Shenmue

I didn't say it was a betrayal. I lean more to it being an insult borne of crippling ego.

Well, do you feel like, over the course of his journey, Ryo has learned his father's history and surpassed him as a fighter and a person? Because that's when he should beat Lan Di.

It's kind of a rock and hard place.

On one hand, if you're in a situation where you're not sure you'll actually be able to make more games to tell the story, it's kind of a shitty move to leave the story incomplete like this.

On the other hand, trying to shorten the story so that you can finish it in one game when you originally intended it to last far longer would likely result in a rushed and unsatisfying ending.

The IGN review is up -

5.9 out of 10.

That. You say it's an insult to not end it, I say it's an insult to half ass it and end it prematurely.

IIRC Suzuki has said that he has plans to conclude the story in other forms if more shenmue games fail to get greenlit.

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a trilogy of games conclude a story in a matter that isn't half-assed. Most games don't even see a sequel, let alone 3

But this was never a trilogy.

Apparently the game did as well as you'd expect.

Yeah, 'it never was a trilogy' just goes to my point. That's a pointless exercise in ego from Suzuki.

Not surprised.

It’s hard to be mad at the game for not being anything but what it promised, because what it promised was exactly what its core fanbase wanted, down to the stilted voice acting. It’s like going to a Broadway musical and being mad they’re singing.

The problem is that the vision of what Shenmue isn’t nearly as attractive outside that circle.

Edited by Beatman1 on Nov 27th 2019 at 10:58:14 AM

I wouldn't necessarily call it ego, at worst it's stubborness.

Edited by UltraWanker on Nov 27th 2019 at 8:11:14 AM

I think it's neither. Shenmue II sets up bunch of story lines that I'd like to have a satisfying pay off and not Rian Jonsoned rather than just have the story be about beating Lan Di. I assume Shenmue III addresses at least some of them but I don't want to read too much about it before playing it myself.

Okay so I'm playing Shenmue 3 and I've come across a major problem with the game: you can't pause while fighting.

Edited by 123tbones on Jan 14th 2020 at 8:49:23 AM

Home screen?

When I'm in the home menu, the fight is still happening.

Okay so I finally finished Shenmue 3. And boy do I have mixed feelings about it. It's one of those games that I appreciate more than I had fun with. The highest praise that I can give this game is that the minigames are a big improvement from Shenmue 2. That and the graphics are very pretty and colorful. And it still has that Shenmue charm of exploration that I've enjoyed from previous installments.

That being said, there are so many problems with the game. One is that it does not do a good job at having teaching the players the combat, so I had to pretty much button mash my way through the enemies. The QT Es are too strict in that you have a very small amount of time to pull them off. You can't pause during combat or conversations (I mean you can use the home button but that doesn't stop the combat or conversations). And the game is formulaic in that every location follows the same formula: find out where X is, come across some thugs to beat, find out there's a much bigger thug who you cannot beat, find someone who knows how to beat that guy, pay a large amount of money to progress through the story, learn the move to beat the bigger thug, and beat the bigger thug after beating the previous smaller thugs. This all happens twice. Not to mention that the final fight is so disappointing.

I will say that I have more respect for Yu Suzuki than I do for most game producers in the market. He made sure that the game actually felt like Shenmue and not bend over to a lot of modern AAA quirks. And it's nice to see all the supporters actually get some cool recognition in the game rather than just their name in the credits.

So I won't say that Shenmue fans will be disappointed with the game, because I did enjoy the atmosphere and feeling from the previous Shenmue games. But I would say it's not worth $60 on the Playstation Store. Either rent it, or wait for a price drop of about $30.

SUDDENLY AN ANIME.

CrunchyRoll announced at their Virtual CrunchyRoll Expo 2020 that they're teaming up with [adult swim] and Yu Suzuki to make the entirety of Shenmue I and the first half of Shenmue II into a 13-episode anime.

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Sep 4th 2020 at 7:42:26 AM

Watch as someone insists everyone from the game dub has to reprise their roles.

Well hopefully the plot will move faster than in the games.

edit: Oh, just the first two games… I guess not, then.

Edited by Lyendith on Sep 4th 2020 at 3:07:08 PM

Apropos of nothing, I decided to look up how much the Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Ryo Hazuki forklift statue is selling for and the last one sold on eBay went for $300 and the one before that went for, if I'm reading this correctly, $1000 goddamn dollars.

... I... should probably sell the one sitting in a box in my basement.

The latest trailer for the anime adaptation. It's expected to drop on February 5th on [adult swim]:

Please....just finish the story through this.

Inb 4 DLC for Shenmue 3 comes.

That anime is the best Shenmue's looked since...

... Ever!