Shenmue... a dare devil of a game; a mighty roar of revolution; a colossal project of such undeniable ambition by a team of visionaries, it is dificult to believe, that the final product even found itself onto store shelves, but most importantly; that it did so in such a polished, playable state.

Not many developers can tell a tale of such similarity about their very products, and maybe even less so in this day and age.

With that said, what exactly made Shenmue such a monumental mark in the gaming industry?

The Good
Individually speaking; Vast open world's weren't particularly unheard off at the time; dynamic day/night cycles had been experimented with before; side quests, branching paths, dialog options and multiple endings weren't exactly new to gamers all over the world, either.

Cinematic story telling via cutscenes was, too, just raising in popularity, not only due to the rapid advancements in 3D technology, but too, the people in charge, getting the hang of the tools they were handed.

Driving games of any kind were in an all time high, as were fighters; as for mini-games, what kinda major blockbuster didn't come packed with some, at the time, either?

What really makes Shenmue in particular, so special; is that it might have, very well been, the first one, not only to combine such a tremendous amount of features and game modes, all in one single, interactive package, but also the one to make each and every element at its disposal, seamlessly accessible in-game via its open environment; that, was unheard of!

...and despite its multitude of mechanics, everything made sence, it all worked well and did so cohesively, in a seamless manner! ...the possibilities for personal entertainment, in one single playable experience, within such a dynamic virtual living world, were now endless from a gameplay standpoint.

...unique to both Shenmue games, to this day, are the variety of interactive, individually disigned, modeled, textured and programmed NPC's, that inhabit this world; each and every single one of them, live their lives, their own way; have their own schedules, duties, personalities, friends, and homes to go to; none of them randomly generated, all individually named, all independed from each other.

One such person, is Yuji Nito; a man, that works a job at You Arcade, on Dobuita Street; an NPC that doesn't play a role in the storyline; but does provide the player with a handful of playable gems in the local arcade, to distract themselves with, such as AfterBurner, Hang-On, Outrun and Space Harrier; each fully playable from start to finish; darts and QTE machines are, too, available at our very disposal.

Gambling distractions such as arm wrestling, lucky hit, street fights and more, too, can be accessed on the fly via the open world the game provides, and last but not least; a capsule toy collection can be acquired, expanded and even sold in pawn shops throughout the entirety of both games.

Early in the game, and akin to Sonic Adventure's chao garden or maybe even Nights Into Dreams nightopians, but far, far simpler in depth here; is this fun side activitie, that allows the player to look after a tiny kitten; such can be accomplished by shopping for the right foods, feeding it daily, petting the fella, and calling for its name.

Yet another important element in Shenmue, is its unique combat mechanics, much akin to Virtua Fighter, but somewhat watered-down, adapted for an all new environment, scale, and new mechanics to be implented, such as 3D movement and massive dynamic battles against multiple foes at one given time; but still allowing the player to dodge, grab, guard, kick, punch as well as multiple combos to be input, as is the norm in fighters.

...many technique scrolls will be made available in different shops too, and each can be obtained at a price, paid with in-game currency earned by taking part time jobs or gambling; All new moves can also be learnt through NPC's as the adventure moves on; some mandatory, others optional.

Speaking of part time jobs; taking place later in the first game, the player will be required to take on two mandatory tasks, both taking place over the course of five in-game days straight, and such is required to progress the story.

The first, is a fun, lighthearted, but somewhat repetitive forklift race, that allows the player to get the hang of things, but does not shake things up in a particularly interesting way past the first day.

...as for the second mandatory task in hand, the player will be required to work as a forklift operator; as one, materials must around multiple warehouses, on a daily basis and on a timer; the later increases in difficultly each day as more of the harbor opens up to be explored on wheels!


The Bad
Driving physics and collision dettection are quite flawed to say the least; During the daily forklift race in Shenmue 1, getting stuck in geometry's quite the norm; As for the motorcycle physics, during this one off sequence, nearing the end of the first game; Well... it leaves a lot to be desired.

Although that ain't the only thing to leave such and after-taste; For one the sound quality's quite awful; There's no way around it, it was bad back then, it's worse now, all due so to the porting processes, voices sound muffled and so do sound effects and everything that comes with it.

...and don't even get me started in the voice acting; Some will tell it's part of the charm, I won't; It is downright terrible, and there were games back then that fared far better than either the English or Japanese dubs of Shenmue 1, as for Shenmue 2, its English dub's just as bad if not worse, the Japanese dub however's pretty good for the most part.

The Ugly
...there are certain specific in-game events crucial to advance the plot, that can only be triggered at a specific point in time; Unfortunately, in the original Shenmue, the option to simply skip a few hours in to the future if needed be, has not been taken into consideration; As such, the game forces the player to wait minutes on end, and make the most out of what its virtual world has to offer...

Thankfully though, the sequel does allow for an option to skip such a burden by the press of a button, while, in the bright side of things, still allowing those looking to freely explore, to wait until said point in time; Offering then, the best of both worlds.

Vinal veredict
Shenmue's an undeniable gem and in many aspects, it surpassed all odds and expectation at the time, and shaked up the entire industry all over; What the team behind its development attempted and succeeded at, is deserving of the utmost respect and admiration.

Props too, for the absurdly masterful cinematic direction in Shenmue 1 and 2!

From striking camera angles, to proper, dynamic fields of view, movement and animation... for such an old game, it holds up, holds up a whole lot better than expected; Minus the voice acting, I was genuinely impressed.

...funnily enough, and speaking of cinematography and gameplay variety...

I'd like to mention Sonic Adventure, as it did something quite similar, yet completely apart from Shenmue, just a year before!

...to a much lesser extent however, and too, to variable degrees of success.

It was of course and entirely different kind of game, but, was too attempting a mix up of different things in a single package, and was also an early one at athempting any sort of in-game cinematics.

...why mention that game though?

Well, just thought it'd be fun to point that out; As Sonic's first adventure's somewhat ridiculed by many in this day and age, undeservingly so in my point of view; You probably had to be there at the time to understand...