I missed the Dreamcast first time around, so for me Shenmue existed only as a vague imagined experience, scant details stolen from flicking through magazines in shops, an unknowable Valhalla. A few years ago I borrowed a Dreamcast and a bag of games, played with it for a month or so, and returned it with a note saying simply "Shenmue is rubbish".

Having just finished 1 & 2, I feel like I've been on a huge roundabout journey where I am now able to both stand by this statement AND vehemently argue against it.

I'm not sure any game has ever made me think so much about what games are, what they could be, whether I'm understanding or assuming the creator's intentions, the limitations of the concept of "less is more"...I almost don't want to write any of it down though, as my thoughts (much like the game) are an absolute jumble, and I feel like it's already been dissected to hell and back. I think I want to just read and learn as much about it as possible, because honestly I cannot currently fathom the mind that made so many of the decisions shaping the entirety of what it is I think about when I hear the word "Shenmue".

I keep writing things and deleting them. Shenmue has broken my brain, wide open, and shit is falling out everywhere. I can't possibly score this game. It's been something I have come to consider as an essential experience, but also one I'm not sure I could ever bring myself to repeat, because without the epiphanies about games and myself, what's left is more often than not a frustrating mess. I loved it and I'm done with it.

installs Shenmue 3

(Review do 1):
Shenmue indiscutivelmente é um dos maiores clássicos da industria, serviu de base para basicamente quase todos os jogos focados em imersão que vieram depois dele.

Mas ele meio que me lembra Yakuza 5, almeja o céu e além, voa perto demais do Sol, e acaba se queimando.

O jogo é cheio de encheção de linguiça, é extremamente monótono até nas quests principais, a movimentação na cidade é lenta, passar o tempo demora mais do que esperado antes de você chegar na empilhadeira.

Mas as críticas acabam por aí.

De resto o jogo é exímio, os gráficos não dataram até hoje, a imersão é densa, caminhar pelos distritos é extremamente aconchegante, o sistemas de clima faz você realmente sentir que o tempo passa, TODOS OS NPCs TEM ROTINA E UMA COISA NOVA PARA FALAR TODA SANTA HORA. Isso torna o jogo extremamente vivo, coisa que 90% dos jogos hoje em dia faltam. Shenmue é de fato um exemplo de imersão.

A história é o cliche de vingança, mas somado com a imersão e carisma do jogo, você realmente sente na pele as aflições de Ryo, realmente sente todos os sentimentos encarados por TODOS personagens da trama, do Ryo, até a Nozomi, até mesmo o Mark.

Muitos discordam, mas o combate para mim é perfeito. É literalmente Virtua Fighter, quem quiser achar complexidade nesse combate, com certeza vai achar, já perdi horas e horas me divertindo na luta dos 70 homens depois de zerar o jogo.

E com o gancho da Luta, a OST é incrível, é imersiva, épica, relaxante, emocionante as vezes até melancólica. Escuto Earth and Sea quase todos os dias, o tom épico porém melancólico dessa musica é perfeita para a luta diária que é a vida.

Tl;dr Shenmue é um jogo muito pessoal para mim.

Apesar de estar repleto de gargalos da época, e decisões de game designs audaciósos demais pra época, É um jogo que você vê que foi feito com muita, muita paixão. E eu certamente me apaixonei por ele).

(Review do 2):
Shenmue II pegou o primeiro e melhorou cada aspecto mecânico um por um. A encheção de linguiça é bem mais dinâmica e opcional, finalmente tem a porra de um mapa então o dinamismo de locomoção é bem melhor, passar o tempo é BEM MAIS PRÁTICO.

Se Shenmue já era um jogo extremamente ousado pra sua época, Shenmue II consegue ter um escopo AINDA MAIOR. Praticamente tem 3 cidades, a longividade do jogo é bem maior, visualmente é um absurdo de lindo pra época e a história é bem mais "action-packed".

O universo em si é bem maior, introduz uma quantia numerosa de personagens extremamente cativantes que tiram o Ryo da sua bolha de conforto que era Yokosuka, o jogo está cada vez mais ensinando o Ryo os mil significados do que é ser um artista marcial, é lindo.

Mas é meio que óbvio, Shenmue 1 cobria um capítulo da história de Shenmue, enquanto o 2 COBRE FUCKING 4 CAPÍTULOS. E posso dizer que fez um ÓTIMO trabalho, por que em nenhum momento eu senti que o jogo era rushado, de forma alguma, ele é "confortável" como sempre.

Em questão de combate aparenta não ter mudado... mas mudou. O combate meio que reflete a natureza mais "grandiosa" do jogo, foca bem mais em movimento, a esquiva do jogo é tem um alcance bem maior e parrys no geral foram desfocados a favor de counters e rolamentos. Em suma, o combate é menos técnico e menos punitivo que o anterior, é bem "solto" e mais convidativo para aqueles que não querem esquentar muito a cabeça com um sistema complexo e "preciso" como o do primeiro jogo. Eu prefiro o sistema anterior, mas tenho carinho por esse.

Agora pra crítica, é mais uma afirmação de preferência. Acho que o tom do primeiro jogo me agrada mais, esse é épico demais, me vejo muito mais preso ao Ryo na narrativa suave, relaxante e até melancólica do primeiro. Era bem mais humano, se isso faz algum sentido. Mas não posso ignorar que isso é um passo a ser dado na história, Ryo saiu da sua zona de conforto, foi pra uma aventura, na jornada de auto-conhecimento buscar o sentido do que é ser forte, do que é ser um lutador, e é simplesmente emocionante e lindo de ver.

Tl;dr é um jogo com um escopo muito maior e épico e com inumeras melhorias no game design, mas eu prefiro o primeiro por questões pessoais.

Enfim, eu gosto de agrupar os dois primeiros jogos como uma experiência única, pois, no fim, não existe nenhum outro jogo como ele. Shenmue é uma experiência única.

Shenmue, sempre será Shenmue.

Legendary game, precursor and Mentor of all modern Open World RPG or Action RPG.

Since 25y ago when it came out on Dreamcast, I've never been as blown away as I was the first time when I played it.
When it came out EVERYTHING about it was completely insane.

No game as ever succed to immersed me in its story and world like Shenmue did. All hail the king !

I made earlier reviews for Shenmue and Shenmue II based on the time I played them when they were released on Dreamcast and Xbox and I rated them both 5 stars. These games aren't 5 stars in 2022 but they are still great games as long as you go in knowing the gameplay and voice acting will be outdated. Still the graphics hold up well for being two decades old and overall these games are still worth the play. An awesome revenge story, fun mini-games, and great QTE. I highly recommend giving them a try.

I'm super biased because I adored these games when they first came out on the Dreamcast, but my god I love these two games!

The controls are clunky, the voice acting is a bit wooden, there's no quality of life features that are commonplace these days, but it just works. Go back to when these games originally came out and it's a miracle what the developers were able to achieve. Games that have come out since have arguably done this better, but they're standing on the shoulders of Shenmue.

At times the pace is glacial. But the whole point is to take each day as it comes and make the most of your time. Shenmue is a living, breathing world and its inhabitants all have their schedules to keep to. Need to ask at an antique shop about the old scroll you found in your basement? You can only do it when the shop is open. It can feel frustrating from a 2024 perspective that you can't just do whatever you want whenever you wish, but again, that's the point of Shenmue. The sequel does add a 'wait' feature if need to be at a certain place at a specific time you can whiz the clock forward. It's a handy implementation but does take away some of the fun of filling your day.

If you've not played these before, it's difficult to recommend them because they are showing their age now. If you're level-headed enough to appreciate that they are old games, you might be surprised at how much enjoyment you'll get out of them.

Again, I'm biased, but these are two of the best games of all time.

Also I just noticed that I finished my last play-through on 6th May and finished this time on 5th May! Spooky!

In January of this year (2023) I was going through an extremely bad period of my life. My depression was at an all time low, and I started to show a few symptoms of being schizotypal (which have since disappeared a little bit). Around the same time, the next game in my backlog was this game.

As I was playing it, something strange happened. I started to feel extremely happy. Shenmue taught me about the intricacies of life: how to keep a schedule, how to be more friendly towards people, how to explore and interact with the world around you, and so much more. It does seem silly to talk about how a game has changed the way you act in real life, but it happened for me.

For a game to do this to a human means it transcends the lowly status of being a "video game". Shenmue I & II is a magnificent sprawling work of perfection that rarely shows its age. Everyone should play it; not just gamers, but salarymen, wives, children... everyone.

It breaks my heart knowing that we probably won't see the full conclusion of Ryos story...however there is magic captured in these games that no other game has ever been able to reproduce. Sure, graphically better looking games exist, but I don't think any game matches the beauty and life that Shenmue does. This game bleeds with the love of the team behind it. I first played these games in 2019 and they changed my life. Leaps and bounds ahead of it's time, and cursed to never be fully appreciated by the modern gamer. It's 2024 and I don't think a single open world game has come close to capturing the same magic that's inside these games. You either get it, or you don't...and I feel sorry for you if you don't.

I thought shenmue offered an interesting premise to try, but it lacks what it takes to really sell it to you. I couldn't even bear to finish 1

The progression is too slow in the beginning, and with the game pushing multiple waiting limitations without enough activities to fill it, i found myself leaving the game running on numerous occasions just to pass the time. This was a deal breaker for me ultimately.

The combat wasn't even the most interesting game element.

If i ever decide to give it another shot, i'll be skipping to 2 directly.

Shenmue I
Shenmue is one of those games I never got a chance to play and have wanted to all these years. You always hear people talking about it, it pops up in “Best Of” videos and “Worst Of” videos, especially for the Dreamcast system itself. Shenmue was a beast all on its own back in the day as no one had tried these gameplay ideas before. Sure, it’s an adventure game on the surface, but it’s also a life simulator, fighting game, and mini-game extravaganza all in one. It’s weird, beautiful, ugly, and frustrating all at the same time and yet somehow it all kind of works.

You play as a high school boy named Ryo Hazuki. He gets home one day and his father died while fighting a Chinese man named Lhan Di. He steals something called the Dragon Mirror and you must somehow get it back. The weird thing about the story is that the end goal never really matters, but all the stuff in-between. What is this Dragon Mirror and why does Ryo need to get it back? It’s really never explained except something about fulfilling a prophecy and the end times will come if Di keeps it…I don’t know, the story is so unbelievable and weird.

The game starts out like any other adventure game as you wake up in your room and commence rummaging around the house pulling open drawers, finding items, and trying to figure out where to go. Thankfully that’s something Shenmue does do right as I rarely didn’t know what to do or where to go. After setting foot in the village I watched a few cutscenes, knocked on about a dozen doors, and kept going through the town figuring out where to go. Eventually, I ended up in the main city where half of the game takes place. The first few hours have Ryo running around asking questions to get clues to then go to that person or place for either a cutscene or more clues. This continuous cycle of clue finding felt satisfying as I met some interesting characters and felt connected to the world of Shenmue.

Sadly, there’s a huge disappointingly frustrating factor about all of these events: They are time sensitive. You have to wait for in-game time to pass before certain events unfold. That wouldn’t be so bad but you can’t skip time so I literally went and did other things like chores, cook, or play a different game while time passed. Sometimes it would take almost 45 minutes for time to pass where I need it to be, then a small cutscene would play out, then it’s back to waiting again once I find the next clue that requires more waiting. It would also be fine if there were things to do, but outside of a few real Sega arcade games, and collecting Gotcha prizes there’s no side quests or anything to do. It’s so incredibly boring to sit and wait through all of this, and if you miss your time frame you have to wait again. Waiting also goes for catching the bus to the harbor and working a real forklift job.

Oh my God, yes the infamous forklift section of the game. This literally took up an entire 4 hours of the game. You work 8-5 for 5 in-game days driving a forklift from one end of the harbor and loading boxes into a warehouse. It’s both beautifully addictive and stupidly frustrating and annoying. All of this is so the Mad Angels, a drug cartel, in the game will pick on you because you’re new and you can obtain information from them after every fight. Not to mention the annoying forklift race at the beginning of each day with the same track. Man, it’s so stupid and frustrating and I both loved it and hated it.

After the forklift section, there are a few more fights and the game is done. The fighting itself is surprisingly impressive with responsive controls, fast and fluid animations, and plenty of combos. Outside of the Free Battles, there are QTE battles which can be hard as well as the reaction time they give you is literally milliseconds. The visuals of the game haven’t been updated all that much. There’s newer lighting effects, better shadows, and the characters have smoothed over textures, but overall it still looks like a 20-year-old game. There are still plenty of bugs and glitches such as being stuck in first person mode after driving the forklift, hard crashes, and objects disappearing completely.

The music is annoying and repetitive with only one short track per area and it just isn’t very good, the voice acting is awful and even the Japanese voice track is questionable sometimes. The audio in general still sounds compressed and really bad, and the game is just really rough around the edges. So why should you play it? It’s a weird piece of gaming history on a system that died faster than it could blink. The characters are interesting and the various activities are fun, but the long waiting and various missteps keep Shenmue from being a fantastic game.

Shenmue II
I have a weird disposition with the entire Shenmue series. I really want to love it, but the problem is the game is so flawed and so strange that the game almost feels like a chore to complete. The first game was tolerable as it was fairly short and the age made it more forgiving, but Shenmue II has no excuse. It was on a new generation of consoles and I have literally never played a sequel in a series that was a copy and paste of the last game.

The game picks off exactly where the last one took off with Ryo heading to Hong Kong and as soon as I saw the first cutscene I sighed and rolled my eyes and did an entire facepalm. I expected the game to look fairly newer, have a new UI, better controls, and an all-new look but we got a literal engine port from the Dreamcast with just new areas to explore and a story that’s four times longer than the original (the original Xbox game had 4 discs!)

As I got off the boat I really realized it was the exact same game as Ryo controls just as poorly, the gameplay is exactly the same to the T and I buckled in for a long ride. The first third of the game has Ryo running around talking to people gathering clues, meeting a few new faces, trying to continue to find Lan Di and avenge his father’s death. At least more story is explained and we find out what every mystery in the first game means. To be honest, the first third of the game isn’t all that bad, yes it’s more Shenmue I stuff, but it’s easy and straightforward for the most part. Once I got to the second third of the game things got tedious, frustrating, and a little annoying. This series for some reason loves having Ryo work and be miserable when it comes to progress. Twice I was stuck having to work the most boring and tedious mini-game I have ever played to earn enough money to move on. You can earn $10 a crate by helping someone move them from one side of the room to another and it’s all about QTEs with the directional buttons. You usually never earn more than $60 as there isn’t enough time allotted for more work and gambling is usually risky and out of the question altogether. The game favors the AI more than you so you can easily blow all your cash and have to play that mini-game six or seven times over to earn it back again.

Outside of the awful mini-games, the second third of the game has Ryo running around inside buildings that are built like mazes with hallways that all look the same. It’s not as easy as using the elevator as you will have to use the stairs to go up, use that elevator to go further down, then use the stairs again to go down further. In between are Free Battles, QTE events, and the occasional boss fight. It’s so tedious and frustrating as there are little dialog quips that are in between repetitive gameplay sections that can’t be skipped and just add to what makes the entire game annoying to play.

Once you get past that third of the game the last third is the exact opposite of the rest of the game. It’s a 2-hour long cutscene that lets you interact every so often via dialog or running down a few paths, QTEs, and more dialog. Let that sink in for a minute: A 2-hour long cutscene. All you’re doing is going through a forest and mountain pass to get to a village with a local accompanying you. This is also where most of the story unfolds and becomes more interesting.

I have a lot of things to complain about with this game and the series as a whole, but the story is still good enough to keep me trucking along and putting up with the repetitive drawn out nonsense the game dishes out. Not to mention the several times the game crashed and my progress was set back to my last save. The game itself is just ugly to look at and looks like a slightly updated Dreamcast game in only a few ways. The gameplay style is just so dated, frustrating, and unnecessary to get the story across it wanted. I would have rather had cutscenes and just QTEs in between than these weird gameplay “ideas” thrown in. Sure the game is much larger in scope, but it’s still a linear maze of remembering street and building names and participating in fights.

Overall, Shenmue II is both beautiful and terrible at the same time. It’s a game out of time and should have either been less than the sum of its parts or just a 3D anime feature-length movie. As a game, it just doesn’t need to really exist especially being so dated even at the time of release. It suffers from all the same issues as the first game, and even as an HD port, it still doesn’t look or play well. It’s a very niche game that many gamers will not even get 1/4 through before turning it off for good. It requires an immense amount of patience, time, and forgiveness to enjoy, and sometimes that’s just too much to ask for a game.

Conclusion
As it stands, this Shenmue HD port is either good or bad depending on your stance on the series. It’s great to get a piece of gaming history playable on modern consoles, but there are so many flaws with both games, and the port itself, that it’s hard to justify it to anyone except really curious people and hardcore fans. The games are both full of crashes, bugs, glitches, and they look hideous with no effort put into the game engine at all.

Impeccable presentation. The music, cutscenes, and locales are all excellent. There is SEGA essence oozing throughout this whole thing.

The gameplay... was just a damn slog. I don't like fighting games so that core gameplay wasn't really for me... but the adventure piece basically boils down to talking to everyone randomly and investigating the cryptic writing Ryo puts in his notebook. There are also QTE's... which I think we've all decided are bad at this point. Sometimes you just have to wait around to go to bed, which is somewhat of an interesting idea in forcing a player to really "simulate" the world... but it is much more interesting than enjoyable.

In fact, that's a great summary of how I feel about Shenmue: "much more interesting than enjoyable".

Played Shemue 1 again and Shenmue 2 for the first time, which I had previously only played briefly on an emulator. A very decent HD conversion of both games, about which I have little to criticize. I found the second game of the series at least as strong as the first, although there were a few passages (that damned building complex where you had to fight your way through thousands of floors got on my nerves^^) that were a bit too slow in terms of pacing. Apart from that, the finale of the second game is pure magic, I can't believe how well it was realized.