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Great game while waiting for SKIES

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: November 22, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Picked up this game at my local Toys R Us, but i didnt expect to get it. I was really going to go get the true RPG SKIES OF ARCADIA, which they didnt have in stock. Oh well, i must say that i am happy to have gotten it because it proves to be well worth your money(4 disks). First, the Graphics are amazing, when i first say the opening FMV, i thought i was sitting at the movies...amazing. When i first started playing though, i found the controls to be quite irritating, but after a while, i got used to it and found them quite ingenious. The basic gameplay is that you are Ryo, a young man vastly trained in martial arts, who returns home to witness his father's murder at the hands of Thugs, and a guy with the Dragon Tatoo. when playing, you will walk around vast areas(a whole city) and talk to people, gather information and clues, and a lot of other fun stuff. But the real Question is: Is it worth my hard earned franklins or should i look somewhere else.

I would say, if you are big on Adventure, definetly, but if you like RPGs better, wait for a couple weeks for GRANDIA 2 or SKIES OF ARCADIA.

Bottom Line: A well-rounded, innovative game sure to keep you busy for hours, but if you dont like slow moving, greatly detailed games, this is not for you. Despite its problems which are hard to explain, this game is supported by its depth, and will prove to be a best seller and important game in the future.

Parent's Warning: Very strong profanity, animated violence, and consumption of alchohol and tobacco

Most unique game ever.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: October 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

In Shenmue you play as a young detective named Ryo who awakes to find his father 's been murdered by an evil fiend called Lan Di. Incensed by this, Ryo vows to exact revenge on those who killed his father and begins a journey of revenge, violence, and furious anger (a bit like Kill Bill). Ryo wakes up at 09:00 AM everyday, and depending on your mood, you can do a whole range of things with your day. Most day's, however, you will spend your time looking for clues. Go around asking people whether they remember anything about the day of your father's death, and soon you will have a whole notepad of clues which will help you on your adventure and gather more clues.

For the most part, the fight scenes are quick reaction fights where you have to quickly press corresponding buttons to protect yourself from defeat. A lot of the time, though, you engage in Teken-like fights where you have to rely entirely on your fighting skills to succeed and move on. By pressing a series of different buttons you can execute a huge array of different moves, just like in Teken.

If you're becoming bored with your mission, you can sidetrack and do other things like collect toys, play in the arcade, listen to your walkman, etc...!!! And it's this, among other things, which add's a glorious feel of realism to the game. All in all, the experience of this game is so potent that you will find no need to visit Japan at all, for this is Japan. There are hundreds of different elements that add to the realism of being in Japan: The friendly neighbours. The corner shops. The vending machines. The toy machines. The beautiful Japanese architecture. The arcades. The buses. The peaceful tranquility of the place. It's a small, spordically populated Japanese town, which I could easily be convinced actually exists (it probably does exist actually). I love getting up in the morning and occasionally discovering snow outside. I love the crowded streets in the day time and the isolated disquiet at night. I love the way people's attitudes change as you progress through the the weeks, months, seasons. I love getting up in the morning and going to bed at night. It really is like a really exciting version of real life.

The genius of Shenmue lies in it's ability to merge two worlds together: The mundane and the extraordinary! I've reviewed a lot of games that could arguably be called the greatest game ever, but if I were made to make choice, I'd probably choose Shenmue simply for it's uniqueness.

Yet Another Reason to own Dreamcast

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: September 30, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Yu Suzuki really went all out on this one. Millions of dollars in production. Spanning four GD-ROMs. This is a true theatrical masterpiece. For everyone waiting for a ground-breaking title and yet another reason to own Dreamcast, this is it. Every thinkable detail has been implemented in this marvel of video gaming. Although this is only the first of four Shenmue, it is HUGE. Everyone should own this game. Period. I'm looking forward to this, so should you.

Get Gandia 2 and Arcadia. This is a waste of time.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: January 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I got this a week ago and im amazed at how they put a good idea to waste. It had a decent storyline (it wasn't a FF7 ...) the graphics were amazing and the fighting system was good. They did however ruin it. First there are few to many fights and the game goes incredibly slow. Next the analog stick is used for camera, u have to use the d pad. Finally frequently throughout the game u have to wait for 4 or 5 game hours (30 minuets real life) just siting there waiting for either the night clubs to open or if u have an appointment with somebody. It's games like this that make believe square is the only company which can make good rpg's..

This game is a reflection of reality

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: September 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

The last reviewer says to expect to pay hundreds for this game... he can only be referring to the Japanese version of the game which was released in chapters, one to a disc. The US version is not that way. The US version includes 3 GD ROMS for the game, plus a 4th GD ROM that has online options.

Shenmue is a breakthrough in videogame technology. You may think it is trivial to be able to walk into a store in a videogame and buy any item you find, because in terms of reality, that is nothing new. But in a videogame, that is amazing. This game offers a different experience to everyone that plays it.

A virtual tour, NOT a game.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 8
Date: December 06, 2000
Author: Amazon User

After completing the game, I say it was greatly over-hyped. Yeah, the world is well-detailed, it's nifty how much you can interact with the environment... Yadda, yadda, yadda. The graphics and extras are top notch, but the game itself is severely lacking. Designers should make the game fun first, THEN add in all of the extras. Not vice-versa.

Easily 95% of the actual game is hunting for an obscure NPC who knows a little about a clue, who then points you on another vector, and so on. You MIGHT get ONE action sequence per game day, on average. And when you finally DO see some action, it's incredibly easy, and over too short. Other than a few bosses, most thugs go down with a single jump kick. Even the 70 person battle only took me two tries.

If a game doesn't have plenty of action, it should make up for it in plot. Shenmue doesn't. Normally, I don't mind dialogue-heavy games, but only if the people have something interesting to say. The vast majority of dialogue is: "Have you seen *blah*?" "No, but *so-and-so* might know about that."

In other words, Shenmue is lacking in both action and plot, but it has a bunch of extras. Rent it.

Whats wrong with you people

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 10, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game is simply amazing. The game has incredible depth and has multiple story lines. For example, if you are ... and you can't fid the second mirror, Lan Di comes and kills you. Later in the game you get a job as a forklift driver. If you do it worng, it becomes a forklift sim. But it can be fun...

The games graphics are awesome. Only one problem. For some reason no one can ever get hair to look right... Oh well..

The soundtrack to the game is pretty much pointless in that it is just random.

Little extras in this game make this game great. For example, being able to play pool. The interface kind of ... but it is there. Another one is being able to play old sega and made up games.

One more problem is it too realistic. This might not seem like a problem but it is. At first it isn't a problem, but when you have to wait until 12 o clock, and it is 8, it takes a while because you can't fast forward time.

Minor errors aren;t enough to hurt this classic action/rpg game

Amazing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: November 14, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is THE reason to buy a Dreamcast, amazing in every way. You'll play this game for hours, it will take over your life. If you have a DC, buy this NOW, if you're thinking of getting a DC, this is the best reason I can think of to buy one.

BTW, to correct one guy below, this is NOT the "2nd/3rd game to feature Time", before Pokemon: Gold/Silver, there was Zelda:TOoT, and Harvest Moon 64, and that's just off the top of my head... the fact that there is night and day is really nothing new.

Is this it?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: November 19, 2000
Author: Amazon User

With all of the hype surrounding this game, I thought it would be a whole lot better than this. Of course by now you've heard about the great graphics. Okay, I'll give you that, but I want a game not a movie, so I care about how it plays and that's where 'Shenmue' falters. The gameplay consists of punch-punch-kick style action and at times it's restricted to you hitting one button along with the movie scene. 'Yawn'. I actually dropped off a little during part of it; no joke. While it is certainly a technical achievement, it's more movie than game.

Hyped but not much delivery.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: December 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

First off, this game is a graphical masterpiece. The graphics are ultra realistic. Watching Ryo run around and open doors, even fight, itll keep your mouth on the floor. However, I do emphasize "Watching Ryo..". The game is really more of a watch for 2 hours and play game. On top of that the meager tasks it asks you to do can be irriatating and sometimes not very directed. The fighting system is a down-sized version of Virtua Fighter and not very in depth. The free roaming aspect is very well done but the lack of story control keeps it from shining. The control scheme is also clunky. It takes a bit of getting used to but I found myself turning around when I wanted to back up and running when I wanted to talk. It uses the d-pad to move and the L button to run/walk. The analog control is used to lookaround. The story is somewhat nice, but is incomplete, a la Soul Reaver. Play to the end of the game and find out theres more to do, but in another game. Which means another couple months/years. I say rent this for a couple days and play it. It really isnt worth a purchase in my opinion.

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