Shenmue HD reviews and discussion

For the record, the collection has a “very positive” user rating on Steam, which is pretty great especially when you consider the technical issues.
 
I have a feeling the Twitter mob from every 3rd of the month is making sure that the steam reviews remain solid, regardless. After all the time and effort the community has put into this, I would say just about any online review submission platform is going to have good reviews.

On the Metacritic side of things, it doesnt look like all the main outlet reviews are available yet, for what ever that is worth. I am more personally curious of what new players opinions are of this thing, but I seem to be running into more long time fan reviews. Perhaps the long time fans are posting reviews early and new comers still arent finished with the games yet?
 
AnimeGamer183 said:
I am more personally curious of what new players opinions are of this thing, but I seem to be running into more long time fan reviews. Perhaps the long time fans are posting reviews early and new comers still arent finished with the games yet?
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I can help you there. You'll find this thread on ResetERA very interesting:

https://www.resetera.com/threads/first-time-shenmue-players-your-thoughts-and-impressions.63499/

Thread dedicated to players specifically playing the games for the first time. Mostly positive!
 
very positive is good of course. but you also have to look at who wrote the reviews.
most of the professional re release and Steam reviews are from people who know and played the original Shenmue.
so they are primarily just happy that they can experience both games on modern platforms again.
there are very very very few reviews from completely new players.
and 332 Steam reviews isnt really that much - especially if you subtract the hardcore fans.
Yakuza 0 has almost 3.500 Steam reviews with a lot of new people.

i'm not saying that Shenmue HD is doing bad or whatever,
but you cant really tell yet how big or small the success is. a game with 10 sold copies and 9 awesome reviews
is not the same success as a game with 100 sold copies and 80 good reviews.
 
AnimeGamer183 said:
I have a feeling the Twitter mob from every 3rd of the month is making sure that the steam reviews remain solid, regardless. After all the time and effort the community has put into this, I would say just about any online review submission platform is going to have good reviews.

On the Metacritic side of things, it doesnt look like all the main outlet reviews are available yet, for what ever that is worth. I am more personally curious of what new players opinions are of this thing, but I seem to be running into more long time fan reviews. Perhaps the long time fans are posting reviews early and new comers still arent finished with the games yet?
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Yeah, as much as i love Shenmue and its comunity, we already know that every single online user review score aggregator is going to be completely worthless.
 
Verderame said:
Yeah, as much as i love Shenmue and its comunity, we already know that every single online user review score aggregator is going to be completely worthless.
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Yeah I just checked Shenmue HD's PS4 Metacritic and well, you're on the mark here. 8.6 user score, some quotes:

"This game stays so classic, it’s beautiful like it was before the real masterpiece is back again. Thanks to all the fans who made this possible." (10/10)

"To me, Shenmue is by far the greatest video game of all time. It is an exceptional master piece and a true work of art." (10/10)

"Magnum opus of masterpieces. Spiritual pilgrimage of martial arts, culture, and humanity. Epiphanic." (10/10)

That's literally the first three user reviews on the page. Like, I love seeing love for Shenmue, but these are clearly super fans automatically awarding highest marks to support the game, as in they're not all that honest or accurate.

Check out the ResetERA thread I linked above to see what new people specifically really think. It is still mostly positive!
 
Guppy said:
Whether the reception was positive or negative, d3t seems pretty happy sales wise on the physical copies:
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Woah this is awesome. We knew Amazon worldwide had sold out (in most?) territories but they're pretty much confirming more stores across the board here. Shenmue HD is selling out! No wonder they're so pleased.

The Shenmue 3 resurgence and hype must be helping here, particularly dropping a trailer the same day of release. Synergy!
 
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staplepuffs27 said:
Well, Shenmue 2 removes black bars during QTEs, so that would be a challenging hurdle to overcome if they zoomed in.

Shenmue 1 though? I just don’t get it. Even the QTEs are 16:9 in the re-release, and those expose some of the technical flaws on the edges, including the frozen man in the Goro introduction. So why not just make it 16:9 all the way through?
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Right and I hope I am not giving any impressions that somehow I want to see this fail and turn people away from Shenmue because I am definitely not. I gave the game a good review not because of D3ts work but because I support the game and I am providing a review based on the original game. I also do praise D3t for taking the challenge as I cannot imagine the difficulty involved in porting Shenmue I but I imagine Shenmue II likely wasn't as difficult since it existed on a x86 based console like the Xbox.

The various issues definitely cannot be ignored and I have run into some glitches, specifically on some cutscenes where the camera is focusing on a random object.

I do feel the PC did get the superior port especially with the modding community, I don't know if anyone has brought up the 16:9 functionality and proof of work to D3t but I hope they would consider it. I really believe this game deserves the best treatment and even a hires texture pack maybe a dlc would be something that could be offered in the future.
 
Honestly, being a developer myself, i just think devs did really bad job, because there are some issues where you just wonder how this can be missed out.
 
Tosh said:
very positive is good of course. but you also have to look at who wrote the reviews.
most of the professional re release and Steam reviews are from people who know and played the original Shenmue.
so they are primarily just happy that they can experience both games on modern platforms again.
there are very very very few reviews from completely new players.
and 332 Steam reviews isnt really that much - especially if you subtract the hardcore fans.
Yakuza 0 has almost 3.500 Steam reviews with a lot of new people.

i'm not saying that Shenmue HD is doing bad or whatever,
but you cant really tell yet how big or small the success is. a game with 10 sold copies and 9 awesome reviews
is not the same success as a game with 100 sold copies and 80 good reviews.
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I never said it was indicative of anything. That’s why I said, “for what it’s worth”.
 
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Just finished my playthrough of the first game. Had the cutscene bug once (3 cutscenes in quick succession) but since installing the beta patch I've experienced zero problems.

I really hope the consoles get patches quickly, the small gripes people have with the port fade away when the basics of the game like cutscenes and music are working properly.
 
honestly i don't blame them, d3t is a small studio and those games were programmed on ancient code, just the fact that they made the two games playable on three different platforms within a small period of time, i think it's great.

I just think that if Sega used an internal studio with more time to port the games properly, maybe it wont have so much bugs.
 
Finished Shenmue 1 and went to 2 and instantly had audio issues. Levels are all over the place, some sound effects like the menu beeps are significantly louder than other sound effects. Journal music is outrageously loud. Joys music is incredibly quiet, Cool Z's stereo sounds like absolute garbage.

At this point I may as well just plug my xbox in and play that version.
 
Just finished S2: it’s much less buggier than S1, with audio and darts being the only two things that bothered me. None of the cutscene issues which plague the first game.

Minor issues: a few QTE icons in the yellowhead building (maybe one or two) had the analogue stick pointing in a particular direction (the same as Excite QTE) - this should be fixed in both cases because they’re harder to read. The X button on PS4 (A on Xbox?) gets stuck on the watch icon sometimes.
 
Just finished Shenmue 1 hd today. There was quite a few bugs in the first half, but I was pleasantly surprised that the 2nd half was bug free. Go figure. This was the first time I played it in ages. As a game on its own merit, the story and characters still drew me in. But the gameplay has aged. What was awe inspiring not so much now, but when I first played it 16 or so years ago, it was AMAZING. Still , I am happy to have supported it again and I hope there is a new era for Shenmue.
 
Gavan said:
A mediocre review...



SCORE: 2.5/5

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/shenmue-1-and-2-review
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I love how right off the bat it starts with wrong info:

"As Sega readies the end of Ryo Hazuki's journey,"

Sega's not readying anything with regards to Shenmue 3...


US Gamer said:
Visually, the first Shenmue was merely okay from a graphical perspective, and compared to its contemporaries, had probably gotten a pass due to its sheer scope.
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Uh, what? I swear, this was NOT the consensus in 1999/2000 when Shenmue was new! The reviewer admits they didn't play it when it was brand new, so it figures that they'd make this mistake.
 
lyris1 said:
Uh, what? I swear, this was NOT the consensus in 1999/2000 when Shenmue was new! The reviewer admits they didn't play it when it was brand new, so it figures that they'd make this mistake.
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It's all good, our boy @orient or at least someone with the same name has made the case in the comments.
One thing I have to call out is the game looking "merely okay" for its time. You could argue that was the case for Shenmue II, maybe, but name another adventure-style game from 1999 (not pre-rendered) that looked half as good as Shenmue? The graphics were incredible for the time.
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This is backed up by someone called "manny" I wonder... :unsure:
 
Yeah, there was definitely nothing in '99/'00 that looked as good as Shenmue. By 2001 I guess there were the likes of Halo, MGS2, Max Payne, GTA3, but they still weren't leaps and bounds above Shenmue in terms of character models etc.
 
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