Random Shenmue III Thoughts

[Spaghetti]

I know a few of those voice actors are 'embedded' in the Shenmue community, but it's a game that's known for its horrible English dub. Wouldn't surprise me that some in development might want distance from that. At the same time, continuity is always a good thing.

Doesn't really match up with what Robert said about Yu being happy to have old VA back, but at the same time they have probably resolved to try doing a better job with the English dub this time around regardless. Ryan Payton, who chairs the game's advisory board, doesn't like the dub at all.

Honestly, I don't like the English dub a huge amount either. The original has a cheesy charm, but IIx can be pretty bad.

That said, Eric, Paul, and Lisle are solid enough actors that with better voice direction and maybe a touch better localisation they could really shine. Eric is probably the most solid voice actor in the English dub over three main/sub characters and a handful of NPCs, similarly I personally think Paul bests his Japanese counterparts for both Chai and Lan Di (yes the Chai voice is nuts but how else are you gonna voice that character?), and Lisle can be really great as Joy, was fine as Yuan, but wasn't right/had bad direction for Xiuying.

[mjq jazz bar]

The NPCs and compression are the biggest issue, of course. And lack of direction. I really don't care who they get to do the dub, but I do hope it's 'passable' this time just so we're not dealing with the same "Shenmue sucks" bullshit we always have to deal with.

[Spaghetti]

NPCs definitely need to improve, but again it's probably just a case of a better production process that could improve that.

Like for example, Peter posted that old article from the Dojo main site a while back about the voice actor for the English dub of II having to stretch themselves to ridiculousness just to find the different voices required by the voice director, when he explicitly told his agent that he couldn't take jobs with that amount of range.

Ultimately the people at fault there were the agent and voice director, rather than the actor.

[Giovanni18]

The NPCs and compression are the biggest issue, of course. And lack of direction. I really don't care who they get to do the dub, but I do hope it's 'passable' this time just so we're not dealing with the same "Shenmue sucks" bullshit we always have to deal with.

Hi there. I do not think that would stop the casual gamers from hating Shenmue. Ultimately, it is only understood by certain players with a certain mentality. The way Shenmue is, it's definetly more for the "hardcore" crowd. First post by the way!

[spud1897]

The NPCs and compression are the biggest issue, of course. And lack of direction. I really don't care who they get to do the dub, but I do hope it's 'passable' this time just so we're not dealing with the same "Shenmue sucks" bullshit we always have to deal with.

Hi there. I do not think that would stop the casual gamers from hating Shenmue. Ultimately, it is only understood by certain players with a certain mentality. The way Shenmue is, it's definetly more for the "hardcore" crowd. First post by the way!

Welcome

A long time ago I would have agreed that Shenmue is for the more 'hardcore' audience but now JRPG's are becoming a bit more mainstream I think it will appeal to a wider audience. The English dub does need to improve hugely on Shenmue 2's English dub. Some of it is plain awful, the first had a charm to it and some of the voices (Lan Di, Terry, Chai, Guizhang) were all done very well.

It begs the question that will most of the JRPG's coming over with Japanese voices and English subs, why are they doing an English dub? I've always enjoyed the Japanese voices in Shenmue 2 and the Yakuza games. Maybe an English dub will extend appeal but it needs to shine as otherwise people will jump on it.

[Giovanni18]

To be honest, I never had a problem with the English version. It's the one I grew up with and it's probably the only one I will ever stick with. As you said, it would definitely extend the appeal and make it more popular than if it was only in Japanese. Maybe new fans will like it, maybe they won't. More options are always good so if they allow you select which one you want then it won't really matter anyway. Thanks for the warm welcome!

[Haruto]

It's kind of amazing how maybe 10 years ago or was it more where there was some screens of Shenmue II unused content with purple button prompts people thought was Shenmue III. I also remember maybe in 2005 or 2006 some photo of a monk that was photo shopped and people thought it was also SIII on Xenon or Xbox 360. So many fake outs over the years. Now are patience is being tested for the real deal. What a long journey it has been just to get this point and is still a ways from being finished.

[Centrale]

It's funny that people are always comparing the Yakuza series to Shenmue, and now the voice actor for Shenhua is named Haruka.

[darksniper]

It's funny that people are always comparing the Yakuza series to Shenmue, and now the voice actor for Shenhua is named Haruka.

If Shenmue and Yakuza were to ever do a crossover game, I could easily see Shenhua being some sort of mother figure to Haruka. That would be cool. But yeah I thought the same thing when I saw that.



Shenmue III is going to feel kind of weird as it's likely going to be the first game in the series with "good" voice acting. If I'm Sega/d3t, I'd default Shenmue I and II HD to Japanese just to mitigate any predictable criticism of reviewers docking points for the English voice acting.

[Giovanni18]

It's funny that people are always comparing the Yakuza series to Shenmue, and now the voice actor for Shenhua is named Haruka.

If Shenmue and Yakuza were to ever do a crossover game, I could easily see Shenhua being some sort of mother figure to Haruka. That would be cool. But yeah I thought the same thing when I saw that.



Shenmue III is going to feel kind of weird as it's likely going to be the first game in the series with "good" voice acting. If I'm Sega/d3t, I'd default Shenmue I and II HD to Japanese just to mitigate any predictable criticism of reviewers docking points for the English voice acting.

They absolutely can never do that because there would be an outrage from people that like the English version. It would not be a good move.

[Let's Get Sweaty]

It's funny that people are always comparing the Yakuza series to Shenmue, and now the voice actor for Shenhua is named Haruka.

Suzuki confirmed that Ren's style of combat will differ from Ryo's, and that Shenhua doesn't fight. "She's smart and uses other tactics," he noted

Shenhua dance battles confirmed.

[darksniper]

It's funny that people are always comparing the Yakuza series to Shenmue, and now the voice actor for Shenhua is named Haruka.

If Shenmue and Yakuza were to ever do a crossover game, I could easily see Shenhua being some sort of mother figure to Haruka. That would be cool. But yeah I thought the same thing when I saw that.



Shenmue III is going to feel kind of weird as it's likely going to be the first game in the series with "good" voice acting. If I'm Sega/d3t, I'd default Shenmue I and II HD to Japanese just to mitigate any predictable criticism of reviewers docking points for the English voice acting.

They absolutely can never do that because there would be an outrage from people that like the English version. It would not be a good move.

It's possible, there are many fans who played and thoroughly enjoyed Shenmue II on the DC and prefer it over the English Xbox version. I don't think there would be an outrage as the option is there to change the language to whatever your preference is.

What I'm saying is that I hope that reviewers keep in mind that Shenmue was a game made in 1999 and review it at 2018 standards. One of the first things that is going to take a huge hit is the voice acting. Personally I hope it's left as is because it's a basically a meme at this point.

Shenmue III is really going to be interesting in the sense that due to the tech we have today, Corey Marshall's role as Ryo won't be as stiff as the first two games, especially 2. That might not be much, but for me that will make part III feel like a "next gen" Shenmue that much more.

[redline]

like in metal gear solid 4 with the ipod, i think you should be able to change the in game background music in shenmue 3 at anytime with the use of a cassette tape player.

[Spaghetti]

Plus, people keep saying that because of the delay till 2019 that it's out of the question, but games get shown at E3 years before their release all the time. Spiderman was shown off last year and that's not out until later this year.

Part of the reason for this, and a lot of why expectations of game development are so out of whack now, is that AAA game devs will usually rush a piece of the game to final or near final quality for the sake of an E3/trade show demo. I believe Corey Barlog who directed the most recent God of War said at one point that diverting resources to do that can tack on an additional two months or more of development time to finish the whole product.

Shenmue III is a different ballgame, and has been arguably since we found out Yu was developing it with Agile methodology. Iteration is an enormous part of that process, which is why the game has clearly improved each time it surfaces, and I don't think we'll stop seeing surface level improvements until very close to release.

Does that mean Shenmue III isn't ready for an E3 showing right now? None of us really know, but Deep Silver and Ys Net must realise that with more time added onto the development clock they can relax plans for the marketing kick-off, and present the game later in a better condition.

E3 isn't the be-all end-all anyway, and to be honest there's at least a reasonable chance Shenmue III might not be out by E3 next year and could show there.

[WildManofBorneo]

Plus, people keep saying that because of the delay till 2019 that it's out of the question, but games get shown at E3 years before their release all the time. Spiderman was shown off last year and that's not out until later this year.

Part of the reason for this, and a lot of why expectations of game development are so out of whack now, is that AAA game devs will usually rush a piece of the game to final or near final quality for the sake of an E3/trade show demo. I believe Corey Barlog who directed the most recent God of War said at one point that diverting resources to do that can tack on an additional two months or more of development time to finish the whole product.

Shenmue III is a different ballgame, and has been arguably since we found out Yu was developing it with Agile methodology. Iteration is an enormous part of that process, which is why the game has clearly improved each time it surfaces, and I don't think we'll stop seeing surface level improvements until very close to release.

Does that mean Shenmue III isn't ready for an E3 showing right now? None of us really know, but Deep Silver and Ys Net must realise that with more time added onto the development clock they can relax plans for the marketing kick-off, and present the game later in a better condition.

E3 isn't the be-all end-all anyway, and to be honest there's at least a reasonable chance Shenmue III might not be out by E3 next year and could show there.

Are you a PMP? You use a lot of project management parlance.