Shenmue is one of the most AAA video games I have ever played. Look at the release date, man. That's a pretty old game! Shenmue had people walking around meticulously detailed homes and picking up items to closely examine them long before modern Sony latched onto this idea and made people hate it. I always knew people loved Shenmue, but I can't help but feel the quality of it has been completely undersold to me. I was aware of the goofy English voice acting and forklift driving, but was not aware of its Yakuza (Like A Dragon)-like structure. Not to say it's exactly like a Yakuza game. There is far less combat and a bit more interactivity with the world itself. While Yakuza is a blend of JRPG and Beat em up design, Shenmue is sort of constructed around a point-and-click adventure game structure (and fighting game combat). Narratively it has a similar flow as well. A domino effect of events continue to fall throughout the experience. It starts with one goal that gets stretched out with steps added on in between A and B. It plays out like a detective mystery. Talk to this guy to learn about this other dude who wants to meet you somewhere at a certain time to tell you about a specific thing. It's a wonderful chain of events.
Shenmue does something I find unique with its 'quests'. It yearns for a realistic human experience. For example, you might be trying to find out where a character likes to hang out at night: This leads you to ask people around town for clues. Normally a game will push you along this process and tell you where to get this information from. I don't mind this streamlined narrative design in most games, but I do appreciate how Shenmue approaches the idea of gathering information. You have to discover it on your own and sometimes the people you ask will not be helpful at all. They may be completely wrong or you may discover a better idea than that which was given. An example that comes to mind is when Ryo needs to obtain a plane ticket. He gets advice on where to go. You go to a travel agency but it's far too expensive. Someone says to ask another character about cheaper flight ideas because they travel a lot. Before I even reached this character I decided to chat with a guy by the vending machine. He then tells me that traveling by boat is the way to go if I want to save money. This indeed is how the story will progress. I assume talking to the friend who's a travel expert would simply result in them telling me they don't have any ideas for me, but I loved this natural feeling of chatting with a stranger and obtaining new solutions without being strictly directed to do so. This feeling lives on for the entire game. People are people in the world of Shenmue. They aren't quest givers. You gain a sense that this town is alive and the people actually know each other. It's authentic.
There's an intended inconvenience to everything as well. You don't have a minimap, you have map posts around town. As far as I know you can't even get a map to carry around with you. This was slightly tedious to me at first, but I loved this when I started to get around based on the visuals alone. I knew Ryo's home and all the towns like my own house after a while. If I ran around with my eye fixated on a minimap all the time I would never memorize the geography. I developed a morning routine. While working on the story objective I would get a coffee from the vending machine, snag a couple toy capsules, purchase food and drink for the stray cat, and continue with my day. I made sure to talk to certain characters every day. When one of these characters tells me I'm one of their best friends by the end of the game I felt rewarded for my intrinsic desire to talk with everyone. I would probably get the same dialogue from that character near the end of the game, but because of my daily encounters with them it felt like a reward. He's my best friend too!
I didn't want to be home too late. I wanted to go play pool with the scumbags at the bar after work. I wanted to take care of the cat. I wanted to collect all the toys. I wanted to win the forklift race. I wanted to get a raise every day.
I repeat the 'want' to emphasize that I wanted to do this, I did not need to. Shenmue is not interested in forcing the potential of its experience on you. Something so many modern AAA games fail to achieve. They have an amazing experience but only if you do it their way. Shenmue's world detail and player freedom is staggering. Not just for 1999, but in general.
I've seen some criticism over the part of the game that becomes a forklift simulator as well. I can understand this not being fun for some, but Shenmue never lost my interest. I had fun working as a forklift driver. There was a simple enjoyment in doing the work well and making more money every day. However, I believe the repetitive nature is on purpose and totally intended. Ryo is about to graduate high school. He's 18. The guy is about to become an adult right as his father is killed. The first half of the game is still driven by this plot, but you have so much free time to run around the towns and have more "fun". Suddenly you're working full time. You gotta wake up earlier. You only get free time during lunch and maybe a couple hours after work. You see co workers more than your own friends and family. The feeling of not having free time anymore is crushingly real. I missed being able to check on the cat with the town locals. Most of the shops I would visit were closed after work. Life was devoured by work and the main plot. I would possibly feel nostalgia for the first half of the game if I were to replay it. This is cool thematic narrative design. Ryo is forced to grow up as fast as possible. The game provides a bite sized serving of what it feels like to...grow up and get a job. Never does Ryo lament his youth and complain about work before bed every night to hammer this idea in. You experience it and feel it for yourself.
Shenmue is a fantastic looking game as well. The changing skies. The shifting of weather. The barking dogs of the neighborhood. The bustling noise of a busy street. I love using the trigger to control running speed like a gas pedal on a car. I love how perfectly Ryo walks up stairs (people obsessed with accurate stair climbing animations will adore Shenmue). I love collecting music tapes that all have unique album art. I love collecting toy capsules. I love that there are two different versions of darts to play and an arcade with older sega games. I love that I can take pictures off the wall of my home for no reason. The amount to do is almost unnecessary. The voice acting is goofy and compressed to hell, but if you can't have fun with that, the Japanese voice acting can soften the silliness. I think the goofy old "obviously voice acting" voice acting is fun to experience, but it is not what defines this game. It's not always that bad. I was still capable of taking the story seriously.
Of course the story isn't over and Shenmue II is waiting for me. There's a lot of mystery and unanswered questions. I love that! It's an absurdly confident video game. This left a huge impact on me. Shenmue is an all timer. This was my first time playing it and I was consistently impressed by it. It's not impressive for it's time, it's impressive for right now.
Shenmue does something I find unique with its 'quests'. It yearns for a realistic human experience. For example, you might be trying to find out where a character likes to hang out at night: This leads you to ask people around town for clues. Normally a game will push you along this process and tell you where to get this information from. I don't mind this streamlined narrative design in most games, but I do appreciate how Shenmue approaches the idea of gathering information. You have to discover it on your own and sometimes the people you ask will not be helpful at all. They may be completely wrong or you may discover a better idea than that which was given. An example that comes to mind is when Ryo needs to obtain a plane ticket. He gets advice on where to go. You go to a travel agency but it's far too expensive. Someone says to ask another character about cheaper flight ideas because they travel a lot. Before I even reached this character I decided to chat with a guy by the vending machine. He then tells me that traveling by boat is the way to go if I want to save money. This indeed is how the story will progress. I assume talking to the friend who's a travel expert would simply result in them telling me they don't have any ideas for me, but I loved this natural feeling of chatting with a stranger and obtaining new solutions without being strictly directed to do so. This feeling lives on for the entire game. People are people in the world of Shenmue. They aren't quest givers. You gain a sense that this town is alive and the people actually know each other. It's authentic.
There's an intended inconvenience to everything as well. You don't have a minimap, you have map posts around town. As far as I know you can't even get a map to carry around with you. This was slightly tedious to me at first, but I loved this when I started to get around based on the visuals alone. I knew Ryo's home and all the towns like my own house after a while. If I ran around with my eye fixated on a minimap all the time I would never memorize the geography. I developed a morning routine. While working on the story objective I would get a coffee from the vending machine, snag a couple toy capsules, purchase food and drink for the stray cat, and continue with my day. I made sure to talk to certain characters every day. When one of these characters tells me I'm one of their best friends by the end of the game I felt rewarded for my intrinsic desire to talk with everyone. I would probably get the same dialogue from that character near the end of the game, but because of my daily encounters with them it felt like a reward. He's my best friend too!
I didn't want to be home too late. I wanted to go play pool with the scumbags at the bar after work. I wanted to take care of the cat. I wanted to collect all the toys. I wanted to win the forklift race. I wanted to get a raise every day.
I repeat the 'want' to emphasize that I wanted to do this, I did not need to. Shenmue is not interested in forcing the potential of its experience on you. Something so many modern AAA games fail to achieve. They have an amazing experience but only if you do it their way. Shenmue's world detail and player freedom is staggering. Not just for 1999, but in general.
I've seen some criticism over the part of the game that becomes a forklift simulator as well. I can understand this not being fun for some, but Shenmue never lost my interest. I had fun working as a forklift driver. There was a simple enjoyment in doing the work well and making more money every day. However, I believe the repetitive nature is on purpose and totally intended. Ryo is about to graduate high school. He's 18. The guy is about to become an adult right as his father is killed. The first half of the game is still driven by this plot, but you have so much free time to run around the towns and have more "fun". Suddenly you're working full time. You gotta wake up earlier. You only get free time during lunch and maybe a couple hours after work. You see co workers more than your own friends and family. The feeling of not having free time anymore is crushingly real. I missed being able to check on the cat with the town locals. Most of the shops I would visit were closed after work. Life was devoured by work and the main plot. I would possibly feel nostalgia for the first half of the game if I were to replay it. This is cool thematic narrative design. Ryo is forced to grow up as fast as possible. The game provides a bite sized serving of what it feels like to...grow up and get a job. Never does Ryo lament his youth and complain about work before bed every night to hammer this idea in. You experience it and feel it for yourself.
Shenmue is a fantastic looking game as well. The changing skies. The shifting of weather. The barking dogs of the neighborhood. The bustling noise of a busy street. I love using the trigger to control running speed like a gas pedal on a car. I love how perfectly Ryo walks up stairs (people obsessed with accurate stair climbing animations will adore Shenmue). I love collecting music tapes that all have unique album art. I love collecting toy capsules. I love that there are two different versions of darts to play and an arcade with older sega games. I love that I can take pictures off the wall of my home for no reason. The amount to do is almost unnecessary. The voice acting is goofy and compressed to hell, but if you can't have fun with that, the Japanese voice acting can soften the silliness. I think the goofy old "obviously voice acting" voice acting is fun to experience, but it is not what defines this game. It's not always that bad. I was still capable of taking the story seriously.
Of course the story isn't over and Shenmue II is waiting for me. There's a lot of mystery and unanswered questions. I love that! It's an absurdly confident video game. This left a huge impact on me. Shenmue is an all timer. This was my first time playing it and I was consistently impressed by it. It's not impressive for it's time, it's impressive for right now.