GRcade

Complaining about waiting around in Shenmue is like complaining about Mario jumping...

So I've been playing Shenmue II on the OG Xbox and frankly it's a much better game than the first one.
They've fixed every complaint I had with the original.

Story - More engaging
Characters - More interesting
Environment - 1000x more fun to move around

I'm about 5 hours in I think and so far I've had one occasion where I've gotten somewhere and had to wait and even then it instantly gave me the chance to "Wait" and speed it up.

Currently at a bit where I'm trying to find this one guy, so I need to arrange some cups as a "signal" to people who might know him.

It's not perfect. It still has issues with the controls not being as nice as the could be and the voice acting isn't amazing (Though it's much better this time) and ultimately it does just boil down to "go here, speak to person/perform action, go to next place, repeat".

But I'm enjoying it far more, and more importantly I haven't had to put the controller down for 20 minutes so I can play crosswords while I wait for something to happen.

If it can maintain this till the end then I'll be looking to pick up the third one.

Three weeks to go until Shenmue III!

I've only ever played the first Shenmue on Dreamcast. When I backed this I'd intended to play the second one but I never got round to it. It might be time to find a summary or recap video of Shenmue II as time is nearly up!

Went back to II today after a couple of weeks break from it. Still think it's much better than the first game. Not sure I'll have it done for III coming out, but I'm in no rush to get that on day one.

Tbh it looks like they've cleaned up most if the issues with previous cinematics.

Can't wait for it.

Still haven’t restarted shenmue 2, which i wanted to do before playing shenmue 3 because i haven’t played it for ages - the last time was on the xbox and even then i did not complete it. It must have been about 17 years since i completed it, so need a refresher. Can’t believe this is happening after nearly half my life time. Simply crazy, but a little anti climatic after giving up hope years ago.

I think I’ll ask this as my Christmas game, and put it back in the to be played pile until I’ve finished Shenmue 1 and 2. I doubt that I’ll play them all in a row, as I could get burned out.

Wedgie wrote:I think I’ll ask this as my Christmas game, and put it back in the to be played pile until I’ve finished Shenmue 1 and 2. I doubt that I’ll play them all in a row, as I could get burned out.

Yeah, I'm in two minds on whether to play 1 and 2 first. I'm worried it'll turn into a bit of slog and by the time I get to 3 I'll be exhausted of it, especially with the older mechanics of 1 and 2.

Tomous wrote:

Wedgie wrote:I think I’ll ask this as my Christmas game, and put it back in the to be played pile until I’ve finished Shenmue 1 and 2. I doubt that I’ll play them all in a row, as I could get burned out.

Yeah, I'm in two minds on whether to play 1 and 2 first. I'm worried it'll turn into a bit of slog and by the time I get to 3 I'll be exhausted of it, especially with the older mechanics of 1 and 2.

Maybe the video of events to date will do?

gamerforever wrote:

Tomous wrote:

Wedgie wrote:I think I’ll ask this as my Christmas game, and put it back in the to be played pile until I’ve finished Shenmue 1 and 2. I doubt that I’ll play them all in a row, as I could get burned out.

Yeah, I'm in two minds on whether to play 1 and 2 first. I'm worried it'll turn into a bit of slog and by the time I get to 3 I'll be exhausted of it, especially with the older mechanics of 1 and 2.

Maybe the video of events to date will do?

I think that's what I might end up doing.

Do you know where I can find Chinese people?

Do you know where sailors hang out?

Played about half of the first game and gave up as some of the dated design choices made the game a slog, and was supposed to complete it and 2 before the release the third game. Still want to get 3 but I'll probably wait till it drops, it does look rather nice.

imbusydoctorwho wrote:Played about half of the first game and gave up as some of the dated design choices made the game a slog, and was supposed to complete it and 2 before the release the third game. Still want to get 3 but I'll probably wait till it drops, it does look rather nice.

It's really a game you live and breath and play slowly rather than expect amazing gameplay. A game for those cold dark winter months.

imbusydoctorwho wrote:Played about half of the first game and gave up as some of the dated design choices made the game a slog, and was supposed to complete it and 2 before the release the third game. Still want to get 3 but I'll probably wait till it drops, it does look rather nice.

Exactly how I felt.

Gamerforever is basically saying that it's not meant to be fun. Which is correct to an extent. They wanted to be realistic, but for me it was to the detriment of it being an enjoyable game.

The first game is basically only worth it for the story and the vast majority of the gameplay issues are resolved in the second game, which is much better in just about every respect.

I'm still working through the second game, having just reached Kowloon.

gamerforever wrote:

imbusydoctorwho wrote:Played about half of the first game and gave up as some of the dated design choices made the game a slog, and was supposed to complete it and 2 before the release the third game. Still want to get 3 but I'll probably wait till it drops, it does look rather nice.

It's really a game you live and breath and play slowly rather than expect amazing gameplay. A game for those cold dark winter months.

I see.

Still can’t believe this game exists!

Wonder if Shenmue 4 will be our before I die