I agree. Calling the Dreamcast versions definitive is taking a tremendous amount of I & II for granted.
A Shenmue experience that:
- Is accessible on modern platforms
- Is a cheaper purchase than potentially a single Dreamcast original (prices fluctuate, but I've seen Shenmue II still go for as much as £50)
- Is 1080p (or higher if on PC)
- Offers dual language support
- Offers left analogue stick controls in the first game
- Has SIGNIFICANTLY faster loading times
- Adds saving anywhere to the first game
- Makes collectibles easily trackable
- Gets rid of Shenmue IIx's motion blur and allows disabling of bloom
- Has an updated UI
- Offers other miscellaneous improvements like a higher poly Ryo model in the 70 man battle
... is not something to be hand-waved in favour of the Dreamcast originals because the ports are flawed. There are very crucial improvements, conveniences, and changes here.
I play these games once, maybe twice a year. It's been a habit since they first came out. First on Dreamcast, and later via emulator. My future playthroughs will be with Shenmue I & II for the reasons I wrote and more.
If anybody wants to stick with their Dreamcast that's fine too, but there's nothing definitive about it when you are giving up the features listed above.
I have to disagree wholeheartedly. Dreamcast version is easily the definitive version. Half the features you listed can be argued as being irrelevant or detrimental to the definitive experience. I too have been playing at least twice a year every year on Dreamcast and sometimes emulation, and will stick with those moving forward... But just for fun let's go down the list:
- Is accessible on modern platforms (
irrelevant, Dreamcast is cheap and emulatable)
- Is a cheaper purchase than potentially a single Dreamcast original (prices fluctuate, but I've seen Shenmue II still go for as much as £50)
(Again irrelevant, you can burn Dreamcast games for free or download them with a GDrom emulator)
- Is 1080p (or higher if on PC)
(Good point, a feature that is certainly missed from Dreamcast version)
- Offers dual language support
(Another good point, but mitigated by Shenmue Undub and similar projects)
- Offers left analogue stick controls in the first game
(This is actually awful. I keep trying to turn my head with the left stick and he just awkwardly walks. More on this later.)
- Has SIGNIFICANTLY faster loading times
(As I've mentioned, it's very jarring. There should be a 3-5 second buffer there between scenes as they weren't meant to transition that fast)
- Adds saving anywhere to the first game
(Save anywhere was already in the first game, it was just a temporary save that couldn't be scummed)
- Makes collectibles easily trackable(
Another good point)
- Gets rid of Shenmue IIx's motion blur and allows disabling of bloom
(This was never a problem on the Dreamcast version)
- Has an updated UI
(Which arguably looks bland and not very Shenmue-like, got rid of a lot of the old charm)
- Offers other miscellaneous improvements like a higher poly Ryo model in the 70 man battle(which just makes Ryo look even more jarring compared to the low poly enemy models lol)
So I'll concede to the one thing you really lose here that's actually important, resolution. That's the one factor to the new ports that I will actually miss when playing the Dreamcast versions. All the rest is really not even important, at least not to me. As I've said before depending on where you come from might change what factors you care about more...
Now, let's take a look at what we're missing out on while playing these new versions:
-
An entire disk. ALL the passport features, gone. NO tutorials, No rewatching cutscenes, no character bios, no online scoreboards, no trading in cans for prizes, nothing. All gone.
THIS ALONE would be reason enough to call Dreamcast version definitive IMO, but there's more, much much more...
-The most awkward control scheme ever. Not only did they butcher the old controls by moving the left stick to the right, but they didn't actually do anything to improve the controls at all beyond that. They actually TOOK AWAY the updated control scheme that was in Shenmue 2, which is much better for people who like modern control types. Control issues also persist in some of the arcade games that didn't have issues in Dreamcast version
-UI... now while we did get a nice clean HD UI, the originals just look far better in many ways. Being able to see your moves scale as you practice them, being able to see a nice bright colored button on screen for QTEs, stuff like that really is missing from the new ports...
-Various jarring graphical glitches. I'm not going to get too deep into these because many HAVE at least been fixed, but I can't help but laugh every time Ryo's jacket falls through the dojo floor. Also every time I name my kitten, the camera gets stuck on her for the whole scene. In Shenmue 2 it was raining inside. These things are still problems...
-More importantly, various jarring sound glitches. A ton of these have also been fixed, but SO MANY remain and they are awful. Footsteps on concrete may sound like a really goofy thing to complain about, but it's a staple sound that you literally hear through 80% of your gameplay while playing Dreamcast versions. It's gone. Music is fucked. Sounds randomly don't play or loop. I had to go through a whole scene in Bar Yokosuka with the sound of Ryo slurping Cola playing over and over again. Dialogue sounds awful because it doesn't fade in and out properly...
-As Duck mentioned, general stability. These new games crash sometimes, and are just full of all kinds of random bugs. I can't recommend these ports to anyone, not even newcomers, because it's such a jarring experience all around. It doesn't represent my favorite series well, and I'm frankly embarrassed and heartbroken over it. When a friend asks me about Shenmue, I shake my head in shame and do my best to get them to play on Dreamcast because I know they're gonna have a bad time on new consoles. But that's just me on a rant, different strokes and all...