Anyone else prefer the English dub?

[Chaos]

The English voice acting isn't great. It's far from it, actually, but I don't really care. Playing Shenmue II in Japanese for the first time just didn't feel right to me. Corey Marshall just IS Ryo to me.

[Axm]

I dont have any major problem with the English dub, it has character to me, but ever since I learned Japanese I pretty much never play it in English anymore. Shenmue 1&2 NTSC-J all day.

[MiTT3NZ]

Can't stand reading subtitles, it's just distracting. Doesn't bother me when it makes sense for certain scenes or situations (Inglorious Basterds is a good example of this), but to sit through a film and having to read the entire time? No thank you. So obviously in a dialogue-heavy game like Shenmue, it can fuck right off. Dub any day of the week. Except match days, then everything else can fuck off too.

[Chaos]

I dont have any major problem with the English dub, it has character to me, but ever since I learned Japanese I pretty much never play it in English anymore. Shenmue 1&2 NTSC-J all day.

I'd probably feel a bit different if I could actually speak Japanese. I think I'd still prefer the English dub just because that's how I've played it for... how many years now jesus christ.

[BlueMue]

I still prefer playing Shenmue in English. The Japanese dub is done better but it's just that the English voices are a part of the game for me. Every now and then I play through the Japanese version and since I don't pick it up every time it stays fresh to some degree, wich is good.

For Shenmue II it's the other way around. Once again it's mainly because it's the way the I'm used to when it comes to that game. Another thing is that the dub of the Xbox version is just wrong. I like to have Ryo's voice be Ryo's voice for consitency but the other people sound either bored to hell or just stupidly overdone. It lost the charme that the first game's dub had going for it.

[Nahovil]

The reasons given are understandable, but being able to experience a piece of work in its integrity ought to supersede any complaint.

In Shenmue II, the entrancing feeling to it is amplified by the fact that you're no longer having english conversations in Hong Kong or in-land China - given, it is a flawed argument, since we ought to be listening to cantonese and mandarin.



The disdain for subtitles can only exist when your media intake is limited to productions in your mother tongue, which is a rather unfortunate restriction.

[shengoro86]

I prefer it in english. Especially since the English VAs are active on Facebook and will talk to you about their roles

[Supa]

English. The voices aren't that bad for the main characters, unless you are some English elitist. And some of the minor or background characters aren't bad either.

[Chaikilla]

My only problem with the dub is that the npc's (particularly in Shenmue 2) voices are sub-par. Ryo's Japanese voice adds a little more personality to his character, whilst Corey's depiction of Ryo is kinda robotic. Aside from that, I'm fine with the dub.

[Thief]

Can't stand reading subtitles, it's just distracting. Doesn't bother me when it makes sense for certain scenes or situations (Inglorious Basterds is a good example of this), but to sit through a film and having to read the entire time? No thank you. So obviously in a dialogue-heavy game like Shenmue, it can fuck right off. Dub any day of the week. Except match days, then everything else can fuck off too.

While I prefer the English dub for different reasons, I've never really understood the complaint of reading subtitles. I don't find it distracting at all. All it takes is a half-second glance to the subtitles and I understand the whole sentence. I often hear people say " I don't wanna stare at the bottom of the screen the whole time" and all that translates to me is " I'm a slow as fuck reader" (not to say that you are MiTT3NZ). Maybe it's because I've been watching subbed anime and movies since I was around seven or so but I don't really understand the complaint. I usually prefer the original voices with a few exceptions, Shenmue and Pokémon to name a couple, and that's because the dub adds something particularly special that can't exist otherwise.

[Supa]

My only problem with the dub is that the npc's (particularly in Shenmue 2) voices are sub-par. Ryo's Japanese voice adds a little more personality to his character, whilst Corey's depiction of Ryo is kinda robotic. Aside from that, I'm fine with the dub.

Ryo is supposed to be a more stoic character, contrasting with someone like Ren, who is very sarcastic in Shenmue IIx. I thought Eric Kelso's depictions of Fuku-san, Guizhang, and Ren were the best voices in the games. He is awesome.

Anyways, Ryo is supposed to be stoic, and I think Corey suits him well. I disagree that it is too robotic...

It seems to be that a lot of people that prefer the Japanese dub don't even speak Japanese. If so, how can you have an educated opinion on that? Not saying anything about Chaikilla's Japanese skills or lack thereof, but that seems to be the case with a lot of people.

[JMan]

I once heard that the reason why 90's-2000's dubbed video games sound so monotone is because the voice actors lived in Japan at the time of recording and so had to enunciate their English more clearly and 'robot-like' in order to be understood better by Japanese natives. I'm sure if a western developer like Rockstar Games made Shenmue 3 the game would have far more convincing performance since slurring and overall lazy enunciation tends to sound more natural to our ears.

Having said that I'm more nostalgic for the English dub.

[Nahovil]

It seems to be that a lot of people that prefer the Japanese dub don't even speak Japanese. If so, how can you have an educated opinion on that? Not saying anything about Chaikilla's Japanese skills or lack thereof, but that seems to be the case with a lot of people.

It isn't a dub, it's the original track. Speaking Japanese has anything to do with it - the work's identity, singularity and cultural connection suffers from being stripped of the original expressions and mannerisms (which people are keen on hearing regardless of their mastery of the language), much like any dubbed French, Italian, Russian, Japanese or Korean films would.


Voilà!
Ecco!
Ni Pukha, Ni Pyera!
Wakarimashita.
Ah... Shibaloma.


What blandness, having these replaced with "Here you go" or "Got it".

[Latin King]

I prefer the English dub. Although the Japanese version is great, I prefer the English because that's the one I grew up playing.

[Chaikilla]

My only problem with the dub is that the npc's (particularly in Shenmue 2) voices are sub-par. Ryo's Japanese voice adds a little more personality to his character, whilst Corey's depiction of Ryo is kinda robotic. Aside from that, I'm fine with the dub.

Ryo is supposed to be a more stoic character, contrasting with someone like Ren, who is very sarcastic in Shenmue IIx. I thought Eric Kelso's depictions of Fuku-san, Guizhang, and Ren were the best voices in the games. He is awesome.

Anyways, Ryo is supposed to be stoic, and I think Corey suits him well. I disagree that it is too robotic...

It seems to be that a lot of people that prefer the Japanese dub don't even speak Japanese. If so, how can you have an educated opinion on that? Not saying anything about Chaikilla's Japanese skills or lack thereof, but that seems to be the case with a lot of people.

It's just certain phrases that sound really awkward and robotic. For instance, when Ryo says "I see..." it just sounds so off and out of place in the dub. The reason for that I think, is cultural. "I see..." is something you'll hear crop up in a conversation with an average joe in Japan (I'm certainly no expert on the language but I have lived there for a year and picked up a few bits here and there) and it makes Ryo's interactions in the Jap version sound a lot more smoother to me. That's just my lame opinion though.

There are a few lighhearted moments in the game where Ryo comes off as having more personality for me in the Japanese version, too. The incident with Delin and some of Ryo's interactions with Joy, for example. For me it's both a combination of the lifeless tone of Corey's voice and the fact that the game was first and foremost, intended for a Japanese audience and some things don't translate that well into the dub. I don't know if that makes sense or not e_e

I agree with Ren's voice being great in the dub, it's probably my favorite.