Shenmue - 70 Man Battle Highlights 3 [Combo Video]

In Shenmue, the Hazuki style is said to be revered by many for being as fierce as a tiger. Its wide range of moves allows practitioners to neutralize even the strongest of opponents, provided they are well versed and experienced. In this showcase of the Shenmue combat system, I have done my best to show off the beauty of this fictional, yet mesmerizing style of martial arts.
With this montage, I think I have fully explored Ryo's moveset in the HD remaster. This might just be my final combo video for this game, but you know how it is - never say never - I am sure I will eventually get around to playing Shenmue on Dreamcast and finally have the true Virtua Fighter experience! You know what that means.
---
Any share and feedback is much appreciated. Let's get more people to see this combat system in a different light!
Also, feel free to use this video/post it somewhere if you want to, but please credit me as the creator and player. ;)
---
If you're still here and want to see more Shenmue goodness, have a look at my other Shenmue combo videos!
Highlights 1: • Shenmue - 70 Man Battl...
Highlights 2: • Shenmue - 70 Man Battl...
Combo video starring Nozomi: • Shenmue Easter Egg - R...
---
Music used in order of appearance:
"TAKUMI 1988" from Yakuza 0 OST;
"Earth And Sea" from Shenmue OST;
"Harbor Beats" from Shenmue I & II Sound Collection;
"Choubu Chan Fighter 2" from Shenmue III;
"5th Street" from Dragon Ball Z Infinite World;
"Shenmue Goodies" from Shenmue Passport.
#Sega #Shenmue #シェンムー #VirtuaFighter #combat #combo #juggling #montage #fanmade #virtuafighter

[@deathgripssan6159]

This is really impressive. I always found Shenmue's combat to kind of tricky to pull off gracefully. Are the moves pulled of in relation to direction Ryo is facing? Do you perhaps know of a good guide video or tutorial you could point me towards?

[@RichardPayne5]

Thanks for the compliment. Unfortunately, the Shenmue’s combat system is a bit of a pain to get used to and can feel stiff and unresponsive at times.
Yes and No. You could say moves must be input according to the direction Ryo is facing, but I like to think about it another way. I keep in mind what direction the in-game (hidden) camera is facing. For instance, if the camera and Ryo are both facing forward, the move Rising Flash would require forward arrow, back arrow X2 in order for it to work. Let’s take another example: Say Ryo is facing the camera instead (the camera is still facing forward) and you want to hit an enemy who has his back to the camera/faces Ryo with the throw move Tiger Storm, you would have to input back arrow, forward arrow X2. As you might imagine, it’s difficult to explain in words, but I hope you get what I mean.
Sadly, there’s no real combat guide/tutorial that I’m aware of. I was in your same spot once and realized I could only get better by practicing, so I started playing the 70 Man Battle time trial mode (unlocked after beating the game and creating a “Clear save”) over and over again. I also watched the few combat videos available on UA-cam multiple times, especially those made by Shenmue fan TheKenjitoMaster ( ua-cam.com/users/AznDreamer11 ), in order to figure out what I was doing wrong and learn more about the game.
All that said, I might make an in-depth combat guide myself someday, but in the mean time I recommend you give the KenjitoMaster’s combo videos and mine's a watch, they will give you food for thought for sure!
Oh, and if you have any other questions, ask away! I’ll be glad to answer.

[@deathgripssan6159]

@@RichardPayne5 I didn't know you could unlock 70 Man Battle Time Trial so I'll have to load up my cleared save and get to work there! Also I believe I understand what you mean that the directional inputs are in relation to Ryo's orientation to the camera just like in Devil May Cry. Dante's stinger move is lock on + forward + melee and 'forward' is the direction Dante is facing.

[@RichardPayne5]

@@deathgripssan6159 Exactly. Nailing the inputs can be hard at times, but the more you practice the easier it becomes.
In any case, just to be more precise: Once you beat the main story, the game will ask you to create a Cleared save which you can use to carry over items and moves to Shenmue II. In addition to that, if you’re playing the remaster version, a new “70 Man Battle” option will appear on the main menu (that’s the time trial mode, which is the same fight without Guizhang ‘assisting you’). If you’re instead playing on Dreamcast, you’ll have to go to “Options”, then select “70 Person Free Battle Time Attack”. You can select whichever save file you want before taking on the challenge and your best times will be saved on a top 5 leaderboard.
Note that if you delete your Cleared save for whatever reason, the time trial mode will also disappear, so be careful!

[@kmodahighest]

@@RichardPayne5 pls do

[@RichardPayne5]

@@kmodahighest Hi, thanks for watching my videos! I've read your request of a combo tutorial on my other videos, may I ask if there is a specific combat topic you would like to see covered? I’ll be honest, I currently haven’t got the time to make a comprehensive combat tutorial, but I guess I could make some shorter videos explaining each topic.
As for how you do combos in Shenmue, it depends on what you view as a combo really. In this game, you can’t really make long chains of consecutive attacks without the opponent attacking you before you get to the next move, unless you know each move’s strength and weakness (mainly how fast it is and how its collision works) and you know exactly how the CPU behaves. It’s therefore something you figure out with time and lots of trial and error.
Let’s take the clip at 1:04 as an example, where I face off against Shingo (1st boss of the Mad Angels), a guy that tends to be fast and unpredictable. The first attack I come up with is “Against Cascade”, but I first need to take into consideration which direction Ryo’s facing before taking action; since he’s facing right, I input “Right, Right, X (on PS4)”, immediately followed by “Crawl Cyclone” (right, left, left, X). After that, I’m forced to cut the combo short, as any other move wouldn’t be fast enough and he would hit me instead, so I stop and wait for his next move. I let him attack and time a “Brutal Tiger” (right, left, Square+X) that pushes him forward a little, so I take the chance to squeeze in a “Rising Flash” - note that Ryo is now facing forward, so the input will be “forward, back, back, Square”. Once again, I’m forced to stop attacking and observe what he does next. I let him attack again, run towards him (by pressing R2) and input a “Sleeve Strike” (forward, back, Square), then I watch for his next move and time a “Dark Moon” (back, forward, Square+X), and finally finish the guy off with “Stab Armor” (forward, back, back, Square+X), a move that is barely fast enough to anticipate Shingo’s last attack.
As you can see, combos aren’t super smooth and don’t last long anyways. That said, there’s actually a way to combo in Shenmue and that is when enemies are falling/have fallen to the ground or when enemies hit walls (for example, after Tiger Storm's second thrust), in which case they fall in some sort of short, vulnerable state where you can potentially make an endless combo of attacks, like the “Chai combo” I’m sure you’ve seen. The problem is that this “state” usually lasts for a pitiful amount of time (it depends entirely on the animation triggered by the game. Once the animation ends, the opponent becomes invincible) and most moves are too slow to hit the enemies when they’re in such a state (hitboxes are very random too), so the result is that only a small selection of moves can be used for this purpose.
Take the clip I show at 0:47 as an example of this type of long-lasting combo:
Pedro uses his Drop Kick attack, but I dodge it, so he’s now falling to the ground, which means he is vulnerable and can be comboed. I hit him with a “Roll Counter” (one of the counters you can pull off after you dodge, the input is Square + X), immediately followed by a long sequence of “Mud Spiders” (Ryo is facing backwards, so the command is “forward, back, back, X”), which is one of the few moves that’s able to hit the opponent before the animation ends. I then switch off to Rising Flash (back, forward, forward, Square), which just barely manages to hit him before the state ends, followed by “Trample Kick” (back, X) and double “Side Reaper Kick” (forward, X) to finish him off.
I realize this all sounds very convoluted, but I hope this explanation makes for a good place to start in the mean time.