The Shenmue trilogy

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DomsBeard
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Re: The Shenmue trilogy

Post by DomsBeard »

I would recommend anyone to play Yakuza 0 if you haven't as it invoked similar feelings.
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Alex79
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Re: The Shenmue trilogy

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I actually tried to pick up my Shenmue 2 save the other night, but it's been almost a year since I left it, and annoyingly, I feel like I'll have to start it again. I was about 15 hours in, too. I've totally forgotten the layout of the city and everything. Bah.
rob25X
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Re: The Shenmue trilogy

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Sinclair Gregstrum wrote: October 1st, 2019, 2:16 pm Absolutely. The games are full of design choices and gameplay mechanics that in this day and age just don't hold up, and I can completely see why someone coming to the games now would have a tough time accepting them.

But of almost any game I've ever played, Shenmue has the ability to cast a weird spell on me. I played the first one again a few months back, and I still found it intoxicating despite it's flaws. Just started a replay of no.2 ahead of the new release, and again it's got me!

Shenmue is rose-tinted nostalgia crack at it's most potent!
I feel the same about Shenmue. I also replayed it a month or so ago (XB1 version) and surprisingly it was exactly as enjoyable and great an experience as it was back in the Dreamcast days for me. It's just so... Shenmue.

I don't have much interest in replaying the 2nd game though. It was a good continuation and had a lot to like, I just don't have the special memories of it like I do for the first game. Maybe I should revisit the 2nd game sometime before Shenmue 3 arrives.
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Simonsloth
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Re: The Shenmue trilogy

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Alex79uk wrote: October 1st, 2019, 7:22 pm I actually tried to pick up my Shenmue 2 save the other night, but it's been almost a year since I left it, and annoyingly, I feel like I'll have to start it again. I was about 15 hours in, too. I've totally forgotten the layout of the city and everything. Bah.
Funnily enough I was watching the TCGS streams and David was doing exactly the same thing after a year off. It reinforced the fact I am unlikely to ever go back to it. It’s not an easy game to pick up halfway through and not a simple undertaking to start all over again.
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DeadpoolNegative
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Re: The Shenmue trilogy

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Shenmue II- anyone got some tips for the comment QTEs? I was fine with them at first but the more button inputs, the harder they are for me. Somtimes I'm too fast, sometimes i'm too slow. I'm really enjoying the game but I'm afraid I won't be able to get past them. What's the best approach? Should I put in a direction and face button simultaneously when prompted?

--Dan
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chase210
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Re: The Shenmue trilogy

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Sinclair Gregstrum
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Re: The Shenmue trilogy

Post by Sinclair Gregstrum »

I've finally started playing Shenmue 3.

Considering I'd been waiting for 18 years for this game and backed it on Kickstarter, I'm not quite sure why I couldn't bring myself to jump in straight away when my copy arrived. There was a kind of joyful relief when I finally held it in my hands that seemed to release the yearning and desperation that had been building up for so long. I think the fact that the game existed at all was almost enough for me in a way.

So since release, and with more than enough games to play, I've been waiting for that perfect moment when Shenmue 3 was really exactly what I was in the mood for. As anyone who has played Shenmue will know, it is a very particular experience, and I was almost afraid to ruin my first Shenmue 3 play-through by rushing in when not quite being in the right headspace for it. This is, of course, massively over-thinking it, but the series has always meant so much to me that I can't help it when it comes to this video game.

Anyway, I have started! And I'm enjoying it! I'm only a few hours or so in, but the fact I'm wandering around a small town asking random people if they've seen some thugs that attacked someone's dad, means I'm right at home already. It's a wonderfully fan-servicey opening, as it is of course exactly how Shenmue 1 begins, but in that case it was Ryo's dad who had been killed, rather than Shenhua's dad who has 'disappeared' (don't know if he's dead yet - looking likely!).

I have a job chopping wood for pocket change. I can buy random shit from local shops. There are capsule machines everywhere so I can collect toys. There's a local arcade full of games I can play. People won't give me information unless I fight or gamble with them.......it's Shenmue alright!

Also, I don't think enough has been made about how gorgeous this game is. Yes the characters aren't emoting on a level you'd expect from a game of this era, but they never did anyway so that doesn't bother me. On a macro and micro level however, the environments are really quite lovely. Fields of swaying grass and flowers. Crystal blue skies with sunlight bouncing off the mountains. Interiors that feel lived in with a level of detail that very few developers seem to bother with. It's how I imagined Guilin to be in my head when playing Shenmue 2, and I can't ask for more than that.

I'm sure I'm going to stumble across many things that make me go "why on earth have they done that?!" throughout my play-through (this is Shenmue after all), and whether I deem the whole thing a success by the end remains to be seen. But first impressions matter, and Shenmue 3 has made a really good one. Phew!
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Michiel K
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Re: The Shenmue trilogy

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That is nice to read, Sinclair Gregstrum.
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Sinclair Gregstrum
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Re: The Shenmue trilogy

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Michiel K wrote: May 18th, 2020, 3:18 pm That is nice to read, Sinclair Gregstrum.
Thanks Michiel :)
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