Shenmue JP Release Delivery

Sappharad said:
Here's a preview of the new Shenmue II tracks from Disc 2 of the soundtrack, since I know many people besides me were anxiously awaiting the soundtrack:
Sorry about the weird video choices sometimes, I threw clips in from the Dreamcast version that I had sitting on my hard drive.
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Thanks for sharing this! It’s really interesting to hear the differences in this soundtrack and the game!
 
I just got my order now Im listening to the first track of the Shenmue 2 music CD. Im so excited right now.
 
Mark said:
Any info on the disc build of the JP release? Is it natively a more stable and patched build, compared to the initial western release.?
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The Japanese version has its own set of version numbers, v1.0 ships on disc, with v1.0.1 available as a day one patch. I have not tried it without 1.0.1 installed to see what state it's in. Out of the box with 1.0.1, it's consistent with the current patches for the Western release. Not sure specifically which patch, but footsteps are working. Megumi's Japanese voice is still clipping because it's too loud, so they didn't fix the Japanese voices for the Japanese version.

Japanese only, as previously stated, although oddly the buttons are Western style if you're running from a Western account. (X and O are the same as in the US release. If you're running from an actual Japanese account, O and X will be swapped to be consistent with PlayStation button standards in Japan where O is select and X is cancel) It clearly says "For Japan Only" on the back of the box, so don't expect them to patch language options in. Also "Yes" and "No" options on menu screens are English for some reason, instead of being はい and いいえ like they should be. So they at least forgot to force 1 thing into Japanese. (Edit: Actually, both of these things appear to be tied to the account language setting and not the region. My Japanese PSN account with language set to English still has Western style input and random menu prompts in English.)

Sadly, the Japanese version is recognized by the PS4 as the exact same game as the US / European versions. Thus you can't double-dip on trophies. When I inserted the game into my console for the first time, it didn't even have to do a disc install for Shenmue 1, which was odd. Despite them being recognized as the same game, the save files are not shared. I did need to do a disc install for Shenmue 2, plus the 1.0.1 patch.
 
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Sappharad said:
Here's a list of what they are (Not actual track titles, but where they're used, since the track titles didn't tell us where they were from always)

1. Opening theme (Which they looped for some reason, so you get to hear it twice with fadeout and no ending)
2. Music for harbor area when you get off the boat
3. Worker's Pier
4. Arm Wrestling
5. Wise Mens Qr
6. Inside Man Mo Temple
7. Moving boxes (Out of tune compared to DC version)
8. Xiuying's Theme (This has an ending, which is not heard in game!)
9. Fengmei's Theme
10. Pine Game Arcade
11. Duck Racing
12. From a cutscene (I can't remember which at the moment, Meeting Ren maybe?)
13. Heart Made of Iron
14. Cutscene where Yuan chases you with Chainsaw
15. Rooftop fight
16. Guilin Walking track
17. Another Guilin Walking track (Sorry, I should identify these better...)
18. Shenmue Tree cutscene? (Can't remember perfectly, but this definitely plays for a scene at Shenhua's house)
19. Departure on a new trip (From Shenmue 1 soundtrack)
20. Sedge Flower (From Shenmue 1)
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Very useful! And an unofficial translation of the Japanese title names.

soundtrack-english.jpg
 
Sappharad said:
Here's a preview of the new Shenmue II tracks from Disc 2 of the soundtrack, since I know many people besides me were anxiously awaiting the soundtrack:
Sorry about the weird video choices sometimes, I threw clips in from the Dreamcast version that I had sitting on my hard drive.
Click to expand...
That's amazing! Just imagine if someone could mod all these tracks into the PC version of the re-releases in the style of that recent Dragon Quest mod.
 
My Amazon.jp order hasn't shipped and I don't have any pending charges on my Amex. I got a text from Amex approving the foreign transaction 2 days ago but there's nothing when I login to my account. The order status still says it's arriving by November 26-29 though.
 
Got mine in today. Amazon JP to New Jersey USA via DHL. Came quickly.
BTW For those who use box protectors, the japanese N64 ones fit almost perfectly.
Here is a shot with the box protector on.
 

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Nice one folks! So great seeing everyone getting their games! I have one on its way so hopefully it's here soon.

But Tenso can go fuck. I have 3 tied up with them, but before they are sent, I need to verify my identity with ID. I sent them through my driver's license and 3 times it's been returned unsuccessful. Like, I left out my middle name on the form FFS. Come on! Is that why? Knobheads
 
The second track from the Shenmue 1 CD music sounds really nice in higher quality. I cant believe they included one of the forest music which is my favorite in Shenmue 2 but I really wish they had included more songs from Guilin.
 
Sappharad said:
Here's a preview of the new Shenmue II tracks from Disc 2 of the soundtrack, since I know many people besides me were anxiously awaiting the soundtrack:
Sorry about the weird video choices sometimes, I threw clips in from the Dreamcast version that I had sitting on my hard drive.
Click to expand...
These tracks are fantastic. The original synthesizer versions add a new layer of depth to music that was already incredible having gone through the Dreamcast's sound chip.

Going by ear there are a heap of small and big changes when it comes to instruments even apart from better clarity.

The standouts for me:

Xiuying's theme at 2:41 - Already one of the best songs in the series, given a totally new lease of life with this alternate version. I hope we hear this in Shenmue IV or something, it feels really emotionally charged and climactic.

Guilin track at 6:40 - It's a totally different take on the track for Langhuishan with a faster tempo and a lot of nice instrumental flourishes. Hope it shows up in III, would be a great walking track or maybe even for Bailu village.

Sedge Flower at 7:29 - Very different to the version on the Shenmue soundtrack, very dreamy with that rising melody.
 
Spaghetti said:
Sedge Flower at 7:29 - Very different to the version on the Shenmue soundtrack, very dreamy with that rising melody.
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Just to clarify a bit, I omitted the last two tracks on the disc from the video since they were repeats from previous Shenmue 1 soundtracks. The final track is actually track 18, which is an extended version of the Shenmue Tree cutscene. I grabbed from the middle of it right before the Sedge Flower melody starts, because the beginning takes a while to get to that part. (Also the video doesn't quite follow the order of the tracks on the CD perfectly, because I slightly re-ordered things in the middle to fit better with the random video clips I had.)

Since I haven't given a lot of thoughts here, I agree with a lot of your comments above. The soundtrack is really excellent and I hope they randomly decide to throw even more of it up for sale on iTunes some day. It's nice to hear these high quality versions of everything. The tracks they picked were great, some of the best from both games.

My only nitpick, which I partially mentioned already, is the Shenmue 2 opening. They wasted 2 minutes by looping it for some odd reason, which they could have used to fit another track on the disc instead. (Maybe one of the Kowloon Qr's could have been included, since it's an obvious omission due to space here)
 
Jann Lee said:
I like that one too Isnt that version from the Shenmue online sountrack?
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Sort of. Shenmue Online's version replaced the ending with a completely different part of the song that introduces another instrument and melody that I don't think fit well with the original song. This version has the original ending, which was ripped off of some random YouTube video then pitch and tempo corrected to match properly with the original song. (I don't know where the ending actually came from, as this was done several years back)
 
It doesn't seem they have fixed the timing issues with the Japanese voices despite the lack of dual audio.
 
Anxiously awaiting my box of special editions. Hopefully this week. Does anyone think we will get any more patches since the game is out in all regions?
 
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