What "makes" Shenmue for you?

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Re: What "makes" Shenmue for you?

Postby Master Kyodai » Mon Nov 19, 2012 5:32 am

Shenmue 1 fascinated me because of the realistic and detailed modeling of a japanese city. The many little details and that you could knock at nearly every door gave a feeling of a very realistic city. I think the many NPC characters also add to the feeling.
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Re: What "makes" Shenmue for you?

Postby KiBa » Mon Nov 19, 2012 6:05 am

Shenmue is special to me for all the reasons everyone has said. For me, it's the incredible music, moving story, interesting characters, and the magic realism (my favorite genre). Something I think not a lot of people mention or appreciate about Shenmue is that it was pretty much the first game (and I can't think of another since) that atmospherically created an ordinary, even mundane world, that felt realistic. And yet, there are little hints of magic that start to develop and a great ancient secret or mystery buried in that, that slowly emerges as the series progresses. So you've got this great and unique mid-80s setting, so it feels modern, like home for many of us, but there's no internet, nothing to make the world seem small and less mysterious. On top of that, there were pretty much no games with changing seasons when Shenmue was released. That was wicked special at the time. So, it perfectly captures that wonderful feeling better than any game I have ever played. Also, it's Sega, so it just makes Christmas better.

I will never forget the 9/9/99 EGM magazine with the very first Shenmue preview. I still have it, and I'm still wildly impressed by the graphics, the style, the whole vision as described and shown in the screenshots. There is really nothing else like it. Almost every game then and today is overtly fantasy, or military games, or some combination.

Plus, the Dojo. Shenmue has a ridiculously close community, all of whom have similar taste in games, music, movies, etc., so that's definitely a huge part of what keeps it fresh because we've all been friends for so long, some since the beginning. Shenmue was always community oriented. Certainly, had Shenmue and the DC been a financial success, the series would have gone in the direction of community interaction as the successor to the original Passport, another interesting bonus that made the first game very special. Every part of it felt like you were discovering something profound by entering into a true virtual world.

I don't know, I think everything about Shenmue was just like destiny. It came at the right time in our lives and in Sega's history. A big part of it is that it was the crowning achievement of the Dreamcast, and that system was so much fun, and it was just such a great time for gaming all around. I mean, it wasn't too long after the first 3d cards, everyone was excited about the nextgen consoles and the amazing new graphics we were going to get, speculating on where it would lead, and so on. It was a very interesting time, and Shenmue represented this huge new vision that everyone wanted to be a part of, and if you were one of the few people with a DC, it was like you had been given a key to another world. That's what it was. It was like we discovered a world together.

If I could go back and live those years over again, I would.

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Re: What "makes" Shenmue for you?

Postby mue 26 » Mon Nov 19, 2012 9:39 pm

Yeah, what Kiba said :nice!:

I definitely think that there hasn't been another game world as delicately crafted as Shenmue's was. When people rag on Shenmue they always mention how stiff and flat Ryo is and so on. But I really don't think there's another open game world crafted with a such a sensitive eye. As Kiba mentions, it's the only game whose open world actually feels believable and familiar somehow despite being set in a different decade and country from most of us. The rude school girl's smoking cigarette's, the neighbourhood bullies, the kids playing football, the creepy guy smoking cigarettes in the park while watching the kids play ( :P ), and the fact Ryo only gets an allowance (unless he gets a job) and has a curfue. It's familiar to us all. Shenmue's Yokosuka felt like a genuine place, in equal measures charming and mundane, and not at all "gamey" (indeed, Shenmue just generally speaking isn't very "gamey"). But what Shenmue's real stroke of genius is, is the way it played the mundane off of the mystical. You just know know there's something mystical and extraordinary just below the surface, Ryo has cryptic dreams while scratching at the surface of a deep and possibly magical conspiracy involving Jade mirrors. But unlike other adventure games, that doesn't mean Ryo can just forget about reality, oh no, if he wants to fly to Hong Kong to catch his father's killer, then he's just gonna have to get a 9 to 5 and deal with the monotony of hard work. But the mundane and the monotony doesn't take away from the mystique of the game, it only serves to make mystical feel more real, more real than in other game I've ever played. And the moments the game does occasionally let you catch a real glimpse of the secret world of triads, magic and martial arts, are some of the most rewarding moments to be found in any video game as far as I am concerned.

But Shenmue was an immensely ambitious game, it's a world away from the instant gratification of modern gaming. Not only did Shenmue create a truly believable, familiar and sometimes mundane word. But it absolutely refused to treat the gamers like a child. It's clear even in the name "Shenmue". None of us knew what the hell it even meant until the very end of the second game! Same with Shenhua, she's on the box of the first game, she's in the opening cutscene, she's in Ryo's dreams, so we know she's the main heroine, but she's not really in the first game at all. Yu Suzuki makes us practically complete two huge games and play for who knows how many hours, before he finally introduces us to our mysterious leading lady. And then....the TV metaphorically cuts off and here we are a decade later still knowing so little about her. But what other game has weaved such an ambitious, rich and delicate yarn to string us along with? I was shocked when it I realised that Ryo really wasn't going to catch Lan Di and resolve things neatly by the end of the first game, and that instead he had to travel to an entirely new country and world away from what we knew in Doubita.

There's so much that makes these games special. No game has even depicted the far east with such a fine eye, riffing off of both the reality, and those special mystical qualities that have always made that part of world so intriguing for many, and the game achieves a near perfect balance.

It's for all these reasons I think Shenmue can appeal to people who might not typically be gamers.

Oh man, sorry, I've evidently gone into gushing mode :oops:
Last edited by mue 26 on Mon Nov 19, 2012 9:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: What "makes" Shenmue for you?

Postby south carmain » Mon Nov 19, 2012 9:45 pm

I always found the stiffness of ryo something that made the game more immersive and closer to reality

Edit: HAH now everyone knows you edited your post :P

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Re: What "makes" Shenmue for you?

Postby lavrentis » Tue Nov 20, 2012 12:20 pm

Shenmue definitely has an aura about it, probably nostalgia.

Back in 2003 When I was 11 or so I would bring Shenmue round a girls house and we'd play it on her brother's dreamcast a lot. Good times!

I remember first seeing the game, my brother borrowed it from his friend and I remember saying wow that game looks terrible. He said nah it's good, put it in the DC and was blown away. Suffice to say my brothers friend never got it back. It had a massive impact on me to the point that when I was 11 I remember telling my dad I would call my kids Ryo and Nozomi! Bet he thought I was a loony. Don't think I would call my kids If I had them that though lol.

It sparked my interest in Japanese culture though and when I went to Japan this year the similarities I saw there and to Shenmue did make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

No game comes close to Shenmue, people say it was brought out too early but i think we were so lucky to be able to play it at that point in time so we could recognise it as something special.
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Re: What "makes" Shenmue for you?

Postby south carmain » Tue Nov 20, 2012 12:25 pm

lavrentis wrote:Suffice to say my brothers friend never got it back.

bad karma man, this is why we don't have shenmue 3
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Re: What "makes" Shenmue for you?

Postby MiTT3NZ » Tue Nov 20, 2012 12:28 pm

Get him.
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Re: What "makes" Shenmue for you?

Postby ThyDarkAngel » Tue Nov 20, 2012 2:48 pm

Immersion. Attention to detail. Truly going through the looking glass for the first/and last time in a videogame. Japanese culture. Chinese culture. Asian esoterism. The sense of Destiny. It's unique treatment of magic and legend.
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Re: What "makes" Shenmue for you?

Postby ThyDarkAngel » Tue Nov 20, 2012 3:07 pm

KiBa wrote: [color=#00FF80]Shenmue is special to me for all the reasons everyone has said. For me, it's the incredible music, moving story, interesting characters, and the magic realism (my favorite genre). Something I think not a lot of people mention or appreciate about Shenmue is that it was pretty much the first game (and I can't think of another since) that atmospherically created an ordinary, even mundane world, that felt realistic. And yet, there are little hints of magic that start to develop and a great ancient secret or mystery buried in that, that slowly emerges as the series progresses. [color]


If I ever could develop a man crush (I can't, contrary to some) it would be you, because of this.
One of my biggest Shenmue draws, one so rarely mentioned.

I said it many times in the past, but when Shenhua 'blows' the dandelion' seeds it's like magic is suddenly really brought to life right there in front of your eyes, it makes you believe in the magickal, thanks to the subtility of how it enters (and never, ever leaves) the world of Shenmue since the very beggining of the original game and just because of the way Yu' story handles the mystical aspect of it, so soberly, so tenderly, without excess nor lacuna.

My spirit will never rest knowing destiny awaits...

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