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Re: Random Shenmue Thoughts

Shenmue is not just entertaining (that is, as a new kind of interactive digital/virtual entertainment) ,
it's also soul-fulfilling ( sapienti sat ) .

And some thoughts as an answer to closed-minded gaming-journalists and the vast majority of a certain type of gamers:
Some journalists criticize Shenmue by saying that it doesn't have a lot to
offer in gaming terms, and that they could perform the same activities in real
life. But that's exactly the point. To live (almost) a second life, different to
your own, while being immersed in a lifelike/believable world. To experience
it viscerally, with a gut feeling that you are organically one with what is being
shown on the screen. Yu Suzuki and AM2 created it based on standards of
the real world, and not as a video game. Players who prefer and are used to
'proven', traditional ways of gaming entertainment, of course, will disdain it.
Most of them come with a closed mind on what a video game should and
could be. Like there is a certain recipe that needs to be followed in order to
provide an accepted interactive entertaining experience. Their standards are
like a round hole and Shenmue is like a square peg. The easiest solution: to
mock it and its appreciators (as fanboys, lunatics, etc). The Shenmue series
is a new kind of entertainment. Almost two decades later, the vast majority
of players can't get why it is beloved, or, they do, but they can't stomach this
fact. They can't get that a game... is not like a game, and that, despite that,
people are still enchanted/entranced by it. At the end of the day, what makes
it seem empty for a lot of gamers is what makes it a unique, rich, natural,
and personally soul-fulfilling experience for others (even non-gamers).

http://i.imgur.com/ygk3Vvx.png
I do worry about how Shenmue III will be received critically. [...] Gaming journalism in this day and age is a complete and utter shit-show; not to mention the fact that some journalists are probably itching to give Shenmue III a bashing simply because of what it is. If the game turns out to be shit, it deserves fair criticism to the fullest extent, but that's the kicker: just because a critic might curse the game 'til they're blue in the face, does that mean it's an objectively bad game or do they simply not 'get' it? Shenmue is up there with the likes of Deadly Premonition as a game that people either love or hate - there's hardly any middle ground whatsoever - not because either are bad games, but because they transcend the very notion of objectivity.

Ride to Hell: Retribution is objectively bad, whereas Super Meat Boy , for example, is objectively good. Games like Shenmue and Deadly Premonition , however, simply can't be categorised in this way because they are entirely subjective - though not without obvious flaws - and handing the reigns over to a critic when something is 100% subjective is a very dangerous thing to do because it encourages bias and unnecessary personal opinion to float to the surface; instead of "This is [...]," it becomes "I think [...]."

Regardless, as long as we, the fans, enjoy it, and it makes a profit, thus allowing the series to continue on, critics can say whatever the fuck they want. It doesn't matter either way :)

There is confusion, everywhere where gaming is concerned, between objectivity and subjectivity. A gaming journalist's/critic's objective job is to objectively present to whom a game is addressed and then to objectively analyze if/why it achieves its ambition. For example, Shenmue as a new kind of entertainment, is addressed to players who enjoy an immersive, natural/lifelike/believable/living/breathing/based-on-real-standards, pro-social and story-dependent world, and it achieves its ambition for such and such a reason.

However, their objective job is not to share their opinion, and, thus, their subjective view and personal aesthetic judgement, on why they loved/liked or hated/disliked a game. Of course, some journalists/critics publicize their articles under the label "opinion" (but, sometimes, some of them abuse this, to present, at the end, an ode or a condemnation, to influence the public opinion through a website which gets a lot of traffic, or as a clickbait to get a lot of traffic).

Personally, I believe, Shenmue III will have the same fate as its predecessors. The vast majority of critics will try to find in Shenmue III something that isn't there and was never meant to be in there. They will criticize it based on the traditional standards (as I mentioned in my previous post) , and not based on the new/different standards of its unique/individual genre. [And the same applies to other games, too, which have a bizarre, capricious and/or idiosyncratic style (compared to the ones which follow the orthodox styles).]
by Giorgio
Fri Sep 23, 2016 9:26 am
 
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Re: Yu Suzuki Interview - Retro Games Expo 2016

My most favourite quote from this interview:
Build up as many experiences as you can of successes and failures – either is fine. Immerse yourself and experience things other people don’t. These will eventually form your own standards. Don’t think about succeeding or failing. I want people to go all-out for what they want to do. That’s the first step, I believe.
by Giorgio
Sat Sep 24, 2016 2:51 pm
 
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Re: Random Shenmue Thoughts

Found a rare official Shenmue II trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xa81FMDlvA

The musics sound slightly different than the original ones. Could they be the uncompressed versions we'll heard in the hypothetical remaster?
I haven't seen this trailer (with hard rock music) either:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gz1O54jZvQ
by Giorgio
Wed Sep 28, 2016 5:33 am
 
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Re: Random Shenmue Thoughts

I've never seen before the homeless man laying down at this place:
Image...probably he's laying there only during Ryo's forklifting?
by Giorgio
Tue Oct 25, 2016 9:14 am
 
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Re: Random Shenmue III Thoughts

Idea for Shenmue III: Make the QTE sounds, for the directional button prompts, 3D. Also, make a different vibrational pattern on the joypad for each other button ( × ○ △ □ etc). So someone can close their eyes and still be able to push the buttons (for a blindly immersive experience). Like, the Braille equivalent of QTEs.
by Giorgio
Fri Dec 02, 2016 3:58 pm
 
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Re: How can I remake a tmp file extracted from a compressed

I went through the struggles of that during the making of this mod . Obviously, It requires tedious hex-editing. And, if I remember well, it went like this (some steps may not be necessarily justified):

- Open the PKF/PKS file with a hex editor and see if it's compressed.
- If it is, then extract it (I used GZIP, both for decompressing and compressing).
- Use a PVR extractor and converter from PVR to PNG. That was helpful to see the order in which the textures appear in the file.
- Edit the PNG image or make a new one.
- Convert the PNG image to PVR. This step needs special attention. It needs to see the attributes of the relevant original PVR. Attributes like its size, the pixel format, its data type etc. [ PVR Graphic Format ]
- Open the extracted file of the PKF/PKS with a hex editor. Replace the block of bytes of the relevant original PVR data with the new one created.
- (Re)compress the extracted file of the PKF/PKS to a PKF/PKS file. (However. If I remember well, this is not necessary. And, thus, the extracted file could just be renamed to the prefix of the PKF/PKS it got extracted from. I think Dreamcast decompresses GZIP decompressed files on the fly. Decompressing these files reduces the size of data, but it increases the time of loading.)
by Giorgio
Thu Dec 24, 2015 11:26 am
 
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Re: Shenmue Fandom/Myers Briggs Correlation?

Once I took one (because someone at SEGA Forum proposed the same idea), as found here: http://www.16personalities.com/

I do not know how accurate is the test or how accurately/objectively I answered, but I got these results:
Personality: INTJ , Variant: Assertive, Role: Analyst [Results in picture form: http://i.imgur.com/OVoyouv.png] .
by Giorgio
Sat Dec 13, 2014 8:52 am
 
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Re: Shenmue Modding Knowledge

Shenmue Mods has a new home and it is now on Github: https://github.com/Shenmue-Mods

This new platform provides great versatility and accessibility to (contribute, that is) add new and edit existing resources of knowledge (compared to an obscure and rigid Google Site). The content looks prettier and more "professional", too.

The first post of this thread has been edited to reflect the new changes.
by Giorgio
Wed Mar 21, 2018 2:55 pm
 
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Re: No Time Skip In Shenmue I

Just read some explanations (both here and in other sites) on why a Time Skip ("Wait" option) feature can not be implemented in Shenmue I, from a technical standpoint. I don't claim to be an expert nor I want to debate, but here's what I believe:

About the concerns that it will break the game (in technical terms, not aesthetic):
We have experience from the BETA 0.400. If you use the Debug Menu and in/de-crease time, things will indeed start to break.
However.
If we think how Shenmue II handles time skip we'll probably understand that it's not a big deal to make this to happen in Shenmue I, too.
The point is, every time ...time is increased/skipped, the game screen fades away and a cutscene/event starts. Basically, things are being reset .
Even in Shenmue I, when you do a Quick Save, and then you start/load the game again, things start from that specific time. So things has been reset, and start from the point of a specific time.

Therefore, Time Skip will work in Shenmue I, provided there's also a (hidden, that is only the devs can do it) Reset function, which takes account what time currently is.
And, if we think about it, there is already a Reset function, which indeed is being called (for example) after the end of a cutscene. So, the code for that already exists in Shenmue I.

tl;dr: Time Skip ("Wait" option) feature is feasible to be included in Shenmue I, because the code for both the 'time skip' and the 'reset function' (that is, put things to work again relative to a specific time) already exists.
by Giorgio
Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:07 pm
 
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