Yu Suzuki's cinematic masterpiece returns with more spellbinding adventure and an even more immersive world. The epic continues as Ryo Hazuki arrives in Hong Kong on his quest to avenge his father's murder by the warlord Lan Di and unravel the mystery of the Phoenix mirror. Set in Hong Kong, Kowloon, and Guilin, you'll travel through breathtaking scenery, rich with mountainous wilderness, traditional Taoist temples, and stunning tropical landscapes. As you move through massive, highly-detailed 3D worlds, you'll interact with almost every facet of your environment as well as a whole new cast of characters. Originally released on Dreamcast in Europe and Japan, this Xbox edition marks the sequel's debut in the US and includes the Shenmue Movie chronicling the first episode in the series.
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Mismos aspectos positivos que Shenmue 1 pero ahora en más y mas grandes ciudades.
Esteticamente me vuela la cabeza este juego, la representacion de la -ahora demolida- Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong y las partes rurales son peak visual.
Estos juegos son una capsula del tiempo que siempre esta bueno revisitar.
Esteticamente me vuela la cabeza este juego, la representacion de la -ahora demolida- Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong y las partes rurales son peak visual.
Estos juegos son una capsula del tiempo que siempre esta bueno revisitar.
It’s cool that Afterburner came packaged with this 20 dollar game
It's Shenmue but bigger in every aspect. Even though it's only a couple hours longer than the first one, the pacing is much slower despite two new cities, more combat, and more action sequences. Ryo's monotonous questioning gets ramped up even further as now he's a foreigner in a new land and this incredibly simple revenge story gets padded out with more menial labor, unnecessary twists, and obstacles to try and pad it out.
The areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon are incredibly unique and fascinating. I think that a Kowloon-based open world game would've been incredible in any other franchise, too. However, this game still suffers a lot of the pitfalls of the first that are exacerbated by the grander scale of it all for me.
The areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon are incredibly unique and fascinating. I think that a Kowloon-based open world game would've been incredible in any other franchise, too. However, this game still suffers a lot of the pitfalls of the first that are exacerbated by the grander scale of it all for me.
Incredibly ambitious but falls flat too many times to count. Ryo has become a complete blank slate with 0 personality. The story is still interesting but is really dragged throughout the game as you do repetitive tasks over and over just to seemingly increase the games runtime. Ren was definitely my favorite character he clearly had the most personality whenever he showed up which to be honest was not that often. I also have to give huge points for introducing my wife Xiuying
I played this game for the first time when I had this terrible Dengue fever. It was very comforting for me, it helped taking my mind off my health condition with its immersive approach, although I hadn't finished it then, but years later. I honestly didn't like moving out of Sakuragaoka, playing in HK is interesting in the beginning because Wan Chai is a big city and all, but I don't know, I prefer the absolute comfyness of Yokosuka. I wish there was Shenmue-like a game totally based on such small contryside towns in Japan, with a complete story and all
Despite having some big criticisms for Shenmue, it interested me enough to see where the series was going.
Reading about its history it seems during the developement somebody correctly stomped all over Yu Suzuki's dreams of an infinite saga since that'd mean second game would be entirely on a boat to Hong Kong. Instead, this game is split into two enviroments and I guess an epilogue which were supposed to be in games 3, 4, and maybe 5?
Shenmue II does a lot to be a better game: there are more mini-games, more ways to earn money, some new mechanics that make collectibles more interesting, and so on. Hell, there are even some quality of life updates that allow you to instantly teleport or skip the wait time! The game also features a lot more battles which is a nice change of pace from, well, kinda nothing.
I'll admit that Shenmue II never feels as cozy as the original, and I never formed the connection with its two cities. The sountrack is also worse with a lot of folksy Asian music as opposed to Shenmue 1's smorgasbord of genres.
That said, you can't fix Shenmue 1's problems without making a whole new series, so there are still some really really noticeable downsides. Ryo, I believe, is still a really shitty protagonist. His quest for revenge is silly and hot-headed, yet he himself is the most boring person alive. I think in this game he is specifically written as a little stupid, too.
Now, I said earlier that the game has plenty of quality of life features that help you not to waste as much time. However, this is still Shenmue, and what it means is that the story, despite being a bit more action-oriented, is still non-existent. The entire game can still be summed up in two sentences at MOST because the structure hasn't changed: someone talks about a lead, Ryo investigates, lead usually turns into a dead end, rinse and repeat. How was this game series planned to run for like a dozen entries?! This isn't a big sprawling multi-sided conflict, it's just a story of some idiot going after a man who's not even in the story 99% of the time!
The story still loves to slow down to a crawl for no reason. Let me give you some examples. Ryo, searching for a local mob boss, runs through the docks fighting some goons. He fights his way to the boss' right arm man, who says that he'll only let them meet for 500 bucks. Ryo... Agrees? I don't even mind the grind, but what kind of characterization is that? There are also points where you literally stare at the cassette player for 10 minutes to listen to dialogue or search for the right door in a maze of doors. And the time wasting is always so flimsy. The doors, for example? That's a timed event where you need to find the right person in 6 minutes. If failed, you're assaulted by 5 men and it's a game over. If you win, you'll soon fight, I believe, SIX men. For a game all about details it just doesn't make sense when you stop and think about your actions or the gameplay things for more than a second.
Thankfully, Shenmue II has a better cast of characters overall, which helps with Ryo's blandness. They aren't really developed well or are that interesting, but they at least have one trait, which is more than I can say for the protagonist. There's still an unfortunate thing of them not really being important to the story, but I've at least enjoyed my time with them.
The star of the show is the man who appears close to the end of part 1, Ren. Probably the best voiced of all the characters, he's a simple thief with a relatively soft heart, yet he's enjoyable to watch and listen to, and I wish I was playing as him. However, not everyone is equal. Towards the end of this game you'll met Shenhua, a lady who you've been seeing since Shenmue 1's attract mode. Her and Ryo share more screentime than anyone. The whole last part of the game goes for multiple hours and it's just them walking and talking intersperced with some really simple action. She is perfect for Ryo because she is JUST AS BLAND as him. I honestly can't understand how a game that came out nearly at the same time as MGS2 has voice acting this disasterous.
I get it, mundaneness can be interesting, but not like this. Listening to people who sound like robots for HOURS isn't fun. I don't think it would be fun even if they sounded good but actors could at least have some chemistry, I guess.
There are parts of Shenmue II I've enjoyed, and those parts are bigger than the ones of Shenmue 1. However, I find the entire design philosophy of those games baffling. I can handle a chill time, but Shenmue seems actively hostile to you. There's no story, and I can't believe this was something that people needed a continuation to. Sure, there's a cliffhanger, I guess, but knowing what I know about Shenmue III it's just more walking and talking and barely getting close to anything ever which it obviously is because that's what this whole series is. If anything, it just makes me think that I might've scored lesser Yakuzas too low in my head, because even the most time wasting and bumbling of those titles still has something.
Reading about its history it seems during the developement somebody correctly stomped all over Yu Suzuki's dreams of an infinite saga since that'd mean second game would be entirely on a boat to Hong Kong. Instead, this game is split into two enviroments and I guess an epilogue which were supposed to be in games 3, 4, and maybe 5?
Shenmue II does a lot to be a better game: there are more mini-games, more ways to earn money, some new mechanics that make collectibles more interesting, and so on. Hell, there are even some quality of life updates that allow you to instantly teleport or skip the wait time! The game also features a lot more battles which is a nice change of pace from, well, kinda nothing.
I'll admit that Shenmue II never feels as cozy as the original, and I never formed the connection with its two cities. The sountrack is also worse with a lot of folksy Asian music as opposed to Shenmue 1's smorgasbord of genres.
That said, you can't fix Shenmue 1's problems without making a whole new series, so there are still some really really noticeable downsides. Ryo, I believe, is still a really shitty protagonist. His quest for revenge is silly and hot-headed, yet he himself is the most boring person alive. I think in this game he is specifically written as a little stupid, too.
Now, I said earlier that the game has plenty of quality of life features that help you not to waste as much time. However, this is still Shenmue, and what it means is that the story, despite being a bit more action-oriented, is still non-existent. The entire game can still be summed up in two sentences at MOST because the structure hasn't changed: someone talks about a lead, Ryo investigates, lead usually turns into a dead end, rinse and repeat. How was this game series planned to run for like a dozen entries?! This isn't a big sprawling multi-sided conflict, it's just a story of some idiot going after a man who's not even in the story 99% of the time!
The story still loves to slow down to a crawl for no reason. Let me give you some examples. Ryo, searching for a local mob boss, runs through the docks fighting some goons. He fights his way to the boss' right arm man, who says that he'll only let them meet for 500 bucks. Ryo... Agrees? I don't even mind the grind, but what kind of characterization is that? There are also points where you literally stare at the cassette player for 10 minutes to listen to dialogue or search for the right door in a maze of doors. And the time wasting is always so flimsy. The doors, for example? That's a timed event where you need to find the right person in 6 minutes. If failed, you're assaulted by 5 men and it's a game over. If you win, you'll soon fight, I believe, SIX men. For a game all about details it just doesn't make sense when you stop and think about your actions or the gameplay things for more than a second.
Thankfully, Shenmue II has a better cast of characters overall, which helps with Ryo's blandness. They aren't really developed well or are that interesting, but they at least have one trait, which is more than I can say for the protagonist. There's still an unfortunate thing of them not really being important to the story, but I've at least enjoyed my time with them.
The star of the show is the man who appears close to the end of part 1, Ren. Probably the best voiced of all the characters, he's a simple thief with a relatively soft heart, yet he's enjoyable to watch and listen to, and I wish I was playing as him. However, not everyone is equal. Towards the end of this game you'll met Shenhua, a lady who you've been seeing since Shenmue 1's attract mode. Her and Ryo share more screentime than anyone. The whole last part of the game goes for multiple hours and it's just them walking and talking intersperced with some really simple action. She is perfect for Ryo because she is JUST AS BLAND as him. I honestly can't understand how a game that came out nearly at the same time as MGS2 has voice acting this disasterous.
I get it, mundaneness can be interesting, but not like this. Listening to people who sound like robots for HOURS isn't fun. I don't think it would be fun even if they sounded good but actors could at least have some chemistry, I guess.
There are parts of Shenmue II I've enjoyed, and those parts are bigger than the ones of Shenmue 1. However, I find the entire design philosophy of those games baffling. I can handle a chill time, but Shenmue seems actively hostile to you. There's no story, and I can't believe this was something that people needed a continuation to. Sure, there's a cliffhanger, I guess, but knowing what I know about Shenmue III it's just more walking and talking and barely getting close to anything ever which it obviously is because that's what this whole series is. If anything, it just makes me think that I might've scored lesser Yakuzas too low in my head, because even the most time wasting and bumbling of those titles still has something.