I've been lukewarm at best about Shenmue III, for a whole bunch of reasons, but I have to admit to getting a little excited by this:
The first two Shenmue games are coming to PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One later this year, Sega announced today. The re-release, Shenmue 1 & 2, will be released sometime in 2018.
Sega calls the Shenmue 1 & 2 re-release the “definitive version” of the classic adventure games with modernized features such as “fully scalable screen resolution, choice of modern or classic control schemes, PC graphics options, an updated user interface and the option to enjoy either the original Japanese or English voiceovers.”
In hindsight it would have been really dumb for Sega not to cash in on the Shenmue III hype at some point, and I'm honestly kind of surprised it's taken this long.
I've played Shenmue every Christmas for the last few years and I can confirm that it has not really held up.
Hasn't diminished my fondness one iota, though.
Have to admit that I'm not entirely thrilled to hear that there's a "modern" control scheme, though - it's one of the things that's got me so wary about the third one, that by modernising the series they'll somehow change its spirit (but at the same time, by leaving it with the classic clunky inputs, they'd hobble its broader market appeal).
I loved Shemue 2 a lot but only go the Shenmue 1 experience second hand, so I'm all about this tbh. I can't wait to see Li Shao Tao again, Ren and bum around the Arcades again.Shenmue 2 was full of so much cool shit at the time, like finding out that little girl's birthday or that hidden fighting arena. I am hype for the, what is it, 40man battle at the end of Shenmue 1. And my friend tells me Guixang was sick.
Shenmue 2 is, from my memory (I only ever finished it once) paced much quicker and is set on a much grander scale than the first game, which is one of the reasons I like it a lot less than the original.
For me, the real magic of Shenmue was building this place that felt real - it was a place that you grew really familiar with. You recognised people in the street, you learned the names of half the shopkeepers, you ended up with favourite routes to take between the different places you had to go. You could go through every drawer in Ryo's house, you could pick up half the stuff in the shops… the detail was the thing that sold the whole illusion.
Shenmue 2 sacrificed that for bigger and more environments, and I'm not sure the trade-off was worth it. Shenmue 2, to me, felt like a movie set.
I think I preferred Shenmue 2 but a lot of that might simply be to do with the fact that the Dreamcast version of 2 didn’t have the excruciating English dub that marred the first game. It’ll be interesting playing both games with subtitles this time round and it’ll make for a fairer comparison.
There is no way I'll be playing with anything other than that excruciating English dub. I'm so fond of every stilted, misdirected line.
It's the way I remember the game, it's such a big part of the nostalgia I have for it. Like basically everything in Shenmue, it was acceptable at the time but in hindsight is dreadful, but replacing any of the different components would risk dispelling the magic.
I've never played Shenmue, but I have seen it played (a lot); I think the couple of times I did take the controller, I really struggled with the setup, and I can't imagine how obtuse people would find it now who've never played it (or in many cases, I suspect, held a Dreamcast controller at all) before.
I've never played Shenmue, but I have seen it played (a lot); I think the couple of times I did take the controller, I really struggled with the setup, and I can't imagine how obtuse people would find it now who've never played it (or in many cases, I suspect, held a Dreamcast controller at all) before.
The D-pad movement was clunky, but I remember struggling much more with the switch to analogue in the sequel. It's going to be interesting to see how they tweak things for a modern pad - even with the "original" control style.
Depends if they go for full two-stick camera control.
EDIT: thinking about this, I imagine they probably will; it'd be a tough sell to a modern audience to go all the way back to single-stick. Not expecting it to suddenly play like Uncharted, but bit being able to look around without stopping would be weeeeird.
Yeah, except that the 'look' in Shenmue A. moved you into a first-person perspective, and B. was disconnected from movement, so you could look sideways without changing direction (which was admittedly a bigger problem when both inputs were on the same thumb).
I don't think Uncharted would be a bad example to copy, although obviously Ryo wouldn't be sprinting by default. Yakuza's maybe a closer modern analogue (Shenmue keeps its various gameplay modes more separate than I remember Yakuza doing), but I can't think of many open-world games since Shenmue that've had such a sedate default mode. It's effectively a point-and-click adventure game for most of its runtime, with combat (and forklift) minigames.
Are Sega involved in the third one? There'd have to be some pretty close cooperation to make sure that save games from this collection are compatible with Shenmue 3, I'd've thought - unless they're just using the exact same format, somehow, as the original Dreamcast versions.
We can soon use that technique Li Shao Tao taught us at the endo f Shenmue 2 as well, lol. Although if the ending to that game is anything to go by we'll be be doing some crazy shit in S3…
I- I guess I'll just be over here looking at Yakuza Kiwami, then? Like- that and The Cortex Trilogy are the gold standard for remakes at this point, right? If you actually wanted to put the effort in and remake them properly rather than upscaling old, shit textures and calling it a day?
The PC release of Shenmue I & II has been confirmed for August 21st, which probably makes a strong case for the console re-releases landing on the same day (more or less).
This new trailer is dreadful, though.
It makes it look so… small. And silly. Which I guess Shenmue always was, in retrospect, but my memory is of a bigger, less-goofy game. Yes, its world was mundane, but there was something beautiful about that. It's a pity that a modern graphics card and HD textures can annihilate so much of the charm.
Console versions are the same day, and if you pre-order now, you get 10% off.
Spoiler - click to showI may have preordered. I never actually played Shenmue, but I still have this weird nostalgia for the thing from aniki playing it. By the time I came to even attempting a run, the controls were so dated and clunky that I wasn't able to make a dent; hoping that the updated control system improves things. Either way, I'm going to make Sarah play it, as she's never experienced the majesty.
I can't wait to air out Li Shao Tao's books again. And catching Leaves to show I'm chill as fuck, also hanging out around Li Shao Tao, best character. <3
I feel like if Shenmue really is that big a deal you'd- probably want to put more effort into a remaster than they did? The audio sounded like it was the original recorded-in-a-lavatory quality, the framerate was pretty alarmingly bad and the texture quality was decidedly naff.
Next to the remasters of Shadow of the Colossus, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro and Yakuza 1 and 2 this looks decidedly slapdash.
Well Crash Bandicoot and Spyro were remakes, not just upscaled, but yes I agree that they don't seem to have done Shenmue any favours, Joy looks like her face has been stretched.
I've said before that I think a ground-up remake of Shenmue would ruin it - the experience is so precariously balanced that changing the core systems risks exposing all the myriad of flaws which are endearing in a retro game but fatal to a new one.
I just want a game I like asap, I don't wanna' have to wait years for a remake like FF7, even the Yakuza series, I mean, how long until they reach Yakuza 6? We've not even got Kiwami 2 yet. The 'oldness' isn't gonna' bother me, I just want to hunt my dad's killer inbetween bouts of arcades and Virtua Fighter lite style dust ups (counter elbow assault drool), especially since we're also eventually getting Shenmue 3 anyway. Not saying I wouldn't want a Shenmue Kiwami, in an ideal world they'd have surprised us with that but they haven't so what can we do?
I guess the reviews can call this sort of stuff out, but then again this is an instant buy for me so those won't be aimed at me. That said, what exactly have they promised with this? From the first post of the thread, it doesn't seem like a lot.
At the end of the day, this is all moot anyway. Reviews are going to savage it because the game's aged badly (and negativity gets clicks), fan sites will say it's the second coming of Christ, it'll sell reasonably well to those who remember it but not really to people who don't and then we'll all move on with our lives when the next big thing to kick the shit out of comes along.
Folk who like Shenmue will like it, those who don't won't. Doubt it's going to be much more than that. Unless there's a contingent of entitled arseholes who decide to wade in and try to tell Sega they've ruined everything and should make it again, because it's not what they wanted. Even though it is.
Not played Zero but I thought Kiwami would be nice to play in the meanwhile. I was wrong. (albeit not at first). Do tell me if the boss fights are actually good in this.
