Shenmue Undub (Japanese Voices/English Text)

[Original_Name]

Shenmue is a masterpiece. There are a ton of people who will disagree with that statement, however. There are a familiar handful of reasons for this: the unhurried pace, the exacting controls, and the fact that the English voice acting is lousy. Shenmue fans will tell you that everything falls into place once you start to believe in Ryo Hazuki's world and attune yourself to its unique rhythm, appreciating the minute, intricate details rather than interpreting the experience in broad, sweeping strokes. Understandably, this level of immersion is impossible for many, simply because the English voice acting is so damn lousy.

Well, it's an incredible day for Shenmue lovers and dismissers alike, because SMiTH of ReviveDC has successfully modded the original Japanese voices into an English-language Shenmue ISO that fits on a standard 80-minute CD-r, at the expense of practically nothing. In fact, we stand only to gain, with the wonderful original Coca-Cola machines now adorning the streets of Yokosuka. I proudly present to you...

Shenmue Undub

Now, there are still plenty of ways to miss the Shenmue train -- there's no accounting for taste, and you may still find the game a disagreeable experience, but, unless you're the type that's aesthetically sensitive enough to let an occasionally wonky free-roaming fight camera completely spoil an otherwise enjoyable experience, any complaint you might have now starts to sort of extend beyond objective criticism and into a more subjective realm. That is to say, lots of people out there still won't get into Shenmue which is totally cool 'cause that's their prerogative and all, but at least now they can be certain that they don't like it because of Shenmue itself, rather than some jarringly lousy voice-acting.

It's been too long since I last played through this long-time favorite of mine -- I couldn't think of a better way to revisit it!

EDIT: Well I mean, I could think of a better way which involves a complete remake that extends through all 16 of Yu Suzuki's proposed chapters, for a brand new Sega console supported by all the staff that left after the Dreamcast era, but there's no need to make up reasons to get myself all depressed, now is there?

[Reprise]

Yeah, I read about it the other day. I had been wanting someone to do this since forever. Particularly as I own the Dreamcast version of Shenmue 2, I wanted it also so playing between 1 and 2 felt more consistent. Thanks to the great effort of those involved!

That said, although I don't know the Japanese language, after watching a video of the 'Undub' version, I have to say the Japanese dub doesn't sound much better than the English...

[samsonlonghair]

Is "Undub" just a very awkward way to say "subtitled," or does it mean something else?

[Original_Name]

Replacing the Japanese subtitles in the original NTSC-J Shenmue with English subtitles while keeping the original spoken dialog has (for whatever reason) been too great of a challenge for modders in the Dreamcast scene for about a decade, so this is actually the later PAL English-language version with the English dub removed, and replaced with the original Japanese voices.

So it was a matter of removing the dub and replacing it with the original audio track rather than replacing the subtitles. In terms of what you'll experience, there's no difference between a re-sub and an undub, but in terms of the programming, "undub" is a more accurate term for what has been done here.

Not that I'm personally picky about the naming conventions of such things -- I just called it by what the creator has officially titled it.

[Blu]

I wish they'd release this as a physical release a a way of being able to compensate the team for the work they've done.

[IrishNinja]

holy shit this is fantastic, i'd figured this effort given up on long ago! perfect for a replay too; i'd been holding out for HD ones but i literally don't know what sega's doing this days so this is very much welcome, thanks for letting me know!

I wish they'd release this as a physical release a a way of being able to compensate the team for the work they've done.

also this!