@nasar7: A game that doesn't incentivize you to explore those systems is a badly designed game imo. I like exploring systems, but only when the game justifies the effort in doing so.
There's nothing more disappointing than a game with deep systems that the game itself doesn't bother to capitalize on.
It would be like if they released Devil May Cry and the only challenging part of it was the final boss and the rest you could just mash buttons through. There may be a deep combo system there, but if the game didn't give you a reason to explore it then it's not rewarding to do so.
Right, but again, expectations were different at the time. You're applying modern game design philosophy to an older game. A lot of games at the time didn't reward you for everything, and that was ok.
But I feel like your argument doesn't really hold water nowadays, either. There's plenty of experimental indie games that don't justify these things, and you shouldn't expect every game to do that in the first place.
It's a different way to design games, yes. But it's not bad game design.
@vicious17: Alex is right? We'll talk again when they get to the Hundred Man Brawl and the second Chai fight.
Sure. But, if the game sudenly throws some super ahrd fight at you without ANY semblance of difficulty previously, is that not the game's fault? There's currently 0 reason for them to train. Unless of course they were psychic.
Depends on the person, I guess. Some people are in the "if the game doesn't force me to use these alternate weapons/tactics then I won't bother" camp while others just naturally enjoy digging into systems and learning new/more effective ways to do stuff for its own sake. I'm in the latter category and don't really get people in the former. Like, I understand the reasoning, but I'm not wired that way.
Definitely. And the people in the former are usually people that wouldn't have given the game a chance and probably would have just turned the game off. Given how much the story and game revolves around Ryo as a martial artist, it's kind just makes sense to train and practice all the different moves almost as if you were role playing as Ryo. You'd just incorporate that as part of your day in the game and use it as a time killer if you wanted to wait for certain things in the meantime.
I love them making fun of Mark's pronunciation of "Ryo" when none of them has ever pronounced it correctly. They continually call him Ryu, for christ's sake.
Well put! I wonder if they do that to be funny or if they truly are not paying attention. It's only three letters and other characters say his name like 100+ times in the game, you think they'd get it by now, right?
@zafir: Also, you could import your save to Shenmue 2 and make some quick cash pawning off your capsule toy collection.
Only in the Japanese import version. Unless you're referring to the EU version? If that's even compatible? It's unfortunate that they released the US version of Shenmue 2 only on XBOX. It kind of trivialized the scene at the end where they fight Chai and learn that move from Master Chen as well as all the other items you earn throughout the game that carry over.
@poperamone: I think it's more that you don't necessarily need to use the inventory to complete the game. There's a few utility features, like you can go onto the move list to see what fighting moves you can do, there's a calendar to check date, you can look at photos you've picked up, you can use the save and resume feature, you can see all your capsule toys, you can use the cassette player to play tapes, learn moves you've picked/bought and so on.
As for items you buy, dried fish/milk etc can be fed to the cat. Capsule toys are just collectibles so you don't really need to use them. Chocolate/Caramel/Crisps are a bit pointless - but buying them gives you a lucky draw ticket.
I wish they bought the Chocolate/Caramel/Chips at the Tomato Store! It would have been a much cheaper way of getting raffle tickets than the tapes. I don't know what Alex's logic is for why they needed to spend at least 300 yen in order to get a ticket.
@johnseminario: So to settle this, I just checked Episode 09.
At 11:19, while asking around for about Warehouse 8, they talk to Tom, and....
Ryo does not ask Tom at all about the Warehouse No. 8, unlike nearly every other character.
As a result, Tom can't have lied, because he was never asked. It was Ryo's fault, not Tom's. Tom Johnson is innocent, and Vinny and Alex have defamed this pure man's good character. They even try to ask him again, and Alex explicitly notes that they can't ask Tom about the Warehouse.
HOWEVER
A scant 11 seconds earlier, at 11:08, they ask Honey about Warehouse No. 8... and Honey claims to have no idea. Either she only goes there for the first time after Ryo first arrives at the harbor, or she's the liar.
FREE TOM
Very astute observation! I would still say that Tom AND Honey are innocent as the Hot Dog Truck is parked near the Old Warehouse District, so just because they are there doesn't mean they know what's around the corner. And according to what we have seen, they only recently moved to the Harbor area just when Ryo got there. So as brand new Hot Dog Truck Residents (Their legal title of course), I wouldn't expect them to know the area well enough to know the Old Warehouse District and that maybe they just picked that spot because it was open?
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