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
Cons:
Plot is familiar to fans of kung fu action films
Task-and-exploration gameplay might seem slow to action gamers
Product Description: 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 shallo
Groundbreaking Game If you own a Dreamcast do not miss this game. It is primarily an exploration game, with some minigames and CLASSIC ARCADE GAMES playable within the game. You walk up to an arcade game as Ryu, the character you control in the story, and put in money that you have earned. It is very immersive, has spectacular graphics and a great story.
So, where was the game? Honestly, I couldn't play this game after about 5 days. There was just too much running around, waiting, running around some more, waiting, then finally getting to talk to someone. I do that in real life and it's much more fun. Now, the graphics were outstanding and the voice acting was very good...but I wish they would have spent more time on the game itself. It just didn't have that something special that most other rpg's have.
Shenmue One of the best games EVER MADE. This game is SO in depth, there is no other games out there that are like this game. Its unique in its own style. When I first purchased this game, I was shocked first of all to see the graphics are how good it looked. Being on Dreamcast, it used ALL of Dreamcasts potential. This game has one of the BEST storylines than ANY other game that ive ever played. It keeps you going and keep wanting to play to find out more and more it keeps you locked into the game. You can keep up on your newer objectives and what needs to be done by looking in your "Notebook". Its a free world here. You can do what you want. Talk to anyone you want, go where you want pretty much. Its a free world. You can pretty much walk into any building/store. It has really good fighting battles. Like the timed QTE battles are really fun where it tells you what button to press and you have to press it within a certain amount of seconds, then he does a karate move on them. And also the free battles are really fun.
If you have a Dreamcast and what an awesome game and has an awesome storyline I STRONLY recommend this game now!!!
Best RPG....period shenmue is a great story about a teenager out to get his father's killer to get his revenge. theres plenty of street fights and awesome moves. the game can be slow and frustrating in some spots, but thats how RPGs are. graphics are ok, could be better, but thats probably the best the Dreamcast can produce....since we are so used to better graphics. BUY THIS GAME, YOU WONT REGRET IT.
The main reason I will never sell my Dreamcast Yes that's right, I will always hold on to my Dreamcast, there are a number of classic games I own for it but Shenmue perhaps tops them all. Now I hear a lot of people saying that Shenmue is boring, and you spend a lot of time doing nothing, but I couldn't disagree more. I'm the kind of person who loves to explore in games, i play a lot of RPG's and I like to make sure I find all the secrets in a game (if it's any good). That is the beauty of Shenmue, as well as advanvcing the plot (which is great) I can also spend free time down at the arcade, or play pool etc... it is as close as you will get to real life in a game.
Both this and Shenmue II are classics, but I can never forgive Sega for not releasing the rest of the series. I know it was an expensive game to make, but i'm sure there is a huge demand for Shenmue III, I only hope they get their act together and get Yu Suzuki back to working on it again. Back to Shenmue itslelf, the plot is superb, I even enjoyed working at the docks as a forklift driver, while trying to get info on the mad angels. The fighting is superb, both regular battles and the QTE fights (which you see in all sorts of games now), in fact the moves are taken straight out of Virtua Fighter. It also had a great replay value, I completed it numerous times, trying to collect capsule toys and better my scores at the mini games like darts. The best mini game of all though was right at the end, The 70 man free battle time attack.
The 70 man battle involved fighting your way through 70 Mad Angels members, including 3 bosses along the way, and was the highlight of the game. Once you had completed the game you could do it again and try to set a best time for it, as with all the mini games you could then enter it on the world rankings. I can't remember my time, but it was at one stage in the top 50 in the world, and I must of tried to beat it at least 100 times. I haven't even mentioned the classic Sega Games you could play at the arcade, Space Harrier (which is impossible), Super Hang On etc.. were all available to set top scores on, there is just so much to see and do.
If you still own a Dreamcast and not this, then you are mad, pick it up now, before it vanishes off the face of the earth, classic.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
