I like the theory. I like all these theories because it just fun because it's like a detectives game on it's own.
Thinking about the plot of Shenmue is a never ending puzzle as long as we don't finally get the whole thing. It's just such a massive and compley story.

If you look close you can see that the mysterios man looks very chinese. The almost bald head with just a bit of hair in the back, the style of the beard. It doesn't seem to be grey so I guess that man is around 50-60 years old wich fits the image of a leader that stays in the background for me.

In case anyone is still wondering about the mysterious downtime of shenmue.com. I've been informed that some of Sega's servers have been attacked about 10 days ago and a lot of their sites are down right now.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsega.jp%2Ftopics%2F140512_0%2F

They don't actually list shenmue.com but it's easy to conclude that it's affected by the server attack just like the other sites.

Thief wrote: Honestly -- Shenmue is one of those games in which I'd be very sad to know that I've seen everything there is to see.

You can't have seen everything. There is always something new to see in Shenmue! It just never ends to amaze.

Boot up the sequel, WOW! What a world of difference. Much tighter controls, better..just better everything.
Yup. Shenmue II has much more improvements under the hood then one might think. You have to play them back to back to fully notice the changes in the controls, camera, capsule toy machine animation and so on.

Also the much more vibrant colors and massively improved sky dome with tons of awesome textures and clouds instead of that flat pixelated panel in the background. People rarely mention it but to me this is the greatest graphical advancement from Shenmue I.

You can't read about it and look at pictures to get an impression. These things only give you that powerful impression when you play the game.

Hope you'll enjoy it more then you did the first one. ;-)

This is incredible! It's unbelievable how much this has spread! I'm in awe to see how far this has gone and just happy what this great community has been able to achieve!

That is such a tease but it really made me smile.

Back here again with something new.

I've read about this ages ago but never saw it or found any prove that it's true. With the power of Demul's quick save feature I've finally took on the challenge, tried it and succeded. I just love it when I find out something new about Shenmue!

http://youtu.be/bklP_R3bbN8

You've seen the airplane fly over Wise Mens Qr. But have you seen the alternate scene?
I have something huge in the works now so take this little video as something to hold you over.

Here it is! 45 minutes of pure Fangmei gold. ALL of the conversations with questions and all of Ryo's responses.

The game forces you to go to sleep at Xiuying's place at the Da Yuan Appartments one last time so you'll get the cutscene with the photo of Xiuying and Ziminig when they were young. If the game wouldn't skip time you could potentially continue the story so far that you don't have to sleep there anymore.

If you take it slower and go to the Da Yuan Appartments on your own after 8 pm earlier in the story then you'll trigger the cutscene yourself. And then when you go to Guixang the game will not skip to the end of the day after you've learned the Chawan Sign.

Sonikku wrote: Why of course Ryo is a time traveler. How the heck do you think he got a Sega Saturn in 1986?

Because his father is voiced by Segata Sanshiro. How often does this have to be mentioned until you guys get it?

Once the analysis is complete, they could then somehow incorporate elements that make a game sell into these HD releases
No thanks. I don't want a Shenmue full of shooting, killing, stupid licensed music, profanity and tons of tutorials.
And yes I deliberately left the second half of your sentence out of the quote.

How is Sega supposed to make Shenmue interesting to the current market without ruining the game?
We all know what kids these days love about video games... Why should they even try it in the first place?
Shenmue is anything but mainstream and it simply shouldn't adapt to other games at all.
That's Shemue's strong point after all.

All that Sega should do is simply market it as just that! A unique experience among the endless stream of soulless action games.

I agree that some things need to be updated in a remake though. Smaller things that simply make the game more enjoyable and use the power of the current hardware. A time skip option, save anywhere, modern and classic control schemes, better animations for the NPCs, a newly done dub, more to explore and such.

You don't need to look at other games to figure those out. I repeat myself: Shenmue should stay Shenmue and Sega should market it for it's "uniquity".

Kickstarter of course isn't the way to make a game of this magnitude but it could be used for parts of it.

I imagine funds from kickstarter could be used to build the very fundament of the game. Yu Suzuki could use the money to finalize the script, redesign characters and enviroments up to current technology and actually build the base of the new game engine far enough for tech demos with more advanced weather, NPCs, combat, animations and whatnot.

With something like that at hand it would be much easier to finally get someone to fund the actual making and release of the game.

It's simply a bank statement, you know the things everyone had to get to know how much money they had on their bank accounts before there was online banking. I wonder why they didn't place a bank in Dobuita that you have to go to in order to get the money. Would've been a lot more realistic then the "magical" money transfer into Ryo's pocket. Well I guess they left that out because you already walk around so much for the ticket.

Well hearing that Yu Suzuki talked with someone who really knows how well crowdfunding a game with Kickstarter can go surely doesn't mean that something is gonna happen now. But at least it makes clear that Yu is really thinking about it.

I happily take all this talk about Shenmue and media coverage of Yu Suzuki. Keeping up the interested is better then dead silence, isn't it?

Ever heard of Hashima Island? It's a japanese offshore island about 15 Km from Nagasaki. It's also called Gunkanjima Island because from a side view it looks somewhat like a battleship. It was originally used as a coal mining facility under the control of Mitsubishi and was officially closed in 1974 and has been falling appart since.

Now, why am I posting a thread about this? Because it totaly reminded me of Kowloon when I saw pictures of it. And the best thing, you can explore the island with all it's ghost buildings in Google Street View! So try it out and take in the awesome eerie atmosphere.

https://www.google.de/maps/place/Hashima,+Japan/@32.629056,129.738782,3a,75y,137.44h,101.48t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sLxaLYt8IeYZVLqVRNCsEPw!2e0!3e5!4m7!1m4!3m3!1s0x3515469d4b782379:0xa8d331536ecbeea4!2sHashima,+Japan!3b1!3m1!1s0x3515469d4b782379:0xa8d331536ecbeea4

Just got this crappy little "game" with the post today.



But there's something awfully great about it. It's the last of the 216 games that goes into my shelve.
I've got a complete DC PAL library now.

Congratulations for finally cracking it, awesome! Can't wait to try this out!

Well I've already scanned all the stuff and made a pack. I hope they are usefull to you.

http://www.file-upload.net/download-929 ... e.rar.html

Okay, I found it now and shared it. And you know what, I decided to make a twitter account after all. I don't care how shallow my reach is a newly registered guy with no followers whatsoever but I just want to support #SaveShenmue however I goddamn can!

I was wondering if there's a way to get out of a move instruction without properly mastering it in Shenmue I.
Turns out, there really is! You just have to fail hard. Video coming soon.

Alright, another one already! I just couldn't resist the urge to try this out in Shenmue II.

Not because I wanted to see it there but how the teaching of the Iron Palm is followed by the Wude lesson.
I was really curious how the game would handle the situation here and got something totaly unexpected.
Shenmue never stops to give... [-o<

http://youtu.be/ybg9HIDeLFk

This is what you get when you don't manage to properly execute the move instructions for too long.
Quite interesting to see because who has ever been that stupid? Oh and listen careful at around 1:18.

I wanted to ask how many of you have played the Xbox version of Shenmue II in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and what your impressions are.

I recently expanded my stereo system to 5.1 with a modern (but few years old) AVR and gave Shenmue IIx a try.
I always wanted to hear how it sounds in surround, finally made the jump after years of thinking about it.

I have played the beginning until you get the bag back and then all of the Yellow Head Building.
I have to say that I'm rather dissapointed, Shenmue IIx has pretty lame surround mixing. The surround speakers do add a bit of "room" in areas like the sewer under Kowloon, where there's a lot of reverb, you know.
They rarely give off discrete sound effects though. In the intro you can hear the pidgeons fly past the camera but that's a rare example.

The center speaker is pretty much never used at all. The entire front field is produced by the stereo speakers. Combined with the weak surround speaker output it really doesn't give much more impression then stereo.

The only time the game produces real 5.1 sound is during the rooftop cinematics. The voices are of much higher quality then anywhere else in the game and they actually come from the center speaker. You can hear the chopper behind you, the music coming from the front and then you hear Dou Niu to your right, where he's holding Wong.
After the fight, when the chopper flys over you, the subwoofer gives a nice punch. Works and sounds quite well but that's only a fraction of the cinematic action in the game. Maybe the final scene with Shenhua will be mixed good aswell but I don't remember it having those exceptional clear voices so I kinda doubt it.

It's really rather sad. There really wasn't much effort or passion put into the surround mixing of Shenmue IIx.
Guess that goes well together with the dub... It's really a shame as the Xbox can do a lot better and Shenmue II definately deserves a nice 5.1 sound in every cutscene.

That was nice and just what I needed to ease a bit of my frustration. Very intersting to see it played with an instrument like that. Thought it was some kind of shamisen but then it's actually a phillipine instrument.
Sounds kinda similar though.

Anyway, why am I frustrated? I'm trying to win the grand prize at the Abe Store again, for my videos.
But moreso because it's pretty much the only thing in Shenmue that I've never done. I must get that damn prize!

So I've been trying this on Demul. I use my 10 winning cans in a row and then I reload and do it again.
The results are definately different each time and I've won the 1st prize three times already.
But the grand prize... I've drawn more then 650 raffle tickets with that method and it's just not happening!
I've even tried to increase the chances by trying this on christmas eve for the last couple rounds but that doesn't really seem to do anything at all.

That old lady is evil. She's cheating. The Gold Dural is a lie! I can't believe I've still never won it after so many tries.
I know the chances are only 1/400 but it must happen at some point, right? I will continue but I'd really need some "soul support" from you guys, just so I don't go insane over this.

Took on another side project because I needed another break from trying to win that damn Dural Gold.
Seems this has become a task for an entire life...

Anyway, I decided to upload the warning messages you get when you put the Shenmue GDs in a CD player.
They haven't been uploaded yet, at least I couldn't find any video of them. So I did my best to put these together, with some nice pictures. It's in HD even!

http://youtu.be/uQBfDgTjuqQ

Yeah, I don't really know, what I was thinking. I like my Snatcher on the Mega CD but this Saturn version is going to be tough. I can't read enough Japanese to know for sure, what option I'm picking and the 32-Bit versions of the game are kinda sucky. The way they've redone some of the graphics and especially the music...

Well, it's still something nice and unique to have and it was pretty cheap, so I'm not complaining.

http://s7.directupload.net/images/140825/5w6ra22c.jpg

Shenmue II Trailer in that order:

http://youtu.be/rklkc-OnrfA
http://youtu.be/PFIScQIs248
http://youtu.be/Ym7FR7h8-eQ
http://youtu.be/dhom2inAhoM

These are of course from the final game. The music in the trailer is a bit different in places. Guess these are from preproduction and not likely to be produced by the Dreamcast in real time. Much like the Shenmue OST sound different then the music in the game. I guess we would've gotten these versions, if they had released a Shenmue II OST but as we all know, there is none. These versions don't exist outside of that trailer.

Axm wrote:but had to wait for stupid Europe to get it.

Hey! Don't be hatin us just because we are the ones that got a good release for once. Hate Peter Moore!

Just got a hold of the Get Bass Fishing Controller Box that was the last missing piece in my DC collection.
So I just use the opportunity here to show off my now complete Dreamcast PAL collection.

I wanted to ask, if the administrators would be willing to increase the file size limit for avatars on the forums.
I would appreciate if it could be raised a bit. 100kb would be great and even 75kb would be enough for that image size.

You see, 50kb are just way to limited for the image size. I made a nicer version of my avatar just now and I have to go down to quality level 3 of 12 in order to meet the size limit. Naturally the resulting image quality is not pleasant at all anymore.

UDATE: I found that saving the image as a gif allows the file to be much smaller. I saved it as a 256 color gif and it's only 25kb now and it doesn't show any loss in detail and quality. Might be worth trying around with different formats depending on the image you want to use.
Still it would be nice if the limit could be raised so that the users can just use standard JPEGs or even high quality PNGs where it's possible.

This is awesome! I'm going to try this out soon.

Here's a little video about a unique NPC with a cart I discovered while walking around the harbor in shengoros Exploration Mod. Never noticed him walking along the fence before.

Sega is going to enter the crowdfunding business via the newly founded "Crowdrive" along with FujiTV and Goopa.
It's for anime only now but in 2015 they'll expand it to games aswell.

http://www.seganerds.com/2014/09/25/sega-networks-enters-the-crowdfunding-business-in-japan/

Could this be a gateway to Shenmue III? What do you think?

Here are the alternate breakout scenes during the part where Ryo and Ren are locked up by the Yellow Heads.
They may have been uploaded already but I've never seen the first scene with the stupid guy at the peephole until my last playthrough.

I wonder why they didn't include those two extra scenes for the first and second day into the normal story flow. They fit right in and greatly enhance the feeling of Ryo and Ren beeing stuck there for days... Instead of just jumping to the third day right away.

http://youtu.be/-XliLEyZ4-k

Something a little bit different today. I decided to finally remake my first Shenmue video. Quality is vastly improved and there are some actual effects now. Still cheap but 100 times better then the one I made 6 years ago. Enjoy!

I've just finished my version of the comparison video. Required a lot of cutting and moving scenes around...
It's late here now. I'll upload it to my channel tomorrow, so look forward to it.

Here's my Saturn vs. Dreamcast comparison. I took a lot of care to make everything sync. Enjoy!

FINALLY!!!



Just took 2392 tickets. New video coming very soon.

After nearly 2400 raffle tickets I was finally able to finish this one up!

http://youtu.be/RWlUn7oT508

1) I love 60 fps. The video makes the DC version even better.
I'm glad you enjoyed the video. It's actually 30 fps and Youtube downgrades it to 25fps or something.
But yeah it looks super smooth in comparison to the Saturn footage. I guess that one runs at 15fps.
Shenmue is generally a pretty smooth looking 30fps game.

Here you can see the Slot House certificates from Shenmue II. Not the most interesting thing tbh.
Especially if you consider how long it takes to get to 1 million.

In case anyone is wondering how much of a difference the new recording process with downsampling makes,
here is a quick comparison. http://s14.directupload.net/images/141027/gp86itff.jpg

http://youtu.be/7ptiBA8eSj4


Here is the Pit Blow lesson with a couple of extra scenes, like doing it step by step and coming back the next day to try again. There's a lot of failing included aswell.

http://youtu.be/QHxaBEkfNRY

After trying this months ago and failing, I was now finally able to meet Mr. Yukawa at the Bar!
That's one more thing of the list. I'm really running out of things to do...

Wow the renders of the scene around the phoenix mirror are incredible! I really love this improved lighting!
Where is the convenience store from that you put Ryo in? :D

I've been trying around with Nvidias new Dynamic Super Resolution feature and thanks to it I have something nice to share aswell. Shenmue in true 4K resolution!

http://s14.directupload.net/images/141103/ltiz58qq.jpg

http://s14.directupload.net/images/141103/t6t6qdxr.jpg

http://s14.directupload.net/images/141103/bvp4vmpq.jpg

Now these are only some examples from the intro. The benefit of the super high resolution would be even greater on scenes where the camera shows a total of the scenery, like the Kowloon intro. The textures obviously reach their limits...

After using Nvidias Dynamic Super Resolution for screenshots, I've decided to show it in motion aswell.
This is the Prologue running at 2160p and recorded at 1440p, the maximum that's currenty possible with software.

I really want to upload the intro in super high quality aswell. But I haven't decided yet if I'll just record it straight at 1440p or at 2103x1183 and cut the frame down in order to have 1080p widescreen with less visible clipping glitches.

EDIT: Watch it in 2160p instead!

http://youtu.be/Oj-kBO9z370

This is something I've wanted to so for a long time actually. A combination of good widescreen footage from nullDC and the improved sound from the Movie DVD to create the best Shenmue experience.

http://youtu.be/lJjbBaVeJJY

How it was done:
This was recorded in nullDC running at 2104x1184 with SweetFX's vibrance reduction and film grain enhancements and then cropped to 1080p in order to reduce the visible clipping at the sides of the screen. Then the sound from the Shenmue The Movie DVD was synced to the video in order to get higher quality voices and better sound mixing.