Shenmue Dojo

Anthony817 wrote: Hey folks, it has been noticed that in the new HD version of the games Shenhua and Nozomi aren't blinking in parts that they should be in the original game.

Here are the parts comparing the intro with Shenhua on the original and HD port as well as comparison shots from the new E3 promo video with those of the original versions.

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Now this is obviously very work in progress alpha footage, and the games aren't finished being worked on so this is all subject to change but just thought a good idea to post over here letting everybody know about it.

The Shenhua footage is out of sync and not an accurate comparison.

No idea about Nozomi though.

Wait and see for Shenmue I cutscenes ratio, but if I had to choose, I would rather have cropped 16:9 than a constant switch between 16:9 gameplay and 4:3 cutscenes.

That said, cropping isn't an ideal solution with a game like Shenmue with such attention to detail in every object or scenery (imo).

Me personally I'd rather get it uncropped 4:3 with the original shot framing intent, compared to having stuff just cut out. But really this is the last of my worries. Gameplay at 16:9 already pretty much satisfies all my needs.

Having it optional (original 4:3 and cropped 16:9) would be nice.

^ Yeah, if there were no way around the whole issue, then I would also much rather have the option to choose.

D3T were pretty good for options with the Mega Drive Collection hub. If there's already going to be the option to chose control schemes and dual VO, may as well throw in aspect ratio choices too - for cutscenes and gameplay for anybody who wants a purist experience or to mix n' match.

I dunno if they'll do it, but I'd also like to see a true 16:9 mode as an option, animation/pop-in/geometry issues and all. They might be able to swing it if they add a disclaimer about "these games were designed with 4:3 televisions in mind, and cutscenes displaying in 16:9 may have errors, etc etc", but again; there's stuff you can get away with in a fan hack that you can't with a retail product.

I was convinced from the early screenshots that they're definitely going to provide an aspect ratio option, because they basically showed 4 different combinations early on. (4x3 everywhere, 16x9 with 4x3 cutscene pillarboxing in Shenmue 1, 16x9 everywhere in Shenmue 2, 4x3 with 16x9 letter boxing in Shenmue 2) What we got in the trailer was basically a 5th combination, 4x3 with cutscenes zoomed to 16x9. Either they've been extremely sloppy and can't make consistent choices when releasing media materials (unlikely) or there will be options.

I don't think there's any reason to doubt the lack of options, just to question what those options will be. I do wonder if the early feedback after the announcement caused them to re-evaluate any of their original plans and offer more options than they had intended. That would be really nice to hear. Also Peter doesn't seem to sleep anymore because he's almost always browsing the forum but also doesn't seem to post either, probably from lack of sleep.

It doesn't bother me if d3t leaves the cutscenes in 4:3 since the PC community will take care of that anyway.

Kiske wrote: The footage is as good as it is short.

I'm loving it despite the Youtube compression.

Most of all, I feel reassured about the screen ratio. 16:9 seems to be secured for both Shenmue I & II.

These screens make me very happy and give me a bit of confidence in this package, which I've not been jumping up and down about before now (very happy to see Shenmue re-released but worried about the amount of uplift going in when being retail released and being priced around other completly remade packages of multiple games).

Hopefully there's a steady stream of updates like this