Though not for everybody, for those who like a good story and exploration, Shenmue is a must.
Story - The story of Shenmue begins in 1980s Yokosuka, Japan.
Ryo Hazuki, the game's protagonist, arrives home to find a scene of carnage. the house has been attacked by a man names Lan Di who was looking for a certain mirror, which the Hazuki family possessed. In the Carnage, Ryo's father is killed and Lan Di escapes with the mirror. With his father dying right before his eyes, Ryo swears revenge against Lan Di, Thus begins the story of Shenmue. Ryo must find out who is Lan Di, why did he need that mirror, and what connection does his own family have to Lan Di.
The Story of Shenmue is engrossing and deep, and boasts a depth and level of interest from the player few games can boast. While the story is not too action based, it does a great job of carrying the game.
Gameplay - Shenmue plays like a sandbox style of game, a style which would become common following games like Grand Theft Auto 3. The game world is a city which Ryo can explore. There are various things to do when not solving the mystery, as Ryo can visit the Arcade and play classic Sega arcade games like Hang On and Space Harrier, among various other things to do.
A key feature of Shenmue is interactivity, almost anything in the game can be interacted with, Ryo can pick up individual items , open cupboards to find items he can use in his quests. the interactivity extends to the NPC characters, all of which can be talked to , each one saying something different. Scattered throughout the game are QTEs or quick time events, in which the player is placed under a time limit to press a certain button or combination of buttons, these can be annoying though there arent too many. When Ryo has to fight, the game shifts to a Virtua Fighter style of fighting system, Ryo can practice his martial arts moves , as well as learn new ones.
The one drawback to Shenmue, is that sometimes it gets boring, as all it seems you are doing, is speaking to random NPCs until you find what you are looking for. This repetitious style of gameplay might put off some people, though those who like a good story and like the fighting system, will enjoy the game.
Overall , Shenmue can be described as a detective game, with a sandbox type of gameplay.
Graphics and Sound - At the time of release, Shenmue was by far the most expensive game ever made , costing Sega over 70 million dollars. Development team AM2, headed by game designer Yu Suzuki have used that money to create a game that looked amazing at the time. While the unreleased Saturn version (videos of which are available on the internet) had some of the best graphics of the 32bit era, Shenmue on the Dreamcast was upgraded for the new console to full effect . Shenmue was perhaps the best looking game at the time, especially considering the genre. While some characters look better then others, all the characters, including the NPC characters look very good, and have some great facial animations which look great , especially at a time when the majority of games at the time did not feature any decent facial animations. The game world is equally impressive, despite its large size, the world is very nicely detailed and this detail works well with the interactivity level of the game. As far as sound goes, the voice acting is decent, not the best. While it can vary , with NPC characters sounding quite boring, it is generally done well. A notable feature is that every character, including NPC characters , are all voiced, This alone makes the overall decent acting forgivable.
Much better then the acting, is the music, the music in Shenmue is done very well, with some themes being worthy of being called some of the best themes in a video game, especially the main theme. Overall, Shenmue is a game that looked amazing for its time and has fantastic music that dwarfs the sometimes average voice acting.
In conclusion, Shenmue is a game that may not be for everybody, but is a great game for people who enjoy good stories and exploration, such as RPG fans. its unique gameplay and engaging story, do a great job , together with the amazing music and great graphics for the time, of immersing the player into the game. For fans of RPG or adventure games , Shenmue may be one of the best games the Dreamcast has to offer, and proves that Sega's last system was better then its sales figures show (much like other Sega systems). Fans of RPG and adventure games should not miss out on Shenmue.