English dub : Why so much hatred?

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.
What I meant was that characters from the first two games like Guizhang and Nozomi sound nothing like how they're supposed to in English in Shenmue III. They're just horribly off. Guizhang sounds like a 18 year old kid even though he's in his 30's and Nozomi sounds like a girly girl and lacks the maturity that her original voice had that matched her personality. Even the Japanese voices sound like the original English voices.

Also Lan Di's English voice in III sounds horribly off. He sounds so less sinister and way less dark compared to his original English voice. The dub of the anime had the same issue for Lan Di, Guizhang and Nozomi. Giving them these horribly off sounding voices, but Ryo ended up suffering from it too in the anime. I don't know who's the English voice director for III and the anime, but it's like they know nothing about how the characters sound. They should just bring back the original English voice actors for those characters. And the majority of the Japanese voice actors for III and the anime are new, but they sound nearly or maybe 100% identical to the original voices, so whowever was the Japanese voice director did a phenomenal job.
 
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What I meant was that characters from the first two games like Guizhang and Nozomi sound nothing like how they're supposed to in English in Shenmue III. They're just horribly off. Guizhang sounds like a 18 year old kid even though he's in his 30's and Nozomi sounds like a girly girl and lacks the maturity that her original voice had that matched her personality. Even the Japanese voices sound like the original English voices.

Also Lan Di's English voice in III sounds horribly off. He sounds so less sinister and way less dark compared to his original English voice. The dub of the anime had the same issue for Lan Di, Guizhang and Nozomi. Giving them these horribly off sounding voices, but Ryo ended up suffering from it too in the anime. I don't know who's the English voice director for III and the anime, but it's like they know nothing about how the characters sound. They should just bring back the original English voice actors for those characters. And the majority of the Japanese voice actors for III and the anime are new, but they sound nearly or maybe 100% identical to the original voices, so whowever was the Japanese voice director did a phenomenal job.
Bill Black was his name. We interviewed him.

Well worth a listen based on the above.

 
I. 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.

Ok, so because YOU DON'T LIKE one specific voice, it's trash. Gotcha.

Your opinion is completely invalid after a horrid take like that.

And the female voice is absolutely the complete opposite of monotone or out of place.
 
Nothing about Yuan on the European release struck me as out of place. It sounds like the poster is just reacting angrily to censorship and losing objectivity.

I do wonder who asked for this change. If I had to guess, I’d assume it was Sega of America QA. In an interview, YS said “we” weren’t sure about the character’s representation, but I’m not sure if that “we” means the Shenmue dev team, or Sega as a whole.
 
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Ok, so because YOU DON'T LIKE one specific voice, it's trash. Gotcha.

Your opinion is completely invalid after a horrid take like that.

And the female voice is absolutely the complete opposite of monotone or out of place.
Have you compared the two voices? When Yuan gets the trash kicked on him in the PAL version, the scream is so lazy and quick. The original voice actor Takahiro Sakurai put so more effort into his voice and he was screaming hysterically and overall he seemed to give Yuan a lot more character than the PAL voice.

Personally, I'd rather play the game in English than play the PAL version. I'd rather have a censored English dub, then play a game with Japanese voices where they ruined the masterpiece original voice track in which Sakurai put so much effort into, especially given he's a professional voice actor who still voice acts today, and the actress in the PAL version doesn't seem like a professional voice actor at all. I don't understand how people can say she's not monotone. Compare the two and you'll see. All the other voices are so well done, compared to the PAL voice, and the male voice fits so much better with the other voices, especially also considering he has a man's body too.

Most people are blinded by nostalgia... that's why everyone likes the PAL version. The 2018 remaster is a MAJOR improvement, and the best version of the game by far. I'm sure most people who aren't super nostalgic would agree. Everything is a major improvement.
 
Why all the concern for Yuan? Such a hateable and forgetable character.
Are you kidding me? He's such a awesome villain. He's actually a unique villain, and if he's hateable, then that means he's written well as a villain. All the other villains are brutes, punks or martial artists, so it's nice to have someone different.
 
Are you kidding me? He's such a awesome villain. He's actually a unique villain, and if he's hateable, then that means he's written well as a villain. All the other villains are brutes, punks or martial artists, so it's nice to have someone different.
Least' the brutes did the work themselves. I've just always hated villians who have others do the dirty work for them.
 
Least' the brutes did the work themselves. I've just always hated villians who have others do the dirty work for them.
Isn't that really most of the major villains/gang leaders though? Terry had 70 men take on and Guizhang and Ryo before he was forced to fight Guizhang himself unfairly. Both Dou Niu and Yuan did their part. Yuan literally tried to cut Ryo and Ren to pieces with a knife and chainsaw! How terrifying and dangerous is that? Literally such a fucked up psycho, that's why I feel he's the best villain. Him being a male too makes him even more freaky and intimidating, while the female versions lack the "dangerous" and "psycho" feel to their voices.
 
Also no opinion is "invalid" because opinions aren't facts. They're all subjective. You have your opinion and I have mine, no need to shit it on it because you don't agree.

Be fair and objective; it's like people giving a clearly 8-10/10 game a 1, because they didn't like a random character's outfit or something along those lines.

That invalidates any opinion, as it is a silly reasoning and you are CLEARLY acting on emotion and not on objectivity.

So yes, opinion is invalidated for those reasons.
 
Be fair and objective; it's like people giving a clearly 8-10/10 game a 1, because they didn't like a random character's outfit or something along those lines.

That invalidates any opinion, as it is a silly reasoning and you are CLEARLY acting on emotion and not on objectivity.

So yes, opinion is invalidated for those reasons.
Well out of all the versions of the game made, it's clearly the worst. The Xbox version makes up for what's wrong with it for the fun snapshot feature and the ability to save 10 saves. The remaster has a full Japanese dub that is actually how it's supposed to be and also the English dub on top of that, AND the snapshot feature AND 10 saves. The original JP DC version is great because everything is 100% uncensored and it's the only game like that. The only problem is that there's no English text, but if you understand Japanese or know the game in and out then it's no problem.

All the things that are good about the PAL version the remaster does better. Since it's basically a downgraded version of the remaster with a butchered Japanese voice track, it's clearly the worst version of the game IMO. It's not just because of the voice. The other versions have something a lot better about them that make them superior.

I honestly don't understand what is so "great" about the PAL version. It has to be because of nostalgia. Since the remaster is 1000x better for many reasons, I really don't understand why people are still obsessed with the PAL version.

Also I believe the Japanese dub in the remaster also decensored that sex recording in Huang the Wiretapper's cassette tape that was censored in the PAL version and the English dub. So yet ANOTHER thing the remaster does better than the PAL version.

The Xbox version is also a better experience than the PAL version because of the snapshot feature and you can save more than 3 saves. The camera filter thing was neat too and the graphics were made better like Ryo's jacket and the water texture. Even with the snapshot feature, you could learn certain characters names, birthdays, ages, etc. by taking pictures of them, expanding the lore for English players. This is great especially since the only official source that listed them were in the Japanese guidebooks which most people outside of Japan didn't have or couldn't read. And the sidestory comics that expand the lore even more and show how Guizhang and Joy became friends and how Ryo helped the little girl on the boat. Just so many things about the other versions that make the PAL version the worst.

There's nothing wrong at all about not liking something even if there's one thing they don't like about it. I'm not IGN, I'm not gonna post a review to the public and say oh it's a 1/10 don't buy it. People can not like something because there's something in it that offends them like one extremely offensive joke or whatever, and say it's trash just because the joke really offends them personally. It's just a personal opinion, it doesn't mean anything. You shouldn't be so upset about it. I wouldn't even give anything a score because I'm not a reviewer.
 
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While the Xbox port did have some visual and performance upgrades over the Dreamcast version (i.e. water looking better, less slowdown etc.) the ugly motion blur they use when fighting means I would always recommend the original or now the HD ports over it.
 
While the Xbox port did have some visual and performance upgrades over the Dreamcast version (i.e. water looking better, less slowdown etc.) the ugly motion blur they use when fighting means I would always recommend the original or now the HD ports over it.
I believe the blur is gone if you play it on the Xbox 360. Same with the bloom lighting effect at night time.
 
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I believe you are correct, but from what I recall it introduces other glitches/bugs with certain transparencies and also the shadow stencilling from buildings is either gone or doesn’t work.
And I don't think Hang On works. There are several weird glitches on the 360, I've played it once to experience it and it isn't worth touching again compared with practically any other version.
 
Why all the concern for Yuan? Such a hateable and forgetable character.

Hateable maybe... but forgettable? I couldn't easily forget a character who chases after you with a chainsaw or gets fish guts and lord knows what else tossed all over them by Ren :LOL:
 
I've always played the series on English dub. The voice acting is still pretty bad. It was ok for the time it was released since anime was only a few years into not using the vending machine snack filler guy as the talent. But if you're going into the game in recent years, yeah, it's gonna hurt you ears likely. Like in S2, characters would have this weird way of saying "you're/you are" whenever Ryo stepped into the scene

Ren and Gui Zhang have the best executed English voice imo.
 
And I don't think Hang On works. There are several weird glitches on the 360, I've played it once to experience it and it isn't worth touching again compared with practically any other version.
The timing to do the Command QTE when breaking into Yuan's room also seems impossible on 360, unless it was just me, but I tried several times and it just didn't seem to want to work.
 
I've always played the series on English dub. The voice acting is still pretty bad. It was ok for the time it was released since anime was only a few years into not using the vending machine snack filler guy as the talent. But if you're going into the game in recent years, yeah, it's gonna hurt you ears likely. Like in S2, characters would have this weird way of saying "you're/you are" whenever Ryo stepped into the scene

Ren and Gui Zhang have the best executed English voice imo.
Ren and Guizhang are both voiced by Eric Kelso, who is one of the best voice actors in the English dubs – probably the best alongside Corey Marshall, who I think really nails Ryo. I was very surprised they didn’t have Eric back for Shenmue III, but of course he was subsequently modded back in.
 
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