posted 09-03-2000 08:42 AM                          

quote:

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Shenmue is set for an early January 2001 release in Europe – a bit later than the US version – so it’s a bit odd to see what looks like a near complete English language version of the game debut at a European trade show. But that’s just what we got today as Sega of Europe used ECTS to show off what looks to be a near final English build of Suzuki’s gaming masterpiece.
This build is different from the E3 version in that it’s not split up into segments, but instead allows you to follow the game’s progression – from beginning to end, we assume. We took the opportunity to listen in on various conversations and travel around the virtual Yokosuka today. How are things holding up?

First, the game’s translation. I can’t comment on the game as a whole, but what I heard was very poorly handled, as if the translation of the script from Japanese to English was done by someone who hasn’t become fully accustomed to English dialogue. Characters say the simplest things far too often, and make me think they never read past the age of 5 years. The translation lacks life, and it almost seems as if this was done purposefully, perhaps in order to keep the game from being too Americanized? The only thing it left me wanting to do was put down the controller and go on to another station.

I stayed around to listen to as many of the character voices as possible, though, and found the voice-overs to be somewhat of a mixed bag. I think Ryo’s voice fits the part nicely, as does Nozomi’s, although the actors seem to be struggling with the poorly written dialogue – gotta feel sorry for these guys. I LOVE Tom’s Jamaican accent. The choice makes Tom stand out as much as he did in the Japanese version. The town-folk, unfortunately, don’t fare as well. Hatorri, the elderly Asian man from Hattori’s Sports sounds like a white guy, as does Fukuhara. The voices of the Chinese couple from the Ajichi Restaurant fit the parts, although once again their voices are hampered by the poor writing. Many of the other towns people speak irregularly, with odd timing and strange intonations. And oh dear god what happened to the children!? The kids in Shenmue have some of the most annoying voices I’ve ever heard – even adorable little Megumi-chan!

It seems that the other parts of the localization job are being handled with care, thankfully. I haven’t seen too much in the way of sign changes, except for the map in the residential area, which now has English writing beneath the Japanese characters. Sega has adopted a subtitling system for many of the other signs. It seems that if you look at a sign of importance, a textual translation of the contents will appear at the bottom of the screen. The name placards outside the houses in the residential area come to mind as an example – you now see “Yamamoto” subtitles at the bottom of the screen when looking at the sign that has the “Yamamoto” kanji. When passing by an entry way to a house or building, the name of the building is subtitled at the screen’s bottom. Sega has clearly attempted to preserve the authenticity of the game, and the results, at least in this particular area, will have purists pleased.

One slight oddity. The Japanese version of Shenmue featured a few licensed products, including Timex, Coca Cola, and a Japanese bank. This was reflected in the game by Ryo having a Timex Watch and clock, by the Yokosuka town having a bank with the same name as the real-life Japanese bank, and, most famously, with Ryo drinking genuine circa-1985 Coca Cola products. This latter area has been removed for some reason. The Timex products are still in there, but Ryo now drinks Jet Cola, and various other Jet-related products. It looks vaguely similar to a Coca Cola can, but I miss the little endorsement. I’m not sure if this is just a European thing, or if Sega of America has also done away with the license, though. We’ll try and find out shortly from Sega of America.

So there you have it – the good, the bad, and the ugly of Shenmue in English, at least from this little ECTS showing. The good: Sega’s subtle handling of sign translations. The bad: on the whole I’d say the voice overs. The ugly: the translation – Sega, put a little more thought into it next time. Does the game loose its majestic feel as a result of this? We’ll find out once we’ve played through the new English version from start to finish.

-- Anoop Gantayat, IGNDC

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More bad translations and voice acting. I wonder how Grandia II will turn out...

posted 09-03-2000 08:43 AM                       

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posted 09-03-2000 08:47 AM                          

If this game is like reading "Green Eggs & Ham" I swear to god I will...

Well, this was my most anticipated title. I hope they can polish this game up before it launches in the US/UK.

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posted 09-03-2000 09:03 AM                          

Why Sega, why? Why didn't they spend the SC5 budget on a decent conversion I HATE BAD VOICE ACTING

Solid Snake, there's no mention of the original Japanese voices, are you sure about that? I'd love it, and probably even prefer it over proper English voice acting (I like it original, sam ewith Japanese cartoons), but it doesn't seem to likely to me...

posted 09-03-2000 09:05 AM                          

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"The secret is simply to simplify"- Bruce Lee

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Check out the DC & PS2 video game sections.

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posted 09-03-2000 09:10 AM                       

No, you can't just change the language settings on your DC. Those language settings are for the DC OS, not for games themselves. The Japanese voices with English subtitles have to be added in to the American release of the game, something that has not been confirmed by Sega yet.

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posted 09-03-2000 09:11 AM                          

I thought that Anoop tried to start a petition for a 'subbed' version of Shenmue, knowing that it was pretty much a one-or-the-other thing.

posted 09-03-2000 09:13 AM                       

I really can't believe that things have gone so badly for years.

Konami did good job with MGS and I thought we'd seen the back of 'Japlish'. Apparently not!

posted 09-03-2000 09:13 AM                          

In Sonic Adventure did you change the settings in game or on the console itself? I can't remember off hand.

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"The secret is simply to simplify"- Bruce Lee

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Check out the DC & PS2 video game sections.

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posted 09-03-2000 09:19 AM                          

You changed the settings in the game itself.

The amount of voice acting in Shenmue is orders of magnitude more than that in Sonic Adventure. That's why I doubt they could keep both tracks while keeping the game to two GD-ROMs.

posted 09-03-2000 09:26 AM                          

Well, looks like another computer rule kicks into action; no matter how big the storage medium, you could always use more. I should know, I just filled my 30GB HD in little over a week.

posted 09-03-2000 09:27 AM                          

*Haohmaru kicks himself in the head because of bad memory.

------------------
"The secret is simply to simplify"- Bruce Lee

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Check out the DC & PS2 video game sections.

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posted 09-03-2000 10:55 AM                          

Hopefully this is an overstatement. I was really looking forward to Shenmue. :P

posted 09-03-2000 11:16 AM                          

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posted 09-03-2000 11:31 AM                          

As it stands now you can turn off the american voice overs and have subtitled text, with no voice overs.

However there is no option as of now to have the japanese voice overs.

posted 09-03-2000 12:42 PM                       

I'm not worried though, I played PS Grandia and the translation in that didn't bother me, but maybe that is because I was too busy really enjoying the game.

posted 09-03-2000 01:18 PM                          

To stupid sub whores like myself the japanese language draws me in. Japanese just sounds COOLER, and Characters seem to express more emotion. The english language pisses the hell out of me, because I feel that english is not the way it should be. I am basically sick of english. In english, I am very critical of cliche, and bad acting. I enjoy english acting and cinema, but not english voices in japanese product. I know less japanese, so if the acting was bad, I wouldn't know. Also, americans(australian too I suppose) often bastardize what was once amazing product, simply so that the st00pid gamers don't have to read subtitles. This is heresy. CONSIDERING MOST GAMES ARE ******* TEXT SO SUBTITLES WOULDN'T BE A HASSLE AT THE **** ALL!!

posted 09-03-2000 01:32 PM                          

Thus when we do mess up, it's not a surprise, but it makes us feel like we are getting an inferior product overall, and that angers subwhores like me.

posted 09-03-2000 01:34 PM                          

Still, I'm a "sub-whore" myself, and