Shenmue I & II (re-release)

marcbrophy

I didn't want to use the Shenmue III thread to discuss these.

Releasing in 5 short days on the 21st of August. Ps4 and Xbox One versions only.

The game collection .net selling this for £22.95 +£2 ROI shipping.
Amazon UK selling for £29.99 with free shipping.
Smyths selling for €34.99
Gamestop, who the hell cares?

I'm not sure how fondly I remember these games. In fact I never played the 2nd one, but I'm willing to give them another go.

Also looking forward to Shenmue III in 2025 :P

super_furry

I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed with how poorly the two games have aged. They were ground-breaking for the time on a machine that deserved a lot better than the fate it got but really today, Shenmue is mostly just a historic footnote.

The big draw of the games at launch was the graphics, which were stunning at the time. I mean they’re still fine now, but gameplay wise it’s not great. The combat feels slow and clunky in comparison to modern titles, it’s the game that coined the term ‘quick time event’, most of the actual gameplay is just a series of mini-game and the voice acting and story telling is just awful.

The clamour for another Shenmue always confused me, especially when you consider that the Yakuza series took everything Shenmue that did and moved it forward, making it a much more interesting and entertaining series.

As a retro curio and/or B-movie type game, it’s interesting, but I’d have zero desire to actually play it again.

Mr Crispy

They're also available on PC (Steam, also 21st August). Fanatical currently has them for €27.99, but may be cheaper elsewhere.

marcbrophy

I tend to agree with all you said furry!
I'm just hopeful that nostalgia might get me through at least one of them

Darch Nemesis wrote: »

They're also available on PC (Steam, also 21st August). Fanatical currently has them for €27.99, but may be cheaper elsewhere.

Yeah, I worded that awfully, sorry.
Meant to say that the sites I was calling out were only stocking the console version.

PC version available from Steam, and all good grey market retailers :pac:

Kiith

super_furry wrote: »

I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed with how poorly the two games have aged.

I suspect you will be right. I'll get them, and play through them both, but mainly from a nostalgia point of view, and to see the games that were so groundbreaking at the time.

megaten

I don't plan on getting them at launch but I'm planning to play them for the first time at some stage this year and I think I'll enjoy them. I love games with a strong sense of place and the Shenmue games seem exactly that.

wexdevil

Loved them back when they first came out on the dreamcast (even bought the it on the original xbox) Looking forward to replaying them again


(though I'm aware they haven't aged well)

SomeSayKos

Absolutely love these games and I replayed them a couple of years ago on my Dreamcast. I think people playing them for the first time now might be a bit bemused. But for me it's a pure nostalgia buzz and a reason to reaffirm my hatred of Lan Di

marcbrophy

The game collections just shipped mine there, shortly after midday.
I should definitely have this on Monday

Azza

super_furry wrote: »

I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed with how poorly the two games have aged. They were ground-breaking for the time on a machine that deserved a lot better than the fate it got but really today, Shenmue is mostly just a historic footnote.

The big draw of the games at launch was the graphics, which were stunning at the time. I mean they’re still fine now, but gameplay wise it’s not great. The combat feels slow and clunky in comparison to modern titles, it’s the game that coined the term ‘quick time event’, most of the actual gameplay is just a series of mini-game and the voice acting and story telling is just awful.

The clamour for another Shenmue always confused me, especially when you consider that the Yakuza series took everything Shenmue that did and moved it forward, making it a much more interesting and entertaining series.

As a retro curio and/or B-movie type game, it’s interesting, but I’d have zero desire to actually play it again.

Does using the Japanese voiceover make the game sound better or is the dialogue still rubbish in the subtitles?

blaa85

I'm a massive Shenmue fan so I'll be picking up a copy once I find out which platform runs it best. I still regularly play the dreamcast versions and I'm looking forward to seeing any improvements.

I've been harping on about how it was the greatest thing for nearly 20 years, I'm kinda worried when my friends pick up a copy. The control system is quite clunky and outdated and I hated the English VO. I always set it to the original VO since the sequel only had that on the DC anyway.

SomeSayKos

Azza wrote: »

Does using the Japanese voiceover make the game sound better or is the dialogue still rubbish in the subtitles?

The japanese audio is definitely better as the voice actors are more convincing

Potential-Monke

If there is the original Japanese audio for anything, you're better going with that. I refuse to watch my anime in anything but the original tongue, so Japanese mainly. It's just better. Listen to a comparison of One Piece Japanese voices vs US voices. They don't even remotely sound similar, and the voice acting in general sounds like it was done by a bunch of 5 year olds. A lot of the charm is missing as a result.

I'll pick these up, but i'm not expecting the next best thing in gaming. More to relive the nostalgia, so I'll probably pick this up with Shenmue III when it releases.

Sephiroth_dude

SomeSayKos wrote: »

The japanese audio is definitely better as the voice actors are more convincing

Any game from Japan i play these days it's with japanese audio and English subs, soooo much better !


Never played these games , might pick them up eventually.

Tipsy McSwagger

From a nostalgia point of view Shenmue has to be played over Christmas.

Julez

SomeSayKos wrote: »

The japanese audio is definitely better as the voice actors are more convincing

I get this... but the bad English voice acting is part of the charm and nostalgia for me, ha!

marcbrophy

marcbrophy wrote: »

The game collections just shipped mine there, shortly after midday.
I should definitely have this on Monday

It never did arrive today!
Fingers crossed for tomorrow, or I'll be fairly annoyed

marcbrophy

marcbrophy wrote: »

It never did arrive today!
Fingers crossed for tomorrow, or I'll be fairly annoyed

Nothing today either!
Guess I'm fairly annoyed :mad:

Installing now, never played the original games so I'm looking forward to it.

I was not expecting this to look and run as well as it does. Some reviews mentioned many technical issues in their pre release copies but I see none of them.

Normally with stuff like this I know I'm playing an old game but it's not really the case here for me, this would have been right up my street had I played it 20 years ago and so far I'm happy I picked this up today.

Retr0gamer

21:9 mode is screwed up on PC but I can live without it. Supposed to be fixed in an update.

SomeSayKos

Picking this up on Friday ( payday ). Can't wait to hate Lan Di all over again!

marcbrophy

Got mine finally in the post today!
Now to finish work later and give it a lash

KevW24601

I downloaded it yesterday.

I was always a big fan of the games on the Dreamcast so revisiting that has been fantastic.

I've read on other websites about the litany of glitches though. Haven't experienced much of them though apart from the multi-blinking buttons on the Excite QTE mini-game - where two buttons flash at the same time. Anybody else get this?

But apart from that, it's been great!

Benzino

What are the controls like? I recall replaying it on the Xbox a few years back and found it very difficult to play, the controls aged terribly.

I've not changed from what ever default is in it and haven't played the originals but so far they are fine. Bit clunky turning in close quarters at times but nothing that has bothered me so far.

SomeSayKos

Got a corrupted save on the ps4. Luckily there was a cloud save from not too long before that but still

Mal-Adjusted

So is it worth getting? Considering I have both games on Dreamcast and the second one on Xbox, does this release add anything new?

Kiith

I'll be buying it this weekend anyway. Been over a decade since i played either, so looking forward to it again.

Unpopular opinion:
These games are crap and do not hold up well at all

heebusjeebus

Fred The Red wrote: »

Unpopular opinion:
These games are crap and do not hold up well at all

You're not alone....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t945PwBwMM

SomeSayKos

Fred The Red wrote: »

Unpopular opinion:
These games are crap and do not hold up well at all

It's a divisive game, always has been and especially now given how much gaming has progressed in the near 20 years since its release. I personally love it. It made a huge impact on me when I first played it and I'm currently loving playing through it again as it is a pure nostalgic experience. I like the tone of the game, the deliberacy of its pacing ( which i know and understand will infuriate some people, but i like it ) and the general 'vibe'.

SomeSayKos

heebusjeebus wrote: »

You're not alone....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t945PwBwMM

I really can't stand Jim Sterling or other youtubers who've made a career out of negativity but hey, each to their own

SomeSayKos

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

So is it worth getting? Considering I have both games on Dreamcast and the second one on Xbox, does this release add anything new?

I've got the first on the dreamcast ( never got the second ), but I bought it on the ps4 because I fear my dreamcast's days are numbered

heebusjeebus

SomeSayKos wrote: »

I really can't stand Jim Sterling or other youtubers who've made a career out of negativity but hey, each to their own

To be fair, he's not negative about every game.

SomeSayKos

heebusjeebus wrote: »

To be fair, he's not negative about every game.

No that's true, but he is negative a LOT of time and I used to be a fan but after a while it started to grate on me.

Kiith

Fred The Red wrote: »

Unpopular opinion:
These games are crap and do not hold up well at all

Crap? No.
Don't hold up well? Almost certainly.

Retr0gamer

Shenmue has a myriad of flaws but on the other hand there really isn't anything else like it. If you can immerse yourself in the world then you will enjoy yourself and at it's heart it's a detective story so more like a visual novel than an open world game. And the open world is so intricately detailed (in many senses overly so) that it's unique among other games.

Definitely not a game for everyone.

Some of the cut scenes borked in mid to later stages of the first game for others? Really annoying, you'll hear the dialogue fine but the screen will be stuck on a wall or the ground :mad:

Over all enjoying this

blaa85

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Some of the cut scenes borked in mid to later stages of the first game for others? Really annoying, you'll hear the dialogue fine but the screen will be stuck on a wall or the ground :mad:

Over all enjoying this

I have read about this, it seems to happen to people playing in aspect ratio 16:9. I'm holding off playing it for the next week in the hopes it gets patched.

ERG89

Retr0gamer wrote:

Shenmue has a myriad of flaws but on the other hand there really isn't anything else like it.

Yakuza is very much in the same vein as it.
I think these re-releases are quite shocking as the graphics & audio are somehow worse than I imagined games were in 2001/02. When you think stuff like MGS 2 & Silent Hill 2 were out around the same time as these originally it makes Shenmue look tacky and out of date.

blaa85

blaa85 wrote: »

I have read about this, it seems to happen to people playing in aspect ratio 16:9. I'm holding off playing it for the next week in the hopes it gets patched.

Ah ok I'm one of those people in 16:9

blaa85

ERG89 wrote: »

Yakuza is very much in the same vein as it.
I think these re-releases are quite shocking as the graphics & audio are somehow worse than I imagined games were in 2001/02. When you think stuff like MGS 2 & Silent Hill 2 were out around the same time as these originally it makes Shenmue look tacky and out of date.

Shenmue was out in 99, 2/3 years before then. Something closer was Ocarina of time in 98. Shenmue's graphics were unbelievable at the time.

Jerichoholic

Jim Sterling with an edgy opinion for attention.

I'm shocked.

I'm still on the fence about having to pass time, can be annoying but on the other had I do think fair play to the devs for trying this 20 years ago. I stopped watching the sterling video after a few minutes as I felt he was going to start repeating himself or try to apply modern standards to it. Ok i heard you the first time Jim.

Some the attention to detail given it's age is pretty cool, like brollies going up when it rains , shop keepers opening up their shutters, closing up and walking to a bar, the streets changing a week before Xmas. and santy walking around etc. You might not see that in some games released today.

Retr0gamer

I think the devs themselves knew the waiting around was a bit too far as they let you skip forward in the sequel!

I was enjoying this up until I had to start moving crates around on a forklift.

Kiith

Ah, the first job i ever had...forklift driving

RobertFoster

Deleted User wrote: »

I was enjoying this up until I had to start moving crates around on a forklift.

That's the best part. Race to beat co-workers in the morning, race to beat quotas during the day.

Shenmue made me want a forklift licence in real life.

Day 1 was was fun day 4 not so much.

marcbrophy

RobertFoster wrote: »

That's the best part. Race to beat co-workers in the morning, race to beat quotas during the day.

Shenmue made me want a forklift licence in real life.

Coincidentally, I got a forklift licence couple of months before the game came out. So I was really enamoured with the forklift part