Shenmue II

Plot synopsis:
In 1987, teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki arrives from Japan in Wan Chai, Hong Kong on the trail of his father's killer, Lan Di, of the criminal Chi You Men organization. He searches for Master Lishao Tao, the only link to the whereabouts of Yuanda Zhu, a martial arts expert who sent Ryo's father a letter warning him of Lan Di's intentions. When Ryo finds Tao, whose real name is Xiuying Hong, she refuses to help, considering his quest for vengeance reckless. The two part ways, but Xiuying continues to monitor Ryo's progress.
Ryo encounters Wuying Ren, the wily leader of a street gang. Ren decides to help Ryo after deciding there may be money to be made in Ryo's mysterious phoenix mirror; Lan Di took the second mirror, the dragon mirror, when he killed Ryo's father. Wong, a street boy who admires Ren, and Joy, a free-spirited motorcyclist, assist Ryo in his journey.
Ren informs Ryo that Zhu is hiding from the Chi You Men in Kowloon Walled City, a densely populated, crime-ridden enclave of Hong Kong. They locate Zhu there but are ambushed by the criminal Yellow Head organization and Zhu is kidnapped. Ryo and his allies infiltrate the Yellow Head headquarters, but Wong and Joy are captured. Ryo rescues Joy by defeating a powerful martial artist. On the rooftop of the Yellow Head building, Ryo rescues Wong and Zhu from the Yellow Head leader, Dou Niu, as Lan Di departs by helicopter.
At Ren's hideout, Zhu reveals that Lan Di killed Ryo's father because he believes Iwao killed his own father. He also reveals that the mirrors will lead to the resurrection of the Qing Dynasty, the last imperial dynasty of China. Zhu advises Ryo to continue his search in Bailu Village in Guilin, where he says Lan Di is also heading.
In the mountains of Guilin, Ryo rescues a young woman named Shenhua Ling, who has dived into a raging river to rescue a deer. Shenhua's family is connected to the legacy of the mirrors, and she seems to have magical abilities. They walk through the mountains to her village. At Shenuha's family home, a tree named Shenmue (Chinese for "sedge tree") is in bloom; she explains that her name means "flower of the Shenmue tree". The pair go to a stone quarry on the village outskirts to meet Shenhua's father, but find he is missing. They discover a cryptic note and sword; Ryo combines the sword with the phoenix mirror, triggering a device that reveals a large mural of the dragon and phoenix mirrors.

Tags: romantic, flashback

Review:
The opening is fantastic, with beautiful real-time graphic scenes, but is not revolutionary.
Even with some mistakes and graphic failures, the graphic is excellent with a high grade of details.
Women, main characters, motos and children are well designed, with good texture.
Can not be said about the men characters.
It is as good as the first, maybe better.
If SEGA releases it in English, we, owners of Dreamcast, will be happy to continuing play the Saga to achieve it's end!.
I want to thank 'whathasntbeentaken'.
for those kind words: "I personally preferred the English voice for Dou Niu over the Japanese one.
Dean Harrington's performance gave the Yellowhead leader a much more menacing quality, he genuinely sounded like someone who could and would crack your skull in two if he felt like it,"...
I have to tell you that it was a tough job!
That voice was one of the hardest I've ever done!
You comments are inspiring!
Thanks much!!!
As game go, I thought Shen Mue 2 was going to have greater success.
I guess I was wrong about that.
It doesn't get the kudos it should.
I have to say the actors and staff put a lot of hard work into the game.
It was done over a 6 months period and the gig was intermittent, so, many of us had to review the voice trailers to remember just how we did the voice.
That might be one of the problems with regard to imbalances or differences in the quality of the voices.
I might add that it was a big effort by the game maker and was also a big budget.
They took a chance with Shen Mue 2.
I hope they made their money back.
In this business that is one of the most difficult things to do!
all the best Dean Harringon.
A Great Game.
"I think that shenmue II or shenmue I for that matter are the two biggest underrated games of ALL TIME.
Now I think that Yu Suzuki went all out to make a story that would capture the viewer/players soul and take them on an adventure, and that it did.
I think that "shenmue & shenmue II are the best video games of all time".
I love the way the game is so free for you to do what ever you wan't.
If you wan't to go talk to some of the many NPC in the game go for it, its that free.
It took over 7 years with over 20 million$ For the game to be made then 2 years later Shenmue II came out.
Both Underrated games.
I love Shenmue and its story its so free..
One of the best games I've ever played.
I thought the first Shen mue was a good game.
It was a flawed game in many ways, but it was original, and once the story started moving I really wanted to find out what was going to happen next.
But the second game is were the story really begins to shine, and is a much better game in almost any way.Shen mue II starts out right after the first one, with Ryo arriving in Honh Kong.
Here he starts his search for Lan Di, the man who killed his father.
Sadly he is quickly robbed and must start earning money (so much for all the money I imported from my Shen mue save game...).
Sadly this means that the story starts pretty slowly.
But in a few hours you will be on track and have met several interesting characters, and when you finally reach disc 2 the game really starts.
And from here it only gets more and more interesting.One of the more interesting things about the story is that Ryo is an idiot.
He doesn't care for anything else than revenge, and treats the characters that tries to help him pretty badly.
This is also one of the flaws with the story, as why people continue to help him is a bit beyond me.
Thankfully he grows a bit throughout the story, especially after he meets Ren, who is much more interested in helping himself than in helping Ryo. They form an interesting alliance, and it helps that Ren is damn cool.The thing I liked best about Shenmue though is that it feels like you're playing a high budget kung fu movie.
If you like cinematic games this is the game for you.
But, unlike cut scene heavy games like Xenosaga, they actually made many of the cut scenes interactive in this game.
In a lot of scenes you will have to press different buttons to make Ryo do the right things.
It's very simple in theory, but it works very well, and makes the cut scenes that much more involving.
It feels like you're playing a movie, not just watching one, and there's a good mix between these cut scenes and you doing all the action yourself; You'll do plenty of fighting by yourself as well.
They also treat the subject matter with great respect.
You'll meet up with a lot of different kung fu masters in the game, and you can learn new tricks for use in combat from them.
You'll hear a lot of kung fu philosophy about the moves, and how you perform the new moves usually is linked to this.
Overall I got the feeling that the creators love and respect martial arts, and it translates well into the game.I played the PAL Dreamcast version of the game, which has Japanese voice acting with subtitles.
I would recommend this version over the XBox version, because the Japanese voice acting works well with the very eastern feel of the game.
This is Hong Kong in the 80s, and the game works hard to make sure it feels that way.
It's true that it is a bit strange hearing everyone in Hong Kong talk in Japanese, but it still works way better than hearing them talk badly dubbed English.
It also helped that Japanese voices were excellent, of course.This is not to say the game is not without it flaws.
But the magic of the game is that I truly didn't care.
I was so caught up in the story and feel of the game that I couldn't care less everything wasn't perfect.
If you like games with a good story and eastern kung fu movies, I can't see you not liking this game.
It's sad that the first hours aren't that great, but if you stick with the game it's worth it.
I only hope that Sega will one day make a third game, because it's a real shame if a series that started this good will end up unresolved..
the best.
this game is truly the best game i have ever played.
its just like a movie with countless added extras.
the storyline is great and you just cant tear yourself away from playing.
the graphics are breathtaking .
the game is funny , touching and emotional well done sega i really hope they are planning to bring the film out 10/10 the best!!!!1 raven -v-.
Not bad, but it is both stronger and weaker than the first..
Shenmue II is not a bad game at all.
The cut scenes and in game actions flow well (though sometimes the in game things feel a tad blocky) and the music, probably because it was mostly borrowed from the original, is great as always.
It is both better and worse than the first game, too.
This time there is far more character development and interactions feel more realistic (the money isn't just for show this time).
Unfortunately, it is much more linear, sometimes forcing you into a certain task or not allowing you to leave an area because you didn't talk to enough people.
The voice actors both increased and decreased in quality too, and anyone who dismisses it as universally bad is obviously biased.
The best of the lot is probably Wuying Ren's actor, who sounds great in both versions.
I personally preferred the English voice for Dou Niu over the Japanese one.
Dean Harrington's performance gave the Yellowhead leader a much more menacing quality, he genuinely sounded like someone who could and would crack your skull in two if he felt like it, while the Japanese one was not so much, and almost sounded constipated when he calls out to Lan Di (who has just taken off on a helicopter to watch the fight between him and Ryo from a safe distance).
As bad as people say he is, Corey Marshall (voice of Ryo Hazuki) is acceptable at worst and sometimes downright good (for example, when watching the Greg More scene, I couldn't help but feel Corey did better than his Japanese counterpart.
In the English version, you really feel how annoyed he is at Ren, who had just forced him into a fight with the pro wrestler, and his desire to end things when he growls "I'll show no mercy").
The actors for Baihu and Shenhua are probably the weakest, but they are still alright.
The game also feels more like, as a previous reviewer said, an Eastern martial arts movie.
The scenes when you fight Baihu in a steel cage (and where he claims "he'll remember that name" when Ryo says his name after winning) and the rooftop fight felt nothing short of Epic.
Definitely worth purchase.8/10