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I'll believe it when I see it.

great news i hope it does come out and not a teaser like MK HD collection BS

I don't quite get the love for Shenmue, I think it's quite boring. Though I did finish the first one finally. It's one of those games like The Sims and Zoo Tycoon in that not everybody likes it, but the people that do absolutely love it.


On another note I'd like a new Space Harrior...

i think maybe its because you didnt play the game when i was freshly released. Thus you have no nostaligiac value of it nor the appreciation for it liek the ones who played since day one. not sure really why u dislike it, but i wouldnt compare shenmue in teh realm of the SIMS or ZOO TYCOON hahah

RyaNtheSlayA wrote:I don't quite get the love for Shenmue, I think it's quite boring. Though I did finish the first one finally. It's one of those games like The Sims and Zoo Tycoon in that not everybody likes it, but the people that do absolutely love it.


On another note I'd like a new Space Harrior...

thats funny that Yu Sukuki have tardy issue while working for sega. He said then they started docking his Salary thus he created AM2 because at 2 am is when all his team would be all there.

Awesome hahah

I hope it comes with tons of stuff to collect from machines

Sorry I'm a packrat.

AznKhmerBoi wrote:i think maybe its because you didnt play the game when i was freshly released. Thus you have no nostaligiac value of it nor the appreciation for it liek the ones who played since day one. not sure really why u dislike it, but i wouldnt compare shenmue in teh realm of the SIMS or ZOO TYCOON hahah

I think you've misinterpreted my post.

From any reasonable standpoint the game is very much an acquired taste, which is why I relate it to Zoo Tycoon and the Sims. I know people that can't understand why anybody would want to play either of them, yet, I love them both, from more than just rosy nostalgia.

I dislike Shenmue as the controls are stiff, and what you can do is very limited. While I definitely appreciate the amount of detail in the game, you have very little control over your character beyond movement. Then there are the quick time events...

Some may say I'm a hypocrite as I very much enjoyed Heavy Rain, which severely limits your control of the characters and has tons of quick time events. The difference is, Heavy Rain's story actually grabbed me. It was good enough in fact for me to play it regardless of it's horrible controls and QTE's.

Thats not to say that Shenmue didn't try to do this. It's just I never really felt connected to the characters or the story. The emotion felt superficial to me, which was probably partly because the voice acting is horrendous. So that coupled with bad controls, just makes it a very lackluster game in my eyes.

The only reason the original is held in such high regard from what I can tell is pure nostalgia and technical detail. It's a pretty game, I'll give it that. It has aged horribly otherwise.

RyaNtheSlayA wrote:The only reason the original is held in such high regard from what I can tell is pure nostalgia and technical detail. It's a pretty game, I'll give it that. It has aged horribly otherwise.

I hold it in high regard because it's a revenge story akin to Hamlet in that Ryo's obsession with revenge drives him more or less insane (completely ignoring his father's last advice in the name of... his father, for instance) with the added element that he literally transforms into his nemesis (someone close to him was killed, so he seeks to murder his loved one's murderer, the very same impetus as Lan Di), which has very interesting implications given the interactive nature of video games. The gameplay has an interesting orientation towards freedom in that there's tons of stuff to do (Space Harrier, Hang-On, Capsule Toys, Gambling, Cassette Tapes, Martial Arts Training) and numerous scenes you can get by doing specific things or just being yourself, which add greatly to the depth of the experience and the world -- yet, ultimately, despite so many things to do, the narrative ultimately progresses in one direction, which is an interesting Eastern sort of balance. Speaking of which, the narrative is steeped in obscure real-world Eastern culture, which makes the world all the more believable.

Not only is the world believable, but the life is believable... the draw of Shenmue is that it creates a life... it moves at a realistic pace, and you often experience very realistic things. Apparently the ability to settle into the pace of Ryo's life is something that doesn't come to everyone, but if you can succeed, it becomes an engrossing sort of life simulation -- except that the life you're living is about a thousand times more exciting than your own. Obviously, the voice-acting has suffered, but it's really not that bad for its time... I'm surprised that no one has transcribed the Japanese voices into the US version of Shenmue yet, since someone in the Dreamcast scene has transcribed the English Xbox voices into the PAL version of Shenmue II. I don't see why people let it get to them so much, but then, I don't play a whole lot of newer games, so my standards aren't that high.

All in all, I feel like it's one of the most "human" experiences an action/adventure game has ever provided... sure, there are games that are more open, but they don't have the narrative of Shenmue... and there are games with more gripping storylines, but are they realistic? Does that sort of thing happen to a human? Shenmue's setting is overall very realistic and plausible, which is part of why its hyper-realistic graphics (as in the artistic sense, although at the time the graphics were certainly hyper-realistic in the technological sense) are so well suited... they're not just arbitrary like in most games, because Shenmue's trying to give you something that's REAL... except when it goes a little bit overboard, which is genius because having your expectations adjusted for real-world logic makes it all the more enthralling when video game logic comes into play. This is a very classic Yu Suzuki thing: outwardly realistic experiences which make the unrealistic bits infinitely more phantastical.

Now, you're free to disagree with me, and free to wonder what the fuck I'm talking about, but there are definitely reasons why Shenmue is such a compelling game for so many people beyond just nostalgia and graphics... it's something very unique, which is why articulating the exact reasons why it's so special can be so difficult for its fans.

yes sorry i did mention most like for nostalgic and presentation at the time.

I forgot to note that its a masterpiece due to factor that it draw you into its world and people. When i played it for first time i felt like ryo and i was in Japan at that year. I felt i part of this world where everyday i would wake up do the task and see the towns folk conversating and interacting with them as i would in the real world. Taht is why the game is great because it took you from reality and made you live the life of the story and game.

Well as I said. It didn't draw me in, which is why I don't like it very much. It's just one of those games where some people absolutely love it and feel it's very special, while to others, it's just a subpar adventure with QTE's.

So I guess we have to just agree to disagree. I know it has lots of fans. I don't want to bog down this thread with more of my 'I don't get it' feelings.