Shenmue II is INSANE

I know that I have said this many times, but I feel like once again; Shenmue II is amazing. I love Shenmue I, but I can understand why alot of people think it is boring. It has alot of messed up areas and holes to fill up, but Shenmue II does exactly that by having more action, no training, sidequests, bigger areas, more variation, and a steady pace. It is a shame that people had to get a bitter taste for the series by playing Shenmue I first...I was turned off on Shenmue 1 at first and it took me a long time to appreciate it...I forced myself to trudge through first few hours of the game. Shenmue II has the best atmosphere of any game that I have ever played. I can sit there and play it and my friends will have a fun time must watching me because of all the cool locations to see and the awsome scenes. One of my favorite parts of the game is where you sit in the barber shop and the barber tries to cut you and it flashes a QTE, intense. Another cool part is when you go to sit with Shenhua by the fire in the cave and she begins to sing...You really start to feel a connection with her from the very start of the fourth disk. I am so sad that there will be no Shenmue 3 game but instead a movie that will most likey never see US shores anyways. It would be so cool if there was still going to be the originally planned 14 chapters of Shenmue (correct me if Im wrong) released on the Dreamcast. Shenmue 2 is the best game that I have ever played. I am currently working through the game for the second time, and I rarely ever replay games of this type after I beat them. One word describes the reason why I keep comming back to this game; atmosphere.

Very nice game, I personally preferred Shenmuu (1) athmosphere better, mostly because it was a lot sadder and terrible. Everything was simply... "grey".

Atmosphere is what makes me play Metal Gear Solid 2 and Anubis - Zone of the Enders endlessly, I just love those 2 KONAMI games.

Yeah. I've been saying this kind of stuff about Shenmue 2 for some time now. I must see it to conclusion, no matter what. Shenmue 2 was so good, I played it through quite a few times. I even got to see most of all those crazy Easter eggs the game has. If you haven't replayed it to see the Easter Eggs, Grab a faq and start doing them. They are worth it, and you'll love what kind of things you get into. Yes, there's even easter eggs big enough to actually Branch off Shenmue 2 into a ficticious (for Shenmue II) short side-story. (Think of it as an inserted OMAKE)

By the way, have you gotten all the goodies from completing the Picture-taking mini game, yet? I'm still missing some, but I've gotten episodes from the Shenmue Comic book. Cool stuff. One day, I'm going to totally 100% Shenmue II, secrets and all.

Amen, brother! Shenmue II for DC is the bomb-diggity yo

I honestly love the Shenmue series, but I can see how its only for some people and not all.

Amen, brother! Shenmue II for DC is the bomb-diggity yo

I honestly love the Shenmue series, but I can see how its only for some people and not all.

The fourth disc is a masterpiece in its own right. Exceptional.

Best to my knowledge, the episodes go like this: Shenmue 1 was the first episode. But When they got around to Shenmue 2, they had realised that Dreamcast was dying, so that contains 5 episodes.

About the future, I don't know. But Suzuki has said that IF he doesn't get the chance to complete the games, he'll make a movie. But currently, it should continue on the Xbox, although there have been speculation that the series will shift to GameCube. Because of Xbox's pitiful userbase in Japan.

finngamer said:

But currently, it should continue on the Xbox, although there have been speculation that the series will shift to GameCube. Because of Xbox's pitiful userbase in Japan.

Click to expand...

I don't doubt that especially considering that that new Virtua Fighter adventure (?) game is coming to the GameCube.

I was so bored by the end of disc one I stopped playing it, does it really get that much better? I consider the whole get a job thing a cheap way to make the game longer so I just went with the story stuff, which meant I spent most of the time being led from point A to point B by someone (and those bstrds can't run).

You only need that leading stuff at the beginning. You should, already know that games with big maps ALWAYS start slow. You can't possibly think that after all those RPGs, and other big map games, that things stay the same way after the beginning.

Once you, yourself, learn the city (which isn't that much to remember), you run through it like crazy. The job thing isn't just some way to make the game longer, but a part of the experience that Yu definitely wanted the game to have. Making you earn money is kind of a method of drawing you in.

There's a lot of neat things you can do, in the city, even the gambling can be addictive, especially once you find those particular spots that you devise a great pattern at earning lots of cash quick. Of course, some of that would probably be spent getting all those Sega trinkets found in vending machines and such.

Of course, the arcade itself is a game release of its own. Outrun ownz. It's located in that first town's Arcade, around the corner from the side the Tomato Shop is.

And I'm not even mentioning the story-side of the package. It works on that subtle approach that spins a rather rich web as you get more into it. Even initially rudimentary plot elements all start coming together. It's easy to get attached to some of the characters you meet. And yep, by the time you go to the next major locale, Ryo begins to kick much butt. And then after that, he kicks into a higher butt-kicking gear. Still, you feel he's still on the weak side. They do a good job of slapping the humility stick every once in a while. (There's actually a huge Easter Egg that will have you fighting more in the first city, than normal).

And yes, the story doesn't really get moving until Disk 2(outside the first introductory skirmish you have with the thieves). This is where you start meeting the REAL players of Wan Chai.

It's not quite the same for me.....exciting visually and boring all at the same time.

I dunno, I never finished Shenmue 1 because it was so boring - I tried
Shenmue 2 for awhile...got a job - boxes got old and then gambling -
which also got old, then I got stuck at the fucking mall watching these
people in a circle do tricks...after that, I took the game out - broke it in
half and I've never wanted to play it again. Granted I went out and got
the Xbox version just in case I wanted to give it another go - but every
time I look up on my game shelves and I see the Shenmue 2 pal dc case
sitting there - I remember breaking the first cd after being bored to hell
and back - and I just look away.

That was a fucking book I just wrote.

Later

shir0

Friends don't let friends play Shenmue.

I know what you guys mean about the atmosphere - it's just so beautiful. Especially near the end when you get to the foresty/jungley/templey areas. Oh yeah an d that huge skyscraper was cool...

the only reason I didn't like it as much as I should have was cause I kept on having DC problems... I'll probably buy the Xbox version someday...

Shenmue II rules...on XBOX of course!
Other than taht, Shenmue 1 was my favorite simply due to the more confined environment and the attention to detail.

I hope part III is released sometime this decade.

if the game didn't have load times it would be perfect.
It's one of my faves.
honestly though it is a slow experience, the second having more action.
I think it's great. there's so many things to do instead of the game.
it's like real life, the only beef I ever thought of was you could basically
stay at the motel for whenever without having to worry much about paying
and that you could do that high low gambling game to make money easy
(saving when you win, resetting when you lost)
but I thought the real grab was that I could do what I wanted and basically
get lost. pretty immersive.
It would be cool if everyone off the street had more of a story and it was more like an interactive
world, but I guess that's what most mmorpgs are like really.
still amazing.
and I love all the bits about learning tai chi and other martial arts stuffs.
one of these days I'll have to look at getting one of the xbox shen mue II strat guides
to see what I need to take pics of.

I think it shows the sad state of the video games industry today when titles like Shenmue get overlooked for EA's millionth version of one of it's sports titles.

It's one of the very few modern games that I have sat down and played and not touched another game until I'd completed it. There are so many nice touches to the game and the story draws you in much like a good film does. The second game was a master piece and it will be a sad day if part three only gets released as a film.

rarehero said:

one of these days I'll have to look at getting one of the xbox shen mue II strat guides
to see what I need to take pics of.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, teh strategy guide for Shenmue II (published by Prima games) won't help you in regards to taking pics and opening up the secret comics. It's a pretty badly done guide, especially when compared to teh ones that came out for the first game.
Better seek out a faq if you want to complete the pic list.

I played this on the DC up to the third disc and enjoyed it.

Nice atmosphere.

Those QTEs were EXCRUSIATINGLY hard, especially the one where you had to run from the mob guy kingpin.
I'm still stuck on the cage match fight with the Dynasty-warriors looking guy.

And the LUCKY HIT! Holy fuck! I can play that for hours alone (and I do). It's cool as shit, like pachinko, or "Plinko" on price is right!

Lucky Hit is the main gambling game that I seem to get addicted to. However, don't pass up the sunken gambling establishment in Kowloon. Can you believe I played Shenmue II twice before I first ran into that place? Kind of neat, as it has some unusual gambling games and setups only available there.

I gotta pipe up, i loves Shenmues, I really thought the Dreamcast was on a new plane, i was honestly shocked that it didnt get full on success, though i guess threads as this show its artist longevity in retrospect.

Personally, I'd say that Shenmue II "corrected" the mistakes made in no.1,though i'm not sure if i prefer it. In fact I say no.1 is my choice. I don''t think as a videogame no.1 worked so well, but in that respect, I feel SEGA made Shenmue II "more universally enjoyable" while perhaps loosing the original vision represented in the original game.

The cat was great.

I love Shenmue to death. I bought both games the moment they came out and played them to death. 4 or 5 times each. But I absolutely hate the XBOX version. The cover, the voices, everything bothers me about that version. I can't stand it. On a DVD sized game they could have offered up the option of being able to have both english and japanese voices

Shenmue I and II were both kickass. my cat in part 1 must have died because after giving it the food it wouldnt eat the first time i never went back to check on it or that whiny little girl ever again. may they both R I P .