Shenmue

[The NZA]

they can't, point still stands~

[Iambaytor]

Keep sippin' that tea, bro.

[Keth]

Werewolf. Dramatic readings. My +1 stock is not waivering a single bit.

 

Anyway I'm 12 and what's Shenmue?

[Iambaytor]

Anyway I'm 12 and what's Shenmue?

 

A fork-truck driving simulator.

[The NZA]

 

can't hear the young'ins, it's finally happening~

[Newtype]

It just hit the 2 million mark.

 

Edited June 16, 2015 by Newtype

[Newtype]

Gio Corsi quote:

 

"Absolutely. First off, Shenmue III was the number one ask on the whole #BuildingTheList campaign, so when that first started, right off the bat, 'Shenmue III, Shenmue III, Shenmue III.' So this has been an ask for as long as I've been at PlayStation. And we met with Suzuki-san at GDC last year and we started the long road to try and figure out how we were going to get this whole thing made.

 

"We said, 'the only way this is going to happen is if fans speak up,' and we thought Kickstarter was the perfect place to do this. So we set a goal for $2 million and if the fans come in and back it, then absolutely, we're going to make this a reality. So, Sony and PlayStation are definitely a partner in this game, and it's going to be run through Third Party Productions with Ys Net. We're going to get the game done. We're going to be partners the whole way, and we're really excited to see this thing come out in a couple of years."

[Iambaytor]

So, what's the over-under on re-releases of the previous two games? Cause I have not played Shenmue 2 in years and I'm not shelling out that kind of money for the first one and I honestly don't remember much.

[The NZA]

Story goes that Sega had 1 & 2 HD mostly (?) done,but sadly weren't pleased with the sales on Jet Grind Radio & NIGHTS HD, so they got canned along with Skies of Arcadia HD.

 

This thing's already nearing 3 mill in less than a day. With at least 2 years in the oven, I feel pretty confident Sega will se that $ on the table & want a return on their prior investment

 

...then again,they still haven't released PSO 2.0 in the west, so...

[Keth]

Sega may not be the best judge at numbers considering that, to them, Alien: Isolation disappointed in sales with "just" 2.1 million copies. I wanna play these though since I never owned a Dreamcast.

Edited June 17, 2015 by Axels

[The NZA]

 

...well, 17, but still

 

it's been a bumpy road:

• useless people like some guy at forbes & kuchera over at polygon kinda soured this effort early on, asking for full disclosure on the funds/sony's deal besides, you know, this absolutely never really happening elsewhere in gaming
  
• worse yet, Awesome Japan was woefully unprepared to handle this, and looked terrible at most steps, particularly a twitch stream. though we still don't have paypal (...), suzuki got it worked out with sony to get a physical PS4 edition & breathed new life into the stalled campaign
  

 

so while the stretch goals are still pretty terribly set (nearly 1 million between them...), the rewards got better on the high end, even if the lower ones didn't improve much. still, we're currently at a bit under 5.5 million, looking to overtake Bloodstained, a KS run infinitely better on every conceivable level. I'm hoping we not only set the record for gaming kickstarters, but clear 6 million in the final push! best yet, this hopefully means when 4 comes around, Suzuki's team won't have to jump through as many hoops to secure funding (though i won't be surprised if they KS it again anyway).

[The NZA]

 

6 million! more than Mighty No 9 & Bloodstained both, so happy~

[The NZA]

You've asked, we listened and we're extremely excited to finally announce that Shenmue I & II are coming to PS4, Xbox One and PC in one package! Both games will feature Japanese and English voice overs, the choice of classic or modern controls and more! #ShenmueSaved pic.twitter.com/EvtcEt5pgn

— SEGA (@SEGA) April 14, 2018

[The NZA]

 

today is the day which is that day

 

don't mind me, heating up some sake while i wait on the 12 GB update file

 

it's fine; i've waited nearly 18 years for this

[The NZA]

so, nearly 3 years later, and i finally finished part 3.  while the anime (which has been fantastic) very quickly catching up may have pushed me to tie it up, there's a few reasons i put it down: for one, there were definitely disappointing bits, but the larger part was knowing that i'd waited 18 years and may not get more shenmue. 

there's talk of 4 now, and honestly if the anime is what finishes the series than that's not a bad way either, but i still adore playing this series, warts and all. 

 

so let's talk about 3

we start out having to retcon the more mystical bits of the end of 2, which i think most of us saw coming but it's never really addressed (did ryo & shenhua just share a hallucination in that cave?), shenhua's home village of rural bailu definitely feels more like the glacial pace of part 1, but for all the time spent there, i do wish we'd have built more relationships with a few townspeople/supporting cast, since as it stands, the village goes on long enough that it feels like the game wants you to rush through it already & get to the more lively/exciting areas.

 

the two biggest problems the game has, for me, were really evident here:

 

1) the padding - the nature of shenmue has ryo repeating tasks, both earning money or honing martial arts.  shenmue 2 in particular managed both of these at times without either feeling overly monotonous, and there's bits of that here too, but there's also very clearly parts where the game is just making you do a thing to arbitrarily lengthen that part, and it sucks. 

bailu's section is the fetchquests & chicken stuff with the old man.  but a much worse offender is a nearly endgame bit that demands ryo purchase a martial arts scroll at 5000 yuan, and even with some grinding, i had like 450 at the time.  worse yet, it's obvious they patched out an easy money trick of buying up sets of books in the marketplace, so you're supposed to gamble or the like.  I was able to complete a fighting tournament (using up my health items) and get nearly 4300 that way, it wasn't awful but again, it was clearly there just to force some grinding

 

2) the stamina system - my god.  you literally lose stamina just walking about (kinda the tao of the game??), and running just burns through it. even if you do the obvious grind to max stamina, it's still a system that leaves ryo too exhausted to do most things by even midday, forcing you to not only grind for $ for your housing in many places, but constant food to replenish.  this is an archaic idea that even the older games didn't have, and the game likewise doesnt bother explaining why it's there now: did ryo take up smoking while we were away, did he suffer some injury or what?  why is a martial artist on his journey to only continue getting better go from running about entire cities to this??  again, the only obvious answer is the overarching issue here: padding

 

it's a really unfortunate approach, because i liked a lot of my time in niaowu, the game's 2nd half.  it's one of those layered locations i loved exploring, feeling like i learned so much of it by the late game but still found shortcuts, hidden shops & events about - like the better shenmue locations, i kinda miss exploring it now, which is a big part of my elevated feelings for the series in general.  granted, by the game's end, i have so many foods on me that it can mitigate much of the stupid stamina system, but i still really want a new game+ without it entirely - the feeling that i'm being penalized for running around & exploring your really detailed chinese city off the water feels extremely counterintuitive to, you know, the really detailed chinese city off the water effort

 

 

the bigger common complaint - that this campaign feels a lot more like a sidestory/gaiden than the big push through the plot you'd want after all these years - is fair, even if 11th hour revelations pushed things far enough along for me to feel good about it & be excited to see where another chapter takes us.  even without sega licensing suzuki's other works for arcade/gashapon stuff, there's some great connections, like using phone cards to call friends you'd made in japan & hong kong to see how they're doing (sounding like the original voice cast & all!). 

overall, while i still think the kickstarter took way more shit than it even deserved, the backlash against design choices here was largely legit.  i really loved some of my time with 3, and i get why maybe the devs feared if the campaign felt too short people would be salty as well, but i can't help but feel i'dve had a much better time with what's here had the design not been made to penalize - fit not at times discourage - exploration.

[Iambaytor]

God, referring to Shenmue as a fork-truck driving simulator was a golden bit. I'm so proud of my past self.