Shenmue - How to guard Block, dodge, armlock, counter and more Combat tutorial

[@CmacNYC]

Man this battle system was ahead of its time. So much depth

[@Dr.Luckyshot]

True, and it had room to be improved upon in future iterations if SEGA hadn't given up on the franchise. Such a shame.

[@TheAnimatedGamer]

​@@Dr.Luckyshotthey did improve it. It's called virtua fighter

[@RyanBell-k6c]

Yes a they took it out when they made shenmue 3 which is why I do not like shenmue 3

[@RyanBell-k6c]

​​@@TheAnimatedGamerwrong! Virtue fighter is before shenmue, if anything they improve it with shenmue 1&2

[@IH8Sprinkles]

That damn Pedro

[@GuillaumeLevasseur]

Wow, thank you for this video, I’m enjoying the fights a lot more now that I know about the block stance. Incredible how deep is this system, it’s like the rest of the game.

[@renners4367]

Amazing video guys just goes to show how polished the fighting system was back then

[@GLASSGHOSTHUNTERS]

There's also a move where you gut punch them, then run behind them and kick them over. The amount of hidden moves in this game is mind blowing. Also, there's a moment early in the game where you can meet a man practicing Tai Chi in the park and he teaches you a palm strike. If you use it on Fukuharu when you spar he will say "What was that move???" When you max the move out, it turns into a double palm strike. It's similar to a move learned in S2.

[@RichardPayne5]

Yeah, there’s all sorts of other moves I didn’t show as they didn't fit the topic of this video. The palm strike move you’re referring to is the Double Blow, taught by Yamagishi in Shenmue 1. Fuku-san indeed acknowledges it as a move he’s never seen before, which is one of those small details we love so much about Shenmue. 🔥 In Shenmue 2, Double Blow becomes a much stronger move, because it gains the ability to temporarily stun the opponent if used when the enemy is open for attack. There’s also the Twin Palm Thrust, which is a move you buy and looks a little like the Double Blow, but is quicker but not as strong.

[@thatvideogamesshow]

Great tutorial!

[@ShenmueDojoVOD]

Lan Di won’t stand a chance now! 💪

[@cristianorodrigues6895]

daaaamn after years playing the game and finishing it plenty of times, I never saw the move at 4:12 - 4:14 incredible how after so many years I still manage to discover something new about the game each time

[@jeremiahgrayest]

A Shenmue 2 and 3 video would be cool. S2's combat differs a bit from S1, but S3 is a whole different animal

[@RichardPayne5]

That’s something I will eventually do, at least for Shenmue 2, and maybe even the prototype version, which seems to differ from the final game. I can’t however say the same for Shenmue 3. I have only played it twice between 2019 and 2020 and the combat did not catch my interest the same way the Dreamcast games did. Maybe I’ll give it another chance someday and will love it so much I make videos about it? I honestly can't see that happening. 😅

[@Incubusnut]

Shenmue III wasn’t a very good game. I loved Shenmue I and II, though.

[@Incubusnut]

@@Bloodyshinta1. It’s not “hotdog water”, it’s Grade A SHIT.

[@hodgeyfitness6058]

Thank you this makes the fighting easy I thought you could only dodge away from attacks

[@lengmoua22]

The camera angles sometimes kills me when executing moves. And I wish we could toggle switch between targets when fighting groups.

[@TeamGguN]

Good video

[@tristanjones7682]

How do you do that kick where you kick the opponents back at 0:15?

[@RichardPayne5]

This is kind of an obscure action, as it’s only available in Shenmue 1 and it can only be used under specific circumstances. Simply press the throw button (B on Dreamcast and Xbox, Circle on Playstation) while behind the opponent (you must be close and the opponent must be vulnerable, meaning he’s not attacking). However, there’s some additional info you might want to know before trying it out in game. If you know Ryo’s moveset, you may have realized these are the same conditions as Back Twist Drop (that suplex-like throw). In Shenmue 1, if the opponent still has enough health and can’t be KOed by Back Twist Drop, only then the game triggers the kick push, otherwise (if the opponent has low health) the game will perform Back Twist Drop. This effectively means you will never be able to use the kick push on weak opponents, and you will not be able to use Back Twist Drop on strong opponents unless you weaken them first. This was changed in Shenmue 2, where the kick push was removed (probably deemed pointless by the developers) and Back Twist Drop can be used in both scenarios, with two slightly different animations triggered depending if the enemy withstands the throw move or not. About the specific clip I show at the start of the video, you may also notice Fuku-san is not showing his back to Ryo, but somehow I was still able to perform the kick push. That’s caused by a glitch in the game where, if you block an incoming high kick (like the one Fuku-san used) and immediately run towards the opponent and press the throw button, the game will act as if you’re behind the opponent, even though it wasn’t the case. If you wait a little longer before pressing the throw button, then the game will not glitch out. One other thing I’ll mention is you can potentially lock the opponent into an infinite kick push chain by nailing the exact moment the enemy becomes vulnerable, but just before he retaliates. I kind of show that at the start of the video too, performing two kick push actions in a row, but doing that is extremely precise and also completely pointless!

[@tristanjones7682]

@@RichardPayne5 Thank you for explaining this and pointing this out it helps!

[@Purplespikyjoe]

I'm very disappointed that you didn't take the opportunity to use "that move" against Fuku-san every time you cut back to sparring against him.

[@RichardPayne5]

Funny you say that, that's how I originally edited the scenes with Fuku-san, but I later changed my mind because I thought I was overusing the joke and edited them out. 😅

[@IH8Sprinkles]

All my years playing shemnue I never saw thiss

[@Kamui-tx1vd]

Hazuki IS the best fighter in fiction.

[@benditogames]

i have a question if you're still answering them and it's if it's possible to actually battle against the untouchable enemies in shenmue 2? like the old man at the park because no matter what i do I can't hit them once

[@mattoliver18]

You can get the odd hit but it's virtually impossible

[@benditogames]

@@mattoliver18 that's why I'm asking, is it like coded in that they will avoid every punch or is there some sort of trick to it

[@RichardPayne5]

@@benditogames Sorry for the late reply, haven't checked these videos in a while. Like Matt said, you can get the occasional hit on Jianmin, I think with Twin Swallow Leap and Cyclone Kick (probably a bug), but Xiuying on the other hand can't be hit at all, no matter what you do. They were definitely coded like that and there's no "victory" outcome whatsoever. I did manage to "defeat" Jianmin once by messing with the game's memory, but the game will just act like the sparring session is over or, in the case of the story spar fight, move to the next cutscene. I was never able to get the same results on Xiuying, but we can assume the game would just move to the next cutscene.

[@RyanBell-k6c]

So sad that none of these moves where in shenmue 3 and where taken out😢 all you do on there is just block and fight which was a complete bore