 |
| Once again with Shenmue 2 on the horizon Shenmue one must be reviewed. This has to be the most detailed RPG that Sega or anyone else has ever produced. First of all any everyday activity from clipping your toe nails to feeding your cat is an activity in the game. The Good: The attention to detail is fantastic. They even have old Sega arcade classics from the 80's in an arcade and you can play them in the game as mini games. This and the extremely realistic looking characters make Shenmue a must have. The Bad: Well like most DC games this one started as a Japanese game. Which isn't bad but most of the landmarks have signs marking them in Japanese making it impossible to find stuff. Not to mention that all the characters have un-rememberable Japanese names. It's not too much to ask that they change a few of the characters names to something like Tony or Dave for the sake of adding a sense of familiarity to the game. However when every character has a un-rememberable Japanese name it can make it hard to find someone in the game. Another bad thing is that the Japanese have this annoying habit of portraying their children as parodies of American children except annoying shrill voiced little beyotches in need of a good smacking. This didn't translate well over to American audiences either. Also the game works on it's own sped up version of a 24 hour clock rather than real time, making it possible to spend a few hours playing the game in real life but make a few days pass in Shenmue time. In conclusion I know I made it sound bad but this is a must have game for any Dreamcast owner. It's Segas Ugly Duckling. It's fun, and it's heavily tuned into the martial arts. If you can overlook the outer bad, the inner good far surpasses it. |
|