Gaming has been my passion since the very early 1980s; thus I have seen many great ideas flop as ambitious projects, so I am always aware when a developer is taking a shot for the fences. One such example of a swing for the fences is Shenmue. Yu Suzuki, a renowned designer in the gaming community, convinced Sega to back his open-world investigative type of game. Any logical, business standpoint would say there is no way this project could exist. You are investigating the murder of your father in a Japanese neighborhood. You interact with non-player characters (NPCs), find clues, and simply wait for story segments to occur. There is no fighting, and there is no traditional progression. It’s essentially a detective game where the actual detective work is the entire experience.
As of 1999, this was pure madness. In reality, it was mad either way, but Sega went ahead and funded it nonetheless. As a result, we have what is possibly one of the most intriguing artifacts in gaming history — a game that demonstrates how brilliant design does not equal commercial viability at all.
What Shenmue Does
You play the role of a teenager named Ryo Hazuki, and he lives in the city of Yokosuka, Japan. He witnessed his father getting murdered by a man named Lan Di while searching for the “Dragon Mirror”. Since Ryo didn’t get a good look at Lan Di’s face, you are on an investigation — speaking to NPCs, finding clues, seeing the world pass through season changes, weather patterns, etc. The game takes place over one year, and you are learning about your father’s death as you progress through the year.
What is so unusual about this is that Shenmue disregards all of the traditional gaming elements regarding game pacing. You wake up, go about your day, speak to NPCs, etc. Some of the time, they may provide you with useful information, others may not. Sometimes you may spend 30 minutes speaking to an individual NPC who ultimately provides you with important information. At other times, you may spend 30 minutes in a location with no results. Shenmue trusts you completely to be patient.
The Quick Time Events were truly an innovation at the time — situations where you needed to press specific buttons at specific times to successfully complete action sequences. Although they have been used countless times since their introduction in Shenmue, Shenmue basically created them. Importantly, if you fail at a Quick Time Event, you continue playing regardless of failing. You are not required to replay the entire sequence again — the story continues. Sometimes you win battles, sometimes you lose, and the story continues to unfold regardless.
The Technical Achievement Most People Overlook
There is an element of Shenmue that is rarely discussed in regards to the discussion of Shenmue — the technical achievement of the game. This was a technically impressive game for Dreamcast hardware in 1999. Full voice acting was implemented. Day-Night Cycles were included. Schedules and routines were implemented for NPCs. An NPC stated they would be at a particular location at a particular time, and they indeed would be. Weather Systems were implemented. The Seasons changed. Characters aged — Ryo’s stubble grew noticeably as time passed. The game world was perceived as being lived-in due to the simulation of a living environment.
Creating a world with such realistic simulations placed massive demands on memory. Everything occurs in real time. You cannot load a new area of the game whenever you desire. You are in a persistent world that is simulating every aspect of the environment. The Dreamcast hardware was capable of accomplishing tasks that seemed impossible at the time. When examining Shenmue today, it is apparent that there were compromises made to optimize the game — limited draw distances, camera angles that hid memory intensive areas, etc. However, at the time, this was considered incredible.
Regarding Voice Acting, some performances were better than others. Some were quite poor. However, the fact that an entire game was voiced in an age when this was extremely costly and difficult is a testament to the developers’ commitment to ambition.
Why Shenmue Is Important to Understand How Games Are Designed
Shenmue demonstrated a fundamental truth regarding game design — you can develop a game that is mechanically simple (i.e., walk, talk, investigate) yet conceptually ambitious and produce a unique experience. The game does not require perfect combat mechanics or complicated puzzle solving. What it requires is your engagement with a world and characters and trusting that the experience will be valuable and worthy of your time.
Shenmue has inspired virtually every game that followed in its footsteps. The Yakuza series is Shenmue’s spiritual successor — identical focus on investigation, interacting with characters, and thoroughly exploring a small world instead of superficially exploring a large world. Games such as Disco Elysium and Outer Wilds have drawn inspiration from Shenmue’s method of pacing and player agency.
However, what is perhaps the most critical component of Shenmue is that it was a commercial failure. The development costs were enormous. The returns were minimal. Sega lost millions on this project. Shenmue’s failure to achieve financial success as a result of its experimental nature is part of its historical significance. This is not a game that was ahead of its time and later became trendy. This is a game that reflects a certain point in time when a major publisher supported a project based solely on experimental design rather than its potential for commercial success.
Is Shenmue Still Worth Playing Today?
When replaying the game today, the pace is deliberately slow. If you expect action or continuous progression throughout the game, you will quickly become disenchanted. However, if you accept the game on its own terms — a slow-burning investigation game in which the story unfolds over the course of the seasons — it is captivating. The characters are intriguing. The mystery is structured effectively. The ending, although not definitive, feels earned.
The controls are occasionally awkward by modern standards. The camera can sometimes fight you. The mini-games are simplistic and occasionally frustrating. These seem like deliberate design decisions intended to enhance the overall experience rather than errors.
The Graphics are Obviously Outdated
The graphics are undoubtedly outdated. The character models are blocky. The textures are low resolution. However, the artistic direction of the game is strong enough that you cease to notice. The Japanese surroundings of the game are accurately portrayed. The streets are meticulously designed to create atmosphere. The weather and lighting systems add to the mood of the game.
The Tragedy of Shenmue
What is sad about Shenmue is that this is a game that demonstrated the possibility of developing an ambitious and artistically stimulating game on a major console. That the game did not generate commercial success demonstrates that making a brilliant game is insufficient. To make a successful game, you need to hit the mark in terms of timing, hardware dominance, third party support, and luck.
Shenmue II released on the Dreamcast in Japan and then on the Xbox in North America. This caused confusion in the market. Shenmue III will release in 2019, using Kickstarter funding. This illustrates how the gaming industry views this franchise.
However, the original Shenmue remains an intriguing artifact of what can be accomplished when a major developer is willing to take a true risk.
The Verdict
Shenmue is exceptional not because of perfection in its mechanical aspects nor because of its commercial viability. Shenmue is exceptional because it demonstrates that games can be slow-paced, meditative, and patient, and that it trusts the player to engage with the world as the game dictates. The mystery is structured well. The characters are interesting. The world feels lived-in. The pacing is intentionally unconventional.
If you have never played Shenmue before, you must understand what it is attempting to accomplish. Shenmue is not an action game. Shenmue is not a puzzle game. Shenmue is an investigation game that trusts your time investment and will not hurry the story along.
If you are involved in the process of developing games, you must learn from Shenmue as it demonstrates that ambition does not ensure success, however, it creates something worth remembering.
Rating: 9/10 — Ambitious game that showed commercial success is not assured
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