Shenmue as a teaching tool

(Modding and other series related projects)

Shenmue as a teaching tool

Postby RyoShenmue » Fri May 19, 2017 1:14 am

Ever since I orignally got Shenmue I had thought how great a teaching tool it would be if you could mod the game (Or remake it from another game, say Half Life 2 or what have you.) and have it where you basically step off the plane onto Japanese soil.  The reason I chose Shenmue as the game is due to it's original setting is Japan, so all the building blocks would be there from the start.  Also the way the virtual city just breathes life, I still think it does a better job then, than most games today. =D>

So you are tested while on the plane or greeted by your guide, with your knowledge of both the speaking and writing of Japanese.  Perhaps by a narrative asking if you are proficient in N3 or in case you are not sure, a quick test of your general knowledge.

If using your guide they will speak to you in English (or what ever language) with little spritz of Japanese to gauge your comprehension.  If you do not answer quickly or correctly, the guide and other NPCs (those coded to speak English or "better" English) will act accordingly to you, but still push you into speaking Japanese.

When you are finally left on your own or you immediately go that route, (second play through or you are just that good.) the city is free to be explored at your leasure.

You can interact with people and they will in turn interact with you.  Depending on what you said your level of understanding of the language (can be changed at any time) or actually tested for proficiency wise, determines how many people can speak to you or how intelligent they interact with you, as in bigger harder words if you are good or talking to you like you are a small child. :mrgreen:

The Japanese landscape however does not change what so ever.  So something written in Japanese will always be in Japanese, be it a billboard, a shop's sign or even a news clipping.  However you can easily press a button and see a translation into English or a break down of the Japanese structure like if zooming onto a residential house name plate on Shenmue, except you have to press the help button, it is not freely given to you.

You play a foreigner or perhaps you could play it as a visting friend or even a resident.  But what that means is how "polite" you are expected to treat others and in turn should expect to be treated.  So if complete strangers I suppose the polite way and with good friends the normal or less polite way.

Also you are tested through out the game naturally with how you interact with others by your body language/actions.  The game would teach you to bow, how to slurp noodles, how to wait/ride the train.  I mean the lists goes on. Plus if the city (cities) could realistically be shaped like Japanese cities all the more better.  (But with out perfect detail like real shops being used, since that would obvioisly need permission from each to do so, although Google Maps is allowed to show them...)

Basically there is no fighting to be had, you are not Ryo or even on a mission to find the mirror.  Just some random visitor, although there could be fetching, traveling, collecting and others quests. 

Originally I thought as far as consoles go, that the Nintendo Wii would be the best idea.  It was powerful enough to run Shenmue and had the added bonus of the microphone for speech and the remote/nunchuck for the QTEs and general ease of navigating, pointing, writing kanji, zooming, etc.

Plus at the time the Wii was kicking both the XBOX 360's and PS3's butt, so more people had the opportunity to play and it was a more friendly, family oriented, casual person type of game console.  Plus Nintendo had a slew of other language and brain games at the time as well, just this would of been a lot more fun and a lot more interactive and Nintendo and SEGA seemed to be getting chummy with one another.

Anyway, that was always a fantasy of mine.  One I am likely never to see fulfilled.  I my self for sure can not code.  But maybe if Shenmue 1 and 2 comes out to Steam, or even 3 and like most good PC games are allowed to be modded, a game like this could materialize... [-o<

And you could potentially with more work make/visit virtually any part of the world whether it be China, (China would be easier than the others mentioned due to Shenmue 2.) the Middle East, Africa, Europe or even America as a destination and language teacher.

RyoShenmue has received a thanks from: John Doom
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Re: Shenmue as a teaching tool

Postby John Doom » Fri May 19, 2017 10:01 am

:) It sounds like an interesting project. Making a whole realistic 3d city takes time and money, so I think it makes sense to use Shenmue's Yokosuka since it should be easy to export into other programs, as long as it's for educational purpose.
Not sure you should use Shenmue's engine: though its AIs and interactivity are very advanced and hard to replicate, right now it could be difficult to make changes to the original events and add that new dialogue system you mentioned. It's though: you're either going to face problems modding Shenmue into something very different or you're going to spend a lot of time and money to make a new game from scratch with other popular 3d engines. I'd go for Rpg Maker MV, instead, because it's 2d, so resources are much cheaper and it's also easier to use, but it's just me :D
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Re: Shenmue as a teaching tool

Postby Jerid'sRamenShop » Sat Feb 24, 2018 7:45 am

John Doom wrote: :) It sounds like an interesting project. Making a whole realistic 3d city takes time and money, so I think it makes sense to use Shenmue's Yokosuka since it should be easy to export into other programs, as long as it's for educational purpose.
Not sure you should use Shenmue's engine: though its AIs and interactivity are very advanced and hard to replicate, right now it could be difficult to make changes to the original events and add that new dialogue system you mentioned. It's though: you're either going to face problems modding Shenmue into something very different or you're going to spend a lot of time and money to make a new game from scratch with other popular 3d engines. I'd go for Rpg Maker MV, instead, because it's 2d, so resources are much cheaper and it's also easier to use, but it's just me :D


I actually started a Shenmue game on RPG Maker XP (?) a looong time ago. I did not get very far, but I did have a warehouse section and roaming workers carrying boxes. :lol: I have Steam and have been waiting for a rather big sale before I dive into any more RPG Makers as some of the better ones can be quite expensive. I have no coding skills so it would have to be something rather easy to do with point and click or copy and pasting of premade code. However the RPG Maker would not be anything close to what I would actually be wanting, but then again beggars can not be choosers... ](*,)

However... how hard would it be to basically rip Shenmue models and put them into Gary's Mod? We could run our own servers with Shenmue themes... :-k
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