Lan Di’s voice was perfect for the Sephiroth lookalike

Machsi

Machsi

Joined
Mar 6, 2019
I really like the voice in itself, it’s just not fitting for the character of Lan Di due to it lacking a deeper, menacing timbre. What I realized during the scene is that it seemed more fitting for the white haired henchman. The design of that guy would of made him a more solid and interesting secondary antagonist rather than “Generic steroid guy”.
 
Yeah. I thought Lan Di sounded fine, but he just need to sound deeper and it would have worked. Without that deepness it sounds like a villain from a spy movie sort of.
 
His voice was too nasally and he sounded too much like a stereotypical, cheesy villain. In particular, his first line about how Ryo has improved a bit reminded me of John Lithgow in Cliffhanger for some reason. He doesn't sound nearly as cold or menacing as he did when Paul Lucas was voicing him.

It sucks because they got his character model and animations perfect, but the voice kind of ruins the whole thing. I really hope they bring Paul Lucas back if there's a Shenmue IV.
 
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Budgiecat said:
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I've watched that before. It seems like both Paul Lucas and Eric Kelso are really proud of their roles in the Shenmue franchise and would be happy to return. I've heard that it may have something to do with them being based in Japan, while the recording was done in LA? Even so, Lan Di only had like three lines in the game. They didn't really need him to be in the studio to record for Lan Di. I didn't mind the new actor for Chai, but Lan Di's character really suffers because of his new voice.
 
B-Man said:
I've watched that before. It seems like both Paul Lucas and Eric Kelso are really proud of their roles in the Shenmue franchise and would be happy to return. I've heard that it may have something to do with them being based in Japan, while the recording was done in LA? Even so, Lan Di only had like three lines in the game. They didn't really need him to be in the studio to record for Lan Di. I didn't mind the new actor for Chai, but Lan Di's character really suffers because of his new voice.
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We live in the year 2019... could they not have just had him record his 3 lines virtually? It’s really not that complicated. Paul Lucas probably would of done it for free.
 
Machsi said:
We live in the year 2019... could they not have just had him record his 3 lines virtually? It’s really not that complicated. Paul Lucas probably would of done it for free.
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I feel like the same could apply to Eric Kelso and the telephone conversations with Fuku-san and Guizhang. I kind of liked the new Ren, even though he sounded different from Kelso, but Guizhang in particular sounded really bad and was in desperate need of Eric's voice.
 
Audio recording can be very expensive. studios dont just 'phone it in' (no pun intended).
Thats why most VA's record on set (for direction purposes as well)
 
Budgiecat said:
Audio recording can be very expensive. studios dont just 'phone it in' (no pun intended).
Thats why most VA's record on set (for direction purposes as well)
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I hear you, but how much direction would Lucas really have needed for the few very basic lines of dialogue that Lan Di spoke at the end of the game? It's not like he had an in-depth conversation with anyone. You could probably hand him a piece of paper with those lines written on it, with no context whatsoever, and he would make it sound a million times better than the guy that was actually in the game.
 
I was surprised that Takahiro Sakurai came back when I was his name in the credits. His voice sounds different and sounds more like his portrayal of Sephiroth
 
This was the only real voice acting I was really disappointed in, in Shenmue 1 Lan Di sounded menacing, in this I didnt get that vibe at all. (and I dont feel their was any need to make him say the stuff he was saying about meeting your father when you fought him either).
 
I thought lan di sounded fine in the barely any lines he said, but on that note its hard to really gauge anything from it when he says so little.
 
B-Man said:
I hear you, but how much direction would Lucas really have needed for the few very basic lines of dialogue that Lan Di spoke at the end of the game? It's not like he had an in-depth conversation with anyone. You could probably hand him a piece of paper with those lines written on it, with no context whatsoever, and he would make it sound a million times better than the guy that was actually in the game.
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Yeah I get that but again I dont know how the logistics of all this works. I just know that typically 99% of the time, VA's are brought in on set to record and the recording equipment isn't cheap and they have vocal directors.

Like part of the reason I felt FF XIII was so terrible despite it having some key VA's is not only because of the script (like how Yakuza 1's Eng localization script was butchered despite it also having popular Hollywood actors like Mark Hamill for example), but because they had a bad voice director.

So I feel not only do these projects feel the importance of having a main director, but also voice directors, and then, even with only a few lines (plus, how do we know it originally was only going to BE a few lines? Many here feel the ending felt rushed and cut as it is so perhaps there was way more lines recorded who knows?).

So I don't know what happened here. Perhaps they were able to get the newer guy who agreed to travel and pay for his own expenses? I have no idea. We do know they were working on a tight schedule and budget though. I look up this Lucas guy's work and I see he hasn't worked since 2003 in his IMDB list so maybe this was just the casting director simply hiring someone in the union thats still active? Maybe Lucas isn't even part of the union anymore. Like there's this whole union vs non union thing sometimes when it comes to casting. I recall thats the reason Dynasty Warriors 9 had a totally new English VA cast because at the time they went out of union or there was a strike or something I forget fully.
Maybe there was not as much vocal demand for Lucas to come back that was made noticeable to Yu Suzuki as there was for both Ryo's English and JPN voice actor so perhaps Yu overlooked it. Shame they couldn't get Nozomi's original VA out of retirement to voice her either.
Then again they also had Ren's original VA work in this game (pail toss bookie), but didnt cast him as Ren. Perhaps his voice changed too much over time unlike Corey Marshall...
 
Budgiecat said:
Yeah I get that but again I dont know how the logistics of all this works. I just know that typically 99% of the time, VA's are brought in on set to record and the recording equipment isn't cheap and they have vocal directors.

Like part of the reason I felt FF XIII was so terrible despite it having some key VA's is not only because of the script (like how Yakuza 1's Eng localization script was butchered despite it also having popular Hollywood actors like Mark Hamill for example), but because they had a bad voice director.

So I feel not only do these projects feel the importance of having a main director, but also voice directors, and then, even with only a few lines (plus, how do we know it originally was only going to BE a few lines? Many here feel the ending felt rushed and cut as it is so perhaps there was way more lines recorded who knows?).

So I don't know what happened here. Perhaps they were able to get the newer guy who agreed to travel and pay for his own expenses? I have no idea. We do know they were working on a tight schedule and budget though. I look up this Lucas guy's work and I see he hasn't worked since 2003 in his IMDB list so maybe this was just the casting director simply hiring someone in the union thats still active? Maybe Lucas isn't even part of the union anymore. Like there's this whole union vs non union thing sometimes when it comes to casting. I recall thats the reason Dynasty Warriors 9 had a totally new English VA cast because at the time they went out of union or there was a strike or something I forget fully.
Maybe there was not as much vocal demand for Lucas to come back that was made noticeable to Yu Suzuki as there was for both Ryo's English and JPN voice actor so perhaps Yu overlooked it. Shame they couldn't get Nozomi's original VA out of retirement to voice her either.
Then again they also had Ren's original VA work in this game (pail toss bookie), but didnt cast him as Ren. Perhaps his voice changed too much over time unlike Corey Marshall...
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Good stuff here. I did not realize Kelso was the bookie VA. He probably wasn’t happy that he couldn’t voice Ren, he seemed to love that role.
 
Wait, was the pail toss bookie really Eric Kelso?! Why on earth would they have him voice some random meaningless character but not Ren, Guizhang, or Fuku-san?!
 
B-Man said:
Wait, was the pail toss bookie really Eric Kelso?! Why on earth would they have him voice some random meaningless character but not Ren, Guizhang, or Fuku-san?!
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Yeah seriously, is this actually right?! If so then that is infuriating!
 
Can you verify that somehow? Eric’s IMBD doesn’t show Shenmue 3 at all. If he was in there already, then why not have him voice Fukuhara in the call? Makes no sense
 
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