- Joined
- Sep 29, 2018
- Location
- Wherever that last Niaowu herb is...
- Favourite title
- Shenmue IIx
- Currently playing
- Sonic Colo(u)rs: Ultimate
I've always wanted to make a thread about this (i.e., the philosophy of interpretation and how artworks often develop over time), and this hits the nail on the head. Cheers to the succinct point, @Jibby.I mean, who's to say that the games are even 'canon' given that a number of concessions and changes had to be made to Suzuki's original scripts![]()
Do we think our favorite songs, movies, novels, etc. are delivered exactly as they were initially conceived of and/or composed? Shenmue in particular has changed much.
To be fair, I'm not suggesting some mere relativism/reader interpretation theory. Moreover, "canon" was established when each game was released.
That said, some folks are perhaps excessively focused, to fault, on exact representation. Even if the anime covered all game content (impossible given different media), would it be "uncanonical" not to use the exact music in every scene/locale? I think some of us are, frankly, too enamored of our young experiences of Shenmue to respect that its story, like all stories, can be told with fluidity.