Shenmue Dojo

Can you really imagine Corey Marshall dubbing this ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_Vu3RZS4jo

Corey's a nice guy, as much as I hate the dub I can't bring myself to say anything negative about him.

But please don't misinterpret that as me saying I'd prefer to play it dubbed than subbed, I would absolutely hate to have to play the dub. Despite liking Corey Marshall (mostly because he happens to be a good guy, and supportive of the fan community when he doesn't have to be)

I preferred by far the Japanese dub but I'm curious about what could be the English dub if Yu makes it right this time. I am really happy with the Corey's iconic voice return but I still fear of some facepalm moments.

Now that Corey and Masaya are officially back, my top wishlist would be :
1) Japanese Ren
2) English Lan Di
3) English Nozomi
4) Jap Nozomi
5) English Ren
extra) English Chai if he comes back

I think a lot of times Corey was given bad prompting (the dub wasn't directed by the VA/cinematics directors for the original performances but by an underfunded localization company, so it seems like his bad lines were due to lack of context when recording them. Also, the translation was done by a Japanese company that were competent in English but not native speakers, so they messed up a lot of the cultural stuff- in 1980s Yokosuka the term sailor, in Japanese, had criminal/underworld connotations, while in contemporary English, constantly saying sailor without specifying that you literally mean people that work on ships or at the docks, has connotations of homosexuality.

Considering all that, he gave a decent, understated performance and didn't make Ryo seem too American (but in the process sounded flat in the few scenes where Ryo gets emotional)

Also, I recently realized that they attempted to use the conceit of having the majority of NPC's speak with 1950s sounding accent/phrasing, and while it prevented it from sounding too contemporary American, it also felt like an episode of The Twilight Zone at times.

I think Corey was solid in the dub of the first two games, as were all the main characters, the main problem with the dub were the npcs, asking the actors to make so many diferente voices made some of them sound awfull, or great for comedic value.

Oh my, I found worse than Shenmue !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObioE1ML7h4

I think Charlie's voice actor was beyond horrible.

The brother of Wang from Shenmue I must not be forgotten. True cringe-worthy goodness.


Edit: the video also features Ryo sounding as excited as I've ever heard when he finds out it's Wang's brother.

in Shenmue II it sounds like they didn't even bother doing multiple takes or any kind of directing whatsoever.

Shenmue II English dub is literally unplayable for me.

Yokosuka wrote: Oh my, I found worse than Shenmue !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObioE1ML7h4

Switch wrote: The brother of Wang from Shenmue I must not be forgotten. True cringe-worthy goodness.

phpBB [video]

Edit: the video also features Ryo sounding as excited as I've ever heard when he finds out it's Wang's brother.

I'm actually crying, I forgot about this, fucking hell.

If you guys watch the seganerds interview with the voice actors. They said they had to read the lines the way they were written and a certain way. They tried to change it so it would sound more natural for english speakers. But they wanted it to be "Japanese" in english. So its essentially a japanese script but spoken in english.

The problem wasn't the voice actors as much as the direction of the voice acting. Which is why I personally think Shenmue would've been better if a western producer could've done the english version.

Here is the interview if anyone is interested.

They reallly need massive improvement. The last thing S3 needs if you want other than hardcore-fans to care about it is terrible voice acting. As long as I can play with japanese voices I'm happy but I'm honestly worried that a bad english dub will hurt the sales of the game.

The little information we have of S3 hints that it might be even more focused on conversation and character development. (rapport system, perspective system etc). And we know Yu Suzuki wants Ryo to mature and develop, perhaps growing into something a bit more complex than his usually stoic character. Will Corey Marshall be able to pull this off?

I too am appreciative of his support of the fan community, but his performance must improve drastically.
Now, it's hard to say if the acting is just bad acting, bad directing, or both. Either way, the acting in S1 and S2 is not going to cut it in 2017. And Corey's performance was still one of the better ones, mainly because Ryo is not a very expressive character.
Even more worrisome is if Yu decides to bring back the english actors from S2. English Shenhua, Xiuying, Joy and Ren were just flat out bad.

Gen wrote:
And Corey's performance was still one of the better ones, mainly because Ryo is not a very expressive character.

exactly.

Ryo is stoic almost humorless, a little simple intellectually, and generally just more awkward than average - thats his character and its exactly how Corey Marshall portrays him - Corey IS portraying Ryo. Its not badness, its the way Ryo is.

I actually find Ryo a very endearing character who has been intentionally designed to have flaws which will be corrected over time through the enlightening effect of his journey- hence character development.

i look forward to Ryo's character growth in the new games, and i'm confident that Corey will again do justice to Suzuki's vision.

Still, alot of his lines sounded awkward/bored not because of faithfulness to the character but because of poor deliverance.