r/retrogaming

So I know Shenmue 1 is talked about as one of the greatest games of all time and I can see that perspective there's a level of interactivity and immersion that games just didn't have. From feeding the cat every day to seeing the same people go about there day plus the story was a little cheesy at times but I overall enjoyed it. Though i found the map to be weirdly tiny.

Shenmue 2 initially gave me whiplash at the sheer size of the map alone any criticism I made of the first was gone and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger I really felt like I just stepped off the boat and was lost in the city with barely enough money to get around and buy maps. and at the half way point the game doubled in size again.

But as I played i felt like the game traded size for immersion.

Chats with strangers were solely just to get directions, gamble or ask for work and there wasn't that many hidden surprises to discover

To me it felt like the game lost a bit of it's identity here.

Also i know there was QTE's in 1 but it felt like 2 was obsessed with them almost as if to many people criticised the 100 man battle so they made every large enemy encounter a qte

The story was also a step back here with the writing making no real sense. Why would Joy help you time and time again when you just got off the boat and Ryo was kind of a dick to her at least initially. I still have no idea if Ren was a friend or a manipulative bastard that you couldn't get rid of and why would Xiuying let you crash in her apartment when you first meet with no idea who you are

The epilogue was also a good hour loner than it needed to be but that might have been my fault for trying to get all the dialogue options.

Overall i can say i liked it but i can't help but be a bit let down it's like this game was a bit rushed in development like the final days of the dreamcast were coming so they needed to cut down the story and interactions and just get it done

I'm curious how do you look at Shenmue 2? Is it a case of i need to STFU and i just don't get it or was it a step down or something different entirely?

Edit: Also while i remember it interactivity in general is way down in the first game you have to enter a dark room but you had to find a light source first there was multiple solutions to this puzzle including going to buy a flashlight then eventually having to breakdown a wall but in 2 i can't remember a single moment in the game like this outside of going into one room and having to move a box off of a bin to find some tapes

I've always loved retro games, I was never one to completely ditch my old consoles for the new ones. But I would always keep up with new releases and buy many new games each year.

But a couple years ago I went through a stretch where I only played retro games. When I came back to modern games again, they felt so... empty? I don't know the right word. But they felt less like a game for me to play and explore and more like an experience for me to have. They are so handholdy, difficulty is gone, any difficulty that remains is decried for being "inaccessible," and there is so much "quality of life" that they feel homogenized and stale. All of the character is stripped away.

Even game series that felt retro in their design feel like they eventually make these concessions to appease modern gamers. Like comparing Dark Souls to Elden Ring or Returnal to Saros. Really the only recent release that's captured me is Silksong, and before that I think Lies of P.

What are your thoughts? Do you find yourself becoming more disillusioned with modern games and turning towards retro gaming?

Edit: Interesting to read all the different perspectives. I guess I should clarify that by "done" with modern games, I don't mean there are 0 good modern games. Moreso that I don't feel the need to get the next consoles for the first time in my life, because I prefer to just play the 100s of retro games I haven't yet played.

Any options to play N64 game cartridges on handheld? I love my Supaboy and SNES handheld. Any options for N64?

I received around 50 floppy disks that the company I work for would throw away. There’s nothing classified or important in them, so I can format it without worries. My question is: how can I use them in a creative manner (even if it's not gaming related)?

Of course, the most obvious thing to do would be to discard it or use it as decoration, since they have much less space when compared to other media. But since you also like retro games around here, I think you’d agree with me that there’s some charm to using old technology.

I thought about storing some SNES and Game Boy games, as well as games from other consoles that don't take too much space. That way, I could play them on an old computer, maybe using Windows XP (or a version prior to it).

(I’ll maybe store some of the books I eventually write, since I’m an amateur writer and text documents are so small – of course, I’ll back it up in other places too).

Any other suggestions/tips?

What’s a retro game you thought was amazing as a kid, but revisiting it now completely changed your opinion?

I’m planning to make a retro-gaming space in my house. I have SNES, N64, PS1, and an NES emulator. I would like to set them up seamlessly on one TV. I’m not very tech savvy but I’m assuming there are junctions you can buy to have all systems converging on one input to the TV.

Any suggestions?