Martin Robinson writes "There's so much of it, it feels impenetrable. Shenmue 2's Hong Kong isn't the biggest of open worlds, and unlike the Yokosuka suburb that preceded it, it can hardly claim to be the densest. Yet AM2's Hong Kong is thick with character and purpose: an overwhelming city where you sink into a gentle rut amidst its wider rhythms, where human life flows through its streets, ebbing in from the harbour before it splashes down sidewalks and sends slow, chattering oxbows around cluttered alleyways."
Shenmue 2 Turns 20 Years: we look back where Ryo's journey stopped and how that absence helped bring him back again thanks to the fans.
From Eurogamer: "Shenmue 2 is 20 years old today.
First released on Dreamcast on 6th September 2001 in Japan, it came to Europe a few months later on November 23rd - and was an Xbox exclusive in North America when it eventually arrived in October the following year."
Good times and I'm glad we got 3. Sure it was not very good but I never thought I would live to see the day and that feels special.
Sega will try to make hundreds and hundreds of Yakuza games in the next 10 years. Because people keep buying them. I wish Sega would try a few Shenmue games. Shenmue could use the full budget that Yakuza and Judgement games get
I played yakuza 0 a year or so ago which was my first yakuza game and it was awesome and I played 6 but I really can't stomach all of them. There's so many. So I would also take more of Shenmue instead.
I liked the fact that that original shenmues especially the first was like more of an adventure game. Well, perhaps there were too many quicktime events.
I have the opposite problem. I played Shenmue I & II a few years ago and found them surprisingly good and compelling. Then I played Yakuza 0 and was absolutely floored by it. Afterwards, I beat Yakuza 1-7 in little over a year and though I can safely say I have had my fill of Yakuza for now (and nothing reached the heights of 0), I could never go back to crusty old Shenmue in light of the improvements Yakuza made. Sorry Shenmue.
@binarymind. Yeah Shenmue was amazing and felt so fresh 20 years ago. I beat 1-2 on my Dreamcast and couldn’t wait for next game. When the next one came nearly 20 years later it was clear Shenmue needed a refresh and I was no longer interested. Not to mention due to the length of time between games the story of 1 and 2 are for the most part lost on me now. Nevertheless, the both games left a pretty big impression on me back in the day and were great for their time.
I can remember finishing Shenmue 2 in 2002 and being extremely excited for the next one. If asked back then I never would have expected that the series would still be incomplete in 2021.
After a surprise announcement at E3 2015 and a massively successful Kickstarter campaign, Shenmue III finally arrived last month and it…. didn’t exactly blow us away. Developer Ys Net has painstakingly recreated the goofy and stilted charm that defined the first two Shenmue games, but that charm sadly isn’t as easy to appreciate in 2019 as it was 20 years ago when the original Shenmue arrived
I thought the fighting techniques were real techniques way back when I was playing the original.
Playing through the original on PS4 atm.
I'd really like to catch up on the series before playing the third.
I enjoy the classic martial arts aspect. It's cliche, but beautifully so!
My only criticism of the first game on PS4 is the classic controls are rather rough and movement has a bit of lag. However, I bought Shenmue I & II Collection on PS Store for $11.99 several days ago and it was still a steal. Very nostalgic and I'd have to assume that the visuals and controls will be significantly better in the third installment. I believe I will love the third.
The same that makes the first one special. You can interact with everything but its a refined open world. Not a playground like GTA or Just Cause.
For those who think that Shenmue III needs to be an open-world game in the vein of GTA or Sleeping Dogs to remain relevant to its fan base or even to the industry, need to read this article.
Additionally, here's an equally important video about why Shenmue's take on the open-world is so unique and irreplaceable: https://www.youtube.com/wat...
I don't think you could both read this article and watch that video and then have a solid basis for Shenmue needing to change or "get with the times". Shenmue was always about the introspective attention to detail, the grounded realism, the purpose, the immersion and respect that comes from appreciating the culture of a place, the growth of a character on his journey. Not the arcade playground antics of the ADHD-fuelled open-world games of today which can go significantly unexplored by players, as fun as those games can be.
You need context to appreciate Shenmue's world and its gameplay. It affords no wastage on carnage. Why would Ryo attack a random NPC? Why allow it to happen when it would only disconnect his character from its defined traits and his mission? That is what modern open-world games allow to happen, but why should Shenmue allow that kind of stuff to happen when it would only cause detriment to the kind of experience that it is? Why would Ryo having a drivable vehicle aid his journey, when the experience is as much about talking to people on the streets than getting around massive places quickly or running people over and giving our main character a wanted level? Why would we NOT make Ryo get a cumbersome job, when that is what a normal person who have to do to get money and progress their objectives? It helps add context and realism and understanding to the character's goals and the effort he is going to to bring justice to his father.
People could come along and claim its methods of gameplay/storytelling as boring, but I know for a fact that most Shenmue fans consider those elements as the most memorable and desirable.
Nothing.
Click disagree to agree.
In the Dreamcast days it was special to see things like this. You also had Shenmue Online it were good too.
was kinda special to see something like this back in the days. had lots of useless rooms and doors to knock on for no reason whatsoever but was a cool concept.
open world games before this was basically a JRPG. never played any western games sp cant really compare.
Random encounters was pretty cool, a bunch of different routes such as talking to different people was something you didnt see everywhere. ,-'- <--teacup thing in shenmue 2 had lots of random stuff that I have not even explored despite playing the game every year. Lots of unique random NPC, dont think they had any doubles at all unlike most games.
so many things made this great similar to how MGS2 made random things interactive.