Shenmue
Once again the Sega Dreamcast pulls through with another bizarre Japanese import. Though not entirely as strange a game as Seaman or Crazy Taxi, Shenmue was definitely seated in Japanese culture and didn't appear to pander at all to American audiences. The portion of the game I had completed, felt like some kind of Asian soap-opera filled with weird time-wasting mini-games.
Shenmue is a tale about a young man's revenge against an unknown assailant who he witnesses kill his father. Ryo recovers after a few days of grieving to start tracking down this man and claim vengeance. Shenmue is a fairly open-world game, allowing you to walk about mid-80's Japan, questioning people and looking for clues. Similar to Grand Theft Auto, it's full of mini-games that add action between the story; from fight sequences to motorcycle races, bar fights and less exciting small jobs. Though, I'm pretty sure I spent most of the time buying and drinking pop from a vending machine, buying collectible toys from a quarter machine, and petting a local cat.
Though I didn't realise it quite so much at the time, Shenmue was a very complex game. I always appreciated how real it felt. How the Japanese suburbs were alive with people and you were in no rush to do whatever you wanted. But Sega went much further than just that. Turns out it has an incredible weather system that worked at random, based roughly on the time of year and included everything from rain to snow and shine; which could change at any moment. Even more incredible though, was the fact that the game was set at a specific time period between 1986 and 1987 and in the options, you could tell the game to use the actual recorded weather for that location during that time period. That fact alone blows my mind.
Though I may not have completed Shenmue and definitely didn't spend the time on it I think it deserved, it was certainly a game I'm glad I had the chance to experience. It was also one of those games that I've grown to appreciate more and more as time passes and I think, like a lot of the games I've discussed over the past year, I should make the time to go back and try out again.
Shenmue is a tale about a young man's revenge against an unknown assailant who he witnesses kill his father. Ryo recovers after a few days of grieving to start tracking down this man and claim vengeance. Shenmue is a fairly open-world game, allowing you to walk about mid-80's Japan, questioning people and looking for clues. Similar to Grand Theft Auto, it's full of mini-games that add action between the story; from fight sequences to motorcycle races, bar fights and less exciting small jobs. Though, I'm pretty sure I spent most of the time buying and drinking pop from a vending machine, buying collectible toys from a quarter machine, and petting a local cat.
Though I didn't realise it quite so much at the time, Shenmue was a very complex game. I always appreciated how real it felt. How the Japanese suburbs were alive with people and you were in no rush to do whatever you wanted. But Sega went much further than just that. Turns out it has an incredible weather system that worked at random, based roughly on the time of year and included everything from rain to snow and shine; which could change at any moment. Even more incredible though, was the fact that the game was set at a specific time period between 1986 and 1987 and in the options, you could tell the game to use the actual recorded weather for that location during that time period. That fact alone blows my mind.
Though I may not have completed Shenmue and definitely didn't spend the time on it I think it deserved, it was certainly a game I'm glad I had the chance to experience. It was also one of those games that I've grown to appreciate more and more as time passes and I think, like a lot of the games I've discussed over the past year, I should make the time to go back and try out again.
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