Random Shenmue Thoughts

I just finished a playthrough on January 1st. Took me 25.5 hours this time. Still missed lots of stuff. I missed the chance to buy the old homeless guy in the harbor his coffee.

I thought I might try to stretch it out to meet New Year's in the game but once you get past that 3rd work day, the game really pushes you through to the end without much time to do anything else. I think the last date I read in the game was either Dec 28 or 29th. Next time I play I'll try to hit January 1st.

I really nailed QTE Title this time around. Tried to get 500 in Neo Darts but could only get up to 450. I think I did pretty good in regular darts too so I'm eager to get into Shenmue 2 some time this year and test me skills against the darts opponents. Last time I played I got my ass handed to me by all of them.
 
Completed Shenmue 2 today having completed Shenmue 1 a few days ago. Not sure if it’s down to something done during the remastering process, but I felt like Shenmue 1 looked a lot cleaner than 2 which is strange as I’d always considered 2 to be the better looking game. Didn’t enjoy the first few in game days of Shenmue 1 due to the many ‘wait until...’ moments, but after making it to the harbor I had a lot of fun with it. Conversely, 2 was fantastic as always although I found I enjoyed the Guilin section a lot less than usual. That may be partly down to me needing to wrap up the playthrough today as I’m back at work tomorrow, but it felt a lot more cumbersome than I’d remembered it.
 
tomboz said:
Completed Shenmue 2 today having completed Shenmue 1 a few days ago. Not sure if it’s down to something done during the remastering process, but I felt like Shenmue 1 looked a lot cleaner than 2 which is strange as I’d always considered 2 to be the better looking game. Didn’t enjoy the first few in game days of Shenmue 1 due to the many ‘wait until...’ moments, but after making it to the harbor I had a lot of fun with it. Conversely, 2 was fantastic as always although I found I enjoyed the Guilin section a lot less than usual. That may be partly down to me needing to wrap up the playthrough today as I’m back at work tomorrow, but it felt a lot more cumbersome than I’d remembered it.
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Shenmue II has a much wider colour palette than the first game, but the scenery is a lot grubbier-looking. Maybe that's where the confusion comes from?
 
tomboz said:
Completed Shenmue 2 today having completed Shenmue 1 a few days ago. Not sure if it’s down to something done during the remastering process, but I felt like Shenmue 1 looked a lot cleaner than 2 which is strange as I’d always considered 2 to be the better looking game.
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I'll bet it has to do with Shenmue II being based on the Xbox version of the game. Shenmue IIx, even without the added bloom and motion blur, always seemed to have overly aggressive anti-aliasing. The Dreamcast games were sharper looking, but at the expense of having much more shimmering artifacts and jaggies. Since the port of Shenmue I retains the sharpness and clarity of the Dreamcast version but does away with the shimmering and jaggies, that's probably why it appears "cleaner" to you.
 
B-Man said:
I'll bet it has to do with Shenmue II being based on the Xbox version of the game. Shenmue IIx, even without the added bloom and motion blur, always seemed to have overly aggressive anti-aliasing. The Dreamcast games were sharper looking, but at the expense of having much more shimmering artifacts and jaggies. Since the port of Shenmue I retains the sharpness and clarity of the Dreamcast version but does away with the shimmering and jaggies, that's probably why it appears "cleaner" to you.
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This would make sense as prior to the remasters I used to mainly play through the game on Dreamcast rather than Xbox. Even so, the field of view seems a little tighter than I remember it (possibly exacerbated by the enlarged UI) and even with bloom turned off the lighting is a mess in places (particularly in the basement of the yellow head / big ox building).
 
tomboz said:
This would make sense as prior to the remasters I used to mainly play through the game on Dreamcast rather than Xbox. Even so, the field of view seems a little tighter than I remember it (possibly exacerbated by the enlarged UI) and even with bloom turned off the lighting is a mess in places (particularly in the basement of the yellow head / big ox building).
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Yeah, your issues with the lighting almost certainly stem from the way lighting was originally implemented in the Xbox version of the game.

To be honest, I never played Shenmue II on Dreamcast. So when I played through the series back in the day, I would switch back and forth between Shenmue I on Dreamcast in 480p via VGA and Shenmue II on Xbox in 480p via component video. Shenmue I always looked much better to me overall, despite Shenmue IIx being technically superior. The new visual effects in Shenmue IIx were really a mixed bag, and it just didn't have the crisp look or deep colors of Shenmue I in VGA.
 
ShenGCH said:
@Truck_1_0_1_ I wasn't even trying to be funny this time, dude 😄
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lol it was moreso that you used, "grubbier." It's a very British term (you won't hear a soul say it here in NA) and every time I see it, I think of Fawlty Towers (Basil the Rat):

"Specifically; lack of proper cleaning routines, dirty and greasy filters, dirty and encrusted deep-fat fryer, dirty, cracked and stained food preparation services, dirty, cracked and missing wall and floor tiles, dirty marked and stained utensils, dirty and greasy interior surfaces of the ventilator hoods-"

"-about the deep-fat fryer-"

"inadequate temperature control and storage of dangerous food stuffs, storage of cooked and raw meat in same trays, storage of raw meat above confectionary, with consequent dripping of meat juices onto cream products. Refrigerator seals loose and cracked, icebox undefrosted and refrigerator overstocked-"

"-yes, say no more."

"Food-handling routines, suspect. Evidence of smoking in food preparation area, dirty and *GRUBBY* food-handling overalls, lack of wash-hand basin, which you gave us a verbal assurance of having installed, at our last visit 6 months ago and 2 dead pigeons in the water tank!"

"...otherwise ok?"
 
AedanM2 said:
Got some new t-shirts printed
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You actually printed my piece-of-shit design that took me all of two minutes on a T-shirt you intend to wear in public? I don't know whether to sue or feel flattered 😄

Truck_1_0_1_ said:
lol it was moreso that you used, "grubbier." It's a very British term (you won't hear a soul say it here in NA) and every time I see it, I think of Fawlty Towers (Basil the Rat):
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The word perfectly describes my bedroom habits 😉
 
My friend who makes the t-shirts wants to get a high quality image of Toms Hot Dogs logo. Can anybody help?
 
AedanM2 said:
My friend who makes the t-shirts wants to get a high quality image of Toms Hot Dogs logo. Can anybody help?
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Someone beat you to it:

based-off-toms-hot-dog-logo-from-the-video-game-shenmue.jpg


The image is very close to the original, except for a few details:

- The reflection on the nose is missing
- The chin is too pointed
- The black part of the lips is too centred
- The stars around the eyes are slanted

Just lift the clown and text and add/adjust the aforementioned details using your preferred graphics editor. Easy peasy.

If you want the clown to look as it appears in the remaster, you'll have to put a little more work into it, but that will be relatively straightforward, too.
 
Saw this youtube video today about Shenmue. The youtuber gives an amazing description about the world and the npc's; how they interact with Ryo and why the game was ahead of its time and still is in this aspect. Check it out if you can, it is well worth watching.

 
ShenGCH said:
Someone beat you to it:

based-off-toms-hot-dog-logo-from-the-video-game-shenmue.jpg


The image is very close to the original, except for a few details:

- The reflection on the nose is missing
- The chin is too pointed
- The black part of the lips is too centred
- The stars around the eyes are slanted

Just lift the clown and text and add/adjust the aforementioned details using your preferred graphics editor. Easy peasy.

If you want the clown to look as it appears in the remaster, you'll have to put a little more work into it, but that will be relatively straightforward, too.
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Thank you very much
 
I don't believe I have mentioned this before or seen it on here but as soon as you get out of the first cutscene with Ine-san if you call Nozomi she'll ask if he's okay and basically how he's holding up. He'll respond back to the effect of yeah I'm doing okay and for her to watch over Ine-san. I just stumbled upon it recently.
 
I had a weird Shenmue related dream last night and it took a while for my brain to accept that it wasn't real.

For some reason, Shenmue was part of a kids TV game show where children had to cultivate vegetables, Tom would move from one hot dog truck to another and Ryo was stuck on a pole.

Analysis?? (I have been playing a shit ton of Yakuza 7 which might explain the vegetable part...)
 
bcdcdude said:
I had a weird Shenmue related dream last night and it took a while for my brain to accept that it wasn't real.

For some reason, Shenmue was part of a kids TV game show where children had to cultivate vegetables, Tom would move from one hot dog truck to another and Ryo was stuck on a pole.

Analysis?? (I have been playing a shit ton of Yakuza 7 which might explain the vegetable part...)
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My boy Sigmund hasn't got around to creating an account, so, using the year of experience I gained during GCSE psychology, I will have a crack at it:

- Children cultivating vegetables suggests new and exciting opportunities are unfolding in your life. The children represent potential and the success in managing to grow vegetables represents the work and dedication put into accomplishing the task
- Tom moving from one hotdog truck to the next represents a quandary in which you are progressing in some area of life, but the progression is limited to sticking to what you are comfortable and familiar with, as opposed to blossoming into something new. He didn't move from a hotdog truck to a burger truck to a kebab truck, etc. - it was all the same. Perhaps you are apprehensive about change and how it will affect your life?
- The symbolism of Ryo being stuck on a pole is essentially the Tom scenario retold, except you and Ryo are one and the same. Standing still - staying exactly where you are - provides a sense of safety and comfort, whereas moving just an inch in another direction fills you with anxiety and fear about what might happen. Taking the latter approach is obviously more dangerous because it takes you out of your comfort zone, but doing so is the only way you are going to get anywhere else but standing in the same place for evermore

TL;DR: Quit being such a schoolboy!

I have sent the invoice via PM.
 
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