Thank You Sega

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Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Ween posted:

Serious post time:

Shenmue is, no joke, the father of modern gaming. Just about everything you can think of that is common in AAA games today, was pioneered in Shenmue. Even little things you wouldn't expect, like procedural generating forests, stems from Shenmue. When Shenmue was in production, it was something that was literally 15 years too early. Insanely ground breaking.

In terms of gameplay, it's a mix of an adventure game kinda like Heavy Rain, albeit more open, and an action RPG, with the combat itself being lifted from Virtua Fighter. You train, you level up, you learn new moves. In Shenmue I, the focus is on day to day living, perhaps more like harvest moon or any other daily sim game, but shenmue II is much more of a story focused game, with a much bigger emphasis on underground fighting tournaments. There isn't much combat in shenmue I, where shenmue II is full of it.

Unfortunately, the format shift between shenmue I and shenmue II ruined some of the more ambitious aspects. Example, even though there isn't much fighting in Shenmue I, there is a dojo where you can train and level up, and the game highly encourages it. THis is because, when you get to shenmue II, the moves you learned carried over, so you'd have a custom-made fighter for Shenmue II that would affect your approach to the underground fighting tournaments. But since Shenmue I was on the dreamcast, and shenmue II in the us was on the xbox, they couldn't transfer saves, and thus they just basically gave you all the moves in the US version of shenmue II, ruining the character-building.

The story itself is classic wuxia kung fu. It begins grounded with a mystery -- you come home and see your father murdered before your eyes by a chinese man named Lan Di. Your father, who was a martial arts master, hands of a sacred mirror to Lan Di before Lan Di performs a forbidden and fatal technique on your father. In his last dying moments, he begs you to keep your friends close. Ryo vows in that moment to avenge his father's death.

Pretty much all of Shenmue I is focused on beginning your adventure, i.e. raising money to travel to china to begin your quest. As such, it's kinda light on story. You discover that the mirror your father handed over was part of a pair, and that he had hidden the other mirror on the grounds of his dojo which Ryo finds. These mirrors are ancient magics, and it's said whoever holds both of them can summon a dragon that will devour the world.

Shenmue II is where everything really kicks into high gear. Ryo travels to china and finds out more about Lan Di, the mirror, and his own destiny. Throughout Shenmue I and II there is a repeated legend that is narrated:

He shall appear from a far eastern land across the sea,
A young man who has yet to know his potential,
This potential is a power that could either destroy him or realize his will,
His courage shall determine his fate,
The path he must traverse, fraught with adversity, I await whilst praying,
For this destiny predetermined since ancient times,
A pitch black night unfolds with the morning star as its only light,
And thus the saga� Begins�

You uncover that your father and Lan Di had a shared past, that there is a secret society of martial arts masters who are trying to gather the mirrors, and that there is a young woman living in the mountains that Ryo has been destined to meet for hundreds of years. This young woman seemingly has otherworldly powers and can communicate with nature in strange, unknown ways. In their brief time together, Ryo sees her do a number of pretty weird, mystical things.

Along the way, you also go through a surprisingly star-wars like adventure. You meet Ren of Heavens, for example -- probably the closest Shenmue has to a Han Solo. You fight crime lords. You travel to the ancient walled city of Kowloon. It's great. Shenmue II ends with a massive, massive cliff hanger, just as the story reaches it's climax. That's why people have been dying for it.

The other side of why this is such a requested series is because of YU SUZUKI. This is his magnum opus. His life's work. Yu Suzuki is Mr. Sega. Think of a classic sega game that ISN'T Sonic or Shinobi, and Yu Suzuki was involved. Yu Suzuki was the heart and soul of Sega's arcade empire. Hang On, Space Harrier, Outrun, Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, etc -- all Yu Suzuki. Shenmue was basically the last thing he was ever allowed to work on. When the Dreamcast died, Sega's best developer was given a "window seat" where he was technically still an employee, but not allowed to make anything. For 20 years, he was on the "window seat." Imagine if Shigeru Miyamoto disappeared after Mario 64 and wasn't allowed to make games. THat's what happened with Yu Suzuki.

Shenmue III is Yu Suzuki's grand return to gaming. And Shenmue III is being made by a restored version of AM2, his classic team.

The hype for Shenmue III is real.

gently caress, you hyped me for it. Now I have to play everything.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2018 07:38

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 09:33

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

You drive a hard bargain but I'll try cooking something up. You need to tell me what games to cross over though and if it's your old brand or are we stapling weens on video game characters now ot what.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2018 13:02

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Ween posted:

lol. Let’s go with Ween+SMT+Bowser. The triple

# ¿ Apr 15, 2018 21:48

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

I bet SEGA would be a badass poster.

# ¿ Apr 18, 2018 12:43

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

I think it would be another one of those "don't tell people to kill themselves in the pokemon thread".

# ¿ Apr 18, 2018 13:56

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

I'm finishing Kiwami before playing 6.

Thank you Sega.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2018 00:43

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Kiryu reenects the American History X curb stomp scene like 5 times in every fight.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2018 07:33

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

0 is the right one to start with but just be prepared that it's a much better game than Kiwami.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2018 18:37

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

I'm mostly disappointed that there are no arcade games in it except for the sexy insect wrestling card game that Kiryu plays with children.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2018 08:50

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

I...can't find Majima anywhere.

# ¿ May 4, 2018 20:02

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

11 in Kiwami. I got the phonecall to look for him in an obvious place ages ago and only now decided to actually do it.

# ¿ May 4, 2018 20:20

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Ok, I found him, you need to check every giant traffic cone you see and he'll be hiding under one of them. Then he'll just start appearing randomly in the city. Thank you Sega.

# ¿ May 4, 2018 21:08

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Playing Yakuza 6 right after Kiwami is weird because I was just protecting this 8 year old girl and now I'm protecting her child.

# ¿ May 7, 2018 14:51

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

I read the plot summaries in 6 and it was possible to follow the stories in 1-3 but holy poo poo 4-5 pretty much went off the rails. I can't tell what's going on. Will I have to watch one of those 2 hour youtube recaps or is there a decent summary out there?

# ¿ May 7, 2018 15:19

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Yakuza 6 is on another level because there are no breaks at all when entering shops/arcades/mahjong parlours or starting combat so it all feels so amazingly seamless. Once I was buying a drink at a grocery store and a group of punks saw me from the street and the fight broke out inside the shop. We thrashed the place and I kicked one dude together with a newspaper stand through the outside window. Then I talked to the clerk again and he told me to get the gently caress out - this game is sick.

# ¿ May 7, 2018 15:54

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

# ¿ May 7, 2018 20:31

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ajsr5RwOTE

# ¿ May 7, 2018 21:49

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

Yakuza 6 is giving me 2 different ways of shaking the baby.

# ¿ May 14, 2018 23:33

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

This was the clumsiest striptease scene I've ever seen. Thank you Sega.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2018 10:50

Palpek: Dec 27, 2008; Do you feel it, Zach?
My coffee warned me about it.

So far the best part of Yakuza 6 has been running around every single office/internet cafe/restaurant and trashing the place this way. Kiryu just doesn't have time for details like tables, sofas, book cases or palm trees standing in his way. The downside is that the clerks refuse to do business with me afterwards EXCEPT for the sex chat dungeon which doesn't mind the annihilation as long as the wi-fi is running I guess.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2018 18:17