I have at long last finished Shenmue II, almost fifteen years after finishing Shenmue. I sort of wish I would have played it back when I was younger, and if it came out on Dreamcast here in the U.S., I probably would have. I would have been more able to immerse myself in the world, and play leisurely at that time. At the same time, I'm glad I was able to play and understand the original Japanese version, something I couldn't have done back then.
Overall, the game was a great experience. Something I've always liked about these games, is I never feel like I'm playing a game, so much as I'm in Ryo's world, playing his story. Of course, I can just wander over to an arcade and play some Space Harrier or Outrun if I'm feeling the need for some classic gaming while I'm wandering around Ryo's world.
Probably one of my favorite aspects of Shenmue II, was wandering around areas loosely based on real locations, especially the walled city. It's fascinating that the city was still standing in 1987, when Ryo is there in Shemue II, but was mostly demolished soon after. I mentioned earlier that I wished the game had more emphasis on it's fighting system, and while it did have some difficult fights, nothing felt to me anywhere near as dramatic as the 70 man fight in the first Shenmue. However, I did enjoy seeking out move scrolls and participating in fighting matches for cash scattered throughout the areas, mostly in Kowloon.
As for the QTEs, I never did manage to fail any that changed the course of the game, or cutscenes, just ones that made me sit through cutscenes again or replay a segment, which was a shame. There was only one of these that actually annoyed me though. There are several QTEs after the disc 3 boss, and if you fail the last one (which I did because you have to hit a button and then two simultaneously--the game does give you major hints that this will happen, but I managed to land my thumb on one button before the other) you have to actually fight the boss over again from the beginning. This felt like artificial difficulty to me, but the boss was fairly easy, so it wasn't that big of a deal.
Also, as some of you have pointed out, I did indeed miss the duck races. I may very well pick up the game again and make sure to do the right things to experience them, but for now I'm pretty burned out on Shenmue.
I'll discuss the rest of my thoughts with spoiler tags, so I can talk more freely about the game's last two discs. NOTE: Spoiler within spoiler didn't work so anything after this may contain spoilers!
It's actually pretty difficult to collect my thoughts on Shenmue II. It's one of those games, along with its predecessor, which I can totally understand people not liking, but I absolutely loved the experience. These are games for people with patience and the willingness to get slowly invested into a narrative. What surprised me was that disc 3 was essentially a climax. The ascent of the Yellow Head building and the fight with Dou Niu while Lan Di looked on felt like a satisfactory ending to a chapter. Then the game told me to put in Disc 4. The entirety of Disc 4 felt like the perfect example of why some people don't like Shenmue and why some, myself included, absolutely adore these games. For anyone reading this who doesn't know, the fourth disc of Shenmue II is essentially walking and having conversations with Shenhua, the girl who appears to Ryo in Shenmue and is finally revealed. This whole disc is extremely slow, and in my opinion, extremely beautiful. I'm not just talking about the nature and the graphics in this segment, I'm talking about the conversations themselves. There's an option to hurry ahead instead of converse, and never once did I have an urge to press it. I was simply fascinated by everything Shenhua had to say, her questions about distant things, and her stories about her village.
As for the actual ending, with the mirror, the sword, and the peom....it does make you want to know where the hell the story was going. I understand the desire many have to see an end to this story, and I would also love to see this story continued but I also hope the story was pretty far from ending at this point. There are a lot of questions left unanswered, and more than one character's motivation is under some sort of scrutiny. It also seems pretty clear that quite a bit of mysticism, and possibly ancient magic was being brought into the story at this point. Also, I felt like Ren's final scene of throwing the knife into the map as he contemplated treasure felt like it may have been alluding to him playing a further role, which would be fantastic. This is one of those games that will stay with me for a long time, and I do genuinely hope we get a continuation of the story it started. Also, since we're in the spoiler tags, Rosebud was a sled, and Shenmue is a tree.
