Shenmue - VS Chai at You Arcade [No Demon Drop]

Chai is infamous for being (arguably) the toughest opponent in the series, being a huge difficulty jump from previous FREE battles. In addition to that, the version you face at You Arcade has 100% evasion to all throw moves (except for Demon Drop, which can't be dodged by the CPU in Shenmue I), high evasion to all punches and kicks, high chance of blocking incoming attacks and, worst of all, hits like a truck.
At first glance, the arena seems pretty terrible: it's tiny and narrow and you can't easily navigate through it, but it does give you the chance to lock Chai into a potentially endless chain of attacks (as seen in the video), provided you know which moves you should use and when you should use them, so it might actually help you deal more damage.
Chai only has a bunch of throw moves and grabs, which wouldn’t be too bad if he didn’t abuse the crap out of them: according to my tests, you can’t dodge any of them except maybe the arm grab. He can also counter all of your punches (even Elbow Assault) with a nasty punch that comes out of nowhere, so kick attacks are definitely safer to use. Speaking of moves, the best moves to use against him are Side Reaper Kick, Surplice Slash, Hold Against Leg, Mud Spider [Intermediate Level], Crawl Cyclone [both Base and Intermediate], Brutal Tiger [Base], Cyclone Kick [Intermediate], Katana Mist Slash and Rising Flash [Intermediate]. Dark Moon [Base and Intermediate] is a unique case, being able to knock down Chai if it connects (also shown in the video), which translates into easy combos. The rest of the moves are overall hit or miss - they don't seem to work particurarly well with Chai’s AI and hitbox.
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For those who struggle against him, the dodge/parry button is your best friend here. Whenever you parry an attack, you have a small window to input a move that will 100% hit the opponent, provided you're fast enough to pull it off in time: Demon Drop is the preferred option, since enemies can't escape from it for some reason.
Spamming Crawl Cyclone is another popular choice, as Chai often gets caught off guard when you use it.
A similar scenario occurs when you make use of untrained Brutal Tiger. Strangely enough, once this move reaches "Intermediate/Moderate" level, it will always miss him, which is a real bummer.
#Sega #Shenmue #シェンムー #chai #fight #combat #combo #juggling

[@junker1192]

Chai: Hyyyeeeegh!
Ryo: Ooh nice, a new QTE title to play on. Ima go for the highscore!
Chai: Nani? *gets combo'd into oblivion*

[@RichardPayne5]

Chai is lucky Ryo knew when to stop. If he'd kept going for as much time as he usually goes when buying capsule toys, who knows if Chai would have even left the arcade alive?! 😂

[@rjac1989]

Man, I wish I could play half as good as you. That was some insane blocking, all while making the fight look easy! If I remember right, he’s probably the toughest fight in the saga so far right?

[@RichardPayne5]

It’s actually an interesting debate. Some people consider Chai at the Arcade the hardest fight in the series, while others believe Izumi to be an even tougher fight. I for one wouldn’t know which one to pick… both can be a nightmare to deal with! Maybe I'd go for Izumi, because she dodges more often and her QTE can catch you off-guard even when you know it’s coming.
Funny you say you’re impressed with my fighting, because I kinda cringed when I looked back at my performance in the video. 😅
My combat skills and game knowledge were definitely still “unripe” back then, so I guess I can’t be too hard on myself. The more recent Final Boss Chai video is a more up-to-date representation on how you can fight Chai like a true Hazuki warrior! 👊😎
By the way Richard, I’m sure you can do it! I’m not joking when I say anyone can play like this. 😉
Here's a condensed version on what I wrote to another person telling me the same thing! Give it a read if you're interested. 😁
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I played Shenmue for the first time in 2018 and was absolutely atrocious at it. Despite my best intentions, I couldn’t get a clear grasp on how the combat system worked, and in fact couldn’t even lay a finger on Chai at the arcade (I could barely beat him at the harbor too).
One day though, I stumbled on TheKenjitoMaster’s Shenmue videos on UA-cam. His skill was on another league entirely, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Watching his videos inspired me to give the combat system another chance. I (very slowly…) learned to mimic what he did in his videos, and before I knew it, I too could finally defeat Chai without spamming Crawl Cyclone over and over!
I owe both TheKenjitoMaster and afterblue (a 70MB speedrunner) a lot, for making me fall in love with Shenmue’s combat system and time attack mode, and most importantly, for making me appreciate the series even more!

[@rjac1989]

@@RichardPayne5 technically I’ve only ever tried fighting Izumi once of twice but from what I remember, I wanted none of that fire 😂especially when it came to the qtes and I normally love those lol. I don’t want to sound too hopeless man but you’re early attempts make my current attempts look so mediocre. I’ve played this game for a very long time and I still dread the thought of fighting Chai in the Arcade 😅
Just checking out TheKenjitoMaster’s channel, I’m quite surprised I never saw any of his content before, but it’s awesome how you took inspiration from his videos and how you’ve carried the torch so to speak. Now other players can get a little more educated on how diverse the battle system can be. I wouldn’t have fully realised that myself had it not been for your videos so thanks man!

[@thekenjitomaster]

Setting a WR for this fight as well huh? Lol. Nice fighting!

[@RichardPayne5]

Thanks for the compliment man! You know, I am not even sure a WR for this fight exists lol. And besides, I am certain a perfectly-timed chain of Demon Drops would make for a way faster fight. I’ll have to give it a try someday, I reckon it’s not too difficult (the biggest pain is watching that cutscene over and over again :/).

[@Coopahtino]

GG

[@jasewildheart]

How the hell do you do that. I really suck at the fighting on this.

[@RichardPayne5]

I completely understand where you’re coming from. This is the result of months of repetitive practice in the 70 Man Battle time trial mode. If you want to get better at the game, I’m afraid there’s no easy way around it. The thing is, there’s a complete lack of combat tutorials both from the game itself and the community. Another problem is that the games don’t have a true ‘practice mode’ where you can customize your training and slowly get to learn all moves and mechanics the game has to offer. That is, in my opinion, the main reason why mastering the Shenmue’s combat system is such an uncommon, challenging task.
In any case, my suggestion would be to try and do what I did years ago: try watching TheKenjitoMaster Shenmue videos ( ua-cam.com/users/AznDreamer11 ), along with my Shenmue videos, and try to replicate what we do in the 70 Man Battle Time Trial mode (the one you unlock after beating the game and creating a “Clear save”). Start from what looks easier to do (for example - learning all move inputs, using throw moves,learning a couple of simple combos, speedrunning the 70 Man Battle for fun, and so on) and slowly build your muscle memory. This exercise may require multiple attempts and a lot of guesswork, depending on the complexity of what you’re trying to do, but I can guarantee it will produce results. It worked for me!
I have recently published my first combat tutorial, which focuses on the juggle combo mechanic as found in Shenmue I. It’s a very complex topic and maybe not the easiest technique to start off with, but nevertheless I think you may learn a couple of interesting quirks about the combat: give it a watch if you have some spare time ua-cam.com/video/vmdku1dWgR0/v-deo.html&lc=Ugytu_IFwf8ydyaDiil4AaABAg .
Hope this helps!

[@jasewildheart]

@@RichardPayne5 wow thanks for the detailed answer..I was hoping there was less to learning it haha. I think I'm far too lazy and have too many other games to play so will juat take the loss to this guy.
Badass fighting you did here though.
Cheers bro

[@whyzyttf]

Dangin why I couldn't beat him

[@RichardPayne5]

If you're having trouble beating him, Crawl Cyclone and Side Reaper Kick are two moves that work particurarly well against Chai, though he may occasionally block them after you've used them a couple of times each. Demon Drop is another great option, since he can't dodge it and does a lot of damage to him, but if you're having trouble using throw moves, it may not be as easy as just spamming Crawl Cyclone and Side Reaper Kick.
One other thing you could do is press/spam the guard button (Y on Dreamcast and Xbox, Triangle on PS4/PS5) while standing still; most of Chai's moves can in fact be blocked, and you can counterattack with a move of your liking while he's stunned.

[@kmodahighest]

is this the HD remake

[@RichardPayne5]

It’s the PS4 remastered release, with the OST version of Chai’s Theme edited in. The remaster is great as it runs at higher resolution and it’s a very convenient way to play Shenmue nowadays, but it does suffer from poor audio quality and somewhat broken collision in FREE battles.

[@kmodahighest]

@@RichardPayne5 the combos work how

[@RichardPayne5]

@@kmodahighest It’s not that you can’t combo in the HD remaster, since most combos still work like they did on Dreamcast. It’s that some of the move hit-boxes somehow got disabled (a couple of examples would be the hit-box after Shadow Blade or the hit-box after the first part of Arm Break Fire), which means you have overall less options available.
I would also add that the combo I do at 1:35 is purely luck-based, as Rising Flash has a terribly inconsistent collision detection and rarely ever works out as well as it did here.

[@kmodahighest]

@@RichardPayne5 sad face