Whooah whooah whoah I'm On a 4hr+ train journey and I started hyperventilating when I saw all of this. I was NOT mentally prepared for all this! XD
Anyway, I don't know why and it all sounds really hyperbolic, but my heart was really racing see all this, I had to take many deep breaths.
Just as with the npc's, what I see looks great, but they shouldn't be judged in isolation, we could scrutinise the shenmue npc's and even the main cast in shenmue 1 and 2 if we just observed as is, but the brilliance of the game itself puts the work into making it all immersive. That to me is why shenmue stands the test of time especially compared to many other 3D games during that era.
I don't know why but seeing some of the reactions online is legit making me feel a physical sense of pain. It's a huge deal to see this art and see things taking shape, but I need to remember to see that this is all WIP too, we're still a long time away, we can use this opportunity to find out more and understand development. I'm just super super desperate to see the gameplay right now and see everything in motion and exploration around the environment, that is what defines shenmue to me.
The other thing is: I don't know if it's just me, but does the newness of the super rural Chinese setting and the great Wall of China give you HUGE chills? I'm getting the feels big time, because of the continuation and the uncertainty that it comes with it.
Really feeling exhausted seeing those comments though, it's a reminder for me to pause reading the comments from these blogs/forums (outside of here) for a while, at least until after we know more after gamescom or seen more consistency in news.
Also, to anyone (not here, just what I've seen written on other websites) that this all "destroys" their views of the "masterpieces" that are shenmue 1 and 2, chill the heck out we haven't seen much (and all the snippets they've shown prior was amazing, so that should still count for something), those games will always be amazing in their own right (and we've witnessed all this with the streams recently just in case anyone forgot). Please don't be a wally and pull the trigger on the basis of early cover art without seeing much else.
One thing someone brought up is if there is Sega-related tie-ins for capsule toys/arcades etc. If there isn't that's an acceptable loss for me, just given the setting I'm more than content with the QTE/boxing mini games etc. There are many other creative ways to go about doing that stuff. I am interested to hear more about this though as time goes on...
Anyway, looking forward to seeing more, remember folks they'll be there in person and can/will make adjustments based on general feedback, it's always hard for anyone to anticipate what needs changing until it's out in there open, we're just getting started and let's see how next week goes.
I know it's hard, I wished these images could've complimented the gameplay for a more impactful first impressions but let's acknowledge it'll be a bumpy ride to launch and we're okay.
I was only anxious from the early reactions of others and the media and seeing everything all at once but I am really really excited with what's shown and what's yet to come!
P.s. not understanding the deep silver hate, literally every game I bought this year was published/distributed by them, so they seem to be publishing games I like!
P.p.s okay so looking into it people are bringing up MN9 advert and a low stock of units for previous Sega games at launch (the former was just unfortunate, uncreative marketing. I admit the latter was a problem when ordering dreamfall and yakuza for me and some others in the UK as the units were limited and weren't sent on time so I got them two weeks after launch, but how does that make them bad? I'm sure they'll prepare things appropriately for next time, and long as they're supporting the game this level of hate towards them seems a little ungrateful of people to point out imo, especially knob heads who are attributing the score of 6/10 for it...
Update: missed my second train with all this absorption of info, need to wait 50mins for the next one to come... crap. I'm in a dazed state right now, not aware of what's happening around me xD sorry on the wall of text, big day!
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