Played through both games for the first time in my life.. WTF

[MONZUN]

hey

so i played through both games for the first time in my entire life throughout the last week and i'm kinda speechless.

shenmue 1 was mediocre only and nothing more than an introduction but shenmue 2 was absolutely fantastic and especially the third act, when ryo arrives in guilin was OUT OF THIS WORLD.

how is it possible that this was created 18 years ago and its better than anything i've ever played (i mean act 3). mesmerizing, magical and beautiful revolutionary storytelling. Its the pinnacle of storytelling.. I'm sooo happy that i played through it just now and not 18-20 years ago because the wait for shenmue 3 would have killed me LOL o_O

just wanted to say this as i can't believe what the devs did in act 3 of shenmue 2... i'Ve played through most if not all good+ games from the past 20 years and this is literally the most emotional thing i'Ve ever experienced. the second best game in terms of storytelling and emotions was life is strange before the storm in my opinion btw, but its a modern and recent game and this is such an old game. totally ridiculous that they didn't do shenmue 3 directly after releasing shenmue 2, what a waste of talent and time o_O never seen a bigger waste of time than this

still, thanks @devs for making this remaster available on pc and to the original devs for creating this masterpiece of a game !

best regards
monzun

[djpudz]

It was way ahead of it's time, when this was first released most other games where very linear and their graphics wasn't as good as Shenmue plus Shenmue had things like mini games, day/night cycle, interactive items in the world (drinks machines, a shop with items to buy, working house phone etc), intelligent AI with there own life and schedule (instead of mindless wandering) all these features were rare or non-existent in other games at the time.
I think the main reason it didn't become a more successful franchise (and why a 3rd game wasn't made back then) was Sega announced bankruptcy and declared they would no longer be making consoles, only developing games for other companies the same year Shenmue 2 was launched.

[95 Subaru Impreza]

what he said they spent a lot of money on those first two games dreamcast didnt sell well shenmue didnt sell well they went bankrupt

[stav8]

The wait has killed me. Just replayed 1 and plan to start number 2 later on today in preperation for 3. Literally still got my original dreamcast copies aswell, with 2 been a preorder after I was so enamoured with the original. After the death of the dreamcast it just got shelved as the release of 2 gained little traction and a few years later, Yakuza happened

[GamerXT]

no they never went bankrupt, they quit the DC to avoid going bankrupt, although they where owned by CSK back then, which has billions, so no, they probably wouldnt of gone bankrupt regardless, they just would of seemed crappy to CSK for continuing with the console. Although I would of liked Shenmue 3 on DC also

[R3N]

1) Shenmue 1 is not mediocre at all and is in fact the better game. Why?
The game feels more alive and personal. Every NPC is unique with a backstory.
Every npc has personalized AI and day/night dayly schedule. They even get out of their home in the morning and got back to their home at night walking there that is just surreal for a game.
As well Shenmue had a LOT of secrets in it. Including secret moves, scenes that I am still discovering to this day like been able to meet in the game the CEO of Sega this is very hard to unlock. The most beautiful is the music at night time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1laFdRH7TA
As well you can see the tree blooms during spring, Santa and Christmas season and New Year celebration where women wear their new year Japanese dress. As well as bad ending.
Secret Fights & QTE etc. As well your friends visiting over in disc 2.


2) Reason why there was no Shenmue 3 was that they released Shenmue 2 on Xbox which was a terrible choice and terrible market for the game that is why very low sales, if Shenmue was released on PS2 we would had Shenmue 5-6 by now.
Another reason was that Shenmue was canceled by segaSAMMY. Sammy forced Sega to merge by Force and then they closed many independent studios down, did lots of layouts and severely limited their international operations by closing more offices in the west and limiting the game development budget severely.

Since you new to the game check the guides.
https://archive.org/details/shenmueprimasstrategyguide_201909/page/n3
https://segaretro.org/images/7/78/Official_Shenmue_Perfect_Guide_US_Book.pdf

Shenmue 2 has secrets as well. 2 Secret fights and Fangmei birthday event.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/xbox/561258-shenmue-ii/faqs/19956

Shenmue 2 had so much dialog I never heard before it was so amazing how much work they did https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=527&v=V0Ry-SkLEQk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyiB7j3YmAE

I Wish Xiu Ying would give me sweets as well!


This is scene I never knew it existed till today!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBPF9W8m3BU
This is a game you can discover new things years later.

[Silavahammas]

Gotta agree without nostalgia Shenmue 1 being pretty adamant in its vision (Forklift race everyday, anyone?), little too much padding, but storywise it makes sense. Pretty hardcore game, if you can immerse yourself.

Shenmue 2 on the other hand blows my mind, little details, music, atmosphere gets better every playthrough since 2005 or so.. A videogame that gets better with age (or me getting older), rare thing to say. Still love them both.
Long live Shenmue o/

[Hermit]

The Guilin part of Shenmue 2 was masterful in my opinion. There isn't much to do but walk and talk, but it's absolutely crucial that it exists in Shenmue 2. When you play that part of the game, you understand why Shenmue fans have wanted the third game for so long.

[Arsene Lupin]

You only have your own biases to blame. Most of the best games in almost every genre are years--or decades--old. That's what happens when a media format ages. New does not mean better.

[R3N]

The surprising thing is that we're not supposed to get Guilin and the game was supposed to end after Kowloon. So Gui Ling was more of a demo of what is to come.
even though the area before Kowloon was big enough for its own game!
The Hong Kong areas were twice as big as the whole Shenmue 1 world.
Kowloon I guess as big as the first game in size areas.
Looking forward to how big Shenmue III world will be even though sadly it would not be as special as the old games. But we Finally got a sequel.