Okay, realism is a nonissue to pick apart here. If you are so much of a stickler that one of your complaints is that the people would be more likely to speak English than Japanese, then you probably should just not play Shenmue II past the Dou Niu fight, because realism lies out the window once you get to know Shenhua and step inside that cave.
I don't have a problem with it. Realism in game to me in fact means only that its world must have internal consistency, and Shenmue got that. As example, if I was playing Shemue 1 & 2 in English all this time and the game takes place now in Thailand, I would expect the people there to speak in English and not in Thai; Unless in Shenmue's world the US colonized most of the Asian countries but not all of them. Anyway, my comment on my previous post only meant to compliment the English cast of Shenmue 2.
I never have an issue with people liking one over the other, it is simply the fact that a lot of people cannot seem to intelligently defend their opinion outside of just being a Japanophile, does that make sense? They jump on the bandwagon and all they can say is "ITS TURRBLE LOL". I articulated this point a few posts back, but feel compelled to bring it back up again.
I openly admit there are some not so good voices in the NPCs, but as you said, the main characters are fine.
The feeling you get with the atmosphere I got when playing the English one. I have never played the Japanese version admittedly, but since hardly anybody here is fluent in the language, how do we know we are not romanticizing the voices in the original? There may be just the same amount of goofiness, if not more. I seem to remember Kiyuu saying that one of the main characters' voices left something to be desired, if I recall correctly.
Nozomi's Amulet Scene in Japanese:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhlLXzOiqLY&index=80&list=PL5D819C6F41C2B4A4
Nozomi's Amulet Scene in English:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OemGh5ja3aU
On the intonation and overall level of energy, Nozomi in the Japanese version appears to be more talkative and assertive in general, while in the English one she seems bashful and not very confident. You could even say they are different people. It may seem all subtle but it's there. You can tell specially by the number of "sounds" Nozomi makes on each scene (fewer in the English one) and the enthusiasm in her voice.
Look, I'm not saying one is better than the other, and I applaud the English VO actress effort as she must have had a hard time matching her speech with the "weird" body language of the character (which was intended to behave very Japanese like). So it's just preference.
Overall I got a slightly different experience playing each version. PS. Chai in the English version is perfect IMO. He's the exact counterpart to the Japanese one, same as Ryo.
Good points. I think Nozomi's English voice is perfect, she seems to me like a shy girl, and her voice matches that. Ya know, she likes a guy who won't respond to her? I think it matches perfectly.