When I first heard about Shenmue I was really impressed how ambitious this game could be, plus Yu Suzuki was behind it which is more than enough to have at least an impressive game. Shenmue is already 4,5 years old if you consider it was first released in Japan in 10/1999. One year later the US market had the chance to play it and this is when I also had my opportunity to enjoy its amazing graphics, the best in any console by the time it was out, the best soundtrack I’ve ever heard and a gripping storyline. I don’t think I need to introduce the game telling about how it works, the role of characters and so on once the it is almost 5 years old. In terms of graphics Shenmue is for sure one of the best Dreamcast games and it can still stand against newer games and consoles. All cut-scenes are presented in real time, including the amazing introduction that lasts for more than 5 minutes. Shenmue is a world with buildings, people, objects, animals, pretty much everything very well detailed. Most of things you can interact giving you an idea of how impressive the experience can be. During the game you enter buildings, explore a lot of interesting paces such as your own house where you find a Sega Saturn or even go to the Arcade an play one of Sega’s Classic Arcade Machines, of course you’ll have to pay for that but don’t worry you’ll have enough money to play. The drawback unfortunately is that Dreamcast cannot keep the frame rate constant resulting in a relentless slowdown when you are exploring out but it doesn’t affect the gameplay. The camera system may give you a hard time but the game is able to fix it by itself, in other words, it does not affect you performance in the game even when you are fighting. The gameplay is something different, you talk to everybody and interact with pretty much everything, and if you have played and liked Virtua Fighter you might find Shenmue very similar to it once its battle system is based on Sega’s 3D fighter scheme. You can also learn and practice new moves at specific places such as Ryo’s home dojo. Improving Ryo’s move ability will help you a lot, especially when you face more than one opponent. The Quick Time events (QTE) are sequences of commands you are supposed to follow using your controller in order to advance in the game. I have really enjoyed the QTE, they add a lot to the gameplay and some of them can change your path in game. Be prepared to talk to a lot of people because you will have to act as detective most of time, which sometimes is boring. Sega refers to Shenmue’s gameplay as The FREE (Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment) system. The passage of time is similar to realistic and this also adds nice elements such as limiting your searches for Lan Di once you are supposed to stay out of home after 11:30 PM. Despite minor flaws the gameplay is one of the best features in this game. The music is the best I’ve ever heard, it gives you the feeling of every situation in the game and you should consider buying the soundtrack if you appreciate good music. The sound effects follow the quality of the soundtrack and the voice acting as well. However, the English version of the game have some voice acting flaws, resulting in some of the character spoken phrases seeming really uncommon, anyway, I can’t tell if this is a problem from the Japanese version that was kept after the translation to English. To conclude, Shenmue will give you at least 15 hours of fun and of course it is impossible to explore everything the first time you play it. I hope you enjoy or have enjoyed playing this game as much as I did.
Other Helpful Reviews for Shenmue: Isshou Yokosuka
there's no doubt of that shenmue is a great game and the game itself is a reason to buy the sega dreamcast . the story is very simple you are ryo hazuki ,a japanese young man that saw his life destroyed when his fa... Read Full Review
This game made me buy a DC When i first saw it i was AMAZING by the graphics, and the music and story drug me in This game is a real masterpiece, simple enough The only game you will ever find like this is Shenmue 2 ... Read Full Review
