Shenmue for the Sega Dreamcast is a unique blend of a role playing game and a fighter. Shenmue follows the story of Ryo Hazuki as he seeks to avenge his father's death. The story starts off with Ryo racing home to find his father confronted by a strange man who seeks a sacred object. The strange man, later to be revealed as a member of a Chinese cartel, kills Ryos father and leaves to go back to China. Players take on the role of Ryo as he finds out exactly who this strange person is, and how to get to him.
the game surprisingly starts off slow despite all he action that recently took place, but it serves the players well as they get acquainted with the mechanics of the game. Ryo spends a majority of the game looking for clues and talking to almost everybody in Japan to see if they know anything about what happened the day of his fathers death. This isn't exactly a bad thing, as most of the characters that you come across are pretty amusing and interesting.There also is an open world element to Shenmue, which covers a small town. The game also has a time cycle, which includes day, night, and even seasons. The cool thing is with Shenmue there are multiple ways to go about getting to the next part. There are things that I never witnessed in my first playthrough that I did in my second. However, one thing that players will always come across is the QTEs.
A core gameplay mechanic of Shenme is QTE, or quick time event. These are the sequences in the game that offer no preparation what so ever, and hope that the player is paying the slightest bit of attention. The way that QTEs are set up is, during a cutscene(a movie of sorts), out of nowhere a specific button, or direction, will flash on screen and players have to react to it. Press X not to die! The thing that gets me about these QTEs in Shenmue is that they can last up to 5 minutes, and if you mess up even just one little thing, you have to go back to the beginning of the QTE and do it all over again, there's no checkpoints and no remorse for the players. While this may be a big glaring frustration, it is not a majority of the game.
The way that players mostly handle hostile situations is with kung-fu. Luckily for players Ryo is a martial arts master, and knows a plethora of moves, and he can learn new ones along the way! The controls require precision, so it's not so easy to pick up and start hammering away at the punch and kick buttons. Thankfully there is a full list of moves that the game provides, as well as a dojo for practice. There are some great fight sequences in the game, especially at towards the end where players take on 40 bad guys!
The graphics, sound, and voice acting of the game are very well done, especially for it's time. The graphics set the tone for the small town which players walk through and gives it a quaint homey feel. The soundtrack of the game is absolutely astonishing, with sweeping overtures and soft melodies, the music is something to truly behold and admire. The voice acting, while not much by todays standards, is still pretty solid. Though it seems as though the actors of the main characters really put forth the effort.
If you've ever owned a Sega Dreamcast, or looking to get one, you need this game to go along with it. It will consume your time and you will be completely immersed in the story. There is plenty to do in this game, whether it be helping out a friend or wasting your hard earned paycheck on toy capsule machines, check this title out!
