I have been gaming since sometime around the earliest years of the 1980s. So I have seen plenty of great ideas crash and burn as overambitious projects. That being said I know when a developer is swinging for the fences. Shenmue is swinging for the fences.
Yu Suzuki, a game designer who had garnered a ton of praise from the gaming community, somehow talked Sega into funding his open-world, investigative style game. From a logical, business sense there is no way this game could happen. You play an Asian dude who investigates the murder of his father while cruising around a neighborhood. You talk to NPCs, search for clues, watch the world go by through season and weather changes, etc. There is no fighting! There is no traditional advancement. This is essentially a detective game without any actual detective work.
Fast forward to 1999, this would be insanity. Well insanity either way but Sega ultimately bit the bullet and funded it anyways. What we got from that madness is likely one of the most fascinating pieces of gaming history — a game that proves incredible design != commercial success.
What Shenmue Actually Does
You assume control of an Asian teenager by the name of Ryo Hazuki. He resides in Yokosuka, Japan. His father was murdered in front of him while searching for the “Dragon Mirror”. Long story short, because Ryo did not get a good look at his dad’s killer you spend your time… well you solve his murder. You talk to NPCs, search for clues, watch the world change through seasons and weather patterns, etc.
The game takes place over the course of a year, with you uncovering what happened to your father as the seasons progress.
What makes this so fascinating is Shenmue completely ignores all of the foundational aspects of games concerning pacing. You wake up, go about your day, talk to NPCs, etc. Sometimes they may give you helpful information, other times they may not. Other times you may spend 30 minutes talking to one NPC who has important information for you. Other times you can sit at a location for 30 minutes with no results. Shenmue absolutely trusts you to be patient.
The Quick Time Events were groundbreaking at the time. Moments where you had to press certain buttons at certain times in order to successfully complete an action sequence. Sure they have been milked dry since the inception of them in Shenmue but gaming essentially gave them to Shenmue. Additionally, if you fail a Quick Time Event you do not restart from the beginning. You fail, but you keep playing. There are no consequences for failing these events besides not winning a fight. Sometimes you win fights, sometimes you lose. The story continues regardless.
The Technical Achievement Most People Ignore
There was this feature about Shenmue that is seldom talked about when bringing up Shenmue. The raw technical achievements of the game itself. Shenmue was a technically impressive feat for the Dreamcast system back in 1999. Full voice acting. Day-Night Cycles. NPC’s had schedules and patterns you could learn about. You were told an NPC would be at “such and such location” at “such and such time”, and they would be there when you got there. Weather Systems. Season Changes. Characters aged, Ryo would grow a noticeable beard as you played. Everything about this game gave you the sense you were living in this world because it simulated life.
Simulating life like this put crazy strain on memory. Everything is happening in real time. You cannot teleport to a new area of the game world whenever you feel like it. You are living in this persistent world that is calculating weather patterns, npc schedules, your characters hunger, etc. The Dreamcast was simply able to do things that people thought were impossible when Shenmue released. Looking back at Shenmue you can see shortcuts that were taken in order to make the game run on hardware. Draw distances are shortened, the camera hides memory intensive objects, etc. But back then, this was mind blowing.
On top of that, full voice acting was implemented in an era where this was expensive and difficult to do. Some of the voice acting is downright terrible. But the fact an entire game was voiced is something you have to admire.
Why Shenmue Is Critical for Game Designers to Play
Shenmue taught us that games can be mechanically simple (walking, talking, investigating) yet be ambitious in conception and still create an enjoyable experience. Shenmue doesn’t need to have perfected combat mechanics or hard puzzles to solve. Shenmue needs you to buy into the world, the characters it throws at you, and trust that your time playing will be worthwhile.
Every open-world game since Shenmue has taken notes. The Yakuza series is Shenmue’s spiritual successor — same focus on investigation, talking to characters, and completely consuming a smaller world instead of scratching the surface of a larger world. Games like Disco Elysium and Outer Wilds took inspiration for their story pacing and freedom from Shenmue.
However, what is most important about Shenmue is that it failed. Hard. The development budget for Shenmue was outrageous. The profit it made was slim to none. Sega hemorrhaged millions of dollars on Shenmue. The failure of such an experimental game to make a dent commercially is what makes Shenmue important to game history. Shenmue is not a game that was ahead of its time and became popular later on. Shenmue is a game that perfectly encapsulates a time where a publisher greenlit a project purely on an artistic gamble rather than possible profit.
Should You Play Shenmue Now?
Shenmue is slow when you play through it today. If you are looking for action or constant reward you will be let down. However, if you accept Shenmue for what it is, a slow investigation game that spans seasons you will be hooked. The characters are interesting. The Mystery is laid out well. The ending won’t make you feel like you got a conclusion, but it feels satisfying.
Controls can feel weird now. Camera is going to fight you at times. Minigames are extremely simple and can feel cheap at times. These aren’t bugs in the game, they feel purposefully there to make you feel a certain way.
The Graphics are VERY dated
Graphics are gonna be really old. Character models are blocky as hell. Texture work isn’t great. But the art style of the game is strong enough you forget about it. The Japanese environment the game takes place in is beautiful. Streets are carefully designed to create an atmosphere. The weather and lighting help sell you on the mood of the game.
The Shenmue Tragedy
What’s a shame about Shenmue is it proved you can create an ambitious, artistic game on a major console. The commercial performance of Shenmue proved that creating a great game is not enough. In order to create a successful game you need to nail timing, dominate on a hardware front, ensure third party support, and be lucky.
Shenmue 2 released on Dreamcast in Japan. Then it released on the Xbox in North America. Confusing the market is never a good thing and Shenmue III is releasing in 2019 using kickstarter funds. This is how gamers currently view this franchise.
Regardless of how it ended up, the original Shenmue is a fantastic time capsule of what you could achieve when a large developer took a swing for the fences.
The Verdict
Shenmue is great, not because everything about it is mechanically stellar. Not because it was a financial success. Shenmue is great because it showed you could make a game that is patient with you. It trusted you would enjoy taking your time with the story it gave you. The mystery unfolds beautifully. The characters are memorable. The world feels alive. The pacing is abnormal by design.
If you’ve never played Shenmue I implore you to take a chance but know what it’s about. Shenmue is not an action game. Shenmue is not a puzzle game. Shenmue is an investigative game that trusts you with your time.
As a game developer you should play Shenmue and remember, just because your game is ambitious does not mean it will be successful.
Rating: 9/10 — Ambitious game that showed you don’t always hit it big.
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