Shenmue I & II

Shenmue is a game series that is famous for many reasons. It is considered by many as the best game for Sega Dreamcast console. It was the most expensive game ever published at the time, with development costs mounting up to a staggering 70 million dollars. It was also a game that coined the infamous Quick Time Events (QTEs) that were used excessively in gaming industry for the next couple of years. Recently, Shenmue was given a BAFTA award for the most influential game of all time. Gentlemen, what you're looking at here is a living piece of gaming history.
Your story begins in Japan in the year 1986. You are Ryo Hazuki, a high school student and son of a famous martial artist Iwao Hazuki. The game begins with your father being killed by the mysterious Lan Di, who also steals a precious mirror that your father brought back from China. Unable to prevent your father from being defeated in mortal combat, you set out to find Lan Di and avenge your father's death. The story of Shenmue is a story about a young man on a path to become a master of the martial arts, as well as finding his true self. The saga of Shenmue was originally intended to span over five games, but the complete story was never finished since only three games were ever released.
This is a remastered version of both Shenmue I and Shenmue II in a single game with HD textures and high resolution. When Shenmue first came out in 1999, it had graphics like no other game on the market. The game featured incredibly detailed characters with full voice acting support, set in an interactive open word with time flow and realistic weather effects. Even by todays standards, the graphics in this remaster are pretty decent. Shenmue also defied any established game genre and can be vaguely described as a "fighting adventure with RPG elements and lots of minigames". I believe the same formula was later used to produce Yakuza games, however those games feel totally different. All I can say is that Shenmue offers a completely unique gameplay and I was blown away by its originality.
When I first started playing, I wasn't too impressed with the game, but it started growing on me very quickly. By the time I finished my playthrough, I was completely awestruck. What I liked the most about Shenmue is the incredible atmosphere that envelops the player like a mantle. This is mostly due to fantastic world design and amazing music score, but there is also something else, a special ingredient undefinable by words. Shenmue is one of those rare games that have a soul and it's a game that you will always remember once you finish it. This is how I imagined the Far East looks like when I was a kid... martial arts, Zen philosophy and oriental music. The realistic gameplay elements, like going to sleep every night or learning new combat moves by actual practice, only heighten this feeling of immersion.
Some players may not appreciate Shenmue because of its slow pace, Quick Time Events and (arguably) bad controls. Despite the numerous revolutionary innovations it brought to the world of gaming, it definitely isn't a game for everyone. Most of the gameplay consists of walking around and asking questions, which may not appeal to modern audience. Also, some tasks that Ryo will have to accomplish are repetitive and can become tedious. All of these things bothered me a little during my playthrough, but I am willing to let them slide.

I cannot even begin to imagine how amazing Shenmue was 25 years ago. Even today, the game feels ahead of its time in some aspects. If you possess a certain degree of patience and can get over the clunky controls, you'll probably enjoy it as much as I did.

Score (out of 10):

8

Wonderful plot, amazing gameplay! It really lives up to it's name since it's release over more than 2 decades ago. Can't wait to play Shenmue 3!

Have wanted to try this for years. Got it on sale, figured it was worth a shot.

Aaaaaannnnddd... nope, it wasn't. This is a "you had to be there" game.

This is my first time playing through these games since they were released. I knew what I was getting into, but I had forgotten how very little happens in these games. The entire narrative of the first game can be summed up in this single sentence: A guy who looks Chinese murders your dad so you decide to go to Hong Kong to look for him. The majority of these games isn't spent fighting, or gambling, or even driving a forklift. The majority of your time will be spent walking around asking people if they can help you find the next person you need to talk to. Not exactly a gripping or tense experience.

That being said, Shenmue is an interesting look at the direction video game design could have taken, but ultimately didn't. It encourages you to find enjoyment in the mundane routine events of a person's day. It's more of a life simulator than a game. Every NPC persists in the world and is on a schedule. You can see them leave their home in the morning and walk to work, open their store, and then go home at night. On their way you might meet them in the street and trigger an organic interaction as you bump into them unexpectedly. And because very little happens in this game, you are encouraged to enjoy these conversations, to kill time in the arcade, or just admire the lovingly crafted Japanese and Chinese environments. There is a stunning amount of attention to detail shed on areas that aren't normally focused on in video games. Scene's in these games aren't rendered for the purpose of creating something visual to display to the player. Instead, a moment in time is simulated, and the side effect of that simulation is something visual getting generated for the player to look at it.

From a gameplay perspective, especially by today's standards, especially if you aren't in the mood for a low key gaming experience, there's not a lot here. Progress is drawn out by gatekeeping every single event with a time requirement. The next step is always, "come back tomorrow at noon" requiring you to wait a contrived amount of time before progressing the story. The QTEs are brutal, especially in the second game, disrupting the pacing, coming out of nowhere and triggering failure before you even realize you needed to be paying attention. And the actual fighting system may be based on Virtua Fighter, but it's far clunkier in Shenmue. It doesn't work well for fighting multiple opponents and it's responsiveness is crippled by the remaster's unfortunate 30 frames per second locked frame rate.

Regardless of these criticisms though, certain people love these games for a reason, and other than the frame rate and the use of original textures, this is the ideal remaster. It looks great running in 4k. Widescreen modes are supported. Everything is perfectly antialiased. It far surpasses the experience of playing these games on original hardware or emulation. While I think the majority of players won't appreciate these games, I know they will be beloved by some, which is a good enough reason to recommend you try them, especially if you enjoy older games.

Great story! really enjoying the game so far.

2 of the greatest games ever that I think anyone who appreciates video games more as an artform should try.

Shenmue 1 is an incredibly ambitious and innovative title that changed a lot for what 3D games would become, Where as Shenmue 2 is a more fully realized action adventure game that takes you to 1980s Hong Kong with a pretty deep and solid fighting system carried over from Sega's Virtua Fighter Series.

Both games aren't Flawless and have their own boring and frustrating parts like 1's story progression and 2's Money earning, but those who stick with it will find something that goes beyond than what you'd think a game is capable of. Even Today, There's nothing like Shenmue and the closest comparison you'll find is probably the Yakuza games, but even those by comparison are more normal and don't allow you to like go through people's houses and items like Shenmue can(This is coming from someone who likes both series btw).

Playing both back to back is an incredible experience and as long as you know it was suppose to be the earlier parts of a much bigger story and are able to put up and be patient with it's less than stellar moments, you'll have a good time.

IDK what's more unfortunate the fact we'll never see the end to Ryo's Story anytime soon or that we'll never get games like this ever again.

Shenmue I: Recommended

I recommend Shenmue I, but with the caveat that you need to acknowledge you're playing a game from 1999, and probably one of the first "open world" games ever made, before a lot of the design of them had been refined. It's clear the game is something special from it's story, world, and exploration - on top of this the 1980's setting gives its own charm to the story.

The main weak point in my mind is the day cycle system, and how you'll often need to spend time in-game waiting for a time of day to come around (since there's no way to progress time faster), just to advance the game. On top of this the last third of the game strangely brings a big focus on being a forklift driver and while the sequences are fun, it's a strange shift in core loop and presentation of the final act of the game.

Overall I really appreciated getting to experience this piece of gaming history, and looking forward to playing Shenmue II and adding my feelings on that to this review.

If you can't run by pressing Shift in Shenmue I, just rebind the key to the same one and that fixes the problem.
Good por otherwise.

Just awesome game so many memories with this game just a blast to play today

F.R.E.E.

To toughen ourselves up. And to do so, to acquire experience.
Father of story-sandbox (space for toys and games), here it's driven by a closer story than GTA, so metaphorically we would talk about town instead of city. As an example, in Shenmue II they created above of two hundred detailed faces! Yu Suzuki, also Virtual Fighter's creator, use such experience to introduce a combat gameplay, which it's not developed enough into the world imo. The gameplay, story-driven at sandbox though, feels like a kind of detective game, more on purpose than gameplay's options, so to say. An excuse to grew up from your charming home to the outer rough world.
As an anecdote, I was in my life misled by very similar tricks as Ryo suffer when he arrived to a bigger city LOL.
An as example perhaps of such rough world: at one of my first jobs I had to wash dishes in front of a letter which said: it's not allow to through oil. My boss, who taught me to be efficient, here told me: look, we need them faster; just some hot water and ready. 'OK, I readjust my moral' -I thought. xdxd

very atmospheric, slow but enjoyably so.

For the best experience, make sure you've never played anything more advanced than this and then have children and lose your hair before playing the third one.

It's clunky, but it's still the best kung fu movie I've ever played.

This could be the greatest game of all time.

you have to wait til 6pm before you can read this review

im a gamre i drive foklift

My absolute favorite game of all times

Sorry... I'm too tired to review this game right now. Ask someone else, will you?

It' such a great Remaster I have no complaints felt like I was living the games all over again.

haha you're so cute

great games. they don't do them like this anymore

More than just a game, Shenmue is an avant-garde interactive experience that completely engrosses you in its world and characters. It will be a love it or hate it experience as its paced very deliberately and thoughtfully to fully ground you within the world of Shenmue in 1980's rural Japan.
The immersive and gripping narrative is underscored by a compact yet fleshed out and thoroughly lived-in interactive world sporting many fun locations, activities, collectibles and people to engage with along your journey. Characters feel reactive and 3-dimensional with a bit of unique charm to each of them as to make the world and its characters feel lively and rewarding to explore.
With plenty of activities to partake in, quirky characters to be appreciated and beautiful story to be experienced alongside an excellent combat system reminiscent of the acclaimed Virtua Fighter series, awesome QTEs, exploration and minigames, Shenmue is definitely an experience to be enjoyed by fans of cinematic adventure games.
I recommend going in blind without a guide as to fully enjoy the breathtaking story, only looking things up sparingly if you get stuck or lost. Talking to characters or using the notebook will usually help you progress naturally. Shenmue is a slower game than most modern adventure games so take your time and enjoy the towns and investigating/exploring as you go about your journey to get the most out of this experience
Alongside that, checking out some quality of life enhancing mods from Shenmue Dojo is the perfect way to optimize the Shenmue experience for full enjoyment. The game is wonderful and an innovative landmark in gaming history, 100% deserving of its fame and esteemed reputation. A beautiful eastern-inspired orchestral soundtrack accompanies this unforgettable, emotionally gripping tale that will leave a mark on all its players. Shenmue is definitely worth checking out to delve into this magnificent, unparalleled masterpiece of interactive storytelling. 10/10

Quick time events (QTE) dont display well on the steamdeck as the buttons dont display during the events to indicate what you need to press.

luckily because shenmue is such an old game, you can look these up on youtube easily and get through all the QTE relatively easily.

this is a slightly higher rez version of the dreamcast classic and plays really well other than QTE. would recommend for those that missed out or those that are looking to relive childhood games.

Shenmue 1 is a masterpiece that set new standards for its era. With its innovative gameplay elements and a richly detailed world, the game offers an immersive experience that remains impressive even today.

Tip: If you get stuck, resist the urge to look up a solution online right away. Instead, visit the fortune-teller and choose "hint." This unique mechanic helps you progress while staying true to the game's spirit.

A must-play for fans of narrative-driven and authentic adventure games.

Overall a fun experience.
The game is mostly walking, listening, quick time events, and a bit of fighting, which was fine by me.
Shenmue 1 lets you practice your fight moves in specific areas, which was quite helpful. This is lost in Shenmue 2, and hence I only used basic dodging and kicking in that game. Shenmue 2 does have places where you can fight others for money, but I preferred Shenmue 1's way of letting you practice moves without opponents.
I also preferred the look of Shenmue 1's towns over the saturated brick walls at the start of Shenmue 2, but the scenery of 2 gets better as you progress the story.
At the start of Shenmue 2, there are three ways to earn money: gambling, carrying crates ($50/day), and selling stuff you've collected. None of which are that enjoyable, and slowed the game down.
In the final act of Shenmue 2, there's a section where you mainly do talking, and you can pick subjects. Unfortunately, the game does not seem to give you the time to go through all dialogue options, so I feel like I missed a small amount of story.
Do not expect a resolved ending, but enjoy the story, characters, freedom of the, albeit small, open world, detailed indoor areas, and variety of activities these two games have to offer.

Boring and clunky

Such a compelling story and amazing open-world! These games were absolutely revolutionary for their time. Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys challenging, at your own pace, story driven gameplay. The games hold up quite well today.

AMAZING , took me back to 1999

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damn, the chinese mafia killed father and took the important heirloom!
*intensively rolling metal sonic in gacha*

If the sound randomly stops working. While in game, go to settings, options, change the audio output decide. You’re welcome. 🧸

Coming from someone who didn't grow up with these games, it is a pleasure to see how much detail is packed into these games. Speaking more for the first game, I'm awestruck at how they were able to do so much at the time in terms of their characters and world building. Every little nook was touched, and it's hard to find one spot that wasn't considered to be unimportant. It's almost overbearing. What makes this game so great is what makes it also so hard for some people to get into. It's a classic question of whether games can be considered art pieces and how much gameplay are you willing to sacrifice for your "art". This game is a treat for me because I can appreciate what this game tries to do and for the limitations it worked under.

Talking about the flaws of the gameplay, there are moments where you are stuck waiting for an event to take place. This is more of an issue in the first game since the second game allows spots to speed up time. Waiting wouldn't be so much of an issue if there was more stuff to do to kill time. I really like talking to the shopkeepers in Shenmue 1, but some quests or minigames (other than arcade, slots, or gacha) would make waiting less of a pace killer.

A lot of my gameplay issues are not found in the first game but the second. I really didn't like earning money early game in Shenmue 2. There is a variety of gambling spots in Hongkong, but I wouldn't really consider them any fun. The only part-time job I could find was working the Lucky Draw stand and it was very annoying to man.
A lot of the QTE in the second game are more annoying than the first game, and I especially didn't like when it flashed a code of inputs you had to perform perfectly out of no where.
The world of the second game is huge and has the same level of detail as the first game, but it seems emptier without staple NPCs to interact with. A lot of them will only assist in directions or in the story without any sense of characterization. The shops themselves are brimmed with detail, but the people behind them leave them feeling shallower than the first game.
This is more of a personal peeve, but really didn't care for the final dungeon (Kowloon) of the game. I thought it was annoying to go through with all the QTE it throws at you.

Despite all my troubles with the second game, I still really enjoyed my time with it and its story. Even under the passage of time, both games are ambitious in what they try to accomplish, and for me they both succeed in their heights.

Nostalgic blast from the past. Love it!
Despite the steam info, this game runs flawlessly on Steam Deck!

Great music. Great immersion. Love the Shenmue story; hope they finish it.

peak anemoia from start to finish

Solid port. The games are rather slow-paced by today's standards, but I have a *lot* of nostalgia for them. They invented Quick Timer Events - yes, with an "r". Also they run great on the Deck and on Linux, despite the "unsupported" label.

Although much maligned anymore due to its aged design in many aspects, at the risk of exposing my nostalgia goggles I'll simply state the game was a masterpiece in its day and the ambition has to be respected. Additionally, the combat and QTE is implemented quite well, particularly when you consider the overwhelming majority of the game is a walking simulator meant to be taken in slowly rather than rushed to completion.

As far as ports go, it's a solid one with nearly no serious complaints. Controller support is adequate and personally recommended rather than mouse and keyboard, which doesn't feel exactly right, especially with the QTE sequences. In short, this is a significant gaming milestone, and there's no reason not to give it a try when on it's sale especially, regardless if you didn't experience it in its heyday.

Shenmue offers a truly unique experience, unlike anything you'll find in other games. Every NPC has their own routine and a meaningful role within the game world. The environments are inspired by real-life locations, ranging from bustling cities to serene countryside. The main characters are incredibly charismatic, making it feel like they're part of your close circle of friends.

While the gameplay may feel slow-paced, it’s genuinely distinctive. Here, you take on the role of a true investigator, piecing together clues to advance the story.

¿huh? 🤔

Few games are more atmospheric and immersive.

dogshit game has you playing egg hunt for the first hour of it

Shenmue 4 please thanks.

,,

Baring in mind this game came out many years ago, and should be treated as such, it was way ahead of its time.
I only ever completed the first one and done about 20% of the second one, so buying these on a recent sale was great. Really enjoyed playing through both stories, the only major downside is the who epilogue section at the end of the 2nd game. It could of just been a long cutscene. It's essentially a walking simulator/QTE festival for about an hour, and that was a huge drag.
But that aside, It's a really good story game to chill with. Don't get many of them these days.

💋

i played this when it came out on dreamcast. i love this game.need more old school games like this.

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It's a good port of a terrible game.

This is a review of the first Shenmue, which I played for the first time in 2024. I haven't played Shenmue II.

At the time of its release in 1999, Shenmue was the most expensive video game ever made. It needed to be the killer app for the Dreamcast, but it was a commercial failure, selling less than half of what Sonic Adventure did.

It's an interesting game with interesting ideas, but I see it as a lesson in game mechanics that don't work and aren't fun.

All of your time in Shenmue is spent in a little town where businesses open and close at specific times and you have to be home in time for bed. There are so many instances in the main quest where you're forced to kill time. Maybe you need to wait 18 hours for a business to open, or a character tells you to meet them somewhere in a day, and then you just have to idle around until then. This would be an interesting idea if the world was packed full of stuff to do, but it isn't. There's an arcade with some boring games that cost in-game money, a casino with slots, and a ton of boring conversations to be had, and that's it. Most of the game is spent waiting for the next thing to happen, trying desperately not to let the game bore you.

The voice acting is terrible, especially given the budget. The main character over-enunciates everything, for starters. Most conversations have a stop-and-go quality, like the game is triggering three separate conversations in parallel when you initiate a conversation with a person who has three things to say. Sometimes the result is baffling. There's also a black character named Tom that's voiced by a white American putting on a fake Jamaican accent. It's as bad as it sounds.

There's an entire chapter of the game, maybe a third of the story, that just feels like actual work. If you know you know. This was the low point of the game. It was an exercise in willpower to push through it.

Parts of Shenmue actually have a lot of charm. In theory, I like the understated story, of a kid working his way up from nothing, being studious and diligent every day, trying to accomplish a goal and avenge his father. But it just doesn't work in practice, not at all.

There's a combat system that's janky even by 1999 standards, and in the end, you just beat up everyone who opposes you, just like in any other game. The climax of the game doesn't lean on the game's unique mechanics at all. There's a final boss fight, and it's over. It doesn't use its unique systems and structure to create a satisfying arc. The main quest consists of "talk to person A who tells you to talk to person B" quests, the boring job, and combat. It could have been so much more.

I remember seeing an interview with Gabe Newell where someone on the Half-Life team at Valve was pushing back on a decision because it wasn't "realistic" and Gabe was like, "Yeah, it shouldn't be realistic. It should be fun." Playing Shenmue teaches you that lesson the hard way. Not that it's anything close to realistic, but that's clearly what it's striving for, and it clearly isn't fun.

Originally played on dreamcast back in the day, I remember this game being amazing, but I didn't find it great on PC. Felt a bit clunky, could be my controller though. My view is, in simple terms, if never played before, definitely worth playing, it made the dreamcast worth the purchase.

Looking for a nostalgia play through, I dunno, wasn't for me, but I think that is personal to me as oppose to anyone else playing.

But like I say, if you missed these as you didn't have a dreamcast (can't imagine why haha) it was the best game for that console. If I were to say the best thing about this game, the trivial aspects, time keeping, working mundane jobs, somehow, they actually worked in this game unlike other games where it feels like an out of place mini-game. The story, the fighting, the building of characters, all amazing.

I will tell you right now, this game is not for everyone.
It's tedious, janky, you really need patience to enjoy its good parts.
Voice acting is terrible and the writing is generic, but that's part of the charm.

But it IS impressive. A life-sim set in Japan, which is a setting I'm always a sucker for.
The detail put into how you interact with the world and all the things you can do in it, the NPCs you can discover with their day/night routines, the textures, animations, and models are all impressive for a game originally made for the Dreamcast in 1999.
All of this convinces me that this was Red Dead Redemption 2, 19 years before Red Dead Redemption 2.