Shenmue 2's mistakes, and what would you want in shenmue 3.

It's strange that how sega can screw up making the biggest and most expensive game in the world. It's wonderful how it emulates real life, real streets, really beautiful and fascinating environments. However, how can they screwed up making Hong Kong, the main setting.

The Hong Kong in Shenmue is completely wrong, which really hampers the the otherwise wonderful experience. First, none of the streets in shenmue 2 are in the real HK, at least doesn't look like that. Sure their is aberdeen, but any tourist would know that it's the southernest city of HK island over looking a few undeveloped islands in the wide south china sea. Well what do you see when u look out the sea in shenmue 2, a view that closely resembles what it'll look like if you look from the northest end of HK island to Kowloon on the mainland. Isn't it disapointing. If they want to include that famous view, at least they should use the CENTRAL, or Admiralty on north HK island. Aberdeen should have the famous Ocean park amusement park. Although I don't exactly remember what aberdeen looks like, it' looks the most sophisicated cleanest place in Shenmue 2.

In real life, u don't just cross king's road and reach Wan Chai, HK isn't that small. Wan Chai is another big disappointment, where's the sky scrapers? WHere's the peak? In fact, Some areas Wan Chai in Shenmue looks like some poor neighbourhood in china. Golden Qr looks like HK, but that actually looks more like Tsim sha chui or kowloon. The most realistic area is probably beverly wharfs (no such real place) assembles Aberdeen a bit, but of course, more lively more people and building.

The scrariest part is Kowloon. Sure you can ride bus their, but at least you need to go through the underwater tunnel, From HK island to the mainland. Of course they should make ryo ride the ferry across to have the best feeling. Oh my god this is the 20th century, an entrance leads inside Kowloon? It'll be hard to find such a place in CHina... When you get inside, suddenly you got inside some where in 15th century, wtf... I thought this is 1987. One mistake they made actually made the game fun and scary, it's the numerous buildings that can connect each other, and some totally broken/fallen in the middle, and you cross those so pieces of wood, that's pretty scary but fun.

Other than all these fake places and times, I would also like to see some transportation that you can use. Public transport is so important in HK, everyone uses them, they should include the train (kcr), underground, tram, mini bus, taxi, ferry, and probably ur own car. That would make the game 200 times funner. Since Public transport is so important to HK. The people's clothing in shenmue 2 is pretty ridiculous, no one wears traditional chinese clothes in HK... and again this is 1987. You might thiink that from HK, and that i'm nitpicking, but i'm not, all these take too much away from the gaming experience, and can make foreigners have a TOO false impression of HK.

I'll forgive about the low poly unimportant peoples, and some bad textures on clothes, no reflections on glass and water, and stuff reappearing and disappering, since this is a very realistic life experience. One strange thing is that in shenmue 1, the motorcycles had very beautiful environment mapping reflections on the paint, but none on joy's bike. I hope in shenmue 3, they make all these corrections and redo Hong Kong. Or better still, make a remake of shenmue 2 like bio hazard remake. Since the story probably won't go back to HK after going into guilin in china.[/img]

 

Dude -- paragraphs are a beautiful things.

I think there are things they should've changed before changing the HK layout. Afterall, I don't think Yokosuka is layed out just like it is in the game (I don't know for sure -- you couldn't pay me enough to go there).

The thing I had a problem with, is that I seriously doubt everyone on the streets of HK, especially the kids, speak Japanese. On this note, they should've chosen somewhere else. They did a good job of making the Chinese people in the original Shenmue speak with Chinese accents (at least in the Japanese version). The whities though, obviously couldn't speak any Japanese, and were reading from a script.

 

I'm not even going to bother reading that, till it's in paragraphs.

 

The term "suspension of disbelief" is lost on Hockman

 

C'mon, lets not be too hard on this fellow for giving his opinion
I actually found it a pretty interesting read, if I would play Shenmue II I would of course have no clue as to how the game's image of HK differs from the real thing... and of course nobody makes a game set in Breukelen :smt027

 

That's b/c anyone that goes to the Neverlands never makes it out of the coffee shops!

I thought it was an interesting read, but I think there are bigger flaws. There's a lot of money involved in a modeling a city after the real thing. Namely, sending the team there and paying for their hotels while they draw it up. Probably not worth the money in the long run.

 

If I ever GET a copy of the game, I'll marvel at the not-Hong Kong. :smt043 I'm sure Sega made some goofs and sacrifices for the same of Time, Money, and other gods, but you can't fault them too much. Are the Shenmue games fun (well, at least Chapter, I, can't tell on 2 yet)? Hells yes. Are they accurate to real life? Not completely, but moreso than almost any other game. And I think the keyword here is game - they would be no fun if they were exactly like real life, would they?

*random musing* I think Suzuki needs to make a Shenmue fro GBA.. :smt043

Why is that, GaijinPunch? Is it not a very nice place?

 

I personally think you're doing yourself a huge dis-service by playing 1 and not 2. Shenmue 2 is lovely. The only thing I really hated was that everyone spoke Japanese.

Why wouldn't I go to Yokosuka? It's got a US Naval Base, and that's about it... hence all the sailors in Shenmue Chapter 1. Places like that are why American's get a bad wrap world-wide. The military are for the most part, our ambassadors.

 

Ah, gotcha on the Yokusuka thing. I'm not a huge fan of the current US armed forces in general right now, so I can understand the feeling.

And it's not that I don't want to play 2, I just haven't been able to get a hold of it for a decent price. That and I'm still working my way through the first one, and don't want to start the second until I finish that..

 

now, it's in paragraphs. Is shenmue 1's yokosuka real? then, it's really a small and boring town, but matches the story well. Ryo doesn't seem like a big city boy, rather a matial arts traditional japanese. Don't you think transportation will make shenmue much more fun?

 

so it can be more and more like everyone's absolute favorite part of shemue, The Forklift Job.

hey BRO! not so loud BRO! :smt027

 

and to all of you, thank you, this thread has just inspired me to finally finish shenmue 2 already.

 

I really enjoyed playing Shenmue 1. I Bought Shenmue 2 the day it came out. I was happy to get it on Xbox since I missed out on the DC preorder and did not want to pay for the Euro version. Some guy tried to sell it to me for $300.

Anyway, the short story is, I stopped playing it. The same thing happened with one, so I shouldn't judge it just on that, but I did get bored. I think it really had to do with the lack of motivtion in the game. The fist one started with a great motivator, you father is killed, you go to investigate. Great, I'm hooked. The second one, you get off a boat, some kid steals your backpack, ok, well I want it back. That happens in like the first 10 min. Then I need a hotel, ok another 10 min. This isn't really compelling me.

I liked some things in the HK town, but I missed Yokosuka too. I really got to know some of the people there. I think they had more personality. In HK it's a big town with a lot of people you don't know. It's realistic that you should feel like you are surrounded by strangers, but it seemed like the people lacked personality. I was pissed that you couldn't fish too. When I saw that tackle shop I figured I would be able to get a rod and bait and go sit on the dock. Boy was that dissapointing. Anyway, I'd love to pick the game up and play again, but it really didn't hold my interest. I hope a second playing may be more engaging than the first.

 

yea, fishing is a great idea, I don't think it's too hard, they can use their get bass engine (advertised in shenmue 2's tackle shop). And also having some police to keep order is good too.

 

Perhaps 3 (one day) will be in small-town China, bringing back that homey feel.

 

after goin back and playing it again last night, i remembered that the reason i stopped playing it in the first place, is that the voice acting so ridiculously awful that i couldnt bear to play it anymore. the dc version of shenmue 2 at least had the option for japanese audio, im surprised they couldnt leave it in for the xbox version. the voice acting in 1 was at least sorta funny and charming, but 2's is totally unforgivable.

 

Moan Moan

I don't know how you can moan about Shenmue 2,it's one of the most involving and rewarding titles on any system.It dwarfs the first game and the storyline is far better and there are far more plot twists later on.
The Xbox version is shit,full stop.The only way to play Shenmue 2 is the euroo dc way,original jap voices with subtitles.It is the way Suzuki created the title and the way it is meant to be played.How anyone can make an opinion on this game without getting out of Wan Chai is beyond me as well,the story really starts to pick up towards the end of disc 2 and disc 3 is a masterpeice of creation in my opinion.The massively detailed blocks of flats in Kowloon are amazing an the meetings with Dou Niu's henchmen are unforgettable,not to mention the genius of following Yuanda(i think that's her name.) and the bit where you have to impress the Chiyoumen's Scout by winning the street fights.This is just so inspired to me.
To me you either love or hate Shenmue,I simply don't think there is an inbetween.To those prepared to invest the huge amounts of time and patience involved,you will reap the rewards of a fantastic and emotional story.Remember as well that Shenmue was planned as one whole game on nine discs,so it does get better as you go along.The second game is so far advanced over the first that I can't see the third being anything but mindblowing.PITY Suzuki will probably never get to finish the game and it looks as though Ryo is stuck in Guilin forever :smt011

 

Of course, all those events are exceptionally fun, but i'm complaining about the fakeness of HONG KONG. I beat the game once, and i'm on the third this the second time now.

 

Shenmue II was going to be in Chinese

When Yu Suzuki announced that Shenmue II would be set in Hong Kong, he also said that everybody is going to speak Chinese, even Ryo himself.

However, due to budget and time constraint, the idea was scrapped and everybody speaks Japanese in the game.

I lived in Hong Kong until 1991, and I don't find the Hong Kong in Shenmue II being "too fake". After all, it is a game, and I actually find it pretty nostalgic to play the 1980s of Hong Kong. HK does have some pretty horribly structured buidlings, but none like the hollowed-out ones where you have to walk on a plank! Also, has anyone seen pics of the unused buildings in Kowloon? They looked like Godzilla had visited the buildings!

The only thing I found in Shenmue II that is not accurate at all is when Ryo leaves Hong Kong to go to Kowloon. I know it's the transaction between one chapter to the next, but it's being overdone. You have to control Ryo to go say goodbyes to everybody, as if you were leaving Japan to HK (now that is a huge trip). But from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon is no more than 45 minutes top, even in the 80s. Heck, even Wong and Joy made the "trip" from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon like an everyday normal trip.

 

There's bound to be more fake stuff in Shenmue I. Some that was previously stated.

-White (and black for that matter) people that obviously can't speak Japanese, but do somehow. They don't even speak like people learning Japanese.

-All the fights happening on the streets (c'mon man -- even in Yokosuka you're safe as a kitten)

-The gangs (kinda goes along w/ the fighting)

-The fact that people actually say "Sorry, I'm busy. Maybe later" after you simply say "excuse me". That doesn't happen even in Tokyo.

Stuff I found very real:
The Chinese people's accents
The buildings (including the houses)
The neighborhoods

One quick funny thing that probably most haven't tried. Try dialing Information and see what happens. I'm curious is they left it in (and even changed the number) for the English version.