#shenmue

[sonichedgeblog]

Obtaining Knuckles 'Shenmue' Dreamcast Support us on Patreon

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"Ah, good!"

[vgadvisor]

[robdogdraws]

🌀 9.9.99 🌀

[teathattast]

[owomon]

[abgcomics]

Nozomi's free time.

[posthumanwanderings]

What’s Shenmue? (AM2 / Sega - Dreamcast - 1999)

[sonichedgeblog]

Obtaining Super Sonic 'Shenmue' Dreamcast

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Tom 'Shenmue' SEGA Dreamcast

[fyeahsonicthehedgehog]

[vgadvisor]

[wirewitchviolet]

I miss games conveying a sense of Bigness

As you know if you watch my twitch streams, I play a lot of games, and games from a lot of eras, and there's a whole bunch of industry trends you pick up on from certain time periods. The one I really feel like talking about was a definite thing from oh... 1998 through... 2010 or thereabouts? Basically the aughts, give or take a couple years. Or if you prefer, the first two Playstations' run and a bit of the third. It was a period where games in general were really committed to feeling Big.

It feels a little weird to say that when major releases are priding themselves on stuff like measuring how much disk space they need in terrabytes and maps that sprawl out everywhere, but that's not what I'm talking about here. Games trying to feel Big is more of an attitude thing, and ironically enough I'd say it fell out of fashion almost immediately when Open Worlds became the new big thing. We hit a point where people actually made the maps for their games super big (even if most of that space was just kinda vast stretches of unremarkable rocks) so there's no more need to fake it, right? But faking it was kinda great.

I was thinking about this a lot playing the Resident Evil 2 remake, and comparing it to the original PSX game. See the original Resident Evil was set in a spooky mansion out in the middle of nowhere, but RE2 was the Bigger Better Sequel. So now we have a zombie outbreak happening in a whole major city, not just this single mansion. And how do we accomplish that? Do we actually model hundreds of buildings and have a big meandering adventure through all of them, or even a good swath? No not at all. Let's compare the actual maps side by side...

[There WAS a full map of RE2 here it was causing the post button to bug out. Look it up on your own?]

It's a little bigger. There's maybe a dozen more total rooms? But mostly, it's a smoke and mirrors thing. We've still got one big primary location, an animal-filled hike to a side location and back, and an underground science facility, but it feels like we've increased the scope to an entire city. The first playable moments have us out on the streets of the city, objectively in a few quick hallways, but presented as streets packed with dozens of crashed cars, raging fires everywhere, dead bodies littering the streets, and what again feels like innumerable zombies feasting in scattered packs. Once inside, arms of several zombies outside will reach in clawing at you, or later in the game finally breaching through. The remake completely loses that feeling. It feels like there's maybe a dozen zombies out on the streets.

Not to focus on just the one game though. How about GTA3? Remember how even when you're just on the first island, it feels like you're exploring this vast sprawling city?

Here's a more elevated angle from about the same point. I'm looking at this with noclip.website by the way, it's a really cool little toy.

The actual map is LAUGHABLY small. But it FEELS huge. They were really careful to avoid straight roads, and place a couple big vision blocking buildings, even if they're basically just a cube or two so that when you're actually on the ground, it always feels like there's so much more around you. Have another side by side, and a rough estimate of what's visible on the ground in the bird's eye.

RPGs around this time were also having a lot of fun playing with scale comparisons. FF7 is the obvious go-to. The world map is on par with any other in the series, but Big Cities are presented as such, making it very clear that you're just seeing parts of a single district in Midgar, really just the main street in Junon. Dragon Quest 8 had this very bold idea to keep the same visual scale on the world map as in the streets of the towns, with forests made of actual individual trees.

And I'm not even getting into the biggest elephants in the room. Are you old enough to remember how mind-bogglingly sprawling Hyrule Field felt? Maybe a bad example when sequels have kept that focus on selling their worlds as staggeringly Big. Shenmue? Objectively, looking at this map, there's not much there, but damn if I don't feel like this was a real town I lived in for a while 20 years ago. It's the way the detailing gets finer and finer the closer you get to Ryo's bedroom, where you can open every drawer, turn on every light, turn that orange in your hand, you know? I believe that bus you take to the docks has to stop in several other neighborhoods like this one.

And of course, then there's the one other series, maybe worth mentioning, perhaps.

Years later I'm still just speechless.

Again though, I don't actually WANT games with worlds as big as some of these feel. There just isn't the time and the money and the ability for a creative team not to burn out to fully realize that in a handcrafted caring way. I want some kind of inverted Plato's Cave, where it feels like there's a vast breathing world out there, but I'm really in a small cozy space watching masters of the craft put on a shadow puppet show.

[bubblepopspit]

~25 years of SEGA Dreamcast~

9.9.99

[dashgang]

I call this "The Dad Avengers". I like to imagine him in Street Fighter.

[ranchstoryblog]

Beyond the Farm: A Dramatic Martial Arts Detective Life Sim?

Long, long ago; in the year 1999, the term "life sim" wasn't used as often or understood as well as it is today. Boku no Natsuyasumi wouldn't release for another year, Animal Crossing was two years away, and reviewers were struggling to determine what a game like Harvest Moon 64 was. Often, instead of putting it alongside simulation games, choosing to place it among RPGs instead.

At this time, one of the biggest game developers in the industry had everything to prove for their next generation console. One of their most legendary creators was putting together something that could influence the entire gaming landscape, building systems modern games would take for granted from scratch. A game that sought to simulate real life as closely as possible.

Positing itself as an epic kung fu saga, most of Shenmue's promotional material focuses on action and adventure that happened to have an impressive world to explore. Upon release, players would quickly find it was almost the exact opposite. A world to live in, one day at a time, with a kung fu adventure somewhere in the backdrop. So, 25 years later, let's look at it through the lens of a life sim.

Living in Shenmue

Though the game opens with a dramatic set-up, your father murdered before your eyes by a mysterious man belonging to a foreign crime organization for reasons unknown, the first gameplay element introduced to you isn't how to throw a punch or a kick. Instead, upon exiting your home for the first time, you encounter a little girl taking care of an orphan kitten, and being pretty ill-prepared for it.

If the player chooses to visit this kitten every single day, using their small 500 yen daily allowance on cat food instead of toys, video games, or candy, they can watch the kitten recover over the next few weeks. Starting from barely being able to stand or eat, shivering in a cardboard box, to eventually exploring freely and climbing to the top of the nearby shrine, triumphant over its adversity.

This entirely optional side-quest is more or less an introduction to one of the main ways to play the game. While following your trail of clues to find your father's killer is one thing, establishing a daily routine that helps work towards tangible goals or experience new things is just as important. Some of these activities improve the protagonist's skills, like practicing martial arts in an empty lot to level-up and evolve moves, while others will challenge the player's skill, like getting good at motorcycle racing game "Hang On" so that a later challenge where you're driving a real motorcycle is a bit easier.

Contemporary games in the simulation genre tended to saddle you with a routine-focused task from the outset, such as a business to run or a field to plow, so it was certainly novel to simply be a jobless teenager trying to find a way to fill your days as seemingly every new step in your main goal required you to wait for someone else before moving forward.

Shenmue's Inhabitants

Of course, it's not just the player involving themselves with a daily routine. Hundreds of NPCs populate the world, each one with distinct personalities, backstories, and full voice-over. If you want, you can follow someone leaving their home in the morning, watch them open their store, walk in, examine every little thing on their shelves, and then pester them all day with questions about if any local gangsters with tattoos have stopped by their antique china shop lately.

On the rare occasions where you don't have any leads to follow, you can actually get to hear more about what they're thinking about. Some of them are familiar with the protagonist and ask how he's doing, or even visit him at home if they're worried, and others will just let you in on their personal life, like relationship troubles. Maybe try to teach you some Italian. If you forget to say hi while exploring town, maybe pick up the phone and call them in the evening.

Unfortunately, it's somewhat rare to get much insight in-game. Perhaps due to the technological hurdles of having everyone voiced and simply not having enough room for that many unique sound files, but the initial release of the game did also come with an online enabled companion disc called "Shenmue Passport." In it, every character in the game, including the dogs and cats, has a bio that includes a paragraph or two about their lives and various stats like birth dates and blood type. Though the feature has gone offline since then, fans have recreated it with a mobile app called "Suka Pass."

The Nature of Shenmue

While most of Shenmue's gameplay occurs in urban environments, plenty of attention was given to the nature the player experiences as well. When it rains, mud and puddles form; when it snows, you can hear it crunching beneath your feet, and tire tracks line the streets. Though you can easily complete the game before the end of December, ignoring the story until as far as April lets you experience the world turning greener, cherry blossoms blooming, and dandelions sprouting up. For some extra verisimilitude, you can even use the real life weather data from 1986/1987 Yokosuka to have the in-game weather match. Pretty impressive stuff for 1999.

However, one of the most memorable moments in the series comes from the end of Shenmue 2. On the fourth disc of the game, where one might normally expect there to be grand spectacle, action, or conquest, there's something else entirely: A chance encounter where you meet someone who's going the same way you're going, followed by a two-day walk and talk where you get to know one another. There are no wolves chasing you, dangerous decisions to make, or villains with chainsaws. There are, however, some colza blossoms that just bloomed. You have to take a detour to see them, but doesn't it sound nice? Why not, since we're here.

More than any action scene, sprawling city street, or technological advancement for the medium, this is the moment that defines what Shenmue is. A mundane world that exists all around you, and feels like it could go on forever if you suspend your disbelief for just a moment. If there's one thing I think any life sim should try to replicate from Shenmue, it's this. The grandeur of this slow walk through the woods where you get to ask a stranger dozens of questions, and answer dozens in return. The more common "two minute event where you can pick the good choice or the bad choice" can't compare.

Only 3.6% of you asked for more posts about life sims that aren't Story of Seasons, but I didn't want to leave those of you who wanted it out to dry. I might still do another one at some point, something more "typical" like Fields of Mistria, but I hope this was interesting for you. While it wasn't one of the more popular requests, and it requires a lot more work than a meme, or just more of the same, it's worth doing so long as someone enjoys it.