Episode 186 - Where Sailors Hang Out - Shenmue

You like the podcast that much? Let me invite you to hell. Welcome
back to the podcast! Today, we’re doing another community requested
episode (calling it Fanbruary at this point seems a bit silly) on
Shenmue. An absolute classic action/adventure game that happened to
be a blind spot for both of us. Shenmue centers on Ryo Hazuki,
whose father is killed in the opening cutscene in a pretty rad
martial arts fight. This sets up the events for you to uncover the
reason behind the murder, which you do by talking to characters,
learning schedules, driving forklifts and doing a little bit of
fighting yourself. The variety of activities to do in this game are
what made it so unique at the time and the fact that all of your
verbs aren’t based solely in combat still makes it stand out
against most triple A titles released even now. That being said,
it’s an older game and the number of different control schemes and
things to do may feel a bit unintuitive and clunky to you now. What
hasn’t aged as badly, surprisingly, are the visuals, which contain
a lot more detail than you would expect from the early days of the
3D games. From character models to buildings to interior spaces,
the level of fidelity on display is really impressive for the time,
even if it did mean the game had to be spread out across three
discs on release. Overall this game is a piece of history for good
reason, even if the experience isn’t as groundbreaking if you’ve
been keeping up with modern games. We’re going to be talking about
the more positive aspects of schlocky elements of the game’s story
and dialogue, the good and bad ways in which the game’s time-based
mechanics impact the play experience, and we lament the necessity
in our society to just go get a job sometimes. Thank you for
listening to the podcast this week! Shenmue is a game that really
works best if you are able to dedicate the time to immerse yourself
in it, and as a result this episode is coming a bit late and also
we maybe didn’t get the premier experience it could offer. That
being said, there is a lot to like here and even more to respect
for the period this game came out, so all in all I think it was
worth it. Are you a diehard Shenmue fan? What did you think of our
speculation on further games in the series? Let us know over on the
Discord or in the comments! Next time, we’re wrapping up our
suggested games for the year with Wanted: Dead, which should be a
significant departure from everything else we’ve played this year,
so much like Shenmue fans, I hope you’re in it for the variety, and
that you join us then!