WTF ENERGY BALLS??? I thought that was a rumour! Thats appaling
I don’t think it would end on Shenmue III, there is a LOT of chapters left
EDIT: ok i’m calmed down now, thx geoff for the screens… but here:
I hate MMORPG’s where you level up… I doubt I will like this game… waits for it to get canned, or displayed as a big hoax
So you want the characters to remain static from start to finish? Where’s the fun in that? Ryo’s learning of new and better moves and the refining of them with more and more practice is, in a sense, levelling up… It all depends on how it’s done.
THIS IS THE WORST DISASTER EVER!
… ok that might be a little over the top but to be honest I would prefer for the shenmue series to die than for this to happen.
The strength of the Shenmue series were in:
I have no idea how Sega intends to make money from this or why people think it will increase the series’ fan base. I have been a fan of the series for a long time and I am horrified by this info. It may turn out that with more info the game will get better but I would not buy it anyway as I am not into MMOs that much. I doubt this will get wide appeal from the fanbase judging from Shenmue Dojo’s reactions so that leaves new fans as a possibility. But who is going to buy an MMO with magic kung fu based on a series that they have not played? I think gamers within that demographic would much more likely go for the Matrix Online.
To me this seems like Yu Suzuki spitting on Shenmue’s grave.
Whens the last time you saw someone training martial art and then creating a fireball? Realism was one of the reasons why I loved shenmue. I this this game will be terrible, and i hope I am proven wrong.
Scott, what you quoted of my post was obviously and clearly aimed at your comment about level ups, I don’t see why you wanna make it sound as if it said “Magic is cool!!!” or something. I disagree with special powers too, I still don’t want a static character though, wether there is “magic” or not.
And Jameth, ofcourse storyline in MMOs is not as good as in single player games, it’s just not feasable to be like that until we have AI powerful enough to act as a human Game Master and keep creating quests and storylines for every person in the game world according to what they do. Yes we aren’t going to see that anytime soon 
However in MMOs you can have your own storyline which is something you can’t have in single player games like Shenmue. If you are not into actual role playing then I suppose I can see why MMORPGs appear shallow but for RPG fans they can be very enjoyable and almost alternate lives…
This is why as I mentioned earlier I hope there’s lots of character interaction with people having to basically lead everyday lives with the need for a job, food, sleep, perhaps even going shopping and the like… Like some of what Ryo did in Shenmue 1 & 2, in order to reinforce the ability for Role Playing. When your character can do all those “real life stuff” you can customize him and give him personality much more.
And I feel that the ability to do such things would also introduce other elements like people hanging out at the bar and playing games after a hard day at work for example… Yes just like real life… So you won’t have this grand quest to take part in so what? Your grand quest will be your character’s life just like your grand quest here is your own life. Except your character’s life is bound to be more exciting in a game world based on Shenmue when for everything you do there’s the possibility some bully will appear (try and kick his ass? obey him?) or you will spot someone trying to steal something frm another player (help him? laugh? ignore?) or you will see people fighting at the marketplace (cheer? bet? kick the winner’s ass?) or spar with a friend at the dojo, or go out in some bar at night, or organize a coordinated attack to an enemy faction or…
So you won’t have a Lan Di to fight… You may very well have a player named “Geoffrey” that is very powerful and he and his gang terrorise the whole town you live into and have killed many many people… Are you going to train yourself like Ryo does in Shenmue and eventually overthrow Geoffrey with your friends? Or do you find what he does exciting and will train in order to join him? Or are you just going to try and move to another town hoping no bullies are there or atleast hoping there’s some “good” powerful characters there to protect people? Or indeed move to another town and do the same thing Geoffrey does but in a place you can call your own where you don’t have competition (for the time being)
I really can’t say many things like this now since we barely know anything about the game but the more depth they build into the world the more things will have the potential of happening and the more exciting that alternate life will be…
The game might end up NOTHING like I’m imagining and also NOTHING like you are imagining but saying there’s no potential in a title like this is just plain wrong.
I can see why people aren’t fond of this turn of events especially in regards to the introduction of special powers, whatever those may be, but I really don’t understand all the hostility and the certainity that this is going to suck or get canceled. We barely know anything about it. And it’s the team that brought us Shenmue on first place. What do you have against them to be certain this is just a cash in or something? As other people mentioned they could have picked another more popular game if it was just a cash in since it would have a much better chance of good sales. Though MMORPGs need much more than good sales, they need to be good enough to get people to keep playing them for a long time to come. I hope Sega can pull this off and make a game as groundbreaking as the original Shenmue was.
Many fans of this series loved the combat found in the games for its realism…
I can’t help but wonder if “fireballs” were introduced in order to appeal to a wider audience (it wouldn’t be the first time the mechanics of a game were changed for the benefit of potential new fans).
The question is: will there be an uproar in the Sega/Shenmue community if this game fails to reach our shores?
I don’t see how anyone can “love” the combat in the games when the controls are just so wrong and innacurate… If a Shenmue III is made they better keep the EXACT control scheme of the Virtua Fighter series rather than a chunky imitation of it…
Wether there is powers or not Sega better make a good control scheme for Shenmue Online… Which is going to be extremelly difficult seeing as how this going to be a PC game. Why is it a PC game anyway? With the cancelation of the X-Box’s Fantasy Live Online or whatever that MMORPG was called they could fill that gap themselves… Or try for a next gen console…
And like someone said earlier, with the ending of Shenmue II we see the potential of “magic” being introduced to the series, I don’t think the fireballs or whatever are introduced as something to make the game more appealing… After all Sega is going to publish The Matrix Online and there’s no powers like that in it are there? Though there are other kinds of powers it’s definitelly something that appears more realistic than “fireballs” coming out of people’s hands… And something closer to the japanese/chinese since they have all those Kung Fu movies with people nearly flying around and such…
Is there even a market for a game containing realistic martal arts anymore? Let’s hope that this is a change for the better as opposed to a change for the worse.
You are right Al3x, we lack the information to make any meaningful conclusions about the game, you can no more say that the game will be good because it will allow strong community aspects and real ife mirroring that we saw in shenmue that I can say it will suck because of crazy magic.
One thing we can say for certain is that there is a strong backlash against the information from the shenmue community, this isnt the info they wanted to see. It may be that the game turns out to be more attractive to the fans however the initial reaction is bad and not many game continuations are sucessful by shocking their fans. Either way it is a sign that Sega’s PR is not very good, there shouldnt be this arguement about whether the game is good and uncertainty about the magic + fireballs, Sega should have release info on the cool stuff in the game and some reassurance to the fans that shenmue online will at least resemble the feeling of shenmue.
Ah, but where you are wrong is, I never said that the game will be like this or will be good for SURE. That kind of replies I made were, as stated in my previous posts, merely showing that there is POTENTIAL in this kind of games when a lot of people here said there is no such thing about it. Saying it has POTENTIAL doesn’t mean I’m 100% sure Sega will expoilt that potential and make the game good. And I’ll quote the ending of one of my previous post’s paragraphs to show I clearly stated that in it as well.
“The game might end up NOTHING like I’m imagining and also NOTHING like you are imagining but saying there’s no potential in a title like this is just plain wrong.”
Sure there is a market for a game with realistic martial arts. VF4 and VF4: Evo sold really good didn’t they?
i still know enough to know that this is the stupidest idea i have heard off in at least the past 10 years XD
can we not agree that a skies MMO would have near infinitely more potential and DRAW to it? sega really makes the absolute worst decisions of the industry. sega seems to fall further each time they come up with a plan to get back on their feet.
There’s not much to say here that hasn’t been said already, but I’ll add my opinion that idea does have potential, depending on the creativity of the developers, and how well the final product is executed.
I’d be disapointed if it turned out to be a stereotypical MMORPG (where you fight “monsters” as somebody here put it), but judging my what Yu Suzuki did with the original Shenmue, I think we can expect greater things than that.
An MMORPG in the real world seems to defeat the object if you ask me…
Much thanks for pointing out where i was wrong.
I would have to agree with you, this idea does have potential. However regardless of the potential, its disclosure has been another failure by Sega’s Marketing. These are errors it cant afford to keep making.
heh, i still think this is a really dumb idea and whatever potential an MMO built out of the shenmue series has is always going to be a mere fraction of just about any other sega series’ potential.
I am sorry if it appeared tat way. It was not my intention to do so.
Anyways no of course it would not be any good f the characters stay “static”. I just do not like games where it is focused on levels, and if someone new comes there are annihilated by a lv99 veteran. However you rememinded me of the training system in Shenmue. Maybe if the “level ups” were implemented like that it won’t be so bad
I would consider it to be grossly and appallingly unfair to condemn Sega with the accusation that it is “abandoning its fanbase” with this title. Sega has been perpetually dedicated to conceiving the most engrossing and innovative titles - creating the game for the sake of the gamer, rather than for the sake of a few extra noughts on the end of the quarterly income review as foul and despicable S*ny is so fond of indulging in with its torrential deluges of reconstituted celebrity-licensed drivel. That Shenmue was ever devised at all is a testament to this admirable quality of the True Way of Gaming - Yu Suzuki knew from the very outset that Shenmue, as genuinely marvellous a title as it was, was destined to be a commercial flop… but he still created it. What else can be derived from that but knowledge of his and Sega’s utter dedication and devotion?
Unfortunately, Sega cannot thrust its head into the feeding tray like a woefully ignorant Coolia and hope that the Baldors whirling overhead will not slaver over its thick, nutritious hide. The fact remains that Sega’s financially compromised position means that it must limit its commendable ambition, and it is inevitable ramification of this that commercial factors must be accorded greater prominence in its modern portfolio. However, I am confident that this remains solely a pragmatic resolution ? once Sega has expurgated all of its debt and accumulated a sufficiently large reservoir of reserve funds to withstand the appalling and despicable prejudice against it by the Playstation-brainwashed hordes of ?casual gamers?, it can diversify again into its true appeal.
So, therefore, I do not deny that Shenmue Online has been conceived of with profit in mind? but crucially recall that this doesn?t prevent it from being a good game! The unique game mechanic of Shenmue has always been its F.R.E.E. system ? the scrupulous attention to detail to evoke a varied, thoroughly immersive world in which the player considers himself a genuine subject of a digital kingdom. Is this not the very prognosis for the theme of the M.M.O.R.P.G., the establishment of a vast online community? Contrary to being a departure from Shenmue, I would consider the prospective Online manifestation to be a natural diversification of the series.
Of course, some sacrifices of storyline will be inevitable ? but it has been stressed that Shenmue Online is detached from the canon of the ?true? games - coinciding with, rather than being an extension of, Ryo?s Chinese expedition, and as such it won’t ‘rape’ the plot. The Online format does not prevent storyline from being advanced, for all M.M.O.R.P.G.s include a ?Quest? format of one form or another and these objectives will most likely illustrate and render into greater detail the background of Shenmue.
And to all of those who see fit to petulantly whine about ?fireballs?, I would like to deliver you an excerpt from the browbeating I delivered to plebeians moaning about it on the Shenmue Dojo forums:
??The sheer, unremitting arrogance and ignorance of such opinions as those incontrovertible and prejudiced figures who are raving discordantly that “it must be bad as it’s got fireballs” (incidentally - ***IT WAS A TRAILER, BY GOD’S GRACE! IT WAS INTENDED TO APPEAR VISUALY ENTICING, NOT EXHIBIT GAMEPLAY!***) both astounds and appalls me. I find it depressingly reminiscent of the reaction to Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution, where thousands of curmudgeonly and introverted gamesplayers threw the game back at the Sonic Team’s faces on the sole basis of it being “Yu-Gi-Oh”, even when it wasn’t (you can view this odious opinion being expressed very frequently at PSO World). For Sonic Team’s labour and effort in manufacturing and sculpt a unique, individual title that sustains Sega’s commendable dedication to excelling innovation to be blatantly insulted and scorned in this manner filled me with absolute and unremitting revulsion. Regrettably, I believe I can witness the tragedy of this inconsolable mindset in its incipient germination amongst the Shenmue community, as well.?
I understand that some may be apprehensive about the new format of Shenmue, but remember that the game has yet to emerge even from its pre-alpha stage. Furthermore, recognise this: the Shenmue saga is Yu Suzuki’s magnum opus. All twenty-seven chapters of the project are his ardent, intense, and personal vision, and to scribe, illustrate, depict and dance the skeins of fate for Ryo and his compatriots is quite literally a labour of love for a man who is an undoubted royal Prince of the games industry. How could this revered and venerated nobleman of the Binary Order not approach any installment of the series that is veritably his child without his utmost dedication, diligence, determination and devotion?
And finally - was Panzer Dragoon Saga a bad game simply because it wasn?t a shoot-?em-up like Ein, Zwei and Orta? Of course not! The same logic should be applied to Shenmue Online.
To Shenmue gamers everywhere - recall the concepts of trust, faith, and loyalty. I have been a proponent of the True Way of Gaming that is Sega for over twelve years now, and Yu Suzuki has never disappointed me.
Well it was still crap it comparison to Pantasy Star Online 1 and 2, the true being that card games are great as a sepretae genre (lost kingdom etc.), but start putting them into reprected series and you have trouble. Not only that but you have to create a highly ridiculous plot (if such a thing is possible in the world of fantasy) in order to eplain it which reduces one of the genre (RPGs) greatest strenghts.
Wow!This is a surprise…
I don’t know if I should be glad a new Shenmue game is gonna be released or sad because it isn’t Shenmue 3.
I mean how is this Shenmue Online going to function storywise?What will make it Shenmue anyways?Will Ryu Hazuki be a NPC?How will the story be told?Is there even gonna be a static storyline like in the other games?