Giant Bomb are bringing back the Endurance Run... and it's Shenmue.

My opinion of Shenmu is solidifying and it's not really being impacted by the way the guys are playing. It's mostly based on the fact that this is a story and character centric game and the story and characters are all very awkward. Even if I look past the hilarious voice acting and the poor translation, the way one lead moves to the next doesn't feel true to actual life. There is a charm to the absurdity of the interactions but the way the game is defended, I'm finding it hard to see a point of view where the game can be taken so seriously.
 
ohmygod vinny's collections bit .. im pretty sure i pissed myself laughing.

Alex is 10000% right. "Shenmue is not fun, Vinny is making it fun"
 
Nice! This will let me brush up on my wrasslin' moves. I can't wait to see how this turns out. I tried my own little endurance run a couple months ago. Probably shouldn't have tried it on a work night.
 
Mr. F said:
It's been interesting going from watching the ER and finally getting a sense of what Shenmue even is to popping into that 'whats the most money you've given to a kickstarter' thread and seeing people mention they dropped hundreds on Shenmue 3.

I...I don't get it.
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Well, this can be said for all games, you get it or not.
 
Mr. F said:
It's been interesting going from watching the ER and finally getting a sense of what Shenmue even is to popping into that 'whats the most money you've given to a kickstarter' thread and seeing people mention they dropped hundreds on Shenmue 3.

I...I don't get it.
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It's a beloved game. It might not have aged well but the people dropping hundreds on a Kickstarter are people who played it when it first came out and have great memories of it.
 
Felix Lighter said:
My opinion of Shenmu is solidifying and it's not really being impacted by the way the guys are playing. It's mostly based on the fact that this is a story and character centric game and the story and characters are all very awkward. Even if I look past the hilarious voice acting and the poor translation, the way one lead moves to the next doesn't feel true to actual life. There is a charm to the absurdity of the interactions but the way the game is defended, I'm finding it hard to see a point of view where the game can be taken so seriously.
Click to expand...

The first game, due to its awful dub, is best treated like a kung fu story. If you've seen kung fu movies you know they will often present serious topics with bad translation/dubs. Shenmue 1 dubbed works the same way. For what it's worth, Shenmue in Japanese is a much better experience, story-wise.

As an example, watch a bit of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. A man is whisked away to the Shaolin temple to protect him from death after his teacher and friends are murdered. The dub is cheesy, but the story is great. Shenmue 1 present a similar duality.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlJ1vsZXElI

Here's Shenmue in Japanese. Notice the far better voice acting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bikNcg1l1YM

The result is two different game experiences. In order to get the most of Shenmue 1 in English you have to be able to handle the dub. Treat the dub like it is - funny and awkward - but also know that there exists a Japanese version with far, far better acting and presentation. One thing to look for, story-wise, are themes, such as its use of colors. Gray is a constant, for example.

Shenmue 1 and 2 are my favorite games of all time. Even I don't like to suffer the dub. It completely detracts from the entire experience and takes what is an emotionally resonant game series into a cheesy kung fu movie tier game. I'm really rooting for a Japanese voice track option in Shenmue III. Otherwise, I may just import, because I refuse to experience it any other way. Fuck Shenmue dubs.
 
Mr. F said:
It's been interesting going from watching the ER and finally getting a sense of what Shenmue even is to popping into that 'whats the most money you've given to a kickstarter' thread and seeing people mention they dropped hundreds on Shenmue 3.

I...I don't get it.
Click to expand...

Shenmue is about a slow burn. It's something that's confusing at first, but if you let it, will stick to you.

A lot of people who backs the KS have played its sequel. For my part, the sequel is the most resonant game story I have ever experienced and made every second of build up worth it. Notably the Guilin chapter of the game is unique in games and I actually feel made me come away a different person with a different perspective on things because I played it. It's the definition of love it or hate it, but it's also a series you have to experience and let it brew its tea. It's not a game series to be rushed. You can speed run Shenmue to be sure, but at the same time, you need to be able to drink your cup, slowly. It's like Animal Crossing in that regard. Either accept it as it is, or don't.
 
God, the dialogue in this game is driving me fucking crazy.

Ryo: "I'm looking for thing."

NPC: "Thing?"

Ryo: "Yes, thing."

NPC: "Oh, thing! Yeah, you can find thing at place."

That seems to be about 80% of Shenmue.
 
I've been following the ER and I can see why people would think what they do about the game in this thread.

I can easily see myself loving this game if it'd been my first foray into this sort of adventure game - I was obsessed about day-night cycles in games, the freedom and non-linearity of it is pretty good, and even if the GBeast crew has skipped many of them the amount of interactions that can be made with the environment is pretty impressive. I do see myself playing this and thinking it's just like a movie and having super fond memories of it.

On the other hand the dubbing is terribad, the plot so far and most sidequests are all sorts of silly, progression is everything but hand-holding and since celebrated games in the genre nowadays are mostly celebrated because of their intricate, thoughtful storylines, I can see people expecting something when coming into contact with Shenmue with only knowledge of its cult following and nothing else being disappointed with what they find in it.

What worries me the most is that I think the GBeast crew is not enjoying the game, and I kind of wish they'd known what they were getting into before starting because there's nothing worse than having to play a game you're not enjoying.
 
Fireblend said:
the plot so far and most sidequests are all sorts of silly, progression is everything but hand-holding and since celebrated games in the genre nowadays are mostly celebrated because of their intricate, thoughtful storylines, I can see people expecting something when coming into contact with Shenmue with only knowledge of its cult following and nothing else being disappointed with what they find in it.
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I mean, it's at the beginning of the game. Ryo literally has zero to go on besides the fact the guy was Chinese and wore a green Chinese robe. That's it. I'm not sure why it would be expected to have a thoughtful or intricate storyline at literally the very beginning of disc 1 of a multiple part game series. At its heart, Shenmue games are adventure games in terms of structure. This is like someone playing Grim Fandango and going "I thought this was an emotional and intricate game story?" when they're at the beginning of the game picking eggs for Salazar. Obviously, adventure games have a lot of down time moments. But Shenmue, due to its emphasis on realism, takes this a step further. In Monkey Island 2, at the beginning of the game, Guybrush has nothing to go on. He wants to get off the island, but the island won't let any ships leave port. You have to solve that puzzle. Lots of talking, lots of walking back and forth, lots of figuring out seemingly dead ends in order to get off the island. Shenmue is a lot like that. Though its puzzle solving isn't as prominent, it's still ultimately about talking to people and solving puzzles to progress. Guy plays Monkey Island 2 and says "progression is everything but hand-holding and since celebrated games in the genre nowadays are mostly celebrated because of their intricate, thoughtful storylines" and he's still on The Largo Embargo.
 
This episode was a dud. They don't make any real effort to explore and instead choose to stand in place for half the episode.

Also, Alex is insufferable.
 
AuthenticM said:
Right, but how did they get to talking about Running Man? I missed that part.
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During Vinny's descent into madness, he was trying to come up with reasons to keep playing the QTE arcade thing and Dan made a comment about if he won, maybe they'd get a home version of it [because they won the min darts thing]. Dan then brings up how he watched Running Man the night before and that reminded him of when they gave out home versions of that.
 
Oh man, I'm surprised waiting for Charlie was the straw that broke the camel's back for Vinny. I think there's only one more period of long-ish waiting in the game though.
 
Did they intentionally do the voice acting badly as a joke?

This has to be the worst I've ever heard. It even makes RE1 look good.
You couldn't make it this bad if you tried.
 
Sexually Aggressive Uncle said:
I love how Vinnie has slowly descended into madness as he learns what we already knew- Shenmue is fucking balls. And it's not that it aged poorly either. It seemed awful back in 2000 too.

God I hope they do Shenmue 2 so we can see Vinnie completely lose it
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You can skip time when plot events come up in Shenmue II, and there's more to do in the game world, so... I don't think Vinny is going to lose it playing II. II makes good on a lot of the promises of the first game, really.

hamchan said:
It really is a great episode. So much amazing banter between GBeast. Big Shenmue fans may quit watching but Giant Bomb fans will stick around for the guys being hilarious.
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You do realise there's bound to be a crossover there, right? It's not like the two are mutually exclusive. I wouldn't be watching the endurance run if I didn't like Giant Bomb, and I love Shenmue, warts n' all.

Mr. F said:
It's been interesting going from watching the ER and finally getting a sense of what Shenmue even is to popping into that 'whats the most money you've given to a kickstarter' thread and seeing people mention they dropped hundreds on Shenmue 3.

I...I don't get it.
Click to expand...
Wait for them to play II. It's a better representation of the series going forward, by Yu Suzuki's own admission. It's also worth repeating that both games were originally meant to be one title, but SEGA wanted the game out earlier so it got split and the what we're seeing now is the 'prologue' content stretched over an entire game. It does pick up when you reach the second disk, though.
 
Shenmue is a bad video game and people trying to rationalize it otherwise is just something mind boggling. Moreso how people have such fond memories of it, and how enough people were convinced to drop money on the kickstarter. Does the story really pick up enough to give a damn about any of these stone faced, terribly dubbed assholes?

Spaghetti said:
Wait for them to play II. It's a better representation of the series going forward, by Yu Suzuki's own admission. It's also worth repeating that both games were originally meant to be one title, but SEGA wanted the game out earlier so it got split and the what we're seeing now is the 'prologue' content stretched over an entire game. It does pick up when you reach the second disk, though.
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Did they confirm they were going to do 2 or is that just a hope?
 
Glitchesarecool said:
Shenmue is a bad video game and people trying to rationalize it otherwise is just something mind boggling. Moreso how people have such fond memories of it, and how enough people were convinced to drop money on the kickstarter. Does the story really pick up enough to give a damn about any of these stone faced, terribly dubbed assholes?
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.

When does the game actually start!?
Is the whole game just walking round talking to these poorly dubbed cartoon characters?
It can't be surely?
 
Glitchesarecool said:
Shenmue is a bad video game and people trying to rationalize it otherwise is just something mind boggling. Moreso how people have such fond memories of it, and how enough people were convinced to drop money on the kickstarter. Does the story really pick up enough to give a damn about any of these stone faced, terribly dubbed assholes?
Click to expand...
In a word, yes. The pacing gets a kick in the ass in II, and overall story and characters are better.

Ryo gets fleshed out from being a non-entity in the first game, to a fish out of water in the second. He gets an actual story arc instead of "welp, dad's dead gotta go investigate", and it deals a lot with the morality of revenge.
 
for the people saying they're missing stuff/doing it wrong... what else could they possibly be doing?

run around
talk to people
play arcade games
buy capsules

....

wait for time to pass.

what else is there at this point?
 
Gestahl said:
FORK LIFTING
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That's not really waiting though, because you've got something to do. It's kinda menial, but it's not worse than just standing around with nothing to do.

Speaking of which, I really wished Vinny would go play the slots in this episode. It would have killed more time than running up and down the same street.
 
Glitchesarecool said:
Shenmue is a bad video game and people trying to rationalize it otherwise is just something mind boggling. Moreso how people have such fond memories of it, and how enough people were convinced to drop money on the kickstarter. Does the story really pick up enough to give a damn about any of these stone faced, terribly dubbed assholes?



Did they confirm they were going to do 2 or is that just a hope?
Click to expand...

I can totally see how this would have felt revolutionary in '99/2000. There really wasn't anything like this. And standards for dubbing and writing back then were low (though this is subpar even by those standards). It definitely hasn't held up as well as other games from that time period though. From 2016's perspective it feels sort of like a typical action-adventure game sidequest stretched over hours.
 
Ketch said:
for the people saying they're missing stuff/doing it wrong... what else could they possibly be doing?

run around
talk to people
play arcade games
buy capsules

....

wait for time to pass.

what else is there at this point?
Click to expand...
They've missed a bunch of optional items in Ryo's room and in the main house by not exploring, they've not bought tapes from the Tomato Mart and played the raffle there, they haven't played the slots, they've kinda fucked around with the combat but a bit of practice wouldn't hurt, they haven't tried feeding the cat, they haven't checked out the candy store, etc. They've also missed a couple optional event scenes, like the chance to learn a move from Yamagashi-san (blue walls house guy).

Admittedly they'll be doing this to kill time between plot points, but there's more than just running up and down the street.

I think part of their frustration is that they think they've found Charlie in the arcade, but they actually haven't and think the game is just being awkward with them.
 
Watching this has at the very least increased my appreciation for the Yakuza series. The notion that "Yakuza is Shenmue done right" is absolutely spot on.

Sure they're not the EXACTLY same kind of game, but you can see clearly where Sega took the improvements from.
 
I love Endurance Runs and I appreciate that Shenmue must've been awesome back in the day, but man oh man, I have been using some of these episodes as a sleep aid. This game must be a nightmare without a guide.
 
Well this has to be the only game GB has ever done that was so boring and awful they had to resort to the madness of a Running Man guessing game.
 
I think we've hit an impasse here. There are those that think Shenmue is a horrible game and hate it regardless how its played (even If they are objectively playing the game horribly. Yup. Look at my tag. _BIAS_ :P)

And there are those who love Shenmue but are frustrated at GBEast for not even trying to put any thought into their playing, assuming you can't do things you obviously can, saying that the game probably doesn't have enough detail for something yet seconds later the game demonstrates that it does, and them not even acknowledging it (saying that the game doesn't have enough detail in it for people go be inside the arcade cause motorcycles are parked there now, then when they go inside there are bikers there, yet no comments about their previous mention of lack of detail and then them only waiting like a minute to see if the people will leave), them not even trying to interact with the environment, or not explore buildings not related to "quests", complaining that there's nothing to buy in the game, even though they didn't even try to really.

I don't think these two groups are ever gonna get through to each other. Either the game sucks and there's no excuse for defending it, or the people playing it just don't know how to.

Oh well, at least we can all agree that the endurance run has been entertaining, right?
 
Phu said:
How were they supposed to know that?
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Because the bikers have tattoos. They falsely identified one of them as Charlie because of that, so I dunno why they didn't think to go talk to them about it. They'll probably get directed to them tomorrow if they ask certain NPCs (dude at the motorcycle shop is one, IDK about others off the top of my head).
 
Spaghetti said:
Because the bikers have tattoos. They falsely identified one of them as Charlie because of that, so I dunno why they didn't think to go talk to them about it. They'll probably get directed to them tomorrow if they ask certain NPCs (dude at the motorcycle shop is one, IDK about others off the top of my head).
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I thought they did try to talk to them, but the bikers told them to piss off
 
TacticalHotdog said:
I thought they did try to talk to them, but the bikers told them to piss off
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Not about the tattoo parlour though.

I dunno, it's not a huge leap of logic to want to go talk to those NPCs again after you learn you're looking about a tattoo parlour, because they already know that NPCs will have different things to say at different stages of the plot. They'll probably get there next episode though, and are reaching the home stretch of the end of Disk 1.
 
Spaghetti said:
Not about the tattoo parlour though.

I dunno, it's not a huge leap of logic to want to go talk to those NPCs again after you learn you're looking about a tattoo parlour, because they already know that NPCs will have different things to say at different stages of the plot. They'll probably get there next episode though, and are reaching the home stretch of the end of Disk 1.
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I mean every time they talked to those dudes they just told them to fuck off, it makes no sense that it would work now
 
Spaghetti said:
They've missed a bunch of optional items in Ryo's room and in the main house by not exploring, they've not bought tapes from the Tomato Mart and played the raffle there, they haven't played the slots, they've kinda fucked around with the combat but a bit of practice wouldn't hurt, they haven't tried feeding the cat, they haven't checked out the candy store, etc. They've also missed a couple optional event scenes, like the chance to learn a move from Yamagashi-san (blue walls house guy).

Admittedly they'll be doing this to kill time between plot points, but there's more than just running up and down the street.

I think part of their frustration is that they think they've found Charlie in the arcade, but they actually haven't and think the game is just being awkward with them.
Click to expand...

This isn't gameplay. It's nothing. It's pressing 'A' to view a slow, boring, poorly acted, poorly shot, glacially paced cut scene. This game is literally running up and down the street and getting shitty cut scenes to lead you to the next shitty cut scene for hours on end.

In every other game, the actual game part isn't the "pressing A to view cutscene and trigger then next possible cutscene availability", it's what you do in between them to get there. It's the action in between, the traversal in between, the puzzles in between.

Here you have a game that eschews the actual interesting things you do between the cutscenes, all while having terrible cutscenes as a reward.
 
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