"Don't you know that Blackmail is way uncool?" - Ryo Hazuki

I played Shenmue through the Shenmue 1 and 2 compilation on Steam, I think its pretty much the same version as the original minus disc swapping but if there are any major differences I wouldnt know. I was mainly interested in Playing Shenmue after really enjoying The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa a couple of months ago, which is a game that takes some inspiration from Shenmue in some aspects. And, since I think Shenmue has already been talked about from a myriad different angles on this site I think a nice compare and contrast will be good to do, especially to explain my personal experience with Shenmue and Ringo.

I was genuinely surprised when I started Shenmue and found myself enjoying the game, which underscores the benefits of playing things you might not think you'll like on the off chance you will. Its reputation for being slow and obtuse had my "filter-dar" screaming at me. Fortunately this reputation turned out to be mostly undeserved, especially the first 2/3rds of the game. It was honestly smooth sailing for most of the game, following a routine of exploring the various areas of the town interacting with locals and practicing combos at the local park. Shenmue is basically a point and click adventure game, you talk to people, follow leads, write down what you know in your notepad etc. At first the rather odd control scheme (not just the tank controls in a non horror game but the RT + joystick to shift Ryo's gaze until the camera locks on into something interactable was certainly not what Im used to) threw me off but its not too hard to get used to it.

At first there is a nice balance of progressing the main story and also doing side activities like the arcade, a couple of sidequests that flesh out the lives of the inhabitants of the town. The pacing is slow but its nice how much of it is dictated by the player, letting you take it all in, hell even the decision to not have fast travel (well, kinda) at first seemingly encourages going back and forth and running into scripted events. The problem however, and here's where the comparison to Ringo becomes more relevant, is that as you progress the pacing becomes a lot worse, the activities you have to do to kill time are really not all that compelling after a while, you get told to come back tomorrow or in a few hours and time just moves way too slowly. See, in Ringo the activities arent great either but times moves a lot quicker and the decisions you make are so much more rooted in roleplaying and just being able to squeeze as much as you can onto a day that until the very end of the game you are basically never bored. In Shenmue however by the time Dobuita started putting up christmas decorations I was just spending most of my time pressing forward + x to strengthen my pit blow combo.

Its funny, Ringo is a game about an aimless youth with no future where you're constantly trying to do it all but Shenmue is a game about a singleminded youth driven by revenge constantly fucking around doing nothing of note. If the mechanic is the message, Shenmue's time system could honestly work well for a reverse of Outer Wilds message. I find Ryo Hazuki to be not particularly compelling, mainly cause he's constantly alienating everyone who's ever loved him and who's telling him that his quest for revenge is stupid and dangerous, which they are right to do so. Now, I know that that is the point, its the whole martial arts drama schtick where a tragic quest for revenge means the MC must give it all up to pursue it, and Im sure if we ever get Shenmue 30 or whatever there will be some ironic twist to make Ryo doubt his own resolve and all that stuff. But I just dont find him or that arc compelling. Ringo is also a tragic figure who pushes away his friends and is seemingly doomed to waste his life away or even have it cut short, but he's much more human and relatable to me. Ringo is a game to me, about having too little time, but Shenmue is a game about having too much.

Its hard to sympathise much with Ryo when his Dad had no appearance beyond his inmediate murder when the game starts and incidentally, whilst the lack of certain modern conveniences enhance this game, if it were made today there would definitely be a playable prologue before the events of the game with Ryo doing some errands or something for his dad, tutorialising the various mechanics and such. A lot of this might also be the legendarily wooden acting of the english dub which I admit I picked due to its infamy but honestly there is just too little of Ryo himself being anything other than stoic angry man for me to really care. This isnt even a matter of Ryo being pretty distinct from the player because again in Ringo you are even more disconnected, not even privy to most of the conversations Ringo has with his gang members.

The kind of character and structure of the game with its slow humanism, feeding cats, helping the bullied etc makes the main quest jarring to me, Ringo should be collecting signatures to save the local school or something, not plotting murder. Perhaps this is just a personal thing, but then again if you were expecting anything else from this review then you were mistaken.

The game definitely takes a dip when the harbour is introduced, which is even more barren and boring than the main town, though thankfully most of your time is spent with forklift races and box moving, which are unironic highlights of the game. By this point though, Shenmue was really starting to wear thin, even the fights started to become more of an annoyance than a nice change of pace. There are a couple of scenes where Ringo shows some interesting side to him with Mark and Gui Zhang and Tom, but after a slightly annoying battle (I am also fairly shit at fighting games, so whilst I did well for 90% of the game I struggled with the final bout) the game just sort of ends. Its kind of ballsy just how much of a sequel hook the game ends on, seemingly treating Shenmue 1 as the first season of a drama series, fitting, I suppose but from what I have gathered the story of the series is far from over 20+ years later.

So why did I love Ringo but not so much Shenmue? Other than the points mentioned above, Ringo's character moments are so much more memorable to me, I will remember some lines in Shenmue for their delivery and silliness, but moments like Ringo not sharing his literature essay in class or his exchange with his teacher about wasted talent stick to me a lot more. I still enjoyed Shenmue and I'm glad I played it, but whatever it is that the people who love this game (and a lot of them being people who's writing I admire and respect on this very site) saw in it I just didnt quite find. Perhaps the nature of the "right place, right time" events meant I missed a bunch of things, and apparently Ryo's love interest Nozomi has most of her lines relegated to phone conversations? Of which I saw none and was wondering why she's such a flat line for most of the game despite her importance to Ryo and parts of the plot.

I'm not rushing to Play Shenmue 2 any time soon but who knows, maybe Ill play it at some point and come back to revise my thoughts on the first entry.

(Minor Spoilers)

Ryo gets ¥300 per crate he moves with the forklift. That might not sound great but let's really do the math:

The first few warehouses are very close to the crates. In real time, it would probably take me three minutes at most to move one. That's twenty an hour, which is ¥6000. In an eight hour work day, that would be ¥48000 per day. Adjusted for inflation (the game takes place in 1986) and factoring out the two hour lunch break, that's about ¥44,534 per day. That's about $319, or £253. Per day. For driving a forklift.

Shenmue was the most comfortable game I've ever played in my life.

Playing a Japan simulator, waking up early in the morning irl and ingame, going outside and running around Sakuragaoka while it was rainy IRL and also rainy in the game, while it played the FREE 1 soundtrack, just going around talking to people... It's so soothing, it made my entire being relaxed, immersed. I felt true happiness, a true sense of belonging in that world Yu Suzuki created. I wish this game was infinite and we were allowed to just live there forever.

Another comfort game. I love when a game is fully committed to making you engage in really mundane tasks. Walking down the hill from your home, passing all the other houses on your way into town, maybe trying your luck with the gacha along the way, making sure to grab some cat food on the way back home, slowly crossing things off your checklist. This shit is exciting to me. Shenmue nails all of that perfectly. Over the course of the game, I became intimately familiar with Yokosuka and its denizens. It almost felt like a second home. It’s one of my favourites. I love it.

The perfect game (for me)

What can I really say? It's slice of life game disguised as an action game about a boy abounding everything to be a video game hero, the story is less about the big players in the criminal underworld and more about Ryo and how the murder of his father has affected him and the people around him.

The Nozomi motorbike scene is perfect, one of the best scens in video game history! With how much Yu Suzuki loves china this def feels like a node to fallen angels.

If you ever plan to experience Shenmue with the expectations that:
it's a "Proto-Yakuza" or it's an "Action Kung-Fu flick" then you will certainly be in for a disappointment since Shenmue is non of that, I would really classify it more as an "adventure" game.

(outside few key moments), Shenmue's plot could be passively summarized in montage sequences at the intro of any other story but the fact it instead makes an entire game out of it is commendable if not admirable, It certainly takes it's time for world building which modern discourse tend to let you believe it's always views as nit positive, The mundanity of Ryo Hazuki life sells the idea that he's not destined for anything special despite his traumatic and unique circumstances he faced, you're not rewarded cash for fighting on the streets and being a badass, you're rewarded cash for being a good boy and coming home early or working part-time, Shenmue never glorifies violence and instead promotes common Japanese values like abiding the law, being functional member of society and a hard worker, I would like to add that Ryo as a character wouldn't have worked if all you saw him do on screen is just fight all the time, that would reduce his relatability factor in my opinion.

Ryo's an active protagonist, Who desires to seek the truth behind his father's murder, he often tries to avoid needless conflicts and uses his fighting skills as self-defense, while he does have some pride and doesn't take kindly to be viewed as weakling by his piers, it doesn't mean he will standby and see others get abused and extorted by those who have strength, His determination to find the truth is admirable and even relatable but can also be self destructive as the discouragement from many adult figures in his life pile up, he shows some understanding that the road ahead would be rough and potentially cost him of a happy life, But living with unanswered questions is worse for him.

At gameplay side, the attention to details is really great and often rewarding, the game rewards you for both exploration and recontextualizing previous conversations for later events, nowadays, developers would often place "notes/hints" in corner to nudge you to some secrets but Shenmue 1 doesn't pull punches, if you didn't pay attention it's your fault then, with that being said, it's really easy to get disconnect with the game considering how time works and many story moments are only triggered through specific times, Shenmue 1 gonna involve a lot of waiting and that would been fine in 2000s, but nowadays it's easy to pull your smart phone and get distracted by something else while you wait, there are some stuff do to but ends up just being 3 similar tasks, lastly the map I had to pull separate window because I ain't running to the other end of the area just to locate specific building, I don't have much to say on Combat side of things but it's fairly versatile and pulling throws on goons at each other is satisfying.

I would recommend Shenmue under 3 conditions:
1- Switch to JP audio (Frankly most of the bad reputation IB is thanks to the poor dubbing)
2- disable fast travel (this mechanic added in HD ports can make it easy for you to miss special cutscenes, so disable it)
3- keep in mind you're playing slow burn adventure game.

I love this game so much. I think the best way I can summarize my feelings about this game is to describe how magical it feels when I'm doing the most mundane things. Zooming in a random cupboard, seeing Ryo's early 3D robot-hands entering the view and awkwardly open it, and seeing whatever is in store inside; it feels me with child-like wonder, like seeing somebody pull off a successful magic trick for the first time. It's an absolute joy to simply exist in the game's world, and the game excels at making it so easy to immerse yourself in it. No other game feels quite like this. Not even Shenmue II, which has an entirely different kind of magic, at least to me. But we'll get to that game some other time.

Anyways, my only gripe from before is the controls. I didn't quite feel in tune with Ryo as a character in that sense. But replaying this now for the platinum trophy, I don't feel that way anymore. Maybe it's because I'm not playing it under duress of completing it ASAP, but all his moves and mannerisms just clicks to me. I knew exactly when he can move freely, and when he would need a bit more patience and deliberate inputs. It's great. I'm having the time of my life, being completely connected with this game I adore. I didn't feel comfortable giving this game a 10/10 before, but now it's the easiest thing in the world.

Also, I took some street photography style in-game screenshots. I don't normally plug my virtual photography stuff here but I think it would help to visualize how I personally see the world of Shenmue. A view with my rose-tinted lenses, if you will. You can check them out here.

I admittedly bought this on sale on Steam thinking I would laugh through a classically-dated ‘90s video game on stream, stunted voice acting and all. However, the more I sunk into this game, the more I started to realize this had a following for a reason. While it definitely requires the player to be on its wavelength, what’s waiting for open-minded players is maybe the most lived-in game that I’ve ever experienced, personally. After playing it through, I genuinely think this is one of the most important video games of all time.

I think it’s a crazy accomplishment to create an atmosphere like this, that places you in such a mundane world that promises big things, but it’s just so regular and run-down. A great dissection of the mundanity of capitalism and urbanism, even in the face of destined greatness. A father-avenging, martial-arts-action video game stuck in the gears of the laborer’s routine. All the while, it’s still telling an amazing story, one of feeling stuck on rage and grief, and even when you’re stuck and can’t move on from mountains of unprocessed feelings, the world keeps turning, and days go by, and lives go on being lived.

Maybe the most important thing about this game, though, is that it is not embaressed to be a video game. A lot of narrative-focused video games try so hard to be elevated because they’re insecure to be a part of this medium, but Shenmue isn’t. There are fun, colorful collectibles, there are so many mini-games that you could waste a whole day on, and so many references to Sega! When I found the Sega Saturn in Ryo’s house, my jaw dropped.

So many wonderful moments, a wonderful supporting cast, I just got so sucked into this world, and after thinking I’d just play this one and move on, I’m so on board to play through II & III. I’ll never forget about Nozomi for the rest of my life!

What does it mean to explore a world?

In a prior review, I discussed and explored my feelings on a world segmented into individual explorable levels, each so tightly-paced and dense in content that the joy of exploration never let up. A lot of collectathons strive to reach this kind of collectible-hunting nirvana, and its part of the DNA that they share with Metroidvanias. Indeed, there exist entire video games genres effectively based around the pure gameplay enjoyment of exploring virtual worlds.

Yet there’s always been a second side to that coin. A world as described above can’t often be described as a breathing one, can it? When every collectible is laid out just to tickle the player’s neurons right, all level design invites you to stay for just as long as is needed, every character created to fill a need, and so on. As pleasant as these worlds may be, its hard to shake the feeling of simply being a vacationer on a tourguide, a hero with a trail of breadcrumbs always guiding them toward the sword in the stone. And for all the faults the game may otherwise have, this is the area in which the original Shenmue truly shines: making you feel part of its distinctly living, breathing world.

After having the scene set by an opening cutscene, new players may realize just how little is given to them in the way of guidance. Navigating Ryo’s house alone can feel daunting, trapped by narrow passages with an extremely unorthodox, slow control scheme. Indeed, Despite an action-packed opening, what you’ll spend the next segment of the game doing can best be described as meandering. And you’re sure to have heard it all before in gaming discourse: Every passerby you see in Shenmue has a name, a personality, a schedule they adhere to, and hobbies and jobs that influence what they tell you. What’s effectively a point-and-click adventure game mixed with occasional fighting game segments turns into something entirely new once you realize just how little the game actually tries to help you in both areas. As Ryo Hazuki, the only things you can truly rely on are a notebook, a pair of shoes, and the roads they tread.

Though not a game with any sort of branching story, it is still one that understands and reacts to every little piece of the narrative, and one that truly wants you to pay attention to those small changes overtime. Just as every NPC has their own life, their dialogue evolves with each little progression made in the story, gradually giving Ryo the chance to hear the thoughts on every character as you approach the story’s dark truths. Yet for as much there is to find in Shenmue’s world, there’s no fast travel, no indication of what doing certain tasks will really achieve, no HUD beyond the clock on your arm and the road that lies ahead. Brimming with secrets, yet not privy to guide you to them: Its a game that, in the most pure form possible, strives to hide its gaminess, and wants you to simply engage with its world without thought to its objective.

That isn’t to say that a greater objective isn’t present, of course. The game tells an engaging mystery as you navigate Ryo from person to person, place to place, learning more about the circumstances of both his fathers death and their family’s place in the world. A lot has been said about Ryo’s stoicness and generally wooden expressiveness, but I don’t believe with any part of me that this was a writing error: The game is as much a story about Ryo solving a mystery as it is him slowly figuring out his place in the world. Ryo is a guy with a mission, yet time and time again during the adventure you’re reminded that he IS just a normal teenager - his classmates worry about him, the locals greet him with a smile and tells him to take care, and always warn him to be careful getting further into the dark world that took his father’s life. Through the slow mundanity of everyday gameplay, you get a lot of time to reflect on these things alongside Ryo as you walk the streets of Dobuita. Ryo really wants to avenge his father, but…everyone is so happy to just have him alive here, why can’t that be enough?

And I think that dilemma, that aspect of Ryo’s character, makes the kind of slow and meandering gameplay fit him so well. There’s such a brilliant clash from day and night in the game, going from visiting all the local residents and asking them about what’s been happening recently, to getting into fights in bars or sneaking into secret warehouses whilst avoiding cops. Much like Ryo’s own life, there’s two sides of the game playing out, one filled with excitement and danger and the other filled with love and tranquility. For as nice as all those action scenes are, and as well directed as the QTE sequences can be…many times I’d wish for them to end, just to be able to step foot in that beautiful little town again.

24 years on from its original release, it really can’t be overstated just how beautiful the original Shenmue still is. The character models sit in that perfect sweet spot between reality and abstraction, appearing as sculptured dolls with enchanting expressionwork, and the world they inhabit is filled with life around every corner. Its hard to not get goosebumps as night falls at 7PM, and get shown some absolutely beautiful shots of the area you’re currently in. The different parts of the world are so lovingly crafted, dense with life, that it becomes second nature to navigate this little world without the need for a map. Shenmue is, in fact, so confident in this that it flat out doesn’t give the player a map, outside of signs placed about scattershot around the world. All of this is topped off with beautifully expressive fighting animations as you engage in combat, with some of the most satisfying hit sounds you’ll ever hear in a game.

There’s something so fascinating about playing a game clearly filled with money and polish around every corner, yet still so confident in its own vision that its willing to completely shrug its shoulders upon being asked where to go next. Beyond the lack of a map, the game obfuscates how to really unlock its new fighting techniques, hiding some away until you’re able to fully utilize its button input. The game lets you, and encourages you to, pick up every single little trinket, open every single drawer, inspect almost every thing you can buy at stores, as Ryo physically picks it up - and never informs you on if this is something worth doing for progression or not. The game lets you buy drinks from vending machines and pick freely between several different flavors, again without ever hinting at its purpose in gameplay. The game features a full gallery of collectible figures, which you obtain simply by playing a gachapon machine with no clear end goal in sight. As said before, engaging with Shenmue is akin to engaging with a game that doesn’t want to be perceived as a game, or rather, like you’re literally stepping into the shoes of a teenager in a world just as confusingly unclear as ours. And sure, much like Ryo, you’ll get newfound determination when an objective is in sight: the Forklift racing segments pit you against 7 other forklift drivers in a makeshift race course and provide tons of adrenaline and excitement, yet… still leaves you unsure of what you’ve truly achieved at the end of each race.

Win or lose, it’s still just…another day at the job. Another safe, regular, uneventful day.

The days go by, and Ryo feels as if he’s slowly inching closer to his goal, but…is that progression really worth it? Like a Ying and Yang, both Shenmue and Ryo simultaneously want to remain leisurely confused in the place they call home, whilst also longing to boldly move forward in the world. In all the game’s calm moments, Ryo remains as focused as ever on hunting down the man who killed his father, consumed by a wish for revenge, and those close to him repeatedly try to tell him just how dark of a path he’s heading down. Yet Ryo stays so laser-focused on this one incident, because the Hazuki clan is the only thing in his life that ever processed to him as giving him purpose. Even with several good friends, a caring adoptive family, a community he cherishes, and eventually a stable job with coworkers he gets along with well, Ryo is just unable to disconnect himself from the clan, even if doing so would lead to a safer, happier life.

And I do genuinely believe there is a metanarrative of sorts here: We as players crave the excitement of fights and action scenes, and may end up more frustrated than at peace with the many times you’re encouraged to simply spend time in Shenmue’s world. Its almost unfathomable to suggest to players today that Shenmue’s lack of excitement is part of its appeal, because so much of what the industry wants is action, drama, excitement, tension, progression, and so on. Shenmue finds so much worth in the mundane, yet Ryo seems to reject it at every chance to pursue a dark truth, one that will undoubtedly make his life worse to bear, just for that sense of closure. And really, everyone wishes for some sort of closure: For instance, during the 24 years since the original game released, Shenmue fans too have waited for for an ending to Ryo’s story, with none in sight even after a kickstarted third game. But beyond that, we wish for closure in our day-to-day lives: To find a job that satisfies our every wish, to find something in life that never stops making us happy, to not keep getting fucked over by the shitty hands life deals us…

When you’re racing, your mind thinks solely of the finish line.
When you’re playing a game, you think solely of the progress made.
When you’re working, you think solely of the deadline.
And when you give yourself a goal, it’s easy to ignore all the beauty life has to offer, just for the sake of achieving it.

It can be hard, damn near impossible at times, to tell yourself to enjoy life for its pointlessness - to smell the roses not for an achievement, but for yourself. Shenmue tells you to relish those moments for as long as you can: To inspect every item, talk to every person, observe every building, listen to every cassette tape, and take as many breaths in its unforgiving, perfectly constructed world as you please. Because the boat to Hong Kong is a one-way ticket - once Ryo leaves, it’s too late for regrets.

[Playtime: ???]
[Key Word: Purpose]

Shenmue wore its ambition on its sleeve. It's a massive game, not just in terms of overworld (which is expansive for it's time), but in terms of budget and sheer amount of people involved. As I was watching the credits, I was struck by how long they were, and it has to be the first game that I know of that hired stunt actors. What makes Shenmue interesting and revolutionary to this day are not only the graphics, but how it attempts to make a "cinematic game", mixing action-movie segments with more mundane life simulation.

I find you come across an interesting conundrum when you try to make a "cinematic game". Cinema is based on 'cuts', that is, they aren't necessarily showing the full routine of the main character, generally only the scenes it finds relevant to its plot. Shenmue on the other hand, includes all of it. If it's an action movie, it's one of the most "realistic action movies" I know of.

This is both what makes Shenmue so compelling for some (like me) and outdated/boring for others. It's a game where you simultaneously have to chase after a Chinese cartel while still making sure you're home by ten. Where you are getting a forklift job at one instance, and then beating up at least a few bad guys at the next. And make no mistake, this game starts slow. You basically start with no clues on the whereabouts of the man who just killed your father. So, perhaps expectedly, a lot of the game is just asking people questions, and waiting. You can pass the time by... playing arcade games, and uhhh what else, maybe looking at stuff? I can see why some might abandon this game early, but I found the contradiction between the everyday routine parts of this game, and the high octane moments, to really make it an interesting gameplay experience. During the everyday-segments, I felt like I was living in a pre-internet Japan, more than anything (where these were probably realistic activities). I was actually thrilled by the routine of Ryo Hakuzi, and seeing where he was led next.

However, I understand this isn't a game that everyone, or maybe even most people, will find thrilling. It's worth admiring though, even if from a distance, for it's ambition and charm.

dame dane lole!!! sorry wrong game. shenmue is actually a pretty swag game on paper but it ends up sucking because the sega gemesis can't really capture the art film aesthetic the game is trying to capture very well, as well as the story just being really generic. i think i'd relate more to the protagonist if he wasn't a bumbling thumbsucker with really awkward dialogue and body language (which describes every character). really dig the aesthetic though! as famous GOOD PERSON Steve Jobs put it "For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through."

A bizarre, beautiful and ambitious game. While I think it is hard to approach for newer players, this does an amazing job at making you feel like you are living in a fictional world. I would say things in Shenmue feel more 'alive' - even with the cheesy late 90s voice work - than most AAA games do today.

I really like this game's strict adherence to 'time.' You can't fast forward, you can't rewind, you go by the in-game time. If you need to do something at like 6 p.m., you need to physically wait for the time to change. I admire that they went this route. Hey man, you wanna fill those few minutes with something to do? Go buy some capsule toys!

Do not listen to people who try to dissuade you from playing this game. It is something you must experience for yourself. It may not be for you but hopefully you can see what they were going for.