Shenmue I + II
“Maybe I SHOULD get ANOTHER?”
100
As fan followings go, it’s fair to say that Shenmue’s is amongst the most passionate in the gaming business. Years of relentless campaigning for a re-release have shown a clear and unwavering belief that Yu Suzuki’s magnum opus is special – but Sega lost a lot of money on Shenmue before, and it’s easy to get the feeling that it hasn’t put too much budget behind this new remaster. But before we address that, let’s talk about how the games play today.
Although Shenmue was never originally billed as an RPG, that’s essentially what it is. You play Ryo Hazuki, a young man out to avenge the murder of his father, in a quest that involves exploration and information gathering, fighting (using a real-time battle system), minigames and QTE sequences. The games are as much about getting lost in the authentic environments as making progress through the story, and you’ll frequently find yourself buying capsule toys, visiting the arcade and just popping into random shops to see what they’re like. Over the course of the games, the story will take you from a sleepy Japanese suburb to Hong Kong and mainland China, with a slow build that leads to some impressive and memorable sequences, particularly during the second game.
Open world adventures have moved on considerably since 1999 and revisiting Shenmue is a potent reminder of that. Ryo is a bit of a pain to control, getting stuck behind pedestrians and moving rather deliberately – particularly if you just want to move backwards, which involves a full 180 degree turn, a couple of steps forward and then another turn. Additionally, the series has a reputation for being somewhat idiosyncratic and meandering, and the first game in particular has a glacial pace, with very few action sequences until the late part of the story. Then there are odd design choices – if a character won’t show up until 7:00pm in the game, you just have to occupy yourself until then as there’s no option to let time pass. Shenmue II
does include this option and other improvements such as the ability to ask about specific topics, as well as a more action-packed story.
Despite the problems, the Shenmue games do retain something special. At times, it’s easy to forget that the first game was released in 1999, as the scale and ambition of the world is beyond anything else available at the time, and the mix of activities is pretty close to that found in Sega’s own Yakuza series. But unlike its younger cousin, Shenmue trades in very fine details, allowing you to knock on every door and follow every NPC’S daily routine. It doesn’t add much to the game other than atmosphere, but this commitment to detail is still impressive – you can visit places that are completely unnecessary and they’ll still be modelled with care and attention, and every character has voice acting. What’s more, when the story finally does get going, sequences such as the 70-man battle and escaping a dilapidated building while handcuffed to a reluctant ally are truly exhilarating.
The games are presented with a refreshed UI, HD rendering (which can be switched off if you prefer) and widescreen support – though this is only during gameplay, as cutscenes are presented in 4:3 in the first game and letterboxed 4:3 in the second. There’s also the option to add bloom lighting, depending on your taste, and you can choose to use the English or Japanese voice acting – this wasn’t an option in any of the original releases. Some people find the hammy acting of the English dub to adds to the charm, but we found ourselves sticking to the Japanese. Loading times have also been minimised, which greatly improves pacing.
But while everything that has been done is good work, that’s the extent of the improvements and there was plenty of room for more. The Dreamcast relied more on textures than polygon geometry for detail, which is a look that doesn’t translate well to HD without major care – and since the original low-res textures haven’t been improved, the game is full of smeary, blurry objects. Slowdown and pop-in remain present where they existed in the original games, and ideally Shenmue II’S improvements (such as the time-skip option) would have been ported back to the original. Additionally, there’s a lot of bonus material that doesn’t appear to have made the transition to the compilation. The Shenmue Passport content isn’t included, and neither is any of the concept art found on Shenmue II’S original discs. This won’t detract from your enjoyment of the games, but these materials could have made for an excellent museum mode as found in other retro releases.
Ironically, despite being demanded by the die-hards, it might be series newcomers that get the most from this release. If you’re just looking for a way to play the first two games in the series without having to fork out for a Dreamcast and expensive original copies of the games, this collection will mostly do the job fine. But the hardcore fans will likely keep their original copies, thanks to a lack of bonus materials and missed opportunities to improve the games.
In a nutshell
The Shenmue games aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but they’re still exciting adventures that are capable of impressing, despite some antiquated features. It’s just a shame the remaster didn’t go further.