285: Lost in Yokosuka

Brendan Main

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Jul 17, 2009
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Lost in Yokosuka

The epic story of Shenmue begins in the endless winding backstreets of Yokosuka and ends on a road to nowhere.

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brumley53

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Oct 19, 2009
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Reminds me of XII, ended with a cliffhanger but didnt sell enough to have a sequel made.
 

Ekim Takusan

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Nov 13, 2010
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Wow, it's been years since I last thought about Shenmue. Good game, shame a third was never made. We waited almost 12 years for Duke Nukem Forever, I promise you I'd gladly get in line for a new installment of Shenmue.
 

VonBrewskie

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Apr 9, 2009
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Just wanted to comment on how well written, and insightful this article is. I was especially pleased with your closing comments concerning starting life in a new city. When a videogame comes to this fundamental literary vehicle, does the nature of the digital medium demand that playability take precedence over exposition? Can allowing a player to live a mundane life ever be a fun game? Do games have to be fun to be "games?" Again, I thought that was a great article. Thanks!
 

Optimystic

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Sep 24, 2008
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Am I missing something? This game's fight scenes are pretty much entirely quick-time events. Didn't people hate those? How did this become such a cult hit, besides being one of the first 3D sandbox games?

For your viewing pleasure, here is the Shenmue ending mentioned in the article:


And here is the reaction of the YT commenters:

 

CleverCover

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Nov 17, 2010
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Oh God. That game has left such positive and negative memories for me. I loved Shenmue 1, but abhorred how slow and annoying Shenmue 2 was. I wanted a third one if only to give some meaning to the grind session that the second game offered.

But it was one of my first RPG's and showed me a whole new world. It was great, and it introduced features that are standard today. People forget that sometimes. Hell, back then, it was my go to RPG for a deep story. (I was like 10 and the other JRPG characters annoyed me.)

But it also reminds me of, excuse me, KotOR 3. Like how some people, me, have given up on ever truly seeing Revan's, Carth's, Bastila's, the Exile's, Atton's, Mira's, and the other characters have their story resolved through their eyes and not from the old holos someone finds in TOR. People make these great stories, and they can never finish because of issues and everything is left hanging. I usually don't like having to make my own conclusions, because I think the original author knows the characters better than I do, but in this case I have to. I guess I'm peeved because I'm not that excited about the MMO, so I'll do what everyone else is and leave it out of canon. Or maybe I just wanted a happy ending and TOR ruins that for me.

Especially with Shenmue. Making up an ending was the only thing that helped me and my friend get past the fact that Shenmue 3 wasn't out yet. And might never be coming. Ever.

Ryo is lost on some random road, Revan is in Deep Space doing who knows what, and the Exile is on a ship with Atton possibly. Who knows with KotOR 2's ending.

What's similar about them all?

They're all stuck there, possibly for eternity or until an ubergeek wins the super ultra lotto and can afford to pay the developers to make these games.

Until then, I'll pray Mass Effect and Dragon Age finally manage to make it to the Finished Third Game Celebration Party.
 

Diligent

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Dec 20, 2009
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I bought the xbox version of shenmue 2 from a bin at the grocery store. It was ONE DOLLAR.
I loved the first one on the DC back in the day, if only because it was rich with atmosphere and did something a little bit different (despite the hilariously cheese-ball voice acting and bad gameplay elements).
The second one? a decade later I immediately found myself not caring anymore, especially knowing there will not be a conclusion. Couldn't play more than 10 minutes of it.
 

beema

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Aug 19, 2009
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Thus the problem with storytelling dependent upon sales. Of course, this happens in TV more often than any other medium I would say.

I would still like to play Shenmu (I still have a Dreamcast). Does it hold up well over time or was it only breathtaking because of when it was released?
 

Garfy

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Nov 6, 2009
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The combat system was taken from Virtua Fighter, a bit more to it that just QTEs
 

Joabbuac

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Feb 23, 2010
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Optimystic said:
Am I missing something? This game's fight scenes are pretty much entirely quick-time events. Didn't people hate those? How did this become such a cult hit, besides being one of the first 3D sandbox games?

For your viewing pleasure, here is the Shenmue ending mentioned in the article:


And here is the reaction of the YT commenters:

It had some fights in qte - but the meat of the combat was more like a beat-um-up, bit like Yakuza
 

Don Reba

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Jun 2, 2009
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Shenmue still evokes so many memories. I, for one, found the forklift job a lot of fun. Carrying crates in Shenmue 2 was somewhat less exciting... oh, I can still hear the voice in my head: "left-left-left-right-left; I hope nothing is broken!" Still, were Shenmue 3 to appear on Kickstarter, I would donate more generously than I have donated to any other project.