What if?

D

Dewey

Joined
Jul 27, 2018
So I've been thinking over the last few weeks. I think we can all agree, Shenmue I & II are incredible games, with an incredible attention to detail; but there are definitely rough spots. I know as a child, I always had an issue with how you couldn't buy a hot dog from Tom, or stop in for lunch at the Ajiichi. So I figured I might as well stop in here, and see what all of you have to say. If you were making Shenmue today, what changes or additions would you guys make?

I know for me, I'd probably go for a few things like

-Aforementioned meals at Tom's and Ajiichi
-Use the Walkman as a WALKman
-Recreational forklift racing
-An actual use for the potato chips from the Tomato Convenience Store
-Probably a whole host of other things I can't think of at the moment.

What about y'all?
 
If I were making Shenmue today, I'd definitely find a way to re-implement the bike. The beta footage we have of it is really cool and it seems like it would be a genuinly useful way to get around the game.


I think I'd also add in more side activities and optional random events/quests to make the game feel even more alive. For instance, there are so many different establishments in Dobuita, but a lot of them don't really serve any purpose. I think it would be cool if you could enter a bar or restaurant during peak hours and offer to help run the place, similar to how you can run a lucky hit stand in Shenmue II. Maybe if you do well enough, you can get a guaranteed rare gashapon or Saturn game or something to reward you for your work.

On top of this, I'd make it so that people actually came to visit you at the Dojo more often. Ine-san mentions that Nozomi brings flowers, but I think it would be cool if stuff like this was an actual in-game event. Maybe sometimes visitors come for a certain reason, and other times they just pop in to check up. I feel like there'd be so much potential to take this further too. Like, the Hazuki Dojo is a place for people to come and learn martial arts right? So what if Ryo takes over from his father and hosts lessons for studnets? It could even double as training for your moves!

I could write so much more on this stuff, but my post would be the length of a novel by the end of it!

But yeah, if we were ever to get a modern/reimagined Shenmue, this is the kind of stuff I'd love to see. The world already feels alive as it is, but with the power of modern technology, I can only imagine how much more would be possible!
 
Allow me to preface with nothing really needs to change because they're about as close to perfect games possible; although for fun:

-Boat chapter as new ending of Ch1: two or three in game days filled with training, gachas, pawning, slots, big or small, dice and lucky hit (no gambling in Japan except slot machine)
-Lucky Hit gacha in Sakuragoaka/Dobuita/harbour
-Snapshot mode and camera filters from 2x in Ch1
-Quicker Shenmue 2/3 gacha machine animation in Ch1
-Raffle prizes with Winning Cans and candy/chips purchase in Hong Kong Tomato mart
-Choice between using the quicker Shenmue 3 GUI for shopping or the Dreamcast FREE mode
-Pawnshop in Dobuita red light district and ability to pawn slot house tokens
-Outrun and Afterburner in You Arcade + Saturn discs
-Cassettes and portable tape player in Shenmue 2 (and using Cool Zs boombox like Tom's?)
-Fishing from the docks in Aberdeen and New Yokosuka Harbour
-Forklift back area of Fortune's Pier accessible and part time job
-Saturn in Shenmue 2
-Spar with Fuku-san anytime (within his normal daily routine hours rather than only once per day)
-Sparring with Shozo in Warehouse No 4 and/or Gui Zhang in Old Warehouse No 8
-Ability to sell every gacha. No more having 50 bisbeins or dice or anvils...!
-Miao Village stop before Languishan (Mainly because I'm desperate since 2003 to meet the old man)

Minor/maybe:
-Mahjong parlour has an actual mahjong mini game (Maquipai from OG Dreamcast homebrew?)
-Choice between original Dreamcast Ch1 minimalist HUD or the Shenmue 2/3 style
-Hang-On and Afterburner in Pine Game Arcade
 

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One of the best things from something like this for me would simply be graphical improvements etc. I really like the originals, but it'd be really nice to get a full-fat PBR Shenmue experience, with raytracing etc. I really like the ideas in here though, especially the boat chapter ending stuff!
 
What would it even be called? I feel like it'd have to have a cool name considering we already have the re-releases.
 
I had spoken of some, if not all of this in the modding section, but for me, as an "extended experience" it would be nice to be able to buy things from the shops. The shops and the NPCs are already there. All that needs to happen is, at least as a starting point (later allow us to walk into the shops, like we do for the convenience store, if the shops are big enough), is a pop up menu of things available to be bought. And then with those things, especially clothing, allow them to be worn. Add a few "acknowledgement sounds" when purchasing from what the voice actors already say now for the shop NPCs, just to show they are alive and paying attention to you.

Allow NPCs to wear random things on different days. Postal 2 does this perfectly, in that all the NPCs can wear different items of clothing and accessories day to day or between level transactions. So why couldn't Nozomi wear shorts sometimes or yoga pants in the winter? She must get cold during the winter months only having skirts to wear. ^^!

Add extra places to visit. That bus stop line begged to be explored with new shops and what not. And have some of those closed shutter shops have new owners with new things to be sold and bought.

And of course new arcades would be nice. Not sure how copy rights would be respected, but maybe add some third party apps that are close to other Sega games or just games in general if you wanted to play it safe.

New quests, new NPCs, new areas, new character developments and stories. We could see what those areas look like in 20 years and how the NPCs have grown and started families of their own. How has the areas changed with new construction and the like? How many of the elderly have passed? How many babies have been born? And new shops or bars?

Make the kitten more of a virtual pet. It dies if you forget to feed it... :eek: Or as time progresses, it gets older and has kittens of it's own.

Make it online others can get together and enjoy the game world, maybe even eventually going full VR...

Make it a language learning game for at least Japanese.

All of this is of course easier said than done. But it would breath new life into the game if they could be modded in such a way.
 
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flashbacks and nightmares, which are playable.
&
a portable tape player, which ryo could wear to change the background music (like in mgs4)
 
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