Why do people love Shenmue?

[Lorfarius]

I can't believe you went through all that post without mentioning Toy Commander!

[samanosuke]

Mods, please banish nakamura from these forums with haste!! He clearly hasn't read the ToS which clearly state that thou shalt not muddy thy holy name of Dreamcast.

[nakamura]

[Kron]

Theres always one who brings out the 'DC was looked upon with rose tinted glasses' post each year, People who view videogames via the mythical AAA game ranking or how successful they were at retail should be shot anyway.

[nakamura]

Errr, less retail success then less titles on the machine. Hence the comparison with other systems in a similar position. A machine that has a smaller catalogue needs more of the to be decent and I dont think the DC has this compared to the others I mentioned.
I just think its down to the power of the system at the time rather than the games.
After all it launched in Japan 18 months before the PS2, 3 years before the xbox and 2 years before the Cube so it was way ahead of them and certainly ahead of the still supported N64 and PS1.
I just dont feel the games were of that high a standard.

[speedlolita]

The japanese ones were imo, which is why I own a japanese one.

[Strider]

I just dont feel the games were of that high a standard.

We are no longer cousins.

[sj33]

I think with any good system, the quality of the good games will always overshadow the bad games, no matter how many of them there are. The Dreamcast was obviously cursed with a short (mainstream) shelf life, and a large amount of lazy PlayStation conversions and WinCE games, but they aren't games that I think about when I think about the Dreamcast.

I find it difficult to agree that there aren't that many good games on the Dreamcast, I could be here all day listing my favourites, but it is inevitable with something as subjective as this as it's going to depend on what games we have fond memories of. For example, in my eyes there were more great games on the MegaCD than the N64 (not a dig at the N64, more prasing the MegaCD) - some people would see that as bizarre, but it depends what games we loved back in the machine's heyday.

[nakamura]

We are no longer cousins.

I will discuss it with you when I pop over. May be tonight mate.

[nakamura]

For example, in my eyes there were more great games on the MegaCD than the N64 (not a dig at the N64, more prasing the MegaCD) - some people would see that as bizarre, but it depends what games we loved back in the machine's heyday.

You see I wouldnt agree with that but like you said its subjective. Dont get me wrong I really liked the DC I just didnt love it like othe consoles.

[samanosuke]

Don't like Dreamcast, don't like Shenmue... What's wrong with you, lad?

[tokyochojin]

That's it, the Xmas tree has already gone up in work. It's time to crack out the shenmue too...

[Sam The Man]

Don't like Dreamcast, don't like Shenmue... What's wrong with you, lad?

Lol Martin is a bit ANTI Sega samanosuke. He never liked Sonic 3 or Sonic & Knuckles. He's never played Toejam & Earl. He's also never had Nights Into Dreams, Guardian Heroes or Panzer Dragoon Zwei and hates Shining Force 2 & 3. And although he had a Dreamcast he didnt finish half the games he had for it including Skies Of Arcadia & Phantasy Star Online.

Dont get me wrong he enjoyed a few Megadrive titles and the odd DC game but in all he's not a huge Sega fan.

[meppi]

While I agree that the DC is being looked back upon with rose-tinted glasses, I also believe that it more than deserves all the praise it gets.

It's really the last system of it's kind and in my eyes, wether that's justified or not, it's the last of the consoles built for gamers.
By that I mean gamers like the ones who grew up on 8 and 16 bit systems and such, not necessarily the 32-bit kind.

The gaming scene drastically started to change after the Dreamcast.
Some for the better, but on a more personal level, a lot for the worse.
Much of this has to do with my love for arcade style games and it's decline.

People certainly shouldn't judge any system by the number of crap games it has.
Heck I got a Jaguar a couple years back just for Tempest 2000 and I never regretted it. That alone justified getting the system for me.


Back on topic.
I love Shenmue, and I actually preferred the first one to the second, maybe because the smaller scale made me connect more to my surroundings or something, I can't quite put my finger on it.
Anyway, I've tried a couple of times to replay the game, but always get side-tracked by something else.

But I have decided that this year will be the year that I will replay both games and finish them as well. Set aside a 4 week holiday around Christmas so there should be plenty of time.
As most people I reckon, every year when Christmas starts getting closer I get the urge to play certain games, Shenmue and NiGHTS being two of them. Zelda ALTTP being another.

I certainly do agree that Shenmue is more than just the sum of it's parts.
The story, the surroundings, the atmosphere and the incredible attention to detail for it's time are a big part of what makes it magical.
But I do love how the game plays as well and never had any kind of problem with the "wooden" animation or anything like that.
I even like the whole forklift driving and such, despite many people hating on it. It's all part of what makes the game feel more like a complete package and an actual story then just a bunch of events that you spring to continue on to the next one.

The more I think about it, the more I feel it's actually very hard to put into words what makes me love Shenmue so much.
It just did everything right for me I guess.

[meppi]

He's also never had Nights Into Dreams

I've heard enough!