The Shenmue I & II rerelease has a new trailer to go along with preorders. The rerelease is slated for August 21st, 2018.
While many outlets refer to this collection as a remaster, it’s not. It’s a rerelease that exists somewhere between a port and a full remaster. There are notable improvements such as the game running in 1080p with wide-screen support and better load times. Still, this isn’t a remaster of the game. Instead, these are improvements that simply weren’t technologically possible when Shenmue I & II were released (which could arguably be called a remaster, but the company is not referring to it as such).
Adam Koralik, video game YouTuber who has a working relationship with SEGA, clarifies in his latest video: The gameplay for this will be in widescreen, however, I’m sure you’ve noticed [in] the trailers… every once in a while it goes down to 4:3. Well, the reason for that is simple. That’s the cutscene. The problem with Shenmue is it was the first open world game [and] was built from an engine they had to invent. [In terms of its programming] it’s a very complicated game…[S]ome of the original assets, like the cutscenes, were just made in 4:3. There is no way to add additional scenery to it. Where as, with the game[play], at least, you can actually get away with that.
Additional technological challenges are what make these games impossible to truly remaster. But considering all these challeng...