Was the english voice acting necessary ?

It's a matter of balancing a budget for a low budget production. You are being dramatic. Of course it's up to Yu Suzuki to decide what is most important and nothing I or anyone says will impact the game. He already removed the ability to speak to every NPC in S3, so that compromise was already made. I just personally believe spending $500K on, say, better mocap hardware would've benefited the game more than two dubs. I truly have trouble believing the game would lose fans if it had better combat or better writing at the expense of someone lifelessly saying, "I see."
 
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It's a matter of balancing a budget for a low budget production. You are being dramatic. Of course it's up to Yu Suzuki to decide what is most important and nothing I or anyone says will impact the game. He already removed the ability to speak to every NPC in S3, so that compromise was already made. I just personally believe it is misspent money.
Actually I meant the fully voiced npcs since in shenmue games every npc that you can talk is fully voiced.(Unlike other games where npcs talk with you via texts)
 
I think the full VA differentiates Shenmue from other games, but I definitely think more money towards better writing, combat, a music supervisor, or animations would take priority over a little kid asking if I want to play in a screeching voice and Ryo responding, "I see" with no emotion. If that means less important NPCs talked in text, I'd take it. I think it's nonsense to say they'd lose the fans if they dropped or tweaked these things to benefit the overall gameplay or general presentation of the game. Ys Net simply doesn't have a AAA budget and should focus on things that make Shenmue a good game.
 
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I truly have trouble believing the game would lose fans if it had better combat or better writing at the expense of someone lifelessly saying, "I see."
I mean, Shenmue fans nearly killed this franchise over the whole EGS issue while painting Yu as a fraud which still tarnishes Shenmue's reputation. Not to mention Xbox owners still refuse to buy Shenmue 3 until it comes to their preferred platform so anything is possible. Look at how Thief fans reacted when they got rid of Stephen Russell as Garret despite the flashier gameplay and cinematic presentation.

Look, would I buy Shenmue 4 if it didn't have English voices? Yes! That's not my point. What irks me is this contempt this fandom seems to have for its more sillier side instead of embracing it. People don't like the English dub because of its pure cottage cheese, which is perfectly fine. But lots of fans do who partly helped bring this franchise back through their celebration of Shenmue's more quirky side English dub included. Then I see threads like this where people are taking their dislike to the next level: asking the dub to be cancelled irrespective of the other side who enjoy it. Fucking pardon?!

At the end of the day, Yu Suzuki is making these games and gets to decide on the budget. If he thinks securing an English dub is important enough to be among the first orders of business when making a modern Shenmue game - even above including Baisha - then it's likely for a good reason.
 
Authentic Shenmue experience versus really good VA.

Look I generally hate English dubs on Japanese games period. However...

Basically all my Shenmue experiences have been with Corey and all the voice actors new and old. I played the game in English because that satisfied my nostalgia. I'm not playing S3 with a 'Triple A' mindset.

I have been fortunate to experience Japanese VO on S2 and although I'm not native it's clearly emotive and well acted.

Sorry but for nostalgia and authentic feel I prefer the English VO.
 
Also I don't think 500K dollars would have made any difference in the gameplay/story of Shenmue 3.

Hell, I mean even from the beggining Yu knew that the budget of Shenmue 3 wasn't enough to deliver the best sequel of all time.
 
Also I don't think 500K dollars would have made any difference in the gameplay/story of Shenmue 3.

Hell, I mean even from the beggining Yu knew that the budget of Shenmue 3 wasn't enough to deliver the best sequel of all time.



500K dollars is 10 nicely paid persons for a payroll on a year. Or contractors. YsNet is a 30 to 45 persons team. I let you rethink your comment about "500k not making any difference in gameplay or story".
500K could've been a good polish in the cutscenes department or it could've been throws making it into the game.

I also think that you equating "english dub" to "no story" "no gameplay" "no open world" is hyperbolic to say the least. And to claim that it would've been the biggest outrage ever is completly far fetched.
 
500K dollars is 10 nicely paid persons for a payroll on a year. Or contractors. YsNet is a 30 to 45 persons team. I let you rethink your comment about "500k not making any difference in gameplay or story".
500K could've been a good polish in the cutscenes department or it could've been throws making it into the game.

I also think that you equating "english dub" to "no story" "no gameplay" "no open world" is hyperbolic to say the least. And to claim that it would've been the biggest outrage ever is completly far fetched.
At best with 500k we would get:
-Some better looking npcs.
-some different looking doors in Bailu.(Since doors in there kinda looked the same)
-Some few additional dialogues that wouldn't improve the story in any way.(Those fans that hated S 3 story would still hate it)
-Some few more side quests.
-And maybe 1-2 additional mini games.(Which some fans wouldn't care about it. Similar to the way they didn't care about S 3 having more mini games than previous games.)

It would still get the strong criticism from some fans that it got.

But on the otherhand Shenmue 3 would get even a bigger backlash and less success.(Since people would call Yu as bad as Kojima for mistreating the famous voice actor of the franchise.)
 
At best with 500k we would get:
-Some better looking npcs.
-some different looking doors in Baisha.(Since doors in Baisha kinda looked the same)
-Some few additional dialogues that wouldn't improve the story in any way.(Those fans that hated S 3 story would still hate it)
-Some few more side quests.
-And maybe 1-2 additional mini games.(Which some fans wouldn't care about it. Similar to the way they didn't care about S 3 having more mini games than previous games.)

It would still get the strong criticism from some fans that it got.

But on the otherhand Shenmue 3 would get even a bigger backlash and less success.(Since people would call Yu as bad as Kojima for mistreating the famous voice actor of the franchise.)


Yeah, not really.
As I said: 500k is 10 persons on a 4k dollars payroll per month for a year.

If you think that 10 persons, in a 30 to 45 persons studio is just "some better looking npcs/few more dialogues and sidequests", yeah, you're delusional.
 
Yeah, not really.
As I said: 500k is 10 persons on a 4k dollars payroll per month for a year.

If you think that 10 persons, in a 30 to 45 persons studio is just "some better looking npcs/few more dialogues and sidequests", yeah, you're delusional.
Just take a look at this article about Alpha Protocol:

A cutscene of the main character beating a bad guy in an aeroplane(Which was a QTE fight)costed like 500k dollars to make. Kinda funny that game also used unreal engine.

So I'm pretty sure with 500k they could only do those stuff.
 
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Just take a look at this article about Alpha Protocol:

A cutscene of the main character beating a bad guy in an aeroplane(Which was a QTE fight)costed like 500k dollars to make. Kinda funny that game also used unreal engine.

So I'm pretty sure with 500k they could only do those stuff.


10 years ago, costs weren't the same, neither was the technology. Not only tools are far more effective today (Yeah, it used Unreal Engine 3... not 4. There's a huge difference here) but on top of that, what you're talking about is a huge AAA cinematic scene or setpiece. That's litterally in your article. That was supposed to be a big set piece.

"
Before the big meeting, there was environmental interaction. "You're running through this airplane graveyard and we've conveniently placed enemies underneath the props of these airplanes," Parker says, "and if you shot the middle of the props then the props would fall down and kill the enemies. It was like, 'Ohh this is great!'

"It wasn't great," he adds, "it was a lot of work and it didn't have a whole lot of pay-off. People found it just as much fun to get in a straight out firefight over figuring out where we game-designed-in some cool environmental interactions, so we scrapped that."
"

Heck even in your own article, the cutscene is deemed to be "expensive". Even back then it was expensive.
But it just further enhance my point in fact. With those 500k, maybe the assault on the castle could've been an impressive setpiece, one as memorable as the assault on the Yellow Head Building.
 
Ive heard this before numerous times but have yet to see a quote or any kind of source. Am I just missing something obvious?
It’s definitely out there somewhere in the numerous interviews that have been done over the years, it’s just a matter of finding the damn thing.
 
10 years ago, costs weren't the same, neither was the technology. Not only tools are far more effective today (Yeah, it used Unreal Engine 3... not 4. There's a huge difference here) but on top of that, what you're talking about is a huge AAA cinematic scene or setpiece. That's litterally in your article. That was supposed to be a big set piece.

"
Before the big meeting, there was environmental interaction. "You're running through this airplane graveyard and we've conveniently placed enemies underneath the props of these airplanes," Parker says, "and if you shot the middle of the props then the props would fall down and kill the enemies. It was like, 'Ohh this is great!'

"It wasn't great," he adds, "it was a lot of work and it didn't have a whole lot of pay-off. People found it just as much fun to get in a straight out firefight over figuring out where we game-designed-in some cool environmental interactions, so we scrapped that."
"

Heck even in your own article, the cutscene is deemed to be "expensive". Even back then it was expensive.
But it just further enhance my point in fact. With those 500k, maybe the assault on the castle could've been an impressive setpiece, one as memorable as the assault on the Yellow Head Building.
Yup 500k (if it is close to that figure) could've done a lot for the ending section alone... Or some additional scenes with Li Feng/Niao Sun that are sorely missing imo.
 
10 years ago, costs weren't the same, neither was the technology. Not only tools are far more effective today (Yeah, it used Unreal Engine 3... not 4. There's a huge difference here) but on top of that, what you're talking about is a huge AAA cinematic scene or setpiece. That's litterally in your article. That was supposed to be a big set piece.

"
Before the big meeting, there was environmental interaction. "You're running through this airplane graveyard and we've conveniently placed enemies underneath the props of these airplanes," Parker says, "and if you shot the middle of the props then the props would fall down and kill the enemies. It was like, 'Ohh this is great!'

"It wasn't great," he adds, "it was a lot of work and it didn't have a whole lot of pay-off. People found it just as much fun to get in a straight out firefight over figuring out where we game-designed-in some cool environmental interactions, so we scrapped that."
"

Heck even in your own article, the cutscene is deemed to be "expensive". Even back then it was expensive.
But it just further enhance my point in fact. With those 500k, maybe the assault on the castle could've been an impressive setpiece, one as memorable as the assault on the Yellow Head Building.
Yup 500k (if it is close to that figure) could've done a lot for the ending section alone... Or some additional scenes with Li Feng/Niao Sun that are sorely missing imo.
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.
 
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.
 
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.


How could we know ?
Maybe it could've been a good enough setpiece to make people excited.

Would've sold less copies ? If people are skipping Shenmue 3 because of no english dub, they never cared in the first place.
In fact, I could argue the opposite: Say Shenmue 3 received more polish and had no english dub, it would've reviewed more favorably for two reasons: People wouldn't complain about the bad dub and the game would've been more polished and exciting.
 
10 years ago, costs weren't the same, neither was the technology. Not only tools are far more effective today (Yeah, it used Unreal Engine 3... not 4. There's a huge difference here) but on top of that, what you're talking about is a huge AAA cinematic scene or setpiece. That's litterally in your article. That was supposed to be a big set piece.

"
Before the big meeting, there was environmental interaction. "You're running through this airplane graveyard and we've conveniently placed enemies underneath the props of these airplanes," Parker says, "and if you shot the middle of the props then the props would fall down and kill the enemies. It was like, 'Ohh this is great!'

"It wasn't great," he adds, "it was a lot of work and it didn't have a whole lot of pay-off. People found it just as much fun to get in a straight out firefight over figuring out where we game-designed-in some cool environmental interactions, so we scrapped that."
"

Heck even in your own article, the cutscene is deemed to be "expensive". Even back then it was expensive.
But it just further enhance my point in fact. With those 500k, maybe the assault on the castle could've been an impressive setpiece, one as memorable as the assault on the Yellow Head Building.
Also your argument here is wrong.

When making cutscenes with set pieces was expensive back then, it is more expensive now. Because making video games is always becoming more and more expensive after each generation.
 
Also your argument here is wrong.

When making cutscenes with set pieces was expensive back then, it is more expensive now. Because making video games is always becoming more and more expensive after each generation.


Nope, that's where you're wrong: It's more expensive as you make it MORE impressive so expensive. But doing the same thing back then and today cost less today because tools are more powerful and easier to use.
It is more expensive today if you push the visuals even beyond.

Making games today isn't more expensive than yesterday. What is more expensive is making more impressive games with more expensive tech.
 
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.
But not everyone that like shenmue waited 15 years for shenmue 3.
 
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