Shenmue
Developed by Sega/d3t Ltd.
Published by Sega
Released for Xbox One (8/21/2018)
Also on PC/PS4
Originally released for the Dreamcast in 1999 (2000 in the US) and was a landmark title that was created with the biggest budget Sega had ever used for a video game at the time of its release. Shenmue was created with Yu Suzuki at the helm as director (Outrun, Hang-On, Virtua Fighter) and is considered by many to be one of the most important releases for the short-lived Sega Dreamcast console. In this review we'll take a look at the Xbox One 2018 release of Shenmue, which also came out for the PC and PlayStation 4.
Shenmue was quite the ambitious project back in the 90's when it came out, featuring a decent size open-world to explore with detail that had been unrivaled at the time. The game tells the story of Ryo Hazuki, who witnesses his father beaten to death in their dojo at the start of the game. The rest of the game is spent trying to identify the man who killed your father and get revenge for his murder. Taking place in Yokosuka, Japan, you'll have access to explore several areas which are linked by brief loading screens. The town is called Dobuita, which is where the majority of the interesting stuff will occur. There are a large number of shops you can enter, NPCs to interact with (though most don't have time to talk to you) and other various activities. Shenmue really excels at making the environments feel immersive and alive, with NPCs that operate on a schedule and will actually go about doing their own thing. In addition to a day and night cycle, there are also varying states of weather including rain and snow. At the end of the day you'll have to go home and sleep, but thankfully the developers spared us from having to eat and use the bathroom.
Occasionally you'll have to fend yourself from the riff-raff, though these sequences are few and far between. When the fights do happen, they control quite similar to the Virtua Fighter games, which makes sense considering Yu Suzuki was behind those games as well. There are several opportunities to learn new moves and expand your move-set as you progress. The fighting system is surprisingly deep considering how little the game actually lets you put it to use. The fighting sequences are fun, but only make up roughly about 15-20% of the gameplay. The rest of the time will mostly be spent exploring, chatting with people and watching cutscenes. There is a time limit in which Ryo must complete the story, but it leaves you plenty of time to mess around so there's really not much of a sense of urgency. You'll have 133 real-world hours to complete the story and if you play straight through the game it only takes somewhere in the range of 20-30 hours.
Shenmue also features several QTE (quick-time event) sequences scattered about. None of these are too difficult and failing them will simply result in a quick restart of the event. Shenmue definitely wasn't the first game to feature QTEs, as it was predated a few years by Sega's own Die Hard Arcade (1996). Shenmue took the QTE to the next level though and some of them later in the game get pretty elaborate. It was a letdown that a few of the fights wound up being QTE when I would have much preferred to manually issue the beatdown. So in a nutshell, the gameplay loop of Shenmue involves walking about town and talking to folks while occasionally beating up thugs, watching cut-scenes, performing QTE and then going to sleep before doing it all over again.
There are several activities you can participate in to just kill some time in Shenmue. There are gatcha machines in several areas and a toy can be purchased for 100 yen. There's a wide variety of toys that serve no purpose other than to sit in your collection, but my favorite time killer in Shenmue is heading over to the You Arcade in Dobuita (the bustling town section of Yokosuka). Inside the arcade you can play darts, a QTE minigame or fully-emulated versions of either Space Harrier or Hang-On. Since there's no wait function in Shenmue (when you're waiting for bedtime) , Ryo will inevitably end up spending some time and yen hanging out at the arcade. I wish Sega would have took it a step further with more games. Imagine if you could purchase a Master System and games at one of the shops and then play it at home...would've been mighty cool!
Now that we've talked about the positive points (immersive environment and solid fighting segments) of Shenmue, let's get into the bad. With this being a game from 1999 it has aged poorly in several regards. The first thing you're likely to notice is the awful sound quality, particularly when it comes to the voice samples. It sounds like these were taped using a cheap cassette recorder and the horrible compression gives everything a muffled sound. The graphics haven't aged all that well either, with some textures looking terribly pixelated and blurry to the point that they hardly fit in with the environment around them. The visuals looked great in 1999, but blowing them up to modern resolutions really hasn't done them any favors. It's a bummer that this wasn't more of a proper remaster, with upgraded visuals and sound. In addition to the low-res textures, there's also tons of noticeable pop-in as objects load in several feet in front of you at times.
The other negative comes from the pacing of the game in the final act. Once you get to the harbor and get a job operating the forklift, the game just becomes less exciting to boot up. I suppose this was successful as a life simulator, since going to a repetitive job everyday tends to drain the life energy out of an individual, but it certainly doesn't transfer over to fun or something I was excited to boot up and get back into. They actually did a decent job capturing the grind and monotony of the common day-job, so that is somewhat admirable I suppose. The forklift operator is only a small chunk of the game, so this is just a heads up that the game really slows down once you make it here. If you brace yourself for it coming in, it's really not that bad.
Shenmue was definitely an experience that I'm glad I played. This game had almost reached mythical status I'd heard so much good stuff about it over the years and after finally playing it I can see why it's developed such a following. It was quite an achievement for the time and it's great to see it finally escape that Dreamcast exclusivity and reach a broader audience on the modern systems. While some of the improvements are nice, the game is definitely showing its age in the visual department. The controls can take a while to get used to as well, but after warming up to them it's not that bad. If you're down for a story-driven adventure game with lots of exploration and talking with some fighting and QTE sprinkled in then give Shenmue a look. If you just want to catch up on the story, whether to just move straight to the sequel or you just want to see the story, there's also Shenmue: The Movie which condenses the story down to a 90-minute movie.
Final Verdict: Shenmue was amazing back when it came out in the late 90's and while it's starting to show its age in several ways, it's still a fun time if you enjoy your adventures with some revenge and fighting on the side. This one's worth playing from a look at the historical perspective of the open-world genre as well.
Purchase Links:
Buy Shenmue I & II - Microsoft Store
Purchase Links:
Buy Shenmue I & II - Microsoft Store
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