Shenmue Dojo

I can see hints of magic occurring here and there but can't see it being common in the every day world (fireballs and such). Maybe the magical elements will be saved for absolutely huge moments in the series, like 2 or 3 "holy shit" set-piece moments.

I was always thinking that the more mystical/mythical foreboding would be a little more figurative than literal. I remember one of the theories I had was Chiyou wasn't a manifestation of a demon, but was a human who was a great warrior with his own deadly style of fighting. His legend grew as his story spread ("He's no ordinary man, he's a demon!") and his martial arts style is long lost and is actually the "treasure to revive the Qing dynasty". I remember making a tl;dr topic a while ago, maybe I can dig it up, haha.

EDIT: Found it - the topic doesn't need to be bumped or anything, just if anyone's curious. I'm sure I said stupid things looking back on it. viewtopic.php?f=4&t=39889

What strength does Lan Di wants from ShenHua? Magical strength perhaps?

ShenRy092 wrote: What strength does Lan Di wants from ShenHua? Magical strength perhaps?

I totally forgot about Lan Di wanting something from Shenhua. Umm... maybe it's not "power" literally, it's about an inherit ability, premonitions, knowledge or something like that. But yeah, could be magic too.

I think the Project Berkeley trailer and parts of the Shenmue Online trailer are giving us a pretty good taste of the kind and amount of magic we are going to witness in the next two Shenmue games..

And you shouldn't worry about that. If you love Shenmue, you've got to accept it the way it is (:p) and the way it was always meant and planned to be. What's the use of demanding changes to be made to its original vision? Just wait and see and enjoy. Don't nag.

From that scene I think we can assume that shenhua hasn't fully learnt to untap her full potential as it seems lan di takes her. She probably doesn't resist by doing a 'hadouken' on him. So this leads me to believe that the story of shenmue will be about both ryo and shenhua maturing physically and spiritually together.

This felt very magically when first watched it.

KeiyaE315 wrote: I think the Project Berkeley trailer and parts of the Shenmue Online trailer are giving us a pretty good taste of the kind and amount of magic we are going to witness in the next two Shenmue games..

And you shouldn't worry about that. If you love Shenmue, you've got to accept it the way it is (:p) and the way it was always meant and planned to be. What's the use of demanding changes to be made to its original vision? Just wait and see and enjoy. Don't nag.

Yes, i know, and i will support Shenmue for sure, haha. But, if Yu Suzuki isn't talking too much about the story, not in 14 years... If the story remains the same as Project Berkley (I can't take Shenmue Online, that would imply that people from cyberspace would help figthing Lan Di)... then the video is somewhat a big spoiler, and will be no surprise factor. That's why i said that maybe the story has changed a littled since Berkley, and then it became Shenmue. But it's just a thought.

at the end of the shenmue story, i really want ryo to be sent to back in time somehow. how cool would it be if ryo got a second chance to to save his father in an epic fight with lan di.

Regarding the shenmue tree video. You have to bear in mind that they are village people in rural China and they will have their own beliefs so when they say the shenmue tree will guard over her it isn't actually fantastical or magical as many people in the world hold such beliefs ie the spirits attached to certain natural elements can act as protectors. In certain mainstream religions/cultures of the world there is a belief that even inanimate objects have a type of life essence attached to them. And there are narrations of saints etc speaking with the trees and stones etc.

So whereas this kind of stuff may seem fantastical to some people it is actually a belief for others but we mustn't be close minded. Remember shenmue was a game about showing the world a particular culture. The fact that millions of people around the world believe in something means that it is a part of our reality. So I'd say shenmue won't become a final fantasy type game but any supernatural elements will be grounded in concepts that exist in the real world which real people (somewhere around the world) actually believe in.

Otacon_ahs wrote:

KeiyaE315 wrote: I think the Project Berkeley trailer and parts of the Shenmue Online trailer are giving us a pretty good taste of the kind and amount of magic we are going to witness in the next two Shenmue games..

And you shouldn't worry about that. If you love Shenmue, you've got to accept it the way it is (:p) and the way it was always meant and planned to be. What's the use of demanding changes to be made to its original vision? Just wait and see and enjoy. Don't nag.

Yes, i know, and i will support Shenmue for sure, haha. But, if Yu Suzuki isn't talking too much about the story, not in 14 years... If the story remains the same as Project Berkley (I can't take Shenmue Online, that would imply that people from cyberspace would help figthing Lan Di)... then the video is somewhat a big spoiler, and will be no surprise factor. That's why i said that maybe the story has changed a littled since Berkley, and then it became Shenmue. But it's just a thought.

Yeah, I could imagine some changes from Project Berkeley. And yeah, the part with cyberspace people stepping in to help Ryo and Joy out surely wasn't part of Shenmue's original vision and isn't part of its story. That part is meant to say "Imagine you and all your friends could enter the world/story of Shenmue and help Ryo on his quest, blah blah." The other stuff, phoenix and dragon and so on might have been a huge spoiler I fear, but we'll see.. They probably felt they had to show all of that stuff to get people interested in Shenmue Online. That's Shenmue's troubled history of development hell for you. In the end we still can't know for sure and can keep looking forward to how it's really going to turn out!

It was always going to be there, like someone already posted, see Project Berkley. I think the question comes more into will it be part of the actual gameplay or simply the story and QTE's? Personally I think it'll be the latter.

I'm in the camp that saw this from the beginning. I'm also, fortunately, in the camp that loved every last bit of it, flying sword and all.

It seems like gameplay will remain rooted in martial arts, but with Shenhua by Ryo's side, I'm curious as to how it might play out. Project Berkley implies she exert force, but in reality, she's probably never had to do that before. So, it'll be really interesting to see how having a companion like Shenhua affects the gameplay.

People often forget to mention the fortune tellers in the series thus far who always get their predictions right. There's definitely some sort of 'sixth sense' that Shenhua has and other power she has that Lan Di wants. If you think about it, the way in which the martial arts masters show their ability is also "unrealistic" in a way too (Jianmin touching the tree and loads of leaves falling, the likes of Lan Di and Xiuying moving really damn fast that not even one blow from Iwao/Ryo even connects that they have to block, Chai jumping super high into the air and landing off really high heights etc). So it's kind of natural that the way the story would progress would be into such a direction. But I'm not worried that Suzuki will overdo it like most anime or manga stories do it, I think he will still want to keep that essence of reality in there too.

I've always seen the fortune tellers as a gameplay mechanic to help the player go on their path more than an actual hint that magic exists in the world of Shenmue.

Overrally, Shenmue world was more about an anime for children with typical unrealistic and stylized things rather than pure magic... until Shenmue II prologue.