A walk on the Ryo side
Oh boy. There is no way I can keep everyone happy here. This was the first time I had ever played a Shenmue game and unlike those that have been championing these games from the launch, I didn’t quite get it. Now before you all start coming for me with pitchforks I am not saying that Shenmue is a series that should be ignored, but the opinion of this person who is new to the franchise is a mixed one.
I get the game’s history and I totally get how this could have been praised back in the early 2000’s for its ground-breaking game design. But I wasn’t there for that, my eyes were never opened to what a video game could be. All I can see now is a game that may well have laid some interesting groundwork 18 years ago, but has aged terrible in the preceding years.
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), Xbox One
Price: $39.99
Price I’d pay: $29.99
Originally planned as a multi-episode sprawling epic, set against a far eastern back drop with plenty of twists and turns along the way, what it ended up being was the swan song for the Dreamcast and cut short before the third episode could be developed on. The story centers on a young man by the name of Ryo who, at the start of the game, is witness to his father’s murder at the hands of Lan Di, a member of a Chinese criminal group who is after an ancient artifact called the Dragon Mirror. Scarred by this tragic event Ryo vows to find Lan Di and make him pay for his father’s death. The first game focuses on Ryo’s investigation around his home town, with his findings leading him to Hong Kong on the trail of Lan Di and that is where the tale continues from in the sequel. It is definitely noticeable the difference between the first and second game with the latter being bigger in both story and scope. Unfortunately, the story never got the closure it deserved, with the series being canned when SEGA got out of the console business. This has since changed with Yu Suzuki successfully crowd funding the third installment of Ryo’s adventure, so at least there is now the opportunity for all the fans to get some closure.
As outstanding as the originals may have been back in the day there are a few issues I have with this remaster, the first of which is the audio and that fact that it is not remastered at all. It seems that the original audio files have been re-used for this remaster and boy can you tell it. The English dub is the worst in quality, sounding like it had been recorded from the TV or something. The original Japanese dub is the one I went for but even that sounded off, but it is the lesser of two evils. I have no idea why it is so bad. Maybe the original audio files went missing and they had to find another way to reproduce it or maybe SEGA didn’t want to spend too much money on this port and this was a cost-cutting measure, who knows?
Now I cannot blame the original game for the sound issues of the remaster, but there are some issues that were present 18 years ago that were not touched up for this release, with the biggest being the controls and the camera. Things like button prompts are fine and translate well to modern gaming, but both the movement of Ryo and the camera leave a lot to be desired. Ryo’s default walk is too slow and using R2 to run ended up with me losing control of him due to the semi tank style controls implemented when running. Between this and the unpredictable nature of the camera made me feel like I was fighting with the controls on a permanent basis which became incredibly frustrating. Combat is also dated and slow, as well as the QTEs which I ended up failing a lot due to the incredibly short time I got to activate them, often resulting in me getting through them only by trial and error.
I am also disappointed that some small quality of life adjustments were not made to the games and that they just seem to have been tossed out there to capitalize on the building hype surrounding the third game in the series, which is due for release next year. It is worth pointing out that SEGA have no involvement in this new game, but of course hold the rights to the original two games. In turn Yu Suzuki has had no input in these ports.
There is no denying the effect these games had on the industry; expansive (but incomplete) story, an open world like nothing that came before it and complex and intriguing game systems that stood out from the crowd. But at this point all of these things have been built upon and perfected by other games and Shenmue I and II now feel incredibly dated because of this. That isn’t to say that I do not recommend this game; far from it. Shenmue is part of gaming history and there is a reason that it has continued to be revered all this time. But please remember what you are getting in to when buying this game.
Yes, it looks a little shiner and it is of course the first time the two games have been available as a collection on a console that isn’t the Dreamcast (Shenmue II was ported to the original Xbox) but if you have never played these games before, expect a little resistance. It may also be worth holding on a little while and picking it up in an inevitable future sale. Alternatively, if these do not sound like your cup of tea it may be worth taking a look at the Yakuza 0/Kiwami games as these seem to be the natural advancement of Shenmue, with many considering them to be representative of what would have been if Shenmue had been able to continue as a franchise.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
