I just can't justufy 99% of the choices they've made with this re-lelease, let's call it that way instead of "HD"
If its true that they are working with source code I don't see a single reason why they are taking so many wrong decisions.
Specially the one related to resolution, But I see lots of people defending the direction d3t has taken with this port, I just can't believe it.... as much as I love Shenmue, I'm incredibly sad with this re-release.
People defending the lack of resolutions higher than 1080p arguing that it is not necessary saddens me, specially when we have seen tons of screenshots of emulated S1 and S2 at crazy resolutions and they look awesome, specially on 4k panels..
Xbox version emulated at 4k
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/293096509019258880/419947200651722753/Cxbx_2018-03-04_18-53-57-927.png
The bad audio quality, the lack of passport... I just can't...
Then the artistic vision about 16:9 cutscenes.... I mean it's more a technical constrain of the time than an artistic vision, and if that werent the case, and they are just trying to preserve the original vision...I don't Thinks Yu's vision was to see S2 cutscenes this way.
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/758330/ss_940ecda42072e04923152dbaf489e254b99a8d9d.1920x1080.jpg?t=1531311621
It looks hideous
I don't care if I get hated by my opinion about what I think about this port, but they just couldn't do the simplest of the things like swapping Ryo's texture jacket in Shenmue 1 to use the higer resolution one from the xbox version ( wtch in return is the Passport texture for Ryo's Jacket), something that simple jet they didn't care.
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/758330/ss_fd6d03b1bf64bd77589ef70570fe745a5b83ee2a.1920x1080.jpg?t=1531311621
https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/758330/ss_5c72fc3b023665b84ffbba49030aa7cfb7fcae8a.1920x1080.jpg?t=1531311621
Right now I am just as sad as mad about this, I should've relaxed before writing this post but the amount of posts defending such bad choices from d3t is driving me crazy.
Just to be clear, I am happy the games are getting re-released and we can play them on modern systems and can be enjoyed by modern audiencies but I've would preferred something....
https://media.giphy.com/media/o7ncE7UgxAUE0/giphy.gif
Thanks for sharing your controversial opinion, dude. It's discussions like this which make a forum worth participating in.
I can see your point but honestly, I personally don't care about the passport feature. Don't get me wrong, I used to play F 355 and especially PSO online a lot in the early 2000s but the Shenmue passport? Nah...
The character videos explaining game mechanics are beautiful and I love the character character profiles but I have always had the feeling that this was just online functions for their own sake. Kind of like Sega telling Yu to shoe-horn some online elements into S1. Never really understood why that thing even exists.
About the aspect ratio... Yeah, I also don't get what kept them from making the cutscenes 16:9, especially since S1 and 2 don't have any pre-rendered cutscenes if I remember correctly. I agree that this is kind of a bummer. That being said, I used to play a lot of Dreamcast and PS2 on modern televisions. 4:3 on a 16:9 TV never bothered me.
But the one thing that really pisses me off is the fact they are using the Xbox version of S2 as a source. A lot of textures wrong, Yen signs on the vending machines in Hong Kong, wrong music in the intro scene to Guilin and so on and so forth.
On the other hand, please don't look past all the hell of a lot of right decisions they've made on this release.
1. Save anywhere in S1.
2. Choose between old and new UI.
3. Dual Audio
4. Adding subtitles in more languages for people who don't speak English, such as French, German (European version) and Chinese (Asian version).
5. Choosing the right time to release those games. August, before Red Dead Redemption 2 will come and also long enough before S3's release.
Dozens of people have said this before but a semi-lazy port is all we could have ever hoped for. It was only after the S3 Kickstarter and slacker backer campaigns being as succesfull as they were, that Sega realized there may be money to be made with Shenmue so they didn't wanna take too many chances. I'm saying semi-lazy port because with a real lazy port we wouldn't have gotten any of the points I mentioned above.