Shenmue

The game itself is awash in small details, crammed into a confined space. The city of Yokusuka circa 1986 is rendered beautifully in a short series of neighborhoods that are long on detail even if short on variety. The story itself is ripped straight from a chopsocky flick: you portray the young hero Ryo Hazuki, whose father (a kung fu sensei, naturally) is killed before his very eyes by a mysterious and frightening villain. Ryo must uncover the identity of the killer and fight his way through the city in an effort to avenge this wrongful death.

Shenmue's Yokusuka might be short on space--in total, it represents maybe a square mile--but the detail is overwhelming. You can interact with nearly every person or object that you see; 300 citizens go about their daily routines, and whom you encounter is as much determined by where you are as when you are there.

Much of this interaction involves combat that ranges from Dragon's Lair-style reaction tests (such as timing a button press to dodge an oncoming car) to freeform kung fu fighting. Further, each second of real time equals about a minute of game time, and Ryo has to be home by 11 p.m. each evening. The game moves at a brisk pace, and each challenge or battle feels like a race against time. Some might say that gaming doesn't get shallo

Amazon.com Review
To say that Shenmue is an anticipated title is an understatement; the game made huge waves in Japan upon its release, and American gamers have been waiting since then to see what the fuss is all about. It's a game in which the concept itself is the selling point. What if you could portray a young hero in a fully realized Japanese city? Would you like to participate in and influence an over-the-top kung fu-style action-mystery flick in your living room? What if lots of combat, cinematic flourish, detail, and a dash of romance were thrown in?

The game itself is awash in small details, crammed into a confined space. The city of Yokusuka circa 1986 is rendered beautifully in a short series of neighborhoods that are long on detail even if short on variety. The story itself is ripped straight from a chopsocky flick: you portray the young hero Ryo Hazuki, whose father (a kung fu sensei, naturally) is killed before his very eyes by a mysterious and frightening villain. Ryo must uncover the identity of the killer and fight his way through the city in an effort to avenge this wrongful death.

Shenmue's Yokusuka might be short on space--in total, it represents maybe a square mile--but the detail is overwhelming. You can interact with nearly every person or object that you see; 300 citizens go about their daily routines, and whom you encounter is as much determined by where you are as when you are there.

Much of this interaction involves combat that ranges from Dragon's Lair-style reaction tests (such as timing a button press to dodge an oncoming car) to freeform kung fu fighting. Further, each second of real time equals about a minute of game time, and Ryo has to be home by 11 p.m. each evening. The game moves at a brisk pace, and each challenge or battle feels like a race against time. Some might say that gaming doesn't get shallower than this (you are essentially performing tasks and exploring, instead of gaming), but the game feels like no other and is ultimately satisfying by the time that it all ends. In this way, Shenmue is more than a game--it's an event that's worth experiencing. --Andrew S. Bub

Pros:

• Compelling, well-told story
• Good action and combat
• Fantastic sound and graphics

• Plot is familiar to fans of kung fu action films
• Task-and-exploration gameplay might seem slow to action gamers

Shenmue is the brainchild of Yu Suzuki, who has created the most expensive game ever and a new type of gameplay he calls FREE. Of course, it follows a storyline, but the world of Shenmue is to explore the city of Yokosuka to get to where you want and when you need to. It's a complete living world. It has days and nights and the city is complete with your everyday usual stuff. Not since Super Mario 64 have I played a game that gives a new experience.

The reason why I gave this game four stars is because the game is not one game, it's only the beginning, therefore once you beat it, you'll have to wait (and wonder) what's going to be in Chapter 2. Also, the game is too realistic here and there; for example, to call someone you'll have to individually press the digits on the phone pad, and as for the day and night feaure, the time is always consistant. You can't skip to the next day when you want to.

Though with these flaws, there is no way Shenmue can be overlooked. It's a new type of game, and the majority of gamers won't care about its flaws too much because of all the possible things to do (when Super Mario 64 debuted, no one cared about its flaws like the annoying camera control, because, as stated, it was a new type of game and experience). Get a copy and enjoy.


Don't get sucked in by the hype!   November 14, 2000
33 out of 55 found this review helpful

This is not the be-all end-all of adventure games. The "amazing" immersion propaganda spewed by countless fanboys is overblown. This game has many problems:

1. Terrible, bland translation - Instead of making the English text and speech sound like real-life, we get an awkward literal translation of the Japanese version. Ie: For the first few hours or so, Ryo goes around asking people about "...that day, you know, that day it snowed. Do you remember anything special about that day?" He asks around 10 people this exact question. How do they know what he's talking about? Does everyone's life revolve around Ryo and his tragedy?

2. Voice acting - Ranges from decent to absolutely horrible. Decent: The old lady that lives with Ryo. She does her inflections and pauses just right. .... Ooh, there are so many people who can talk to you. Big deal. 75% of them are no-name people on the street who take a half a minute just to say different kinds of "I'm busy." And good old Ryo. The voice actor sounds like Greg Brady: very sterile and wooden(which describes the majority of voice acting in the game). Do you want to listen to Greg Brady for 20+ hours in the "greatest game ever"?

3. The control - Whoever decided to use the D-pad instead of the analog pad to move Ryo needs to be slapped repeatedly. This is a 3-D game with curving roads and different objects and people all around you. This kind of game screams for analog control! It's very difficult to move when you're facing a wall or corner. You can't turn slightly to the right or left quickly, like analog control would allow. You have to press "down" on the D-pad and turn around completely, throwing off your sense of direction. This is especially annoying when you're trying to catch someone walking down the street. For some odd reason, the analog pad is used to look around the environment without moving Ryo. You can already do this by holding down the R-trigger and pressing the D-pad. What a waste. You can't even customize the controls to your liking; the only things you can change are the L and R trigger functions.

4. The pace - BORING. I'm pretty much an RPG/adventure-only gamer, and this made even me bored. This is the general gist of the game: You go around, ask people about a certain person, they tell you where to go, you have to wait until a certain time on the game's clock(play at the arcade, shop, practice martial arts - this gets tiring after 10 minutes), you meet this certain person, they tell you to go meet some other person, you wait some more, blah-blah-blah. In between, you get the occasional street-fight with thugs, and cut-scenes that leads to nothing important. You'll do this for most of the first two discs. The game only really gets in gear in the last disc(Chrono Cross for PSX was slightly guilty of this, but at least it wasn't a snooze-fest.)

Come on, people! Don't buy into the hype! So many Shenmue fanboys are acting like Final Fantasy VII fanboys. You say the game is anything less than a masterpiece and they blow up on you. People need to feel justified in their purchase of a game or system, so they try to make themselves think it's the best thing ever. This is the exact case here. Sega fanboys want their own Metal Gear Solid(which wasn't perfect in itself), so they see a magazine or website call Shenmue "the best game ever" and they go crazy. Shenmue does have a few good points, like the detailed, slick graphics, some of the music, and the Dragon's Lair-type sequences, but it's not perfect in any sense.


The first chapter of something great   November 13, 2000
S. Terrell (Santa Rosa, CA)
30 out of 31 found this review helpful

I'm not an RPG fan. I'm not even an adventure game fan. I bought Shenmue completely over the pressure of my friends. I've owned the game for the past five days, and i've allready lost 30 hours of my life to it. Let's put it this way..It is very rare that a game does that to me. Extremely rare.

Shenmue's perfect in a lot of ways. It's storyline, avenging your father's death, may seem generic, but Shenmue manages to transform it into an epic and involving tale. Going through the game, interacting with it's enviroments and characters, it's all just the unique experince that *is* Shenmue.

The game's music is incredible, most of the time flawless. The graphics are unbeleivable and the level of detail is just scary. Once you finish the game, you will indeed be on the edge of your seat of the sequels to come, but I think Shenmue has been introduced to us, and in perfect form. I dont give the game five stars just on the hype. I give the game five stars because it's just that good.


Shenmue breaks new ground   November 16, 2000
Chris Gardner (Rutherford, NJ United States)
27 out of 29 found this review helpful

I have to hand it to Yu Suzuki and Sega. Their games may not be immediate classics, but they are clearly groundbreaking, and players will look back at them and say "wow, I can't believe this game was that inventive".

I've played Shenmue for only a few days, and I have to say it's one of the best games I've ever played. The quality and attention to graphic detail is stunning. Clearly, when you're looking at some characters' face it's hard to imagine that they are made up of polygons.

Twitch gamers will not be happy. If you're in for a quick, visceral fix you'll be disappointed. But if you like exploring, like seeing what's behind the corner or underneath that tricycle or even what's in someone's desktop drawer, you will be estatic.

Shenmue is just one of those games you can sit down and play. Play and play. Even without following the plotline to the tee, you can still do a million things.

If you have a Dreamcast buy Shenmue. If you don't have a Dreamcast, do yourself a favor and get one. This game, and many others (hint, hint, NFL2K1, hint) are definitely worth it.