Sega’s Showing at GDC 2000

Well, Sega did have a very good showing at the conference, according to IGN Dreamcast, though it wasn’t much in terms of new stuff:

Playable games at the booth today included nothing new, unfortunately. Gamers at the booth had the chance to play MDK2, Rayman 2, Crazy Taxi, Tomb Raider 4, and Chu Chu, and looping on a video monitor were, among others, Virtua Striker 2, Zombie Revenge, and Dead or Alive 2 (you know, Sega, a playable of this would’ve been a wise move, especially since the crowds seemed somewhat underwhelmed with Namco’s showing of Tekken Tag on PS2). Also viewable on the monitor was footage of Dreamcast Toy Story 2 – the game looks much better than our previous set of still pictures would suggest, but let’s hope Activision takes the time to make it a fully Dreamcast-compliant product (we’ll be back on Monday with a grab of the video for all to see).

We expect the software to remain primarily the same throughout the show – GDC is, afterall, meant for the development side of things, with most product unveilings occurring during May’s E3. That said, the developers at the show are definitely excited about Dreamcast, despite the system’s upcoming tough competition. One developer working on Criterions’ Renderware middleware product for the PS2 commented that since development of Dreamcast Trickstyle, a game which was produced simultaneously with the Renderware software meant to produce it, the hard working coders over at Criterion have managed to extract five times the polygon throughput out of the DC. As good as Trickstyle looked, just imagine what the next set of games will look like.

Yu Suzuki had some words to say as well, and he did it by showing off Shenmue in English. Read carefully; as SOA may not have received the best response from the new voices:

As revealed by Suzuki both during the speech and in a few conversations afterwards, Shenmue’s English version stands as follows:

The translation has been completed in Japan.
So far, Sega has auditioned 200 voice actors for parts.
Actors for the main characters were found in New York.
Suzuki himself made all the decisions on the voice actors.
Suzuki believes the US voices to be better than their Japanese counterparts.

Suzuki demonstrated the English version of the game by showcasing a videotape of various in-game sequences. The video started off with sections of the introduction, as Ryo arrives home to witness Iwao, his father, die at the hands of the villainous, green-clad Souryu. Only two scenes were shown in complete English on the tape: the aftermath of Iwao’s death, and a conversation between Ryo and an elderly store owner.

SCENE 1:
IWAO: Keep friends, those you love, close to you . . ..
RYO: No . . . Father! . . . NO!!!

SCENE 2:
RYO: Excuse me.
STOREKEEP: Ohh . . . Sensei Hazuki’s Boy.
RYO: I could really use your expertise again.
STOREKEEP: Of course . . . provided it’s something I am familiar with.
[ RYO SHOWS STOREKEEP THE KAGAMI ]
STOREKEEP: I think perhaps this type of precious stone is only found in the Gui Lin Region.
RYO: I see . . . Well then, thank you very much for your help.
STOREKEEP: You’re welcome.

The few voice actors in the above sequences appear to fit their parts. The audience actually laughed at Ryo’s extended shout of “NO!!!” at the end of the conversation with his father – let’s hope Sega of America reconsiders this line, as it is part of a serious moment in the game.

Aside from the dialogue, the version of the game used for the video featured English text for menus, options, and explanations. Just as in the Japanese version, any spoken text is echoed onscreen through subtitles. Sega has made use of a plain, boring font for the text, unfortunately, but we trust this is only preliminary until more of the game is translated (actually, the font used in the Japanese version was also remarkably plain).

The signs throughout the areas we saw were exactly as their Japanese counterpart. The broken placard outside the Hazuki household was still fully in Japanese, and we suspect that most people in the audience had not the faintest idea that the sign contained nothing more than the family name. We’re unsure if Sega is working on a way around this problem.

We should have more coverage for you on the next update.