Yu Suzuki's "Shenmue" tells the first chapter in the story of Ryo Hazuki, a young man who witnesses his father being beaten to death by a mysterious martial arts master from the Chinese mainland named Lan Di. In the commotion, Lan Di and his henchmen learn the exact whereabouts of an ancient Chinese Dragon Mirror currently in your father's possession. Afterwards, Lan Di hightails it, leaving Ryo to sort out his father's involvement and, when the time arrives, avenge his death as well. Much of Shenmue's strength lies not in its plot, which is quite good, but in its excellent narrative. Unlike other games, which attempt to capture a story's true essence via text dialog only, Shenmue uses English voice-acting, and not just for the main characters, but for each and every person in the game. At first, I was a little upset that Sega of America didn't go with the English subtitles over the original Japanese language track, as they had originally planned, but the newer English voice dubbing actually isn't all that bad.

  Sure, there are a few voices that could've been better, but in the long run the dubbing makes the game much more cinematic in its English incarnation than it would've been otherwise. Plus, it allows the player to concentrate on the characters' wide array of expressions, as you can clearly hear everything that they have to say, rather than being forced to read subtitles and possibly miss some of the game's excellent visuals. Shenmue's sound effects are also done incredible justice; open a soda at a vending machine and the can's top makes that familiar k-klop sound; use a roundhouse kick and you'll hear an equally appropriate whirr; walk from hard rocks to soft grass and the sound changes appropriately for every step. The realism in Shenmue isn't good; it's staggering. Never before have you ever seen a world quite as realistic, convincing or inviting as the virtual Yokosuka, Japan that the Shenmue narrative lays out before you. Not only does the world contained in Shenmue conform to most real weather conditions, such as snow and rain, but it does them all in real-time.

  Raindrops fall and gather in puddles, which you splash through as you run, while snow accumulates on the ground, and in the trees, and makes a crunching sound when your shoes step in it. Stopping for drinks at a vending machine gets you an almost commercial-like scene, which allows you to put some money in, select a drink, and then sit back and relax as the camera pans around Ryo, who finishes the entire beverage in two very long gulps. Then, Ryo promptly drops the can in a bin which, of course, goes "clunk". And just think, this is only the level of detail applied to a simple vending machine. Unfortunately, with great visuals comes an even greater need for a smooth control scheme and, while Shenmue has a pretty good level of control, it's not exactly perfect by any means. Shenmue's complete control scheme is split into three distinct gameplay systems. The first one is "FREE Quest", also known as Shenmue's exploration mode, which involves the use of the digital pad and L trigger to move and the other buttons to perform various actions. Holding the L trigger while pressing up will cause Ryo to run, while simply pressing up alone will cause him to just walk.

  When Ryo is near someone or something that he can talk to or examine, pressing A will make him do just that, while holding the R trigger and looking at an object will make his eyes "lock-on" to that object. B acts as your backing-out command, while pressing Y takes you straight to your inventory and information menu. And though it's already accessible via the Y menu, pressing X acts as an even quicker way of taking a look in Ryo's Notebook, which keeps track of all of your important appointments, facts, dates and phone humbers. The second gameplay mode is the now-famous Quick Timer Event, or QTE. Quick Timer Events, which occur at various points throughout the game's FREE Quest mode, require you to react to a series of button presses, signaled by flashing button icons, which each must be pressed within a second or so. Pressing one in time causes the QTE to go in your favor, while pressing one too late causes exactly the opposite. Do not be fooled though; while QTEs may seem simple at first, it eventually becomes obvious that your timing skills are being refined for the later stages of the game, which place a much, much heavier emphasis on your physical fighting skill and endurance than the rest of the game.

  The third mode of play is arguably the hardest to use, practice and master. Known as FREE Battle, Shenmue's third gameplay system bears a very strong resemblance to another Yu Suzuki creation: Virtua Fighter. Not only are FREE Battles heavily action-based, but they also require a lot of training to win. You see, Ryo Hazuki has a wide variety of fighting skills, some of which will be quite familiar to fans of the Virtua Fighter series, including very elaborate kicks, punches and throws. Each is pulled off by pressing a particular button sequence, just like in a fighting game. However, unlike fighting games, which allow you to simply perform every move on the character's roster from the get-go, FREE Battle requires more difficult moves to be learned, whether you learn through deciphering ancient Move Scrolls, through extensive training or during a practice session. Once learned, a move can then be used repeatedly, in order to increase Ryo's level of skill with said move. The higher your rating with a move, the more damage you do with it and the faster you pull it off. Of course, Shenmue doesn't exactly start you off with no moves; Ryo Hazuki is the son of a sensei, after all.

  And since he already knows most of the basics, that leaves you with the task of mastering some of the more advanced moves before you reach the end of the game. All things considered, Shenmue's gameplay is pretty good, though it does leave enough room for some improvement in the sequel. The control is a bit confusing at the onset, but most are bound to pick up the general concepts after thirty minutes or so. Also, I thought that Shenmue's pacing could have been a little better, since every hour in the game equals almost five minutes in the real world, an amount of time that makes the various distractions, like the classic Sega arcade games, Hang On and Space Harrier, an absolute necessity if you want to keep the boredom at bay. Still, I'm glad that Yu Suzuki put these fun, little diversions in. It just wouldn't have felt quite the same without them. I'm having fun just trying to complete my little Toy Capsule collection. I don't really know why exactly, but I do know that it's a whole lot of fun and if you're having fun, that's all that matters; the game has done its job. You know, I've heard a lot of speculation and hype over the last four years, about how "Shenmue was going to change gaming as we know it, forever." Well, now that I've finally played it, I can safely say that all that speculation and hype was a load of crap.

  Yu Suzuki's Shenmue is what I like to refer to as a great game, and like every other great game that's ever been produced, its goal wasn't to "revolutionize the industry", or "change gaming forever". It was made to entertain us and Shenmue does just that; it takes some of the most proven forms of gameplay around and fuses them all together, resulting in a game that's full of moments that define what gaming means, giving players a well-polished experience, one that engulfs their minds and allows them to enter a world that is both entertaining and intriguing, a world full of people to meet and places to see, a world that you'll hate to leave, but love to remember. And just think, this is only the first chapter in the series...
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