| Welcome to Dreamcast Magic |
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| Note: these pictures are in low resolution and the game looks much better on a TV. |
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| Story: 10/10 You play as Ryo Hazuki, a young Japanese man living with his family, in the suburbs in the 1980's. Your main objective in life is to find the man responsible for murdering Iwao Hazuki, your father. What is the connection between your father and his murderer the Dragon Mirror and Phoenix Mirror? Graphics: 10/10 The entire game is presented in real-time, ultra smooth, polygon generated graphics. Speaking of locales, they're awe inspiring. Oh yeah and the environmental effects are great too everything from time of day to weather changes on-the-fly. The sheer magnitude of each section is amazing. There are lots of buildings, animated characters, vehicles, and even wildlife. It's a virtualy a whole world, and you can explore it all. Your view of the surroundings is almost as impressive as seeing the many characters. Eyes move and change size, individual fingers flex, and general character animation is excellent. In addition, the polygon models and textures combine to make the game's characters come alive! This is the best looking Dreamcast game, period. Controls: 10/10 Interaction is the name of this game. You can talk to, fight with, purchase, climb, pet, look at, play with, ride on, manipulate/utilize, and/or examine just about everything in the Shenmue world! All of this is accomplished with surprising ease the controls are good. There are really too many activities (to occupy your time) in this game for all of them to be listed. Sound: 10/10 Overall, the soundtrack is relaxing. The music fits your given situation, and spans the full spectrum of high and low tempo. The main Shenmue theme, with its decidedly oriental theme, is quite enjoyable and memorable. As expected, nearly everything makes a realistic noise. For example, cats meow, dogs bark, motorcycles rumble, sliding doors swoosh, arcade systems play entice music, and footsteps clap. The main effect of concern is the voice acting. Yes, it's very good. That's a relief, as speech is in every conversation, and mean everyone. Which is good, the game guides you on what to do next by having you talk to people and its nice to know they aren't poorly voiced. Replay Value: 10/10 Shenmue is poised to usher in a new genre known as FREE (Free Reactive Eyes Entertainment). It's basically a go anywhere, see everything, real time action, multi-faceted interaction extravaganza! Add in mini games, arcade games, quick time events, quick time battles, and mucho collectable items to produce many hours of varied gameplay. There is so much to do in Shenmue. Most of the time you'll be looking for certain people, clues, or items by talking to people throughout the various locales. Sometimes you're supposed to call somebody at a certain time. Other times you may be asked to meet someone, somewhere, at a specific time. You're always free to blow some time playing games, gambling, or collecting items (like Saturn games, which can be used at home). Any way you cut it, many hours of Dreamcast fun await you and your controller. Loading is kept to an acceptable level, even though the game switches locales, and gameplay modes. Playing is game over is not as werid as it may seem while people may not thier is so much depth in this game that you may just have missed alot of the little things in this amazing game. Overall: 10/10 Yu Suzuki's creative masterpiece Shenmue with its graphics and scope has no competition to othere games like it. With so many activities and events to enjoy, you may never fully complete this game! History: -Shenmue was in development for about 7 years -It was originaly going to come out for the Saturn -Shenmue costed $66 million to make -This game won a spot in the GuinessBook of world records for being the most expensive video game ever made -Its online functions for the US version are not online anymore, taken offline April 2003 -The limited edition was only released in Japan and US, and came with Shenmue and music CD (w/ music from the game). |
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