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Shenmue I & II HD |OT| Like a polished mirror
- Thread starter IrishNinja
- Start date
- OT
I need to play these games with the English audio at some point. I simply couldn't let my first full experience with these titles be through such godawful voice acting. I turned that shit off and swapped to Japanese with two minutes of starting the first game, and I absolutely don't regret it.
Also, I'm winding up at the docks now so I imagine I don't have much left of 1. I already know I've missed some things though, but it's fine because I know I'll be replaying this eventually. And it's doubly-fine because, as well as Xbox One, I also bought the game on PS4 digitally to do my part...
Also, I'm winding up at the docks now so I imagine I don't have much left of 1. I already know I've missed some things though, but it's fine because I know I'll be replaying this eventually. And it's doubly-fine because, as well as Xbox One, I also bought the game on PS4 digitally to do my part...
I don't want this to devolve into an argument, I'm just going to say that what you are saying is not correct and it's probably because of pre-conceived notions of what a remaster is and has been in video games. In every other industry - whether it be films or music - a remastered product involves the video and audio source material being "remastered". In video games, every legit remaster that has existed has had its textures and audio touched up to meet modern standards.
The definition of "REMASTER":
I 100% know that these are massively improved games with improved graphical elements such as the UI, but they are not remastered. There's nothing about this being correct that reflects poorly on this collection at all. If you're going to be stubborn and call them remasters just to make it seem "fair" on the devs or whatever, then you might as well say Shenmue IIx was a remaster because of its improvements when it came to Xbox... when in fact it was a port.
And why then is SEGA not calling it a remaster? That's because it's not. They're referring to it as Shenmue I & II and nothing in the official description makes mention of the word "remaster" because they know that doing so would be dishonest. They want to be honest to the fans. These games are not simple ports either and there is a grey area where this collection sits, which is quite unique when compared to other HD re-releases.
Straight from Adam Koralik who spent time playing the game at SEGA Europe, who are the ones promoting it:
Thank you!
This is what I mean. Just because it's not an actual remaster, doesn't mean that any less love or effort was put into it to release it to the masses. They've done an insane amount of cool changes to bring it to modern platforms. It looks amazing. Re-texturing and replacing the low bitrate audio would have constituted what counts as a "remaster", but they didn't do that stuff for reasons I'm sure were not feasible. I'm glad that SEGA is addressing those calling it a remaster, but I'm still to cringe reading some of the reviews that view it as such.
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Dat sexy Shenmue on dat sexy clean UISo close! It'll be fun not having to drag the Dreamcast out to play them again.
It's real, but in Shenmue II's defence Wang actually stands out amongst an already bad dub as being the worst of the absolute worst LOL.
I've played Shenmue II in both English and Japanese, and honestly, I feel like the atmosphere and sense of immersion are both so damn strong that the English dub still isn't enough to ruin the experience.
I got used to it really quickly and I actually think I prefer to play the games in English. That's just me though.
That's why everyone should buy two copies! We need to send SEGA a nice big message! :D
I want this on a shirtThose 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.
Nice one. How would you rate the overall experience compared to playing the Dreamcast version?Just got the plat.
I've played the first one so many times through the years so I knew exactly what to do and where to go. The second will take longer, only played that one twice. Once on Dreamcast and once on the Xbox.
Why does this bother you so much? Like you, not trying to argue here, just hoping to understand why something as ridiculous as remaster terminology around Shenmue would make you "cringe".
I love reading the reactions of first-timers in this thread. Shenmue I and II are two of my all-time favorite games, and it feels great to see newcomers appreciate these titles as much as I did all those years ago. The only piece of advice I will give: take your time and enjoy these amazing games at your own pace; don't worry too much about the time limit, the game is more than generous and gives you plenty of time to complete the main quest. Shenmue I and II are as much about the main storyline beats as they are about the smaller moments, the side-activities, the non-mandatory conversations, the little moments that breathe life into that world. Every playthrough feels different precisely because of those moments, it's really hard to replicate a previous experience.
Right now, I can't afford to purchase the remasters, which is a bit painful, but this thread feels my heart with joy. It truly does. A Shenmue thread in 2018... oh man...
Right now, I can't afford to purchase the remasters, which is a bit painful, but this thread feels my heart with joy. It truly does. A Shenmue thread in 2018... oh man...
Hey dude, I'm just trying to be correct about something and prevent misinformation. Wouldn't we all like that about Shenmue in particular? SEGA clearly doesn't want this being called a remaster. A remaster is what it is - factually. I think it's better to be correct than not, and to not influence others to be incorrect or have uncalled for expectations, is all.
I enjoyed it just as much now as back then. It still looks good. The hands on the characters are the main thing that stand out as old looking with them being a block. But the rest looks clean and smooth.
There is an option to turn the HD filter off and have it how it used to be but I never tried it to see how much difference is made.
The one thing I missed was the VMU beeping when you learn a new move and get it right. Here it feels a little flatter.
I'm with you on respecting the will of the folks putting this thing out. But I just think it's splitting hairs, personally. The game was updated in a number of ways to make it run on modern platforms and look better than it ever has. If people refer to that as a remaster, I certainly wouldn't bat an eye. THQ released Darksiders 2 Deathfinitive edition, and wanted the game to be referred to as such. I wouldn't bat an eye if anyone didn't refer to it as Deathfinitive and just called it a remaster instead. Agree to disagree on it though.
I wonder if any of the reviews will rip it because none of the side stuff is marked like modern sandbox games (even though it's not really), or that it's not an action packed game like Yakuza nor meant to be. I'll buy it as long as it's a decent port though.
I want to play this so freaking badly. Is there a way to speed up the IRL clock so tomorrow gets here sooner?
The voice acting being so bad in Shenmue was always a shock to me just due to how big and important the game was for Sega. It was just shocking that voice acting of that quality for a game that big made it through.
Great to hear. I'll personally be messing around with the filters a lot.
I'm hoping that they did something similar to the VMU beep with the DualShock 4 speaker.
It's possible that I'm being a bit pedantic on this, but hey, everyone's different. I surely don't think less of anyone for calling this a remaster, but nobody knows how it might harm someone's expectations if they are told it's something that they find out that it's not. As far as a review is concerned, I think it's important to get the facts right. As a colloquialism in every day life I suppose, it's not really that a big deal.
I will say this in defense of the English dub:
- as a non-native speaker of English who played the game back in the day as a teen, the dub didn't strike me as bad because I wasn't good enough at English to notice the poor voice acting. I was just amazed to see such an expansive game with voiced characters everywhere. That alone helped immersion tremendously. But then again, I didn't notice The House of the Dead 2's awful voice acting back then either lol
- IIRC, for Shenmue 1 at least, the idea was to have most, if not all voice actors be bilinguals, which definitely shows they had their heart in the right place and cared about authenticity. It's safe to say that most people involved with the dub had some sort of Japanese cultural background, so that always informs their performances to some unconscious, hard-to-quantify degree even if said performances are poor on the whole. It gave the whole experience a quiet/calm feel that I'm not sure a traditional dub with English-speakers VAs would have achieved as well. Not to mention their Japanese pronunciation was on the money at least. You can see examples of this in the way the little girl with the cat (sorry, her name escapes me right now) pronounces Ryo's name with a perfect Japanese accent. This priority might explain why the voice acting was so weak. It's not as easy to find good, professional VAs who are also English/Japanese bilinguals, let alone many of them. Ironically, if I'm not mistaken, Corey Marshall, the voice of Ryo, isn't bilingual (or at least, Japanese isn't his mother tongue), so his pronunciation of Japanese names suffers as a result in some places. Yeah, his "YokoSUka" is glaring, but then, he says "Fuku-san" correctly, so hey, there's that at least.
Seeing people on my friends list playing this and seeing the actual trophy pics for the first time...this is getting real...I need to sit down.
Bumping the resolution, including AA and 16:9 is enough to enhance the image to call it a Remaster. I don't agree with your definition, which seems to say that it requires the textures to be enhanced. Even in audio, a remaster can technically be just some engineer adding a new filter and compressing the sound to be louder. The results are often criticized by people who know how audio works, but even these types of lazy jobs can be called remasters.
Also, you can't rely on Sega's answer to define what a remaster is. They don't want you to call it Shenmue: REMASTERED because that isn't its title, and they also don't want to be directly compared to other remasters where those companies put more effort into it.
Personally I still think it technically fits the bill of a remaster, it just doesn't compare as favorably to others, such as Final Fantasy X and Shadow of the Colossus, where they put a lot more effort into it.
Also the fact that they modify the controls to be more modern, as well as adding more audio and video options (though they didn't actually improve the quality of the audio). A video game can have more things changed that just visually, which is why judging a remaster only on video/audio seems like a limitation.
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I think Shenmue was one of the first 3D adventure games with a fully voiced cast, I guess a few PC RPGs had as well around that time. I would give the English voice acting for the first game like a D and the second can have a F.
Unfortunately not. There's no sound at all, you just have to go off the body movements to know it was done right.
You'll likely remember how to do the moves anyway though.
Congrats!Just got the plat.
I've played the first one so many times through the years so I knew exactly what to do and where to go. The second will take longer, only played that one twice. Once on Dreamcast and once on the Xbox.
How did you unlock this; Practice Makes Perfect: Practise your Kung Fu in the Dojo with Fuku-san?
I practiced and mastered the move on the 2nd day but it hasn't unlocked for me.
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Remember to save often, friends, especially now that they added the save anywhere function. I just got to a pivotal moment involving Ryo borrowing Ito's bike and the game crashed, resulting in me losing around two hours of progress today. Back to the forklifts for me...
You actually get it when you spar with him the day after the fight in the arcade over the boat ticket. The description for the trophy in the guide on ShenmueDojo is wrong, I was trying for ages during the same bit you mentioned.
To be safe try and spar with him every morning you can if you see him in the dojo.
That's what I did then I got it after the bit mentioned in the spoiler.
Just bought this for PC. Shenmue in your Steam account is impossible to resist. Hope the port is ok.
Pre ordered on Amazon , and I have Prime, but says it won't arrive till Thursday. Wut
edit: complained to customer service, they upgraded me to 1 day delivery at no extra cost. very strange but cool none the less.
edit: complained to customer service, they upgraded me to 1 day delivery at no extra cost. very strange but cool none the less.
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No way Sega will print the game again just to include a patch...
It only lets you do it at certain points. Some days he'll just talk about your next objective or not be in the dojo at all, then sometimes ask if you want to spar.
I just made it a point to go and see if he was in the dojo first thing in the morning every day.
Yeah it just gave the option that time. Thanks for all the help!
I really wish the game had a better localized price in Brazil. I love the series but 100 BRL on Steam?