Random Shenmue Thoughts

Let's Get Sweaty said:
I think some fans are a little oversensitive about Shenmue/Yakuza comparisons, but I understand that it's a reaction cultivated by lazy and spiteful "hot takes."

It's a shame, because while there's no guarantee that fans of one will enjoy the other, I think there's enough crossover appeal to make it worth a try.
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I like both for very different reasons. There are tonnes of similarities between Yakuza 0 and Shenmue as they're both set in 1980s Japan, but they are two very different games.
 
Jibby said:
This is really weird. I was listening to some of the Shenmue II jukebox tracks and happened upon this one called 'Gifts':

Faintly on the left channel, they seem to have either sampled in or made up newscasts on some pretty dark stuff including bombings and conflict on the Israeli Syria border, a mass shooting involving the casualties of children, and lab testing on animals.

What the fuck? Even for Shenmue, that seems a bit dark and in bad taste; especially when paired with the chill backing track and a title called 'Gifts'. Has anyone ever picked up on this before?

Edit: A bit of digging reveals that it is indeed a sample from an audio library. It's been used in a few songs and television programs from what I can tell. I found the full sample (uploaded by another Shenmue fan who must have noticed the same thing) here:

Even still though... it just feels a bit weird and out of place in Shenmue to me.
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Yeah, I posted about this years ago on the old forum...http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=19970&p=476009&hilit=gifts#p476009
Turns out its from some G.I. Joe thing, but that indeed appeared to use the same library sample.
 
iyapol said:
I like both for very different reasons. There are tonnes of similarities between Yakuza 0 and Shenmue as they're both set in 1980s Japan, but they are two very different games.
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I think it's inaccurate to cite the period and country as the only, or even the biggest, similarities. For starters, the '80s are not tremendously distinctive as a game setting, and the slice of Japan seen in Yakuza is markedly different to that in Shenmue. So to assume that these are what bring Shenmue to mind for so many first-time Yakuza players is a bit of a leap for me.

The series are not interchangeable by any means, and it's perfectly possible to like them for very contrasting reasons, or to like one and hate the other. But to deny their connections is like arguing that Columns is totally different to Tetris because you're matching colors instead of filling lines and you can't rotate your play piece. While all of that's true, and you do miss out on the groovy Russian music, you'd be overlooking a lot and doing both games a disservice to strictly avoid discussing them in the same sentence.
 
You're an asian dude that prowls the strrets of a small Japanese town, you can visit the arcades to play Classic SEGA games.

That's just about where the similarties end. Everything else is completely different, that when comparing it with Shenmue means you should be comparing it with plenty of other games that share superficial similarties.

Telling people who liked Yakuza to check out Shenmue might damage their experience , they'll be expecting crazy action and a lot of fights, only to be greeted by 5 hours of detective gameplay interrupted by a short fight and a couple of QTEs.

Yakuza comparisons should die.
 
I wonder if they kept the SEGA console themed capsule toys in Shenmue II.
 
If you look across the sea at the harbour, you can see a small settlement at the top of a hill. Does anyone know if this the other side of the top end of Sakuragaoka, or somewhere completely different?
 
quick question everyone, as I am planning to start my YouTube channel and Twitch stream, I was thinking about starting it off with a bang and streaming my play through of Yakuza 0 and then moving on to Shenmue I and II when they come out. Would anyone be interested in tuning in? Veteran player of both series giving my 2 cents, obviously the real prize being Shenmue I and II which I have played over and over and over and give a little crash course for new comers and come up with a clever name for this campaign of games? Give me some feed back and i'll try to make it happen! :)
 
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