Greatest/Your favourite cutscene from the Shenmue series?

code l name said:
I disagree. To me all scenes with Mr. Hsu and Shiling at the Castle were broadly comical and frankly nonsensical, which totally removed me story first because of tone but also removed a lot of the stakes of the narrative at that point watching them comically dispatch members of the Chi You Men.
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The bit where Shiling bops a thug on the head and Hsu tosses them over the railings is broadly comedic; but more, I feel, for the routine they've settled into more than Shiling's broom. I think that if her weapon of choice was supposed to be a big joke, they would have had other characters questioning her effectiveness, or had her scenes play out with comical sound effects or "BAM!" graphics, or something— there's certainly many a JRPG that play their improbable weapons for joke fodder— but there are two separate times in the game Shiling fights with a broom, and both times she's portrayed as competent and reasonably effective. I like that.
 
Funny Bear Burger said:
The bit where Shiling bops a thug on the head and Hsu tosses them over the railings is broadly comedic; but more, I feel, for the routine they've settled into more than Shiling's broom. I think that if her weapon of choice was supposed to be a big joke, they would have had other characters questioning her effectiveness, or had her scenes play out with comical sound effects or "BAM!" graphics, or something— there's certainly many a JRPG that play their improbable weapons for joke fodder— but there are two separate times in the game Shiling fights with a broom, and both times she's portrayed as competent and reasonably effective. I like that.
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Broadly comedic is putting it lightly, it felt like it was something straight out of a laurel and hardy routine. I think you could justifiably question the the effectiveness of using a broom as weapon as evidenced by result if Ryo fails the QTE but the point I was trying to make was having such in your face humour and levity at that moment really removed any potential drama there was at such a critical moment in the narrative. If Shiling and Mr. Hsu could dispatch members of the Chi You Men effectively with no effort, what potential danger was there for a Ryo? Arguably the only moment that felt earned was Grandmaster Bei doing something similar but at least he had justifiably the ability to do this.

I’ve already made a lengthy post of why many elements of finale felt hollow so I won’t repeat myself why it didn’t work for me.
 
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Funny Bear Burger said:
In Shenmue III, I really like everything to do with the group that assemble to storm the castle. In any other story, this would be a rag-tag group of misfits (a local martial artist; a semi-retired grandmaster who now works as a fisherman; a shrine maiden), but here they're presented as a formidable force— and when they actually fight, they are indeed effective. It was a sequence that was very emblematic of the series' appeal (to me, anyway): of taking a very grounded and even mundane tone, but embracing and even celebrating it. No other series would have a shrine maiden fight with a broom and not make it into a joke.
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The unsuspecting, weak, timid character having a sudden burst of confidence and determination to comedically incapacitate the enemy isn't exactly uncommon in media.
 
Mystere said:
YES! That one.

Waves of a Morning Haze combined with that sweeping glide across the water is just a beautifully evocative moment.

Too bad Wong starts talking.
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Waves of morning haze arguably the best track in the whole of Shenmue, hell, maybe even all video games
 
Mystere said:
YES! That one.

Waves of a Morning Haze combined with that sweeping glide across the water is just a beautifully evocative moment.

Too bad Wong starts talking.
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I always found that cutscene interesting because you have this epic music and cinematography for a relatively benign moment in the story. Still doesn’t take away how great that scene is.
 
code l name said:
I always found that cutscene interesting because you have this epic music and cinematography for a relatively benign moment in the story. Still doesn’t take away how great that scene is.
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Yeah, I had a similar feeling...but it does kind of work. The gentleness of the music as the camera swoops over the water. Followed by the rousing peak as Ryo gets to his feet and walks to the front of the boat. It does kind of work with the idea of him never backing down...but on the other hand, it does feel like something that should of accompanied an even greater moment.
 
So hard to pick:

  • The epilogue cutscenes always gave me goosebumps
  • The scene where we first arrive at the harbor in Shenmue 1 (the music is so good!)
  • The scene where Ryo talks to little Sasuke the cat and mentions how they're both orphans. I thought this was really touching.
  • Leaving Dobuita
  • Pretty much every cutscene that featured Xiuying
  • When we wake up on Wong's boat (The morning fog's wave!)
  • Chunyan's cruelty
  • Yuan's chainsaw
  • Rooftop fight (Lan Di stare down and the final cutscene)
  • Shenhua using Chi to lift flowers off the ground
  • Floating sword cutscene
The one I have replayed a lot for Shenmue 3 is the Niao Sun sofa reveal.
 
No cutscene in particular comes to my mind right now but some months ago I randomly watched a cutscene from Shenmue II on Youtube. The moment when Lishao Tao reveals "her" identity in front of Ryo and Hui.

I was blasted by how everything was perfectly directed. Tense, enigmatic, each word, each bit was interesting and fascinating.

I was just spending hours on Shenmue 3 after trying hard to forget the older episodes to get the best experience so the gap between the two games narration-wise appeared shocking to me.
 
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