Do people buy sequels to games they never played ?

[Les]

Delays, no comments, "not yets", it is all very frustraighting [spelling?] for most of us I'm sure.

One of the factors I've been thinking about as to why Sega won't commit to Shenmue 3 is not knowing what they plan to do to get better sales then the first 2 games. I'm not reffering to better advertising, I'm reffering to the fact that Shenmue 3 is a multi part game that at least in the U.S. was on 2 different consoles for the first 2 games.

If sega releases Shenmue 3 as a stand alone game on a next generation machine that would mean 3 different sequels on 3 different machines ????? How could they possibly hope to attract knew people to the game that way, with a make up movie disk ? Or would it be better to release all 3 games together as a set for new players as well as individually for people who've already played the first 2 games.

What ever Sega decides to do about the game, I don't think advertising alone will get people to buy the third game in a series they know nothing about. I know this is just my opionion but if Sega decides to make the game, this might be a deciding factor in how the game is released. One reason why the infamous fan letter was so well recieved before we found out about the translation error was because it made so much sense to rerelease 1 & 2 with 3 in a box set in order to attract new gamers to Shenmue, I think this still makes sense today.

Les

[rome]

Well i sure dont, but ive rented, and have beaten Max Payne 2, without really getting too far on Max Payne the original, i like to buy the original game first, so i know whats going on.

Like ive beaten MGS, without playing some of the other one, but i didnt buy them, i borrowed from a friend, lol.

[Peter]

I dont think ive ever played a sequel of a storyline based game. I guess poor sales figures of Shenmue kinda doomed it from the off?

[Miles Prower]

Years ago, I got Sonic 2 before playing the first one ;P
And I also played Jet Set Radio Future before getting the Dreamcast original.

[Silas]

Well, to give Les his due, Shenmue isn't really the same thing as Sonic, Jet Set Radio or almost any other game series you care to name. I bought Silent Hill 2 before playing Silent Hill, and it turned out that there was no connection. Because of that I then bought Silent Hill 3 which actually returned to the original plotline of the first one so I didn't really understand everything that went on, but I'd already bought it by then.

But to counteract a couple of Les's misapprehensions. Although he is convinced that Shenmue III is going to be on the next generation of consoles, I seriously don't believe that matters. I think it is almost certain that it will be the XBox 2 that the game comes out on, rather than any of the other consoles, and in that case people who want to know the rest of the series first may well buy and play Shenmue II which a) includes a DVD of Shenmue: The Movie to catch up on the events of the first game, and b) will be playable on the XBox 2.

How do I know this? Simple - first of all I've now played the original Silent Hill (Playstation) game, on my PS2. Secondly the XBox and the XBox 2 are made by Microsoft, who for all their sins, do know more than anybody else on the planet about backwards compatibility. When the XBox 2 comes out it will play XBox games, you can be damn sure about that.

Of course, to help sales of Shenmue III I think a sensible idea would be to re-release Shenmue II, repackaged possibly as a "Classic" or whatever the hell they call those things.

[Silas]

I would also like to add something else about Shenmue III as a new game to people, and that is, however vast and wide-ranging and full of interesting people and things to do that the first two Shenmue games have been, there really hasn't been that much plot! At the start of Shenmue III what we need to know boils down to: Lan Di, leader of a mysterious gang called the Chi You Men murdered Ryo's father and took the Dragon mirror; Ryo finds the hidden Phoenix mirror and follows Lan Di to Hong Kong in order to gain revenge for his father's death; Ryo meets Tao Lishao, a master of martial arts also known as Xiuying, who lost a brother to the evil path and the Chi You Men; it seems that when the two mirrors come together, they will reveal a treasure, or alternatively cause the end of the world; Ryo travels to Guilin to find the source of the stone that the mirrors are made from, and meets the girl he has been dreaming about - a predestined event, it seems; Ryo and Shenhua discover the giant replicas of the Phoenix and Dragon mirrors in the Phantom River Stone cave.

I suppose there would need to be scenes showing the importance, too, of Guizhang and Ren, since they are both going to appear in Shenmue III (or at the very least before the end of the saga).

[mikec_ct]

Good points Silas. Again, maybe something as simple as a digest movie (if done well and if it can keep the attention of whoever may buy the game) would be enough...

[Daemos]

I would also like to add something else about Shenmue III as a new game to people, and that is, however vast and wide-ranging and full of interesting people and things to do that the first two Shenmue games have been, there really hasn't been that much plot.

Let's not forget though, S1 was basically an intro, S2 being the first real portion of the story we got to play.

Looking at things this way, it seems like 16 chapters is excessive and that the story could very well be condensed to two more games in full without a loss. Sure I'd love to see Shenmue 7 (would I, really?), but that would be unnecessary - not to mention it'd cost Sega a whole lot more.

[Matiis]

I buy sequels to games I've never played. I played Shenmue 2 without playing the first one.

[JVery]

How do I know this? Simple - first of all I've now played the original Silent Hill (Playstation) game, on my PS2. Secondly the XBox and the XBox 2 are made by Microsoft, who for all their sins, do know more than anybody else on the planet about backwards compatibility. When the XBox 2 comes out it will play XBox games, you can be damn sure about that.

Backwards compatibility is not something that you get by changing all the architecture. XBox as a Intel CPU (x86 family) and a nVidia graphic card and XBox2 is as 3 IBM CPUs (which are not from x86 family) and a ATI graphic card. So this is a big change on how the system is build and method of running.

They could make a very powerful software like some virtual machine or emulator but still it would be unstable because of the architecture diferences or slow like any other virtual machine (as Java is).

I guess this is what you get from a company who does not build a console by itself.

[Crimson Ryan]

i got shenmue 2 without knowing about the first at all..just watched the movie ;)

[Araviel]

I dunno...think it depends... strangely enough I didn't finish SI before starting SII ( a friend borrowed SI and borrowed me SII, don't remember why...), but it was SI that caught my interest... however, if they re-name it a bit, don't call it Shenmue III or add a subtitle for it and bring a long a video with a short summary of the two games it shouldn't be a problem really.

[Cpt. Ultimate K Prime]

Yes, people buy sequels to games they've never played.
How else would Street Fighter II have been such a hit?

[Gattsu]

Just leave the "III" out of the title and give it a subtitle.

"Shenmue: The Confontration" something like that, (if he does finally fight Lan Di in S3)

It worked for Prince Of Persia Sands of Time!

[Axm]

if they didnt put a 3 on the title id be pissed.