by sand4fish » Mon Oct 10, 2016 12:05 pm
This playthrough is a clear example of how spoiled we've become as gamers. In a passive stance, we just expect action to happen from the get-go nonstop (who needs pacing after all?) with minimum effort from the player to seek out for it. Shenmue clearly takes exploration as its main mechanics, and yet most don't bother with it (as it is seen on the videos with the Hazuki residence). The wait time between points A and B is an intended game design to force players to explore more of its world, but still most choose to hang around the same familiar locations and talk to the same npcs (and call out the game a boredom). What a different experience would they have if they were a bit more thorough, as the game would reward the player with more of what he wants, that being action! (ie saving Nozomi from bullies, fighting goons in the hill above Game You, learning a new skill from an old man in the park). Also worth mentioning that we just don't look forward to learn the controls anymore because it's universally accepted that it is supposed to be shown to us (with onscreen arrows, buttons and visual demo) during the main campaign, even though this might break the bit of immersion and surprise we might have with the game.
Aside from all these the most amusing fact is that though Shenmue's world is pretty small, a lot of people tend to so easily get lost or forget previously visited places. I often hear about how Shenmue should have implemented an onscreen map like it was done in the second game, despite the fact that your avatar is supposed to be somewhat familiar with his own neighborhood. No wonder a lot of people liked Shenmue 2 better, as exploration could be axed almost completely (by having npcs just take you straight to your intended location) and just be fed straight to the action segments.
All being said, this playthrough was very entertaining in an ADHD kind of way.