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Neutron Night · Jun 12, 2004

Lazy8s · Jun 12, 2004

Music can be a non-verbal form of narration in a game. The earlier parts of Shenmue were more dramatic and required epic musical accompaniment, but the nature hike of Guilin here was set to soft melodies for a more intimate, human touch.

Wario64 · Jun 12, 2004

The 4th disc was like an awesome interactive ending

Solid · Jun 12, 2004

Yes, when you come to that village (I forgot the name) it's like a 2 hour ending. The best 2 hours of my life. I almost cried at the very end. So good game.

Kumiko Nikaido · Jun 12, 2004

Disc 4 is worthy of being a stand-alone drama.

RiZ III · Jun 12, 2004

O sweet. Thanks for the links

Bebpo · Jun 12, 2004

Deepthroat said:
The best 2 hours of my life.

RiZ III · Jun 12, 2004

Parts of the 4th disc were really cool. I hated walking through the forest. The ending was pimp tho. I knew it was about to end but the whole story was just getting good. I was like noooooooooo yu bastards.

Something kind of interesting tho, remember the very first trailer they released of this game? It was included in VF3:TB when DC launched in japan. The game must be really really far into development because in that movie there were scenes from the game that weren't even seen in Shenmue 2 like Shenhua blwowing up a bunch of people, Ryo jumping on a train. That other big haired chick whos supposed to be in Shen3 if it ever comes out.

cvxfreak · Jun 12, 2004

Shenmue II's ending was extremely well done, and I hope we get to see what happens after that.

Ramirez · Jun 12, 2004

Sega can go to hell if they never finish this awesome series

Kiriku · Jun 12, 2004

After playing through the first 3 discs, it's hard not to be impressed by the 4th one. It could be because the first 3 discs were, with few exceptions, boring as hell.

u_neek · Jun 12, 2004

YEs, Shenmue II disc 4 is one of my fave gaming moments ever..

Blimblim · Jun 13, 2004

u_neek said:
YEs, Shenmue II disc 4 is one of my fave gaming moments ever..

The whole of Shenmue is my favorite gaming experience, ever. But GD4 of Shenmue 2 is easily the most stunning part of the experience. It takes balls of steel to do such a incredibly different cinematic experience after the action packed ending of GD3.

Sho Nuff · Jun 13, 2004

Disc 4 is amazing. No other game has the balls to do what Disc 4 did.

fennec fox · Jun 13, 2004

Ramirez said:
Sega can go to hell if they never finish this awesome series

But they'd go to bankruptcy if they did!

jooey · Jun 13, 2004

yeah, the whole episode was neat, but watching them plod through the same forest of hideous textures repeatedly diluted it a little for me.

Teknopathetic · Jun 13, 2004

"Show me someone who has discovered that which surpasses this disc, and I'll show you not a man, but a god."

Jet. Grind. Radio.

Worship me.

Hitman · Jun 13, 2004

Shenmue is one my favourite game series ever... mostly because of the awesome music and story. With that said I did'nt like disk 4 that much.. The end of it was great as it should be.. But disc 3 was wear it was at. So much action in disc 3.. fighting chinese kingpin on the rooftop was an amazing scene.

Matlock · Jun 13, 2004

We're counting any soundtrack, right?

Metal Gear Solid 2 for gaming. Purple Rain for overall.

And hell, even Jet Set/Jet Grind's shit do well on their own too.

Hitman · Jun 13, 2004

Matlock said:
We're counting any soundtrack, right?

Metal Gear Solid 2 for gaming. Purple Rain for overall.

And hell, even Jet Set/Jet Grind's shit do well on their own too.

Shenmue > MGS2 > Jet Grind Radio

MGS2 does have an amazing theme though. And JGR has its share of funky beats.. but nothign beats Shenmue.

Teknopathetic · Jun 13, 2004

Apparently, JGR does.

Although, one of our own resident posters made a DnB remix of one of the tracks from Shenmue that kicked major ass.

That said, JGR still slaughters Shenmue

Hitman · Jun 13, 2004

Tre said:
Apparently, JGR does.

Although, one of our own resident posters made a DnB remix of one of the tracks from Shenmue that kicked major ass.

That said, JGR still slaughters Shenmue

how bout i slaughter you, homes.

AniHawk · Jun 13, 2004

Shenmue II was just extremely well done in general. I found the first game to be pretty average, but I thought Shenmue II was awesome all-around. Lots more fighting, better characters, story progression, more QTE, cooler moves, KICK ASS final boss fight, awesome ending.

I highly anticipate Shenmue III. It will come. It will come or I will go insane.

Teknopathetic · Jun 13, 2004

I cut you, then I fuck your beetches, mang.

Hitman · Jun 13, 2004

I shall stick my fist up your ass.

Matlock · Jun 13, 2004

Notice he doesn't even debate the greatness of Purple Rain!

Teknopathetic · Jun 13, 2004

That's not really fair, Matlock.

Fifty · Jun 13, 2004

Tre said:
That's not really fair, Matlock.

It isn't. But those are the rules

Matlock · Jun 13, 2004

Tre said:
That's not really fair, Matlock.

Nor was it meant to be.

Sp3eD · Jun 13, 2004

This ending is still intact and everything in the Xbox version right?

I don't want to drudge through that game for no reason :mad

silenttwn · Jun 13, 2004

Yes. The music doesn't sound as good on Xbox though.

AniHawk · Jun 13, 2004

Sp3eD said:
This ending is still intact and everything in the Xbox version right?

I don't want to drudge through that game for no reason :mad

DC version > Xbox version.

mjq jazz bar · Jun 13, 2004

Deepthroat said:
Yes, when you come to that village (I forgot the name) it's like a 2 hour ending. The best 2 hours of my life. I almost cried at the very end. So good game.

I also almost cried!

Mr. Lemming · Jun 13, 2004

This thread inspired me to finally play through the game.

"Wudu is what you learn on your own" "How do I do that?"

Dyne · Jun 13, 2004

mjq jazz bar said:
I also almost cried!

You guys suck. I was at buckets of tears. I knew there wasn't going to be another game for a long time .

jcjimher · Jun 13, 2004

Making me choose between the JGR and the Shenmue soundtrack is so cruel, it's like choosing between my mother and my father...

Anyway, I can't find the words to describe the experience that disc 4 of Shenmue II was. If the game hadn't finished in such an stylish and charming way (like the conventional Shenmue I ending), the wait (or the uncertainty) for Shenmue III would be much easier to live with.

I surely loved the Shenmue games, but I am a bit angry at Sega for developing such a extraordinary (and unrealistically costly) game, because it has somewhat spoiled my enjoyment of the rest of the smaller-scale games that have come after them. And I'm not talking about the size of the gameworld or the length in hours of the game, but rather about the amount of work that went into it, which is shown in the ridiculous quantity and variety of high-quality music, textures, character-models, voiced scripts (maybe not so high-quality in this case), etc.

And, returning to the original topic, it's a shame that Shenmue II didn't see a proper official soundtrack release, unlike Shenmue I. Compared with the first game music (which was good as well) the second game had a much better and much more varied soundtrack that surely deserved to be recorded and released in a proper form. This way, we wouldn't have to rely on game rips, although the Shenmuedojo ones are quite good nonetheless...

Jacobi · Jun 13, 2004

Damn I didn't even talk to the villagers in that ending. I have to buy ShenMue2 again :/
+IWSM3!!!

u_neek · Jun 13, 2004

RiZ III said:
Something kind of interesting tho, remember the very first trailer they released of this game? It was included in VF3:TB when DC launched in japan. The game must be really really far into development because in that movie there were scenes from the game that weren't even seen in Shenmue 2 like Shenhua blwowing up a bunch of people, Ryo jumping on a train. That other big haired chick whos supposed to be in Shen3 if it ever comes out.

A lot of the early released screens of Shenmue I actually didn't appear in the final product either.

Can someone give me a link of the video RIZ is talking about??

SolidSnakex · Jun 13, 2004

RiZ III said:
Parts of the 4th disc were really cool. I hated walking through the forest. The ending was pimp tho. I knew it was about to end but the whole story was just getting good. I was like noooooooooo yu bastards.

Something kind of interesting tho, remember the very first trailer they released of this game? It was included in VF3:TB when DC launched in japan. The game must be really really far into development because in that movie there were scenes from the game that weren't even seen in Shenmue 2 like Shenhua blwowing up a bunch of people, Ryo jumping on a train. That other big haired chick whos supposed to be in Shen3 if it ever comes out.

Those seens from Project Berkley were CG scenes which are why you didn't see them in the Shenmues released so far. They were basically to give you an idea of what to expect from the game. Shenmue 2's ending seemed to hint that the next game would be getting closer to what Project Berkley showed.

u_neek, those first 3 screens are in Shenmue 2. The fence hopping screen happens early on, and the one with Ryo and Ren falling happens in the middle of the game I believe. I know I remember them falling from the building though.

u_neek · Jun 13, 2004

u_neek said:
A lot of the early released screens of Shenmue I actually didn't appear in the final product either.

SolidSnakex · Jun 13, 2004

Didn't notice that. They mixed up alot of the scenes. All the original trailers and footage for Shenmue (aside from PB) were actually Shenmue 2, later on they started releasing screens and pics that were actually from Shenmue 1.

aerofx · Jun 13, 2004

Do they have the one for the Book airing scene? That was one of the best ones I've heard in the game.

edit: Here it is.
http://www.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?/planetxbox/shenmuedojo/music/shenmue2/04.zip

ahh.. love this track.

segasonic · Jun 13, 2004

Kiriku said:
After playing through the first 3 discs, it's hard not to be impressed by the 4th one. It could be because the first 3 discs were, with few exceptions, boring as hell.

MGS2 came on 4 discs?

dark10x · Jun 13, 2004

Shenmue 2 was a quality title that was spoiled (IMO) by the technology. There was simply too much loading and it ruined the feeling of being in a city. It's too much to ask for Dreamcast, but streaming would have added so much to the immersion.

The game looked fine, but it would have benefitted from waiting to be made for a better system. DC was simply not very good at handling the type of world Shenmue presented...

Of course, itw as in development for so long, I doubt it would have made sense. The XBOX port was a disaster, though. They could have REALLY fixed up the game if they had spent the time working on it. Instead, none of the technical flaws found in the DC game were addressed in any way. Ah well...

sprsk · Jun 13, 2004

shenmue 2's 4th disc is an example of the perfect way to do a long story based segment of the game.

while there is minimal interaction, its just enough to keep the player interested.

Koshiro · Jun 13, 2004

The only problem with Shenmue1/2 (my second fave game ever) is that it was originally intended as one big game, that was going to be released as such. however, the plans went to hell for numerous reasons, and we got it in these chunks instead. Of course, this meant that further development was now prone to the sales data, so chances of seeing Shenmue 3 are pretty slim, even more so now that Sammy are running the show (damn their common sense). I would die a happy man to see the series be completed, although even if we get Shen3, we'll still not see the game as it was originally planned. Sigh.

cortana · Jun 13, 2004

^^^^

offtopic, yes.. but damn.. people are still using that gif I made as an avatar now. =) I am amused (see Koshiro's avatar)

Baconäger · Jun 13, 2004

I thought the ending sucked but only because I feared the story would never continue, and I REALLY want to know what happens.

Koshiro · Jun 13, 2004

cortana said:
^^^^

offtopic, yes.. but damn.. people are still using that gif I made as an avatar now. =) I am amused (see Koshiro's avatar)

I've been using this avatar for eons now, and it was made by a friend of mine (if you made one then congrats, but this isn't it).

Lazy8s · Jun 13, 2004

None of those screens are actually from the finished product. The scenarios are the same, but they are from a different graphic build. There are videos of that footage actually; they were being demoed to select parties way back in 1998 as examples of DC software development.

dark10x:

Shenmue 2 was a quality title that was spoiled (IMO) by the technology. There was simply too much loading and it ruined the feeling of being in a city. It's too much to ask for Dreamcast, but streaming would have added so much to the immersion.

The game did stream: the world around Ryo would progress through a daily schedule without any loading pause as an unlimited number of different characters could walk into view and start new animation sets for different behaviors. What it didn't stream was the environment, but that was a design decision and not a concession to any weakness of the DC's hardware. Somewhere along the line of development, the decision had to be made how the game was going to be approached by players and how intricate (concentration of detail) the world was going to be, and environment streaming would have to be passed over in favor of area segmentation if they wanted to place concentration on locality as opposed to mobility.

Shenmue isn't like Jak and Daxter where the player traverses a progression of sprawled-out locales, leaving one area behind for the next. Every few feet of a Shenmue area is packed with several distinct characters and individual store/housing locations. The emphasis is on being in that locale, not on moving through it. AM2 felt players would be spending more time looking around in one area - hence, the reason every shopkeeper can answer your questions individually in multiple ways and provide little pieces of extra background information/context - than moving between them at any one time. The amount of annoyance you get from the segmentation/loading of the areas depends upon how directly you move from one checkpoint to another and how much of the world around Ryo you take in by contrast.

The game looked fine, but it would have benefitted from waiting to be made for a better system.

Focusing on locality over mobility is directly a decision of design and is made just the same for other platforms too: Silent Hill games on both PS2 and Xbox, Ninja Gaiden on Xbox, etc.

DC was simply not very good at handling the type of world Shenmue presented...

The sheer scope of it all - vendors chopping vegetables and then grilling them up, passerbys windowshopping, storekeepers clapping and beckoning people over to their wares, a whole environment stocked with the variety and animating with the range of behaviors you'd see in a city - within each location still stands out as very impressive.

The XBOX port was a disaster, though. They could have REALLY fixed up the game if they had spent the time working on it. Instead, none of the technical flaws found in the DC game were addressed in any way.

While the Xbox port was very direct as noted, there was improvement to the slowdown and LOD management that didn't get polished as well for the DC version. On the other hand, the DC version is sharper and less buggy.

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