Shenmue Dojo

I'm sure this has been seen and I'm just failing at my forum searches, but just in case...

Remember that infamous Gamespot review? The original author (who also wrote a mini-guide I've seen people reference) wrote about it a few years ago, and stands by his original 6.8:

http://frankprovo.livejournal.com/568275.html

It's an interesting read. He did post more recently about Shenmue III (http://frankprovo.livejournal.com/609377.html), and was a little more positive about Shenmue II in that post.

For those who aren't familiar with it, the original review (http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/shenmue-review/1900-2540599/) scored it a 6.8. After much rage, it was bumped up to a 7.8 against the reviewer's wishes. At the time, it was fairly notorious, with most sites giving Shenmue rave reviews (IGN scored it a 10/10, for example).

Anyway, wasn't sure how many had seen his "response" in 2010. It's always interesting to hear from the other side.

I never read his review before but I found it sincerely very well written and the drawbacks well spotted although he seemed to completely miss what made Shenmue so appealing. The funnier part is that it is written like if the game was viewed from a modern eyesight as he's so harsh and disillusioned.

Sure I can imagine easily the critics from the opposite side at that time, Gamespot has possibly made a mistake by addressing the Shenmue review job to this guy. Sure he said another shit towards Shenmue 3 kickstarter but his review was written with balls and honesty. I would have enjoyed reading his complete thoughts on Shenmue II as AM2 solved most of the issues he targeted. To go further, I hope some guys will have his sense of criticism among the YSnet team.

People still use Live Journal?

I remember reading that review back in 2000 and I almost didn't buy Shenmue because of it. Then I bought the game and absolutely loved it (it is still my favorite game of all time). I never trusted Gamespot reviews after that.

I've just read the original review and I think he totally missed the "emotional" dimension of Shenmue. Instead it seems that he reviewed every aspect separately and used some standard weighting as if he was testing a soulless object. Also the fact that he doesn't say a word about Shenmue beeing just the first chapter of a long saga appears to me like a lack of vision and inability to see the big picture of Shenmue's gameplay mechanics.

That's not exactly the kind of approach I would expect for a game review, especially when it comes to a game like Shenmue, back in the end of the last century where the whole concept of open world was still to be defined.

#1 rule of video games: they have to be fun, or captivate

I can easily understand that Shenmue wasn't fun for everybody, in fact not every moment spent in Shenmue was fun to play, but I don't agree at all when it comes to beeing captivating. It's pace, story and characters are captivating but there is a cost for that: As the player, you're asked to willingly be part of this living universe. (That includes boring jobs and events at specific times...)

In conclusion, If we (people who *liked the game, *to say the least) were wrong and he was right, we would never have seen such a successful Kickstarter 16 years after the original game release. But hey, just my two cents. I'm a gamer, not a journalist.

^^ a classic example of why judgements are reserved for the individuals, why some utterly, and TOTALLY disregard 'reviews' due to the bias of the individual 'reviewing' said item. (self-defeating)
...
if i took shenmue review at any RAG face value, wouldn't have it in my collection.
...
it's a risk, true, but it's completely manageable if the person making a choice understands it's ALL on them, not the word of a desky or chief editor (i don't give a shit what they say: to run a rag FULL-TIME and still have time for games/in depth reviews?! bullshit! you can't direct a mining operation and be in the thick of it at the same time, why we have foremen, SPECIFIC! ask the miner what they think.)
...
in short:
rags are just that, to be taken with a pinch of salt.
the word of some DOESN'T speak for the word of the rest, in never can achieve this, despite an ongoing effort to that effect.

The 6.8 review score was crap and Gamespot totally sucks for allowing that review.

The reviewer ---whatever his/her name was--- was wrong about Shenmue and should have excused him/herself from even writing it.


That review was like getting someone who was illiterate to review Hemingway... the end product was NOT an objective opinion. It was flawed output due to an inherent comprehension deficit which precluded all rational analysis.

^ I hope you're trolling.

Lol, no, what he said sounds pretty spot-on to me Shenmue isn't a game that any dumb old schmuck should be reviewing.

Three Blades wrote: Lol, no, what he said sounds pretty spot-on to me Shenmue isn't a game that any dumb old schmuck should be reviewing.

Why? If a hardcore rpg or dreamcast fan reviewed it then it would be biased. I'm not saying it deserves a 6.8, but there needs to be a fair review. That being said, I haven't used review sites in I dont know how many years because they're all garbage.

shenmue may not be 'fun' in the same way as seeing a head explode during the VATS mode in fallout, but its a very 'enjoyable' game and most definitely 'captivating'. its all subjective, and i'm surprised shenmue generally scored as well as it did considering how groundbreaking it was at the time. the reviewer just didn't 'get it'. thats all.

Well by the time even the 1st Shenmue game came out, people already knew to ignore so called professional review sites, that was the era where the whole appealing to the lowest common denominator all started(it was when the whole CG trailer sells the game was in full speed, it was when review sites started taking bribes for good ratings, ect).

To make matters worse, that's the very same span of time, when the Adventure genre died out, so yea(the adventure genre for the most part as a whole, has really only started to come back this gen).

I really wanted to read the original 6.8 review, even if it's terrible.

AnonBaiter wrote: I really wanted to read the original 6.8 review, even if it's terrible.

I have yet to be able to find the actual review in it's entirety, but searching the old news groups I did find one block quote from it. It's similar to the existing paragraph, but a little more harsh.

""When you get right down to it, waiting for appointments, running errands,
and circulating back and forth between towns is one of the most tedious and
boring lives one can have. Ryo's father is dead, and as the person in charge
of finding the killer, you also assume the restrictions his life entails.
Ryo wakes up at 8:30am and must be in bed by 11:30pm. This gives you 15
hours per game day to talk to people, hunt down clues, and make progress.
However, some people only appear at certain times of the day, while others
require that you make appointments to see them. Since each HOUR within the
game takes roughly FIVE minutes to pass, it's not uncommon to find yourself
with 30 minutes to waste. The minigames and martial arts training elements
help, but after three discs, these things become boring as well. By the time
you're driving forklifts and participating in the game's QTE-filled
conclusion, hours upon hours of boredom will have taken their toll. It also
doesn't help that the game's voice acting is a brutal mixture of
Shakespearean excellence and dime-store stage hacks."

ShinChuck wrote:

AnonBaiter wrote: I really wanted to read the original 6.8 review, even if it's terrible.

I have yet to be able to find the actual review in it's entirety, but searching the old news groups I did find one block quote from it. It's similar to the existing paragraph, but a little more harsh.

""When you get right down to it, waiting for appointments, running errands,
and circulating back and forth between towns is one of the most tedious and
boring lives one can have. Ryo's father is dead, and as the person in charge
of finding the killer, you also assume the restrictions his life entails.
Ryo wakes up at 8:30am and must be in bed by 11:30pm. This gives you 15
hours per game day to talk to people, hunt down clues, and make progress.
However, some people only appear at certain times of the day, while others
require that you make appointments to see them. Since each HOUR within the
game takes roughly FIVE minutes to pass, it's not uncommon to find yourself
with 30 minutes to waste. The minigames and martial arts training elements
help, but after three discs, these things become boring as well. By the time
you're driving forklifts and participating in the game's QTE-filled
conclusion, hours upon hours of boredom will have taken their toll. It also
doesn't help that the game's voice acting is a brutal mixture of
Shakespearean excellence and dime-store stage hacks."

Yikes, with how harsh/bad he's making it sound like, he might as well be trying to claim that rating it 6.8, is being generous sigh.

However we need to remember such reviews come from people that would give GTAs or the newer FF games, 9s, and 10s lol, needless to say quality gameplay, and any game that requires patience/devoting time to really get into it, is so not what they want to see..