No new VO, no joke animation, no recall animations.
Wasted opportunity, considering knowing Riot, they will probably never re-visit Shen again, same as Maokai. Vo lines for his interactions with his fellow ninja, Zed, and Jhin, that could have given input on the lore.... all wasted wasted.
I'm not on champ up. But in general, its a very, very small team working around deadlines. Rewriting, recording, processing and then having all 17+ languages localized and recorded takes several months. And because they are always trying get the best work done they can, they have to prioritize. So if a champ's VO is "acceptable" they might instead use that time to work on another champ whose VO is "awful." Eventually, they will make their way through the whole lineup several times... but they can't high polish every aspect of a champ-- all the time.
VO's cost money, which Riot doesn't want to spend. Easy answer.
I was wondering if they gave him a new VO. Guess they didn't.
I'm assuming those things take time and preparation that Riot didn't expect they would need. Shen wasn't supposed to get a VU after all.
It's actually great that I see this thread. Not long ago I tried to open a similar one on Reddit, expressing my concern on those smaller Champion Updates and what it may take to their compleition. Stuff like Renekton, who could benefit from some updated Animations (and a recall one) (NOTE: He had some VO added in 2014, but it sounds different from base. Why, I don't know), Fiora, Maokai. Shen here is the Prime example: We see him, he has barely 10 lines, missed chance at interactions with Zed (who will need new interactions too, in return), low number of animations.
I understand that CU needs deadlines and there are bigger projects like Poppy or Taric. I get that it would be impossible to update the number of champions that do need balance, gameplay and/or Visual Updates to their models, either big or low scale. But what worries me is that we have yet to see an update to Renekton who i believe was the first small project in the new Champ Update production plan. Or stuff like, say, Ahri, who has a great kit but her base model looks so... squary. Enter Foxfire or Challenger Ahri, there's so much of a difference.
I don't know guys, I'm pretty sure that a new team should be created for those more... "Artistic" reason or low priority stuff that needs so much work (VO, for example. I know it's a lot of languages to get through and it must be hell. Damn, I'd rather not count the number of champions that need new lines truly, it might make anyone afraid lol).
I can understand the hard work in making and translating voice lines, but I thought there would be a recall animation?
Well, we were already noted that Shen's rework isn't Sion/Poppy level, so things like you listed wasn't suppose to be added anyway.
