Shenmue I & II confirmed [PS4, XO, PC]

[tuna]

Shenmue has a captivating story and unique elements that have never been attempted before. But the presentation and execution weren't there. Animations, physics (which barely exist), sound samples and controls are rough and straight out of Sega Saturn quality

Shenmue has accurate stretchy curly phone cord physics! You can even see that if you look really close.

Anyway, Shenmue 1 and 2 are absolute classics, and when Shenmue 2 was released (I played the jap release with the original Yan) it was the greatest game ever.

To bad you don't get it

 

[Nesh]

That's barely much in terms of physics in game.
I didn't get into Shenmue 2 yet. But I ll definitely finish that too and then get into Shenmue 3

 

[tuna]

That's barely much in terms of physics in game.
I didn't get into Shenmue 2 yet. But I ll definitely finish that too and then get into Shenmue 3

For crazy old school Sega/AM2 fan boys (old men now), the phone cord physics is something that Yu Suzuki really insisted on but everyone on the dev team (including Tak Hirai who ended up implementing it) thought was totally pointless. But it is those crazy things that actually makes Shenmue "Shenmue".

 

[Nesh]

Sure as a historical relic it has some value, but does it counter the fact that most of the game lacks physics?

 

[Karamazov]

i don't think i would have liked it either if i played it for the first time nowadays, standards have moved a lot, but at the time yeah it was a masterpiece and is now part of videogames history for that.

 

[Cyan]

i don't think i would have liked it either if i played it for the first time nowadays, standards have moved a lot, but at the time yeah it was a masterpiece and is now part of videogames history for that.

wasn't it one of the first games where you could go inside the houses? iirc from people that played the game back then, that was a big deal

 

[eastmen]

controls were not perfect of course, especially with only one analog stick on the DC's controller.
But the concept of a small lively open world was fascinating, with the ability to look at and open a lot of furniture etc... gave a great sense of freedom at the time.
The cutscene, i though some were prerendered as they were so much better looking than anything i had seen on PS1/N64.
the combat system was derived from Virtua fighter and was good, but too scarce.
I agree in did not age well though, but at the time it was a masterpiece and set the bar for the genre.
Shenmue 3 for exemple has stayed too close to the original in its mechanics, and it shows, i did not like it much, too archaic for the period it released.

This is a game that changed gaming. It's like an ultima 4 or super mario brothers or doom or ultima underworld or ultima online etc. They don't come around often but afterwards everything is changed.

 

[Nesh]

wasn't it one of the first games where you could go inside the houses? iirc from people that played the game back then, that was a big deal

Well, not exactly. Going inside houses is pretty common in RPGs. You cant enter every house either in Shenmue.

What set it apart is it's dynamic 3D world I would say. It was like the primordial soup of modern open world games.

 

[Karamazov]

wasn't it one of the first games where you could go inside the houses? iirc from people that played the game back then, that was a big deal

maybe not the first, but the houses in which you could go were very detailed for the time, inside Ryo's house you could open furniture and examine inside, that was never seen before.

 

[tuna]

Sure as a historical relic it has some value, but does it counter the fact that most of the game lacks physics?

Of course not. But it is not really a game that would benefit from physics either.

 

[Nesh]

Of course not. But it is not really a game that would benefit from physics either.

I actually think it would. In terms of gameplay the forklift is totally off. Once you touch the edge of a geometry it simply freezes. In the racing mini game the collision between the forklifts is also off. The dart mini game has zero physics. A tiny cat walking in the harbour would totally bring your forklift to a standstill

In terms of visual immersion, hair clothes, snow/rain and environment objects would have benefited with some physics.

The game is supposed to convey a living world but it speaks all the technical limitations they found on the development on the Sega Saturn. This isn't limited to just physics though, but also to the super stiff robotic NPC animations, behaviours, and sound samples.

 

[Globalisateur]

I spend too many hours in those arcade games!

 

[Karamazov]

to be fair GTA3 physics and animations were not better.

 

[Nesh]

GTA3 unlike Shenmue 1, was a true sandbox game, much bigger in size, with a lot more going on. There was a lot more physics with vehicles, explosions and sandbox interactions.

Since GTA3 spread lots of resources in it's sandbox gameplay and scope, while having a stylized look, it makes up for it's shortcomings, and as a result they are less in the focus.

Shenmue on the other hand is a small RPG. It has only two small locations, and narrow scripted gameplay. It's aim was a realistic cinematic look with strong focus on characters. It required more attention in Shenmue's strengths, which it didnt receive adequately. Likely due to deadlines and having to port from Saturn to DC. As a result Sega Saturn level of physics and animations stick out a lot worse with the fidelity of the Dreamcast.

I am sure that if the devs had more time, money and the game was done for the DC from the beginning, the game would have been properly polished and maybe would have had physics, interactions and flow on par with The Bouncer.

 

[tuna]

I actually think it would. In terms of gameplay the forklift is totally off. Once you touch the edge of a geometry it simply freezes. In the racing mini game the collision between the forklifts is also off. The dart mini game has zero physics. A tiny cat walking in the harbour would totally bring your forklift to a standstill

I would claim that those are game design choices. Do you want to run over cats in the game?

 

[Nesh]

I would claim that those are game design choices. Do you want to run over cats in the game?

But design choice. Certainly don't want to end in a stand still of a tiny object that is barely visible and easy to miss

 

[Davros]

Do you want to run over cats in the game?

Oh god, yes please...

 

[tuna]

Oh god, yes please...

You would probably want to beat down poor Ine-san, take all the money and spend it all on in-game coke and gambling as well!

 

[Nesh]

Yes

 

[Karamazov]

Grand Theft Otto