I played through Shenmue I & II last month.
I have deep nostalgia for this sort of day-to-day life sim, but I never actually played many games in the genre apart from the Harvest Moon series. I guess also the Tamagotchi also contributes to my nostalgia.
I only found out about Shenmue a few years ago when it was re-released on Steam in 2018. I was too young to know about the Dreamcast when it was actually on the market. Anyway, here’s what I thought about various things.
The World
Shenmue is often described as as an open world game, or at least a precursor to the genre.
I find that questionable: I think one of the key things that defines modern open world games is the fact that they allow the player to pursue objectives in various orders.
Shenmue’s core events and story progression are extremely linear, and it’s closer to a graphical adventure game that’s light on puzzles.
Of course, plenty of open world games have a sequence of necessary story beats, but most of them give players some freedom in how to approach each beat. The only thing that substantially resembles this is Shenmue II’s Kowloon chapter, where you need to earn money to enter buildings to advance the story and have a few ways to earn said money.
Apart from that, both Shenmue games do offer a lot of freedom in ways that are incidental. You can collect items, play mini games, and slightly less trivially, discover fighting moves.
And, to be honest, I don’t really like open world games — I’d rather waste time playing Hang On and darts than do side quests in just about any modern game. But that’s just me.
The Day/Night Cycle
Shenmue is famous for its realistic day and night cycle, but I think it is a little over-praised. The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time did the same thing in 3D and was released one year earlier in 1998.
Both games feature a gradual change in brightness and sky effects over time, which I think is what really separates these games from earlier, 2D titles that had more limited visual effects to represent the time of day.
Of course, the application is important. Shenmue ties story events to the time of day and realistically routes the paths of NPCs based on the time. While Ocarina of Time didn’t have time-based routes for NPCs, areas and shops did close at certain times, just like in Shenmue, and Majora’s Mask added character schedules a few years later.
Even in Ocarina of Time, different enemy types spawned at night, which is a far more practical application than anything that Shenmue attempted.
QTEs
Shenmue arguably popularized QTEs in their modern form. That is, it had button prompts, unlike Dragon’s Quest Lair and FMV games that were otherwise similar.
I think that Shenmue does a good job of having the player anticipate what they’ll need to press before the prompt shows up. You’re probably going to need to use the directional buttons to dodge, A to jump, and B/X/Y for something resembling an attack.
On top of that, you rarely need to perform every QTE event perfectly unless it’s a killing blow or a final action. If you’re running away from someone, you usually get a few chances to mess up before they catch up with you.
I was especially impressed with the nuances of QTE toward the end Shenmue II. As you run through a forest, the game changes the sound of QTE confirmation from a loud beep to a much softer tone, giving you a sense of flow and immersion in nature.
There are a few places where the QTEs fall short, usually when they’re repetitive and with poor visual cues. Repeatedly balancing on planks of wood to cross broken apartment building floors was not fun. Nor was balancing stacks of books (which I think you need to attempt daily but don’t actually need to succeed at).
Also, in some places, the QTE cues just disappear too quickly to see. I had to look at YouTube playthroughs a few times to mentally grasp the fastest ones.
The Combat
I don’t play many fighting games. I’m not great at them, and Shenmue didn’t help me get better. One issue is the fact that there aren’t many ways to train or practice your moves after the first part of the second game.
I think Shenmue’s combat falls into the category of “easy to learn, difficult to master.” I managed to get through both games with minimal understanding of the moves, but I did understand the difference between each of the four main moves and weak and strong attacks.
I also appreciated the fighting choreography. Even when I was fighting badly, I often thought: “I have no idea what I’m doing, but the game made it look and feel like I knew what I was doing,” which is pretty impressive.
The choreography in the non-interactive cutscenes is obviously good, too. I don’t know how realistic any of it is, but it looks good.
The Story
Shenmue’s story is notoriously incomplete, but the broad strokes are fairly straightforward – it’s a tale of giving up on revenge.
It’s a heavily episodic story. I’m sure anyone will tell you that it’s small moments that they’ll remember. There are some gorgeous moments, like catching leaves between your fingers and searching your father’s hidden relic room.
It’s also a hugely character-driven game. Each game has one main alliance involving main antagonists or rivals where you put your differences aside and work together.
However, your interactions with a big part of the main cast involve settling differences on a more casual level. Even though you never see Ryo give up on revenge against the man who killed his father, you see him build friendships or alliances with other people, and that gives the story a feeling of fullness despite the lack of true resolution.
Supposedly, series creator Yu Suzuki has many more plot developments in mind. As I said, the story is very episodic, and I think there’s room for several games, but I also don’t think more games are strictly necessary to reach a conclusion.
As I see it, the plot progression is not much more complicated than “I know someone who knows someone who knows the man who killed your father.” I don’t know how much Shenmue III diverges from that structure, though I hear it doesn’t advance the plot much.
Even though I think the series could reach a conclusion quickly, I can’t imagine that the series can wrap up in a way that satisfies everyone — similar to long-running TV shows that have strong ensemble casts but also are fixed on a main character.
Still, I’m satisfied with the experience and I will probably get through the third game — but I’ll probably use a cheat tool to avoid the grinding.
