I am playing Tekken 8 and Shenmue 1 remastered.
Tekken 8 is the most fun fighting game I ve played in ages. But the ranking system is super broken and doesn't make sense. It punishes you severely if you lose against a higher rank compared to a lower rank, and rewards you more if you win against a lower rank.
Shenmue is an interesting piece of gaming. The story execution suffers. Presentation has always been a weak point for Sega whereas innovation has been top notch. Dialogues and voice acting are amusingly funny and repetitive. The story though is brilliant and isn't complimented properly by stiff animations, stiff facial expressions and bad voice acting.
Sound was most likely reused from the original Saturn version. Polygon numbers are also extremely low. Comparing this to RPG's on the PS2 shows a big gap in the execution. Pacing is crazy slow which requires patience and is a victim of trying to be a cinematic experience and less of a game. I think that the game would have been more fan as a click and play game like Full Throttle and less of a 3D RPG. It has all the elements. Very likely the game was hindered by time pressure and having it's main foundation built on Saturn. I wonder how 2 compares.
The gameplay is a mix too. For a game in it's time I understand that it was a revolutionary cinematic experience. The game guides you in every step to the point where you aren't feeling that you are playing. There are no XP points or fights I can choose to pick by my own desire so far. I can teach my character new moves as I meet new friends. Losing just takes you exactly back at the start of a fight. Not sure if something changes later. Gameplay is scripted to tell a story mostly. It reminds me too much of The Order 1889. Controls are sluggish too
Regardless, this as a project that begun as Sega Saturn title and as a first attempt to create a living world with emphasis on story telling is a first. The world is alive with dynamic time, shops literally opening and closing in real time, their owners leaving or taking a break, weather changes according to the actual date/in game season, and festivities being present in accordance to the date. It was revolutionary and complex for something released back then and I can appreciate it as a great relic of history.
It is Abit ironic though that at the same time it set a template for game design which is criticized today by many. Little in terms of meaningful gameplay, very scripted and too many QTE. This was the first game I ever seen with QTE back in the day and I was very impressed back in the day with the cool cinematic action. I can't say I appreciate it though much now. The game's design was built around cinematic story telling obviously that no other game has ever attempted. It probably served as an inspiration for many modern games.
I wish though that Sega had the budget and time to refine this with more meaningful gameplay and proper presentation. Because underneath it's flaws there is a gem.
