A young martial artist, Ryo Hazuki, continues his quest to avenge his father's death. His journey takes him from Yokosuka, Japan to the bustling streets of Hong Kong, where he encounters a rich tapestry of characters, engages in part-time jobs, and hones his martial arts skills.
the homoerotic tension between ryo and ren is too much for me to handle. anyway disc 4 of this is peak video games, the scenery is so beautiful
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An epic odyssey of a second game in contrast to an epic disaster of a third game. Shenmue II is such a beautiful narrative achievement, which just makes the awful third game look even worse by comparison.
a bit of advice on which version to play: The original English releases of the game have censorship of LGBT characters. In the original JP release, Yuan (a queer, AMAB female-presenting character) is portrayed by a male voice actor. In the Dreamcast PAL release of Shenmue II (which is Japanse dub only), they re-recorded the Japanese dub for Yuan with a female voice actress to hide their queer identity. In the English dub (Xbox version, English dub in HD Remaster), Yuan is dubbed with a female voice actress as well. These changes were reverted in the Japanese dub in the Shenmue HD collection, restoring Yuan's original voice lines and preserving their character.
tl;dr Play the HD Remaster with the Japanese Dub for the most accurate and as-intended portrayal of the characters. Unless there's a version that undubs Yuan for the Dreamcast PAL version that I'm unaware of.
There's no mention or even implication of Yuan being transgender in the Japanese version. He was intended to be a gay transvestite, and tbh even if they were trans I don't think giving a trans character a feminine voice as opposed to a masculine voice is erasure. The English dub is goated anyway.
most braindead review ive ever read lol. it doesn't even make sense since yakuza came out 4 years after shenmue 2 and they're very different games theres no point in comparing them
we really, really need to stop people from comparing Shenmue to Yakuza and Judgement lmao, they're hardly similar at all outside of superficial similarities (both martial arts games, both open world with lots of side activities, both from SEGA). It's the lowest of low hanging fruit and a lowbrow comparison to make.
Shenmue is like a mystery life simulator sandbox adventure game with some combat sequences and minigames in-between. The point is to experiment within the environment and experience Ryo's life, find secrets, trigger events and collect shit.
If you actually had to make comparisons, it's much closer to something like Shadow of Destiny[シャドウ・オブ・メモリーズ], Deadly Premonition, Flower Sun & Rain[花と太陽と雨と], or Mizzurna Falls[ミザーナフォールズ] but even then it's a stretch to make those comparisons. Really nothing's like it.
The original English releases of the game have censorship of LGBT characters. In the original JP release, Yuan (a queer, AMAB female-presenting character) is portrayed by a male voice actor. In the Dreamcast PAL release of Shenmue II (which is Japanse dub only), they re-recorded the Japanese dub for Yuan with a female voice actress to hide their queer identity. In the English dub (Xbox version, English dub in HD Remaster), Yuan is dubbed with a female voice actress as well. These changes were reverted in the Japanese dub in the Shenmue HD collection, restoring Yuan's original voice lines and preserving their character.
tl;dr
Play the HD Remaster with the Japanese Dub for the most accurate and as-intended portrayal of the characters. Unless there's a version that undubs Yuan for the Dreamcast PAL version that I'm unaware of.
Shenmue is like a mystery life simulator sandbox adventure game with some combat sequences and minigames in-between. The point is to experiment within the environment and experience Ryo's life, find secrets, trigger events and collect shit.
If you actually had to make comparisons, it's much closer to something like Shadow of Destiny [シャドウ・オブ・メモリーズ], Deadly Premonition, Flower Sun & Rain [花と太陽と雨と], or Mizzurna Falls [ミザーナフォールズ] but even then it's a stretch to make those comparisons. Really nothing's like it.