Shenmue gets all the hype now , yet............

You don't talk about Yakuza.

Why is that?

Have you played the game.

What makes Shenmue better then Yakuza?

I haven't played Yakuza.

Also Shenmue 2 was left with a cliffhanger for 14 years now.

Finally, Shenmue is a game that's heavily attached to teh Dreamcast, SEGA's last console. So there's a large sense of nostalgia, like otehr DC games.

I don't know, bruvva.

I just know I like the Yakuza and I'm looking forward to Yakuza 5. I hope Shenmue actually happens. Properly. Because there's some people hungry for more Shenmue, and it's a good excuse for me to drop in.

@deadline-zero0:A lot of games where attached to the DC - Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi - yet those games don't have e new version made.

@freedomfreak:Thats the thing.Why are they hungry when the Yakuza games are similar. Is it the Story? Or the characters?

@Ant_17: The story and characters, perhaps? Honestly, I can't tell you because I haven't played Shenmue.

people are hyped for shenmue 3 because the series never ended and the last game ended with the cliffhanger.

@Ant_17: those games didn't end on a cliffhanger. but in case you missed it, they're also remember fondly. Shenmue is just one those that's above most of the DC's exclusives

LOL hilarious.

Probably because Yakuza isn't even in the same league.

Yeah that's true. It's leauges better than Shenmue. And Yakuza is garbage.

I can't wait for yakuza 5. It's one of the many reasons I still keep my ps3 hooked up. I hope people support and buy it, otherwise knowing Sega, we may never see another one ever again.

I love both and wish freaking Sega would have continue with Shenmue instead of giving up!

Don't get the idea that i hate Jet Set Radio or Crazy Taxi.The guy that made JST are now on the Yakuza team.

But is that all that makes people demand a Senmue 3? The cliffhanger in 2?

Yes, the cliffhanger. The thing about Yakuza is that each game has its own complete story, with its own complete ending. On the other hand, each Shenmue game is an episode of a larger ongoing story, with each game ending on a cliffhanger. That's why there's more demand for Shenmue III in the West, although Japan prefers Yakuza.

@Ant_17: people are giving them money, that's the difference

People give money to a lot of stuff on KS.

Its not hard to get money from nostalgia , but then again:

Because Yakuza has been a very poor substitute for the real thing all these years.

@Ant_17 said:

@The_Last_Ride said:

@Ant_17: people are giving them money, that's the difference

People give money to a lot of stuff on KS.

Its not hard to get money from nostalgia , but then again:

If Uwe can't get his shit kickstarted, doesn't that defeat your point :3?

Yeah i feel like others, i always thought of Yakuza as a poor mans Shenmue. Sleeping Dogs is closer to Shenmue then that game.

If you've never played Shenmue, then you will never understand.

@The_Last_Ride: He is the only one / i think/ that didn't get not 1 not 2 but 3 KS up.

My point is : You have to be he's level of dick to not get money.

The Yakuza series has better-written scripts than the Shenmue series (the first two Yakuza scripts were written by an award-winning crime fiction novelist). And because most of the Yakuza games aren't dubbed, you don't have to put up with bad dubbed voice acting in Yakuza either. The first Yakuza was dubbed, and it wasn't very good (although Mark Hamill did a good job). But the lack of dubbing in later games creates a cultural barrier, preventing Yakuza from crossing-over successfully to the West. The fact that Shenmue is dubbed, even if it sounds bad and cringe-worthy, gives it wider appeal to more Western audiences. Yakuza's world also has a bigger scale than Shenmue, with Yakuza's scale more comparable to the GTA games. Yakuza also has more mini-games than both Shenmue and GTA, and a more well-researched, realistic representation of the Yakuza criminal organizations than GTA's Mafia and Shenmue's Triads.

But on the other hand, Shenmue's world feels more full of life. In the first Shenmue, for example, each of the 300+ NPCs in the town has their own name, profile, age, job, biography, voiced dialogues, daily/weekly/seasonal schedules, etc. It had over 42,000 lines (over 10 hours worth) of recorded voiced dialogues. You can talk to any NPC, knock on every door, open every cupboard, dial any phone, open any book, etc. The day-night cycles are linked to the seasons and real-time weather (based on the actual historical weather), with the NPC AI adjusting to the seasons and weather. That kind of level-of-detail is very rare for open-world games even today, let alone in 1999. Yakuza has the better-written scripts and the larger world, but Shenmue still has the more believable life-like world.

I've heard that this series is great. I never played any of the games before. Here's a video about one level in Shenmue 1.

http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/m496zv/level-shenmue--mad-angels-brawl

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3

^^ I have to agree with you on the script quality, but only for the first two games in the series, and it's not because Hase Seishuu penned them alone: I've played most of them and Hase Seishuu reprised his writing role for Yakuza 5, and the plot of that game is both convoluted and contrived.

That's what happens when you annualise a series and keep giving yourself less and less room to maneovre each year. It's a bit of a tough comparison because the Shenmue games have been penned as parts of a larger story, whereas with Yakuza they are making it up as they go. Now that the series is annualised I think Sega should start thinking ahead about where the series is going in the same way Marvel has a plan for its Marvel-verse.

I actually wrote an article detailing what makes Shenmue unique, especially in contrast to Yakuza.

I don't know about convoluted , but i think that the main story is really going in circles.

They always need to find who stole some money or who killed some guy and the plot twist of some guy switching sides.

Well there are KS that have taken money but not delivered

Didn't they fixed that?

Nope, i think recently like last year there was Extra Credits or some other youtube channel who was suppose to deliver a game with the money. The cancelled the game, but didn't offer any refunds

Well that sucks.

You would think this will be fixed by now.

As far as i know it isn't. Remember when Facebook bought Oculus and how pissed people were? They basicly funded the whole thing, then only to see the people get rich because of them and they didn't get a dime. That's why i strongly hate kickstarter. If these companies are serious, they should be selling stocks in the company instead of just letting the people take the risk and they get the money

Yeah. That is actually more accurate. It's not convoluted in the sense of being overly complex, but it feels like there's always just one more unnecessary reveal/betrayal between you and what the story is actually about. To the point where it just becomes silly.

@Articuno76: Hahaha

Yeah , but "Silly" is what Yakuza does best.

Nothing makes Shenmue better than Yakuza, Yakuza is way more enjoyable as a video game. Shenmue was impressive tech turned into a poorly made game, Yakuza is actually fun. Nagoshi is chill as hell, more of that guy please.

Are you sure Hase Seishuu wrote Yakuza 5? I can't seem to find anything on the internet about him having any involvement. All I can find is that he left the series after Yakuza 2. Can't speak for Yakuza 5, but if it really is convoluted and contrived as you say, then it doesn't sound like Hase Seishuu wrote it.

By the way, nice article. It does a good job highlighting some of the things that make Shenmue unique. It's amazing just how ahead of its time it was, and even after 16 years, it still feels unique compared to most open-world games today. Shenmue just can't be directly compared to any other open-world games, Yakuza is as close as it gets, but even that can't be directly compared to it.

@Ant_17 said:

@Articuno76: Hahaha

Yeah , but "Silly" is what Yakuza does best.

R.I.P. Tiger 1

Bonds of people is the true power. Shenmue was globally dead for 10 years and the very loyal and vocal fan base kept its name alive. It also does help that Shenmue is a better franchise than Yakuza.

Thanks. After looking into it I can't find info confirming Seishuu worked on 5 either. I saw some Japanese commenters noting they couldn't believe Seishuu was involved back when the game came out because of how poor the story was, but it could be they were simply misinformed of the fact.

Shenmue was groundbreaking. Okay the games dated but back then it was a revolution. Yakuza just isn't and never has been.

You're probably one of those weirdos that loves stupid shit like the 40 Year Old Virgin and despises good shit like Hot Fuzz. Just a guess.

That would be the Yogscast

I'm now really curious to an Extra Credits game. How does one design a game about game design? It will truly be the most pointless and amazing game of all time.

Shenmue and Yakuza could not be any more different from each other. It's honestly like comparing GTA IV to Just Cause 2. They incredibly different in tone and purpose.

Yakuza 1 & 2 were written by a crime novelist? Is the crime novelist any good? Because I can't really remember the story or remember caring too much for Kazuma's betrayal. And it did have some weird unrealistic shit in it that I kinda expected from a video game writer instead.

As for Shenmue, I've been waiting 14 years to kill Lan Di. How dare he murder Ryo's father. I will have my revenge.

Hase Seishu is an award-winning crime fiction novelist. He won a crime fiction award, and two of his novels were turned into movies. But since Yakuza is a video game, it's bound to have some gamey elements to its story. It also doesn't help that the first game didn't have good dubbing (Mark Hamill was the only good voice actor), so Sega just dropped the dubbing altogether in the sequels. Nevertheless, Yakuza is the most realistic crime simulator in gaming, with much of the series based on authentic Yakuza operations (it's been fact-checked with actual Yakuza), in contrast to GTA and its clones which are just based on Hollywood cliches of the Mafia.

The underground super surveillance part of the story was not necessarily 'gamey'. It just existed.

I've read that article before. They say half the stuff in the game is incorrect as much as half was correct. Also, it's the yakuza, who'll take any good PR thrown their way.

Yakuza is an old-school beat em up with an overly convoluted story. Shenmue is more of a detective game with a shit ton of QTE's and sometimes fighting that resembles a dumbed down Virtua Fighter game.

The only similarities between these 2 games are in the design of the mini-games and maybe a little bit when it comes to the art-style. :::Almost forgot, when you have to chase someone in Yakuza that's 100% taken from Shenmue.

Although the hype of Shenmue comes from a really tiny but loud minority. In the real world most people don't know what that game even is and I really doubt it will sell in the millions.

yeah that was it, couldn't come up with the name of the top of my head

Yakuza didn't go away for over a decade and then have a sequel announced at Sony's E3 stage just recently.

It was pretty good.