Why do people love Shenmue?

[MikeRox]

Sam dont come on here posting crap about me being anti sega.

Don't worry about it, I think it's good to get discussions like this (isn't that the point of these forums?) it was blatent that the thread wasn't flamebait and I can easily see why people wouldn't dig Shenmue the way others do.

[Goemon]

Shenmue is 10 years old and is still the best example I've seen of a living, breathing world.

You speak to some guy in the morning, then see him again later in the day in some pub, then you see him again late at night wandering home, pi$$ed.

I've never experienced any like that in a game, EVER!

But I can understand why people don't get the game. What drives a lot of people in games is interaction whereas Shenmue thrives on immersion.

It's the same with MGS, I have friends who won't play MGS becuase it's 5 mins of game play and 20 mins of story and I'm like treat the whole thing as an experience, but some people just aren't interested in that side of things.

Another example is; I sh!t my pants when I play survival horror games because I get sucked into the world whereas other people don't really find them scary at all.

People can talk about Shenmue's negatives but it is still a technical master piece IMO

[Ragnar004]

My friend has spent 2 years trying to convince me to play this game and I'm still unsure why I should. He says that if I loved Fire Emblem: PoR (which I did and do) then I will like Shenmue. Is this an accurate comparison or not because I would get into it if this was so...

[Decider-VT]

I've been playing the first game again over the last couple of weeks, at a far more relaxed pace than I did the first time around. Nothing quite like spending your evening with a cup of tea and walking around Dobuita at night while you're in a candle-lit room and the rain is pouring down outside.

[Kongster]

Playing Shenmue for the first time back in the day, I grew quite attached to Dobuita, the locals and I even went into the arcade a few times while I was suppose to get some information lol. The immersiveness and atmosphere was quite special. Dobuita sure did feel like your hometown.

Which brings me Shenmue 2....playing that for the first time, it really made me you feel like you were a stranger in unfamiliar surroundings haha but that's what AM2 wanted you to feel in the epic quest. Too bad we'll never see a conclusion to the series.

[nakamura]

I played this game for over an hour last night to try and 'get it' and I do get it. Utter uncontrollable crap! Amazing how Sega, once a leader in gameplay managed to get Ryo to control so badly. Movement on D-pad, camera on analogue, Ryo unable to turn on spot in any usable manor, constantly getting stuck on scenery.
It's like Sega looked at how Zelda Ocarina of Time controls and decided to ignore everything about it.

I simply cannot stomach it. Loading times are appalling too, making changes to areas absolutely painful. Lord knows why Sega didn't put this on PS2 either as the machine could have done it at a canter.

Anyway, positives. I found myself interested in the actual theme and plot interesting, as is the world. The music is superb also.

Pity, the terrible mechanics mean this game is still out of reach. If it gets a few tweaks in a possible HD remix, I might try again. Until then, I cannot believe people can be so forgiving.

[Kron]

I don't think the PS2 would have done it any justice. The game would have looked terrible vs what the DC was capable of texture wise.

[nakamura]

I've seen better textured PS2 games. DC was more capable but techniques change fast, bump mapping aside.

I do finally get Shenmue now for the most part. A very rich world in full 3D with fairly realistic for the time mechanics. Real people living real lives, if a touch repetitive. I like the art and music and the overall plot intrigued me.
However I cannot get beyond the utterly awful control and unless they update it I will never get to play it through. I wasn't forgiving of it in 2000 and I am even less so now. The loading is also mind numbing. Take those issues away for a possible HD update then I would certainly give it a playthrough.

[randombs]

The controls are awful, aren't they? Plus, I never thought looking at things in a game could be made even more boring but Sega managed it with the weird analogue-stick/lock-on thing.

Shenmue is like the FF games for me - story first, gameplay second. I could forgive the mechanics because I loved the story and music. Even when replaying it, I can forgive the controls because of those two reasons. If I were getting into it outside of the original hype I probably wouldn't give it more than a few minutes(same reason I never played the FF games except FFX).

[Yakumo]

Just how many of you guys actually played Shenmue when it was release? Probably not that many of you I'm guessing. Back then there wasn't a single game like Shenmue. Sure the controls are complete crap but so were the controls on all Bio Hazard games back then including Code Veronica. That's what 3D world games were like for the most part. Sure, even back then the controls were not so great but you got used to them. These days they are much worse because we are all playing 3D world game with dual analogue sticks.

[Brad]

It hasn't aged well. On release it was amazing though.

[sj33]

The ropey controls are basically caused by the Dreamcast only having a single analogue stick. AM2 clearly wanted free camera control, but the lack of a right analogue stick meant that this had to be mapped to the left stick. This relegated the movement to the Dreamcast's awful D-Pad. It was a touch of genius by AM2 to attempt to alleviate this as much as possible by mapping the forward motion to the analogue trigger.

The lack of dual analogue sticks on the Dreamcast is strange lack of foresight with an otherwise extremely progressive console.

I think Shenmue is brilliant, by the way.

[Party boy]

I haven't played the original in ages, maybe Nakamura should give the 2nd one on the Xbox a go... But for me it was one of the most unique and immersive experiences I've ever had, and I'd rate the series as one of the best ever made, if not the best.

[J0e Musashi]

Just how many of you guys actually played Shenmue when it was release? Probably not that many of you I'm guessing. Back then there wasn't a single game like Shenmue. Sure the controls are complete crap but so were the controls on all Bio Hazard games back then including Code Veronica. That's what 3D world games were like for the most part. Sure, even back then the controls were not so great but you got used to them. These days they are much worse because we are all playing 3D world game with dual analogue sticks.

I bought Shenmue on New Year's Eve 1999 from CEX Rathbone for ?69.99. Other than Shenmue 2, are there any other games that are like it nowadays? The controls were nowhere near as good as Biohazard CV either.

[nakamura]

There is nothing wrong with the controls is Biohazard, yes they are clunky but they work absolutely fine. In Shenmue, it's difficult at times to even line Ryo up in the exactly direction you want to go, extremely short sighted controller design. I remember the 3DS being slated for this but the DC not? Odd.

As for playing it on launch, I most certainly did. I didn't like it then, I at least appreciate it now. As for the FF games, they most certainly are not gameplay second, the gameplay is the battle system. I've tried to like Shenmue over and over and I have finally given up with it. It's just badly executed despite its ambitions. The gameworld, plot and music are very nice, the rest remains poor.