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Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Sun Jun 28, 2015 4:13 pmby shredingskin
I think this is a relevant topic specially thinking about the scope of SIII
Don't get me wrong, it's awesome that it's as big as it is, but even today I think it was a little bit of "too big", there are so many places and locations you can easily miss (even in my first playthrough I missed the pine arcade). I still don't think I've been to every place (not even talking about thousand building), but all the bars, restaurants, shops, barbers, etc.
In Shenmue, I felt that I knew every place, all the locals and shops, in Shenmue II I can't say that at all.
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Sun Jun 28, 2015 4:15 pmby BlueMue
I don't think it's too big at all. It much more fun to go explore with all the areas you can visit.
It feels much more like a "world" and I'd rather say that Shenmue I is too small.
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Sun Jun 28, 2015 4:23 pmby south carmain
I can understand where you're coming from though personally I liked how big it was. It would have been nice if 99% of the rooms in Kowloon weren't just empty with some very little differences between them though but I guess that was kind of impossible on the DC.
I assume Shenmue 3 isn't going to be as big though.
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Sun Jun 28, 2015 4:25 pmby shredingskin
I think that SI feels more "real" specially since most of the people there have custom responses and more "not random" npcs. You could see that each store owner goes to X bar, get back drunk, your friends smoking at the park (or barfing, don't know). In SII feels like every person is there to guide you. Like being smaller made you want to talk to everybody to see their responses, while on SII is mostly asking a question.
Still Shenmue II has a great level of detail (for example when you can ask around about Xuixing), but a lot of that detail is easier to ignore. I think the new Shenmue will have to "maximize" the ammount of detail it can offer.
I like that the world is bigger, but from a budget perspective and how much do certain areas get used not so much.
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Sun Jun 28, 2015 4:40 pmby drunkensailor
the size is not a bad thing at all. it's handled perfectly and compared to todays games it's very small. the world and coloring imo also looks a lot more friendly in shenmue 2. in shenmue 1 people treated you like shit or never had time for you
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Sun Jun 28, 2015 4:43 pmby 7heavens
Shenmue 2 made u feel like a foreigner lost in a big city so it fits well with ryos circumstance. And in shenmue 1 u knew everything and every1 again perfectly fits his circumstance as yukosuka is ryos home
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Sun Jun 28, 2015 4:43 pmby MiTT3NZ
Funnily enough, I woulda preferred a bigger world in Shenmue II. Specifically Kowloon. Not in the sense of "more shit" though, just... meaningful shit. Most of the time when I play it, I'll be swift and efficient coz of the sheer amount of areas vs loading times. With the first, this wasn't so much of an issue. Kowloon on the other hand... I skip as much as I can do because it's "Run for 15 secs, enter location. Run for 15 secs, enter location. Run for 15 secs, enter location." As a whole, Kowloon is quite large, but on the surface level, it's just too damn small, and crammed full of "filler". Big disappointment, imo.
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Sun Jun 28, 2015 5:06 pmby Henry Spencer
^I can understand that complaint. I still like Kowloon the most from an atmosphere and story point of view. It has the most interesting story beats in the series and is the fastest paced Shenmue has ever been and the derelict buildings and just general dilapidated look and feel of the place makes it one of my favourite areas. Plus all of those street fights. I actually prefer Kowloon to Hong Kong for those reasons (that, plus just having Ren spending around so much, having an actual companion exploring areas with Ryo was certainly a nice change from the norm).
I wouldn't exactly worry about Shenmue 3 being the same way inclined since the areas, by the sounds of them, will be much smaller and probably more dense with that detail that Yokosuka was.
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Sun Jun 28, 2015 5:08 pmby drunkensailor
7heavens wrote: Shenmue 2 made u feel like a foreigner lost in a big city so it fits well with ryos circumstance. And in shenmue 1 u knew everything and every1 again perfectly fits his circumstance as yukosuka is ryos home
this 100%
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Sun Jun 28, 2015 6:07 pmby Miles Prower
Call me crazy, but I still like exploring the Kowloon buildings even if the bulk of it is empty/pointless rooms. There's still some pretty cool things to discover. I do see where some of you are coming from about Shenmue 1 having a bit more 'soul' and atmosphere, though. Honestly I think the lack of this in S2 was more to time/budget constraints than anything else, but at the same time, yes, it does capture the feeling of being a foreigner in a strange new land quite well. I was hopelessly lost when I was first playing S2, but I soon got used to it. I have a feeling some of that magic and atmosphere will return in S3, with the more rural, remote setting
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Sun Jun 28, 2015 7:54 pmby JaySw34
It's been said and I agree that, in this sense, Shenmue 2 is a perfect follow up. The first chapter takes place in Ryo's hometown... So he naturally fits in, knows every nook and cranny, and is on a first name basis with a majority of the residents. The second game does a great job of stripping all of that away, and really makes you feel like a foreigner in a large, intimidating, and unfamiliar city.
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:26 pmby Yokosuka
I never traveled to the 90's Hong Kong but having been several times at Bangkok, I was struck by the massive similarity between a lot of neighborhoods and thought Shenmue 2 crystallized the East Asian big towns spirit with perfection. Even my mother (who is from Thailand) was amused. No mention about the lost feeling as explained above. Really, the scale was never too big.
However, I wonder what Yu would have decided if this game was in development today with 10 million. Since Shenmue 3 comes true, Shenmue 2 is now my FFVII impossible dream.
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Mon Jun 29, 2015 9:16 amby BigTuna
I don't think the problem with II is that it's too big. My main beef with the game is that I don't feel welcomed to explore the environments. Like you were with the first game. You start off with no money, unless you buy/sell items in the beginning, even then it's not enough. The jobs all suck in the game to. So making money is way too much of a chore. Doesn't help that some missions require large amounts of money to even begin.
You are given a beautiful vast city to explore in Shenmue II. But I always feel too rushed to even care about it. Which is a shame. I always spend days in Yokosuka without moving the story along because I love exploring and finding things I'd never noticed or seen before. I know II has even more of that, but I don't feel like I'm free to do so at all.
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Mon Jun 29, 2015 2:25 pmby drunkensailor
I used to be a close friend back in late 90s and early 2000s to a chinese person and his dad had this big company in both netherlands and china. he was always traveling back and forth and he brought tons of pirated chinese dc games with him as well. one time we were playing shenmue 2 and he walked by and he was shocked and said: wow!! that is hong kong! coming from a person who lived in south china in the 80s and before and often went to hong kong still to that day I took it as a serious reference
Re: Shenmue II too big ?
Posted:
Mon Jun 29, 2015 2:26 pmby drunkensailor
BigTuna wrote: I don't think the problem with II is that it's too big. My main beef with the game is that I don't feel welcomed to explore the environments. Like you were with the first game. You start off with no money, unless you buy/sell items in the beginning, even then it's not enough. The jobs all suck in the game to. So making money is way too much of a chore. Doesn't help that some missions require large amounts of money to even begin.
You are given a beautiful vast city to explore in Shenmue II. But I always feel too rushed to even care about it. Which is a shame. I always spend days in Yokosuka without moving the story along because I love exploring and finding things I'd never noticed or seen before. I know II has even more of that, but I don't feel like I'm free to do so at all.
I like exploring in shenmue 2 a LOT more than shenmue 1.