Shenmue 2

The Shenmue series, take you on an incredibly deep adventure and puts you in control of the main protagonist, Ryo, in order to discover the secret of two Phoenix mirrors, over which his father was murdered. Your journey begins in a quite 1980's town in Japan. When Ryo returns home one day he finds a black car in the driveway, and some men attacking his father. The leader, Lan Di, eventually kills Ryo's father after a great fight. Lan Di is easily the best villain I have ever seen in a videogame. He's design is truly perfect. He's looks are chilling to the bone.

As you progress through and eventually finish Shenmue, you eventually come to a point where you must travel to Hong Kong in order to find out more about a mysetrious letter sent to Ryo's father the day after he died. This is where Shenmue 2 begins.

And don't worry if you never played the original game on Sega's ill-fated Dreamcast. Shenmue 2 comes with a Shenmue: The movie DVD which explains to you all the events leading up to Shenmue 2 in much more detail than I have.

The way the game works is this. It takes a number of different genres and gameplay elements and blends them into one huge game which takes place in what is no less than a small, virtual reproduction, of Hong Kong in the 1980's. And when I say reproduction, I mean it. The game has complete day and night cycles, seasons, and weather patterns. You sleep at night, play the game during the day, and as you progress through your adventure you'll notice seasons pass by. You'll watch leaves fall of trees, rain muddy the streets, and snow cover everything in white, just like in real life. Of course, time moves much faster than in real life, thankfully, so a day in Shenmue is rougly half an hour long.

The main part of the game has you running around this virtual city and talking to any of over 1000 characters who each have a complete day and night AI routine. It's as real as they get. Each person actually has his or her own life in the game. In your quest for information, you will run into a lot of bad people, where the next genre comes in. Fighting. Shenmue 2 has a fighting system so advance, that it's almost on par with pure fighting games like Tekken or Virtua Fighter, and this is just a part of the game.

You'll aslo be able to take part in quick time events: which are basically cutscenes, but with a little bit of interaction from the viewer. Meaning if Ryo's chasing somebody and something falls in front of him, it's up to you to make sure he jumps over the obstacle and not trip over it. And this is done by pressing a button or a combination of buttons which are shown to you on the screen as the cutscene is rolling. You have to have incredibly fast reflexes to succesfully complete each QTE perfectly.

But even if you fail at one of these, it doesn't necessarily you have do it over. Shenmue 2 is such a vast game that your failure may just simply lead you on a whole different path that will still get you to the same point.

Finally there are some rpg elements in the game. Not only can you enter stores, and practically any building in the city, but you can buy things. For example, you can buy certain scrolls from shops that will teach you new figting moves, and by practicing these moves with a sparring partner, you will actually get better at doing them, increasing your chances of succeeding in fighting battles.

Shenmue 2 also makes a few great improvements over its prequel. The graphics are of course better. But more importantly, you have the option to fast forward time. So if you have to meet somebody the next day, and you don't feel like gambling or playing mini games at the local arcade all day, you will have the option to jump forward in time and meet that person. This greatly helps improves the speed of the game. Overall, Shenmue 2 is just a lot bigger, better and faster than Shenmue.

Of course, all this just barely scratches the surface. I'd have to write a book to be able to describe Shenmue for what is truly is.


Shenmue 2 - An engrossing epic ... a classic   November 19, 2002
17 out of 18 found this review helpful

"Shenmue 2" is an engrossing game that breaks with either the standard adventure and role playing type game in an effort to totally involve the player. In a brief summary, the basic plot is simple involving the main character, Ryo, who has witnessed the murder of his father, but it unfolds as the epic story of his quest to avenge his father's death. This is the second installment in the series that began with Shenmue. The story begins where Shemnue left off, with Ryo getting off on a pier in Hong Kong.

There are so many things to do and see in this game including non-plot related activities. For example, to make money I've arm wrestled, had matial arts bouts with in-game contestants, played card games, dice, a game of chance where you drop marbles in a vertical board with nails, and worked several odd jobs. I've also practiced my martial arts moves, collected trinkets from the vending machines, visited pawn shops. I still haven't found the 4 classic Sega arcade games yet that are said to be buried in the game. I'm sure I'll play them on the side just for fun when I do.

The fighting aspect of the game is interesting, but something that I have not yet mastered. You can "learn" (ie, are awarded) special moves as you progress through the game that adds to your martial arts repetoire. Several battles come up where I have fought enemies of various skill levels. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost. In some instances, you must win against certain characters in order to unlock further progression in the game. If you don't you will have to try again at a later time. In the case of the Quick Time Event (QTE) sequences, on some occasions the game will let you continue to try until you win.

The game is very interactive as I have found myself talking with and getting advice and help from literally hundreds of characters. I can stop to talk with anyone and they have something usually helpful, but at least relevant, to say. There are numerous well done cut-scenes that bring the personalities, motives and circumstances of the various characters to life. You (Ryo) must become allies with some characters in the game to acheieve some of your objectives and, in some cases, a real tension develops. I stll have not encountered at least two of the main characters and am waiting to see what kind of relation and plot twist will ensue at those points.

The extreme detail of so many aspects of the game are incredible. One late afternoon (game time) just for the heck of it, I went to the second floor of a gambling house in the game, played a selection on the jukebox, gambled a little, then watched the sun go down over the lake and tall buildings of Hong Kong. The clouds were moving, the sun and sky faded from orange thru red, then the sky turned dark as night came over the city. I then spent the rest of the evening just discovering new things in that part of the city until it was time to retire for the evening (always at 11:00PM). Amazing.

I also enjoyed the vastness of the cities. I'm talking huge here. This game makes you feel like you're really in Hong Kong. People are walking and working in stores with the ambient sounds of the city in the background. The neon lights glow and flash in the city at night. You can walk in almost every shop and talk to the owner and people inside, look inside the shop and even purchase something.

I must also comment about the music. The music changes depending on which scene you're in and what's about to happen. It adds to the mood and sometimes adds the element of tension in anticipation of what's to come. Some of the scores and paricularly the theme music are very well done and deserve high marks.

Although the game is a lot a fun, there are admittedly a few problems that I consciously chose to overlook. After all, it is a port from the Dreamcast platform. One is the unevenness of the graphics especially the characters. The major characters are very highly detailed and look like XBox quality. The others are blocky and look like a direct Dreamcast port (which they are). Another is the voice acting which is generally bland but occasionally okay. If the voice acting had been top notch, this game may have been ready for an Oscar :) I really hope that Sega and Microft come out with Shenmue 3 and that it takes advantage of the XBox's capabilities. It will be unbelievable.

I will be honest here and say that Shenmue is a game that will not appeal to everyone. For those gamers who must have an adrenaline fix when they sit down to play a game, they will probably not have the attention span or patience in the world of "Shenmue 2". It is a much more deliberate game, that has a pace that ranges from slowly uncovering clues and experiencing real life events to action packed fighting sequences. The whole idea is to draw you into the main character's (Ryo's) world and let you feel the environment around you and the challenge of the adventure. It's like a movie turned into an interactive game.

Exploring, unraveling and experiencing this adventure/rpg/action game is a real joy - so much so that my wife and kids are with me in front of the television at night watching and taking turns playing. A great game. A classic.


Save Shenmue! Please Buy this!   January 17, 2003
Daniel A Moir (Salt Lake City, UT)
12 out of 15 found this review helpful

I was a fan of the original, but just barely bought the sequel because I had Metroid Prime... Metroid will always win out in priorities, but Sega fans and Xboxers should buy this game without hesitation.
Shenmue 2 is the sequel to the sleeper Dreamcast hit that debuted at the end of the Dreamcast's life, in fact it was the last Dreamcast game I bought, and it is to this day my favorite DC title simply because this game is a very versatile title. There is no genre that this game series does not cover at some point. Ryo has to learn new skills, and master them, like RPGs, he has to gather clues and information collect items, etc, like RPGs, there's a deep and compelling story, like RPGs, there's mini games galore, exploration, adventure, fighter game type action (similar to the Virtual Fighter Engine.) There's so much going on in this game, its part sim, part RPG, part adventure, part fighter... How could someone not enjoy it? Especially since many of the flaws of the original game have been fixed? Lost? You can easily find someone to show you around. Broke? Part time jobs, though I don't recommend gambling... I lost over $1,000 that way, ironically right after I had won that much! All this in the midst of what is at its core one of the most comprehensive and beautiful epic stories of our day. I've been enthralled by the story of the game, but sadly sales of this remarkable game have been less that stellar. The game is selling so poorly that there may not be a Shenmue 3, and the story is far from over. It isn't fair that such an artistic and beautiful game like this be passed over without so much as a second glance. I implore all Xboxers out there, please save Shenmue and at least give this game a look. There's a movie included with the game that summarizes the plot of the first game, although the movie does not do justice to the original game itself, which has a great deal more to it, it will still let you know what you need to know to get by story wise in Shenmue 2, and in all honesty Shenmue 2 has far fewer flaws. Many people found some aspects of the original tedious, like having to wait around for hours on end for an event, but thankfully this one allows you to fast forward to the appropriate time, rather than seeking out stuff to do. Because Sega and AM2 addressed so many of the flaws of the first game it is well worth it to pick this title up, even if you haven't played through the original. Just watch the movie first and you'll be fine. PLEASE BUY THIS GAME! Don't let this masterpiece fade into oblivion... imagine if 24 were cancelled midseason and you'd know how I feel about there not being a Shenmue 3.


Shenmue 2: Review 2002 By Adil J.   December 3, 2002
Adil J. Hussain (South Wales, United Kingdom)
11 out of 14 found this review helpful

Mark my words - Shenmue 2 is an unbelievably brilliant game. It is the sequel to the even better Shenmue 1 - the most expensive videogame created in history to date, with a budget of over 60 million US dollars. Graphically sweet, making enormous use of the power of the Xbox, Shenmue 2 is pure eye-candy.

It is a game like you have never played before. The story, the characters, the detail, are so immersive that the game flows like an epic novel. Shenmue 2 is simply an epic tale spanning over 12 chapters (this is chapter 2) of the character Ryu avenging the death of his father. The game combines authentic Chinese and Japanese cultural detail, and a superb martial arts system hollywoodised for action.

The game contains intense action cinematic stunt sequences that you have to control using QTE: Quick time event system. This is a rapid response system guaranteed to impress any game-pro!! These QTE's are rarely seen in game these days, which is a shame, since QTE's are sequences used a lot in hollywood action movies (except you act them out with a joypad).

Immense detail is given to streets, shops, people, and sound, the atmosphere can be felt instantly. The dialogue in the game is in fact taken from a script consisting of thousands of pages of speech. In the game, you can interact with ANYBODY you see. That means interacting with hundreds of citizens of Hong Kong, as you Ryu, the main character use clues to find the killer behind the death of your father......

All the streets, houses etc are taken from real planning maps of China/Hong Kong making it very authentic and almost scarily too real. Sega have incorporated the special "real-time weather" system. This means the climate, weather, actually change according to the time of day, and the time of year, taking into account of all types of weather. The weather is not animated - it is simulated.

Sega have also used their patented 3D environment engine, which is simply one of the best software for games in the videogames industry. This means that you get camera angles from almost anywhere, almost fooling the human eye with it's submersive holographic effect.

Sadly, Shenmue 2 (and Shemnue 1) are probably one of the most underestimated quality games in videogame history. The only other games that deserve to be in the same league as Shenmue are the Resident Evil and Final Fantasy series.

If you are a sceptic, I pose one question - Why do you think over 60 million US dollars were spent on making Shenmue? The answer is simple - Sega created a game so well, it became an instant classic hit to all those who were lucky enough to come across it. Since the demise of the Sega Dreamcast, Shenmue 2 was ported onto the XBox, with a movie summary of Shenmue 1.

The game was created by a man called Yu Suzuki. Yu Suzuki is the founder of the Virtua Fighter series as well. Yu Suzuki is regarded a creative genius, who recently won the award for "The most successful videogames creator in history".

When you play Shenmue 2, you'll know exactly why.....

by Adil J.


Not just a game   October 30, 2002
David Waters (Montgomery, AL USA)
10 out of 12 found this review helpful

Shenmue can hardly be classified as simply a video game, it is a saga in every sense of the word. The game meshes captivating storyline, heart-felt characters, drama, action, tragedy, and just plain coolness with tremendous success. You really care about Ryo, and the people he encounters and what happens to them, as he begins his quest to learn the truth of his father's murder. Lan Di, though his appearances are few and brief yet tremendously effective, is so icy cool and intimidating you wonder how Ryo will ever be strong enough to face him. When each game ends you are left begging for more. Not to mention the music, which is by far the best, most beautiful score I've ever heard in a game. The gameplay improves on an RPG formula of wandering freely and speaking to whoever you can see, and adds its own twists with its cool free battle and practice system, and the QTE (Quick Time Event) battles will literally have you on the edge of your seat. I already own and have played the Dreamcast version, and you better believe i'm getting this one. Its the main reason I got an X-Box. If you own an X-Box, GET THIS GAME, and prepare to be enthralled in the world of Ryo Hazuki. If you are considering getting an X-Box, get one and this game! I just can't wait for Shenmue III!