The Sega that made Nights, Panzer Dragoon and Shenmue is so sorely missed. They always managed to capture the imagination and take you on amazing journeys that left you with such beautiful memories. Very few game developers have managed to create this kind of awe since, in my humble opinion. Just hearing the soundtrack playing in this video was enough to bring back a rush of emotions. Great job, DF!
Shenmue 2 is the greatest game of all time for me. It even drove me to want to visit Guilin, China which 18 years after playing the game, I was finally able to do. It was an experience unlike any other.
@@kid--presentable The countryside is truly breathtaking. Yu Suzuki nailed every aspect of life in Guilin from the scenery to the food to the culture. The views from up high on the mountains of the rice terraces are stunning. I would recommend going with someone who knows Chinese at least. We went with a Chinese tour guide my wife found as she is a native Mandarin speaker. The tour guide took us to a hotel on top of a mountain we stayed at then to the river boat tour like Ryo uses when he enters Guilin and then to the caves which look exactly like they do in the game. I would recommend the experience. The flight tickets are probably the biggest expense, but once you are there everything including hotel is pretty cheap.
I miss this era of gaming so much! No DLC, no season passes, no pre-order skins, no multi-gigabyte day one patches, full games at launch on a disc, games had a wow factor still etc.
MadFinnTech Fun Fact: Shenmues original concept was based around, what we would today call, DLC. Is was supposed to be an episodic game, with a new chapter every couple of month. Like Telltale games today. In the end Shenmue became a regular game, while still split up into the original chapters (Shenmue is Ch.1, 2 is a manga, Shenmue 2 is Ch. 3-5), there were a couple of game franchises on the Dreamcast that ended up using the concept. Eldorado Gate, for excample, was split into 7 games/chapters
I remember getting the DC version a few days early, from a guy at EB. He said I was the only person to enquire about the game and that he was a fan too, so he went 'round the back and got me a copy =D Shenmue fans unite!
I gotta be honest, DF Retro is the only reason I stay subscribed here. I love all of the Benchmark and Performance tests, but I feel like DF has focused almost entirely on hardware analysis rather than comparisons. Not to mention the... *_comments_* on those videos Anyways keep up DF Retro John! These videos are always the highlight of my day
Yeah, it's really awkward to pick these games up now to play them on original hardware for a different price. It would be nice to play them on newer consoles and PC at 1080p with 60fps and an option to toggle between English and Japanese voices
Not that powerful by 2016 standards. People complained about the performance of Demul 3 years ago, now it's been improved considerably and PC hardware is obviously much better. If you have a machine like at least an Intel i3 2100 dual core and a decent card like a GTX650ti then you shouldn't have too many problems. Realistically though even this hardware is pretty damn old. The CPU is 5 years old and the GPU is 4 years old. You should have something better than this and therefore you should get even better results.
Oh my! I just started watching and I have to leave a comment. Shenmue and Shenmue II are two of my favorite games of all-time. I've been waiting for Shenmue III since 2002 and I'm so happy with where the game is, so far. I backed a copy for PC and PS4. Yu Suzuki is one of the most trusted and reliable developers in the business and I know we'll be getting the best for Shenmue III (for what was spent on the Kickstarter).
Taelan Baylor The times (gaming scene) were changing in the mid 2000's. He was the Shigeru Miyamoto for Sega and the Arcade scene; being extremely innovative with his Arcade and console games. I'm hoping if Shenmue III does well, publishers will finally see how important he is as a developer and hopefully come to him for Shenmue IV because III won't be the finale. Maybe Sega will hire him again. Hopefully, we won't have to wait over a decade for it lol.
I too have backed Shenmue III in production by Yu Suzuki with as much money as i could spare. However i believe his prior releases were as much a product of his, as they were a product of studio system at SEGA that was just this huge talent pool that had plenty of freedom. Whether it will work without all of his prior team in place, or whether it will work under changed circumstances of 15 years later and different systems being targetted, different audience too, that's really the questions that will only be answered when we get there.
I'm a Shenmue III backer too, but can't say I share your faith in III. I backed it as Shenmue II is one of my all time favourite games, but a lot of what made Shenmue 1&2 mindblowing at the time has become common place since. I just hope the new instalment does the series justice, and is successful enough to keep the series going with further instalments. All I really want is a chance to revisit that world and a resolution to the story. If Shenmue III turns out to be a great game, that would be a bonus, but I'm keeping my expectations in check.
If you go in room 222 of the Yellow Head Building you'll find the Hang On machine. It's a really nice touch that they have old SEGA games hidden throughout.
I played this on the Dreamcast at the time, and one of my most intense memories of all time as a gamer is THAT fourth disc. After the mayhem of Kowloon, strolling through rural China was just pure contemplation in what was the most astonishing graphics of that era. My jaw literally dropped, and it stayed there during the whole trip. I remember repeating to myself aloud "Holy shit. This looks unreal. My God. This is so fucking awesome." as I kept walking beside Shenhua, taking it the incredible scenery. Recalling it as I'm typing this right now brings tears to my eyes. Please don't suck, Shenmue 3. I beg of you. Don't suck.
Aurélien Fouet-Barak I’m playing the game for the first time now, I started last week, and that is honestly how I’ve felt the entire game so far. I feel like a big part of that is because I can imagine how incredible it must’ve been to experience Shenmue II in 2002. I’m quite good at that, judging things based off of the the time they came out in, rather than how they appear today. But even by today!s standards, Shenmue II still looks incredible, even though it’s textures feel somewhat low-res and it’s models are pretty low-poly.
Thanks! Believe it or not, I'm always under a huge time crunch on these episodes. I had less than three days to make this one from scratch, for instance, and the last few have all been made in 24 hours. Only possible because I already have a pretty deep knowledge of the games beforehand but, man, it's a lot of work. I love doing it for you guys, though! Retro games are my passion, after all.
Shenmue and shenmue 2 will always be my most favorite games of all time. So much thought has been put into each of these games. Can't wait for shenmue 3
@@rickyandreou nice, it's a good insult, but did you have to deny that my comment had any truth behind it, they're fucking forklift simulators, people say that the story is good, and they're wrong, it isn't, it's a generic revenge story.
My favorite game of all time. I’m in America, but I imported it when it first released on Dreamcast and I had to use a boot disk to run it. I think the boot disk combined with the game being on 4 discs and playing it multiple times was the reason I went through 5 Dreamcasts. Totally worth it and I’m about to start the PS4 remaster today.
Indie games still being made for it and servers are back. You can go on-line on Phantasy Star Online. It's actually the most zombie console of the old -school...
AmericavJapan 1909 Mine still works. Not dead at all. And like someone else said, they're still getting games , albeit Indie titles, But still awesome for a system that is almost 20 years old.
It's the best looking game of all time, right above Uncharted 4, the perfectionism in every visual aspect of the game is insane and something that just doesn't exists today. The art design is a masterpiece and the architecture is unmatched in videogames history.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you guys so much for doing this video. It was an outstanding analysis. I even got misty eyed at one point. You guys wonderfully highlighted why Shenmue was special and way ahead of its time. Thank you.
I disagree. I just discovered there was a game like that and wondered what made it so good, so I searched this youtube video and... didn't learn what made it so good. Just a bunch of technicalities. I didn't watch it all though, cause I lost my patience, so maybe I'm wrong.
I just remember playing shenmue 2 for the first time on dreamcast and experienced nothing like it before. The world was huge and open to explore. I remember getting lost in those Hong Kong streets and just finding random stores that you could explore. Am2 did so much to make it feel realistic
The sharp look of the Dreamcast is awesome. I always loved the shimmering. I really don't like the color and bloom look on the Xbox. However, the water is certainly better.
Thank you so much for making this. As a lifetime fan of Shenmue I appreciated watching such an informative piece. I still have to pinch myself when I think about playing Shenmue 3 in the next year (or two)!
Still have my Dreamcast hooked up and using the vga adapter makes these games still look crisp and clean. Finished part 1 but i never completed part 2. Time to fire this game up! Great video
I wasn’t able to get Shenmue 2 on my Dreamcast so when I found out it was going on Xbox I had to get it. I love these games. Jank and all. The games are amazing. When the released on PS4 I platinumed them both.
It was a tradition for me to play this game through and through once a year around this time. I don't have my dreamcast or Xbox 360 anymore, but the timing of this video gave me so much nostalgia. Love it guys! Thank you!
Dbz Warrior yes rockstar may take their time delivering a game but that games stays man like really stays. Their obsession with even the most minute details makes their games classics.
+Dbz Warrior Yeah I'm not even the biggest fan of Rockstar but I'm with you on this; GTA V and Red Dead are some of the most detailed and intricate games you will ever play. For me personally, open world games like that don't appeal to me anymore because it's a done-to-death genre which yeah keeps improving but I'm kind of bored of the whole you can steal any car/plane/whatever and go explore. The reason I love Shenmue and why people still play it to this day is because it's so different from open world games today; for example, no one really needs to play GTA 3 now because that formula has been improved on so much by now and can be found in a game like GTA V or Just Cause 3, in a better form. But nothing like Shenmue has come out since 2. I am still going to play every rockstar game which comes out because they are always great games regardless of my preferences
I swear people weren't ready for how good the Dreamcast was, that's why it failed. It was too revolutionary for its own good. I played my first online game, PSO on it. People probably thought playing online was a gimmick back in 2000. Titles like Shenmue were so advanced peoples minds were blown so they couldn't handle it. The Dreamcast died an unjust death.
The Dreamcast was awesome, but it lacked mainstream appeal because Sega was making weird stuff that Western audiences didn't really understand. Couple that with the PS2's impending release and it's easy to see why they pulled out of hardware.
John Connor I agree fully! How long did it take for other consoles to catch up to the Dreamcast Day 1 release Soul Calibur's graphics and gameplay? And PS Online! Not only online, but with a 5 language auto translator! A browser, modem, mouse & keyboard with VGA connectivity- if it had internal or add-on storage (not CMH) it would've hit every base as Hi tech game machine and low cost working PC in those days!
That's likely because you didn't own a PC then. I didn't either. Look, fanboys right then were pissing over themselves over PSO, then played any PC online RPG, and knew they should have had a PC for years. I saw it in 1 of the WebTV forums then. Same for WebTV, should have been on a PC then too... 1 thing are these beautiful Japanese RPG's, offline ones. They are worth having a console for, but Everquest kills PSO, it's not even funny.
When SegaNet launched on the DC, I had friends going conspiracy on me asking "How do you know it's not just the computer you're playing". Once we all played NFL2K1 they knew it was another person since we would talk (type) trash to people and got the appropriate responses, lol. Good times. PSO was awesome!
I was so drawn into it. Especially disc 4. I so lost track of time while playing it, I saw the ending credits and "To be continued..." at 4am. This video gives me goosebumps!
So yesterday I started playing Shenmue II, and it’s an honestly incredible experience so far. Everything feels so much more real & alive than the first game. It’s also incredible looking. The thing that has truly amazed me the most is how incredibly lost I’ve been. In the first game, I kinda learned my way around Sakuragoaka, and I kinda figured out the layout of Dobuita, but I never really learned where anything was. If I walked down one road and couldn’t see the place I wanted, I’d turn off onto another road instead, eventfully forming a loop and finding things, but I was still getting temporarily lost constantly. But in Shenmue II, it’s a different story entirely, I’ve been lost basically constantly, unable to learn where everything is. I mean sure, I’m not very good at navigation, but the environments are so massive, and crowded, even just down in Wan Chai and the Worker’s Pier, and it’s just overwhelming! It’s crazy! Really awesome though, I absolutely love it. I just really hope the game doesn’t expect me to learn my way around Hong Kong, as it just isn’t happening.
I'll never forget working my backside off as a forklift truck driver in the original, in preparation for my trip to Hong Kong. Fire up the second game, save file recognised, mugged! Lol, genius.
This is the best retrospective I have ever watched. It's absolutely brilliant. This has every single thing I want when I'm looking into playing an old game; the history, context for its era, port differences and best ways to emulate. This is a high bar to pass.
DF Retro really is my favorite segment of DF these days. John's passion for these titles is clear and intoxicating. There is something really interesting about seeing how developers got games to run on certain hardware.
The Shenmue games are definitely one of, if not my favourite game series. Shenmue 2 on Dreamcast is certainly helped by the original Japanese dialogue, the English dub in the first game was always a little ropey. Playing the original game in Japanese is certainly on my list of things to do. I was happy to see that Shenmue 3 would go into production, and unlike others I saw the added help from Sony as a positive. I think crowd funding was the only way it ever had a shot of being made, the 14yrs between Shenmue 2 release & Shenmue 3 announcement certainly backs up that assumption. Sure it has a loyal fanbase, but with no way of knowing whether that would translate into sales, and with the ip tied to shell of its former self Sega, it was dormant for 14 years. To me Sony's help will make it more likely of actually get a release, a game getting funded doesn't necessarily mean it will be finished. Fingers crossed. "But why didn't Sony fully fund it?", the way I see it the kickstarter was to show proof of actual demand for the title, with Sony helping with distribution etc. if/when it was funded. Its also possible that if Sony had outright funded the project, that could have woke the Sega legal team and made it more trouble than it was worth.
DaveSimonH I still have no idea why Sony jumped in when shenmue 1/2 wasn't on any Sony product most sony ponies have never touched shenmue and have no idea about the past story if anything Sony and Microsoft should of helped not just Sony and crowd funding so I guess most of the shenmue fans have to miss out because they don't game on playstation
DaveSimonH Shenmue 3 is the only reason I got a ps4 but it collected dust so sold it now I know it's roughly out 2018 so should be able get another ps4 then they are cheap as chips now should get one for about £100
Music is just too good. God damn! It almost made me cry at the PS confrence moment at the end and weird thing is that I haven't even heard about the game till now. Lol music can do wonders. God damn!
Great video. Shenmue will always have a special place in my heart - I had and played Shenmue on my Dreamcast at an important time in my life (getting ready to leave high school) and remember being drawn in to the games world. I supported the kickstarter for Shenmue 3 and can not wait to experience whatever it has to offer.
Man was I one pissed off little guy when I found out Shenmue 2 was being released on Xbox instead of the dreamcast back in 2001 here in the US. I got a Xbox 360 and was able to play Shenmue 2 finally in 2008.
John, this was really fun to watch. I had to come back to this video again just as I heard about the releases of Shenmue 1 and 2 on Steam. I can't wait to play them both again this August. I never really pre-order games, but I went ahead and pulled the trigger.
Played these on my dreamcast when they first came out, In a time when Fps and Shimmering didn't bother me! Watching this back makes me realise how much I loved sega and their consoles. Keep up the good work John!
What's amazing, is that I never have played, nor care about a lot of the games showcased in DF retro, but the analysis and benchmarks are so interesting to watch and learn. Great job! :D
DF Retro is AWESOME, I humbly hope you find the resources to continue the series. I love the modern analysis applied to retro games. The episode where you showed how the quadratic surfaces are split and rendered on Saturn's Tomb Raider was incredible. Thank you so much for your effort. I subscribed to Digital Foundry only because of DF Retro!
Such a great return to a groundbreaking game series for its time. Thank you so much for creating an amazing DF series, John. This is one amazing way to preserve and continue to praise the games of yesterday. I can't wait for more episodes to come. :)
I hope Shenmue 3 isn't too different from the old ones, obviously there are going to be huge improvements but it has to feel the same..please. Don't do what so many others have done with sequels.
Regular Original If Yu Suzuki wasn't involved with his creation, then I would be worried that it could be different, but with the amount of money they made from KickStarter, Suzuki and his team will do the best they can with Shenmue III. I expect it won't be as lengthy as the previous two games.
I promised myself i would accept it no matter how different it would feel. The old engine had a special Sega feel and npc's looked like real people. Unreal Engine is more technically advanced but better suited for futuristic asthetics, not organic chinese countryside...
what they need to do is remaster the first one and the second one so people can appreciate the third one. I have the first one on Dreamcast and the second one on Xbox original but a remaster would be awesome on the PS4
Great as always, I look forward to these every week! As for potential future videos, any chance of doing Ninja Gaiden on the original Xbox? There was nothing that looked or ran that good on consoles at the time, would be curious to see what made it tick.
It sounds ridiculous, but I teared up at the announcement of Shenmue 3. It was simply an unbelievable moment, one that I truly never expected to see happen. The search for Lan-Di in that first game was all too real of an experience and an emotional investment for me at age 12; as was the heartbreak of realizing 3 would 'never' happen.... The game still has a ways to come before it hits and, god willing, we still have the HD ports of 1 & 2 to look forward to as well; but here's to patience.
Maybe good for you Euro/Japanese guys. My Shenmue 1 was U.S. Shenmue 2 was British. Only now emulated both are British and it finally matters to save on a virtual VMU at the end LOL.
Something thats hard to say, but not in this case, but you did this game justice in your video :D Perfect information, detail and top notch quality as always! Shenmue and Half Life are my number one games on any console system. Seeing this brought all the memories back! Keep doing what you are doing, I watch every show :D Thank you mate :D
This is why I love John's videos. He takes his time, makes them very detailed, leaves no stone un-turned and always give the best options possible for your experience. Keep up the great work! Oh and for some recommendations, I wouldn't mind seeing a comparison between the original Diablo (for PS1 and for PC) and a comparison of any GTA III Series game, considering there are so many versions/ports of those nowadays.
I played both versions when released and preferred the dreamcast. It just felt like it had more of the 'sega look' the visual clarity of the dreamcast was better
Best analysis on Shenmue in RUclips. First time I played this game long time ago in Dreamcast console I was surprised and happy seeing how many and different angry responses I got from the same character at a bar in the alley when I came back again and again to knock on his door. But what I liked most of this game was all the wise Oriental philosophy teachings, game art and the fighting movements you could master and funny plots.
Sega just couldn't catch a break. The failures of the Sega CD, Saturn and upcoming release of the PS2, Xbox and GameCube was the final nail in the coffin for Sega. But I'm at least happy I got to play the game when they came out. If they had ported the game to the PS2, maybe we could already have Shenmue 3 now. But early one in the PS2 life cycle Sega was a bit hurt by the PS2. But ended up becoming on the best supporters of the PS2.
Doom Gal the Sega CD wasn't the failure everyone keeps saying that it was. the 32x on the other hand didn't even see 1/4 of the total sales the Sega CD did. they rushed the 32x and quickly cancelled it and forced everyone working on a 32x title to start working on Saturn. then they released the Saturn early, both of which pissed a lot of people off (customers, retail and publishers/developers). many of which ended up going to other platforms and completely ignored anything from Sega. but Sega's demise was their own doing. they hardly had the funds to release hardware and ended up releasing the Dreamcast anyways. they didn't have the funds to back it and as a result pulled the plug before it really had the chance to set in.
It would probably looked worse on PS2 due to the lower 4mb VRAM compared to the 8 MB VRAM of DC, lack of hardware antialiasing and bump mapping. Sure when it comes to physics effects and polygon counts the PS2 can handle the game but shenmue 2 uses hi-res textures so the PS2 port could be looked horrible with low-res textures and resolution like GTA SA for example (probably 512x448i or 640x240p which were very common on many PS2 games compared to the 640x480i / 480p on almost every Dreamcast games), jaggies, worst sound due to less channels but with better controls and only 1 DVD and maybe higher polygons to the character or the buildings...
Shenmue 2 is such a masterpiece.
26:22 - I would recognize these guitars anywhere, it's Sex Machineguns, Heavy Metal Thunder 😂
The Sega that made Nights, Panzer Dragoon and Shenmue is so sorely missed. They always managed to capture the imagination and take you on amazing journeys that left you with such beautiful memories. Very few game developers have managed to create this kind of awe since, in my humble opinion. Just hearing the soundtrack playing in this video was enough to bring back a rush of emotions. Great job, DF!
Shenmue 2 is the greatest game of all time for me. It even drove me to want to visit Guilin, China which 18 years after playing the game, I was finally able to do. It was an experience unlike any other.
really? I have been planning on doing the same since shenmue 2 release... Tell me what is was like ?
@@kid--presentable The countryside is truly breathtaking. Yu Suzuki nailed every aspect of life in Guilin from the scenery to the food to the culture. The views from up high on the mountains of the rice terraces are stunning. I would recommend going with someone who knows Chinese at least. We went with a Chinese tour guide my wife found as she is a native Mandarin speaker. The tour guide took us to a hotel on top of a mountain we stayed at then to the river boat tour like Ryo uses when he enters Guilin and then to the caves which look exactly like they do in the game. I would recommend the experience. The flight tickets are probably the biggest expense, but once you are there everything including hotel is pretty cheap.
Awesome bro
I miss this era of gaming so much! No DLC, no season passes, no pre-order skins, no multi-gigabyte day one patches, full games at launch on a disc, games had a wow factor still etc.
MadFinnTech Fun Fact: Shenmues original concept was based around, what we would today call, DLC. Is was supposed to be an episodic game, with a new chapter every couple of month. Like Telltale games today.
In the end Shenmue became a regular game, while still split up into the original chapters (Shenmue is Ch.1, 2 is a manga, Shenmue 2 is Ch. 3-5), there were a couple of game franchises on the Dreamcast that ended up using the concept. Eldorado Gate, for excample, was split into 7 games/chapters
MadFinnTech AMEN
Not to mention when an update is actually bigger than the whole game! ugh!
Someone hasnt ever played the original sims before
And just an awesome story telling motive
I remember getting the DC version a few days early, from a guy at EB. He said I was the only person to enquire about the game and that he was a fan too, so he went 'round the back and got me a copy =D Shenmue fans unite!
Oniken you have a really great profile picture!!!
Your soul. Is mine!
Oniken interesting I thought the Dreamcast version never released here in the states
Ced 214 It didn’t. Shenmue II only got an Xbox release. However, it was released in PAL regions on Dreamcast. @Oniken must be English.
I gotta be honest, DF Retro is the only reason I stay subscribed here. I love all of the Benchmark and Performance tests, but I feel like DF has focused almost entirely on hardware analysis rather than comparisons. Not to mention the... *_comments_* on those videos
Anyways keep up DF Retro John! These videos are always the highlight of my day
5persondude good bye then
Ha HA! Whoa, 2 morons took that innocent comment to heart.
Yeah, I agree. Love the DF Retro.
O hope we get a re-release for Shenmue 1 and 2 before 3 comes out
Yeah, it's really awkward to pick these games up now to play them on original hardware for a different price. It would be nice to play them on newer consoles and PC at 1080p with 60fps and an option to toggle between English and Japanese voices
charizardoreo Why play them on the original hardware? Just use an emulator.
The Uncanny One How powerful of a PC do I need to play the Shenmue games?
charizardoreo I can play Shenmue 1 on my Galaxy 5 with Reicast
Not that powerful by 2016 standards. People complained about the performance of Demul 3 years ago, now it's been improved considerably and PC hardware is obviously much better. If you have a machine like at least an Intel i3 2100 dual core and a decent card like a GTX650ti then you shouldn't have too many problems.
Realistically though even this hardware is pretty damn old. The CPU is 5 years old and the GPU is 4 years old. You should have something better than this and therefore you should get even better results.
Oh my! I just started watching and I have to leave a comment. Shenmue and Shenmue II are two of my favorite games of all-time. I've been waiting for Shenmue III since 2002 and I'm so happy with where the game is, so far. I backed a copy for PC and PS4. Yu Suzuki is one of the most trusted and reliable developers in the business and I know we'll be getting the best for Shenmue III (for what was spent on the Kickstarter).
Couldn't have said it better myself. Looking forward to watching this video. Can't wait for Shenmue 3
Ivalice VKP here, here!
Taelan Baylor The times (gaming scene) were changing in the mid 2000's. He was the Shigeru Miyamoto for Sega and the Arcade scene; being extremely innovative with his Arcade and console games. I'm hoping if Shenmue III does well, publishers will finally see how important he is as a developer and hopefully come to him for Shenmue IV because III won't be the finale. Maybe Sega will hire him again. Hopefully, we won't have to wait over a decade for it lol.
I too have backed Shenmue III in production by Yu Suzuki with as much money as i could spare. However i believe his prior releases were as much a product of his, as they were a product of studio system at SEGA that was just this huge talent pool that had plenty of freedom. Whether it will work without all of his prior team in place, or whether it will work under changed circumstances of 15 years later and different systems being targetted, different audience too, that's really the questions that will only be answered when we get there.
I'm a Shenmue III backer too, but can't say I share your faith in III. I backed it as Shenmue II is one of my all time favourite games, but a lot of what made Shenmue 1&2 mindblowing at the time has become common place since.
I just hope the new instalment does the series justice, and is successful enough to keep the series going with further instalments. All I really want is a chance to revisit that world and a resolution to the story. If Shenmue III turns out to be a great game, that would be a bonus, but I'm keeping my expectations in check.
If you go in room 222 of the Yellow Head Building you'll find the Hang On machine. It's a really nice touch that they have old SEGA games hidden throughout.
RockBandAddict666 You're satanic
RadaronD The arcade games work on 360. They MAY crash during gameplay, but if you're just playing 1-2 rounds you should be fine.
professor de portuga do YT Do you have a problem with the fact that he is satanic? If you do, fuck off and let your non-existent god sort him out.
totally missed it on my first playthrough, back in 2001 :P
I played this on the Dreamcast at the time, and one of my most intense memories of all time as a gamer is THAT fourth disc. After the mayhem of Kowloon, strolling through rural China was just pure contemplation in what was the most astonishing graphics of that era. My jaw literally dropped, and it stayed there during the whole trip. I remember repeating to myself aloud "Holy shit. This looks unreal. My God. This is so fucking awesome." as I kept walking beside Shenhua, taking it the incredible scenery. Recalling it as I'm typing this right now brings tears to my eyes.
Please don't suck, Shenmue 3. I beg of you. Don't suck.
Aurélien Fouet-Barak I’m playing the game for the first time now, I started last week, and that is honestly how I’ve felt the entire game so far. I feel like a big part of that is because I can imagine how incredible it must’ve been to experience Shenmue II in 2002.
I’m quite good at that, judging things based off of the the time they came out in, rather than how they appear today. But even by today!s standards, Shenmue II still looks incredible, even though it’s textures feel somewhat low-res and it’s models are pretty low-poly.
Shenmue 3 sucked bro....
What did you think of shenmu 3?
@@starlyghtdrifter66 you sure?
This didn't age well. Shenmue 2 was far better than 3. I think that's the general consensus.
This video is GOLD!!
Shenmue 1/2 & Virtua Fighter 4 are in my TOP 10 videogames of all times!
Thank You for this!!
Best username on youtube spotted!
Me too
Couldn't agree more.
That was... one of the best things I have ever watched on RUclips. Thank you DF, Thank you Jon.
nicklong27 They've really outdone themselves once again. Great job, these videos must take ages to make. Keep it up guys!
Thanks! Believe it or not, I'm always under a huge time crunch on these episodes. I had less than three days to make this one from scratch, for instance, and the last few have all been made in 24 hours. Only possible because I already have a pretty deep knowledge of the games beforehand but, man, it's a lot of work. I love doing it for you guys, though! Retro games are my passion, after all.
John Linneman
Thanks for the reply! I hope you're getting paid well because DF Retro has quickly become the best part of DF! Keep up the good work :)
Did you back the Kickstarter? You still can pre-order on their website.
Shenmue and shenmue 2 will always be my most favorite games of all time. So much thought has been put into each of these games. Can't wait for shenmue 3
well 4 years later and we got shenmue 3 but it is....
@@mhh3 its as bad as you thought. Lol
all three of them are dogshit
@@widerrapier5394 Dogsh*t comment
@@rickyandreou nice, it's a good insult, but did you have to deny that my comment had any truth behind it, they're fucking forklift simulators, people say that the story is good, and they're wrong, it isn't, it's a generic revenge story.
DF retro is one the best parts of Sunday.
My god. I barely noticed this video is 30 minutes long. One of the best DF retro videos for sure.
My favorite game of all time. I’m in America, but I imported it when it first released on Dreamcast and I had to use a boot disk to run it. I think the boot disk combined with the game being on 4 discs and playing it multiple times was the reason I went through 5 Dreamcasts. Totally worth it and I’m about to start the PS4 remaster today.
WOW This still looks amazing!
pSyk Not really.
pSyk looks amazing but dead console.
Indie games still being made for it and servers are back. You can go on-line on Phantasy Star Online. It's actually the most zombie console of the old -school...
AmericavJapan 1909 Mine still works. Not dead at all. And like someone else said, they're still getting games , albeit Indie titles, But still awesome for a system that is almost 20 years old.
It's the best looking game of all time, right above Uncharted 4, the perfectionism in every visual aspect of the game is insane and something that just doesn't exists today. The art design is a masterpiece and the architecture is unmatched in videogames history.
20:05
I can hear the Dreamcast sounding like an old washing machine
From the bottom of my heart, thank you guys so much for doing this video. It was an outstanding analysis. I even got misty eyed at one point. You guys wonderfully highlighted why Shenmue was special and way ahead of its time. Thank you.
I disagree. I just discovered there was a game like that and wondered what made it so good, so I searched this youtube video and... didn't learn what made it so good. Just a bunch of technicalities. I didn't watch it all though, cause I lost my patience, so maybe I'm wrong.
Man i love this game so much that i cry by only hearing its theme song.
I just remember playing shenmue 2 for the first time on dreamcast and experienced nothing like it before. The world was huge and open to explore. I remember getting lost in those Hong Kong streets and just finding random stores that you could explore. Am2 did so much to make it feel realistic
Going through rural China with Shenhua made me cry when I first played this game as an HD version. Underrated masterpiece in my opinion
Those old shenmue songs overflow me with nostalgia and make my eyes all watery.
The sharp look of the Dreamcast is awesome. I always loved the shimmering. I really don't like the color and bloom look on the Xbox. However, the water is certainly better.
Thank you so much for making this. As a lifetime fan of Shenmue I appreciated watching such an informative piece. I still have to pinch myself when I think about playing Shenmue 3 in the next year (or two)!
Never played Shenmue, but I love learning about these games. Great video yet again.
what a fantastic episode. 33 minutes of pure joy, with not a seconds' worth of filler or wasted space. excellent video!!!
That's SEGA for you.....
Just popped by to quickly like this, I've got no doubt about its quality, look forward to watching later.
This series is marvelous, John. Keep up the great work.
John, hearing you talk about those games with such honest passion and distanced knowledge at the same time is a real pleasure.
Still have my Dreamcast hooked up and using the vga adapter makes these games still look crisp and clean. Finished part 1 but i never completed part 2. Time to fire this game up! Great video
I wasn’t able to get Shenmue 2 on my Dreamcast so when I found out it was going on Xbox I had to get it. I love these games. Jank and all. The games are amazing. When the released on PS4 I platinumed them both.
I like this kinda series DF :) and the game look even still fantastic in 2016 which is 17 years ago since release
It was a tradition for me to play this game through and through once a year around this time. I don't have my dreamcast or Xbox 360 anymore, but the timing of this video gave me so much nostalgia.
Love it guys! Thank you!
Rockstar should learn from shenmue's room interior system and should implement this in gta 6
Dbz Warrior yes rockstar may take their time delivering a game but that games stays man like really stays. Their obsession with even the most minute details makes their games classics.
given the scale and size of R* games, I wonder how that'll happen
The Yakuza series does a similar thing
+Para Soul Well Yakuza is a SeGa series, so they could reuse that tech.
+Dbz Warrior Yeah I'm not even the biggest fan of Rockstar but I'm with you on this; GTA V and Red Dead are some of the most detailed and intricate games you will ever play. For me personally, open world games like that don't appeal to me anymore because it's a done-to-death genre which yeah keeps improving but I'm kind of bored of the whole you can steal any car/plane/whatever and go explore. The reason I love Shenmue and why people still play it to this day is because it's so different from open world games today; for example, no one really needs to play GTA 3 now because that formula has been improved on so much by now and can be found in a game like GTA V or Just Cause 3, in a better form. But nothing like Shenmue has come out since 2. I am still going to play every rockstar game which comes out because they are always great games regardless of my preferences
I swear people weren't ready for how good the Dreamcast was, that's why it failed. It was too revolutionary for its own good. I played my first online game, PSO on it. People probably thought playing online was a gimmick back in 2000. Titles like Shenmue were so advanced peoples minds were blown so they couldn't handle it. The Dreamcast died an unjust death.
The Dreamcast was awesome, but it lacked mainstream appeal because Sega was making weird stuff that Western audiences didn't really understand. Couple that with the PS2's impending release and it's easy to see why they pulled out of hardware.
John Connor I agree fully! How long did it take for other consoles to catch up to the Dreamcast Day 1 release Soul Calibur's graphics and gameplay? And PS Online! Not only online, but with a 5 language auto translator! A browser, modem, mouse & keyboard with VGA connectivity- if it had internal or add-on storage (not CMH) it would've hit every base as Hi tech game machine and low cost working PC in those days!
Dreamcast died strictly because you could bootleg the games. I remember owning so many games as a kid because i was able to just download and play.
That's likely because you didn't own a PC then. I didn't either. Look, fanboys right then were pissing over themselves over PSO, then played any PC online RPG, and knew they should have had a PC for years. I saw it in 1 of the WebTV forums then. Same for WebTV, should have been on a PC then too... 1 thing are these beautiful Japanese RPG's, offline ones. They are worth having a console for, but Everquest kills PSO, it's not even funny.
When SegaNet launched on the DC, I had friends going conspiracy on me asking "How do you know it's not just the computer you're playing". Once we all played NFL2K1 they knew it was another person since we would talk (type) trash to people and got the appropriate responses, lol.
Good times. PSO was awesome!
Awesome work John! This was probably my favorite DF Retro so far. I love Shenmue!
The greatest games ever made
I was so drawn into it. Especially disc 4. I so lost track of time while playing it, I saw the ending credits and "To be continued..." at 4am. This video gives me goosebumps!
Lol i had the game on 1 disc why 4 hahahah! 😂 Cant wait for Shenmue 3 hope they dont fuck it with feminist sjw shit and underdevelopment
Not anymore dumbass
I love them and have nostalgia for the first one but they are definitely not the greatest.
@@AWretchedMan must be the Dreamcast version
In a time when video game cut scenes made into a movie was practically unheard of Shenmue 2 was way ahead of it's time.
Why John why! Now I have to spend the rest of the night rewatching all the Shemue 3 reacts. Keep up this great series!
What a classic! Way ahead of its time. I'm happy I got to play these. Can't wait for part 3!
So yesterday I started playing Shenmue II, and it’s an honestly incredible experience so far. Everything feels so much more real & alive than the first game. It’s also incredible looking. The thing that has truly amazed me the most is how incredibly lost I’ve been. In the first game, I kinda learned my way around Sakuragoaka, and I kinda figured out the layout of Dobuita, but I never really learned where anything was. If I walked down one road and couldn’t see the place I wanted, I’d turn off onto another road instead, eventfully forming a loop and finding things, but I was still getting temporarily lost constantly. But in Shenmue II, it’s a different story entirely, I’ve been lost basically constantly, unable to learn where everything is.
I mean sure, I’m not very good at navigation, but the environments are so massive, and crowded, even just down in Wan Chai and the Worker’s Pier, and it’s just overwhelming! It’s crazy! Really awesome though, I absolutely love it. I just really hope the game doesn’t expect me to learn my way around Hong Kong, as it just isn’t happening.
This is DF' best video yet! Thank you for this review!
DF retro deserves its own channel
I'll never forget working my backside off as a forklift truck driver in the original, in preparation for my trip to Hong Kong. Fire up the second game, save file recognised, mugged! Lol, genius.
I dont know why more people havent discovered DF Retro its such a high Quality series.
That was soon damn and 33 minutes?
Blessed John!
This game is amazing!!!
I'm just glad I still was able to play Shenmue II first on the Dreamcast.
It looks DAMN good for such an old game
This is the best retrospective I have ever watched. It's absolutely brilliant. This has every single thing I want when I'm looking into playing an old game; the history, context for its era, port differences and best ways to emulate.
This is a high bar to pass.
Shenmue... Easily one of my favorite game franchises of all time. Can't wait for 3.
DF Retro really is my favorite segment of DF these days. John's passion for these titles is clear and intoxicating. There is something really interesting about seeing how developers got games to run on certain hardware.
The Shenmue games are definitely one of, if not my favourite game series. Shenmue 2 on Dreamcast is certainly helped by the original Japanese dialogue, the English dub in the first game was always a little ropey. Playing the original game in Japanese is certainly on my list of things to do.
I was happy to see that Shenmue 3 would go into production, and unlike others I saw the added help from Sony as a positive. I think crowd funding was the only way it ever had a shot of being made, the 14yrs between Shenmue 2 release & Shenmue 3 announcement certainly backs up that assumption. Sure it has a loyal fanbase, but with no way of knowing whether that would translate into sales, and with the ip tied to shell of its former self Sega, it was dormant for 14 years.
To me Sony's help will make it more likely of actually get a release, a game getting funded doesn't necessarily mean it will be finished. Fingers crossed. "But why didn't Sony fully fund it?", the way I see it the kickstarter was to show proof of actual demand for the title, with Sony helping with distribution etc. if/when it was funded. Its also possible that if Sony had outright funded the project, that could have woke the Sega legal team and made it more trouble than it was worth.
DaveSimonH I still have no idea why Sony jumped in when shenmue 1/2 wasn't on any Sony product most sony ponies have never touched shenmue and have no idea about the past story if anything Sony and Microsoft should of helped not just Sony and crowd funding so I guess most of the shenmue fans have to miss out because they don't game on playstation
It's me Just me SC-FC It will be on PS4 & PC, so not all platforms but 2 of the major ones isn't too bad.
DaveSimonH Shenmue 3 is the only reason I got a ps4 but it collected dust so sold it now I know it's roughly out 2018 so should be able get another ps4 then they are cheap as chips now should get one for about £100
That's too bad that you've sold your PS4. Yakuza 0 is around the corner.
Such a masterpiece of a video carried out wonderfully by John of Digital Foundry. I can revisit this video any time and it's a magical experience.
Music is just too good. God damn! It almost made me cry at the PS confrence moment at the end and weird thing is that I haven't even heard about the game till now. Lol music can do wonders. God damn!
Great video.
Shenmue will always have a special place in my heart - I had and played Shenmue on my Dreamcast at an important time in my life (getting ready to leave high school) and remember being drawn in to the games world.
I supported the kickstarter for Shenmue 3 and can not wait to experience whatever it has to offer.
Man was I one pissed off little guy when I found out Shenmue 2 was being released on Xbox instead of the dreamcast back in 2001 here in the US. I got a Xbox 360 and was able to play Shenmue 2 finally in 2008.
SolidMGSnake Me too it was backward compatible
SolidMGSnake I still have my copy with the movie along with it
Damn it man, play it on Null DC!
SolidMGSnake I got the PAL version with GameShark. Works great
you weren't alone. people were importing it like crazy and even large retailers like E.B. carried shenmue 2 pal with bootdisc on their shelves
John, this was really fun to watch. I had to come back to this video again just as I heard about the releases of Shenmue 1 and 2 on Steam. I can't wait to play them both again this August. I never really pre-order games, but I went ahead and pulled the trigger.
What a nice era of games, unique art styles instead of the run for most realistic graphics and sameness.
I can't stop admiring all the love and effort you put in your videos! Thank you!
Happily donated $300 for Shenmue 3. Best money I ever spent :)
That is, if it will actually be made.
It's not the destination. It's the journey ;)
Nathan Da Vinci that makes no sense at
@@ndbsolar Well thank you. We will be playing next month!! Can hardly believe it
and? do you regret it now?
Played these on my dreamcast when they first came out, In a time when Fps and Shimmering didn't bother me! Watching this back makes me realise how much I loved sega and their consoles. Keep up the good work John!
I really love DF retro, thanks for making these great videos!
What's amazing, is that I never have played, nor care about a lot of the games showcased in DF retro, but the analysis and benchmarks are so interesting to watch and learn.
Great job! :D
DF Retro on Jet Set Radio and JSRF!
And what's the song at 25:25?
Sex Machineguns - Heavy Metal Thunder
Xenonas
ty
DF Retro is AWESOME, I humbly hope you find the resources to continue the series. I love the modern analysis applied to retro games. The episode where you showed how the quadratic surfaces are split and rendered on Saturn's Tomb Raider was incredible. Thank you so much for your effort. I subscribed to Digital Foundry only because of DF Retro!
This game has had soo much influence on my life.
Such a great return to a groundbreaking game series for its time. Thank you so much for creating an amazing DF series, John. This is one amazing way to preserve and continue to praise the games of yesterday. I can't wait for more episodes to come. :)
man this "_DF retro_" series is soo good that you could upload on to your main channel!
What exactly do you mean by main channel?
ExNought john's channel
this is the main channel derp
16bitSteve i meant johns main channel.
to trump's main channel
This is by far my favorite videos on this channel, keep up the good work John!
I hope Shenmue 3 isn't too different from the old ones, obviously there are going to be huge improvements but it has to feel the same..please. Don't do what so many others have done with sequels.
Regular Original If Yu Suzuki wasn't involved with his creation, then I would be worried that it could be different, but with the amount of money they made from KickStarter, Suzuki and his team will do the best they can with Shenmue III. I expect it won't be as lengthy as the previous two games.
I promised myself i would accept it no matter how different it would feel. The old engine had a special Sega feel and npc's looked like real people. Unreal Engine is more technically advanced but better suited for futuristic asthetics, not organic chinese countryside...
+Mario E. It is up to the developer.
what they need to do is remaster the first one and the second one so people can appreciate the third one. I have the first one on Dreamcast and the second one on Xbox original but a remaster would be awesome on the PS4
Df retro you are amazing.Shenmue was way ahead of its time.Old Sega where are you!!
Great as always, I look forward to these every week!
As for potential future videos, any chance of doing Ninja Gaiden on the original Xbox? There was nothing that looked or ran that good on consoles at the time, would be curious to see what made it tick.
I hope we get a DF video on Shenmue III.
Love Shenmue. My favorite games ever and looking forward to Shenmue 3
It sounds ridiculous, but I teared up at the announcement of Shenmue 3. It was simply an unbelievable moment, one that I truly never expected to see happen. The search for Lan-Di in that first game was all too real of an experience and an emotional investment for me at age 12; as was the heartbreak of realizing 3 would 'never' happen....
The game still has a ways to come before it hits and, god willing, we still have the HD ports of 1 & 2 to look forward to as well; but here's to patience.
You forgot to mention VMU save functionality between shenmue 1&2 on dreamcast, something impossible on XBOX.
Amazing video non the less.
Maybe good for you Euro/Japanese guys. My Shenmue 1 was U.S. Shenmue 2 was British. Only now emulated both are British and it finally matters to save on a virtual VMU at the end LOL.
John. You really do your homework on these DF Retro videos. Great job!!
Great video analysis.
Thanks Richard.
John, you mean, right?
Thank you for making these videos. I appreciate your work so much. .
My absolute favorite game of ALL time
I really cant say enough good things about DF Retro. They've all been fascinating so far and I cannot wait for more.
Thanks for that great episode!
I borrowed a friends xbox back in the day to play this... such great memories. Shenmue 3 is a day one buy
still have my dreamcast with shenmue 1&2 my favorite game of all time all still work too
DF Retro is absolutely amazing, extremely enjoyable and informative videos, hope it'll continue to run for many years!
We need OGXbox emulation on Xbox One ASAP.
XboxoneX
An amazing tribute to one of the greatest games ever made. Thanks for sharing!
Something thats hard to say, but not in this case, but you did this game justice in your video :D Perfect information, detail and top notch quality as always! Shenmue and Half Life are my number one games on any console system. Seeing this brought all the memories back! Keep doing what you are doing, I watch every show :D
Thank you mate :D
This is why I love John's videos. He takes his time, makes them very detailed, leaves no stone un-turned and always give the best options possible for your experience. Keep up the great work!
Oh and for some recommendations, I wouldn't mind seeing a comparison between the original Diablo (for PS1 and for PC) and a comparison of any GTA III Series game, considering there are so many versions/ports of those nowadays.
I played both versions when released and preferred the dreamcast. It just felt like it had more of the 'sega look' the visual clarity of the dreamcast was better
Best analysis on Shenmue in RUclips.
First time I played this game long time ago in Dreamcast console I was surprised and happy seeing how many and different angry responses I got from the same character at a bar in the alley when I came back again and again to knock on his door.
But what I liked most of this game was all the wise Oriental philosophy teachings, game art and the fighting movements you could master and funny plots.
Sega just couldn't catch a break. The failures of the Sega CD, Saturn and upcoming release of the PS2, Xbox and GameCube was the final nail in the coffin for Sega. But I'm at least happy I got to play the game when they came out. If they had ported the game to the PS2, maybe we could already have Shenmue 3 now. But early one in the PS2 life cycle Sega was a bit hurt by the PS2. But ended up becoming on the best supporters of the PS2.
i would say a major part of there demise would have been the bad decision making
All failures that were SEGA's own doing.
Doom Gal the Sega CD wasn't the failure everyone keeps saying that it was. the 32x on the other hand didn't even see 1/4 of the total sales the Sega CD did. they rushed the 32x and quickly cancelled it and forced everyone working on a 32x title to start working on Saturn. then they released the Saturn early, both of which pissed a lot of people off (customers, retail and publishers/developers). many of which ended up going to other platforms and completely ignored anything from Sega.
but Sega's demise was their own doing. they hardly had the funds to release hardware and ended up releasing the Dreamcast anyways. they didn't have the funds to back it and as a result pulled the plug before it really had the chance to set in.
It would probably looked worse on PS2 due to the lower 4mb VRAM compared to the 8 MB VRAM of DC, lack of hardware antialiasing and bump mapping. Sure when it comes to physics effects and polygon counts the PS2 can handle the game but shenmue 2 uses hi-res textures so the PS2 port could be looked horrible with low-res textures and resolution like GTA SA for example (probably 512x448i or 640x240p which were very common on many PS2 games compared to the 640x480i / 480p on almost every Dreamcast games), jaggies, worst sound due to less channels but with better controls and only 1 DVD and maybe higher polygons to the character or the buildings...
Ps2 game virtua fighter 4 , shinobi, grandia 2
These were probably my favourite games on the Dreamcast. Had a lot of fun racing forklift trucks round Hong Kong docks lol
Yakuza + Shenmue = Life!!!
DF retro knocks it out of the park again! Love this channel.
Can't wait for Yakuza! Currently playing through the first one on PCSX2, it's fantastic
Awesome video, please continue the series, DF Retro is some of the best content created by you guys. :)
DigitalFoundry has excellent taste in games :)
I love shenmue 2 and your video is great too man . Very good work