Why does the HD collection have these instances where the volume and audio dips in quality and sometimes you can't hear anything at all or barely?

Imagine that the first two games came out lately, not necessarily now, but for example in 2019 for PS4 gen (just like the 3rd one). Let's assume that they'd ran both on Shenmue 3 engine (Unreal 4) but had the same story/gameplay as the originals. How do you think they would've been received? Would it have become a cult classic we know and love today or you think hardly anyone would've even noticed and talked about it? Or maybe it'd became a major success and sold millions of copies? Let's discuss

Just as good as I remember!

I am on pc steam version with an xbox controller. When i do the step backward the first time works, meanwhile the secondo i just lean back and i don't move. If i press back back X he does norhing. Am i doing something wrong?

Shenmue was mind-blowing. No game has ever blown my mind so much and stimulated my imagination. Of course, in the modern age, it would not look as impressive since a lot of features in Shenmue has been implemented in many games. But back then there was no other game that offered the same level of ambient that it felt like you were part of the game.

Both Shenmue 1 and Shenmue 2 complement each other and I disagree that one is better than the other. I would not have liked Shenmue 1 as much if it was more like Shenmue 2 and I would not have liked Shenmue 2 as much if it was like Shenmue 1.

Both games are different but they fit perfectly their environment.

Shenmue 1 gave a homely feeling. It is the home you lived most of your life in. You know the places there and know the people. The game was more compressed and felt like you were part of that world.

Shenmue 2 is about traveling and exploring a place you have never been before. Where you are a stranger. You don't know the places and or the people and you get thrown into a new place you have never been to before or visited 3 times.

Shenmue 2 and Shenmue 1 offered different experiences.

Shenmue 1:

Your house:

Probably the place with the most interaction in the entire game. It is such a small place with so many secrets and places to interact with. It was insane when you discovered that in the Dojo the place you lived most of your life there was a secret room.

Your neighborhood:

Place where you grew up and spent most of your childhood. Most of your friends and people you grew up live here.

Dobuita:

Main city, this place blew my mind when I arrived. So many shops with shopkeepers and npc having their own daily schedules. If you went early in the morning you could see NPC walking and opening shops and then closing it at night. NPC would also visit certain places depending on the time. It is the most alive place in the entire series. They even celebrate Christmas that added touch was breathtaking. Probably the best Shenmue location. Where the most effort was put into making the place as alive as possible.

Harbor and work-life:

The place is mysterious at first, especially at night. It was a great experience the first time you arrived via a bus ride. The separation you will get when you are in the harbor and entering the tomato store is mentally stimulating. Since there are no stores around and it felt like a different location inside a harbor. The harbor later expanded and you get access to Warehouse number 8. Which expanded the warehouse again in a different way. This is where most action takes place in the game.

Shenmue 2:

Aberdeen Harbor:

You arrive in the boat, most people don't experience this part much if you are rushing. Even if you are a new player. Most players have never stayed in the harbor to sleep over even though you can. The beauty of this area is that it will expand and you can come later to explore new unlocked areas. There are also many secret locations and scenes here. You also later get access to the Beverly Hills Wharf

Wan Chai:

Probably the biggest location in the game. You get thrown into Hong Kong's main city with the most locations of any other Shenmue game. The place is divided into many different districts. You also get a new home and instead of a dojo, you get a temple. The home aspect could have been done better with more interaction to be closer to Shenmue but then again you only spend half of the game here. I think Shenmue 2 in a perfect world should have been entirely done here together with the harbor. It somewhat felt rushed. The biggest location in the game where you don't spend much time. Still my second favorite place after Dobuita.

Kowloon:

You get thrown into a dystopia from martial arts movie from a martial arts movie, A very dangerous place more than any place you have been before. You get to fight a lot and experience a more martial arts Hong Kong movie environment. If you like action this is probably going to be your favorite place to be.

Guiling:

You get to explore China's nature, you go through forests, mountains, rivers, caves, and tiny village. Most peaceful place in the entire game. Walking and talking with Shenhua was a new experience.

SHENMUE 4 RALLY CALL - JANUARY 4TH 2025 - STARTING STRONG

After smashing the final Tweetathon of the year we move into January 2025 looking to push on from the strong finish and trending 8 months in a row! The aim is 10k post in one trend!

Lets show ININ Games we mean buisness and how well loved this series is!

Please ensure you use the new message further on in this message.

THIS IS HOW YOU CAN HELP!

At 8pm BST, 9pm CET, 3pm EST, 12pm PST, 4am JST, on January 4th we join together to tweet as one voice to get #LetsGetShenmue4 trending.

We will send the following message:

To continue #Shenmue u/YSNET_Inc need a partner.

Who will help us?

#LetsGetShenmue4

u/SEGA u/SEGA_OFFICIAL u/RGGStudio u/yosp u/EpicPublishing u/devolverdigital u/LimitedRunJosh u/ryanpayton u/CedricBiscay u/SumoDigitalLtd u/505_Games u/ININ_Games u/wbd u/crunchyroll

PS: Ryo for VF6!

Assets Download Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CvXeLsgVbE6hGfewC0omE80xY63LL4fX?usp=drive_link

Matt Explains All Here - How to Help Video - JANUARY 4TH 2025: https://youtu.be/niTU1uIsdRA

Thank you for your continued support of Shenmue and Shenmue Dojo! We appreciate each and every one of you who comes out each month, responds to these emails, discord posts, tweets and more in order to get Shenmue finished! Without the community we have no chance of making this happen and your support is greatly appreciated! Lets start the year strongly and make Shenmue 4 a reality.

James and Matt

https://preview.redd.it/rmdht3gyh57e1.jpg?width=1160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1a0d9d4d3e35b2b09fd12578f7c6f7da328d58dc

Today, I finally finished Shenmue 2 for the first time (I finished 1 in 2021). And the game still blew me away in 2024, despite some of its flaws.

- I will start with the negative, and its pacing. Early part of the games were slow and felt mundane, especially airing out the books! I wasn't a fan.

- I loved the fights- I wish if we had more early in the game!

- The biggest plus in the game is world building, Ryo's transfomrative journey from revange to finding answers.

- Disc 4 felt like a teaser to S3, but man. Wow! It was probably one of my favorite part of any game ever!

Overall, I found 2 slightly better than 1.

Not in a rush to play 3 since we are not close to having the conclusion of the story :)

I’m re-watching Cowboy Bebop and episode 21 has a strange plot parallel to Shenmue. I don’t want to spoil it but if you watch the episode there’s a character design identical to a Shenmue character with a plot that generally aligns with Shenmue. An odd coincidence because the game and the episode as the episode aired 9 months before the games release.

Not a terribly good book, it’s really just an article expanded to book format, but nice to see the Dojo in print!

Hello, I played Shenmue 1 and 2 over a year ago and wanted to share my thoughts here since I felt like I needed to say something about these games. And I'm sure some of y'all love hearing ppl talk about these games :)

Overall, I liked Shenmue and it was really interesting seeing such an old open-world game. It really was influential. And while I can't say I enjoyed the sequel as much, I'm glad I played it. However, after hearing the mixed reception towards Shenmue 3 I decided not to play it. I just thought I'd share my thoughts about the games I played here, whatever I can remember because it's been a while.

The main things I liked about Shenmue was its slower pace and sense of intrigue/freedom. During the investigative segments I felt like I really was figuring things out and making the connections. Asking around for information was very organic, and when I had time to kill I was glad i had mini games and training to do. I imagine some people might dislike waiting and grinding, but I didn't mind it. The real-time element created a sense of the world existing separate from me, and having some time to practice attacks was good because I knew I needed to improve Ryo's skills if I wanted a chance to take on Lan Di.

Shenmue had a lot of really strong moments for me. The opening is good, a solid setup for the story. I liked the random flashback by the tree in the yard, since it is a little out of the way it makes me think that some people have missed it. I like the kitten side story, it was great to check in on the kitten and eventually nurse it back to health, though it did feel lonely once the kitten was gone. In my very first session there was this old lady who needed some help finding a house. Since I didn't understand the game, I spent all day looking for the house and when I FINALLY found it I ran to the playground to tell her and she was gone—the swing she waited on was broken and she was gone. I don't know what happened to her.

This moment stuck with me my entire playthrough, and for me it set up an expectation that optional quests will appear and can be failed. Personally I feel like this didn't pay off, I don't think I encountered any side quests from that point on (though I feel like I looked for them) and pretty much all events in the main quest require you to win to progress. The only exception I am aware of was the arcade fight against Chai, I was genuinely surprised that winning isn't mandatory. That was good and I wish that the whole game was designed with that in mind.

The job moving crates was awesome. I liked that every day started with a race, it was a really great choice by the devs. It was fun, helped build familiarity with the port, and gives the player experience with the forklift. The actual job has a lot of room for mastery and provides plenty of money.

I was disappointed in the final fight, wasn't the showdown I was expecting and due to failing mandatory QTEs over and over I lost all emotional investment in the conclusion. They really suck, and I don't think they improve the experience of the game. Even if they don't cause a game over on failure, missing a QTE doesn't feel good and even getting it fully is just meh. Wow I clicked a button when it told me to, it's not very interesting.

In conclusion, Shenmue was solid and I think it deserves to be on a "must play" list, with some caveats about the age of the game and it's pace. I think it's a game you need to have an open mind to experience given how far design and technology have come.

Shenmue 2 I remember less of, after the experience of the first I think it was hard to make an equal impression. But it had its share of good things and bad things that stuck out to me.

First off, losing all my money at the start of the game. Absolutely unforgivable. This is one of the most insane decisions by a developer I have ever seen. What was the point in programming a system where your money from Shenmue carries over, if they were just going to take it all away anyways? Baffling.

I thought the QTEs were bad enough in Shenmue, but they somehow got worse in the sequel. Not only are they more complicated (and to me they felt less lenient) but the first game distinguished between cutscenes and QTE cutscenes. This let me know when I could relax and enjoy the cutscene, in Shenmue 2 this distinction doesn't exist so now I'm on the edge of my seat all the time.

The job sucked. It's so tedious and has no room for growth since it's basically a QTE. Also it paid a pathetic amount. Way worse than the forklift job. On principle I don't save scum, but in this game when I needed a ton of cash I felt like I had no choice but to do so at Big or Small. Huge let down.

I feel like I'm being harsh on Shenmue 2 but there were some good things. The masters were good. I surprisingly liked moving the books, and the catching the leaf bit was actually very interesting and I felt like I did have to focus and be patient.

The stealth section was fun since it was optional checks with a fight if you fail. The big fights were fun except the guy who could toss you out of the ring. That one felt very RNG-dependent and my strategy to beat him ended up being very boring and repetitive (basically hit him with a fast attack and then immediately dodge. Repeat a bunch of times in a row and I won immediately). The final fight was ok except for the mandatory QTE which robbed me of all emotional investment. Once again I don't get to fight Lan Di which was a disappointment, doubly so because I already felt robbed after the first game.

The final section of the game I am conflicted about, I actually like it in isolation but I don't think it has any place in the game. It didn't come across as an epilogue to me, it felt like I had another chunk of the game coming up because why else would they have put all this optional dialogue here and a brand new area? Like, who puts what is basically a 30 minute cutscene right after the climax of a game? All this information being dumped on the player? And yet that's exactly what happened. All to set up a sequel that took almost 20 years? Absolutely bizarre. Even if the third was coming out the following year, this sequence should just have been a credits cutscene.

In conclusion, Shenmue 2 was a fine experience that I am happy I played. It wasn't as good as the first game and I could not in good conscience consider it a must-play like the first game. It unfortunately has some major faults that I cannot look past, which is a shame because I was really invested in Ryo's story and wanted to see it's conclusion.