Yuan's real actual full name discovered?

[RyoHazuki36]

As everyone here probably knows Yuan is supposed to be a man, and I was searching through Japanese google and found that the Shenmue page on Japanese wikipedia lists Yuan's last name as "O'Neill" and his first name actually translates to "Ewan" which is a Europeon masculine name.

I've found other Japanese sites list that as his name as well. Is this a fact? Those are the only sites that mention it and I own 3 different Japanese Shenmue II guides and none of them list his last name.

It'd interesting if when they localized the game, they changed his original masculine name to a more effeminate one since they made him a woman.

 

[24Nathan]

I looked through all of the Japanese guidebooks (I have five of them, only three had a profile for Yuan in there, and of course, I don't speak or read Japanese, so I can't go through looking for mentions of him). I'll post pictures of what I found, in case I have a guide you don't have.

 

[RyoHazuki36]

I don't have the guide that the first photo's from, but have the other two. Doesnt seem like theres any mention of his last name. Weird how all these Japanese sites list it though. I really wonder where they got the information.

 

[WuyingRen]

Given that the name is listed in Katakana rather than Hiragana or Kanji, it seems very likely that ‘Ewan’ was the intended name and that it was poorly translated during localization (the name Ewan translates directly to ユアン).

 

[Machsi]

Makes me realize how mindblowing the level of detail in Shenmue II was. How even the most minor of characters have a rich level of detail compared to other games. Cool find.

 

[chaikilla]

Really interesting stuff. I was actually watching some Shenmue 2 scenes back the other day and thought that Yuan looked more European than anything, so this does make a lot of sense.

 

[hyo_razuki]

It is this level of detail, care and dedication which is so sorely missing in S3 that makes it stand negatively compared to the other installments of the series. It almost seems like they didn't really care, as far as character and plot development in S3 are concerned.

 

[24Nathan]

This will likely be a never ending debate, but I'm fairly certain the lack of details like this in Shenmue III was mostly due to budget, rather than just some casual carelessness.

 

[RyoHazuki36]

This will likely be a never ending debate, but I'm fairly certain the lack of details like this in Shenmue III was mostly due to budget, rather than just some casual carelessness.

I honestly do feel some if it is due to a poor job, I mean QTE fails not changing the flow of the scene or branching the story just a bit is a major lazy job. Even telltale games, who make games with a even lower budget makes QTE fails change the scene or branch the story.

 

[24Nathan]

Agree to disagree. I don't think anything with Yu Suzuki involved can simply be written off as "lazy". I would also be willing to bet there is nothing in Telltale Games' portfolio that comes to close to matching the detail found in the Shenmue series. III was just too ambitious for what the budget was.

 

[Rydeen]

I am very confused by this thread. What details? A main antagonist having a name? A main antagonist potentially having an unconfirmed last name? How is that an example of something that's lacking in Shenmue III? If it's just about the character data, we don't have a guidebook for Shenmue III to provide those details, like the first two games have.

 

[Miles Prower]

I am very confused by this thread. What details? A main antagonist having a name? A main antagonist potentially having an unconfirmed last name? How is that an example of something that's lacking in Shenmue III? If it's just about the character data, we don't have a guidebook for Shenmue III to provide those details, like the first two games have.

This. Also, the majority of S3 characters have names!! They are right there on the screen when you can interact with them. They clearly still put effort into creating the characters populating the world.

 

[ys.]

Given that the name is listed in Katakana rather than Hiragana or Kanji, it seems very likely that ‘Ewan’ was the intended name and that it was poorly translated during localization (the name Ewan translates directly to ユアン).

Someone that I know mentioned this Katakana spelling to me before and she thought that it was a bit odd. But we didn't think much more about it since we assumed that Yuan was Chinese anyway. The information about the last name changes things of course. I wonder where they got that from though.

 

[Truck_1_0_1_]

It is this level of detail, care and dedication which is so sorely missing in S3 that makes it stand negatively compared to the other installments of the series. It almost seems like they didn't really care, as far as character and plot development in S3 are concerned.

Look at that! Hyo takes yet ANOTHER opportunity to shit on SIII, even though it has nothing to do with this (specific) board or thread!

 

[ShaunHastings]

What's weird though is one of the guides lists the Chinese names for Wong, Larry, and Sam, and Cool Z's English name, but it doesn't list a full name for Yuan. Why would that level of detail be available but not Yuan's name. I wonder what the original source for the information is. Interesting stuff!

 

[24Nathan]

I personally doubt it is real.