Shenmue voted best Sega game of all time by IGN Japan

Whilst i'm a bit skeptical of lists these days, there's something wonderful about this one, because if nothing else, it shows Sega how much Shenmue means to so many people. They must surely take stuff like this seriously.

I haven't read the article, but how was the voting done? Was it by public or by peers (or a combination of the two)? Both are important, but sometimes the latter has greater weight in these things.
 
The list is a bit weird. I haven’t played Sakura Wars 4 yet but Hatsune Miku in the top 10 greatest Sega games of all time? Come on...


That said, the top 2 picks are pretty spot on. My personal list would probably look something like this:

1. Shenmue (2-1-3)
2. Yakuza (0-6-2-1)
3. Skies of Arcadia
4. 2-d Sonic (2-CD-3 & Knuckles-Mania-1)
5. Phantasy Star (4-1-2-3)
6. Virtua Fighter (3-2-4-5-1)
7. Rez
8. Jet Set Radio (1-Future)
9. Outrun (no preference between 1 & 2)
10. Space Harrier
 
The Hatsune Miku games are glorious fun i'll have you know!!
 
Bambi said:
In what way do you feel Sega neglected Shenmue?
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Outside of renewing the Intellectual Property, what has Sega done for Shenmue prior to 2015? After 2015, all we got was a shoddy port of the first two games. Then they allowed someone else to take the risk with the third entry; only to take the credit if Shenmue III was successful.

If they weren't neglecting the franchise, then Shenmue would have been given the Ryu Ga Gotoku treatment. I understand why Sega has neglected the series, but it doesn't change the fact that they did. The only reason we have the remasters and Shenmue III is because of the fans.
 
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Tsukuyomimagi99 said:
Outside of renewing the Intellectual Property, what has Sega done for Shenmue prior to 2015? After 2015, all we got was a shoddy port of the first two games. Then they allowed someone else to take the risk with the third entry; only to take credit if Shenmue III was successful.

If they weren't neglecting the franchise, then Shenmue would have been given the Ryu Ga Gotoku treatment. I understand why Sega has neglected the series, but it doesn't change the fact that they did. The only reason we have the remasters and Shenmue III is because of the fans.
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Yup. They are even happy to make money from Shenmue merchandise but won't put a penny into game development.
They wouldn't even let Yu have the licenses to put Sega characters into Shenmue 3 as capsule toys.
It's quite sickening, to be honest.

I'm so happy that Shenmue was voted best Sega game by a company as big as IGN Japan. Not that this will change Sega's stance on the franchise, however, because hello... this is Sega :rolleyes:
 
More power to em. Let Sega recoup how ever much money they want from Shenmue before finally being more directly involved producers/publishers. Despite Yu's claim of his games overall never netting a loss, Shenmue still stings individually.

So, let them scrape these easy sales of merchandise and licensing fees. The more they get back the more they'll want to geting more involved with Suzuki and YSnet.
 
In my opinion, Sega have been quite ok concerning Shenmue since 2015.

They gave Yu the license and we need to remember that there was gonna be a "proper" remaster for S1 & 2 at one point. The only gripe I have is that Sega didn't handle the project internally.

Outsourcing the project to a second-tier Western developer was a questionable decision, perhaps also a "greedy" one, but that's business.

After two years, when it became clear that d3t clearly weren't up to the challenge, Sega's upper management did the only right thing and cut the project down to a no-frills port of the two games.

I think you can't really blame them. S3 didn't really cause enough of a splash in the market and it was not a critically acclaimed game so why would Sega jump at the opportunity to fund S4?

If Yu can find a publisher to fund S4, I can't see Sega standing in the way of the project.
 
xatruio said:
So, let them scrape these easy sales of merchandise and licensing fees. The more they get back the more they'll want to geting more involved with Suzuki and YSnet.
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Sorry, but I'm not as optimistic as you on that one lol.

hyo_razuki said:
After two years, when it became clear that d3t clearly weren't up to the challenge, Sega's upper management did the only right thing and cut the project down to a no-frills port of the two games.
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I never read that they weren't up to the challenge. All I know is that Sega/D3T released a statement after images were leaked saying that rather than create a remaster and lose the integrity/charm of the originals, it was better to just to do a port of them. Whether this was a cop out due to budget escalating further than anticipated or whatever, who knows. I'd rather the money that was wasted on the remaster was injected into Shenmue 3's budget in the end.
 
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hyo_razuki said:
In my opinion, Sega have been quite ok concerning Shenmue since 2015.

They gave Yu the license and we need to remember that there was gonna be a "proper" remaster for S1 & 2 at one point. The only gripe I have is that Sega didn't handle the project internally.

Outsourcing the project to a second-tier Western developer was a questionable decision, perhaps also a "greedy" one, but that's business.

After two years, when it became clear that d3t clearly weren't up to the challenge, Sega's upper management did the only right thing and cut the project down to a no-frills port of the two games.

I think you can't really blame them. S3 didn't really cause enough of a splash in the market and it was not a critically acclaimed game so why would Sega jump at the opportunity to fund S4?

If Yu can find a publisher to fund S4, I can't see Sega standing in the way of the project.
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With respect how do you know D3T weren't up to the challenge of the remaster?

What it looked like was down to opinion and how do we categorically know the thing wasn't pulled due to budget or other contributions? Also we would have never have seen it had Sega no sacked the entire QA branch in the UK so a disgruntled staff member leaked it.

The ports themselves have their issues but they work and were worse upon release for sure. I think jumping to conclusions about being up to the task, without knowing the ins and outs of the development is a little unfair.

Sega definitely took the cheap option, they could also have patched the games more after. Also listen to Adam Koralik on the Shenmue AM2 Podcast, they discuss the HD ports and it's explained why they released in the the state that they did. Whether that's 100% true or not is up for debate given that Steam got patches first and not one larger patched one like was suggested that Adam played before release.

I get the impression they were asked to do a remaster, the project was pulled and the remaining time used to port the games over to work on ps4 etc. Whether they had long enough to do that (rumours are 1 year) is up for debate and Sega didn't want to spend more to make sure they were ported well. So if anything the state of the ports is down to developer and contractor not one singular issue.
 
Tsukuyomimagi99 said:
Outside of renewing the Intellectual Property, what has Sega done for Shenmue prior to 2015? After 2015
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I'm a little confused here.

I've asked the question "in what way do you feel Sega neglected Shenmue?" (something you clearly feel strongly about) with an objective of understanding your point of view but rather than explain what your reasons, you instead want me (someone who has no strong feelings and ostensibly knows less about it) to explain why you feel the way you do?

Is that a fair summary?
 
Bambi said:
I'm a little confused here.

I've asked the question "in what way do you feel Sega neglected Shenmue?" (something you clearly feel strongly about) with an objective of understanding your point of view but rather than explain what your reasons, you instead want me (someone who has no strong feelings and ostensibly knows less about it) to explain why you feel the way you do?

Is that a fair summary?
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It was a rhetorical question that lead into my reasoning is all. My apologies for the misunderstanding.
 
Tsukuyomimagi99 said:
It was a rhetorical question that lead into my reasoning is all. My apologies for the misunderstanding.
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That's perfectly alright and actually I think my question wasn't the right one to ask.

What I really wanted to know was "has Sega unfairly neglected Shenmue?" and you've answered that with:

Tsukuyomimagi99 said:
I understand why Sega has neglected the series
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Which is a position I more readily understand.

I've yet to read anything (here or elsewhere) that has lead me to believe Sega haven't been fair in their handling of Shenmue, on balance anyway.

Switch said:
I translated the comment by Esra Krabbe from the IGN Japan article.

https://www.phantomriverstone.com/2020/07/shenmue-selected-by-ign-japan-as-all.html
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Thank you for the translation. Hope you don't mind me quoting part of it here.

"The story, which deals with concepts such as cultural values and communication across cultures and depicts a journey of finding one’s roots, forms something so powerful it can be life-changing, especially if you play it in your formative years"
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This is something that resonates with me as a Shenmue fan, I actually made a topic called Formative Media in the off topic board recently but really it belongs in here.

I was watching "Why You Should Watch: Cowboy Bebop" by Super Eyepatch Wolf on YouTube and his explanation on the effects of "formative media" (especially the bit I've highlighted) really struck a chord with me as a Shenmue fan.

I'm always fascinated by the idea of "formative media."

That is to say, fascinated with the idea of media we consume in our formative years, say from the ages of around 12 to 18 and how that period of our lives affects how we might view it.

Whoever you talk to it's often with the sense of reverence that people discuss their favourite games, TV shows and movies they experienced when they were a teenager but also I think it makes it quite difficult when returning to such media many years later as it's media we experienced when we were arguably at our most vulnerable and least sure of our own identity and something that we may have clung to in a world of whirling hormones and ambiguous hard to grasp social norms.

I think this period of vulnerability means that we consume media with more sensitivity than we do at any other point in our lives and thus respond more strongly to it.

For instance, ask anyone what their favourite Playstation one Final Fantasy is and it will most likely be the one they experienced first in their early adolescence.

It's often with a little trepidation that I go back to games and anime from this period for the reason that it can be a real disappointment to return to one of your favourite series only to find out that it doesn't hold up in the cold light of post-adolescence.
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