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[Parham]

As much as I dislike Shenmue, and believe a lot of the criticisms are deserved, I'll always admire the game for its ambition and the period of time it stood for in Sega's corporate history.

 

[Brashnir]

You joke but Japanese games often had bad translations, bad voice direction, and novice voice actors.

Although even back then Tom was something special.



And it was an exceptional example of its time. Again, not saying Shenmue has good VO. But there weren't exactly VO standards back then.

Good VO in animation has been around since the 1930s. It wasn't some rare, unattainable thing in 1999 that had only begun to come into existence right around then.

And if you want to limit it to just videogame VO (which is an asinine excuse, but let's go there anyway) Day of the Tentacle was a fully-voiced adventure game in 1993, which voice acting about a million light years better than Shenmue.

The ability for them to get decent VO was there, they just chose to not give a fuck.

 

[Glitchesarecool]

There weren't any.

Oh ok.

Silent Hill has already been mentioned as having a large 3D environment with a more effective map system. I'd argue that Mario 64 and Banjo Tooie had better environmental design and guiding for their very large overworlds.

Sonic Adventure arguably has better voice acting, so did Metal Gear Solid. The characters, for the most part, look goddamn terrible too compared to other games of the time.

Numerous Sierra games did adventuring better, and this game's story is just bad. I haven't yet heard a music track out of Shenmue that really impressed me either, other than the pizza place because that was just a bit of beauty.

Your two key features, the real-timeness of it, sure no other games did that. But is that really to Shenmue's benefit? Much of the frustration for the duders, and for others who have tried to approach the game, comes from having to physically wait for shit to happen. Forcing the player to wait is very bad game design because it takes away a huge piece of agency. Vinny's reaction is entirely valid as a response if none of the side content is interesting to them. To say he had a temper tantrum is hugely demeaning to someone's frustration over being forced--yet again--to wait for an arbitrary timer to tick over so he can actually continue playing the game.

For me Shenmue is a product of it's time and it's value is measured by how old you were and what games you were playing at the time. The stars aligned perfectly to make Shenmue one of the best games I've ever played at the time. I have so much nostalgic value attached to this game that I can overlook all of it's unorthodox game design.

Are you actually arguing that you have to have rose-tinted glasses for someone to enjoy this game?

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

Hm. You're not wrong exactly, but I've seen a lot of cases of people playing Shenmue for the first time in the modern era (and a lot more since last year) and enjoying it, irregardless of age.

I've seen grown ups come to Shenmue recently and really have fun and appreciate it. I've also seen stories of older fans getting their kids into the game, and I remember hearing a story about a kid playing Shenmue at some video game history event at a museum and being totally engrossed.

Personally, even though I played the first two games at ages 8 and 9 respectively, I've kept playing them and have gotten different things out of them and appreciated wholly different aspects as an adult, to when I played them as a child and a teenager.

I played the first one when I was 20 years old ten years ago. I had played GTA3, VC, and SA and was a big fan. I played Oblivion that year. My friend gave it to me with his Dreamcast. I was weird and confusing but I was engrossed and there was something about it. The first session I didn't like much but by the end of the game I really liked it. I liked it so much I started a new game immediately after and ordered a copy of II DC from UK immediately after beatin the first one. By the time II had arrived I had beaten Shenmue twice and was working on my third run.

By the time I beat II I considered it the best gaming experience I ever had. I was shocked how much better both Shenmue games graphics were even compared to 360 and PS3 games. I thought it was engrossing and mind blowing game than the GTA's or especially Oblivion.

I let a friend borrow my copy of Shenmue IIX this year. He originally played Shenmue on the Dreamcast and loved it at the time. Even skipped school to play it. But he tried replaying it and couldn't get past the annoying Charlie part. So he just watched the digest of I's story, remembering everything from when he played it in 2001, and played II. He couldn't get trough I, but he told me II was one of the best games he ever played.

So I know Shenmue still has the magic.

 

[BlackLagoon]

MGS is an exception that changed the standards of localization that forced every other company to play catch up. Expecting MGS standards seems pretty unrealistic. Even FFX didn't touch MGS. MGS was in a league of its own the better half of the decade and things didn't start to regularly become well translated or acted by any set of standards until 2005/2006.

Most of the MGS cast came from the anime dubs produced by Animaze (of Cowboy Bebop fame), and Animaze itself was already doing solid dubs for games like PS1 Ghost in the Shell and Brave Fencer Musashi at the time. The options for exponentially better voice acting was most certainly there if the developers had chosen to take them. They certainly can't have that been short on resources when they could afford to cast several people in New York and fly them to Japan for recording.

Also, recording in Japan was common back then.

I'm not sure if "they were just doing what everybody else was doing" is that compelling an argument when you're also trying to argue that its rough edges should be forgiven because of how innovative and cutting edge they were. In this case they were behind some of their competitors, and the quality of the product suffered.

There weren't any. I think a lot of you people don't realize that this was the first game to do some of this stuff. Specifically the in-game time and having to wait for shops to open was touted as a innovative new feature and a selling point leading up to the game's release. They were proud of it.

CRPGs like Ultima had day-night cycles and NPC schedules since at least the early 90s. Hiding in a store until it closes for the night and stealing all the wares is a classic adventurer dick move.

 

[dan2026]

The forced timers before doing the next main quest would be tolerable if there were decent side missions or interesting stuff to do while you wait.

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

Oh ok.

Silent Hill has already been mentioned as having a large 3D environment with a more effective map system. I'd argue that Mario 64 and Banjo Tooie had better environmental design and guiding for their very large overworlds.

Sonic Adventure arguably has better voice acting, so did Metal Gear Solid. The characters, for the most part, look goddamn terrible too compared to other games of the time.

Numerous Sierra games did adventuring better, and this game's story is just bad. I haven't yet heard a music track out of Shenmue that really impressed me either, other than the pizza place because that was just a bit of beauty.

Your two key features, the real-timeness of it, sure no other games did that. But is that really to Shenmue's benefit? Much of the frustration for the duders, and for others who have tried to approach the game, comes from having to physically wait for shit to happen. Forcing the player to wait is very bad game design because it takes away a huge piece of agency. Vinny's reaction is entirely valid as a response if none of the side content is interesting to them. To say he had a temper tantrum is hugely demeaning to someone's frustration over being forced--yet again--to wait for an arbitrary timer to tick over so he can actually continue playing the game.



Are you actually arguing that you have to have rose-tinted glasses for someone to enjoy this game?

Sonic Adventure does not have better voice acting than Shenmue hahaha. And the characters in Shenmue look great. What are you talking about?

How is Silent Hill's map more effective than Shenmue's? Silent Hill is a horror game.

 

[Spiral Insanity]

The forced timers before doing the next main quest would be tolerable if there were decent side missions or interesting stuff to do while you wait.

Go to the arcade, play on your saturn, visit the local businesses~

This is trying to 'emulate' real life, the forced timers make sense when you stop thinking of everything in traditional gaming terms.

That also isn't appreciated by everyone though, which is why Shenmue was such a strange business decision. It is actually a very niche product.

Those trying to diminish the impact that Shenmue had, or the progressive game design behind it, are being silly. How on earth could you compare Silent Hill 1 to Shenmue with a straight face?

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

Most of the MGS cast came from the anime dubs produced by Animaze (of Cowboy Bebop fame), and Animaze itself was already doing solid dubs for games like PS1 Ghost in the Shell and Brave Fencer Musashi at the time. The options for exponentially better voice acting was most certainly there if the developers had chosen to take them. They certainly can't have that been short on resources when they could afford to cast several people in New York and fly them to Japan for recording.


I'm not sure if "they were just doing what everybody else was doing" is that compelling an argument when you're also trying to argue that its rough edges should be forgiven because of how innovative and cutting edge they were. In this case they were behind some of their competitors, and the quality of the product suffered.


CRPGs like Ultima had day-night cycles and NPC schedules since at least the early 90s. Hiding in a store until it closes for the night and stealing all the wares is a classic adventurer dick move.

Dragon Quest bad day night cycles too.

Also I'm not arguing the dub is awful. I hate the dub. I just don't think MGS is a good argument against Shenmue's voice acting because MGS was above and beyond everything else in the industry barring PC adventure games at the time.

 

[Parham]

I don't think requiring the player to wait should inherently be considered bad design, considering the absence of agency can work to further illustrate the themes of a game. It really comes down to what tools the game gives players to kill time. Unfortunately, none of Shenmue's side activities ever really appealed to Vinny, so waiting around effectively meant standing over his bed and running down the clock. I can absolutely understand the appeal the side activities had for some, but I personally experienced very similar frustrations.

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

I can't think of a more divisive game than this one. Any takers? There is no middle ground with this game. I've never seen a game like this.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Dragon Quest bad day night cycles too.

Also I'm not arguing the dub is awful. I hate the dub. I just don't think MGS is a good argument against Shenmue's voice acting because MGS was above and beyond everything else in the industry barring PC adventure games at the time.

There were a bunch of PC games with good/great voice acting around that time, not just adventure games.

I can't think of a more divisive game than this one. Any takers? There is no middle ground with this game. I've never seen a game like this.

Let's talk about a little game series called Mario Party

 

[EmCeeGramr]

The characters, for the most part, look goddamn terrible too compared to other games of the time.

So I won't argue the rest of your points but... this doesn't seem true at all. Shenmue came out in December 1999 in Japan, and is closer to the release date of MGS1 and Ocarina of Time than it is to say, FFX or MGS2. I think you'd have to look at, like Soulcalibur or another fighting game to get character models close to what was like this on console, and on PC... eh, the most impressive games in 1999-2000 were either focused on large environments or shooters more focused on high speed rendering of sharp textures and advanced lighting and particle effects than character models.

Like... my avatar is from a game released post-Shenmue, and it was running on Unreal Engine.

I haven't yet heard a music track out of Shenmue that really impressed me either, other than the pizza place because that was just a bit of beauty.

And on this note, when this ER started I was wondering what was up with their capture and went to look at other videos, and when the game audio isn't practically muted (this is something that GB has done since the beginning) it's actually really nice, I found.

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

There were a bunch of PC games with good/great voice acting around that time, not just adventure games.



Let's talk about a little game series called Mario Party

What games were they? I wasn't impressed by crpg voice acting back then. Not like I was with Grim Fandango.

Lol @ Mario Party. Isn't that more of a love to hate it game than pure hate?

 

[BOTEC]

Oh ok.

Silent Hill has already been mentioned as having a large 3D environment with a more effective map system. I'd argue that Mario 64 and Banjo Tooie had better environmental design and guiding for their very large overworlds.

Sonic Adventure arguably has better voice acting, so did Metal Gear Solid. The characters, for the most part, look goddamn terrible too compared to other games of the time.

Numerous Sierra games did adventuring better, and this game's story is just bad. I haven't yet heard a music track out of Shenmue that really impressed me either, other than the pizza place because that was just a bit of beauty.

Your two key features, the real-timeness of it, sure no other games did that. But is that really to Shenmue's benefit? Much of the frustration for the duders, and for others who have tried to approach the game, comes from having to physically wait for shit to happen. Forcing the player to wait is very bad game design because it takes away a huge piece of agency. Vinny's reaction is entirely valid as a response if none of the side content is interesting to them. To say he had a temper tantrum is hugely demeaning to someone's frustration over being forced--yet again--to wait for an arbitrary timer to tick over so he can actually continue playing the game.



Are you actually arguing that you have to have rose-tinted glasses for someone to enjoy this game?

I disagree, and already pointed out that that concept didn't exist back then. Games (especially ones designed by Yu Suzuki) were carefully crafted obstacles for the player to overcome. If you assume this is an open world game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto, where the world revolves around the player, you will be disappointed and frustrated. If you have no preconceptions going in, you could wholly enjoy Shenmue for what it is.

 

[Parham]

I don't understand why the conversation locked onto the game's voice acting. I mean, it's the same as saying the voice acting in Deus Ex is bad. You're definitely not wrong, but, outside of enjoying it ironically, I don't think that's part of the game's appeal either.

 

[broncobuster]

Good VO in animation has been around since the 1930s. It wasn't some rare, unattainable thing in 1999 that had only begun to come into existence right around then.

And if you want to limit it to just videogame VO (which is an asinine excuse, but let's go there anyway) Day of the Tentacle was a fully-voiced adventure game in 1993, which voice acting about a million light years better than Shenmue.

The ability for them to get decent VO was there, they just chose to not give a fuck.

What's with the aggressively reply?

Note, I specified Japanese games. I'll add in anime, to move it away from video games, as you said. I keep specifying that I'm not defending Shenmue's bad voice acting. Although in a roundabout way it can be seen that way. Standards for localization weren't where they are now; others have posted additional information on the process. And outside of the Japanese game caviar, Soul Reaver is another 1999 release that to date has some of the strongest voice work in games.

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

Glitches, this is from the Passport disc.

This is from the game intro.

This is a random NPC you don't even have to talk to. Look at the detail on her clothing. This is a random NPC and not a story character. Look at that scarf.

Post character models from 99 that look as good and detailed as this to prove you're not trolling.

If you are, don't bother replying.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

What games were they? I wasn't impressed by crpg voice acting back then. Not like I was with Grim Fandango.

As I was starting to type, I realised that I mostly just THINK those games had good voice acting since I haven't played most of them since....well ~2000.

Lol @ Mario Party. Isn't that more of a love to hate it game than pure hate?

You should watch Jeff play it. No love in that.

Shenmue has some problems, but you can't really say that it did not look amazing for its time.

I think it still looks pretty good and I don't like that game at all.
I mean....listen I like Thief for example (one of my all time favourites) but this came out like one year before Shenmue

I mean look at it. LOOK AT IT. Shenmue looks great.

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

Shenmue has some problems, but you can't really say that it did not look amazing for its time.

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

As I was starting to type, I realised that I mostly just THINK those games had good voice acting since I haven't played most of them since....well ~2000.



You should watch Jeff play it. No love in that.

Yeah, crpgs had like one line. You'd have the opening and endings to Fallout games and that was basically it. Adventure games were the standard for pc game voice acting back then which is why I used it as an example.

 

[Spiral Insanity]

Shenmue has some problems, but you can't really say that it did not look amazing for its time.

Yes. And I remember playing it on a monitor via the VGA box, it was stunning.

It made a visual impact because each texture was unique, and the world was filled with so much incidental detail. Seeing the NPC's wear different clothing based on the season, the storefronts would change with seasonal decoration, the detail INSIDE the businesses. I remember going into some of the restaurants and just watching the chef cook meals in the open kitchen.

That kind of detail is still rare, and a sign of the insane budget that they had. But besides showing off the budget, it also reveals the passion behind the project.

 

[Sgt. Kabukiman]

I don't mean this as an insult to Shenmue fans but I feel like Shenmue was a mistake that had to happen for the industry to progress. There are so many things that we take for granted now that were first introduced in that game but were very poorly executed. It was the most ambitious game of its day and it failed to achieve its goals (imo of course) but there was a lot that was learned form its failures by the industry as a whole.

Sega died for our sins.

 

[funkystudent]

If Shenmue had a hunger mechanic and basically S Links with the random town NPC's I bet it would do real well on Steam.

 

[ArjanN]

Good VO in animation has been around since the 1930s. It wasn't some rare, unattainable thing in 1999 that had only begun to come into existence right around then.

And if you want to limit it to just videogame VO (which is an asinine excuse, but let's go there anyway) Day of the Tentacle was a fully-voiced adventure game in 1993, which voice acting about a million light years better than Shenmue.

The ability for them to get decent VO was there, they just chose to not give a fuck.

No offense but nah, that's pretty dumb.

Day of the Tentacle and the LucasArts games were outliers.

The quality of voice acting/directing was still all over the map back then (and generally bad), not to mention that with Japanese devs you also always have the langauge barrier as an extra hurdle.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

If Shenmue had a hunger mechanic and basically S Links with the random town NPC's I bet it would do real well on Steam.

You could add that to any game and it would do well on Steam

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

I don't understand why the conversation locked onto the game's voice acting. I mean, it's the same as saying the voice acting in Deus Ex is bad. You're definitely not wrong, but, outside of enjoying it ironically, I don't think that's part of the game's appeal either.

See, here's the thing. I can't play DX. I think it's ugly, the voice acting is awful, and the interface is terrible. I used to be a huge fan of System Shock 2 and I can't get past the awful controls in 2016. But I'm pretty sure I can hear DX and SS2 fans sharpening their knives right now. When you play older games you have to work around their faults. I'd really, really like it if someone could me get into the original DX because Jesus Christ.

 

[Spiral Insanity]

Good VO in animation has been around since the 1930s. It wasn't some rare, unattainable thing in 1999 that had only begun to come into existence right around then.

And if you want to limit it to just videogame VO (which is an asinine excuse, but let's go there anyway) Day of the Tentacle was a fully-voiced adventure game in 1993, which voice acting about a million light years better than Shenmue.

The ability for them to get decent VO was there, they just chose to not give a fuck.

..and now we are comparing golden era Lucas Arts VO to a Japanese developed RPG from 99..

See, here's the thing. I can't play DX. I think it's ugly, the voice acting is awful, and the interface is terrible. I used to be a huge fan of System Shock 2 and I can't get past the awful controls in 2016. But I'm pretty sure I can hear DX and SS2 fans sharpening their knives right now. When you play older games you have to work around their faults. I'd really, really like it if someone could me get into the original DX because Jesus Christ.

It's just subjective, I guess. I think Deus Ex 1 looks stunning.. yes, stunning. The textures/atmosphere/mood fit the game perfectly. I do not mind the technical limitations. If you like, you can try Deus Ex: Revision which is free on Steam. (http://store.steampowered.com/app/397550/) It has a graphical overhaul which adds quite a bit of polish to the levels.

The DX argument isn't really technology based, I think. Unless low polygon models really bother you. For example, I couldn't play more than 30minutes of the new Deus Ex because it looks so garish and unappealing, and the character/world design does nothing for me.

 

[Brashnir]

What's with the aggressively reply?

Note, I specified Japanese games. I'll add in anime, to move it away from video games, as you said. I keep specifying that I'm not defending Shenmue's bad voice acting. Although in a roundabout way it can be seen that way. Standards for localization weren't where they are now; others have posted additional information on the process. And outside of the Japanese game caviar, Soul Reaver is another 1999 release that to date has some of the strongest voice work in games.

Sorry, don't mean to be aggressive, but the tired goalpost-moving excuses for this game are frustrating to read page after page.

This game didn't release in a vacuum where nothing but terrible Japanese videogame VO existed, and you can't simply excuse it because there was other terrible stuff on the market at the time, too. People could tell the difference between good voice acting and bad voice acting in 1999. Hell, they could tell the difference in 1939.

These notions that it was a different world back then and nobody knew any better is a complete fabrication. Maybe some kids back then didn't know any better, but not all of us were kids when this game came out.

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

..and now we are comparing golden era Lucas Arts VO to a Japanese developed RPG from 99..

Anime VO was fucking awful in the 90's for the most part as well. Stuff like Cowboy Bebop were absolute outliers. You had Bandai Visual kicking ass but you'd also have cat loves food yeah yeah yeahhh.

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

Sort of random but I'm really excited for the Full Throttle re-master, that game was one of the first that I thought had really good voice acting.

Edit: and I'm pretty sure everyone has always known Shenmue has shitty voice acting. I guess some are just able to get over it and others aren't

 

[Spiral Insanity]

Sort of random but I'm really excited for the Full Throttle re-master, that game was one of the first that I thought had really good voice acting.

Edit: and I'm pretty sure everyone has always known Shenmue has shitty voice acting. I guess some are just able to get over it and others aren't

It didn't sound perfect at the time, but it was never as bad as say, Mega Man X. The visual explosion and fantastic soundtrack (I don't care what anyone says) more than made up for it.

(It wasn't so much the voice acting that bothered me at the time, as the awkward writing/translation.) But it did not detract from my experience.

 

[Maligna]

I love the odd voice acting. Gives it charm.

 

[broncobuster]

Sorry, don't mean to be aggressive, but the tired goalpost-moving excuses for this game are frustrating to read page after page.

This game didn't release in a vacuum where nothing but terrible Japanese videogame VO existed, and you can't simply excuse it because there was other terrible stuff on the market at the time, too. People could tell the difference between good voice acting and bad voice acting in 1999. Hell, they could tell the difference in 1939.

These notions that it was a different world back then and nobody knew any better is a complete fabrication. Maybe some kids back then didn't know any better, but not all of us were kids when this game came out.

I don't disagree with that. Shenmue didn't have good voice acting in 1999 weighted against VO as a whole.

And I haven't played Shenmue in Japanese, but I know most Shenmue fans swear by it over the English localization. So among Shenmue fans, I don't know if there's a unironic love for the English VO.

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

It didn't sound perfect at the time, but it was never as bad as say, Mega Man X. The visual explosion and fantastic soundtrack (I don't care what anyone says) more than made up for it.

(It wasn't so much the voice acting that bothered me at the time, as the awkward writing/translation.) But it did not detract from my experience.

Yeah the incredibly awkward translation certainly doesn't help. I still love the game too, it's just something you adjust to. And I guess we were more used to it back then with Japanese games. As others have said, MGS was an outlier and an incredible surprise when it released with a good translation and voice acting.

I love the odd voice acting. Gives it charm.

It's something I've definitely gotten used to over the years. And it'll be weird for me if Shenmue 3 actually has competent voice acting.

 

[Maligna]

I was playing the Japanese version of the first Shenmue for the first time recently and was struck by how much the voices of the individual voice actors for the NPCs sounded between English and Japanese. I don't mean the quality of the acting, I mean the sound of the voices themselves are very similar.

 

[| Praxis |]

Hrm. I'm not exactly sure where that'd place you in the story, as I'm pretty sure someone out there has spent ten hours in the very first quest of Shenmue II.

I'd agree that Ryo is flat in the first game, but not in the sequel. He doesn't start off super engrossing, but the game surrounds him with good foils and supporting characters, as well as the plot driving Ryo into a lot of places and situations he's never found himself in. I mean, he has an actual story arc in Shenmue II.

I dunno. It could be you just weren't getting on with what the game had to offer?

It was a very long time ago. I think I remember some kind of fighting tournament, or people you could go and fight for competition, I could be totally wrong though. Also a fight scene or chase through a market, that's about all I remember of 2.

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

I was playing the Japanese version of the first Shenmue for the first time recently and was struck by how much the voices of the individual voice actors for the NPCs sounded between English and Japanese. I don't mean the quality of the acting, I mean the sound of the voices themselves are very similar.

Like I said earlier - and I could be wrong - Yu went for Englush actors that sounded like their Japanese equivalent.

 

[Maligna]

Like I said earlier - and I could be wrong - Yu went for Englush actors that sounded like their Japanese equivalent.

Certainly sounds like it from what I've experienced.

 

[Mookie1515]

Like I said earlier - and I could be wrong - Yu went for Englush actors that sounded like their Japanese equivalent.

If I remember right it was even worse than that - he hired actors because they LOOKED like the character.

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

If I remember right it was even worse than that - he hired actors because they LOOKED like the character.

Right, it was that. So ridiculous.

 

[_StreetSonic_]

I can't wait for next week!

Shame they didn't do much in the current episode. I would have went exploring for my audience's sake.

 

[Spaghetti]

It was a very long time ago. I think I remember some kind of fighting tournament, or people you could go and fight for competition, I could be totally wrong though. Also a fight scene or chase through a market, that's about all I remember of 2.

Hm, the first part sounds like you were in deep, but it could be confused with something you can do at the halfway point, judging from the second part of what you remember. Ryo's best foil/supporting character is introduced not long after that point. In Star Wars terminology, if Ryo is Luke Skywalker,

Spoiler

Ren

is Han Solo.

 

[dlauv]

It doesn't get any better with Shenmue 2. Between elevator "puzzles," "espionage," and going through a derelict building, Shen 1 has no comparable amount of tedium.

Except maybe dialing a phone.

Edit: I swear I've pushed "down" on this last plank every time the QTE pops up, but it keeps registering as false. Due to the checkpointing, it's an instant console reset. Three resets and it's taken less time than it would have taken to restart from the checkpoint. I think they made the timing more strict just to have the player fail and re-do. Clever old Yu.

 

[Spaghetti]

I haven't yet heard a music track out of Shenmue that really impressed me either, other than the pizza place because that was just a bit of beauty.

This may be a consequence of GB's very low game mix in their audio, or you have very odd standards of stand-out music.

But- here's the music from the opening cutscene again, if you've forgotten it. I think it's probably the best example of the soundtrack's quality, and if that didn't grip you, nothing will.

Here are a few of my favourites, but they may not have been heard in the ER just yet so spoilers, I guess:

Slot House

Battle
(and the more developed form, Earth and Sea)

Nozomi's theme

Nightfall

Receive a Skill to Succeed

Working Man

Swallow Flip Instruction (also one of the GOAT themes in Shenmue, because it's basically the theme of a great character from II)

And obviously, the main theme.

 

[batfax]

It doesn't get any better with Shenmue 2. Between elevator "puzzles," "espionage," and going through a derelict building, Shen 1 has no comparable amount of tedium.

Except maybe dialing a phone.

Edit: I swear I've pushed "down" on this last plank every time the QTE pops up, but it keeps registering as false. Due to the checkpointing, it's an instant console reset. Three resets and it's taken less time than it would have taken to restart from the checkpoint. I think they made the timing more strict just to have the player fail and re-do. Clever old Yu.

The old buildings in 2 are the only thing I remember absolutely hating but mostly for playing on X-Box. For some reason, d-pad inputs didn't always register properly for QTEs with the controller as well as it does on Dreamcast. It comes up elsewhere, but it's easily dismissed since the checkpoints aren't so awful anywhere else or it just lets you still continue with an altered cutscene.

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

Save your game from the menu any time you see a plank. If you fail the qte, quick reset by pressing all face buttons plus start which will instantly send you to start screen.

And Shenmue 1's stealth is way worse. In 2, if you're caught you can fight them instead.

Elevators are mildly annoying at best.

 

[dlauv]

I did. Notice what I said about resetting the console three times. Shenmue 1's stealth is nearly inconsequential, lasted less than a minute, and I finished it my second try.

The problem with 2's was, while I didn't get caught outside of failing a QTE, it was incredibly long (like 10-15 minutes) and Ren and Ryo have the same conversation like four times. All of these crappy sections are back to back.

 

[bishopcruz]

Just started watching the endurance run. It's not bad but pretty frustrating, Just finished episode 6, and man, Vinny is just playing the game wrong. I don't know if this gets better, but between no one on the team having a sense of direction, and not in anyway even TRYING to do anything off the beaten path, I can see why he's not digging it. The game actively stops you from trying to rush through it, and trying to do so just makes things worse. Not to mention, they never bother actually looking at stuff, or interacting with things, going to the Dojo, having side conversations, none of it.

Kind of a shame. Hope it gets better.

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

I did. Notice what I said about resetting the console three times. Shenmue 1's stealth is nearly inconsequential and I finished it my second try.

The problem with 2's was, while I didn't get caught outside of failing a QTE, it was incredibly long and Ren and Ryo have the same conversation like four times.

Quick reset is not resetting the console though. It's resetting the game.

This may be a consequence of GB's very low game mix in their audio, or you have very odd standards of stand-out music.

But- here's the music from the opening cutscene again, if you've forgotten it. I think it's probably the best example of the soundtrack's quality, and if that didn't grip you, nothing will.

Here are a few of my favourites, but they may not have been heard in the ER just yet so spoilers, I guess.

Shenmue games have the most underrated game osts I've ever seen. They're so good and no one talks about them. Morning Fogs Wave, hallelujah. Nightfall is SO GOOD and you barely get to hear it.