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Shenmue's Blues


On 05/28/2019 at 04:10 PM by Super Step

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Well, I finished Shenmue after playing it for pretty much the whole day yesterday, and ... I have very mixed feelings. Very mixed feelings. Most of them regard not being able to get the Gacha Gacha III achievement with my completed game save file. What the hell?! Warn me! I was almost to 50 capsule toys, now I'll have to spend another who knows how many hours and in-game yen on doing this over and over:

I also need to find the hidden flashback scenes ... well, Google needs to do that for me, anyway.

In all seriousness, this game is an enigma. As I said on Twitter while I was playing yesterday, it's laughably voice acted, the combat feels off, waiting for time to pass with so little to explore is a chore I would never have time for if gainfully employed, and I'm addicted to it anyway. 

I ... I need to think this one out a bit. 

I think I might just be the type of player who will put up with way too much in order to see where even a pretty basic, fairly predictable story goes. I actually don't mind a game where most of what you do is talk to people to gather information. I am mostly qualified to be a journalist, after all. My issue came in when people you talked with had nothing to say. 

Anyway, once the handful of trophies I have left are done, I'll move on to Shenmue II. 

In other news, I rented Red Dead Redemption 2 from GameFly, but I had to shut the PS4 off, delete a bunch of stuff and try again to download it to no avail several times over the weekend. Initially, the data disc did fine, but the play disc would stall unexpectedly and with no explanation. When the data disc started messing up and saying the game can't be downloaded, that's when I gave up and reported an issue to GameFly. I should be getting Assassin's Creed: Odyssey soon. 

I previously rented DOA 6, which had absolutely great combat. I loved how the game looked and how fluid movement was. It is a super satisfying fighting game ... I sent it in for Soul Calibur VI within like a day, cause there was no story mode. 

Soul Calibur VI's combat wasn't quite as satisfying, and had some annoying gimmicks like the rock-paper-scissors duels from Injustice games (not a fan), but its Mission and Story modes hooked me and I think I'll actually end up buying this one once I'm back on my financial feet again. Long story there I won't get into.

Plus, the character creator let me do stupid shit like this:

I referred to my Mission playthrough as "The Ballad of Jamborino"

Finally, I got Wi-Fi back in the house, so I can actually go back to playing PC games like Iris.Fall for review. 

That's all for now. 


 

Comments

Cary Woodham

05/28/2019 at 09:22 PM

I think the only thing I would've done in Shenmue would be play arcade games and collect toys.  Same goes with the Yakuza game I played.  All I did was play arcade games and talk to the cute arcade lady.

I didn't do too much with the character creation in SC6, as compared to how much time I spent making characters in SC4 and 5.  I did make some really buff and strong versions of Ulala and the Ridge Racer lady, though.

Super Step Contributing Writer

05/28/2019 at 10:42 PM

Yakuza has way more to do than Shenmue, by a landslide. But Shenmue has a certain quaint charm to it. 

I never played SC past 2 until now. 

Matt Snee Staff Writer

05/28/2019 at 09:35 PM

Yeah, I haven't played Shenmue but when it came out, my friend was obsessed with it. Since you've played a lot of games inspired by it (open worlds were pretty unique back then), maybe it seems a little antiquated. Or maybe Shemue just sucks. 

I've been thinking about playing AC Odyssey myself lately. I bought it on sale a while back, and I've been reading a lot about Ancient Greece, which is one of my favorite subjects, so I'm thinking of checking it out. 

Super Step Contributing Writer

05/28/2019 at 10:43 PM

I don't think it sucks, there are just a lot of things about it that are really outdated. It's actually a lot shorter than I thought. My completed save file is only 13 hours. 

I'd imagine AC Odyssey is amazing if you love Ancient Greece. 

KnightDriver

05/28/2019 at 11:34 PM

Can you fight as your created character? I loved playing as a crazy wacko character I made in Saint's Row 4. 

Super Step Contributing Writer

05/28/2019 at 11:45 PM

Yes. That's actually the whole point of Mission mode. Your character is inserted into that story. 

vesper27

06/22/2019 at 01:20 AM

I NEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD1

Super Step Contributing Writer

06/22/2019 at 11:24 AM

Need ... Shenmue? lol 

SanAndreas

06/22/2019 at 02:23 AM

Shenmue was a bit ahead of its time, much as I hate that cliche. Yu Suzuki just wanted to do more than could be done economically. The voice acting sounds like it was ripped from a casette tape recorded on a Tiger Talkboy. Its tank controls are unwieldy, like those in GTA. The difference being that Sega scrapped tank controls for Yakuza while Rockstar keeps using tank controls in GTA. But they're still good games, and I will be picking up Shenmue III. Sega became one of my favorite developers/publishers after they quit making consoles, ironically.

Super Step Contributing Writer

06/22/2019 at 11:26 AM

Interested choice of words, "economically," since I believe this was the most expensive game ever made at the time of its release. So I've heard, anyway.

 

 

 

But yeah, I was told by everyone to expect a museum piece that would set a foundation for Yakuza and that's what I feel I got, so overall I'm a Shenmue fan and plan to finish II and purchase III. 

SanAndreas

06/23/2019 at 04:11 PM

I've heard differing things on that. It used to be that people claimed that Shenmue is what bankrupted Sega and drove them into third party status, though that's a bit reductionist. Yu Suzuki, the creator of Shenmue, said later that this wasn't the case, that Sega just fell victim to the results of multiple failed consoles and an inability to compete with Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. But it is also true that he got "kicked upstairs" into an office job where he had few duties despite still getting paid, and that's a typical passive-aggresive way in which corporations punish miscreants.  It's clear he wanted to do a lot more with Shenmue than he did, and stuff had to be cut for time and budget reasons. 

Super Step Contributing Writer

06/23/2019 at 11:04 PM

I'm reading the budget was initially thought to be $70 million, including some marketing and even some of that was used for Shenmue II, but Suzuki corrected the figure to $47 million ... which apparently was still as expensive as it got in '99?

Not sure I'll ever find a reliable source on this, since even gaming sales in in the 90s seem a bit fuzzy.

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