A.Romero
Member
So a few years ago I got Yakuza 6 for the PS4. Some stuff distracted me so I didn't get around to play it right away and later the announcement for PC came so I decided to wait until it was a reasonable price (after all, I already had 1 copy). A few months ago I got Shenmue 3 through the Humble Bundle and I started playing it with high expectations because I enjoyed the first two a lot on Dreamcast and Xbox.
Regretfully I found Shenmue very very clunky and had a hard time enjoying it. I played like 2 hours in 2 different sessions but I didn't get hooked. The controls were not good, the mechanisms to explore, the way conversations were directed... It was just annoying.
A few months ago my GPU stopped working so I had to drop PC until I can get a new one (hopefully soon!) so I have been playing PS4 more lately. Yesterday I decided to start playing Yakuza 6 and I had a blast. You can tell the formula is very streamlined and mature.
So what gives? I'm not talking about graphics and stuff that is obviously impacted by the budget the game had, I'm talking about game design and mechanics. Why do I have to press a button to look at a piece of furniture, press another one to open a drawer and another one to pull whatever is in there? I mean, even LA Noire was a little bit more elegant regarding that.
I know Shenmue has it's own fighting system and that is very particular. I remember liking the one from the first games but the couple of fights I got to experience in my few hours of playing left me with a sour taste (quite the opposite from Virtua Fighter 5 which is a master piece).
How come Shenmue feels like it was done in a vacuum where other games that found better ways to do some things exist? Is it just negligence? Is it an ill attempt to keep it's own personality?
Regretfully I found Shenmue very very clunky and had a hard time enjoying it. I played like 2 hours in 2 different sessions but I didn't get hooked. The controls were not good, the mechanisms to explore, the way conversations were directed... It was just annoying.
A few months ago my GPU stopped working so I had to drop PC until I can get a new one (hopefully soon!) so I have been playing PS4 more lately. Yesterday I decided to start playing Yakuza 6 and I had a blast. You can tell the formula is very streamlined and mature.
So what gives? I'm not talking about graphics and stuff that is obviously impacted by the budget the game had, I'm talking about game design and mechanics. Why do I have to press a button to look at a piece of furniture, press another one to open a drawer and another one to pull whatever is in there? I mean, even LA Noire was a little bit more elegant regarding that.
I know Shenmue has it's own fighting system and that is very particular. I remember liking the one from the first games but the couple of fights I got to experience in my few hours of playing left me with a sour taste (quite the opposite from Virtua Fighter 5 which is a master piece).
How come Shenmue feels like it was done in a vacuum where other games that found better ways to do some things exist? Is it just negligence? Is it an ill attempt to keep it's own personality?