would be negligible.
You'd immediately take away incentive to mock Shenmue if you lost the dub. Every negative stream or review I've watched on YouTube is mostly centered around the dub. One YouTuber whose channel I won't name made a good point, as much as I dislike his opinions: would you Shenmue fans who claim you like the dub because it's so bad it's good really take this over GOOD voice acting? I can't say I disagreed with him on that point.
 
Last edited:
If it wasn't for Corey I could easily have done without the English dub.
Corey has been such a pillar of strength within the community all these years that I feel it wouldn't be fair to cast him aside.
Besides I feel Corey's VA has got a lot better since the original games.
That's just my 2 cents.
 
If it wasn't for Corey I could easily have done without the English dub.
Corey has been such a pillar of strength within the community all these years that I feel it wouldn't be fair to cast him aside.
Besides I feel Corey's VA has got a lot better since the original games.
That's just my 2 cents.
Perhaps they could let him play an American wannabe kung fu star in China next time around. I'm sure they could find a role for him. Wouldn't be the first American in Shenmue.
 
I prefer English. It just wouldn't be the same. I was so happy when S2 received an english dub for Xbox, because it felt incomplete from my initial experience when playing S1 with Corey Marshall's voiceover. It would feel similar if they decided to scrap the dub for, say, S4--too much discontinuity. Would you like a loved-one to all of a sudden not speak your native language in the last 1/4 of your life (I know, extreme analogy)?
 
I understand it'd be disappointing for some, but if it meant the difference between Shenmue IV and no Shenmue IV I'd hope people would be receptive.
 
Shenmue 2 with japanese dub was enough of a bad experience to me, I won't buy a shenmue without english dub.
 
That’s why I don’t envy Ys Net. It’s so hard to please everyone. I hope they can get past their desire to please all their fans and focus on making the best game possible. I personally think two fully dubbed language tracks is a bad use of a limited budget, especially when they’re making concessions like completely cutting out throws or entire chapters of the game. It made more sense when they had an unlimited budget. Continuing throwing the kitchen sink at a game with a very limited budget will guarantee average or below average experiences.
 
Back
Top