Shenmue (1999)

Shenmue is an incredibly special and unique game. An experiment that may never be repeated in gaming. It is best described as a wuxia (martial art hero) simulator. It is like you are the star of your own wuxia film. At the same time, it is so much more since you fully inhabit teenage Ryo Hazuki and his daily life that is thrown into disarray with the murder of his father and his relentless quest for revenge. It is a hybrid of a fighting game, point and click adventure, RPG, beat em up, life simulator, and visual novel. This game isn't for everyone. If you come into this game thinking it is going to be a game with lots of action say like Yakuza with fights around every corner, you could be sorely disappointed. But, if the above combo and the idea of exploring an immersive world and deep, dynamic story appeals to you, you could be in for an unbeatable gaming experience like I had.

I found that I loved the "boring" and mundane aspects of this game, even the much maligned "forklift simulator" portions after you get your day job at the docks stacking crates in warehouses. It had a kind of zen aspect to it that I've never really experienced in a game before. There are long sections of the game where you are just living day to day in Ryo's life. There may be nothing happening really. It is just another day where you get up and go to work or wander about town. You may miss events that could be happening elsewhere in the game world just because you weren't in the right place at the right time, or you may have just failed to stumble upon a trigger, or you may just have to wait for the next portion of the story to happen. Often you won't know which it is. But this lends the game a realistic feel. Your investigation into your father's death feels like a real investigation since you have to piece together clues, interview random folk in town, hit the streets like a hard-boiled detective, and many seemingly promising paths are just dead ends. So you keep searching until you find the right one. Or sometimes you just have to wait for a lucky break. There isn't much of a fast travel system. There's no way a la Elder Scrolls or other RPGs to just hit rest and advance the clock. Shenmue expects you to live every hour of Ryo's life, even the boring parts. It is up to you to kill time. Luckily, the game does provide options. You can explore the neighborhoods and streets near your home, talk to folks, look for side-quests, train in the park to hone your fighting skills, drop by the fortune teller for clues, find collectibles, play darts or pool or other mini-games, or head to the arcade to play some classic Sega arcade games.

Which brings me to the action portions. Most of the action in Shenmue involves QTEs (quick time events- this was the first game to coin the term and to have them) and fights. Many QTEs will just be repeated from the beginning if you fail, though I believe some aren't repeatable. This allows the game to be highly cinematic like a movie. Shenmue's roots in Yu Suzuki's Virtua Fighter series are obvious in the fighting portions which make up the best of the action sequences. Since fights aren't constant, it does make it seem worthwhile to train occasionally to keep muscle memory for your favorite moves (and I feel you have to pick and choose since the move list is massive). And I thought this was a really cool aspect of the game since it made the fights feel more real and memorable. But, all the same, the stakes aren't the highest since if you fail a key fight you'll just start it over. My favorite fights were the ones that if you fail there is a penalty in some way and you don't get another chance (like getting beaten up and having all your money taken). But, many of them aren't terribly challenging and you can sometimes get away with button mashing. Nonetheless, it is very rewarding to learn the solid, deep, and complex fighting system and it is very satisfying to pull off combos and to hand fools their asses while not letting them lay a hand on you.

Overall, Shenmue is not a terribly challenging game from a traditional difficulty standpoint. It mostly involves patience and determination to weather the "boring" aspects and deal with the frequent uncertainty of what to do next. For me, pretty much all of its so-called negatives were positives. Gaming is dominated by games that are meant to be a non-stop feast for your pleasure center: destroy enemy after enemy, make the numbers go up, collect the loot, go to the quest marker, craft the item, build the base, solve the puzzle, run jump dash leap to the goal. Shenmue dares to be different, it doesn't feel like it constantly has to entertain the player. Instead, it expects the player to entertain themselves at times. And that's what makes the game world feel real and that you are an inhabitant, even if it is an idealistic game world that feels more like a movie than real life and even if the core narrative is linear so the truly important choices don't matter. Often, the game is merely about existing. It is a much needed breath of fresh air that I think everyone should give an honest try. If it isn't for you, you may be happier with the Yakuza series which is similar but has more an action RPG aspect.

Lastly, the Shenmue I & II edition is great. It runs on modern platforms. I even got it to run on my PC's CRT at 640x480 to give it an authentic feel to the Dreamcast original. The only con seeming to be the censorship of brands, etc. I liked being able to switch between the excellent Japanese voice acting and the laughable so-bad-its-good English voice acting.

Wow. Just wow. How do I even begin to explain why this game means so much to me after just one playthrough.

I managed to get myself a Dreamcast a couple years ago now, only coming with some shovelware that wasn't of interest to me. I started dabbling into some game buying then, getting both Jet Set Radio and this game. It took me a long time to play anything of any decent length and commitment on the console until I finally started my Shenmue adventure, not thinking too much of it.

But when I tell you this game has become one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had in just a short amount of time, I'm not exaggerating. It just feels so right. The interactivity is sublime - I adored being able to look through all the drawers, even if it was most often futile, and really put myself into the places in the game. The towns and the dojo and the harbour alike are no doubt engraved in my memory now.

And the linking towns of Yamanose, Sakuragaoka and Dobuita represent a type of place I've wanted to live for my whole life, and it just re-sparks the dream in me.

Not forgetting the detective-like gameplay, with the rewarding fighting mechanics, every new day and the story-advancement felt so important to me.

I loved it, I'm off to Hong Kong and I can't wait for Shenmue 2 (when I find a cheap-enough Dreamcast copy).

Highly recommend to anyone.

Despite it's many flaws, Shenmue is a series I will always have a soft spot for. The first time I received pocket money from my mum or stepping into an arcades down one of the narrow side streets, it blew my little 10 year old brain away. Backed up by a deep, personal story that held my interest throughout, plus you can be a damn forklift driver and earn some hard earned cash!

😊:

• Still playable 20 years after its release
• QTEs are not bad
• Some episodes are still beautifully cinematic

🤔:

• Free battles are fun, but not very responsive. Very hard to figure if you've landed a hit or were blocked
• If you're playing without a guide, you may get stuck sometimes because you just need to wait an hour of real time for the correct event to occur. Every hour of game time is 4 minutes of real time. Sometimes you'll finish your activity at 10AM, and the next one is only in the evening.
• Funny how there's money in the game, but almost nothing to spend it on.

😞:

• English voice acting is really bad. Do yourself a favor, play with Japanese voices and English subtitles.
• No, Tom voice acting is still bad, even in Japanese
• Last third of the game is especially horrible. You get to drive a forklift for about 4 hours of real time. That's now what I came for

Is this game a significant step forward in immersion and realism? Yes! Is this game somewhat tedious and aimless? Yes!

Shenmue, the magnum opus of the Sega Dreamcast, was a window to the future, where AAA games would feature fully realized characters going about their lives in complex, highly interactive worlds.

Also popularized the QTE sequence, everyone's least favorite game mechanic throughout the entirety of the 2000s.

I'm currently twelve hours into replaying Shenmue (on PC) in anticipation of the imminent release of the third game. (I was a Kickstarter backer, so hopefully it'll arrive shortly!) I've considered this to be my favourite game series for almost two decades, so I'm really excited for the new instalment, and it's interesting to revisit the first game and reflect upon it as a piece of gaming history.

I decided to replay the scene fighting Chai in the You Arcade until I beat him—I remember, playing it on the Dreamcast back in the day, accepting defeat on my first playthrough, but persevering until victory on the second. Today, it took me a little over an hour of replaying to succeed. I hadn't trained my moves extensively, nor bought the recommended Crawl Cyclone scroll, and therefore I found the most helpful advice online to be (a) learning to parry/block (i.e. timing the Y tap, without directional input, to dodge attacks) and (b) assigning Demon Drop to the L trigger, and using that almost exclusively ('spamming' the move) as an offense. (I think I must've trained harder in preparation during my second DC playthrough, because I can't imagine having had the patience to retry as many times as I did today without the new 'save anywhere' feature and the nippy PC loading times!)

After my fourth session, I've just downloaded the widescreen-cutscene fix and audio restoration mods (as recommended by user tylerisrandom) for the Steam PC release, which address a couple of problems with the port that I've found mildly niggling so far. We'll see if they improve the experience somewhat.

Although I only finished Shenmue II a few years ago, it's been close to 15 since I last played the original game. Revisiting the title today on PC with a couple of mods, I thought a lot about why it was still so endearing to me. I could easily write up a laundry list of the game's flaws and failed opportunities, yet it remains in my mind a five-star experience.

I think part of the reason is its ambition. Shenmue sets a very high bar for itself, which it frequently fails to reach. But because that bar is so high, the heights it does ascend to are still incredibly impressive for the time. And it's that "swing for the fences, even if you miss" philosophy that lends the game an air of earnest sentimentality. It is sometimes cheesy, sometimes monotonous, but never cynical.

I also think that, even 20 years later, the game still stands on its own. Although frequently compared to the Yakuza series and arguably outdone by its sequel, something about Shenmue sets it apart. Maybe it's the small-town vibe, the willingness to vary the game's pace, the emphasis on adventure over action, or the protagonist's single-minded journey. Whatever the reason, Shenmue remains very specific: There's nothing else quite like it.

So if you like Shenmue, it will probably always have a special place in your heart. And if you don't, there are plenty of other games to play that borrowed and refined its most successful innovations. Win, win.

I came into shenmue not knowing much about it or what to expect. I'd never even played a dreamcast game. I think I read that it was like GTA 3, being an open world game (It's two years younger) and I had some association with the yakuza series for some reason, so was expecting mostly a fighting game. This game is not really accurately described as open world and the fighting is sparse. the fighting picks up in it but thats just one component of the game.

Shenmue is one of the more interesting games i've run across lately. It's a relatively fluid adventure game that shifts seamlessly between third and first person using the R-Button to focus on objects. The experience reminded me of metal gear solid a bit in how it both explored some new ideas and did them very well and 'plays' with perspective and a few elements of the user experience in it's own creative ways. This game is an altogether different kind of animal in what it is exploring and going for and tough/misleading to pidgeon hole with associations or genres (if comparisons must be made it might be helpful to just make comparisons to other sega games, because a lot of it's DNA is in all kinds of games made by them) This is a very creative game. it feels a bit clunky at first but you get used to it. To me, it feels like a VR concept for an adventure game due to it's elements of immersion. With that comes some quirks and flaws that some may overlook or find dealbreakers.

It's highest point is the playful and laid back style of game play. Like the newer GTA games, a player can do many different diversionary activities at their own pace. I found that these minigames and other activities were suprisingly fun and immersive, (rivaling that of supposed far newer AAA games like GTA series due to the detail and efforts to pave a path towards more direct user experience). It's second best quality is some really impressive cutscenes, modelling and rendering. The fact there are lots of little things everywhere and all kinds of small details make this feel really whole and nice. For it's time it was really ahead of it's era, and even today i found it impressive. The music in this game is quite enjoyable too, and it generates/renders it in the areas you are in, so it has a very very expansive soundtrack that adds a lot of atmosphere. The game takes place at christmas time it's nice to stroll by shops that have differnet musical jingles and whatnot. this atmosphere reminded me of the kind of presence for a place in deus ex... with a lot of vaporwave and manic need to buy instead of sneaking around listening to cool tracker tunes by Straylight Proudctions :)

The bad bits of the game are easier to overlook, mostly because they dont ruin the game or spoil the bits that are fun, but they are still unfortunate: some weird looking static models enslaved to lip synching, a whole lot of 'filler content' and bland writing and dialogue, some voice acting is also quite bad. Few characters really felt that memorable (though some i thought were actually quite good as well as certain plot events as well to be quite good). I also found the save game limitations a bit less than convenient. The questing and maps are linear and stalwart. the UI is often an ugly smear on all the detail. Some of these things are limitations of the dreamcast.

This game is a beautiful bit of history and i knew nothing behind it, the studio that made it, or it's chief creative forces. I slowly read up and learned about these subjects while playing and caught many references to other video game bits of history in the game itself as easter eggs. I'm a real sucker for things like this. A very large effort was made to have a kind of fan service to fans of sega's properties, the game almost feels like a weird video game shrine to all kinds of games or properties associated with sega. (I am pretty sure there are also two efforts to poke fun of Super mario and princess peach in the game that i noticed, but they are a bit obfuscated for understandable reasons)

I am surprised a game like this could come to be at all, it's hardly a coin-op conception, unless it was perhaps some kind of experimental VR platform (for a segaworld type arcade environment) which at times, it really does feel like. One can only wonder how a shenmue III could weigh in with what was done here. It's tough to be optimistic.

Likewise, I am equally perplexed how this game didnt make much larger waves for the dreamcast. (i read a little about some of the problems that plagued the dreamcast, I myself never played it and only knew of a single person who even had one) Shenmue is without a doubt ahead of it's time. To compare it to GTA III, or call it a fighting game realy seems like missing the boat! I dont think it's fair to compare it to other games at all. It's definitely a top tier y2k game that had a lot of vision behind it, and no doubt inspired a lot of games to come after it. However, it is an odd experience and it has it's own strange quirks and flaws and might be a divisive thing for anyone to play. Still there are some fantastic things in this game that dont compare to anything i've seen: BIg spoilers! -a weird manic thrill and exhilaration of shopping/gambling/gaming/lotto. the musical jinlges and tones that draws you inside these activities like a moth to the flame.
-the pleasure of collecting meaningless collectible type things. the satisfaction of seeing the models and twirling them in your hands. (bonus points for being references to things often times video games) There's so much in shenmue that revolves around the effort to make the game play a very direct experience. I am a bit baffled how this is an idea that did not catch on or get explored to the extent it was done in Shenmue, becuase it's probably the most signficiant thing the game did, and just moving objects a bit in your hands isnt a monumental feat, but it's remarkable how amusing it is... the closest experience is something like team fortress hats or a skyrim house full of objects, but it's not the same experience. in shenmue you reach into something and pull out something and experience it directly, you learn a new move by acting it out as your instructor speaks and you infer what keys to press. there are a lot of 'wonder' and 'aha' type moments from things like this and it's my favorite aspect of the game
-asking random NPCS for hints and tips to make a little quest progress. Almost everyone has some shuffling and ad hoc faceted-like assistance in prodding you along on your main quest at any time. if they are not helpful right now, try again later in the afternoon, or the next day. You can ask people for directions (an idea supposedly expanded on in shenmue 2). even though they dont have much character, and your quest is quite linear, the behavior is pretty interesting and seemingly real. since people have different schedules/habits and go to different places, NPCs dont all feel the same. nor do they repeat the same lines about an arrow-in-the-knee. i found the npcs to feel more involved with the world and the player rather than 'just there.' while it isnt perfect, the idea here is that every NPC could be the potential clue to what to do next, or related to what to do next and might in some way 'help' in the sense of a here and now.

other things thsi game does really well at that other games have also done (cool things in shenmue not unique specifically to shenmue)
-opening stuff, looking around and searching for things in a semi realistic 'active' way. active, direct investigation, but not in a over the top way that can kill the fun factor of adventure games
-a real day night cycle where the player actually has to sleep or call it a day, walking home by a certain point.
-scripted weather (the game boasted of this a lot it seems but of all things its really the least impressive since it's only cosmetic)
-scripted npcs with their own unique schedules and ai (even the bird ai was pretty cool in this game) you cant talk to someone when they are busy or something only certain times they are free to talk to you
-stats/abilities that level up/gain power only the more a player uses them
-a bonus disc (disc 4) full of movies and monologues by key characters that doubles as an instruction manual/hint book/bonus content (sort of, mostly its just cool videos.).

a lot of contemporary games put a lot of effort to offer an experience and suffer with the lack of a game. shenmue managed to pull of both a simultaneously interesting experience and tether it with a fully functional game. shenmues more grievious flaws/quirks are mostly related to this in the sense that at times the game will take a bit of a backseat to the experience, but its minimal detraction due to attention to detail and large design effort is made to keep this a game. It has the kind of handmade charm to it in a very well done indie game, but was a big budget production in era before the AAA concept even existed.