Shenmue HD reviews and discussion

Valid points, Shenmue has 2 back to back waiting time sequences, searching for charlie after 7pm (that can't be done the same day heartbeats), and then waiting to be ambushed by charlie. So basically is waiting 2 ingame days for 2 scenes, too early in the game can be kinda frustrating (I know I alt-tab that part of the game).
The other thing I think could be paced better is the 5 1/2 job days (without letting you go home early), and waiting for goro to get a job, and the chai fight.
If it weren't for those parts, the game wouldn't be percieved as a slow paced game that much.
 
I like Dunkey. The problem with bringing up "waiting" is it gives the impression the entire game's like that, when really it's not, even if there are some egregious examples of it.

http://backinmyplay.com/123-fall-preview-ys-shenmue-rpgs-music-ports/

Interesting little discussion on the latest episode of Back in my Play with John from Digital Foundry. Sounds like he visits the Dojo forums as well which is cool.

He mentions that SEGA sent a big list of things that were going to get fixed via a day-one patch, which shows they probably knew the majority of these problems existed before launch and just didn't have the time to fix them. I'm sure asking fans for their bug reports has unearthed some issues they weren't aware of, but I also think it's a bit of a PR move to make it look like they're doing good by the community. But hey, as long as they fix what's broken then who cares.

John also says he feels for the developers and that he wants the story of this project's rocky development to get out there. It's sounding more and more like the odds were really stacked against d3t.

This is completely baseless, but it made me wonder if d3t were the first company to take a crack at this re-release, or if they inherited it from someone else. I can also imagine SEGA Japan being a pain in the arse and not giving them everything they needed, but again, just spitballing. Take with a pinch of salt.
 
orient said:
He mentions that SEGA sent a big list of things that were going to get fixed via a day-one patch, which shows they probably knew the majority of these problems existed before launch and just didn't have the time to fix them. I'm sure asking fans for their bug reports has unearthed some issues they weren't aware of, but I also think it's a bit of a PR move to make it look like they're doing good by the community. But hey, as long as they fix what's broken then who cares.
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It seems Sega basically lied about a day one patch that would fix everything to make sure they got good reviews.
 
Guangyan Wang said:
It seems Sega basically lied about a day one patch that would fix everything to make sure they got good reviews.
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...or it took them longer to fix things than anticipated, or they found more bugs and decided to hold off instead of paying Sony to release multiple patches. We'll never know, unfortunately.
 
The only issues I have had is once or twice a sound not occuring on a QTE when j press the button and the quick time QTE arrows doesn't work properly. Hardly the crisis people are making out above and they have done a good job!
 
Positive review from NyneVoltGames. :D

 
What kills me about people bitching about QoL features, is the fact that all of those features are in Shenmue 2. But, it seems like people aren’t even getting that far and taking the first game in a vacuum, as if a series can’t evolve from its initial installment.
 
Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but why has Master Chen’s number changed from 61-5647 to 61-564? They have even edited the audio to remove the 7.
 
They don’t want people to call the numbers in real life. They actually work.
 
TwiceFriedRice said:
What kills me about people bitching about QoL features, is the fact that all of those features are in Shenmue 2. But, it seems like people aren’t even getting that far and taking the first game in a vacuum, as if a series can’t evolve from its initial installment.
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What kills me is you don’t actually even wait THAT much in Shenmue aside from a few moments. The amount of time you “waste” is really overstated.
 
Guangyan Wang said:
It seems Sega basically lied about a day one patch that would fix everything to make sure they got good reviews.
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Was it sega or the fans ? (some even paid to do promotion). All the "one day patch" I've heard has been from people around the internet and not any sega official account.
mjqjazzbar said:
What kills me is you don’t actually even wait THAT much in Shenmue aside from a few moments. The amount of time you “waste” is really overstated.
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I didn't time it, but you can do the whole sailor quest (heart beats) in one day (and it's something kinda easy if you're lucky/catch the flow of the game even if you're a first timer, even with a couple of optional cutscenes thrown in), then to progress the story you need to wait 2 days to get the arcade ambush, the tattoo parlor and charlie ambush.
I can't remember exactly, but I guess/remember that days are around 30/45 minutes long, so if you get things to speed up, you basically have to wait around 45 minutes (let's say) in a 3 hour span, that is a lot of waiting thrown in, specially at the start of the game.
There are some other things, like waiting the next day to go to liu, etc, if you don't catch it right.
I understand the pacing YS was going for (and the optional stuff and paths to have), but you can really have a lot of waiting in the game.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
What kills me is you don’t actually even wait THAT much in Shenmue aside from a few moments. The amount of time you “waste” is really overstated.
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But the original game doesn’t have the best pacing in the world, and it doesn’t have a ton of side stuff to do during the downtime. The world isn’t even big enough to make for interesting exploration to kill time. Shenmue 2 fixes basically all of these problems, plus it has the time skip feature if you just want to run through the story.
 
I won’t deny that, but I think the complaints about how horrible the waiting is are a bit... hyperbolic. Some of these reviewers make it sound like you spend over half the game staring at a wall. I hadn’t played this game in years and it’s done little to affect my enjoyment, even as I admit there are few activities compared to current open world games.
 
one of the things that made this work intensive was Porting Dreamcast Shenmue I and Xbox Shenmue II but having them both run the all the new assests and UI. Pretty sure one of the reasons Shenmue IIs music is so bad is because its a port of a port and it hasnt ported over well and not been optimized properly. I still say this never should have been released to the public like this, i hope we will get answers as to why everything has happened like it has, Sega Europe is being short and quiet. The silence and lack of acknowledging any of this is dis respectful as well.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
I won’t deny that, but I think the complaints about how horrible the waiting is are a bit... hyperbolic. Some of these reviewers make it sound like you spend over half the game staring at a wall. I hadn’t played this game in years and it’s done little to affect my enjoyment, even as I admit there are few activities compared to current open world games.
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It's not, in the way that most games don't make you wait, they "try" to pad the experience by giving you quest points to places you never visited (while they can be mostly the same), fast travel, grinding dungeon, fetchquest, sidequests, enemies, collectibles, most of that going from place to place, Shenmue does actually makes you wait.

It's not unberable, but it's not things games make you do (except adventure games, but that is mostly "you didn't rub X item on Z thing").

If you look at all the stuff in Shenmue, you can clearly see a "good route", meaning that there are often alternate paths that will take you longer while still letting you have time to explore, or random cutscenes to pad a little the waiting (or exploring different places), but if you don't get on the "sketched plan" the game does feel like having invisible "wait walls" all over.
 
I never understood the " there aren't many things to do while waiting" angle, especially coming from the fans. You realize the crazy amount of dialogue that can be accessed at times like these? Try talking to NPCs while Ryo has no objective (aka waiting for something), you will get interesting conversations that sometimes gives insight to the characters backstories.

There are also optional events/cutscenes/phonecalls, etc... In fact I wished I had more free time in my last playthrough of Shenmue.
 
Rikitatsu said:
I never understood the " there aren't many things to do while waiting" angle, especially coming from the fans. You realize the crazy amount of dialogue that can be accessed at times like these? Try talking to NPCs while Ryo has no objective (aka waiting for something), you will get interesting conversations that sometimes gives insight to the characters backstories.

There are also optional events/cutscenes/phonecalls, etc... In fact I wished I had more free time in my last playthrough of Shenmue.
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I understand that, and that aspect is something I enjoy greatly. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have fell in love with Shenmue all those years ago. But, not everyone enjoys just talking to NPCs. Some people want actual gameplay, even if that’s just exploration or mini games.
 
TwiceFriedRice said:
I understand that, and that aspect is something I enjoy greatly. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have fell in love with Shenmue all those years ago. But, not everyone enjoys just talking to NPCs. Some people want actual gameplay, even if that’s just exploration or mini games.
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Talking to people is the crux of Shenmue's gameplay though
 
shredingskin said:
If you look at all the stuff in Shenmue, you can clearly see a "good route", meaning that there are often alternate paths that will take you longer while still letting you have time to explore, or random cutscenes to pad a little the waiting (or exploring different places), but if you don't get on the "sketched plan" the game does feel like having invisible "wait walls" all over.
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Shenmue I is my favourite game of all time, but with 18 years of hindsight I think it's safe to say that they don't quite give you enough to fill the time during waiting periods, at least for most players. The side-tasks you're given are fantastic as little distractions, but when you're asked to kill time, they simply aren't substantial enough (again, for most players). Of course, everyone's mileage may vary, but when I think about it...if I was forced to wait 20 minutes in a modern game like Yakuza, which has way more mini-games than Shenmue, it would annoy me, I think. It's a risky game mechanic nowadays.

Rikitatsu said:
I never understood the " there aren't many things to do while waiting" angle, especially coming from the fans. You realize the crazy amount of dialogue that can be accessed at times like these? Try talking to NPCs while Ryo has no objective (aka waiting for something), you will get interesting conversations that sometimes gives insight to the characters backstories.
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The issue is some people simply don't find "talking to people" engaging enough, that's why Shenmue is an acquired taste. It's just not meant for some people, and it can be frustrating when those people don't get the appeal.
 
Rikitatsu said:
Talking to people is the crux of Shenmue's gameplay though
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Yes, but some people don’t want to talk to people just to talk to people. If they have to talk to people, it’s to advance the plot.
 
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