Pioneering the open-world
concept, Shenmue was at its
time the most expensive game
ever made. It not only had
cutting-edge graphics featuring
a detailed location with dynamic
weather cycles and hundreds
of characters with their own
schedules, but it was the start
of a cinematic epic as student
Ryo Hazuki embarked on a quest
to avenge his father.
The saga was, however, cut
short by the untimely demise
of its host platform, the Sega
Dreamcast – which just recently
celebrated its 20th anniversaryin the UK. But after years of
false starts, campaigning from
fans and a record-breaking
Kickstarter, the story finally
continues with the series’
legendary creator Yu Suzuki
back at the helm.
While Shenmue III picks up
right where its predecessor left
off in rural China, it also feels like
stepping into a time capsule – as
if all the advancements of Skyrim
and Red Dead Redemption
never happened.
There’s an attempt to move
towards a typical RPG system,
as a task to find a man with a scaron his face requires training and
levelling-up before you can beat
him in a fight. Yet it’s the other
things you get to do that stay
true to the original Dreamcast
experience: poking your head in
cupboards for no reason, doing
money-making jobs disguised
as mini-games, wasting your
dosh on toy capsules, asking the
locals the same question for the
umpteenth time.
And of course it’s Ryo, who’s
still as oblivious and robotic
as ever. Yep, this is Shenmue
alright, and it’s exactly what the
fans have been waiting for.FIRST PLAY SHENMUE III PC, PS4
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