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LTTP: Shenmue

all i remember about the first game was ryu being really frigid around nozomi. i really wish japanese voices were an option, though. the american va is just painful.
 
The last time we saw Yu Suzuki, he was presented with replicas of the mirrors at this Shangai Game Expo last year when a long trailer of Shenmue Online was displayed. It seems that he's put all his effort in shoehorning whatever Shenmue III was going to be into Online just so that he can release it, quit Sega and do whatever he wants next.

Shenmue's one of my 'weakness' franchises, unfortunately. I love it to death. That also means that wherever Shenmue ends up, I'll get it. Even Online. Shenmue III, even if it happens to be for the Ngage... in 2011.
 
mattiewheels said:
all i remember about the first game was ryu being really frigid around nozomi. i really wish japanese voices were an option, though. the american va is just painful.
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I always did wonder about Ryo... Lishao Tao was a super hottie too as well as the motorcycle chick and Shen Hua, and he never got laid..

Of course it's because he has more pressing matters at hand like avenging his father's death and recovering the mirror.... and playing Lucky Hit :D
 
I wonder sometimes if the people making jokes about lucky hit and sailors actually played the game or just saw the mega64 video (which I'll admit was hilarious). In the context of the game, though, these sorts of things aren't so ridiculous that they could be considered valid criticisms of the game. It's rather all a part of this serene atmosphere the game has that is so far unlike any other game I've played. The voice acting that some people call "flat" and "boring" I find only adds to this atmosphere. Consider Ico, for example, which mega64 also parodies. Nobody criticizes that for being so different from the reality we know. For me, it's this almost alien feeling of a different sort of world that makes these games so uniquely charming. So, I'd urge anyone who hasn't played Shenmue, whose only familiarity with it involves "sailors" and "lucky hit," to go pick it up at a bargain and play it. It's pure magic. That goes for Shenmue 2 as well---in my opinion, the better game.
 
I am one of the biggest Shenmue fans there is, but I have a sense of humor. The fact that he is so cold to Nozomi and all other women who throw themselves at him is just a little suspect, you've got to admit.
 
Pachael said:
The last time we saw Yu Suzuki, he was presented with replicas of the mirrors at this Shangai Game Expo last year when a long trailer of Shenmue Online was displayed. It seems that he's put all his effort in shoehorning whatever Shenmue III was going to be into Online just so that he can release it, quit Sega and do whatever he wants next.

Shenmue's one of my 'weakness' franchises, unfortunately. I love it to death. That also means that wherever Shenmue ends up, I'll get it. Even Online. Shenmue III, even if it happens to be for the Ngage... in 2011.
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Shenmue Online is going to be such a disappointment.
 
polyh3dron said:
Shenmue Online is going to be such a disappointment.
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Let's hope it's canceled, so the series can preserve its dignity.

Or, so they can start working on Shenmue 3 instead and finish the trilogy properly.
 
polyh3dron said:
I am one of the biggest Shenmue fans there is, but I have a sense of humor. The fact that he is so cold to Nozomi and all other women who throw themselves at him is just a little suspect, you've got to admit.
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Maybe the final scene of Shenmue 3 will be Ryo Hazuki and Lan Di making out in a fit of passion. An ending even M. Night Shyamalan would be proud of.
 
polyh3dron said:
I am one of the biggest Shenmue fans there is, but I have a sense of humor. The fact that he is so cold to Nozomi and all other women who throw themselves at him is just a little suspect, you've got to admit.
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yeah, he is too pure to be corrupted by hot biker chicks with bare midriffs that won't leave him alone.
 
Tailzo said:
"What's Shenmue", was that the 4th disc in Shenmue 1, or some japanese demo disc?
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The fourth disc is Passport, What's Shenmue released as a Japanese promotion and is a playable demonstration 'before' the events of Shenmue.
 
If Yu Suzuki does not get the funding to finish the series, I hope Sega sells the IP to someone who will. I bet Yu would ditch Sega for the chance to finish it as well.
 
The Great thing about the ineraction of the original Shenmue when you play it for the first time, this back in 99/2000 ... was awaking in your room and spend about an hour opening drawers, looking for stuff (photos, records, etc)that makes you a beliveble characther... your background, and then forgeting that you have a house to explore, then a Dojo... and then a whole City.

The game was trully an Ode to non-linear exploration. N' a beautifull one.
 
By the way, there's going to be a "China Joy" or whatever it's called tomorrow, where they'll be covering Shenmue Online. Yes, we'd all rather have Shenmue III, but I'm looking forward to seeing how far they've gone with the game.

It actually doesn't look TOO bad. The only thing awful about it is the battle system, and the whole fireball throwing thing.
 
Scribble said:
By the way, there's going to be a "China Joy" or whatever it's called tomorrow, where they'll be covering Shenmue Online. Yes, we'd all rather have Shenmue III, but I'm looking forward to seeing how far they've gone with the game.

It actually doesn't look TOO bad. The only thing awful about it is the battle system, and the whole fireball throwing thing.
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and the fact that Yu wants to shoehorn Shenmue's story into Shenmue Online without you actually playing as Ryo, and the fact that he wants to further introduce story elements to Shenmue online by having you download extra portions of the game.

Retarded.

The game will be a mess. I'm going to buy it. I'm going to hate it. But it will still have that sweetness that I've been lusting for for 5 years now.

Argh.
 
temjin said:
The game will be a mess. I'm going to buy it. I'm going to hate it. But it will still have that sweetness that I've been lusting for for 5 years now.
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The thing is, if you don't live in China or Korea, you probably won't be getting it. I'm hoping that it's the typical case of applying famous franchises to lame Korean MMORPGs. It wouldn't make sense for them to continue the story of Shenmue through online, since the rest of the world probably won't get it (I do recall Suzuki saying that Shenmue Online WILL continue the story, however).
 
You know that scene in Shenmue where you have two pictures of Nozomi and Ryo together? I picked the picture with the two of them together while Nozomi got the one with them both standing apart.

It's the only time in a game where I thought to myself "I'm such an asshole". :(
 
Aegus said:
You know that scene in Shenmue where you have two pictures of Nozomi and Ryo together? I picked the picture with the two of them together while Nozomi got the one with them both standing apart.

It's the only time in a game where I thought to myself "I'm such an asshole". :(
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Oh yeah. If you think about it Nazomi probably would have rathered he picked the one with them together seeing as it would look like he cared. I hated the way how nothing you chose or had even had any effect in the next game anyway, because everyone started out with the same thing. In part one I remember even finding a white feather thinking it was probably important or something, and I don't think they included it in part two. Not even all the exclusive moves you learnt from certain people. Anyway it's probably about the only last gen game that really makes me wonder what it would look like totally revamped and done for this gen of consoles.
 
Ah yes, very interesting series. Like many things Sega, it was too far ahead of its time, however. The DC simply wasn't powerful enough to deliver the proper vision. The heavy usage of load screens really brought the overall experience down.

A detailed, fully streamed world would have made such a difference.
 
Yes, I enjoyed both games a lot. Spent quite some time playing them and even replaying them multiple times.
 
GIF_shenmue_rooftop_fight2.gif


That right there, is one of the greatest gaming moments ever. Goddamn that was intense!

Shenmue had many fantastic moments where I just thought to myself "God damn this game is awesome!".

<3 Shenmue
 
Stocka said:
It's never too late to play through Shenmue I and II, so everyone who hasn't...bloody do it
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If I had the choice to play 1 and 2 for the first time with no indication of 3 coming out, id pass on it.

The way they ended Shenmue 2 with no followup, pure kick in the face to its fans(even if they are small).
 
So ahead of its time in terms of interaction and detail, even if the gameplay wasn't entirely up to snuff, I was still totally drawn into the world. I never got why everyone hailed GTAIII as "revolutionary", when Shenmue was doing all the things GTAIII did in terms of a large world, only better, 2 years before.
 
djtiesto said:
So ahead of its time in terms of interaction and detail, even if the gameplay wasn't entirely up to snuff, I was still totally drawn into the world. I never got why everyone hailed GTAIII as "revolutionary", when Shenmue was doing all the things GTAIII did in terms of a large world, only better, 2 years before.
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.....

I have to go to work but I'll just interject that Shenmue was not doing what GTAIII was. Not even close.
 
Shenmue and Shenmue II are two of the greatest games ever conceived! The fact that Sega has yet to commision a Shenmue III just further's my belief that they have lost most of their ambition in recent years... :-(
 
Hitler Stole My Potato said:
.....

I have to go to work but I'll just interject that Shenmue was not doing what GTAIII was. Not even close.
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I have to agree with Hitler here. Shenmue is so much better, they're not even in the same league.


Definitely in my top 5, and just overall one of my favourite games series. Simply fantastic. One of the series that would make me buy the console it's released on without question.
 
djtiesto said:
So ahead of its time in terms of interaction and detail, even if the gameplay wasn't entirely up to snuff, I was still totally drawn into the world. I never got why everyone hailed GTAIII as "revolutionary", when Shenmue was doing all the things GTAIII did in terms of a large world, only better, 2 years before.
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GTA had vehicles, a very large seamless overworld that was 95% free of atrocious load times, citizens that you could interact with, and an unprecedented level of freedom for the main character. Your actions had repercussions (though only temporary). Shenmue had a bunch of drawers you can look through, a bus that you had to wait for, and a curfew for the main character :lol

In terms of having a large explorable, interactive world, Shenmue falls beneath predecessors like Zelda: OOT.....and well below superior followups like GTA3. Instead of creating a large freeform area, Yu Suzuki and Co. just made a very tiny, very linear, but highly detailed gameplay area. This works for some (the people who think flipping switches and opening drawers is fun), but most people tend to prefer games that provide a larger world with less detail.
 
shenmue was great. it was the only time I actually felt like the game world was real.

people can call the opening drawers and turning on lights and waiting for the bus and all that stupid, but it really created a lifelike world, and I loved it.
 
shenmue 2 was great, but the first one sucked big time
 
djtiesto said:
So ahead of its time in terms of interaction and detail, even if the gameplay wasn't entirely up to snuff, I was still totally drawn into the world. I never got why everyone hailed GTAIII as "revolutionary", when Shenmue was doing all the things GTAIII did in terms of a large world, only better, 2 years before.
Click to expand...
As was noted above, Shenmue did nothing like GTA. Shenmue was very tightly focused and presented only a small portion of a city rather than a full blown environment. Each area was filled with detail, but there were so few places to visit and each segment was divided by loading. Furthermore, the environments became less complex as you made your way through the game. The Hazuki house, for instance, is loaded with objects to interact with and you may initially expect the game to match this level of detail throughout...but it doesn't even come close.

GTAIII was completely different in that it actually succeeded in delivering a full blown city environment. GTAIII focused on the picture at large rather than the small details which obviously resulted in a presentation lacking the finesse you see in Shenmue. Unlike Shenmue, however, the city truly was yours to explore. I recall first playing the game and realizing that GTAIII was delivering much of what was lacking in Shenmue.

I think it's safe to say that there will never exist a game offering the type of detail present during the early moments in Shenmue on a large scale. It would simply require too much work.
 
border said:
Instead of creating a large freeform area, Yu Suzuki and Co. just made a very tiny, very linear, but highly detailed gameplay area. This works for some (the people who think flipping switches and opening drawers is fun), but most people tend to prefer games that provide a larger world with less detail.
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Shenmue II is decidely less linear, but I know what you're saying.

However, to be honest, I prefer a smaller world that is insanely detailed to a larger one with nothing to do in it.

I'd like to see more games put the kind of detail and care in their environments seen in titles like MGS and Shenmue. Bigger =/= better.
 
KTallguy said:
Shenmue II is decidely less linear, but I know what you're saying.

However, to be honest, I prefer a smaller world that is insanely detailed to a larger one with nothing to do in it.

I'd like to see more games put the kind of detail and care in their environments seen in titles like MGS and Shenmue. Bigger =/= better.
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The amount of loading really killed the experience, though. The small environment didn't even feel slightly cohesive as a result...
 
I don't really remember the loading, to be honest.

But Yuzo's amazing score played while it was loading, so maybe that's why it didn't bother me.
 
KTallguy said:
However, to be honest, I prefer a smaller world that is insanely detailed to a larger one with nothing to do in it.
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GTA's world is larger, but it's ridiculous to say that there is nothing to do in it.

I would argue that there is more to do in GTA's world than Shenmue's. In GTA3 I can be a cab driver, a policeman, or an ambulance driver depending on what car I hop into. I can jack up my wanted-level and get in a wicked police chase that spans a city larger than all of Shenmue's Yokosuka. I can go start shit with other gangs and get into shootouts on the street. I can go hunt down the secret items to unlock cheats. I can go find an airplane and pilot it around the city. Or I can hijack a tank to start some serious mayhem. And this was all stuff that existed outside of the main missions.

What can I do in Shenmue though? Play an old Sega game, take care of a sick cat, race a forklift at 10mph, engage in tedious conversations with NPCs, play a darts minigame, look at the mundane crap inside people's drawers. I guess you could level up your fighting as well. All that stuff is going to be the same thing over and over though. The beauty of the large GTA-world is that when I start doing something (be it a crime-spree or picking up a fare in my cab), it's gonna be different every time because the city is just so large.
 
Shenmue (especially 2), makes you feel like you're part of the crowd, and insignificant in the great scheme of things. The chaos the player is able to cause in GTA detracts from the realism and 'credibility' of the setting, as you're more or less an invisible god thingy that is causing trouble without anyone batting an eyelid.

You can't compare the two, because they're totally different games. GTA's non linear fast paced, action packed nature calls for disposable, generic environments and NPCs. Shenmue is a linear game which doesn't take place in a void.

Ugh, Shenmue is a masterpiece. It's like, the ONLY game of its kind. Everyone has different opinions, but sometimes I just don't understand how some people can just dismiss Shenmue as 'crap' even if they did find it boring.

Another thing I want to mention is how Shenmue 1 was created as the prologue, and it gave you the feeling you were at home, and had that cosy, "this is normal life" feeling. Then when Ryo goes to Hong Kong, you get culture shock and a "This is how we do it in Hong Kong" feeling. Then Ryo goes to Guilin, and while the culture is still different, it has a calm, peaceful and cosy atmosphere which is similar to Yokosuka. To think that they paid that much attention to detail...

*feels extremely sad*
 
Shenmue was just too ambitious for it's own good. Whether or not you liked it's story, it was daring in the way it was trying to tell it. Of course, the result is we're all here now with a pretty shitty ending that's probably never going to be resolved.
 
It's been years since I've played it, but was the ending that bad? The way I saw it was that an 'arc' ended after the Dou Niu thing, and that the Guilin part was just a preview to the next chapter.

I think that if we knew for sure that Shenmue III was on the way, the second game's ending would be more interesting. After all

Ryo and Shenhua finally meeting, Ren throwing his knife at the map, and very last scene with the sword and the supernatural stuff seemed like a way of saying, "THIS is where the story begins!"
 
I hate talking about this series. It just reminds me how great the games were and how I'll never play 3.

What the **** is Yu Suzuki doing anyway? He could at least get the rest of the story out to the fans in some form if a finale is never going to happen. A novel would be nice.

apotema said:
Great games, It is a shame I cannot play the last disc of each Shenmue (3 and 4), Do you guys know how can I fix this? Since the related thread was deleted
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Same thing happened to me. I had to buy a new copy just to finish the game.
 
The ending was amazing. One of my favorites in a videogame. I felt like I was on borrowed time towards the end, and I was at peace. It was really nice. It took the handcuffs off the way most games' progress, and just let you experience. One of the most memorable for sure.
 
Scribble said:
Shenmue (especially 2), makes you feel like you're part of the crowd, and insignificant in the great scheme of things. The chaos the player is able to cause in GTA detracts from the realism and 'credibility' of the setting, as you're more or less an invisible god thingy that is causing trouble without anyone batting an eyelid.

You can't compare the two, because they're totally different games. GTA's non linear fast paced, action packed nature calls for disposable, generic environments and NPCs. Shenmue is a linear game which doesn't take place in a void.

Ugh, Shenmue is a masterpiece. It's like, the ONLY game of its kind. Everyone has different opinions, but sometimes I just don't understand how some people can just dismiss Shenmue as 'crap' even if they did find it boring.

Another thing I want to mention is how Shenmue 1 was created as the prologue, and it gave you the feeling you were at home, and had that cosy, "this is normal life" feeling. Then when Ryo goes to Hong Kong, you get culture shock and a "This is how we do it in Hong Kong" feeling. Then Ryo goes to Guilin, and while the culture is still different, it has a calm, peaceful and cosy atmosphere which is similar to Yokosuka. To think that they paid that much attention to detail...

*feels extremely sad*
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Quoted for unmitigated, unadulterated, immutable truth.
 
border said:
GTA's world is larger, but it's ridiculous to say that there is nothing to do in it.

I would argue that there is more to do in GTA's world than Shenmue's. In GTA3 I can be a cab driver, a policeman, or an ambulance driver depending on what car I hop into. I can jack up my wanted-level and get in a wicked police chase that spans a city larger than all of Shenmue's Yokosuka. I can go start shit with other gangs and get into shootouts on the street. I can go hunt down the secret items to unlock cheats. I can go find an airplane and pilot it around the city. Or I can hijack a tank to start some serious mayhem. And this was all stuff that existed outside of the main missions.

What can I do in Shenmue though? Play an old Sega game, take care of a sick cat, race a forklift at 10mph, engage in tedious conversations with NPCs, play a darts minigame, look at the mundane crap inside people's drawers. I guess you could level up your fighting as well. All that stuff is going to be the same thing over and over though. The beauty of the large GTA-world is that when I start doing something (be it a crime-spree or picking up a fare in my cab), it's gonna be different every time because the city is just so large.
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go away
 
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