Aided by the kindly villager Ling Shenhua, Ryo must learn more about the mirrors’ history and continue his search for Lan Di. Here, he started to unravel the mysteries of two artifacts: the dragon and phoenix mirrors, keys to locating a massive treasure that would grant Lan Di immense power. Instead, it crystallizes it into a fresh new chapter with all of the romantic ruralism, mystery, and pulpy awkwardness that defined the series.īy the end of Shenmue II, Ryo had chased the trail of his father’s killer, the mafioso Lan Di, to a rural village in China. Shenmue III doesn’t radically change the series. The core experience has been preserved with astounding faithfulness. Fans hoping for a resolution to the story were left in limbo until E3 2015, where Suzuki, now running his own development studio, launched a Kickstarter for Shenmue III that drew in many backers (including me) to become the most well-funded video game Kickstarter of all time.įor players who did enjoy Shenmue back in the day, this third installment feels like stepping through a timewarp. But making Shenmue games was expensive, and once Sega discontinued the Dreamcast and left the hardware business, Yu Suzuki’s ambitious dream project died. Ryo Hazuki’s quest to find his father’s killer led us through this world and all of its details.Ī sequel followed shortly after. A real-time day-night cycle? A world full of fully voice-acted characters? Weather effects? Characters who lived out their daily lives on a schedule? These things had been done before individually, but Shenmue brought them together to craft what felt like a living world. At the time, there was nothing else like it. It was profoundly influential on the next 20 years of game design. You could find a part-time job, buy a soda from a vending machine, or feed the neighborhood cat. Shenmue was something unseen at the time, an open-world game where you could walk down the street and talk to anyone you met.
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