Prepare to be immersed in the life of Ryo Hazuki as he embarks on a quest of vengeance.
Sandbox feel
Impressive graphics
Interactive gameplay
Cons:
Gamer's Fatigue
Story progression can seem slow
Fighting multiple enemies devolves into button mashing
"Shenmue" is a free roaming game for the Sega Dreamcast. The story takes place in 1986 and revolves around a young man named Ryo Hazuki, who witnessed his father murder by the hands of a man named Lan Di, a man who will do anything to get his hands on the Dragon Mirror. Ryo makes it his sole mission in life to find Lan Di and avenge his father's murder. Ryo travels from town to town and meets with the townspeople, hoping to unearth information about Lan Di and the mysterious Dragon Mirror.
Shenmue employs what is called "FREE", or rather "Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment"; an interactive game that simulates real life by having the day cycle between morning, afternoon, evening and night, and even weather changes, such as rain and snow. The player will even experience Ryo completing mundane tasks. The Non-Playable Characters will go about the day living their virtual lives, adding to the illusion of art imitating life.
The controls are simple enough, the directional pad controls Ryo while the analog stick controls the camera. If in front of a sign written in Japanese characters, the player would have to tilt the analog stick in the direction of the sign and the English translation would appear at the bottom of the screen. This makes it easier when looking for a specific place rather than having to memorize the street map. Shenmue has four modes of gameplay: Free Quest, View Mode, Quick Timer Events (QTE), and Free Battle. Each of these modes combines to form the foundation of Shenmue.
The crux of the game will be spent in Free Quest; in this mode Ryo has free range to go where ever he likes between the different towns. Just like in life, time moves throughout the day. From morning when Ryo wakes up and all the way to night, NPCs throughout the towns will be going about their daily lives. NPCs will be at certain places at different times and can only be talked to at a certain hour; even the stores in town open and close at a certain time. Ryo can keep track of the time though the use of his watch that will be on screen for the player or accessible through the item menu.
More importantly during Free Quest is that Ryo has the ability to talk to and question different Non-Playable Characters throughout the day. This is the only way to progress the story, to investigate and interrogate the NPCs in hopes of finding a lead to Lan Di or to someone who has information on his whereabouts. Ryo will jot down any important information relevant to his search in his handy notebook. This lets the player keeps track on the current search and clues on how to progress the main story. Because the game follows the rules of day and night, interviewing different NPCs, having to be at a certain place at a certain time, the story progression can seem slow and non-existent at first.
Reader's fatigue occurs when reading a block of text that describes some mundane task in detail; the reader then finds having to read the details boring or uninteresting, the same can similarly be applied to Shenmue, as the interactive gameplay can act as a double edge sword. In what can be called "Gamer's Fatigue", Shenmue goes above and beyond when attempting to immerse the player in the life of Ryo.
During View Mode, the player can zoom into first person view and examine different objects; whether it's a phone, cabinet, sheet of paper, or a vase. This calls for Ryo to actually look at the object in question, pick it up, examine it, and put it back where it was. View Modes lets the player discover items or clues that would otherwise be overlooked, but actually having to go through the motions like a normal person would have to, could become annoying or tiresome late in the game for the player and thus create Gamer's Fatigue. Even when using the phone, the player has to manually select the correct numbers and watch Ryo dial each number.
Quick Timer Events can happen at any given moment, whether it's to quickly disarm an enemy or to dodge an oncoming obstacle. During QTE, the player must quickly react to what's happening through the use of button inputs that will appear on screen; the player only has a few seconds to react, so if the wrong input is entered or the player is too slow, Ryo will be subjected to the punishment for the incorrect choice.
Free Battle occurs when Ryo engages the enemy or enemies in actual battle as opposed to a QTE. During Free Battle Ryo can take a single enemy to a range of six or more enemies at the same time. Ryo is given a set of moves that he can practice and learn throughout the game and in turn use those moves in battle. While the moves might be useful when going against one or two enemies, as the number of enemies increase the Free Battles slowly devolves into button mashing. With the AI getting smarter in dodging and parrying Ryo's attack and ganging up on him, the player might constantly find themselves hitting whatever button in an attempt to thin the herd of enemies and conserve stamina orbs.
The VMU constantly displays the name of the game in English and in Japanese characters. Though when Ryo is learning a new attack, the VMU will give the player hints as to what the correct input is for executing the move. Along his journey, Ryo can collect various items such as cassette tapes (remember the game is set in 1986), figurines, prizes, etc. The graphics of Shenmue are impressive for a game on the Dreamcast; the facial expressions of Ryo and the NPCs are detailed to the point of being noticeable and distinguishable from each other, the different stores and locations are also highly detailed. Another thing to note is that every encounter with a NPC has a voice over; there's no silent dialogue.
Shenmue stands out as one of the top tier games for the Sega Dreamcast. It might be an impossible task to find a copy of the game and console in the current present, but that shouldn't dissuade someone from learning more about the game.