Shenmue 2 N. American prototype is here...thats cool

SignOfGoob

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Ah yes, the game Microsoft paid Sega to not release. I can’t imagine caring at this point since I’ve always had the EU one but it would be nice if the save files were compatible.
 

SignOfGoob

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So my crackpot theory that Sega artificially pulled the Dreamcast early so they could strike deals as a third party developer is now mainstream?

Its never been a crackpot theory, its a fact. They were doing whatever they could to pay the bills. MS had infinite promotional money for the XB and Sega needed some of that money.

In the end they probably made as much or more on the failure of Shenmue 2 on XB since...lets be honest, the DC one would have failed twice as hard and they'd be paying for it in that scenario...

This was after MS bought Bungie and before they bought Rare making the Sega thing seem pretty small in comparison. We're lucky MS didn't buy Sega. When MS started they had jack shit to offer gamers and basically had to Big Tyme their way into games. Like Sony...with no friends. :)
 

HeavyMachineGoob

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Sony was in the same situation in 1994 and 1995, they had no real internal video game studio so they bought some third parties like Psygnosis and made exclusivity deals with others. The one difference is Sony's competition at that time was ridiculously inadequate, so it was really easy to get mostly exclusive third party studios on board like Square and Enix.
 

Heinz

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I have the PS4 remasters. Still haven’t played it.
I played Shenmue 2 a couple years ago on the remaster. I think I finished S1 in 2003 or something which I remember liking a lot at the time. But S2? Today? it was So. Fucking. Boring. I had to use a walkthrough just so I could stop wasting so much time and even then I could feel my brain shrivelling up.
 

max 330 mega

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I played Shenmue 2 a couple years ago on the remaster. I think I finished S1 in 2003 or something which I remember liking a lot at the time. But S2? Today? it was So. Fucking. Boring. I had to use a walkthrough just so I could stop wasting so much time and even then I could feel my brain shrivelling up.
I have tried multiple times to go back to these games, and it is nearly physically painful to FEEL the moments of your real life ticking away in front of the screen trying to play them. Even with using a walk through i hit a point of frustration where im like "and how in the fuck would i have ever known i needed to talk to this npc specifically between 3 and 5 pm?"

They have not aged well, less so in a graphical or gameplay way, but extremely more in an I'm an adult and have no time for this shit kind of way.
 

SignOfGoob

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Sony was in the same situation in 1994 and 1995, they had no real internal video game studio so they bought some third parties like Psygnosis and made exclusivity deals with others. The one difference is Sony's competition at that time was ridiculously inadequate, so it was really easy to get mostly exclusive third party studios on board like Square and Enix.

Sony had a reputation for doing things other than computer stuff. They invested into or bought some companies but didn’t didn’t need to bribe/own Capcom for Resident Evil or Street Fighter, not Konami for MGS or SotN. Even with Sega over there doing the same exact thing devs WANTED to make PS games. Sony had more than a decent keyboard and mouse to offer in consumer hardware design. Nearly all popular video games were still being made in Japan in 1999 and the XB was code named Midway. Sony had a record label, a TV company, and a motion picture company. Also their first machine didn’t look like a giant piece of fucking shit, and Sony never needed to lose so much money to make something sell. The amount of XB1 stuff that was given away or sold at a loss is nearly %100. Deep pockets got MS to where they are now. That system netted them zero money. If Sony had to lose that much money just in promotion they’d be out of business.
 

Burning Fight!!

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I don't think I agree with the "didn't age well" allegations for Shenmue… I had a blast playing them on the remaster from start to finish. You guys didn't age well. Many such cases.

Shenmue III is the real shit game though, which shows yet again that great vidya is more often than not a team effort and not some single authorship thing. Yu Suzuki was definitely a mere ideas guy for this series considering how much he missed the point of a third game and how inferior III is compared to Shenmue II.
 

SignOfGoob

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I don't think I agree with the "didn't age well" allegations for Shenmue… I had a blast playing them on the remaster from start to finish. You guys didn't age well. Many such cases.

Shenmue III is the real shit game though, which shows yet again that great vidya is more often than not a team effort and not some single authorship thing. Yu Suzuki was definitely a mere ideas guy for this series considering how much he missed the point of a third game and how inferior III is compared to Shenmue II.

I was well into my 20s when Shenmue came out. It was very very boring game at times and also supremely frustrating. I also loved it. Shenmue 2 fixed the majority of the problems, time shifting being the big one.

The main lesson to learn from Shenmue is this. It’s a game that would never pay for itself unless it was super super popular but it isn’t a mainstream game at all. These two things make it always a contradiction. It will always have fans, it will always cost a ton to make, it will always go to the clearance bin because you need to make more copies than anyone will buy. It’s an unsolvable thing.
 
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awbacon

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I don't think I agree with the "didn't age well" allegations for Shenmue… I had a blast playing them on the remaster from start to finish. You guys didn't age well. Many such cases.

Shenmue III is the real shit game though, which shows yet again that great vidya is more often than not a team effort and not some single authorship thing. Yu Suzuki was definitely a mere ideas guy for this series considering how much he missed the point of a third game and how inferior III is compared to Shenmue II.
Shenmue and Shenmue II are "methodical" games. So it's really easy to see them as boring I'd guess
 

max 330 mega

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Go outside and sniff the fucking air, you incels. These games were made for the Japanese, about Japanese, for the Japanese audience who still were too stunted to go live it on their own.
Like seriously. Shenmue was meant to shine a light on human interaction and beautiful environments and taking the time to admire your surroundings in a country that is not overflowing with such examples these days.
Here we are. CHUD central. Great job boys.
Before you even attempt to say its a unique experience go fucking play VF 3TB and spend a day IRL in a park. With sunshine. Holy shit, same experience. Mind blown, wtf what a vision!
 
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