Shenmue: a misunderstood game

I open this thread to speak about one of the greatest game of all time, Shenmue.

A game that didn' t gain success because of many factors.
Shenmue is a game where you can look whereever you want, you can look people have their life, go to work, come back from work, go to a bar and return home at night, maybe in the rain or snow.

A game full of atmosphere, given by the tranquility of Yokosuka, by the winter, by the greatest music of all time (composed also by Yuzo Koshiro ).

And Shenmue II with the caotic Hong Kong, where you have to earn money to continue your search for the guilty of the murder of Iwao hazuki, father of Ryo Hazuki.

A game where Ryo Hazuki, the hero, is not a super human with super powers, fireballs etc. but it' s a normal young man like us.

The first game that had bring us real freedom (freedom not only to go around without do anything, but freedom to dream).

What do you think about this game?

I give Shenmue a score of 1


OUT OF 3!! :)

I agree, Shenmue 1 and 2 are great games. People with short attention spans might get bored, but Shenmue is a game I played through again immediately after beatin it, and Shenmue 2 I played through two more times after beating it. It' s that good.

Shenmue is a role playing game in the strictest sense of the word. It makes " RPGs" like Suikoden III and Final Fantasy look like board games. You literally play the role of Ryo. I' m surprised you don' t have to make him take a dump every day. With games like Final Fantasy, you just choose " buy" and " equip" from menus, as well as " fight" and " magic" . You also control where they run around to. Shenmue is WAAAY more involved, thus it earns the label of an " RPG" much more than the other mentioned games. But I don' t blame Sega for not labeling Shenmue as an RPG, especially since they wouldn' t want people to confuse it with games like Final Fantasy which are a dime a dozen.

The only thing that could really be improved in Shenmue is the Engrish voice acting. Nearly every character in the game pronounces Ryo' s name differently. Some characters seem to think it' s spelled with a " D" . But the UK import for the Dreamcast has Japanese voice and Engrish subtitles, and it works tremendously well.

A score of 1 out of 3 tranlates to 33 out of 100, or 33%. That is horribly low. I' d rate it WAY higher than that.

I Suck at math, lol.. When I said 1 out of 3 I intended it to mean something like 8/10.. :)

Shenmue 2 was significantly better and deserves a 9.3 out of 10.. Disc 3 alone deserves a 9.6 out of 10.
Disc 4 kinda brings the overall score down after the tremendous high experienced after Disc 3.

I loved disc 4. It definitely took on a different feel, but I don' t think it brought it down. It was a whole new chapter.

Shenmue was a very innovative game upon its initial release, and Shenmue 2 continued that trend.

But too much Shenmue is indeed a bad thing...the concept and gameplay kept things exciting, but the english dialogue exchange su**ed so bad that anyone born to speak the language should be insulted. If my kids kept a conversation like that, I would send them off to a school that specializes in English manner-isms as a major.

Shenmue I & II are wonderfully enjoyable games in themselves, but they bore those of us expecting a top-notch game from Japan..top notch all the way across the board, that is.

Any other game that gets 2 out of 3 things right usually gets a lesser score...Shenmue I & II is no exception.

Videogaming is the contemporary interactive pasttime.

I remember after completing the game how I wished Disc 4 of Shenmue 2 had been made into Disc 1 of Shenmue 3 if there ever was one.

I liked the content of disc 4, I just felt it would have served quite nicely as a prelude in Shenmue 3 - keeping the absolutely delicious cliffhanger ending of Shenmue 2' s 3rd disc as the final moments of Shenmue 2! :D

Shenmue 2 got it right DarOosh, cuz it was in Japanese with English subtitles. The experience was much better as a result.

Wow, you guys have really made me want to play this game. I bought a dreamcast the day it came out, and bought about 10 games within a couple weeks only to sell it afterwards

I wish I still had it, b/c there are so many games i missed out on from the system. This is one of them that I still desperately want to play

I think I have the longest attention span of all you twitch gamers, and I found Shenmue to be dreadfully boring.

I felt the same way about Shenmue II...I just couldn' t get into it, and I REALLY tried to like them both. It wanted to be both an action game and an RPG, but there wasn' t nearly enough action for it qualify for the action genre, and not even half the depth required to call it an RPG.

I know a lot of people who love the series, though.

Kikizo Staff Writer

It was a nice change of pace from other games. You didn' t have to run around doing all these crazy things to save the world; you actually had to just live in it for a while. I loved that about the game and spent ages just wondering around, talking to people, following people, knocking on people' s doors to see what they say. I really got immersed into this world and enjoyed myself a great deal. Shenmue II didn' t manage to capture me in the same way somehow but I still enjoyed it.

Fathoms, please explain how Final Fantasy 7 has more depth. Hell in Shenmue you can drink your favorite fake-brand of cola just for fun!

Fathoms, please explain how Final Fantasy 7 has more depth. Hell in Shenmue you can drink your favorite fake-brand of cola just for fun!

...this is so inane, I don' t even know where to begin. Try not to confuse open-endedness for depth. Anything in Shenmue is mostly cosmetic and has zero impact on the gameplay itself, anyway.

Kikizo Staff Writer

But but when Ryo drinks sodas it gives him gas and causes him to run slower. Surely that' s an effect on gameplay especially when you' re fighting against a boss character and getting your butt whipped because Ryo' s too busy burping all over the place to put up much of a fight!

Just the fact that you can do inane and useless things in the game gives it depth in my opinion (which carries more weight than anyone' s, obviously). It' s like you almost ARE Ryo. In typical RPG' s, you' re not really playing the " role" of the hero any more than you are playing the role of Arthur from Ghouls N Ghosts... OK not MUCH more than Arthur. In Shenmue you have to be careful how many times you wipe your ass or you will run out of toilet paer... and if you run out of toilet paper you' re screwed and must find something else to wipe with.... either that or you just " don' t go" and then Ryo (pronounced " Dee-Yo" by some morons in the game) will occasionally fall to constipation cramps and won' t be able to complete the 40 man battle!

I loved the first Shenmue but I just could never get interesed in the second. I' ve been trying ever since I bought it to finish the game but I still haven' t made it to the halfway point. This may sound crazy but I just hate how I have to earn money in Shenmue 2. I didn' t mind the whole forklift thing from the first because...well I don' t know why but I found it oddly enjoyable. I think maybe the reason I hate lifting crates and playing those damn chance games is the people I have to work with.

Joe: Sorry, all that is still cosmetic. It has no effect on how you play the game, because none of it is necessary to the advancement of the plot. Depth in gameplay is a million times more important, and the materia system and strategy found in FF VII FAR outstrips any gameplay mechanism found in Shenmue. In all fairness, though, Shenmue is a very, very different game. It' s not really right to compare the two.

Kikizo Staff Writer

I agree. Why compare a good game to a dreadfully boring game? I almost fell asleep during disc one of Final Fantasy 7. It wasn' t hard, it was just... completely uninteresting and uninspired. For some reason, Shenmue manages to keep my interest.

Also, in response to the first post: Yuzo Koshiro did very little of the music in Shenmue. Some of the music that he did was not in the game, so they used what was left over from him for a couple spots in Shenmue 2.

Yuzo Koshiro has made many music also in Shenmue 1.

He appears also in the credits screen.

-Shenmue, it' s time for your saga...to begin-

Yes, he appears in the credits screen. But overall I think his contribution to Shenmue 1 and 2 combined was less than 5 songs. And he didn' t do any of the overtures.

shenmue.......hmmmm.........

I don' t know how many songs Yuzo Koshiro composed for either game, but going by his somewhat familiar style there were maybe just a handful of themes that seemed to have his familiar touch... One theme in particular was in the original Shenmue when Ryo went to borrow that guy' s motorcycle to go rescue Nazomi... The music during that who scene of him asking for the bike just screamed Koshiro to me. I could definitely be wrong, which I usually am, lol...

I have the OST somewhere... if only I could find it. It tells of each song and its composer.

I agree. Why compare a good game to a dreadfully boring game? I almost fell asleep during disc one of Final Fantasy 7.

Hmmm...seems the entire critic community disagrees, seeing as how FF VII is not only widely considered to be the greatest RPG ever made, but seems to easily crack the top 10 list of any and all " Best Games Ever" created by any publication/site. Funny...Shenmue rarely appears on even the top 100........scratch that, it never does.

You were bored because you apparently have ADD and can' t sit still for very long unless the game is accompanied by constantly flashing lights and the need for button jamming. Ain' t my fault.

Kikizo Staff Writer

Best RPG of all time? Not at all...It did introduce to the masses a totally new experience for RPG players and brought RPG' s into the mainstream but it' s most definately NOT the best RPG ever. The story was meh and the combat system was meh. I could see where it would land on top 10 lists all the time just for what it did for RPG gaming but not because it' s the best RPG ever.

I see Shenmue in the same light. Was it the best game ever...no, but it did do a lot of things that haven' t been done before.

honestly, who really cares how many songs that cracker did? Shenmue is not the only interactive game out there, what makes it so special? and why do u care about how many times u wipe in the game? u can do that in real life and it wouldnt make any difference other than saving money on electricity. also, final fantasy VII was a famous game and Shenmue wasnt as famous, but they both, in their own ways, stink (yes, i am referring to the butt-wiping). and anyways, final fantasy VII wasnt the only famous FF game out there. im wondering why u stuck on that one?

honestly, who really cares how many songs that cracker did? Shenmue is not the only interactive game out there, what makes it so special? and why do u care about how many times u wipe in the game? u can do that in real life and it wouldnt make any difference other than saving money on electricity. also, final fantasy VII was a famous game and Shenmue wasnt as famous, but they both, in their own ways, stink (yes, i am referring to the butt-wiping). im wondering why u stuck on that one?and anyways, final fantasy VII wasnt the only famous FF game out there.

I' ve taken somewhat of a great disliking to you just from reading your first few posts. Maybe it' s your failed attempts at humor or just the overall quality of your posts...I don' t know. Well...now to dissecting what you said...

honestly, who really cares how many songs that cracker did?

The " cracker" ' s name is Yuzo Koshiro. Now I may be out of touch with my racial slangs here but I do believe the man is of Asian descent thus preventing him being the aforementioned " cracker" . Some say ignorance is bliss...is it Jonah?

Shenmue is not the only interactive game out there, what makes it so special?

True...most games are interactive...maybe you do have some intelligence since you seemed to pick that up right off the bat. However I think what everyone is talking about is the LEVEL of interactivity, which at the time of the original' s release it was something to be marveled.

and why do u care about how many times u wipe in the game? u can do that in real life and it wouldnt make any difference other than saving money on electricity.

Did you even play the game? Everyone in this thread acknowledged that what Joe said was fiction. Now you come in and use it for one of your points for your argument...which right now doesn' t seem so good.

also, final fantasy VII was a famous game and Shenmue wasnt as famous, but they both, in their own ways, stink

That was a great, and I want to strive GREAT reason for why Final Fantasy 7 and Shenmue are bad...they simply stink...why didn' t we all think of this earlier?

(yes, i am referring to the butt-wiping)

Uh oh...I think we have a comedian on our hands. You are just TOO funny for me.

and anyways, final fantasy VII wasnt the only famous FF game out thereim wondering why u stuck on that one?

Man...I swear you are too good. You see this is a thread where people respond to one another. Final Fantasy 7 was mentioned...hence the reason you see it in the thread. I personally like Final Fantasy X better than all of the FF games. But thanks anyway on the info that there is more than one FF game out there...

Hmmm...seems the entire critic community disagrees...

And I should care what critics say in regards to games I like/dislike because....?

You were bored because you apparently have ADD and can' t sit still for very long unless the game is accompanied by constantly flashing lights and the need for button jamming.

I wonder how I made it through Shenmue 1 and 2 (multiple times), Tales of Symphonia, Phantasy Star 1, 2, and 4, Vermilion, Shining Wisdom, Shining the Holy Ark, Skies of Arcadia, Golden Axe Warrior, Golvellius, and others. I was bored with Final Fantasy 7 because I was playing the " role" of a whiny teenager who had ZERO interesting character aspects running around in a game with a boring storyline and scratchy, edgy music. Yes, Tales of Symphonia had a whiny teenager as well. But at least the rest of the game was somewhat interesting. Tha game isn' t really an RPG, it' s more of a puzzle game with a story and a whiny teenager.

Ain' t my fault.

' fraid it is, bub.

no i did not play the game. i have never had an interest in the game and i think its safe to say i still dont and never will. i never read that carefully, so if everyone acknowledged something i very obviously missed it. so? and " cracker" is the term I use whenever im talking about someone i dont really give a shit about. now do u think my choice of terms work? ive said it before... ask questions before u talk shit, fucktart. yes i am blissful, but thats probly cause of the pot i smoked an hour ago.

And whats up with the happy faces? they dont really do anything for ur writing you know

yoshi: At last check, 6 of 10 major gaming publications (print and online) actually do rank FF VII as the best RPG of all time, 9 of 10 put it in the top 10 games of all time, and all 10 put it in the top 10 RPG' s of all time. This is generally the way it is viewed, regardless of what we say here. That' s all.

Joe: Gee...........the vast majority of those games (all, I think, save for one or two) are real-time. Thanks for proving my point.

And may I ask, how long did you play FF VII for?

Kikizo Staff Writer

Well if they do they are very foolish. I dislike " all time" since new RPG' s come out every year. I guess that' s the reason why I don' t read many magazines anymore...

In response to the following complaint I have decided to change my signature:

" by the way, yoshimitsu you might want to click the little checkbox that makes your signature disappear." -Jonah Shoemaker, Residential Dumbass

This is generally the way it is viewed, regardless of what we say here. That' s all.

Again... who cares? Not me. I still don' t like the game. Never will.

Joe: Gee...........the vast majority of those games (all, I think, save for one or two) are real-time.

Obviously we have learned that you cannot count. I listed 3 Phantasy Star games. Which one is " real time" ? Also, if you consider games like Tales of Symponia and Sword of Vermilion " real time" and look down upon them for the sake of this argument, then you must be saying that it' s the menu driven battles that make the RPG. Your point remains unproven.

And may I ask, how long did you play FF VII for?

I want to say maybe about 7 or 8 hours or so.

yoshi: THEY are " foolish" ? Since when have you been an RPG connisseaur?

Joe: You listed a lot of games. The only ones that were turn-based were the PS games. ToS is a hybrid much the same way SO 3 is a hybrid.

And 7 or 8 hours, huh? Of a 40-50 hour game? Yes, well, I' ll make sure to take your opinion on this game as gospel.

Kikizo Staff Writer

My opinion that the game is boring? You bet you will! Why would I continue to play a boring game?

Skies of Arcadia is not a turn based game? wow. And I swear Shining the Holy Ark was turn based. Oh well. Since you know what you' re talking about I' ll just figure that I only dreamed that those games were turn based.

Let' s see......10 games there? 7 are real-time.

I also find it funny that FF VII was " boring" while SoA, which was very similar was...what? Stimulating?

SoA sucked, IMO. No challenge whatsoever.

Kikizo Staff Writer

Shenmue 1 was awesome i beat the game 3 times.

I got the XBOX To play shenmue 2 but never got the game because HALO took over my life.

I think that Final Fantasy is one of the most boring games ever made.All u do is read and pick things to do from menues.Its the same thing as using these forums.

XBL Gamertag:RUSSIAN mobster
XBL Games:Splinter Cell:PT,PGR2,Mech Assault, Crimson Skies, MM3, DDR, Rainbow Six 3, Unreal Championship, NFL2k3, Moto GP, Tetris,RalliSport Challenge 2,HALO 2.

I think that Final Fantasy is one of the most boring games ever made.All u do is read and pick things to do from menues.Its the same thing as using these forums.

You' ve made quite a few retarded posts in the past...but each one somehow manages to top the last in terms of sheer stupidity.

Kikizo Staff Writer

I love how Fathoms resorts to directly insulting other members when people don' t like the same games he does. It speaks volumes.

Anyway, back to Shenmue. Did anyone ever notice that Ryo can get a Saturn so he can play Space Harrier, Hang-On and Out Run at his house? Wow. The Saturn existed in 1984, BEFORE the Sega Mega Drive!

I think that Final Fantasy is one of the most boring games ever made.All u do is read and pick things to do from menues.Its the same thing as using these forums.

lol

You' ve made quite a few retarded posts in the past...but each one somehow manages to top the last in terms of sheer stupidity.

Why is that retarded? he can say what he wants about the game. not all people have your patience level. and if its the forum comment, maybe hes just in it for the free video game.

yoshi: THEY are " foolish" ? Since when have you been an RPG connisseaur?

Oh I forget there can only be one " expert" on things in this forum...

I' ve played the majority of the FF games and I' ve beaten several other RPG' s. Final Fantasy 7 isn' t even the best thing from Square, let alone from any developer. Just because I don' t play RPG' s much anymore (due to time issues) doesn' t mean I haven' t played my share in the past. Like I said before Final Fantasy 7 did a lot of things for RPG' s back when it came out but it shouldn' t be confused as one of the best RPG' s of all time.

Honestly...what qualities does it offer up that are better than every RPG game out today?

In response to the following complaint I have decided to change my signature:

" by the way, yoshimitsu you might want to click the little checkbox that makes your signature disappear." -Jonah Shoemaker, Residential Dumbass