Shenmue fighting tips?

Literate77

Literate77

Joined
Aug 25, 2018
Location
Arizona
Hi guys, my Shenmue fighting skills are horrendously rusty and I was never too good at the combat system anyway (would just kinda wing it until I eventually win). I didn't do too much of the practice in the meantime so my skills aren't very refined. Does anyone have any good tips or tricks to win (most) fights pretty easily? Seems like whenever I try to dodge, it fails and I get hit so I rarely use it but that is not doing me any good in these later fights near the end of the game where opponents have a lot of life and are pretty tough. I appreciate all tips, thanks everyone!
 
After playing Shenmue for 17 years, I hate...HATE free battle. It was alright, but what was the point of all them moves and trying to input the commands when I keep getting jabbed, and my ass handed to me? I suck at fighting games, and since Shenmue has a 7 punch combo by just mashing X, then why not. What's the point?

Until about 3 weeks ago, live on stream, it happened. After all of those frustrations and giving up on the fighting system, I learned how to parry/block. Ohhh you just hit Y. It's easy! Just hit Y and that's at. Bollocks! I've been mashing Y for 17 years and Ryo never blocked anything, until I realised I was doing it wrong. So wrong!

First of, never mash. The fighting system is not built for mashing...well anything at all. Mashing Y will not give you widespread cover. Second, time the block. An audio queue is usually good, but in fairness, a few hours of fighting in Shenmue, you get the sense of when an opponent is going to attack.
The MOST important thing I had been doing wrong all these years... DO NOT move the analogue stick when you hit Y. It's not back and Y, or down and Y to parry. That's what was killing me after all of these years! Go train with Fuku-san and make it your mission to not throw a single punch or kick. Don't even touch the analogue stick. Just have your thumb over Y/triangle the entire time, and block...block...block. You will then see how easy it is.

I thought it was amazing! That parry sound effect is so sweet, but that wasn't the best part. The best part was that parrying gave me time to input the commands needed to land a powerful attack. For 17 years I wished I could do the Demon Drop. Now, a simple block, back, back, B, and i can land it every time now. That's when I realised the fighting system is so amazing, and now one of my favourite parts of the game!!
 
After playing Shenmue for 17 years, I hate...HATE free battle. It was alright, but what was the point of all them moves and trying to input the commands when I keep getting jabbed, and my ass handed to me? I suck at fighting games, and since Shenmue has a 7 punch combo by just mashing X, then why not. What's the point?

Until about 3 weeks ago, live on stream, it happened. After all of those frustrations and giving up on the fighting system, I learned how to parry/block. Ohhh you just hit Y. It's easy! Just hit Y and that's at. Bollocks! I've been mashing Y for 17 years and Ryo never blocked anyrhing, until I realised I was doing it wrong. So wrong!

First of, never mash. The fighting system is not built for mashing...well anything at all. Mashing Y will not give you widespread cover. Second, time the block. An audio queue is usually good, but in fairness, a few hours of fighting in Shenmue, you get the sense of when an opponent is going to attack.
The MOST important thing I had been doing wrong all these years... DO NOT move the analogue stick when you hit Y. It's not back and Y, or down and Y to parry. That's what was killing me after all of these years! Go train with Fuku-san and make it your mission to not throw a single punch or kick. Don't even touch the analogue stick. Just have your thumb over Y/triangle the entire time, and block...block...block. You will then see how easy it is.

I thought it was amazing! That parry sound effect is so sweet, but that wasn't the best part. The best part was that parrying gave me time to input the commands needed to land a powerful attack. For 17 years I wished I could do the Demon Drop. Now, a simple block, back, back, B, and I can land it every time now. That's when I realised the fighting system is so amazing, and now one of my favourite parts of the game!!
 
Peter said:
After playing Shenmue for 17 years, I hate...HATE free battle. It was alright, but what was the point of all them moves and trying to input the commands when I keep getting jabbed, and my ass handed to me? I suck at fighting games, and since Shenmue has a 7 punch combo by just mashing X, then why not. What's the point?

Until about 3 weeks ago, live on stream, it happened. After all of those frustrations and giving up on the fighting system, I learned how to parry/block. Ohhh you just hit Y. It's easy! Just hit Y and that's at. Bollocks! I've been mashing Y for 17 years and Ryo never blocked anyrhing, until I realised I was doing it wrong. So wrong!

First of, never mash. The fighting system is not built for mashing...well anything at all. Mashing Y will not give you widespread cover. Second, time the block. An audio queue is usually good, but in fairness, a few hours of fighting in Shenmue, you get the sense of when an opponent is going to attack.
The MOST important thing I had been doing wrong all these years... DO NOT move the analogue stick when you hit Y. It's not back and Y, or down and Y to parry. That's what was killing me after all of these years! Go train with Fuku-san and make it your mission to not throw a single punch or kick. Don't even touch the analogue stick. Just have your thumb over Y/triangle the entire time, and block...block...block. You will then see how easy it is.

I thought it was amazing! That parry sound effect is so sweet, but that wasn't the best part. The best part was that parrying gave me time to input the commands needed to land a powerful attack. For 17 years I wished I could do the Demon Drop. Now, a simple block, back, back, B, and I can land it every time now. That's when I realised the fighting system is so amazing, and now one of my favourite parts of the game!!
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Thanks for the reply and advice! I think that must be my issue then is I often press Y and use the analog stick at the same time. I will try just Y and see if that works.
 
Besides the Elbow Assault, the Crawl Cyclone is your friend, and will also help you win against Chai. You can sweep multiple dudes with it. The Double Blow is super useful too (You learn it from the old guy in Suzume Park after you first start looking for sailors, 3pm to 7pm), and it will also hit multiple dudes.

Also practice running up on Fuku-san and doing throws on him as he gets up.


You will get a chance to pull off all the fancy stuff that is harder to do with him swinging at you, and much needed move training progress.

Now I'm off to hit Y a lot! Dunno if I used to know about that or not!

BTW I've always looooved Free Battle and was very disappointed with how much they watered it down in Shenmue II. I'm desperately hoping that all the fights in Shenmue III aren't littered with QTEs again (or at least has an option to turn them off, during the fights, so you can win on your own skill).
 
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Billkwando said:
Besides the Elbow Assault, the Crawl Cyclone is your friend, and will also help you win against Chai. You can sweep multiple dudes with it. The Double Blow is super useful too (You learn it from the old guy in Suzume Park after you first start looking for sailors, 3pm to 7pm), and it will also hit multiple dudes.

Also practice running up on Fuku-san and doing throws on him as he gets up.


You will get a chance to pull off all the fancy stuff that is harder to do with him swinging at you, and much needed move training progress.

Now I'm off to hit Y a lot! Dunno if I used to know about that or not!

BTW I've always looooved Free Battle and was very disappointed with how much they watered it down in Shenmue II. I'm desperately hoping that all the fights in Shenmue III aren't littered with QTEs again (or at least has an option to turn them off, during the fights, so you can win on your own skill).
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Thanks I'll look into this!
 
So... I was messing around with the parry / Y button thing with Fuku-san, and it let me spar a reaaally long time! I dunno if Fuku lets you go longer cos he thinks he's winning or what, lol. Seriously, maybe the secret is letting him do more moves...or perhaps there's a set number of moves Ryo can do while sparring that triggers the end, and when you does no moves, then you gets no cutoff, and it runs for a set time?


My normal sparring videos run 2 minutes...this is like twice that.

I think maybe I've been doing the parry thing all along, but just never gave it any thought.

P.S. Also, you buy the Crawl Cyclone from Bunkado Antiques, as a move scroll.
 
Peter's post sums it up and the game should make that more obvious,but at the same time some of the joy of Shenmue comes from how it doesn't hold your hand like modern games with a tutorial every other scene. If you get the parry down it's a game changer. But thanks to Pete's observation I think everybody can improve, since I too would parry at random, knowing it was Y but not knowing why sometimes it would and wouldn't do it. The main things is just observe who your fighting to avoid the moves they try pull. You can duck/dodge out of a fair few attacks with Y then counter rather then go on the attack and they parry you. It still can be tricky if you get surrounded and the camera can't decide who you are fighting. But man the combat is one of the things I love in Shenmue I and II.

Yeah I think fuko san lets you land around 16 moves, I was doing the arm break move to train on him everyday and would spar about 15mins in game time. It would always end when I layed a move on him. Though I've never tried to stand and let Fuko lay a beating on Ryo to see if the fight last longer.

I like some of the QTE's in Shenmue 2 like the grand finishers just from a cinematic view point. Fav moment is Ryo doing the counter elbow assualt. On the flip side I would also mess up QTE's in yellow head building to just get the extra FREE fights. ;)
IIRC you could also spar with Jaimanin the Tai-Chi dude.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys! With it, I beat Shenmue 1. Prior to this post I was stuck on the boss of the 70 man battle and it was a close fight but I beat him with the use of getting down the parry/block button. Chai was actually pretty easy once I figured out he can be beaten quite easily by spamming the Y button and when he slows down for a moment after a parry, throw his ass to the floor! Rinsed and repreated that cheap strategy and he went down pretty easily lol. This will help me as I start Shenmue 2 now, which I've beaten a few times before many years ago. ?
 
I'm with Peter on this one - Y (or triangle) all the way! Old style fighting games are all about timing, and if you can time your blocks, you can fight like a pro in Shenmue. It's a frustrating fighting system in Shenmue I, but it becomes much more fluid in Shenmue II, especially as Ryo becomes stronger. Also, don't underestimate throw moves. They don't look as impressive as some of the punch and kick moves, but they can be very powerful and are easy to pull off once you have parried your opponent.

One last tip - digging out my DC copy of Virtua Fighter 3tb really helped - after all, the combat system is based on Virtua Fighter. Enjoy!
 
I also found if you take your time with the tougher enemies and learn their attacks you can also dodge side to side which is powerful against opponents that kick. Also dodging back from punches and then striking forward with a kick is also a powerful way of taking down opponents! It will clean take out weaker ones.

I always felt in Shenmue 1 there was a lack of free battles to really learn how the system works. But I'm praying that a real battle system returns for S3 - its so deep and complex. But I only just about get the hang of it by the end of the game - mostly because theres no significant regular battles until disc 3.
 
"Get ready to dodge and throw!" - Shozo Mizuki.

Yeah it's really effective to dodge enemy attacks and then throw them. But also the counters are fun to do and worth it. Trying to just throw people is also good because of the parry and grab actions than can also happen.

But with a little bit practice on the moves it is also working to just spam punches and kicks and especially the Elbow Assault, wich was my cheese tactic for many of the early playthroughs.
 
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