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Shenmue
Japanese
culture has long remained a mystery to Western thought.
It wasn’t until very recently that they began to open
up their world and extend themselves to the rest of
the globe. In saying this, very few people outside of
Japan could even guess what the 80’s were like there.
We all know that for us it was bad clothes, bad hair,
bad music and really dodgy computers, but what was it
like in the land of the rising sun? The answer? - Try
to mix the traditional culture you would see in an Akira
Kurosawa film with the emerging western culture creeping
up the back, and you have the world that surrounds Shenmue.
It all starts with a black car...
“Where is the mirror?!” Ryo hears as he carefully approaches
the dojo, creeping up to the base of the small flight
of steps that lead to the main door. As he begins to
climb, a figure flies through the doorway and almost
knocks him down. It’s Katchi-san, an old family friend,
who warns him of the danger that lurks inside. Ryo abandons
his friend as he enters the door, where two men in black
suits immediately confront him. “Ryo! Stay back”, his
father warns as a tall man draped in a long green kimono
circles him. “I’ll ask again”, mutters his father’s
assailant calmly, “Where is the mirror!” “I’ll never
tell you!” Ryo’s father speaks as he launches a series
of flurried attacks at the henchman, who dodges him
with ease before delivering a swift roundhouse kick
to his head. “Father!” Ryo yells as he pushes his holders
away and throws a light punch at the man in the kimono,
who ducks past and double palms Ryo to the ground. He
quickly turns as Ryo’s father, with less strength, attacks
again, but is forced back to the ground. “Now,” The
Dragon clad male asks, picking up Ryo by the neck, “I
shall ask one final time, where is the mirror...”
Now imagine this scene with a beginning, an end, and
some of the most beautifully rendered 3D animation I’ve
ever seen. This is what sends you into the Shenmue
universe. You are given control of young 19-year-old
Ryo six days after this incident (4th December 1986),
when he decides to track down the man who killed (yes
killed), his father and stole the ancient mirror that
your family has treasured for generations. Wouldn’t
you? But, unfortunately, the real problem lies in the
only lead Ryo has in tracking down the killer: they
had a black car. And he faces a world of questions:
Why his father? What is so special about this mirror?
Who was this evil being dressed in green?
The first real living, breathing world...
One of the first things you’ll notice about New Yokosuke,
is that this ain’t no Zelda world. It’s a real
living, breathing entity. People get up at 8:30am to
get to work, children walk out of their homes and into
the park to play, employees of restaurants go on lunch
breaks, etc. It’s enthralling to see that you can stand
in the same spot for a whole “day”, and watch the world
revolve around itself, not you. And speaking of time,
each hour is calculated in 5 minutes real-time, and
can be monitored by a small clock on the lower right
hand corner of the screen. This eventually becomes essential
to rendezvous for meetings, catching buses and waiting
for stores to open.
It’s incredibly hard to delve into the amount of detail
Sega has put into this title, allowing for small things
like telephones, interactive game arcades, and even
things like toy capsule dispensers. So much that sometimes
it seems unnecessary, but never unappreciated. Plus,
using the “Magic Weather” system, randomized weather
patterns are established, making for 5-day constant
rainstorms, snow in the winter, beautiful blue sky days,
and even orange sunsets. So, it’s also not unlikely
to see the kids bundled up in heavy clothing while it
snows, and people carrying around umbrellas when it
rains. Amazing. It is strange though, that Ryo manages
to wear the exact same thing every single day.
No, QTE isn’t a “special” Shenmue TV Channel
The gameplay of Shenmue is split into four separate
parts known as: Free Quest, QTE (Quick Timer Events),
Free Battle and Cinema. Free Quest is essentially the
meat of the game, as it involves the main investigations,
exploring, talking, feeding kittens (you’ll see), and
whatever else you decide Ryo should do on an ordinary
day. Ryo will wake up at 8:30am, get dressed, and the
rest is up to you. Generally, the main purpose behind
your actions involves the investigation of your father’s
death, and there are heaps of conversation, walking
(or running) around, buying goods, and mixing with the
not-so-friendly folk. But there are some days where
you just won’t feel like running around asking questions,
so you can feel free to relax in the arcade, explore
the suburbs, or train your moves in the parks. The amount
of freedom you have in this game is unprecedented and
no other console game I've ever played allows it to
the same degree.
The next level of gameplay was first seen in Dragons
Lair for the CD-I in the early ninteties. Yep, QTE
involves you pressing a series of buttons within a time
limit to complete certain tasks. Now originally, this
feature was thought to be a weak gameplay element due
to its simplicity and lack of interactivity, but I can
tell you that perception is completely wrong. You’ll
always be on the edge of your seat in cinema scenes
where you can’t be sure if the ‘A’ button might jump
up and urge you to press it. It also looks insanely
cool when you pull off a string of presses, such as
in a bar fight Ryo finds himself in. Casually chatting
with the bartender, a drunken sailor approaches. Ryo
brushes him off until he lunges with a knife; pressing
‘A’ allows Ryo to duck and slam him in the chest, and
then a quick tap of ‘B’ launches a powerful back kick
into another man about to whack him with a barstool.
Believe me, you have to witness it to see how cool it
looks.
Free Battle usually branches from QTE or Cinema modes,
where there are too many attackers to ward off using
QTE or to escape. This then places Ryo into a Virtua
Fighter type stance and opens up a stack
of 40-odd moves to annihilate your opponents with. Again,
taking down a whole gang of toughs with only yourself
and some karate is quite enjoyable to experience and
watch, although some of the later fights can become
very tough and quite hard to complete. But, you shouldn’t
find any trouble completing the battles if you have
logged in a few hours of DOA2 or Virtua Fighter 3tb,
as it’s essentially the same engine modified to allow
more attackers.
Also included with the package is the “Shenmue Passport”
GD which is basically where you can learn how to play
using the various tutorials, which are actually CG movies
involving the game’s main characters! It’s not really
useful, (the learning curve is very level), but worth
a watch (especially Kido’s). Also included is a “Movie
Theatre”, to watch previous cinematics you have collected
throughout the game, and the Internet option, which
allows you to go online and access a number of various
features. All in all, the “Passport” is a fun addition,
which was probably only included to squeeze in the much
needed online option, as space on the other GD-ROM’s
was nil.
Overall,
the gameplay element is a tough one to classify, as
it strings three very original concepts into one large
interwoven stream of play. All together it makes for
one hell of an experience, but you can’t help but think
that separately they could use a bit of a minor tweak.
I know I haven’t detailed specifically on what you can
do, but saying anything major would spoil the incredible
story completely.
Thank
God there isn’t the Eurythmics...
If there were one part of Shenmue that could
use a slight tweak, in my opinion, it would be the sound
factor. Don’t get me wrong, Shenmue creates a great
atmosphere with sound, especially during fight scenes,
where you can hear every crack, bend, kick and punch.
But problems like monotonous background music occur
in every game where you spend a fair bit of time wandering
around (e.g. the N64 Zelda series), which opens up a
very strange issue in Shenmue. At the beginning
of the game, ransacking Ryo’s room finds you a cassette
player and tapes. Unfortunately, these tapes only allow
you to listen to the music standalone, which for some
reason means you can’t make any of it the background
score.
However, during Cinema scenes, especially the sad ones,
the music will sway from rough, to soft, to intense,
to sinister so fluently you won’t even notice the track
change. You’ll get swept up in the emotional storyline
which wraps Ryo in love, in hate, in sadness, in jealousy
and in revenge. Seriously, I haven’t been this impressed
with FMV since Final Fantasy 7 on the PSOne, and I’m
not one for the frills. But Shenmue is 50% movie, so
my advice is to sit back and get sucked in on the emotional
stuff, and get your reflexes ready for some QTE in the
fast paced or argumentative scenes.
The only thing about the 80’s that’s pretty...
Shenmue is jaw-droppingly beautiful. There is
no other way to describe it. Every texture, polygon,
sprite and pixel has been drawn and rendered to properly
and completely take control of the raw DC graphics chip.
Every character is given detail to the fingertips; hair
sways with movement and wind, the face twitches as the
lips speak, noticeable body language is seen in conversations.
Everything down to the reflex of a fingertip has been
motion captured and displayed perfectly. Shenmue is
vibrant with color; just walking down the streets of
Dobuali you will see bright blues, reds, and greens
from florists, and the loud fluorescent colors of the
neon lights at night. The animation of a fight scene
is nothing less than truly amazing to watch, as fighters
flex their muscles, bend limbs to strike, and realistically
fall (or fly) back into furniture or walls and even
into other people.
It’s amazing to see the lengths of graphical prowess
the developers have gone to, as there is no way that
you will ever see the exact some person twice. Every
single polygon, gourad shaded non-essential person is
randomized and generated to allow for greater realism,
and every gang member has his own personality/clothing.
The 3D engine is smooth and heavy, with only a slight
hint of slowdown at times in areas with heavy crowds.
And, not unlike Metal Gear Solid, every single thing
is in 3D. You’ll be very hard-pressed to try and find
a lone sprite in this game, I’ll tell you. Shenmue also
manages to run at a steady 60 fps, which can be noticed
in most QTE events where frantic action is required.
Again, screenshots fail to give the game the justice
it deserves, as these stills fail to display the solid,
yet smooth movement of the world. Personally, I haven’t
played a game yet, PC or console, that blatantly and
outright completely impressed me with its visual eye
treats, like Shenmue did from the very first FMV sequence.
(TIP to PAL Users: Run it at 60Hz, it’s well worth it.)
Technically Brilliant...
Shenmue is the perfect package. Three great GD-ROM’s
coded by masters to allow a streaming experience with
the least loading times possible. Like most console
games, there is no trouble starting it up or beginning
a game. Shenmue also manages to load an entire community
of people and places in a matter of seconds, while also
telling you the current time and your destination as
loading occurs in the transition between suburbs.
Everything about this game is almost perfect. I say
almost, because there are some minor gripes I did have
that affect the game, but not the gameplay, such as
the inability to properly use the cassette recorder,
playing the waiting game and some overwhelming gang
fights towards the end. But I’m only nit-picking what
is a shoo-in for Dreamcast game of the year.
Sega
does it again...
I’m pretty sure I’m only halfway through Shenmue, and
I’m having an absolute blast adventuring through it.
I have always been a lover of Console RPGs, and this
new breed of hybrid between life, fantasy and realism,
excites a gamer like myself. It hasn’t been since FF7
that I have been hooked so intently that I have played
seven hours straight and forgotten the time. It’s the
appeal to find out more, to solve the mystery, that
pushes you on and forward into the dark realms of some
incredibly evil stuff. It was generally hard to review
this incredible game, as I obviously couldn’t squeeze
everything great into under twelve pages, let alone
put it in three. So, I advise you to go out right now,
and purchase what can only be classed as a masterpiece.
To end, I think the blurb on the back of the box says
it best: Shenmue isn’t a game my friends, it’s an experience.
Concept
A mystery/adventure set in Japan of the 80’s
- Completely original and extremely interesting. |
99
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Gameplay
Emotional, exciting, riviting, fast... Get the
picture? A very memorable experience and an instant
classic.
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99
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Graphics
The most flawless displays of graphical beauty
I’ve ever seen on a console system. Drool-worthy. |
99
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Sound
Intensely realistic fighting effects, a massive
score of Japanese cultural music and some of the
best voiceovers since Metal gear Solid.
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95
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Technical
Load screens that disappear in seconds and the
usual console bug-free work. |
99
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Overall
Pure
brilliance on Sega’s part. |
98
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