Shenmue II

Added August 7th, 2003 by EminaZ

Introduction:

Sega has always been a creative game designer, always looking for ways to spice up this and that. With original idea’s like Seaman, Space Channel 5, Samba De Amigo, and many more; Sega always looks for ways to create attention for its name. This game is no exception to this rule. The master mind behind the wonderful Shenmue series, Yu Suzuki, also the man behind the Virtua Fighter series, Out Run, Space Harrier, After Burner, is dedicated to make the Shenmue series close to a life experience.

The Shenmue series debuted on the Dreamcast, aside from Namco’s highly popular Soul Calibur series, fans would agree that Shenmue featured the most impressive visual effects of all the Dreamcast games. It also featured the most impressive facial features, Shenmue on the Dreamcast was truly an instant classic. Fans could do nothing but await the arrival of the sequel which Sega had promised. However, the fans became extremely disappointed when the later found out that Sega, after publishing Shenmue II for the Dreamcast in both Japan and Europe, had cancelled the state-side version of the game. This game was not going to come to the land of the free, or so the fans thought.

Suddenly, Microsoft later stepped in and snagged Shenmue II as an exclusive for its first console, the Xbox, and while fans remained disappointed, they were happier.

After all, now they finally get to continue the hunt for their father's murderer, Lan Di.

Gameplay:

If you studied the game's information, you would have noticed the genre is F.R.E.E, this is most likely a genre you have never heard of, unless you are a fan of the original Shenmue. F.R.E.E, or Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment, attempts to simulate a part of a real life experience and make so that people could choose different paths to alter the way they go about accomplishing the same mission. Shenmue is just that, it is a story about a young man, Ryo, who witnessed his father being murdered by a man named Lan Di for an eerie reason.

Taking place in past Japan and China (Shenmue took place in Japan and Shenmue II takes place in China.) one could consider Shenmue to be a dedicative-like game, as your mission is to avenge your fathers death. With no information, Ryo must investigate by going around the virulent world of Shenmue and engage in conversations with the people in order to begin to compile the reason of his fathers death.

But there is more then that, Japan is not a friendly place, especially at night time, while no demons will come out of the ground to feast on your soul, Ryo will encounter some opposition. From gangs to people who just want to be left alone. Ryo will make as much enemies as he makes friends. Ryo will handle these people, if they strike, with either a QTE, a Quick Time Event, or the player would be responsible to engage in a fight with the opposition, Ryo does know martial arts thanks to his diseased father.

Now, you are surely thinking of what a QTE could be. A QTE is also a fight, but it is more automated, you have less control of what moves Ryo engages and you control Ryo by pressing the buttons that are prompted on the screen.

You could talk about various subjects with the people you see on the streets, subjects regarding money, places to go, and various other things. There is also a time system in Shenmue to give more feeling that Shenmue II is a simulation, unlike the first Shenmue, Shenmue II gives you the option to pass up time as some parts of the story require you to come back to a certain place at certain time of the day.

Graphics:

When originally released for the Dreamcast, the graphics of Shenmue blew Dreamcast owners away. They were in shock with the quality of the game. Shenmue for the Dreamcast is pushed the Dreamcast very close to the limit of what it is capable of producing, and Shenmue II, released only in Japan and Europe for the Dreamcast, came even closer to the limit of the Dreamcast hardware. Now Shenmue II is on Xbox. While the graphics on the Dreamcast were considered eye candy, here on the Xbox it is considered less eye candy and more like ordinary graphics.

Sega’s AM2 did take some effort to improve the game, higher texture quality, improved character models and animation is implanted in the Xbox version of Shenmue II.

Shenmue II still holds its own in terms of graphics, it is slightly above average, many games here on the Xbox are lower quality in terms of graphics. There are some graphics filters that you could toggle between, like a black & white filter.

You won’t be disappointed with the graphics, nor will you be awed. Some scenes are simply beautiful, however.

Audio:

Everyone who played The House of the Dead series could tell you the sad truth about the voice acting. They all will speak the horror of having to listen to the terrifying voice acting. You will be very thankful the voice acting in Shenmue II is not on par with that of The House of the Dead. The background music will stun you with its beautiful rhythms.

And while the game recovers from some what lacking voice acting, the BGM features classical-like music with very little to no voices, simply orchestra. Alone, the BGM buts you in the mood to continue your hunger for vengeance against Lan Di. It helps you through the boring times and good times of the game.

One could not place the downfall of the audio solely on the faulty voice acting, those who wrote the script need to be blamed also. While the story is immersing, the script is somewhat corny. The answers some townsfolk and even Ryo gives is simply pathetic.

Controls:

You have a control hub in the lower right hand corner. This hub should easily become one of your treasured friends as it is easy and simple to use. This hub has four options assembled in a plus sign fashion. When you walk around in the streets of China, you can’t simply go around and punch any person you see. You can’t do anything except walk, run, and talk to people regarding different subjects.

But in the game you could jump, roll, punch, kick, and do anything the average person could do, but you can’t do it at your will.

If you get in a fight with a person, or a group of people, then you will have the chance to beat down some bad guys by executing some of Ryo’s move. The fighting system is created by the man behind the Virtua Fighter series – so the quality is ensured. Ryo does have moves that resemble the Virtua Fighter characters moves, he also has too many so learn a few moves you like and don’t bother trying to learn them all.

While everyone could be thankful that the amount of moves Ryo has, one could as easily be disappointed in how the moves could be executed. The moves are somewhat hard to execute because the directions that you need to press is in relation to the direction that Ryo is facing. If a move, for example, is forward, forward, punch; and Ryo is facing toward you. You would actually have to press down, down, punch. This could get a bit hard to get used to, and since there are usually more then one person to fight, it is ever harder to get used to.

QTE’s are easier to control. When ever Ryo is at a scene where he about to confront some people, be ready for QTE’s. You are simply prompted with a key, or combination of keys to press. Thankfully, the relation of the keys that you must press is in relation to the control and not the direction that Ryo is facing. You have a seconds or two to press the button that you are prompted with, if you don’t then Ryo will usually get hit and you will be prompted with another. If you keep failing, Ryo will get beaten up and you will be responsible to repeat the QTE, or even go a different path at times.

Replay:

Shenmue II, much like Shenmue, is full of mini games. There are two versions of darts that Ryo could play, three real arcade games that are emulated so that you could enjoy, multiple jobs that one could take, and many gambling games. This really helps through the boring and slow parts of Shenmue II.

To help people who haven’t played the original Shenmue understand the story, Sega threw in a free movie of Shenmue that was released exclusively at Japanese theatres. This movie is animated, and while you might get the idea that it will be of high quality, it really is just the Dreamcast version of a game played in a quick-base fashion.

Summary:

While Shenmue II does have its downfalls in the voice acting, fighting system, graphics, and other aspects, it also has a better. It is more of a mixed bag, some instances might be good, while others might be shameful.

Overall, Shenmue II is a faithful sequel to one of the most expensive videogames ever created. It is just more of the same, sadly this applies to the bad parts of Shenmue II. AM2 did make an effort to iron out some of the boring parts and AM2 did increase the quality of the sound and graphics.

It is a good game that will be enjoyed by people who have an attention span of more then 10 minutes.