History YMMV / ShenmueII

** Unlocking the hidden Duck Race minigame in Aberdeen, which has all kinds of hurdles that can be easy to miss if the player doesn't know about it beforehand. They must obtain a hidden Bronze Medal, trigger the Fangmei birthday quest to meet Eileen, meet Izumi, go to the Pine Arcade [[spoiler: and defeat both girls to obtain the Silver Medal, and Izumi is ThatOneBoss]]. Furthermore, if you want to go after the Gold Medal, Ryo has to obtain his own duck by catching a feather at Man Mo Temple, which appears if he catches several leaves at once, and use it to win the race. What most people probably don't realize is you have to race the duck many times in order to boost its stats, which you'll definitely need to do if you want to go the extra mile and beat the penguin.

* EvilIsSexy: Chunyan Xu, one of the street fighters in Kowloon. Easy on the eyes, has a NavelDeepNeckline, and wears PaintedOnPants.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: When the sequel was released on the Dreamcast back in 2001, the graphics were widely praised by fans and critics alike for being the best the console had to offer. When it was released a year later for the Xbox, the graphics had already aged unfavorably to many other games on the console, which contributed to its poor sales.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The game drew some criticism for censoring Yuan in the international versions by having him voiced by a woman and replacing all male references with female ones. Not only is Yuan given back his original Japanese male voice in the HD Remaster, but the subtitles are altered to refer to him as a man when playing with Japanese audio.

* EvilIsSexy: Chunyan Xu, one of the street fighters in Kowloon. Easy on the eyes, has a NavelDeepNeckline, and even though she wears PaintedOnPants, ShesGotLegs.

** For the CompilationRerelease, some fans are disappointed that the [=XBox=] version of the game was used as opposed to the Dreamcast original for a variety of reasons, but there are those who prefer the [=XBox=] version for its slightly improved graphics and better performance. According to the developers for the port, the [=XBox=] version was used as no source code for the Dreamcast libraries was made available to them (perhaps not coincidentally, the HD port of this game is significantly less buggy than the port of ''Shenmue I'').

* NeverLiveItDown: For Peter Moore, the COO of Sega of America at the time of the game's release in 2001, who claimed responsibility for cancelling the Dreamcast version of the game in North America. [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2001/11/02/a-shenmue-2-apology-from-peter-moore While he addressed an apology for the backlash]], it's widely believed that moving ''Shenmue II'' to the [=XBox=] was done for him to gain a position within [[Creator/MicrosoftStudios Microsoft]], as he left Sega to join them following the [=XBox=] release of the game. For years Moore was a hated figure in the fandom, as he once reported that he was told by an airport TSA security agent, ''"I don't need to see your passport. You're the asshole that gave away Shenmue to [=Xbox=]."'' It also didn't help that he claimed in an interview years later that he was the one responsible for pulling the plug on the Dreamcast console altogether, turning Sega into a third party developer, although he claims Sega of Japan put him in the awkward position to make the call.

* PolishedPort: The [=XBox=] version has improved loading times and performance, and introduces some graphical enhancements not found in the Dreamcast original such as light blooming, water that looks more natural, and higher resolution textures for Ryo's jacket. It introduces a new snapshot feature that is also used to unlock supplemental material, and for fans of the original game's dub, it adds an English dub absent in the Dreamcast versions (although as mentioned under {{Narm}}, the dub is even worse than it was in the first game). Lastly, the entire game is now on one disc.

** The features added to the [=XBox=] port were mostly seen as being completely unnecessary. MotionBlur was added to fights and QTE sequences, but was more distracting and made things difficult to see. A snapshot feature was added to unlock bonus lore content, although certain characters can be easily missed, and filters could be used to change the look of the game. The HD version removes the motion blur but retains the snapshot and filter system.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Ryo and his perceived lack of attraction to women, now that Nozomi is in Canada and the game introduces several female characters that are clearly attracted to him, but he shows no interest in them. Is Ryo really that dense and oblivious to their attraction toward him? Is he so consumed by his quest that the affection of beautiful girls mean little to him? Does he keep them at a distance as not to endanger them? [[AmbiguouslyGay Is he still looking for sailors]]? Is he looking for anyone? Or is he holding out for Nozomi once he gets things settled with Lan Di?

* EvilIsSexy: Chunyan Xu, one of the street fighters in Kowloon. Easy on the eyes, shows AbsoluteCleavage, and even though she wears skin-tight pants, ShesGotLegs.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Ryo and his perceived lack of attraction to women, now that Nozomi is in Canada and the game introduces several female characters that are clearly attracted to him, but he shows no interest in them. Is Ryo really that dense and oblivious to their attraction toward him? Is he so consumed by his quest that the affection of beautiful girls mean little to him? Does he keep them at a distance as not to endanger them? [[AmbiguouslyGay Is he still looking for sailors]]? [[RomanticAsexual Is he looking for anyone]]? Or is he holding out for Nozomi once he gets things settled with Lan Di?

* PolishedPort: The [=XBox=] version has improved loading times and performance, and introduces some graphical enhancements not found in the Dreamcast original such as light blooming, water that looks more natural, and higher resolution textures for Ryo's jacket. It introduces a new snapshot feature that is also used to unlock supplemental material, and for fans of the original game's dub, it adds an English dub absent in the Dreamcast versions. Lastly, the entire game is now on one disc.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: When the sequel was released on the Dreamcast back in 2001, the graphics were widely praised by fans and critics alike for being the best the console had to offer. When it was released a year later for the Xbox, the graphics had already aged unfavorably to many other games on the console, which contributed to its low reviews and poor sales.

* MostAnnoyingSound: Your friends cheering you on in the final battle, who say the same things over and over.

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: A small moment, but when Ryu kicks down the debris, finally blocking Yuan from chasing them with a chainsaw, he and Ren high-five. Not only is it a moment of genuine bonding between the FireForgedFriends, but it's one of the few times where Ryu shows genuine happiness about an accomplishment. Even better, Ryu is the one raises his hand for the high-five.

** Getting killed by Yuan's chainsaw is not nearly as horrifying as one would think, even with a 13+ rating: Yuan either swings or throws the chainsaw at an off-screen Ryo, who screams with an obvious reverb effect as the screen turns white. And the sound of the chainsaw hitting him? A thud.

** When you infiltrate the Yellow Head's headquarters, TheChewToy and resident SissyVillain Yuan appears... armed with a chainsaw and chases you throughout the building with it! Even if you manage to escape, Yuan will still pop up later and try again.

Examples for [[VideoGame/{{Shenmue}} the first game]] and series altogether can be found [[YMMV/{{Shenmue}} here]].

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Ryo and his perceived lack of attraction to women, now that Nozomi is in Canada and the game introduces several female characters that are clearly attracted to him, but he shows no interest in them. Is Ryo really that dense and oblivious to their attraction toward him? Is he so consumed by his quest that the affection of beautiful girls mean little to him? Does he keep them at a distance as not to endanger them? [[MemeticMutation Is he still looking for sailors]]? Or is he holding out for Nozomi once he gets things settled with Lan Di?

* HolyShitQuotient:
** Dou Niu's introduction. You know something's wrong the moment he's first introduced, and you know something is ''really'' wrong the moment [[LargeAndInCharge he stands up]]. Any moment you hear his theme begin to play in Kowloon also counts, because you know the ImplacableMan is nearby.
** When you infiltrate the Yellow Head's headquarters, TheChewToy and resident SissyVillain Yuan appears... armed with a chainsaw and chases you throughout the building with it! Even if you manage to escape, Yuan will still pop up later and try again.
** In the game's climax, the long-anticipated appearance of [[spoiler: Lan Di]], who observes the final battle while hanging from a helicopter ladder the whole time.

* EpilepticTrees: Xiuying's missing brother Ziming Hong is subject to a lot of speculation. Did he join the Chiyoumen? Is he one of their leaders? Is he actually Lan Di? If not, are they related somehow? Fans speculated for a year until the [=XBox=] version of the game, which included never-before-seen official comics that revealed Ziming is indeed one of the four leaders of the Chiyoumen, but {{Jossed}} the idea that he and Lan Di were one and the same.

** The Xbox version of the game, aside from the controversy mentioned in InternetBackdraft below. Despite slightly improved graphics, faster loading times and unlockable side story comics, many fans feel that it fares unfavorably against the original Dreamcast release, a large part due to the Dreamcast PAL version retaining the original Japanese dub instead of the divisive English voice overs. Although some have come to prefer the Xbox version for fixing performance issues and adding an English dub consistent with the previous game, with Corey Marshall reprising his role as Ryo. According to Peter Moore, the English dub was only made possible due to Microsoft [[NetworkToTheRescue publishing the game]].

* InternetBackdraft: The news that the North American Dreamcast release of the game was cancelled along with the console caused a ''major'' uproar for dedicated Sega fans back in the day. The news that the game would instead be released for the [[UsefulNotes/XBox Microsoft XBox]] calmed the flames for some, but led some to blame Microsoft for the game's cancellation for obtaining exclusivity rights. As more information surfaced, all of the blame shifted towards then-Sega of America COO Peter Moore (See NeverLiveItDown below). Even to this day, many US players would have preferred the game to stay on the system it was designed for so they could import their save file from the first game into the second. It didn't help that when it was finally released on Microsoft's console, the game was criticized for retaining many of the same graphics and its English dub, suffering from low sales and having failed to reach a wider audience, perhaps dooming the chances of a third iteration from ever happening. At least until a decade later.

** The English voice acting was also very poorly received, much more than the original. [[NarmCharm Not that it's without its defenders]].