a lot of people also fail to realize the attempt shenmue makes to tell stories in Chinese Mythology.

Its a lot more than a quest to avenge your father's death. Check out the mythos on the Chi You and the Yellow Emporer. The story is actually pretty deep.

It's probably one of the worst games ever made by a person who should have known better. I honestly expected more from Mr. Suzuki.

I have a Dreamcast. I own both Shenmue games. I finished neither. I like the idea of Shenmue better than actually playing the game. Playing Space Harrier and whatnot in the in-game arcade is like the only entertaining gameplay Shenmue has to offer. I found the whole experience horribly boring.

I love Shenmue but it's not for everyone. It's a life simulator, more euro truck simulator than grand theft auto. Honestly, I find the social aspects, not gameplay obviously, of Persona 4 very Shenmue inspired (capsule toys, weather forecasts, friendships that need maintaining, etc). It's a slow burn and I love that about it.

Shenmue 2 is one of the weirdest games I've ever played and I loved it at the time but I definitely couldn't go back and play it now. If they make Shenmue 3 they would have to seriously update everything about the franchise.

But, I do remember the ending segment to Shenmue 2 (in Guilin I think it was called?) and it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever experienced in gaming.

It's a gimmicky game that was cool because it did new things and was ambitious, which is a quality I like in games, especially ones born of that era. There's similar games like Yakuza, Kenka Bancho, Way of the Samurai, etc. that are reminiscent of that open world-ish type of game from Japan.

That being said, novelty aside Shenmue had a pretty bad story, rarely likable characters, and was generally mediocre on the gameplay side. People honestly defending it like some masterpiece are silly.

And in a world post-GTA (3,4,5), Yakuza, Red Dead Redemption, Bully, Assassin's Creed, soon Watch Dogs, and I guess you could loosely compare Deus Ex: HR's city/town environments and NPC interactions to Shenmue, that a Shenmue 3 would need to have a ton of work and money put into it to be any good by today's standard.

I still don't see why people say it has a bad story. If your talking about the revenge part then you absolutely have no clue where the story goes. Shallow opinions based off of shallow facts that are not looked into.

I don't get that either. I think the basic narrative is sound, but I think their is a tone issue where Ryo comes across as a bit too scattered that is an issue.

That is the biggest issue with a lot of jRPGs they are so set on their own story they remove all choice or growth from players hands. I constantly sat through parts of Shenmue where I say, "THAT IS NOT WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE!!!" Other jRPGs have set stories, but Shenmue was very egregious at making very poor choices for the player just to add drama, it felt stifling in such a modern game. Nearly every single girl form 12 to 25 in that village is attracted to him, but the story makes your grind through a very excruciating failed romance with Nozomi which isn't fun, likely isn't what they player would have done.

So, If there is one improvement I would make to Shenmue it would be to make the story and character choices more like Mass Effect. The game should present or allow to occur though player actions at least binary and in some cases three end results to occur, thus 'player choice & player actions during play' can make in key decisions. I would also modernize, improve and REDUCE the "QTEs". Quick Time Events work, we might not like it but they do have their uses, being one of the first games to do it is seen as a black mark on the game, but I think done in a modern manner and not used so much they woudl still be useful.

The basic story (narrative) and the plot (how the story proceeds through evenets) is fine, it is a very good story. The problem is their needed to be more choice. Do I love Nozomi (I sure didn't as a player!)? Or do I like, the student, Mayumi Mishima who has come back to town? Or do I love the girl on the scooter or any of the other young women in town? Come on Sega give me a choice! He leaves all of them anyway! When I help people put them on my side, when I neglect people take something away; or reverse it with some where if I help a greedy/shallow person nothing good comes of it.

And... I hate to say it...but for the love of god let me dress in anything but a leather bomber jacket and jeans!!!!!

I've often been called an asshole, so obviously i love shenmue 1 and 2

To me it paved the way for all open world games that came out later, including gta 3. It also streamlined the QTE, which love it or hate it, has been a huge deal in games the last 10 years or so. It definitely had some problems, but overall the games were great. Although i'm not sure how well they hold up lol

Just reboot the series.

I actually just started playing though shenmue again because its been awhile and there is nothing else to play and my girlfriend has never seen it. She is mostly making fun of it but it kind of has it coming with how awful the English voices are. I wish you could play it in japanese.

So with shenmue 2 should I play the european dreamast version or the US xbox version? I have access to both.

And maybe I'm am in the minority here but i am pretty capable of putting myself in a bubble and actually am enjoying playing this clunky mess of a game. It was something that had never been done before it and has never been done since.

At the end of the day, Shenmue is not a "good" game but has a lot to like about. Fundamentally, it's a clunky and awkwardly playing game but the world you explore, the people you meet, and just the day to day playing as ryo is quite unique. I personally like it cause I use to live in japan and this game makes me super nostalgic.

I enjoyed both Shenmue games. They were different to the usual dross that was available at the time. Not perfect by a long shot, but very immerse and I want the end of the story dammit!

Wait, are you telling me that a minority of people on the internet are overtly vocal about something most people don't care about?

Crazy

Anyway, Shenmue is all kinds of terrible: interesting ideas executed poorly. The Yakuza games are better versions of that stuff honestly.

but yeah. I'm having a really good time playing shenmue right now. better than playing most of the current games I have played. Shenmue is a god damned good game. equal to uncharted or halo or gears of war or any other game you could possibly compare it to.

at least ryo isn't a homicidal maniac like most video game characters.

I can kind of get why people like it but I thought it was terrible. Just not my bag at all.

PS: Jeff's hair sure looks a like like Ryo's in that shot.

I don't think Ill ever like a game as much as I liked shenmue.

I think alot of people are just looking at it with the wrong eyes. For me I try to imagine how the game even got made in the first place. my mind gets blown at the creativity and vision that went into its creation. like how did someone even think of doing a game like that. I get the same feeling when I look at hubble space telescope photos. like god damn, mind blown.

I liked Shenmue just fine. The gameplay wasn't great no, but then the gameplay of almost any game from that time frame doesn't hold up well when compared to modern games. The game was boring? Maybe. But even most modern GTA's fail to be as open and feel as "real" as Shenmue did. There have been plenty of games like it, many with better mechanics, you could even draw a direct line from Yakuza to it.... but I still have fond memories of Shenmue and would still buy a third to see the completion of the games plot. Even if that means playing a game that is a bit boring and has average or even slightly bad gameplay. Because you don't play Shenmue for the "game" aspects, you play it for the immersion, the story, and to experience the setting.

I kind of wonder if modern games actually suck and those old games were actually good.

In the words of Top Gear - Shenmue was "ambitious but rubbish"

I can respect a game's ambition, while still acknowledging that it was a pretty bad game.

I don't know. I'm playing the game again now and I have to say if it were a new game exactly as it was now I would probably think it was a damn good game maybe even better than most stuff around now.

I think it was ambitious and pretty good.

I think a large part is getting older and nostalgia/experience. I used to really like the Tales games for example, but today couldn't play the most recent release for more than 2 hours before quitting. I just felt like I had been there done that within minutes of starting it. You can only see a scenario or certain type of plot so many times before you no longer care about it, I guess you can call it a sort of fatigue. That's why I enjoy more open world games where the settings can be wildly different and the game can be played at your pace and in whatever method or style you prefer.

Fair enough. But at least it didn't light on fire like Hammond's Porsche.

@karkarov: I totally agree. I think its part of the reason why we are seeing a resurgence of super arcadey and simplified games. I went through the same thing trying to play newer JRPGs. and I'm really hoping I don't feel this way when Persona 5 comes out.

Shenmue did a great job of capturing my imagination back when I was between the ages of 11-14. However to make a sequel to it now wouldn't turn out well in my opinion. So much in gaming has changed since then and the stuff that impressed me and kept me hooked 10 years ago would just be annoying now. You could really modernise it and make Shenmue 3 play like other open world games but then it wouldn't really be Shenmue.

Jeff likes the Gears of War story and universe.

Everyone is entitled to their taste, however wrong it may be.

Would you like to try a game of Lucky Hit?

...This never happened to Pablo Picasso

sigh, reminded of 12 years ago in college my roommate imported the euro version of Shenmu 2. And we all gathered around the CRT tv to admire it..... again it's a different experience, when in retrospect it seems dull. But it's all about just experiencing something different. We were in Philadelphia and we were talking about 80s Japan and Hong Kong.