Sectorseven
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Special appearance by Fuku-san as Big the Cat.
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[Rumour] Shenmue 1 and 2 HD Remaster Coming 2017
- Thread starter OrionsNebula
- Start date
rottendevice
Member
Just getting widescreen would be nice. Not to mention they could make the framerate more stable.
Who knows, on PC we might get 4K!
Who knows, on PC we might get 4K!
The $1,000,000 Kickstarter reward for Shenmue III is that Yu Suzuki will come over to your house and mimic the Dreamcast disk drive noises when the game releases.
davidwhangchoi
Member
this happening? if so, 2017 is living in a dream so far. sooooo many good games just in jan feb. and now this rumor..... =)
I wonder about the usage of the word "Remaster," though.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Sega run it at 1080p ~60fps-ish with literally no other changes or improvements made, with generic Shenmue logos filling out the sides of the image to get 'widescreen.'
And then $40 US dollars at retail.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Sega run it at 1080p ~60fps-ish with literally no other changes or improvements made, with generic Shenmue logos filling out the sides of the image to get 'widescreen.'
And then $40 US dollars at retail.
letmetrythisname
Member
This time it's for real, right?
Until SEGA actually announce it, nothing is a given.
In fairness to them, the most recent comments out of SEGA (their European COO, even) have been about doing it right and delivering a quality remaster, and the last round of Dreamcast ports were competent.
It'd be spitting in the eye of fans and people tangentially interested in the series to do a bad job.
To be fair, Sega has a long history of that. Valkyria's probably dead again for instance.
Jury's kinda out on that one (
i fuckin' hope
The sustained fan pressure on SEGA regarding Shenmue alone should be enough to make them shit their pants if they think they can get away releasing a sub-par remaster, or not releasing one at all. This is the same fanbase that got big enough social media metrics to make platform holders like Sony and Microsoft sit upright, and then voted resoundingly with their wallets to give nearly $7 Million to a double world-record breaking Kickstarter that wouldn't see a product release for two and a half years at least.
I don't think anybody internally at SEGA could argue that there isn't a strong chance to make money without sounding like a fucking moron at this point.
IrishNinja
Member
we're just waiting on a date here, people! god id kill to have these on a disc, but ill take em anyway i can get em - especially if we somehow get part 1 undub
exactly
ahahaha yes
exactly
ahahaha yes
ScientificPizza
Banned
holy shit
Since they're shifting the controls from digital to analog, they will have to be significantly reworked. Simply replicating the D-pad controls on an analog stick wouldn't work, or at the very least would be considered terrible by most players in 2017, because it's essentially tank controls with a persistent behind-the-character camera. In the original games you would tap left/right to make small adjustments to your direction in tight spaces, which would be horrendous on an analog stick.
They can probably get away with no free camera -- it would be considered dated and frustrate some people, but the game doesn't require it -- but if they don't come out with modern left stick controls the game will get slammed by players and critics. Think along the lines of Mass Effect or something: heavy, slow to turn but still modern. It can be done.
It will also need dual English/Japanese audio tracks or, again, prepare to be totally panned by critics. A lot us have nostalgia for the dub but many, many people do not. Audio *quality* is also of huge importance. I hope they have access to the original audio because the sampling in those Dreamcast games was very bad.
Other than that, I don't think much else will be done. 16:9, smooth performance, faster loads and improved texture rendering are a given. If they have access to original, higher-res textures then we may see some of that, but I don't think any other graphical improvements are necessary.
There was analogue movement in the Xbox version of Shenmue II if I remember rightly. Not sure how it worked, though. Either way we're so far removed from that release that they'll probably go back to the drawing board for a solution anyway.
Maybe they could find a way to make it work with the extra analogue stick if they decide to do no freecam outside of battles (which, IMO, is the best way to do it).
As long as they keep it heavy and deliberate, they at least won't have issues with the player getting caught on things while navigating the tighter spaces.
The one thing standing in the way of a dual language release for the original game that I can see, as the Shenmue Undub modders know, is that the Japanese language track would probably need additional translating for English subtitles; as there are bits of dialogue in the Japanese version with no English equivalent in the dub (plus assorted errors). It depends on if SEGA is willing to spring for that kind of treatment. If so, it might explain why the information this thread is based on comes from an unnamed source at ATLUS USA. In an ideal world, they'd do an English subtitle translation from the original Japanese from scratch.
Shenmue II should be fine either way, though. It'd be very disappointing if that was English only, because the dub sucks all life out of what is a pretty good story.
As for the audio quality, it should be improved. The Ryo voice samples used in the Sonic and All Stars Racing games were higher quality than the compressed ones used in the Dreamcast Shenmue games, so that leads me to believe they still have the high quality sound files sat in some archive. Well, unless they've lost them in the last few years, but that's very unlikely.
ShiftaDeband
Member
On both the Dreamcast and Xbox versions you needed to use the D-Pad. The analogue stick was used to look around.
Either way, I really, really hope this is true. I'd love to replay these, even if it was PC (or PS4) exclusive.
FreeMufasa
Junior Member
They need to hurry up. Mans getting vex
The Xbox version has an additional control option in the menu that lets you set the thumbsticks to move.
Doctrine Dark
Member
Never had the opportunity to play Shenmue 2. This would be great.
I might set my Xbox up tonight for the first time since 2003 to see how it's actually done.
Bad wording on my part, 'experience it again' then.
Elfforkusu
Member
:lol
10/10
phantasmic_glaive
Member
Do you think 60fps would take away from the cinematic experience?
I have a hard time imagining I would prefer this option.
But either way, there day 1!
I have a hard time imagining I would prefer this option.
But either way, there day 1!
It has been awhile since I played the Dreamcast game and I have yet to try the Xbox version but I am pretty sure you had the option to move with the thumbstick in the Dreamcast version as shown in the controls section of this FAQ:
http://www.gamershell.com/faqs/shenmueiidcfaqwalkthrough/0.9/
On a personal level I always preferred playing with the D-pad as I like the clunky controls (to each their own).
So I just tested it out on my OG Xbox and, to my surprise, it actually doesn't feel too bad -- it definitely feels more responsive than the D-pad (I switched back and forth).
It mimics the D-pad directions, so tapping the stick down will trigger a quick-turn, but the window is very small because most of the stick's range is dedicated to turning. It basically requires you to go full-tilt forward then steer, and the degree to which you go left or right determines your turning radius. Because of this you basically lose the variable movement speed that you get from using the D-pad + trigger to jog/run -- you're pretty much running the whole time. You can walk if you want but it requires a pretty light push of the stick. It's not perfect but it's totally fine for these "F.R.E.E" sections that don't require much precision, and not many people will miss the walking.
Damn, my Dreamcast was already set up...oh well, it was fun to dig out the Xbox, though the composite video into my CRT was giving me some terrible horizontal flicker. Every time I moved left or right I could see the image jerking from the old position to the new. Don't remember it being that bad.
killatopak
Member
NICEEEE
I can finally join the Shenmue 3 hype if they do. I can never understand all the praise since I haven't played the original.
I can finally join the Shenmue 3 hype if they do. I can never understand all the praise since I haven't played the original.
The remaster may not even be able to do 60FPS. The engine could be incapable of doing it without significant retooling, but I don't suppose we'll know for sure until we have the thing in our hands.
Well shit. Not sure why I thought that control method was Xbox exclusive, but I just booted up the Dreamcast version and yep, there it is.
I gave it a try. It's not awful, but it's not quite where you'd want it to be for analogue stick control, so I hope a remaster doesn't just lift this control method wholesale and call it a day. I'd probably argue the D-pad is actually smoother by comparison.
RAIDEN1
Member
What I can't understand is why don't Sega just come out with it already if a HD remake is really happening, instead of all this guess-work..at this rate it might be better just to get the xbox version of the game, by the time this gets announced and actually available to purchase or download...or it maybe they may announce this at E3? For a Sept-Oct release?
SEGA works in mysterious* ways.
*mysteriously dumb
But seriously, there's been a rumour pretty much every year since HD re-releases were even a thing that Shenmue and Shenmue II would be coming. This is just another one for the pile.
dglavimans
Member
Need this.. Backed 3 out of hype never played the first 2 :")
Shadow Ranger
Member
In, of course!
TheSpoiler
Member
The game that came out was a spinoff. They've said as much and even said no matter how that game does they are committed to making more mainline games. Additionally this is the same company that gave Yakuza a second chance in the west despite a smaller following and no guarantee of making money off it.
Apparition
Member
Make me believe, SEGA
Make us race those forklifts again!
Make us race those forklifts again!
Sega has demiurge studios now.Maybe they are doing the remaster as they have great history of porting games to console.
ienjoyrawfish
Member
There's an undub version on the internet somewhere.
You can play it on an emulator so I assume it would be pretty easy to play on actual hardware too since it's a Dreamcast game.
It wouldn't have to be done from the ground up to tweak certain aspects like controls. Besides the fact that SEGA definitely would not spring for the cost of giving it the Kiwami treatment, you'd ideally want Yu Suzuki in charge or at least overseeing any kind of actual remake, and he's currently occupied (obviously).
Blitworks, who SEGA have also worked with on Dreamcast ports and actually had a working Shenmue port prototype, have registered interest in the past. There are a few names in the pot for people who'd do the job if SEGA decided not to do it internally.
It would be in the minority if it didn't support arbitrary resolutions (1440p, 4K, 8K, etc).
Buttonbasher
Member
I'm actually pretty stoked to have found an Xbox copy of Shenmue 2, the other day, after checking my local game stores for a year. I played through the first Shenmue for the first time last year and really loved my time with it. I'll probably play through the Xbox copy, and then revisit the HD collections closer to 3's release.
Pretty sure I am not in the minority... I backed the Shenmue 3 crowdfunding, but never played the first two. Very excited to see if the games are my cup of tea. If not, well that is okay. Contributing to the passion that is Shenmue, for the fans of the series -- that is already more than enough.