- Joined
- Nov 23, 2019
MGS was incoherent long before MGS4, though I agree that attempting to explain everything did that story (or the pacing of it) no favors. MGS2 (which was supposed to be the last game) ends by stating the Patriots were dead for "about 100 years" and the next game retcons that. Even after MGS4, we got 2 games detailing Big Boss' fall after MGS3 perfectly explained it.Just look at the mess that was MGS4, another fan service game where Hideo Kojima was forced to answer all the questions of the series.
But that's because Reloaded and Revolutions were conceived after the Matrix. Matrix 1 still absolutely holds up and is totally self contained. I would say that Shenmue is closest to this and the Star Wars movies just because of the amount of time between installments. You have to view S1 and 2 as fundamentally separate from whatever comes after simply because of how much has changed between installments: they don't even have the same writers. You can point to Lucas having the Journal of the Whills planned out 40 years ago but that has about as much bearing on Star Wars and what happened in the prequels as Suzuki's original treatment has to do with Shenmue as it exists now. Obviously Shenmue is a little different in the sense that it's so reliant on backstory (I would imagine that whatever happened between Iwao and Sunming isn't subject to change) but I wouldn't expect it to function as a coherent narrative; the exact same way that Lucas' vision for what happened to Anakin and Obi Wan was basically unchanged but it barely makes sense in the context of the story.I compared it to the Matrix in a previous thread. After coming out of the theatre for Reloaded I was basically on the fence about it. Mostly because it was an unfinished film whose success depended on how the plot threads set up in played out in the sequel. Well we got Matrix Revolutions and GoT and Lost etc., etc.
I'm not saying it completely negates what came before it but it definitely takes away. I have no interest to go back and watch any of those series. I certainly wouldn't recommend them knowing how they play out.
The comparison of Shenmue to Lost isn't exactly apt, but it does make me feel like Lost all over again. This is not a good feeling for me.
Shenmue should not be looked at as a series but as a single story. More so since (apparently) this story was written and planned out from the beginning. Even though there have been revisions, I trust that Suzuki does know where he's going at least in broad strokes. This means that you can't really look at it as single installments as far as the story goes.
(EDIT) Fun fact, there's actually less of a time gap between the Star Wars OT and prequels than there is between S2 and S3.
What I do expect from Shenmue going forward is for it to at least be interesting/compelling and to reveal a legitimately good story, if not an especially well-told story.
I don't think it's as reliant on sequels and payoffs as Lost is but certain things like Shenhua's powers, Ziming, and the Shenmue tree will definitely seem like Lost mysteries if they're not paid off properly.The things that were good about Shenmue 2 would fall flat if they didn't play out properly later on.