History VideoGame / Shenmue

''Shenmue'' is a game developed by Sega-[=AM2=], released in 1999 for the UsefulNotes/{{Sega Dreamcast}}. A sequel, ''VideoGame/ShenmueII'', was later released in 2001 also for the Dreamcast and then later for the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox}}. ''Shenmue'' was originally meant to have more titles ranging from 4-7 over which the complicated story would be told, yet due to disappointing sales, Creator/{{Sega}}'s withdrawal from the console market and the high production costs needed to make Shenmue games, fans had to make do with only two games.

...Until 2015, when the unthinkable finally happened and Yu Suzuki confirmed ''VideoGame/ShenmueIII'' for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and PC at [[UsefulNotes/ElectronicEntertainmentExpo E3]] 2015. The game will be Website/{{Kickstarter}}-funded and the game is set to answer the questions left open from the first two games. The game already met the halfway point of funding in under ''two hours'', utterly obliterating the previous record for fastest video game Kickstarter campaign to one million dollars. And in ''nine hours'', it completed its main goal of $2,000,000. By the end of its campaign it had raised a record-breaking ''$6,333,295'' from 69,320 pledges, making it the highest-funded video game on the website at the time. The game was released in November 2019. Of further note, Suzuki has hinted that ''III'' won't entirely wrap up the storyline, meaning that a ''Shenmue IV'' might possibly come along in the future.

** Besides the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn [[note]]released in 1994 in Japan; 1995 in North America)[[/note]] in Ryo's living room, there are other references to franchises that didn't exist yet in 1986, such as Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog.

* SchizoTech: Ryo owns a UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn. The game is set during TheEighties. WordOfGod says that little UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn was put as an homage to the console where ''Shenmue'' was originally programed and meant to be released.

** A UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn is in Ryo's room, to pay homage to the console where ''Shenmue'' started development.

** ''Katana''-brand cigarettes can be seen on [=NPCs=] smoking. Guess what was the codename of the UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast during its development?

** Various objects are named after Sega's previous systems. For instance, the notebooks in Ryo's Room have "[[UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem Master System]]" written on it, and "Mark III" on match boxes. And of course there's Ryo's Saturn system as mentioned above.

* TheHerosBirthday: A bit more subtle than most cases, but the intro scene where Ryo's father is murdered in front of him takes place on November 29, 1986, which happens to be Ryo's 18th birthday.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles: Because of the above, this resulted in many of the actors for both dubs voicing numerous characters in the same game. Some actors had to voice two or three characters, and one actress played five in the first alone!

* [[WeAllLiveInAmerica We All Live in Japan]]: When in Hong Kong, a bartender thanks Ryo, who's 18, for being honest that he's not old enough to drink. This is based on the drinking age in Japan, which is 20, but inconsistent with that of Hong Kong, which is 18.

* NoOSHACompliance: The first thing you are taught when learning to drive a forklift is to NEVER travel with a heavy, elevated load as it raises the centre of gravity and thus makes it easier to tip the entire vehicle as well as heavily obscuring your forward vision. The correct method is to travel with the forks lowered, stop with the brakes on, and then raise the forks to the required height. You may also have to travel to your destination in reverse depending on factors such as inclines and the size of the load. But that of course is small potatoes compared to the high speed forklift race around tight, blind corners that are frequented by pedestrians and other vehicles (which Ryo always miraculously brakes in time to avoid hitting). This whole dock is a clock ticking towards a fatal accident.

* NewMediaAreEvil: Upon interviews with Yu Suzuki, he explained that back in [[TheEighties the early 80s]], video games were seen in UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} as a ''mother´s worst enemies'', taking place in dark, gritty rooms frequented by anti-social teens. So He came with the idea of broadening the video game public, bringing games from dark places to brighter places, and developing innovative, fresh games that would appeal to a more massive audience. Thus he created hardware like the riding motorbike in ''VideoGame/HangOn'' or the 360° rotating cabinet in ''VideoGame/AfterBurner'', and thus expanding games interface from the typical ''coffee-top tables'' seen until that moment. What does this have to do with ''Shenmue''? Well, that ''dark, gritty'' kind of atmosphere is the one you get when you enter the ''You Arcade'' place on Dobuita street, reflecting how the video games scene looked like back then until he released his arcade hits.

* MysticalJade: The series revolves around two legendary jade mirrors called the Phoenix Mirror and the Dragon Mirror. Despite being a mundane world, they seem to have some vaguely defined mystical powers and the BigBad will stop at nothing to get them both. The murder of protagonist Ryu Hazuki's father to get the Dragon Mirror is what sets off the plot.

* TheMovie: ''Shenmue: The Movie'' was a theatrical film that was shown in select Japanese theaters using in-game graphics to tell the story of the first game, including battles performed by expert players. Both dubs benefit from clear and uncompressed audio and some music is taken from the original soundtrack album. The Japanese DVD includes a live-action comedy segment featuring Creator/MasayaMatsukaze and Takumi Hagiwara (dressed as their characters Ryo and Ren respectively) attempting to film a commercial in Shanghai for the then-upcoming ''Shenmue II''. The movie was released outside Japan as a bonus disk for the [=XBox=] version of ''Shenmue II'' but without the bonus features featured in the Japanese DVD.

* TheEighties: Yu Suzuki really wants to recreate how Yokosuka and Hong Kong looked like in 1986 and 1987, and also the kind of changes these places were experimenting at the time. The gameplay of the fights is like a homage to one of the '80s most outstanding game genres: BeatEmUp (complete with a me-against-the-neighborhood, kicking-asses-on-the-streets appeal).

* BullyingADragon: By the second time thugs like Enoki or [[ThoseTwoGuys the two sailor jerks]] get their asses kicked by Ryo, you'd think they would learn to leave well enough alone, but nope; they just keep coming back for more, and they keep getting waylaid (the sailor jerks eventually catch on near the end, but by then Ryo is coming after ''them'' to get information on their gang).

* BigBad: TheDragon of Lan Di is a separate one in each game. Chai from the Chi You Men hunts Ryo and they fight twice, in the middle and near the end.[[spoiler: he almost stole the Phoenix Mirror, eats the Hong Kong Ticket and breaks the CynicalMentor Guizang's leg so Ryo's travels alone to Hong Kong. He's the FinalBoss.]]

Due to the disappointing sales, as ''Shenmue'' was recorded as the most expensive video game at the time, Sega expressed no plans of developing further entries in the series after the sequel, ''VideoGame/ShenmueII''. Wanting to keep the franchise alive, Suzuki later announced the [[MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame MMORPG]] ''Shenmue Online'', which unfortunately suffered from DevelopmentHell and changed developers for years and was never released. In 2010, he attempted to resurrect the franchise with ''Shenmue City'', a social RPG for cell phones, but was only released in Japan and discontinued a year later. With Sega changing as a company as well, many fans began to lose hope for a further entry in the franchise and the series as a whole...

On September 2020, a 13 episode [[TheAnimeOfTheGame anime adaption of the game]] co-produced by Creator/AdultSwim and Website/{{Crunchyroll}} was announced, with Yu Suzuki serving as executive producer. The series, entitled ''Shenmue the Animation'', premiered on Crunchyroll and Creator/{{Toonami}} on February 6, 2022, the former being the subtitled version and the latter being dubbed.

* UnbuiltTrope: For the WideOpenSandbox. The game presented its open world with a level of realism and attention to detail that few games have tried to imitate since, and what's more, it used that world not to [[PowerFantasy give players as much freedom as they wanted]], but conversely, to restrict them and force them to follow Ryo's daily schedule. The fact that it was a [[invoked]] QuicksandBox was also quite deliberate, shining a spotlight on Ryo's own feelings of helplessness and lack of purpose.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Several characters roam the towns and cities of the places Ryo visits, and he can interact and have a conversation with just about everyone that he sees, all with their own quirks and backstories. The main cast for each game that are important to the plot is rather large as well.