Getting people to play Shenmue I and II is a hard task, advices?

[mrazizpizza]

I think Shenmue 1 is a big part of the experience, I know its hard to get into it compared to S2, but in S1 is where youre connected to Ryo in Dobuita, Ine-San, Fuku-San and his girl Nozomi, Tom & other friends he left behind to pursue revenge.

Shenmue 1 is Ryo's home, where he grown up and where he was surrounded by friendly people from his neighbourhood and people who loved him.

Shenmue 2 has a much more unfriendly environment and shit starts to happen to him right away when Wong steals his bag.

Its because Shenmue 1 and the previous life Ryo had in his childhood you feel sorry for Wong doing such things as commiting crimes and living in a boat, and that comparison makes the whole meaning of the song 'The Morning Fog's Wave' that plays in the boat scene.

Its because Shenmue 1 you realize Master Tao was right when she said to Ryo go back home, since he left a future with Nozomi behind.

If they dont play Shenmue 1, they wont be attached to Ryo's past and wont understand a lot of things in 2.

The people in Shenmue 1 are a lot more important than the people in Shenmue 2.

Knowing Ryo well and living his life is what makes a bridge to understand better the main character and the other people he will meet further.

While I do agree with everything you said here the reality is that a lot of people just simply won’t get through Shenmue 1 but would if they tried 2. I’d much rather someone get into the series by playing 2 than give up after a small amount of 1, especially since a few of my friends went back to 1 after trying 2.

 

[Wong Shen]

Calm down, dude

(1) She's most likely enjoying her weekend, away from gaming, and (2) that is her latest upload, and she appears to be playing other games at the same time.

haha I know that but I played Shenmue 1 a bit everyday in my first time, I even repeated it before I got into Shenmue 2 two years later

thats my concern, if youre not connected to the world then it will be hard to continue due to the slow pace of 1

and Shenmue 2 is more unforgiving with QTE commands, maybe that will also push people away, I mean, I rage quitted Shenmue 2 several times, and this not happened in Shenmue 1

 

[Wong Shen]

While I do agree with everything you said here the reality is that a lot of people just simply won’t get through Shenmue 1 but would if they tried 2. I’d much rather someone get into the series by playing 2 than give up after a small amount of 1, especially since a few of my friends went back to 1 after trying 2.

whats a good point to play Shenmue 2 and drop it to go back to 1? Just boot it up to see the people walking around town and its huge scope

I mean, they wont even have a reason to play Shenmue 2, since it starts where 1 left off and Ryo is in Hong Kong to find Master Tao and the only thing he has is a letter from Master Chen who he met in 1

the main task in 2 is left without a purpose if you dont know who Master Chen is

youre totally clueless about who Master Tao is and when you dont play 1, you will also not know who is Master Chen too!

also playing 2 first kills the first big surprise that you find out too soon Master Tao is actually a young pretty woman, I mean, in the end of Shenmue 1 you dont know that and if you know Chen youll have the whole idea Tao is somewhat like him

Xiuying was in artwork and previews for a reason, you didnt had a clue who that mysterious woman was, she was even in Shenmue passport

I played my first time of 1 and 2 completely clueless about everything, knocking every door on 1 made me sleepy a few times but to fix this I will provide a guide in PDF that shows exactly where to go and what to do

 

[Guppy]

I usually wouldn't bother, but if people ask me for a suggestion on anything different to play I simply tell that if a game in which the world progresses despite the intervention of the player (meaning sidequests can expire without you ever knowing, npc strict scheduling and finite time to complete the game), zero quest markers and zero random battles sparks any interest, well, that's Shenmue. Yeah, it's niche but also the reason why it's special.

 

[thedemon1238]

The other day I ran into some guy playing Shenmue. It was incredibly funny. The guy never learned not to move the camera while running. Alas, after watching 1 hour of this stre am, I fully realized that there is no way to turn someone from the new generation on to the game. I died laughing at almost every attempt these guys made to play the game. Things that always seemed super intuitive to me, they had a hard time understanding.

I guess the HD port of the game is partly to blame. They should put a tutorial on not using the second camera stick. The second analog is only used when the character doesn't moving to look around. Almost every new player totally doesn't understand the camera and gives up. It won't work without a tutorial. Many beginners also don't know what to do when they have to look for a store and they don't know where it is. They don't know that they have to ask... They don't know that there is a map in the game. They give up very quickly. :)

I guess for most of the mainstream young people, Shenmue games will always be meme material or Yakuza 0.5. They don't take the games seriously and the way they played doesn't work in Shenmue.

 

[Wong Shen]

The other day I ran into some guy playing Shenmue. It was incredibly funny. The guy never learned not to move the camera while running. Alas, after watching 1 hour of this stre am, I fully realized that there is no way to turn someone from the new generation on to the game. I died laughing at almost every attempt these guys made to play the game. Things that always seemed super intuitive to me, they had a hard time understanding.

I guess the HD port of the game is partly to blame. They should put a tutorial on not using the second camera stick. The second analog is only used when the character doesn't moving to look around. Almost every new player totally doesn't understand the camera and gives up. It won't work without a tutorial. Many beginners also don't know what to do when they have to look for a store and they don't know where it is. They don't know that they have to ask... They don't know that there is a map in the game. They give up very quickly. :)

I guess for most of the mainstream young people, Shenmue games will always be meme material or Yakuza 0.5. They don't take the games seriously and the way they played doesn't work in Shenmue.

I must say its because the HD port is based on XBOX version

When you play the DC version of Shenmue II you dont have a 2nd analog, this made this version my favourite, along with being used to DC, and thats where I played it and beat the game

but first I tried XBOX for certain improvements, like better water shadders and bloom effect on lights but two things made me go back to DC original:

-the fu**ing camera icon on cutscenes
-the 2nd analog, I thought my game was broken when I was walking around Workers Pier with a weird camera angle on Ryo, until I realized much later it was my analog stuck because of dirty took me several minutes and I dropped it

I have the HD ports since launch but I did a research to decide which version was the best and I choose DC, theres something special about it, plus VMU and QTE commands appear on it

 

[Testament]

I've tried enough times to get my friends in to Shenmue. Even bought the game once for them. They played it for 15 minutes, put it down, and now just laugh about how there's a different angle for putting your shoes on and off every time you walk inside. At this point, I've given up. None of my friends will ever play the series. It's unfortunate, but what can I do?

They just don't understand why we like it so much, and never will understand if they're not looking to put in the effort to actually beat one of the games.

I did this with Metal Gear -- purchased a co-worker a copy. He played it once, for about 15 minutes as you said. Waste of money and waste of time. I should have recommended it and left it alone.

 

[gdust]

You could tell people that it's like travelling to Japan and China. The story also is still one of the best. I can't think of another game with a more riveting story. Also S1 is better than 2 cause it emulates life better. I actually had fun driving the forklift. I even got a forklift license IRL because of it. And got into martial arts too. The story also, being about youthful revenge tearing Ryo apart inside, and all his friends he met along the way trying to help him release that anger, is something I can relate to after the fact of playing them 6 times each, it's an aspect of the story I did not pick up on when i was younger. It's something younger generations might not yet understand, about the story. When I just replayed it, I caught things I never noticed before, like how all of Ryo's friends, especially Fangmei and Joy were so concerned about his quest for revenge.

I think S1 is better than 2... Because it's set in Japan... and tbh, S2 had some areas which were quite creepy, like Kowloon... It's like a liminal space... I even had nightmares about it. Oops I guess that's a bad thing to say when you're trying to sell the idea of playing the game to someone.

And also people who did not grow up with "old" games like Shenmue just aren't conditioned to appreciate them. I've played through S1 and 2 about 7 times each and I'm a 33 year old woman . Honestly with age, I like the game less, well in certain ways, but like i said there are aspects of the story i discovered that I never thought of before. I think what I liked the most when I was younger was that it emulated Japanese and Chinese culture really good and that was my only perspective of those cultures back then...

As for the newer gens trying to play this game... Gawd, it reminds me of, as a The Sims fan, how so many popular youtubers are making The Sims 4 videos... When Sims 4 is such a garbage new gen game to me... I'm a Sims 1-3 elitist... because it's old gen... and the quality was just better. It's like with Shenmue 3 how every one was disappointed... Ok I really did like Bailu village, the graphics, the gathering and fishing system, it was a relaxing break from the previously tense scenario of Kowloon. I've actually grown to appreciate Shenmue 3.

edit: also what's great about Shenmue and Wong kind of mentioned it, is how Ryo goes from 1 major clue to the next, leading him on a journey, from one martial arts master to another. And it's a good lesson about being stubborn and revengeful. Ryo has to slow down and look at life..Life going on in Shenmue..Instead of focusing on his hatred for Lan Di... It really is a great story.

edit: btw also, here is my youtube stream / vids of Shenmue 2. first vid has Fangmei's birthday, its not a stream but the 2nd vid is a stream and it's the end of Kowloon questline . This is my 7th or so playthrough.

Shenmue 2 longplay 17 - saving Yuanda Zhu pt 2

its not completion because getting all those capsule toys is so tedious

www.youtube.com

 

[Tortu-genial]

I think a good way of bringing more people to Shenmue is to talk about it (in a good way of course and not saying shenmue 3 ruin my life)
For me after hearing about the Ys series again and again and again (by the happy console gamer for exemple) i was convinced i need to try this
It would be great to have "big" youtuber to talk about shenmue more often

 

[SirDoge27]

Hmm was thinking of playing the game for the first time,to experience the jank,does the game work well in W10,should I follow some guide for mods/fixes etc ?
Thank you.

 

[spud1897]

Hmm was thinking of playing the game for the first time,to experience the jank,does the game work well in W10,should I follow some guide for mods/fixes etc ?
Thank you.

The game works pretty well in Windows 10 without too many issues.

Pc with mods is a great way to play.

Here's a guide for the mods:

 

[mrazizpizza]

Hmm was thinking of playing the game for the first time,to experience the jank,does the game work well in W10,should I follow some guide

The game actually runs pretty well out of the box. The only mod I’d really recommend is the audio restoration which you can find pretty easily in the mod section of this forum.

 

[Wong Shen]

The game actually runs pretty well out of the box. The only mod I’d really recommend is the audio restoration which you can find pretty easily in the mod section of this forum.

whats the problem with audio?

I found the music in SII to be too loud when you pause the game and too low when youre playing

Had to adjust manually but if I pause it then its too loud

 

[mrazizpizza]

whats the problem with audio?

I found the music in SII to be too loud when you pause the game and too low when youre playing

Had to adjust manually but if I pause it then its too loud

The quality of the voices is actually more compressed than in the original release. Along with that the music is actually a bit bugged in both games but is more noticeable in 2.

 

[SirDoge27]

The game works pretty well in Windows 10 without too many issues.

Pc with mods is a great way to play.

Here's a guide for the mods:

Thank you for the link ,I can't wait to ask the former chinese man about chinese.

 

[SirDoge27]

The game actually runs pretty well out of the box. The only mod I’d really recommend is the audio restoration which you can find pretty easily in the mod section of this forum.

Thank's for the info.

 

[gdust]

Shenmue 1 on PC is great with Special K textures. But when I tried playing Shenmue 2 with Special K, it kept crashing, so I played it vanilla. I'd recommend Shenmue 1 with Special K though, if you've already played through the game before. But if you have never played Shenmue, then I'd recommend with out any mods the first time.
There's also the native texture mod for Shenmue 1, but I'm not a fan of the coca cola machine. It kind of broke immersion. I tried telling the modder to release a version with out that. That mod will be alot easier than installing SpecialK though.

 

[Wong Shen]

update: well, she got interested in the game and during one of her lives she watched some gameplays to see if she was going to be interested enough, so when it started (Worker's Pier segment) she and her subscribers started making faces and jokes about the graphics so it became a meme in the chat

so no Im not giving her a copy of the game because shes not the right person, sadly her loss, but I do hope more people to play the games

I have a sealed PS4 copy of Shenmue I & II to give away but Im going to give it only for a person that totally worths it, no offense to her but this gift must be from one heart to another

and not begging to be played or wasted

Its just how treasured the games must be

 

[Jibby]

she and her subscribers started making faces and jokes about the graphics so it became a meme in the chat

Honestly, I know of a few streamers who only played Shenmue because of it's meme status and they're the ones who ended up beating it and really enjoying it.

In my experience, people who go in expecting the game to be a bit of a joke aren't so fazed by the janky elements that haven't aged so well. Because they roll with it and laugh instead of getting frustrated/confused. Then once they're committed, they realise that the game is actually pretty good and they want to keep playing.

 

[ShinChuck]

I've been donating copies to people ever since Shenmue 2 on the Xbox dropped to like $5. It's even easier now with regular sales that drop the games to about the same price, and I can just gift it.

But most people don't play it. I'm not sure if, with the dozen or so copies I've gifted of either S2 on Xbox or S1&2, anyone has actually given it more than a couple of minutes at best.

I've actually had success recommending the anime, though. It's a relatively small time investment and pretty accessible compared to the games but still gives a really good idea of the big events.

For example, my mom heard me talk about Shenmue for years but could never get into the games, but she watched the anime, so after 20+ years she finally knows the story and characters to where we can chat about it. I can make references now and she gets it.

Maybe the anime will entice people to try the games, maybe it won't, but it can help give a good appreciation of Shenmue as a whole, even if that appreciation doesn't extend to the games.