Shenmue I & II, A Cult Classic Returns For The New Age of Gamers

By: GeekyGamerGirl87

Let’s take a trip down memory lane. Back in the year of 1999 in the month of September, I was a twelve-year-old young lady. I was only in middle school when Sega released their console, the Sega Dreamcast; a system that I still say to this day was ahead of its time. My parents who were both gamers, made sure that we always had all the newest gaming consoles. These of course weren’t just giving to my sister and me. We had gotten them for having good grades in school or helping around the house.  I remember getting my first game for Dreamcast which was Power Stone in which we returned because at the time my sister and I only had one controller. So off to Toys”R”Us we went – really telling my age now since Toys”R”Us is no longer with us.—and grabbed Sonic Adventure. Later there were many games to follow, but there was one game that always escaped my grasp.

I had asked for this game for Christmas, but it ended up releasing after Christmas. When we went to go purchase that game, all our local stores where sold out and unfortunately online shopping wasn’t really that big of a thing back then like it is today. That game that escaped my grasp for so long was in fact Shenmue. Every time we went to retrieve the game, it was still sold out. Again, this was during the time in which if you didn’t reserve a game or weren’t one of the first ones in line to get it; it could take months for you to get it. This was also the time that there were only so many copies in stores, so they did run out of the game. Soon, I simply just gave up on getting the game. As I got older and became a collector, I was determined to get the game, but by now people who were selling it were selling it at a ridiculous price because it has that nostalgia feel to it. So, for a while, I feared that I would never get a chance to play this wonderful game. Therefore, my heart leaped for joy when it was announced that Sega was going to re-release Shenmue I and II as a collection for PC, PS4, and XBOX ONE. Then my heart almost leaped from my chest when Sega reached out to thedailygamepad.com and offered us a free copy of the Steam version of the game, to play for review. Therefore, before I begin my review, I would like to thank D3T for creating such a wonderful game. I will also like to thank Sega for re-releasing the game and providing thedailygamepad.com with a free copy of the Steam Version of the game to play for review and making this girl’s life complete again.

When it comes to the story for the Shenmue games I am going to be as vague as possible. I do not want to ruin the story for those who have never played the game. I know some of you are thinking  “Who hasn’t played Shenmue before?” but remember I myself hadn’t played it before. So, to be fair and not ruin this excellent story for others I have to be vague. The storyline for Shenmue starts off as you playing as a young man name Ryo Hazuki who upon returning to his family’s dojo, witnesses his father Iawo  being attack and murder by a man from China name  Lan Di. Lan Di is demanding that Ryo’s father gives him –what I took to be the Hazuki’s family artifact— which is known as The Dragon Mirror. At first Ryo’s father refuses until Lan Di threatens to kill Ryo. Doing what any parent would do; Iawo gives him the mirror and then is killed. Ryo decides he is going to start his own investigation and pursue Lan Di to avenge his father. Upon going through his investigation in Japan, Ryo discovers there’s more to the situation then he first thought, and his travels takes him to Hong Kong China.

In Shenmue II, Ryo has now arrived in Hong Kong . You learn that not everyone in Hong Kong is nice and majority of the time they are out to make a profit against you – like selling you maps for profit. I’ll get to that later though.—  Although, some of the characters in Hong Kong are out for-Profit, Ryo does meet some characters who are willing to help him on his quest to finding Lan Di. His Quest does eventually lead him to Shenhua Ling, a young lady who appears to not be your average normal young lady. Upon meeting her, the two then set off to find Shenhua’s father.  Again, I didn’t want to give out too much of the story of the game, because it is a really great story and I really did enjoy it.

In terms of gameplay, there is just so much to do in the game. Yes, a lot of the times you will be giving a quest item to do. Sometimes these quests tasks can only be performed at certain times of the day/night.  However, that is perfectly fine because there are so many side quests to do in the game, that you will always have something to do. One of my favorite things to do in the game to past the time for quest tasks to come up was hang out in the arcade. What made me enjoy this feature of the game is that the Arcade in that game has five playable games that you can play. The games in the arcade are Hang On, Space Harrier, Darts, QTE Title, and Excite QTE 2. I spent a lot of my time in the arcade and falling into the nostalgia of some of the games. There were even times where Ryo didn’t make it home because I was playing at the arcade. The arcade also has the gumball toy machines where you get the toy prizes and I found myself getting excited for the collectibles. I must admit most of Ryo’s money was spent in the arcade and the toy capsule machine.

My love for the arcade also carried over into Shenmue II with the Pine Arcade which also offered an arcade with playable games which a few of my favorites did return such as Excite QTE 2, QTE Title, but also included in the arcade where Space Harrier, Darts, Neo Darts which also returned from the first game. The new addition for the arcade for Hong Kong was Outrun. This arcade also added the toy capsule machines to it as well. One thing I also learned from Ryo’s travel in Hong Kong everything was more expensive, and they will try to sell you any and everything. Like in the first game maps were around Japan to look at. In the second game you had to pay for a map of the area you were in.

When it came to the controls of the game you can play with keyboard or gamepad. Personally,  I played with the gamepad because as the game originally came out on Dreamcast I felt it was only fair to play with controller. I will say I did try it with keyboard as well, the only thing is that the controls were a little overwhelming  for keyboard. Although it shows you what does what on keyboard it was just a lot simpler to play with the gamepad.

The camera angles weren’t the greatest, but I thought it was okay because it added to the nostalgia of the games for me personally. I also loved how in the first game they did not change the sound filter on the game, so that it sounded like you were playing the game on an old CRT television. However, in the second game it looks like they removed that featured which was a little disheartening.  Also, there appears to be some mechanics in the second game that were a bit broken. Like there is a feature in the second game in which Ryo can take snapshots. However, when you go back to look at the snap shots they are all blurred out. Therefore, I am unsure if the snapshots are only supposed to be during certain times or if the mechanic itself is just not functioning properly.

The graphics in the first game are untouched which is fine because again it adds to the nostalgia of the game. The graphics in Shenmue II were a lot better and more pleasant to the eyes, but even so with some of the bugs it had  which not only included the snapshot feature, some of the controls were a bit buggy as well. It was a little harder for me to enjoy Shenmue II like I did with Shenmue I.

The game offers tons of things to do to keep you busy especially if you are a gamer that likes to explore every nook and cranny of a game. The game also offers fifty-five different achievements that you can collect. The one thing that I found interesting and this could possibly be because the game has only been out for a month, is that the game does not offer trading cards. With a game as classic and iconic as this game is, you would think that they would have added the trading cards. Again, it could also be since the game is somewhat new. However, if you are someone who would like to see trading cards, I would highly recommend taking to the forums to let Sega know you want the trading cards.

Overall, I felt that Shenmue I and II for my first time playing them were great games. I favored Shenmue I over  Shenmue II, because it really took me back to the game that escaped me in my youth. I felt that Shenmue II was a little lack luster but does what it needs to do, by carrying on the story. However, there is Shenmue III which is supposed to be coming out next year, and I am looking forward to continuing my journey within this universe. If you would like to play Shenmue I and II for yourself you can obtain it on the following platforms  Steam, Sega, SEGA Approved Partner List, Fanatical, Humble Bundle,  Playstation 4, XBONE  for $29.99 USD.