English dub : Why so much hatred?

RetroLord120 said:
Shenmue 3 voicework is good. There, I said it. There are great and well known voice actors that worked on 3. Their voices sound perfectly fine. It's the stilted dialogue pacing and awkward writing that people confuse with "bad dubbing".
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Note that Hitman series reboot has a cheaper dub, consisting for one male for every male and a female for every female. Both use the same tone for every character. Do we see half of the mock Shenmue 3 has attracted? Nope.
 
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Shenmue I & II were victims of a bygone culture whereby Japanese voice directors were in charge of English dubbing in games. I don't blame the actors involved.

Suzuki should've decided on a Hollywood voice recording studio to deal with the localisation of the two games 20+ years ago.

Admittedly, Corey Marshall's acting has greatly improved in III (thanks to a better voice director), but I wouldn't have picked an actor because of their likeness to a fictional protagonist.

(Corey Marshall seems like a good guy irl, so I'm not knocking him personally.)
 
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I don't hate the english version. My first experience with Shenmue was with the english version, i didn't had a Dreamcast so i had to play on a emulator at that time, i thought the english version is okay and charming and i continue to think this way, Corey Marshall as Ryo fits really well with the character, the voices of Fuku-san, Guizhang, Lan Di, Ine-san and other characters are nice as well.

I never played Shenmue II and Shenmue III english version, i don't have a opinion about that yet.

It feels even more immersive when i play the japanese version and i love all the japanese voices in all Shenmue games.

Like Sonoshee said the Japanese VA is much more fitting for a story based in Japan/China, i prefer the japanese version.
 
RetroLord120 said:
Listen to this and tell me it sounds bad:

I honestly think with the first 2 games people don't realize how much the compression took off of the high and low ends of the voices. Old trailers do the voices so much justice. Of course that doesn't fix the Shenmue conversation pacing and whatnot.

I actually think the Shenmue 3 voicework is good. There, I said it. There are great and well known voice actors that worked on 3. Their voices sound perfectly fine. It's the stilted dialogue pacing and awkward writing that people confuse with "bad dubbing".
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This sums up my feelings perfectly. I think some shallow minded people in the past liked to hate on the English dubs because it was simply Cool To Hate. I also hate the argument of "it's so bad, that's why it's good lolol!!". Come on. Like you said, listen to that trailer and point out the "terrible acting". Are there some of the 1000+ voiced characters in the games that have some goofy acting? Yes. I would be willing to bet that anyone who speaks Japanese fluently could also point out a few cheesy lines/performances in the Japanese dubs as well. I think I remember @Kiyuu saying something about Nozomi's Japanese performance having a bit of a lukewarm reception in Japan years ago, for example.

I think it depends a lot on your first experience. Mine was English, as I played Shenmue I on Dreamcast and then bought an Xbox just for Shenmue II. I have played all three games in both languages at this point and like both, but I will always do English, especially since Eric and Paul (partially.......HELP ME GET CHAI DONE, COMMUNITY) have been modded into III. If they continue to not use the correct actors (originals), then I will switch to Japanese for future Japanese.

Also, that is hands down the best Shenmue II trailer. Very well done. First time I saw it was on the SEGA GT 2002/JSRF disc that came with the Xbox I bought for Shenmue II.

Also, for another objectively bad dub example:

 
I wouldn't say I hate the English Dub for the first two games...but it's just not preferred way to play anymore. I much prefer the Japanese dub. I've just grown acustom to Japanese Ryo and Masaya is my personal preference of voice for him.
 
I actually have never played the Japanese dub should I? I've always played the English version. I don't hate the English dub at all I love it quite frankly always have. Does the collection have the Japanese dub I may give it a whirl whenever I have free (haha see what I did there LMAO) time this winter.
 
Personally I prefer to play in Japanese apart from Shenmue I, which I play in English because that is how I originally played it. It was a bit jarring at first when the Dreamcast version of II forced me to play in Japanese, but I soon got used to it and found I preferred it, pretty much for the reasons others have given above. The first time I had a choice of language was III and I found Japanese much better.
 
Hate is too strong a word, but the dubbing, especially of some of the NPC characters, is insulting for a game series of this ambition.

I think Corey Marshall as Ryo was excellent, on the whole. His voice suits the character. But some of the NPCs basically have some guy doing a cartoon voice. It’s insulting. I’m so glad I got to experience the original voices for Shenmue 2 on Dreamcast.

Either way, we have some idea of just why the dubbing is sometimes so bad. It sounds like Yu Suzuki has himself to blame.
 
Ryo is much better in Japanese imo. Leslie Wilkerson, though I respect her effort, never nailed down any of her performances. But Eric Kelso does amazing work and is the best English actor in Shenmue especially with his range.

The english Shenhua in 3 is my most disliked English voice of all. Completely lifeless. It was bad directing because the actress who played her can do way better.
 
I used to prefer the English dub, and it's the first version I played of both games, since a Japanese dub with English subs didn't exist yet (even undub mods). But after learning what was changed in the localization, and how some characters say things the wrong way, things are mistranslated, and how.some characters are completely different than how they were originally intended, I 100% prefer the Japanese dub, and will never play it in English ever again.

The English dub is very nostalgic, especially the first part of Shenmue I and II, since I played those parts of the game as a kid just to collect the Sega toys since I've always been a fan of their games like Sonic, Virtua Fighter and NiGHTS. The rest is not really nostalgic, since I played the rest of the games as a teen.

The Shenmue III English dub is 1000x worse though, since the characters sound nothing like how they're supposed to.

Love how the Japanese voices sound more natural, and Yuan and Shozo Mizuki (the harbor bum) aren't completely butchered. Yuan was a awesome villain in the orignal Japanese where he's a man in drag, and a lot more intimidating, sadistic, stylish and freaky than the horrendous ugly ass and annoying female version. Also I don't get all the love for the PAL Dreamcast version of 2. Sure it has Japanese voices and most of the translations are more accurate, but the original voice track is completely BUTCHERED since Yuan's voice was replaced with a woman's voice that was so monotone, stupid, out of place and boring af.
 
RyoHazuki36 said:
The Shenmue III English dub is 1000x worse though, since the characters sound nothing like how they're supposed to.
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While I hate Shenhua's performance in III. I think this is a bit far. III had the same issues as I and II (unfortunately on purpose.) III, however, I thought benefitted from a lack of dialog compression. In fact, in Shenmue watching that DVD with the uncompressed dialog lines it sounds way better.
 
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