/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.7718008]

>Shenmue I
cozy, comfy, completely interactive, NPCs feel surprisingly real considering the times
>Shenmue II
distant, archaic, cutscene hunter, NPCs: "I don't know about that/I was headed that way myself, want me to take you there?"

I can see the argument for Shenmue being one of the most groundbreaking games of all time but Shenmue II just feels so fucking empty.
It's like you are watching SEGA die as you play this game. Feels bad

[Anonymous No.7718041]

Shenmue II is far more expansive, but it doesn't have that same feeling Shenmue had. Shenmue feels very "comfy," is the best word I can describe it. The areas are nice to explore and revisit. Shenmue II has some interesting areas, but it clearly leant more cinematic in vision -- especially the boring-as-fuck ending portion.

[Anonymous No.7718051]

>another Sega thread

[Anonymous No.7718061]

>>7718051
>>>/v/ is waiting if you got a problem with it

[Anonymous No.7718068]

Enjoyed the game, especially getting a job which was a novelty as a young teen.. enjoyed it up until the point I had to quit playing it coz I couldnt figure out how to catch the falling cherry blossom petal.. about 6 years later made a friend who had same problem and told me you have to bot aim but just let the control stick go for a minute and he aims himself, but never played it since. Disappointed to hear 3 wasnt great.

[Anonymous No.7718069]

>>7718041
I really do think the game was rushed because half the time where Shenmue I would end a cutscene to let the player interact (i.e. hitting a button, walking somewhere, investigating an item) Shenmue II just does it for you.
Very jarring from a player's perspective.

SO I gotta ask is Shenmue III even worth checking out or is it just a bait-and-swap crowdfunded nostalgiabait like yooka-laylee?

[Anonymous No.7718076]

>>7718068
oh that filtered me hard too. Thankfully there was a guide to explain that you had to "focus" on the petal. Pretty horrendous design DESU.

[Anonymous No.7718156]

>>7718008
>>7718041
>china is different than a tiny jap village where everyone knows you
crazy isn't it?

[Anonymous No.7718186]

>>7718156
yes but Suzuki could have you know made the game about brawling or minigames or anything else to fill the gap that was missing.

[Anonymous No.7718214]

I've always thought shenmue 2 was not as good. I can replay 1 every few years and it's enjoyable. Part 2 is a slog

[Anonymous No.7718245]

>>7718008
>1987 is closer to 2001 than 2001 is to current year
Feels incredibly bad man

[Anonymous No.7718289]

>>7718008
shenmue 2 was my jam, among the comfiest games on xbox

[Anonymous No.7718321]

>>7718069

From one Shenmue fan to another. The best way I could describe it is as a low budget passion project. It looks, feels, and plays like Shenmue but there are moments when you will say "they ran out of money here" or "they obviously wanted to do X but could only afford to do Y". It has a lot of heart and if you're a Shenmue fan you will love it. If you are not, you will absolutely fucking hate it and I completely understand the people who do.

[Anonymous No.7718350]

>>7718156
Yeah, but the point is that they could recreate a small Japanese city to absurd detail, which was the charme of Shenmue, they couldn't do the same with fucking Hong Kong.
I still liked the game though.
>>7718069
> is Shenmue III even worth checking out
Yes.
>is it just a bait-and-swap crowdfunded nostalgiabait like yooka-laylee?
Yes.
>>7718321
> if you're a Shenmue fan you will love it. If you are not, you will absolutely fucking hate it and I completely understand the people who do.
Pretty much. Maybe not love, but I played it straight after replaying 1 and 2, and it felt quite a natural continuation.
The setting is bullshit though, I know they didn't have the budget, but it would have been the opportunity to have the Chinese version of Sakuragaoka but they went full fantasy instead.

[Anonymous No.7718357]

>>7718008
>Shenmue 1

Progress, wait, practice moves, wait, practice moves, progress, wait, practice moves, etc.

[Anonymous No.7718420]

>>7718008
Shenmue 2 is far better weeb tranny

[Anonymous No.7718519]

>>7718008
Can we stop pretending this series of "games" was ever good now?

[Anonymous No.7718528]

>Can we stop pretending this series of "games" was ever good now?

[Anonymous No.7719207]

>>7718008
they really fucked up in 2 making all the npcs being clones
shenmue 1 blew my mind with all those random npcs having unique models and time schedules

[Anonymous No.7719230]

>>7718008
i hate so much the ending part of shenmue 2...... a fucking walking simulator with a chinese girl who doesn't even know what japan is but she speaks japanese fluently

[Anonymous No.7719280]

Shenmue 1 & 2 both have their charms, but 2 is more special. Many games pull off the small town vibe of 1, but very few games manage to make you feel like a fish out of water in a big city the same way Hong Kong does.

[Anonymous No.7719286]

>>7718008
China is a tacky shithole compared to the sleepy Japanese village in the first game

[Anonymous No.7719291]

[Anonymous No.7719294]

>>7719291
>look mom I posted the soijak again

[Anonymous No.7719302]

>>7719291
I get your point but [place] looks completely different in those countries.

[Anonymous No.7719334]

>>7719291
uh oh

[Anonymous No.7719841]

Both are great, but I prefer ii: most atmospheric, mysterious, or even ambiguous. It is like the danger is literally around the corner, specially Kowloon. It doesn't matter how many times you played the game.

[Anonymous No.7719964]

[Anonymous No.7719984]

main problems with 2:
-part time jobs are really boring
-realism of 1 has gone in favor of over the top characters and silly magic
-small village vibe is gone

but the NPC interactions are still very very impressive. you can literally talk for like 15 minutes with the 3 kids playing near the river in the little village in the end, even though you don't have to talk to them at all

[Anonymous No.7719992]

>>7719964
fucking kek

[Anonymous No.7719995]

>>7719291
>>7719964
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[Anonymous No.7720305]

>>7718008
>>7718041
samefaggot
Shenmue II is Yu Suzuki bitchslapped into actual sensible story pacing. It's a great game and the final act is one of the most kino moments in vidya history.
Shenmue III is a disaster and the complete opposite of II, it's a filler chapter that resolves nothing, for something that might never get a sequel. You'd think the third game would be great after seeing a floating magic sword and giant stone mirrors carved into a cave wall on the ending of 2, but somehow Yu Suzuki failed to do anything interesting with that. WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THE FLOATING SWORD INGAME? WHY IS THE SWORD NOW A DAGGER THAT'S A GLORIFIED KEY TO A WOODEN TOWER? REEEEEEEEE!!!
Shenmue III is unbelievably boring and nothing at all like Shenmue 1 and 2. It's like a caricature of its former self. Budget is not an excuse, this is just abysmal planning. Don't even get me started on the fighting engine.

[Anonymous No.7720316]

i got my gf to play through both shenmue games with me, we're currently in kowloon getting access to the yellow head building and i think overall shenmue 2 is a better experience, it's a shame 1 doesn't really have any side content outside of the arcade, the street fights and unlocking/winning the duck races in 2 were a nice addition
people complaining about 2 not being comfy don't seem to get that that's kind of the point, the first game takes place in ryo's hometown, the 2nd is in a completely unfamiliar area, in shenmue 1 you sleep in your own bed, in 2 you're sleeping on couches for the most part, it's literally not comfy lol
anyway these games are still fucking great and hold up much better than i expected, not sure if i'm going to bother trying 3 though

[Anonymous No.7720674]

>>7718008
I have the opposite feeling, when i first played Shenmue 2 i felt like i was walking around in a living and breathing city.
It just seemed so impressive at the time, how NPCs would still do stuff on schedules like the first, certain people did things around certain parts of the day or night.
Yeah you're not going to get the same deal detail you got in the first game considering every single NPC in Shenmue 1 had a back story.
But 2 was my introduction to the series since i played it on Xbox, i didn't get to play the first game until a bit later on when i picked up a Dreamcast on the cheap.
So for me it still had a really major impact for me in gaming and no games have ever lived up to Shenmue I or II for me.
It's what i wished all the open world games were like with GTA but just never did.
And no games still have done the concepts Shenmue did.
Also you can't deny how comfy the journey to Bailu village was, that's another moment that always really stuck with me from Shenmue 2.

[Anonymous No.7720723]

>>7719964
imagine the poster

[Anonymous No.7721702]

>>7720316
I'm at Kowloon too. Yes it's impressive that every building has rooms you can enter but what's the point of detail like that if it serves no purpose? There aren't little items you can find scattered around the rooms that would incentivize you to spend time searching them.
Shit the NPCs are exactly the same. Yes it's impressive how many there are and how they all have schedules and jobs and shit but what's the point if it serves no purpose in game? Every one I talk to still says "I don't know about that" or "the X building is right that way."
It's like this is a completely empty tech demo. And I get that there were supposed to be more games and potentially more detail and stuff to do especially as the devs figured out what they could and couldn't accomplish with the engine but still the game feels uncanny in its hollowness.

[Anonymous No.7721770]

>>7718008

The difference between the two is that Shenmue I is almost a pure adventure game, and Shenmue II starts to get into to martial arts and action side of things, so the pacing and exploration shift as a result. It’s really more a case of the first one not actually doing what it set out to do, and still managing to do something incredibly charming. The final disc on the second when you leave the city and arrive at the small village is probably one of the most magical moments I’ve ever had in a videogame, so I don’t think it’s all that bad.

[Anonymous No.7721823]

>>7718069
I dont think Shenmue 3 is a bait-and-swap. For the most part it feels like a natural continuation, going off of 1/2 HD to 3 and you'd think it was a game that was basically finished ages ago and just dusted off bar the retcons and changes to combat.
That said there's tons of room for improvement. Pacing feels fucked coming off of 2's finale, and it doesn't feel like we learned as much in comparison. Stamina system really doesn't fit well even though its meant to give food items purpose, and it really felt like they stretched themselves thin by with the castle area they have you go to by the end.

[Anonymous No.7721827]

>>7721702
>what's the point of detail like that if it serves no purpose?
That wouldn't even be bad if it was just to make the environment believable, the problem is that it was impossible to do on Hong Kong scale like they did for Sakuragaoka.

[Anonymous No.7721847]

>>7721827
I guess it's just failing to meet expectations that they set up themselves. Not exactly their fault but still a bit annoying from a player's standpoint. At least what I was looking forward to

Soundtrack rules though.
I get this one stuck in my head all the time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOVN4UKBi_o

[Anonymous No.7721883]

>>7721702
Considering suzuki's 10 game plan i'm assuming we were supposed to return to kowloon and hong kong in a later game, at which point these unused areas would become relevant. There's a whole ass kungfu school on one of the floors of the thousand white building and literally no one even mentions it.
Also the generic dialogue makes more sense to me in hong kong at least, i always hated how little you can interact with nozomi and ryo's friends in the first game, shit was absolute nonsense. You can literally go through the whole game without meeting the guy you borrow the motorcycle from at the end to rescue this girl you apparently care about despite never talking to her.
What i'd really like is a version of shenmue where ryo actually talks to his friends, can eat a fucking hotdog from tom and can generally interact with the world more, it has so much potential that falls flat. Hell the 2nd game HAS content like that but it's extremely missable, the fucking fangmei birthday shit requires you to stay in hong kong until march 3rd and even with my gf's terrible sense of direction we're already in kowloon in early february, and that's with me doing the duck races and shit, daily work with delin and plenty of time wasted running lucky hit stands.
tl;dr i fucking love shenmue
>>7721847
I never even thought about how good the soundtrack is until recently, almost every track rules.
Also the music that plays during the motorbike scene is a midi version of the first song from F355 challenge, pretty sure joy's theme is performed by the same band too.

[Anonymous No.7721909]

>>7721702
>Yes it's impressive that every building has rooms you can enter but what's the point of detail like that if it serves no purpose?
Chekov's Gun is even stupider when you apply it to game design.

[Anonymous No.7721915]

>Yes it's impressive that every building has rooms you can enter but what's the point of detail like that if it serves no purpose?
Chekhov's Gun is even stupider when you apply it to game design.

[Anonymous No.7721931]

>>7721909
it's not even about chekov's gun but it's more like being able to look in a drawer and find a random item for your journal entry.

[Anonymous No.7722216]

I feel like giving the ability to save everywhere in the HD ports really trivialized the gameplay of both I & II, from a perspective of allowing you to circumvent bad time management and also abuse gambling much more easily.
The ability to save should have been kept strictly in bedrooms.
The only time i feel it was a godsend was after doing the whole plank walking section in Ghost Hall building, because the timing of QTEs in Shenmue just messed with my head sometimes, i feel like there was always some delay or input lag with it.
You could say that also trivialized the difficulty because it forced you to get it right, but that section of the game was really just not fun for me.

[Anonymous No.7722256]

>>7721702
>Yes it's impressive that every building has rooms you can enter but what's the point of detail like that if it serves no purpose?
It was just impressive seeing this stuff at the time when no other game was doing this thing, no other game still has really.
A majority of open world games still don't have every building enterable and it always just sucks me out of the experience in terms of immersion, Shenmue II was the only game to really draw me in like that.
But you're right having hidden collectibles in them would have given more incentive to explore, to be fair Suzuki did that hidden Chobu Chans in 3, probably would have solved an issue like that.
You'd think most open world gives would have built off what Shenmue II was trying to achieve, but every open world game just went in the other direction with the focus on making worlds larger but not having every building fully explorable.
It's really disappointed me over the years seeing this since i thought Shenmue II was the game that was going to change it all for open world games, and yet it never did.

[Anonymous No.7723405]

>>7722216
Yeah being able to abuse gambling in 2-HD is ridiculous, the save feature isn't even necessary anyway since the games had the continue save shit if you have to drop the game and do something immediately.
We did do exactly what you did with the fucking plank section though, no idea how i tolerated that playing it as a kid, but i feel like the HD versions fuck with the QTEs too, especially the ones that have multiple inputs.

[Anonymous No.7723478]

>>7722216
nope. as a PC gamer I just want the ability to save wherever and whenever I can. I'm not a child so I don't cheat at gambling but I do NOT want to sit through the same fucking cutscenes over and over and over again because I keep fucking up some QTE.
Also Ryu automatically goes "home" when it's late enough anyway.

[Anonymous No.7723489]

>>7723478
you can save whenever you want with the continue save, also never write 'as a pc gamer' lol, this isn't reddit

[Anonymous No.7723494]

>>7723489
my mistake.

[Anonymous No.7723512]

>>7718041

1's world feels lived-in because it's smaller but you can explore every inch of it and see it change as the game progresses. 2 is much more of an "adventure" where you are traveling between different locations but none of them offer much depth and you're never expected to revisit them. It's like the difference between Mega Man Legends 1 and 2.

[Anonymous No.7723991]

>>7719995
simmer down

[Anonymous No.7726015]

>>7723478
>as a PC gamer
As a betafag you mean?