I did some preliminary research and yes, it looks like there''s going to be some gaps in the Notebook, but since is technically impossible to have them all filled in, I suppose getting everything else should be good enough. Besides this is mostly a technical issue, since from what I read the second game has the same situation, but they were smart enough to make alternate entries interchangeable, so there's zero gaps if you are thorough.
I will be playing the Dreamcast PAL version and will be save transferring into the Shenmue II PAL game. Now I don't know if I'm going to simply go on with Shenmue II right after I'm done with I, simply because I don't know how long completing I is going to take. But it would be ideal if I do the two games back to back especially with the third one coming out next year.
pierrot wrote:The other question is, would you be trying to get enough winning cans for all of the character data on the Shenmue Passport, in case, say, someone were to host Shenmue Online somehow? Similarly, would you be after enough of the slot machine prizes to get all the downloadable figures?
This is a good question and thanks for bringing it to my attention. I did not have my Dreamcast connected to the internet back in the day, so all the online stuff were outside of my purview. I already have means to transfer DLC over to the VMU and an entire 4x Memory Card to devote to the game (plus SD reader support if necessary, and so I can back up on PC my eventual perfect save).
I will probably be doing everything I can feasibly realistically do, unless in-game time becomes an issue, it normally shouldn't. I can keep resetting when going for the Arcade records for example, the only thing that will expedite in-game time exponentially is training for all the moves, since from what I remember time goes faster while you train.
I will probably be documenting my attempt through this topic, since is arguable whether Shenmue is an RPG to do it in the RPG progress report thread.
In Shadow Man in the meantime, after some effort, I got every cut-scene but one, and then... Then I lost everything... Well every cut-scene not my main save. But I already got it all back! Here's what happened.
This last cut-scene was very frustrating to pop, I did everything right at the point in the story is supposed to pop up, but it wouldn't, so I decided to mess around with the cut scene file, and well, I didn't back it up first, so I went from missing one cut-scene to missing all of them.
Not being one to give up, after some self flagellating for not making a back up before messing with the file, I looked up online for some saves and hoped the cut scene file was included, well it was and though far from complete (since it looks like I'm the only one ever to have cared about this) it at least cut my work for getting everything back to half.
I got every cut-scene back lickety-split since I made liberal use of the Debug menu options (thing which I should have done from the beginning when it came to cut-scene hunting), and I was able to get the one I was missing to pop for confirmation of its existence and how it played in the game and which character gave it to you, since that's what I was trying to do by messing with the file originally.
Well I still miss the cut-scene from the viewer since the one I got from a Debug Test level wouldn't register, but at least now I know (or think I know) exactly how to go about getting it to pop organically.
So hopefully I can get this done by the end of the day and put a nice bow on my official unmolested by debug menus and all that jazz, second playthrough, and move on with my life.
Of course... I will attempt to do the same with the Dreamcast version of the game also, but I learned my lesson and I'll wait for my Xploder DC to arrive to go after cut-scenes. My Dreamcast save should be already perfect otherwise, and depending how the console version handles the cut scene viewer maybe I won't need to do anything at all.
EDIT: So after going through most of the game for what was essentially the third time, and doing much more besides that. I could not for the life of me get that cut-scene to pop.
Just to be clear for people unfamiliar with the game. All of these 'optional' cut-scenes are really meant as 'hints' for a wayward player, though some of them have some funny dialogue to go along. As such, and in theory, they are all 'easy' to pop, though it was pretty hard for me to pop naturally as I know what I'm doing within the game, both because of previous experience with the game through the Dreamcast version and because of my experience with these types of games in general (the game being very easy on top of that also helps).
This particular cut-scene is supposed to 'hint' you towards three parts of a dagger you need in order to proceed to the end of the game, is supposed to pop after a previous cut-scene that tells you you need the dagger in the first place. The equivalent cut-scene for the other character pops just fine, but no matter what I do, the second character won't shift to the 'hint' cut-scene. Leading me to believe that somehow the developers forgot to add the flag that does the shift.
There's zero information about this online, it looks like I'm the only person ever to have bothered to unlock every cut-scene in the cut scene review in the main menu of this game, and all of the Shadow Man cut-scene compilation videos out there miss this cut scene and more besides.
This wasn't a real completionist goal for the game either, I just got curious that I was missing so many cut-scenes and I thought it trivial (even without abusing the debug menu) to get them all initially. It wasn't until the boss introductory cut-scenes not registering on nighttime that things got complicated.
In any case, I have now successfully save edited the cut-scene file so the cut scene would appear in the review list (since I wasn't half-asleep this time), which is a phyric victory at best. But unless the developers themselves come and tell me that the scene is naturally obtainable and what the exact conditions are, or another player has proof, is the one I have to settle with, since I wasted enough of my time already.
I will experiment a bit with the Dreamcast version however, to see if the cut-scene pops naturally there, but I do not want to waste any more time with this game, as much as I liked it originally I'm beginning to get sick of it now, and I'm not sure that save editing the cut-scenes on the Dreamcast version is worth it either, and is going to be more complicated...