Post by dschroll on Apr 13, 2018 22:53:59 GMT -5
Sega just announced that definitive versions of Shenmue 1 and 2 will be coming to PS4 and XB1 this year. This is likely in preparation for Shenmue 3 coming later this year (kickstarter backed project).
www.ign.com/articles/2018/04/14/shenmue-1-and-2-being-re-released-on-ps4-xbox-one-and-pc
Anyone excited for these games?
Any past or present Dreamcast owners play these games?
I owned a Dreamcast back in '99 and did play both Shenmue 1 and 2 on my Dreamcast when they were out. Sadly. Shenmue 2 never got released in the US, so I had to play a EU import copy of the game. Nonetheless, I was and am a big fan of the Shenmue series. Admittedly, I have not played them recently and I am not so confident they hold up well. For starters, back in 2000 when the game first game out, it was doing things never before done or seen on consoles. It was a massive game world that you could explore and interact with a variety of people and take on various jobs and whatnot. By today's standards its sub par, but back in the day it was impressive. The American voice acting on the first game was terrible but tolerable. However, since the second was not released in the US, I played it with Japanese voices and English subtitles. To me, this was much more enjoyable because if the Japanese speaking was awkward or strange, it certainly wasn't perceivable by me as I don't speak a lick of Japanese.
The main issue with the first game is it drags quite a bit. You have to wait for certain times in the day or night for certain events to happen. There's no way to speed up time, so you end up doing some side job to kill some time until the event gets triggered. The main story of the game drags quite a bit too. I believe I read somewhere that Shenmue was intended to be like a 16 part story or something. I believe Shenmue 1 is like the first or first and second parts of that 16 part story, so it's a big slow moving.
When Sega made Shenmue 2, they really listened to the feedback and improved a ton in the sequel. It is IMO a MUCH better game. The graphics are better. The story is more interesting. You can now speed up time rather than just wandering around waiting for the time to eventually get there. One of the reasons the story is better in the second one is that much more plot happens throughout the game. From the same reading I referenced above, the second game covered Shenmue parts 2-5 or something. So it has many more interesting things happening in the game because of all the plot they are putting in the game. Unfortunately this isn't a game where I can say that you should skip Shenmue 1 and go straight to Shenmue 2. It's like saying, you should skip Fellowship of the Ring and go straight to The Two Towers. You'll miss a big part of the journey and motives of the characters so a lot of it won't make sense in part 2.
Shenmue 3 is supposed to be released later this year (hopefully). This was a game that broke all sorts of kickstarter records and was partially funded by Sony as well. I know for sure it's coming to PS4, but not sure if it will be coming to XB1 or not. However, no Switch announcement was made about Shenmue 1+2 and Switch wasn't even out when Shenmue 3 was first announced. So, it seems like a Switch version is unlikely, which is too bad as that would have been my platform of choice.
Nonetheless I am definitely on board to play through the world of Shenmue again (even though I have a Sega Dreamcast with both games already). I definitely recommend investigating this one if you happen to miss it 18 years ago. Again, by today's standards it's not going to groundbreaking, but try and keep in mind this game was released in November of 2000, basically right as the PS1 was coming out in the US. This game to me proved the Dreamcast could easily go toe-to-toe with Sony's PS2.
www.ign.com/articles/2018/04/14/shenmue-1-and-2-being-re-released-on-ps4-xbox-one-and-pc
Anyone excited for these games?
Any past or present Dreamcast owners play these games?
I owned a Dreamcast back in '99 and did play both Shenmue 1 and 2 on my Dreamcast when they were out. Sadly. Shenmue 2 never got released in the US, so I had to play a EU import copy of the game. Nonetheless, I was and am a big fan of the Shenmue series. Admittedly, I have not played them recently and I am not so confident they hold up well. For starters, back in 2000 when the game first game out, it was doing things never before done or seen on consoles. It was a massive game world that you could explore and interact with a variety of people and take on various jobs and whatnot. By today's standards its sub par, but back in the day it was impressive. The American voice acting on the first game was terrible but tolerable. However, since the second was not released in the US, I played it with Japanese voices and English subtitles. To me, this was much more enjoyable because if the Japanese speaking was awkward or strange, it certainly wasn't perceivable by me as I don't speak a lick of Japanese.
The main issue with the first game is it drags quite a bit. You have to wait for certain times in the day or night for certain events to happen. There's no way to speed up time, so you end up doing some side job to kill some time until the event gets triggered. The main story of the game drags quite a bit too. I believe I read somewhere that Shenmue was intended to be like a 16 part story or something. I believe Shenmue 1 is like the first or first and second parts of that 16 part story, so it's a big slow moving.
When Sega made Shenmue 2, they really listened to the feedback and improved a ton in the sequel. It is IMO a MUCH better game. The graphics are better. The story is more interesting. You can now speed up time rather than just wandering around waiting for the time to eventually get there. One of the reasons the story is better in the second one is that much more plot happens throughout the game. From the same reading I referenced above, the second game covered Shenmue parts 2-5 or something. So it has many more interesting things happening in the game because of all the plot they are putting in the game. Unfortunately this isn't a game where I can say that you should skip Shenmue 1 and go straight to Shenmue 2. It's like saying, you should skip Fellowship of the Ring and go straight to The Two Towers. You'll miss a big part of the journey and motives of the characters so a lot of it won't make sense in part 2.
Shenmue 3 is supposed to be released later this year (hopefully). This was a game that broke all sorts of kickstarter records and was partially funded by Sony as well. I know for sure it's coming to PS4, but not sure if it will be coming to XB1 or not. However, no Switch announcement was made about Shenmue 1+2 and Switch wasn't even out when Shenmue 3 was first announced. So, it seems like a Switch version is unlikely, which is too bad as that would have been my platform of choice.
Nonetheless I am definitely on board to play through the world of Shenmue again (even though I have a Sega Dreamcast with both games already). I definitely recommend investigating this one if you happen to miss it 18 years ago. Again, by today's standards it's not going to groundbreaking, but try and keep in mind this game was released in November of 2000, basically right as the PS1 was coming out in the US. This game to me proved the Dreamcast could easily go toe-to-toe with Sony's PS2.