Shenmue I & II HD |OT| Like a polished mirror

It's funny / weird to see people posting on discussion boards and YouTube vids referring to this as a "REMASTER".

There's only so much that folks like Adam Koralik can do to advise. That's just the perception people have of these classic re-releases in HD, I suppose. A colloquialism maybe? Still, assuming that it's a remaster introduces the risk being left disappointed when you find out that it's not and the textures and the audio remain mostly unchanged from the original games. This ain't no remaster son. It's a mighty fine HD collection though.

Trophies for Shenmue 2

https://www.exophase.com/game/shenmue-ii-psn/trophies/

This one seems like it'll be even easier to platinum than the first as there's no real grinding trophies in there. They're all pretty straight forward.

Iwao said:

It's funny / weird to see people posting on discussion boards and YouTube vids referring to this as a "REMASTER".

There's only so much that folks like Adam Koralik can do to advise. That's just the perception people have of these classic re-releases in HD, I suppose. A colloquialism maybe? Still, assuming that it's a remaster introduces the risk being left disappointed when you find out that it's not and the textures and the audio remain mostly unchanged from the original games. This ain't no remaster son. It's a mighty fine HD collection though.

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It is a remaster, though. People just conflate remaster with remake, because of the strange ways that companies have been advertising their games.

SolidSnakex said:

Trophies for Shenmue 2

https://www.exophase.com/game/shenmue-ii-psn/trophies/

This one seems like it'll be even easier to platinum than the first as there's no real grinding trophies in there. They're all pretty straight forward.

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Nice. That's an incredibly easy platinum!

Still one of the best game trailers I have ever seen I think. Maybe it should be added to the OP?

Iwao said:

It's funny / weird to see people posting on discussion boards and YouTube vids referring to this as a "REMASTER".

There's only so much that folks like Adam Koralik can do to advise. That's just the perception people have of these classic re-releases in HD, I suppose. A colloquialism maybe? Still, assuming that it's a remaster introduces the risk being left disappointed when you find out that it's not and the textures and the audio remain mostly unchanged from the original games. This ain't no remaster son. It's a mighty fine HD collection though.

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It is genuinely a remaster though. New menus/UI, new graphics options, new control options, etc. A port would be closer to something like what SEGA did when they used the PlayStation 2 version of NiGHTS into Dreams and brought it to XBLA, PC and PSN. These versions of Shenmue are closer to the Xbox 360 version of Guardian Heroes or the HD release of Jet Set Radio. Once the sound issues are tackled these will be by far the best way to experience these games.

Can't wait to play both games again in HD :)

i am wondering if anyone tried the XBOX ONE ver after the patch 1.3.0.0? any noticeable problems?

Iwao said:

It's funny / weird to see people posting on discussion boards and YouTube vids referring to this as a "REMASTER".

There's only so much that folks like Adam Koralik can do to advise. That's just the perception people have of these classic re-releases in HD, I suppose. A colloquialism maybe? Still, assuming that it's a remaster introduces the risk being left disappointed when you find out that it's not and the textures and the audio remain mostly unchanged from the original games. This ain't no remaster son. It's a mighty fine HD collection though.

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Higher resolution, new control options, etc... when you update an old game and add new things, it is, by definition, a remaster.

Maybe you meant "remake" which is totally different and it'd be indeed wrong to call Shenmue I & II a remake.

Separate trophy lists? Nice.

I saw a couple of minutes of gameplay so I dont get spoiled.

How does the game handle the time element?
I mean what if I dont show up for work. Or I dont return at night to sleep? Can I mess up anything or lose content?

protonion said:

I saw a couple of minutes of gameplay so I dont get spoiled.

How does the game handle the time element?
I mean what if I dont show up for work. Or I dont return at night to sleep? Can I mess up anything or lose content?

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Going to work is automatic and the game takes you home eventually if you stay out too late.

You do have to be in certain places at certain times to see some scenes but you can't block off anything in the story. Not unless you get the bad ending by taking too long. But to get that you'd actually have to go out of your way wasting time.

protonion said:

I saw a couple of minutes of gameplay so I dont get spoiled.

How does the game handle the time element?
I mean what if I dont show up for work. Or I dont return at night to sleep? Can I mess up anything or lose content?

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One hour in real time is 24 hours in-game. Certain scenes will skip forward in time though, so some days go by quite fast depending on what you do. You cannot miss your job when you get one because he immediately travels there in the morning. If you stay out too late you are immediately pulled back home and go to bed right away. Also, in Shenmue II there is a wait system that fast forwards the time if you are too early for something.

There is an insane amount of missable cutscenes, locations, characters, minigames and more, but as far as I know they are all just stuff unrelated to the core plot. They are usually just there for distractions or to learn more of the backstories of side characters. That might sound disappointing, but the games really expects you to take your time and screw around, so try not to stress over it. There is no 'perfect' playthrough of these games.

protonion said:

I saw a couple of minutes of gameplay so I dont get spoiled.

How does the game handle the time element?
I mean what if I dont show up for work. Or I dont return at night to sleep? Can I mess up anything or lose content?

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Don't worry about any of this stuff.

The best advice that I can give you is to go in as blind as possible. Don't rush things and simply go with the flow. Let the experience naturally consume you without worry.

Pretty quiet on the reviews front, ain't it? When does the embargo lift?

To fully appreciate both shenmue games you have to take your time. I will certainly be taking my time as I don't want there to be too much of a gap between shenmue 2 and 3.

Iwao said:

It's funny / weird to see people posting on discussion boards and YouTube vids referring to this as a "REMASTER".

There's only so much that folks like Adam Koralik can do to advise. That's just the perception people have of these classic re-releases in HD, I suppose. A colloquialism maybe? Still, assuming that it's a remaster introduces the risk being left disappointed when you find out that it's not and the textures and the audio remain mostly unchanged from the original games. This ain't no remaster son. It's a mighty fine HD collection though.

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A funny thing about this is that Sega clearly have a definition: emailing back and forth with Sega about reviews, I referred to the game as "Shenmue HD Remaster", and in a reply the Sega chap i was talking to corrected me, to say - it's not Shenmue HD Remaster, it's just Shenmue 1 & 2. I think the argument is largely semantic, though, as I've definitely played "HD Remasters" with less polish/changes than this.

Another advice I would give to newcomers is to disable the quick travel feature as it will make you skip quite a few events if you use it too often.

I'm not planning on picking this up now, but when I do I should probably go with the Japanese audio, right? I've seen a few English clips beforehand and... uh... those performances are certainly something.

So there are already patches available? Revisiting these masterpieces with some of the nasty glitches I've seen isn't exactly what I had in mind. :(
Hope they have another one ready for the digital launch but I doubt it. It took them months to fix the Mega Drive collection bug where it constantly wiped your completed challenges, at least I suppose it's fixed as I haven't played it yet since the latest patch.

Poltergust said:

I'm not planning on picking this up now, but when I do I should probably go with the Japanese audio, right? I've seen a few English clips beforehand and... uh... those performances are certainly something.

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If you grew up with them they are nostalgic and charming. :)

Do the arcade games include online leaderboards by any chance?
Tho it wouldn't fit with the year the game is based on... but man it'd be awesome.
Has the emulation improved compared to Shenmue 1 DC?

Sumio Mondo said:

Pretty quiet on the reviews front, ain't it? When does the embargo lift?

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On Monday, don't have the exact time.
And videos allowed from Tuesday.

Poltergust said:

I'm not planning on picking this up now, but when I do I should probably go with the Japanese audio, right? I've seen a few English clips beforehand and... uh... those performances are certainly something.

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Aren't they :0

Poltergust said:

I'm not planning on picking this up now, but when I do I should probably go with the Japanese audio, right? I've seen a few English clips beforehand and... uh... those performances are certainly something.

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The dub is hilarious and has an awkward charm. There's something oddly touching about how distant the traumatized Ryo sounds from everything. Nozomi is pretty good. The rest of the voices are godawful, producing high comedy in the worst places. I think the story still shines through, but it has MUCH more dramatic gravitas in the Japanese version, which is much less ridiculous.

Pre-load is up in PS4 Europe.
The games unlock tomorrow at midnight.

Shenmue isn't Shenmue without Ryo's English voice sounding utterly confused at everything that happens around him

Don't ever listen to people telling you that the english dub is "charming in its own way" or "so bad is good xD", if it's your first time playing Shenmue just pick the Japanese dub as fast as you can.

DOTDASHDOT said:

Aren't they :0

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I didn't mind the english voices back then but damn if they're not freakin hilarious listening to now lol.

Alienhated said:

Don't ever listen to people telling you that the english dub is "charming in its own way" or "so bad is good xD", if it's your first time playing Shenmue just pick the Japanese dub as fast as you can.

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I think it IS charming and IS "so bad it's good," but I also think no one who has the option should opt for it in a first playthrough.

Erevador said:

I think it IS charming and IS "so bad it's good," but I also think no one who has the option should opt for it in a first playthrough.

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this.

i recommend 1st playthrough with JP voices then 2nd walkthrough with English ones.

It should be noted that Yu Suzuki himself actually prefers the English dub of the first game. He cannot speak English, but... uhh... it is sure notable! That might not be the case for the second game though. That dub is somehow miles worse.

I have never played through either of the games in Japanese, but I wanted to make my first playthrough of this version in English not due to nostalgia, but because I just want to lay back and not have to worry about reading in my soon to be incredibly long play sessions.

DOTDASHDOT said:

Aren't they :0

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Is this real? I can't stop laughing at this lol Definitely need to replay these games in english eventually, but I'm glad I chose the japanese dub for my first time.

Well, found a bug at last. Played a tape on the cassette player and after a while the music became weird and the game stopped recognizing any button input. Only lost about 10 Minutes, still annoying, though.

Kurumi said:

I didn't mind the english voices back then but damn if they're not freakin hilarious listening to now lol.

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Alienhated said:

Don't ever listen to people telling you that the english dub is "charming in its own way" or "so bad is good xD", if it's your first time playing Shenmue just pick the Japanese dub as fast as you can.

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This. I mean, it is charming in its own way, but if you care about immersion and wanting to take the story seriously then it's in your own best interest to play with the JP audio on. We tolerated the Western dub of the first game back in the day because we had no other choice, and Shenmue II's Europe release on the Dreamcast made me realise how much better Suzuki's world is when you don't have to endure cartoonishly outrageous and mismatched vocal performances.

Alienhated said:

Don't ever listen to people telling you that the english dub is "charming in its own way" or "so bad is good xD", if it's your first time playing Shenmue just pick the Japanese dub as fast as you can.

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Absolutely. The English dub is legendarily awful. I've heard that the Japanese dub isn't very good either but I don't understand the language enough to judge for myself.

Does anyone have a list of missable cutscenes and where to find them? I've played through Shenmue a million times but it would be nice to intentionally find something new.

Are these games in 4K on the X and Pro or just the standard 1080p?

DOTDASHDOT said:

Aren't they :0

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I'm Ryo. I'm Japanese and I can't pronounced Yo-ko-suka.
While Mr. Kermit Wang here is just perfect

Virtua Sanus said:

It should be noted that Yu Suzuki himself actually prefers the English dub of the first game. He cannot speak English, but... uhh... it is sure notable! That might not be the case for the second game though. That dub is somehow miles worse.

I have never played through either of the games in Japanese, but I wanted to make my first playthrough of this version in English not due to nostalgia, but because I just want to lay back and not have to worry about reading in my soon to be incredibly long play sessions.

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Years ago there was an article that claimed that Yu Suzuki insisted on directing the English voice actors himself. They flew all the voice actors to Japan instead of letting some experienced company in the west do it. It explains that good awful English dub. It probably didn't help that one important factor for casting the voice actors was that they should also look the part and have martial arts experience.
Reading all the stuff that went on in the background did not shed the best light on Yu Suzuki and his ego.

Edit: Not the article I read, but I'm sure it was based on this interview quoted here. The original Shenmue Dojo link doesn't work any more. And it seems like Suzuki didn't direct the voice acting but wanted to be around to overlook the recordings.

Iwao said:

It's funny / weird to see people posting on discussion boards and YouTube vids referring to this as a "REMASTER".

There's only so much that folks like Adam Koralik can do to advise. That's just the perception people have of these classic re-releases in HD, I suppose. A colloquialism maybe? Still, assuming that it's a remaster introduces the risk being left disappointed when you find out that it's not and the textures and the audio remain mostly unchanged from the original games. This ain't no remaster son. It's a mighty fine HD collection though.

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Nothing funny or weird about it. As others have pointed out, it's absolutely a remaster. New/redesigned HUD, new controls, new graphics options, widescreen, English and Japanese audio, and I'm sure there's more I've forgotten. It's a disservice just to call them HD ports.

This is top to bottom a remaster, son.

What it isn't, however, is Shenmue: Kiwami, which are obviously full remakes of the original Yakuza games with all-new engine, all-new graphics, re-recorded VO, brand new gameplay, and so on.

Xharos said:

Shenmue isn't Shenmue without Ryo's English voice sounding utterly confused at everything that happens around him

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What?

Huh?

NOT SO FAST?

What you say?

Huh?

A blacccccccck caaaarrrr?

:)

In for the nostalgia, I remember a beautiful snowy winter playing through Shenmue as an 18 year old. Played Shenmue 2 on DC and Xbox around the time of release too, but remember less about that.

I'm twice as old now, let's see what we can see.

TeenageFBI said:

Absolutely. The English dub is legendarily awful. I've heard that the Japanese dub isn't very good either but I don't understand the language enough to judge for myself.

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The Japanese dub is fine, just let down by low quality/compressed recordings. Does this port use the Dreamcast audio files or did they have access to the masters?

Tom is the best one in English. He goes from Jamaican to Indian in the same sentence then back again.

liquidtmd said:

What?

Huh?

NOT SO FAST?

What you say?

Huh?

A blacccccccck caaaarrrr?

:)

In for the nostalgia, I remember a beautiful snowy winter playing through Shenmue as an 18 year old. Played Shenmue 2 on DC and Xbox around the time of release too, but remember less about that.

I'm twice as old now, let's see what we can see.

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I see.

Really...

So how well do you guys think this will sell? I'm thinking about 200k-300k.

So, as I understand it, the original plan for Shenmue way back when was to include II but they had to cut it for time? Is that right?

Zor said:

So, as I understand it, the original plan for Shenmue way back when was to include II but they had to cut it for time? Is that right?

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As far as I understand, what is now Shenmue I was supposed to be much shorter and a lot of Shenmue II was already done by the time it released. SEGA wanted something to release earlier so they split it off and expanded the first game into it's own thing.

Those of you saying Yu Suzuki liked the English dub better are correct, I believe.

In fact he liked it so much he released the game a second time in the Japanese market with the English dub called, "US Shenmue".




I wonder how the Japanese fans who bought this version enjoyed the legendary English dub.

Preload on PS4 ready and waiting.. took the day off for this damnit so better be as good as I remember!

DOTDASHDOT said:

Aren't they :0

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Wait what, there was an English dub for Shenmue 2? The PAL version I had was in Japanese...

Dr Doom said:

I'm Ryo. I'm Japanese and I can't pronounced Yo-ko-suka.
While Mr. Kermit Wang here is just perfect

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lol yeah gotta love that US YokoSUka pronunciation.

iGeodude said:

So how well do you guys think this will sell? I'm thinking about 200k-300k.

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Easily more than that when you add the Japanese release in November. I'm thinking 750k to 1 million lifetime but it's hard to know because Shenmue ip has been out of commission for almost 20 years but at the same time was never given a fair chance to sell because of low install base on platforms such as dc and xbox.