Shenmue::Yakuza as Bully::GTA

I remember reading the idea behind Yakuza was that Yakuza's director
thought Rockstar got the idea of a mob game wrong, and made Yakuza with
the idea of making it right. I just played throgh Bully (as Bel can
attest to), and my thought is that someone at Rockstar played Shenmue,
and thought Sega got the idea of the life of a teen boy wrong and
decided to make it right (from their point of view). There are certain
similarities between Bully and Shenmue; learning fighting from random
street guys, similar time of day constraints, quick time events. But
it's the overall feeling of some teen traveling through his life that
feels similar.

The story in Bully is as nothing compared to Shenmue, and the game is
far less meditative, but I really think the games are strangely (or not
so strangely) similar. Jimmy in Bully could easily be the beginning of a
GTA protagonist (tho he's a bit more moral than the GTA guys, as he
seems incapable of murdering anyone), similar to the way that if Ryu's
life went wrong he could be the guy in Yakuza. Anyone agree or disagree?

Ted wrote:
> I remember reading the idea behind Yakuza was that Yakuza's director
> thought Rockstar got the idea of a mob game wrong, and made Yakuza with
> the idea of making it right. I just played throgh Bully (as Bel can
> attest to)

*NO ONE* is safe from my constant harassment on Live!

Bel
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