Post Your Shenmue 2 Review Here

(Chapters 3-6)

Post Your Shenmue 2 Review Here

Postby Bambi » Thu May 01, 2003 1:42 pm

I know it's been out for a while but post your reviews anyway :D

Shenmue II Xbox Review

The original Shenmue was a experience like no other, for the first time in computer game history you were free to go anywhere and see everything, it was a game where you could easily spend an entire day just exploring the huge environments or speaking with the hundreds of individual characters that you could interact with. Yu Suzuki (the games creator) pioneered a new genre with his bold new game this was to be called Fully Reactive Eyes Entertainment or F.R.E.E for short.

Shortly after the originals release a sequel was confirmed, Shenmue fans all over the world rejoiced at the prospect of picking the story where they left off and stepping into the sweaty (probably) trainers of Ryo Hazuki the games main character once again, but alas a decision was made that split the market between the UK and the US and caused quite a bit of outrage and controversy.

Shenmue II was due to come out on the Sega Dreamcast like the original but in a surprise move by Sega was cancelled at the last moment in America to appear later on the Microsoft Xbox console while the PAL version was picked up for a current release in the UK by an independent publisher called Big Ben Interactive. This meant that UK fans got the game there and then (with Japanese voices and English subtitles) while those in the USA had to wait over a year or pay the expense of importing.

A year later and the Xbox version came out in the USA it had improved graphics, English voices and had 2 new features to boot. The first new feature was a view setting that enabled you to apply filters to the screen that changed the way you saw the game, the second feature was much better, a snapshot function that enabled you to take pictures of anything from shenmue and save it to your hardrive for later viewing.

Also included with the Xbox version of Shenmue II is a DVD called Shenmue The Movie it basically amounts to the major cut scenes from the first game stuck together back to back, it acts as a memory boost for those who haven't played it in a while or as a starting ground for new fans to the series, a bit like the way Capcom re-release all the Resident Evil titles on the console they next plan to develop for (only Shenmue The Movie isn't as good as the game and doesn't even include an extra documentary included on the retail Japanese DVD).

Finally Shenmue II is available here in the UK after months of anticipation I have played my copy thoroughly and am ready to Cleary state my honest opinion.

The original Shenmue ended with Ryo Hazuki (the games main character) setting sail for China to find his fathers killer Lan Di, Shenmue II picks up the story four days later with Ryo's arrival in Aberdeen harbour in Hong Kong, a strange place in a country he has never visited before that's very different to Yokosuka the town he grew up in.

The opening scenes of the game let you know that you're in for something really special, dramatic shots of the huge ship that Ryo is on cutting through the tranquillity of the sea is really spectacular, a cool way to kick start the game, it then switches to several shots of Hong Kong fully populated with people going about their everyday business, following those working at the pier to the gathering interest at a pachinko stand there are even people stopping to speak with their friends in the street.

Shenmue is a virtual world with virtual characters, each morning the sun will rise, people will get up and go to work, tourists will wander around town, some will visit the bars and restaurants and customers will visit any of the hundreds of individual shops on offer, even the weather will change according to what time of the year it is.

The gameplay that Shenmue is famous for has been improved dramatically, a big criticism of the original was that to progress you were forced to spend hours just hanging around waiting for an event to take place rather than actually advancing in the game.

The waiting was mainly due to the very thing that made Shenmue great, the fact that you could take your time and solve problems at your pace, for example you might have figured out where the tattoo parlour was at 9:00am and you were there and ready to go in at 9:16am but that doesn't change the fact that its not open until 12:00p.m and with several similar situations, waiting around at some point was inevitable.

Thankfully Yu Suzuki and his development team have taken a long hard look at Shenmue and how people responded to these long periods of doing nothing and have come up with the simple yet effective solution of giving people an option to skip time.

The skip time feature works in certain situations where you will have to meet someone or be at a place at a certain time yet you arrive early, a choice presents itself on screen, wait or quit, waiting will make the entire day pass in a few seconds while selecting quit mans that you pass time normally. You would do best to select wait in these situations but there are those occasions where the temptation to run down to the arcade and blow all your money on Outrun or Space Harrier just takes over.

Like I mentioned before Shenmue II plays a lot like the original with a few key improvements, you still have to find information and gather clues from people you meet, this time round when you ask someone who's familiar with an area for directions there's a good chance that they will actually take you exactly where you want to go. However ask a tourist or someone unfamiliar with the area and they will respond by telling you to ask someone else.

Now avenging your father is a risky business, there are points in the story where you will have no choice but to come up against dangerous characters who have the sole intention of beating Ryo up. Lucky for us Ryo has trained in martial arts all his life and is proficient enough to hold his own in a fight against most of these opponents.

Note I said "most" opponents, Lan Di, the man that Ryo is determined to find is a merciless and deadly martial arts master much more powerful and experienced than he who possesses the power to kill with a single strike.

This means plenty of martial arts practice for our young hero, while Shenmue I was primarily focused on finding Lan Di, Shenmue II follows your progression and growth as a martial artist. On your journey you will come across Tai Chi and Kung Fu masters that will teach you moves that will improve you in free battle and thus aid you on your quest. As part of his training there is a time when Ryo must not only master martial arts technique, he must learn something called Wude. Wude is the name given to the principals that all true martial artists should live by before they can be considered a master, these will help Ryo to regain some of the balance he has lost in seeking revenge.

Free Battle is where Shenmue really shows its Virtua Fighter origins, it works like this, say for instance someone starts a fight with Ryo, the game can shift genres into that of a top notch beat 'em up with an energy bar and a whole bunch of moves at your disposal. Deal with the bad guys effectively and you can progress lose and it could be the last mistake you ever make. This is why there is so much emphasis on practicing your moves. There are too many methods of practice to list here but if you are really interested look for a free battle guide available at shenmue-net the address is

www25.brinkster.com/shenmuenet/freebattle.htm

The second method of experiencing events in Shenmue is called a Quick Timer Event (QTE for short). A good example of this is that at one point in the game you are being chased through a building by a bunch of thugs, there's not enough time to take them all out all of a sudden a button combination flashes up on screen press the corresponding buttons on your control pad and Ryo will tornado kick a wall support causing the ceiling to collapse thus keeping the bad guys trapped long enough for you to make a getaway, also like free battle some of the QTE's have fatal consequences if preformed incorrectly.

The QTE concept may sound simple but it's a really effective way of bringing you closer to the action while keeping an action movie like pace. Don't worry the QTE's start of easy and get progressively harder as the difficulty level of the challenges increase.

There are many points in Shenmue II where you will require money to progress so working becomes an essential part of the game. Unlike in Shenmue I where you got a job shifting crates in a forklift wither you wanted to or not Shenmue II gives you the option of multiple jobs you can carry creates, work at a pachinko stall, gamble, arm wrestle, or my personal favourite take part in some illegal street fights.

Graphically Shenmue II Xbox version beats the Dreamcast version hands down, new effects that have been added include mip-mapping, texture filtering, and anti-aliasing for the non technical of you this means that the game looks a lot more crisp, the edges aren't as rough that the horrible fuzziness found in the Dreamcast has gone. Other points are that are relevant are that some of the main characters have had proper curves added to give them a more realistic look and the whole thing runs at a smooth 60 frames per second.

My only gripe being that the fade in that allowed characters to just appear is still present although not nearly as evident as it was is the original. Overall the graphics are good for what was originally a Dreamcast game and it is certainly not just a straight port (unlike games like Deadly Skies) and even if it was the incredible work that goes into the Shenmue series means that it basically still looks as good as most other Xbox games at this time, but I will be expecting Shenmue III to look improve on this by a vast amount.

My only major criticism of Shenmue II is the English voices acting, although most of the main characters suit their voices (even though Ryo does sound like a robot at times) many of the less important characters such as passers by and shopkeepers are very poor and completely laughable (low budget I imagine) this only bothers you for a couple of hours, by then you've either adjusted to it or stuck subtitles on and muted the sound.

Graphics
Better than the original and an improvement on the dreamcast version this is the way porting a game should be done, seeing the neon Hong Kong environments spanning into the distance and watching beautifully animated characters interact with each other so realistically is truly breathtaking at times only held back by the fade in.
8.0 / 10

Sound
The music in shenmue II is one area that it does not outshine the original, it seems as though less effort has been made creating the background music and the recycled music from the first game doesn't sound right in the new environments. The redeeming thing being that each location has an individual easily recognisable tune, although not as good as the originals still better than most game music out there.
9.0 / 10

Gameplay
An amazing experience from start to finish that rewards the time you invest in it with incredible fights and dramatic scenes that you will want to see over and over again. The characters and the environments are incredible and the many mini games aren't bad either.
10 / 10

Replay Value
Takes about 30-50 hours to complete doing the bare essentials when you reach the end you will feel like you have achieved something great then you'll want to do it all over again making sure to take part in as many of the secret events as possible. The snapshot feature prizes mans that you'll be busy trying to find some obscure characters for sometime, I found a great amount of replay in the shenmue collection.
9.0 / 10

Overall
If you're a fan of the original you'll love this as it improves on everything except the music go to the shop and buy this now… I mean now… stop reading go, if you didn't like the original this is different enough to merit renting it or at the very least borrowing it from a friend.

-Christopher-

Current Shenmue-Net Webmaster

[email protected]
Last edited by Bambi on Mon Oct 05, 2009 6:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Breakthecycle627 » Thu May 01, 2003 3:48 pm

Woah! You put a lot of time into that man...all i gotta ad is that I loved both games I think the same, maybe Shenmue 2 a little better.
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Postby Fox » Thu May 01, 2003 4:25 pm

I also love both games but I think Shenmue I is a bit better cuz it took me longer to beat. Shenmue II only a week and I at least a month....
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Postby Adam » Thu May 01, 2003 6:03 pm

Shenmue. One of the best game series of all time in my opinion and it doesn’t get any better than this, Shenmue 2 on the XBox. While I think this game is brilliant, others don't. It's a real shame too because those that do enjoy these games usually find them better than most other titles available. This game is art. If you like eastern culture, you will love this game. If you like martial arts, you will love this game. If you like realism, you will love this game. In Shenmue 2 you play the role of Ryo Hazuki, an ordinary 18-year-old guy from Japan on a quest to avenge his fathers murder. This can take (and already has taken) Ryo to many different locations in Asia including Japan and China.

GAMEPLAY 10/10:

This is where people get divided, you may think it’s boring, you may love it but I’ll tell you what you can do in this game. First of all you can walk and run around the place as much as you want, and you definitely will want to explore in this game, the areas are massive you could get lost in them. Exploring is pretty simple, but the controls need getting used to. You cannot rotate on the spot unless you go into first person view which can be a pain because turning around makes Ryo walk forward a tiny bit, this can end in getting stuck or just not being in the position you want to be in. But saying that once you have gotten used to the controls this really isn’t a problem and you’ll be glad sometimes that you can walk realistically around the environments because they’re so lovely to look at. You can even look while your running if you have nimble fingers. When you are walking about you’ll find places crowded with people, all of which talk and say more than 1 line each time you talk to them. You can talk to people about multiple things too, like where you can find part time work, where certain locations are, where to gamble etc, some people even offer to walk you to places if you ask them to which is a very good feature for those who get lost on huge environments easily

Now exploring isn’t just the only thing you can do, Ryo gets into many fights on his journey and when he does the game switches near enough instantly into a modified version of the Virtua Fighter engine, which is a very good thing. You can do a plethora of kicks, Punches, throws and combos and it’s all so fluid and awesome. This has one the best fighting engine in any game, seriously I’d say it was better than most fighting games out these days. One of the best things about fighting in this game is the way they build up battles before you even get into them. Ryo can purchase, collect or be rewarded with move scrolls for genuine martial art techniques and apply them in a smart menu where you can see your move levels and there button combination. The configuration of Ryo’s moves is completely up to you as well, if for instance you don’t like the move that is assigned to forward, forward + X you can just click on it and bring up a list of other moves to replace it. This leads people to fight the way they want to fight, you could have moves that are slow but powerful, fast but slightly weaker or a mixture of the two, it all depends on your playing style.

Along with exploring and fighting there are some cut scenes that require you to press a button or combination of buttons when the on screen prompt tells you to, these are called QTE’s short for Quick Time Events. For example some guy throws a melon (yes a melon) at Ryo’s head during a brawl and the X button will flash on screen, if you press the button in time Ryo will smash the melon with his fist, but if you fail the melon will smash upon Ryo’s head forcing him out of action and you will have to start the cut scene again. These cut scenes get much more complex the further you get into the game and you’ll love pulling off these awesome button combinations and watching the major cool scenes unfold. Some people wont like the fact that if they fail toward the end of the QTE they will be forced back to the beginning though, just practice and learn the commands over time and you’ll over come them no problem.

Other things you can do in Shenmue 2 are:

*Work for money by running lucky hit stands

*Gamble money on various games from roll-it-on-top to Big or Small

*Play real arcade games from that time period including Hang On, After Burner, Space Harrier and Outrun

*Participate in street fights to earn extra funds for Ryo’s journey

*Take snapshots with the camera mode and store images of anything you want on the XBox hard drive for later viewing. Even change the filter on the image to black and white, old brown style etc.

*Collect toys from toy capsule machines for the ultimate set, including mini Sonic the hedgehogs or authentic 3d model toys of Virtua Fighter characters. You can simply pick some up and go sell them at the porn brokers if you’re low on cash too if your not interested.


STORY 9/10:

The game is set in the 1980’s in Eastern Asia and you are Ryo Hazuki. In the original Shenmue players saw Ryo’s father murdered by a man named Lan Di and the game bought Ryo to Hong Kong seeking out revenge on this man who vanished since that one rainy day. On the way Ryo meets many people, both friends and enemies. Many play an important role in the game, helping Ryo to face this journey he has undertaken while others are only in the game for a short period and are only there to serve as a sort of filler, either way though they are all very memorable and the character building is very well done. While it might seem pretty ordinary, with one man avenging his fathers death and all that but it actually gets pretty deep, this is only portion of the story as there are other chapters before and after this game that have yet to take place. At the end of this game there will still be questions you want answered and parts of the game you want to see but can’t as they will take place in future games, but don’t get me wrong, the ending is still as explosive as any other game

GRAPHICS 8/10:

This is a double-sided coin really, the graphics by themselves are superb, it all runs smooth and there are no obvious glitches considering the amount of things on screen at any one time, but then because this game is a port, it doesn’t take full advantage of what the XBox can do which is a pity. The characters in the game are quite detailed and there is no 2 people the same, it’s quite an achievement really because there are over 1000 characters in this game so it must of taken along time to model them. Buildings look great, the lighting is great too and it all changes realistically when it gets dark, the lights come on, the moon comes up etc it really is beautiful. The game is really impressive graphically when in the later parts of the game because Ryo travels to a rather exotic location, which I wont spoil for you :)

SOUND 9/10:

Ok there are 2 parts to this, the music and the voice acting. The voice acting is very similar to that of the first game, which isn’t exactly brilliant, but it isn’t poor either. It’s a bit of a mix really because sometimes the characters can get very emotional and in the tense storyline you wont even notice any bad acting, its only when the game gets into a slow pace like when your walking around asking people for directions, you can really pick up some lines that don’t fit in very well and that come across as fake. I’m not to bothered though as I’d rather have the people speak than have me read all their text anyway. Oh and the XBox version has English voiceovers too, as opposed to the European Dreamcast version which had Japanese voiceovers.

The music on the other hand is awesome stuff, the best music in a video game ever I think. It fits the locations perfectly picking up on that eastern culture too. There are a wide variety of tunes too, from vocaled rock to rap and fiddles! Very good it is, very good.

PLAY TIME/REPLAYABILITY 9/10:

This game is a long one for sure, but it won’t seem so long as time flies by when you’re having so much fun. The game will take about 40 hours to complete on average but you can easily put in over 80 hours if you milk the game for everything its worth, it takes ages to do everything in this game if you want to make the ultimate save file. Once you complete the game you unlock things to do in the collection menu and you can fight some of the bosses over again and again getting harder each time. You can also play any of the arcade games you have found too in the collections menu, which gives you something to do after you have finished the game

FINAL COMMENTS:
One of my favourite games of all time, now on XBox and improved, it’s a must buy. Although some people might not like it, they are usually the kind of people that play GTA and other similar games and when they start on Shenmue it’s all to slow for them to take in. If you just sit back and take your time with this game I guarantee you that you’ll come off it a happy person. Off you go to the shops!…Why are you still here? Final Score 10/10!
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Postby Gutcruncher » Thu May 01, 2003 6:09 pm

http://www.gamebunker.com/reviews2.php?id=69

thats my review. Just thought it would be better to have a link instead of making some huge post
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Postby James Brown » Thu May 01, 2003 7:00 pm

Damn, what huge reviews!

I'll just say that both games rule - that's my review :P
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Postby IwaoHazuki » Fri May 02, 2003 11:44 am

Good topic and review, master baihu. I'll make this topic a sticky.
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Postby James Brown » Fri May 02, 2003 3:35 pm

IwaoHazuki wrote:Good topic and review, master baihu. I'll make this topic a sticky.


Uw! Can you make my Awards topic a tempory sticky aswell Iwao (till it ends of course :D )?
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Postby santino » Fri May 02, 2003 8:42 pm

Breakthecycle627 wrote:Woah! You put a lot of time into that man...all i gotta ad is that I loved both games I think the same, maybe Shenmue 2 a little better.


:shock: duuuuudeeeee strong bad avatar, i have a friend!!!!!!!!!!!
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Postby ChaiOgawa » Sat May 03, 2003 6:33 am

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics werent all that bad because we were use to those type of shenmue graphics from the 2 that were on the dreamcast, now they were pretty much exactly the same graphics except for the water being ravmped and a little bit of smoothing out they were the same, i think they really didnt take the power of the Xbox to its advantage now i know it was already out and everything so they wanted to get it out quick but i think a little more time to ravamp the graphics would have been nice, but they did do other things ala, fix little glitches when around so many people, and the shadow affects they really worked on too tomake it look better, and the sun effects too (Dawn, night, and mourning) were too pretty well done but not using the Xbox to its advantage really hurt them

Sound: 9/10
The talkative people of the shenmue world and the music that backs them all up is what goes here, i think really the sound wasnt that bad i mean everybody, well not everyone but alot complained about the voice acting, now i know it wasnt great by any stretch of the imagination but it wasnt horrible, i didnt even really notice the voice acting that much really cause i just wanted to finish the game, i will say though that shenhua was the worse because you were with her so long and it just got annoying, but the background music for shenmue goes along with everything your doing fighting the music changes and goes along with the fighting, the music for all the cities seems to fit in well, this was one of the good parts of shenmue 1 as well was the music.

Gameplay: 9/10
The greatest game ever everyone in here says because of good reason. The gameplay is awesome maybe the best part of this game its has the right mix of everything, you have enough action to make you want to keep playing the game, the adventure aspect of the game is great too because it gets your imagination working on what may happen next and keeps you in the game then they also have the role playing aspect of the game which isnt really that present but it is there im not that big of a role playing fan myself but it still helps make this game alot better. Things that helped out the gameplay were all the extras in the game, like the gambling the new games the new jobs (crate lifting, lucky hit) you could even finally sell things to get money too, new games in the arcade made it better Outrun was fun to play alot, and then of course Afterburner 2 was there also, the only thing that made this game not get a 10 on this point of the game was it at somepoints being a little boring not moving along quick enough but i think that is still a good idea to bring to a game.

Story: 10/10
Now this is the part that absolutley beat the gameplay to make this the great game that it is, now i know thier is so many things related to my father was killed and imust seek revenge. This game does it right, the characters you meet through out the game that help you along, things like QTE`s bring the stroy along too because it allows you to do certain things, like if you press the right buttons youll jmp from the building to the next building top away from dou niu if you dont you have to keep trying it. There are no random parts of the game that should be there and every character in the game has a part to help you along in your epic story, like the people walking down on the street can help you to where you need to go and all the important characters we know what they did. The thing of chasing after lan di and he always gets away might get just a bit annoying but not really because you still want to play the game. Although wanting ot kick his ass really bad i know, but the story is still great.

Playtime: 9/10 (about 5 or 6 days first time for me) Replayabillity: 8/10
Playtime is fine umm it will take you about the same time maybe a little bit more to complete this game then shenmue 1 or any other game. But the replayabillity i didnt find to well because for xbox ive only played the game through once and i keep going back to shenmue 1, i dont really find myself wanting to play shenmue 2 as much as shenmue 1, but i will eventually obviously.
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Postby Bambi » Sat May 03, 2003 10:58 am

IwaoHazuki wrote:Good topic and review, master baihu. I'll make this topic a sticky.


Cheers my names Chris just so you all know :D
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Postby IwaoHazuki » Sat May 03, 2003 3:16 pm

James Brown wrote:Uw! Can you make my Awards topic a tempory sticky aswell Iwao (till it ends of course :D )?


It has been granted!
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Postby James Brown » Sat May 03, 2003 5:33 pm

IwaoHazuki wrote:
James Brown wrote:Uw! Can you make my Awards topic a tempory sticky aswell Iwao (till it ends of course :D )?


It has been granted!


Hey hey!

You the man Iwao!

Thanks alot, that rules!

Don't want it to stick for forever though ;)
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Postby benjones1blj » Sun May 04, 2003 11:50 am

Shenmue II was the Dreamcast's last must have and one of X-Box's Best Games.

Gameplay:
The controls are nearly the same as in the first Shenmue, I say nearly as some of the commands of A in Shenmue are set to X in Shenmue II. Also now you can set whether or not you control Ryo with the Analog control stick or D-Pad I personally prefer the D-Pad, but newcomers might prefer the analog stick. The game is quite fun to play, but if your a newcomer you might find Ryo hard to control at first. Like Shenmue the game is still split into 3 different types of gameplay, FREE Quest, FREE Battle and QTE (Quick Timer Event). Nothing has changed in the FREE battle, there has been a few control changes in FREE Quest, but there is a new type of QTE which is called command QTE, in which you have to press a set of buttons in a specific order within the time limit. The 'Time Control' is also back in the sequel, everything in this scene in the game follows the clock, although it is not as well implemented in this game as most shops seem to be open all the time. The arcade games have also made a return, Hang-on and Space Harrier are back and Outrun and Afterburner have been added. New mini game also include gambling games like 'Lucky Hit' where Ryo drops a ball into a board and that ball has to drop into the slot marked by a circle.

Story:
The story in Shenmue II is a continuation of the story from Shenmue. The central character, Ryo Hazuki, has just arrived in Hong Kong. He is on the trail of his father's killer. If I were to tell you more then I would spoil the game. If you want to know more then you will have to play the game yourself.

Graphics:
The graphics in Shenmue II push the Sega Dreamcast to its limits, you get this feeling of being in this buzzling metropolis. While there is no pop-up in the game, it suffers from terrible slowdown when there is more than 4 people on the screen, also people can just fade into vision out of nowhere. But the graphics are still ace and as time follows on, you can tell its getting dark, take around sunset the environments go orange with the glow of the sun and you can actually see the orange part of the sky slowly get smaller and smaller as time progress, but the after this the environments don't seem dark enough when the sky is clearly dark. Also gone are the flat 2D skies from Shenmue, these are replaced by 3D moving skies, also AM2 have added in sun-flair. The environments in this game are about the same size as the harbor in Shenmue but there are more of them and it is so easy to get lost in them, you can now enter most shops in the game without the Dreamcast requiring to load them. There is also a distinct differences in buildings depending on what area you are in, For example, if you are in the docks, the warehouses look dirty and old, but say you are in the 'Rich' area of town, the buildings look well kept and there are neon signs above the shops. Also the characters who play no real part of the story all look different, and same amount of detail is spent on them as it is on Ryo and other main characters in the story.

Sound:
The sound effects are amazing, they are different depending on the type of area you are in, for example, if you are in the shopping district you can hear the market owners calling out to customers and the sound of general hustle and bustle, but if you are in the rural areas you can hear the birds singing and the dogs barking. The background music has a distinct Chinese feel to it, and unlike Shenmue were you had a different background music (BGM) depending on what part of the story you were playing, Shenmue II has a different BGM for each area, and the BGM changes at night. Some of the music from Shenmue is here such as the theme and QTE music. This brings me onto the language of the game, the games dubbing is in Japanese with English subtitles. This works better than the robotic English voice acting from Shenmue as it adds to the realism of the game and it sound more fluent.

Longevity:
On your first play Shenmue II will last anything between 1-2 weeks, but there are many hidden details in Shenmue II so you might want to play again also Arcade games that you encounter will be stored on the VMU as an options file and you can play them in a section called 'The Shenmue Collection'.

Overall Verdict:
Shenmue II is a definite must for people who have played Shenmue. Also it is a good RPG for players who have not played Shenmue as there is a 14-minute Movie going through the events of Shenmue.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Verdict: A Grade Total: 39/40
Graphics: 10/10 | Gameplay: 10/10 | Sound: 9/10 | Lastability: 10/10
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Postby kenshiro » Thu May 08, 2003 1:03 am

I posted this in the old forum:

Kenshiro's Shenmue 2x review

This was one of those games I was really looking forward to this year. It was also one of those promising games that made me get and Xbox, but unfortunately, Sega and MS has disappointed me.

Graphics:

I feel that a lot of the "professional" reviews out there grading this game forget one very important thing (especially that fool Hilary Goldstein in IGN): this game is a year old Dreamcast port. You simply can't expect a dramatic night and day difference within that relatively short period of time for a game as grand as Shenmue 2. With those things being said, the game does look significantly better than it's DC counterpart. The things that are most noticeable are the lighting and dust/smoke effects as well as the fact that there are no more slowdowns. The water in some areas look more real, but it's the lighting that really adds to the environment. Skin tones do look somewhat glowing, but the overall lighting makes the game feel more cinematic. Especially at night, you really feel the haze of all the nightlights. The changes are definitely noticeable, much more than any of the Xbox ports I have seen to date, like Onimusha. A gimicky feature is the black button toggling between different filters. Grade= B

Sound:

The game has always had awesome music and sound effects. The music is epic and better than many movie soundtracks I have heard. This is enhanced by the fact that some of it is played by the Kanegawa Philharmonic Orchestra and further enhanced though Dolby Digital 5.1. Unfortunately, the one and only single thing that really kills it and scars the game is the extremely bad dubs. The voice acting is really that bad. For godsake, I have no Idea why Sega and MS decided not to include the original Japanese voices since the work was already done for the DC version. It was a really, really dumb decision. The demand for the Japanese voices was there too. The MS Rep at E3 said a lot of people inquired if Shenmue 2x was going to include them. Grade= C

Gameplay:

What can I say? If you liked Shenmue 1, you will love Shenmue 2. But for those who haven't played either game, it takes Shenmue and improves and extends the gameplay. The story isn't particularily unique, but the way it unravels and unfolds as well as the world of Shenmue sucks you in and immerses you in the adventure. Yet another gimicky thing they include is the camera feature which allows you to take snap shots. They also added all the minigames and fights that can be accessed after play through the game. Grade= A+

Overall Grade and Closing Comments

This game is awesome, with only one really bad thing scarring it: The lame voices and the exclusion of the original Japanese voices. It was a poor decision on Sega and Microsoft's decision not to include them. The camera and filter effects were gimicky and unnecessary IMO and the time could have been better used to include the Japanese voices instead. The game is still worth buying though and the inclusion of Shenmue the Movie increases the value and is somewhat a consolation prize. Let's hope they include the Japanese voices for Shenmue 3. Final Grade= B
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kenshiro
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Joined: May 2003

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