VideoGame A Piece of Gaming History
Shenmue is a difficult game to explain these days. Its something truly rare in the industry today, and thats a labor of love. In a time before the gilded high budget blockbusters of gaming megastudios Sega's AM-2 spent 7 years and $70,000,000 producing a game because old hand Yu Sazuki (of Virtua Fighter fame) decided he had a story to tell. The result was one of most massively scoped and intricately detailed game worlds ever created. Employing the then massive resources of Sega, a small army of programmers, artists, voice actors (one for every character), motion capture marital artists, and even a symphony orchestra set out to make a sprawling epic of intrigue, love, and revenge. The biggest draw of the game is that it has non linearity to put anything else to shame. If games like Grand Theft Auto are sand boxes then Shenmue is the goddamn Sahara desert. You can walk around picking things up and opening drawers, buy tuna, talk to anybody, play video games, drive a forklift for money, use vending machines, or even raise a kitten. The game play is admittedly slow paced and hit or miss at times, especially the QTEs which some people find absolutely maddening. The same goes for the occasionally narmtastic voice acting on the English dub. But whatever your nitpicks its hard not to get sucked into Suzuki's amazing world.
If you are one of the die hard sega fans that still owns a dreamcast you owe it to yourself to check the first game out. If you have an xbox or xbox 360 you can get Shenmue 2 complete with a separate disk containing a plot synopsis movie of the original. Both will run you around five dollars US for a piece of gaming history.
Everybody else? Well check out the intro for a brief look into one of gaming's most ambitious projects ever.
VideoGame Great game
I saw the trailer for Shenmue 3 and just realized these game exists. I bought it on sale.
The good: I am not a big fan of flashy graphics (my PC is a potato) So I don't mind old graphic style. It's actually quite nostalgic, like playing old Virtua Fighter game.
The world is so big and alive. I can't believe this is an old game. Sure, the conversation is a bit clunky at times (kinda wish they had option for japanese voice with english subtitle instead)
The bad: You have to play it with controller, no other option, I tried playing with keyboard and mouse and give up quickly.
I might missed some tutorial or something. Like, I don't know you had to press L2 to go into first person view to see the item and use it. I spent times trying to use a phone book, but everytime I press A, I just trigger conversation to the shop owner nearby, not use the phone book in front of me.
Some puzzles need to be solved in certain way. For example, you already asked the guard that you cannot enter the warehouse. I quickly looked for another way in, there was none. Apparently you had to try to enter first, like an idiot despite already knowing you can't, and then suddenly there is another way in, using box that previously wasn't there before.
Anyway I can see why this game is a breakthrough at that age, and still very good even now. Recommended