Ryos Adventure Gets Better & Better...
Written: Jan 20 '06 (Updated Jan 20 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Ultra realistic world. Deep, emotional story. Amazing Soundtrack. Great Characters.
Cons: Some poor voice acting. Should have kept the DC dialog.
The Bottom Line: Very rarely, a game stops being just a game and becomes an experience that has to be felt to be believed, this is one such rarity. Buy This
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| master_betty's Full Review: Shenmue 2 for Xbox |
Shenmue for Dreamcast, despite its obvious problems, was a powerfull experience. I for one had played nothing like it, and it totally reshaped my expectations for games in the future. Id heard stories of a "new type of game never before seen" something "revolutionary". Problem was, not one of my friends knew anything about Dreamcast, they were all Playstation kids and wouldnt look at anything else (oh the abuse i took sticking up for my beloved Sega Saturn)... However, when i began playing Shenmue, i was completely blown away. I was honestly astounded. But this isnt a review of that game, there are plenty of them for any curious gamer to read through, lets just say that when a game has the effect that Shenmue did, news of a sequel was the greatest thing since Zelda went 3D (ok maybe not THAT great but still...)
For those not in the know, the first game in the series centred around Ryo Hazuki searching for clues as to who the mysterious man in the green robe who murdered his father is.
Its a classic story used many times before in movies: "Son sets out to avenge the death of his father"... nothing particularly original, but never the less, its a scenario most people can sympathise with, would you not want revenge if your father was killed infront of you?
So after extensive investigation, plenty of fighting and saving your girl from some bad guys (naturally), Ryo discovers that Lan Di, master of a long forgotten martial art and high ranking member of a mysterious Chinese group, travelled to Japan in search of 2 mirrors. He beleives in an ancient chinese legend which tells that the coming together of the Pheonix mirror, and the Dragon mirror, will ressurect an ancient power. The game isnt actually very clear on what this power is, with it mentioning a creature which will rise from the earth and destroy the world, while also speaking of great powers being wielded by whomever brings together the mirrors. Whatever the case, basically Lan Di wants those mirrors, and he knew Ryos father had one of them. (While in actual fact, he had both!)... So after Ryos life is threatened, his father is forced to hand over the one mirror Lan Di knows he has. Lan Di then viciously murders him infront of Ryo. Ofcourse, there is much more than meets the eye, and the story stretches back many years as hinted at by Lan Di mentioning of the death of an old friend of Ryos father, killed during his time training in China.
There is alot of back story here, and much to take in so its best to play the game to fully understand it.
By the end of the game, Ryo discovers that Lan Di is on his way back to Hong Kong, so off he goes in pursuit.
Now, with the story firmly established, Shenmue 2 opens with Ryo arriving in Hong Kong.
Ryos new surroundings are noticably different from the previous game. He's overwhelmed (as shown in a small first-person cutscene) by the sheer number of shop keepers offering tourist souveniers. He really has left behind the quiet snowy streets of Yokosuka.
The story can seem a little unfocused at first, but in hind sight, its actually very well layed out. One of the first things you must do is find somewhere to stay, and just like the real world, you better start asking for directions. But even something as simple as finding a bed is made difficult when your bag (containing all your money and items) is stolen. This sets the tone for much of the game. In Shenmue, you always had the safety of home just a few minutes away, and an abundance of friendly faces all willing to point you in the right direction, but now, your alone, in a huge (and i mean huge) city in a totally different country. Ryo is portrayed as much more vunerable than he appeared in Shenmue, which is a great bonus to the story. You realise that this time, you need help if your going to survive, let alone get your revenge on Lan Di.
The story is split into 3 main areas: Hong Kong, Kowloon & Guilin.
Hong Kong (which is broken up into several "quarters") is enormous, dwarfing the original games setting easily. In this section you'll be using the clues obtained in the first game to seek out old friends of your father and track down Lan Di. Its fairly slow in progressing, but heats up as you might expect. Ryo will meet many, many characters of importance, most notably a small gang which will play a major role in pushing the story forward.
Kowloon is even more hostile, filled with gangs and street fighting tournaments, its a harsh place. It's also the section thats by far the most fun. You'll be helped/hindered by the gang you met in Hong Kong, esspecially its charasmatic leader 'Ren', who at first, is only interested in helping Ryo as he figures there must be financial rewards for such a quest, but over time the two develop a friendship.
Guilin is a totally different atmoshere to any areas seen in either Shenmue title. It is situated in the chinese countryside/mountains and is a sharp contrast to the urban areas you'll be used to.
Obviously there are many twists and turns which lead you here, but i wouldnt want to spoil what is a very well crafted and engadging tale.
Surfice it to say, that while the original game stuck to a simple one direction story, Shenmue 2 throws in all kinds of unexpected surprises and really shows the true potential of the series. In terms of story telling, excitement, suspence, shocks, and its depth in terms of incorporating chinese/japanese legend as well as plenty of history between characters from Ryos fathers youth in china, the story is definately a winner.
The world itself is brought to life incredibly well. Each area is modelled on actual places and it shows. Hong Kong is very busy, with large high streets filled with stores and arcades, down to tiny alleyways packed with boxes of garbage and stray animals. Thousands of people go about thier daily business, shopping, sight seeing and chatting with neighbours. Just as in the first game, it mimicks real life with more believability than ANY other game to date.
Kowloon is much dirtier, run down and generally a slum. It's high rise apartment buildings are decaying and the gangs within them and the surrounding areas dont exactly make you feel at home. It's the perfect setting for the 'gritier' portion of the game and adds some powerfull atmosphere.
Guilin, as stated above, it totally the oposite. Its bright, green, and beautifull. The opening section of a tiny village on the bank of a mighty river winding through rolling mountains really blows your mind after playing so many hours in the slums of Hong Kong. This section is basically a trek through the mountains to a small villiage were the story really comes together and reveals things only hinted at in the first game. Its very difficult to write this review without breaking into spoilers of the story, as it's incredibly strong and exciting, building up to amazing points of realisation. Without playing the game, you really wont have any idea what im talking about, but trust me its astounding to meet a certain person for the first time after litterally dreaming about her in bed back home in Japan.
The cliff hanger ending will not disapoint like many similar types of conclusion. Its satisfying as well as forcing you to get on the net and read the never ending rumours of Shenmue 3 and pray for them to be true!
The gameplay of Shenmue 2 is a combination of several genres. For the most part, you'll be walking around in 3rd person, exploring, chatting to people and looking for clues. These sections are broken up with fight scenes. These in turn are seperated into two types. The first is based on the standard Virtua Fighter style and uses many moves from that series. From simple kicks and punches to complicated throws and combos, its very deep for a RPG style game and can be difficult yet rewarding to master, although its not nessesary to be a kung foo legend to progress as alot of the time, you will be able to get by by simply kicking and punching the crap out of your apponants.
The second type of fight scenes are QTE battles. During these, a cut scene is played while various directions and buttons flash on the screen, you must hit these buttons within the very short time limit to progress. Each command succesfully entered will allow the cutscene to play out with Ryo defeating his foes, but mess up, and he'll be beaten senceless, and you'll have to retry the scene. These sequences are at first quite easy and slow, but they soon blossom into fast, and quite long bouts, with the best of them having you chased through an apartment building, navigating corners and holes in the delapedated structure at high speed, all the while hand-cuffed to gang leader Ren. Its one of the best scenes in the game and ends with lots of adrenaline pumping.
The look of the game overall is very strong. It displays each area realistically and very well detailed, infact, superbly well detailed. While it may not have the crisp textures of more recent games, its the AMOUNT of detail and extra sprinkles of realism that really bring the game to life. Every shop has signs with opening times and menus displayed on the wall, buddist temples are full of ornamentle trinkets and artifacts, fields sparkle with butterflys and streams.
Returning are extras such as soda machines and capsule toys for collection. As well as many places to gamble and arcades where once again you can play full versions of classic Sega games such as Outrun & After Burner. Not forgetting darts and pool... The wealth of things to do, which have no point other than adding authenticity to the game world, is staggering.
Character models are also realistically portrayed, with hundreds of unique faces out and about on the streets. Again, they dont have the facial animation we have nowadays, but they are more detailed (wrinkles, birthmarks..) than even todays games.
The Dreamcast verion does suffer from slow down quite alot, and characters fade away while just a few feet in front of you. The Xbox version is much smoother and brighter, while characters do still fade, its much less than on DC. Overall though, there isnt much difference between the versions, with the Xbox being a bit sharper and colours stronger, as well as draw distance increasing and the streets being generally busier.
Sound is definately one of the games strong points. As with the first game, Shenmue 2 is supported with an outstanding orchestral soundtrack, just as good as anything from the movies. Its stunning and really sets the mood. While the in game tunes are suited for each setting/situation perfectly. The streets of Hong Kong have a busy city, buzzing pedestrian feel to them. Kowloon has a much darker sound, with tense, atmospheric, clostrophobic ambience.
Guilin, fittingly, is very natural, bright and awakening, flowing well with the mountainous locale.
Voice acting, for the most part is pretty average. Corey Marshall reprises his role as Ryo, and again gives a lack luster performance. There's just not enough emotion from him. The entire game, story and music scream of emotion, anger, sadness, revenge, love... but Ryos monotone voice portrays him as cold and unfeeling. The rest of the cast however, give pretty decent performances. Nothing really stands out, but in a way thats a good thing, since this is supposed to be a real city full of different kinds of people, so the average voice acting is actually a bonus as over acting would distract from the realism of the world.
A major point on the voice acting: While i understand that bringing the game to Xbox meant trying to sell it to a new audience who might not have played the first Shenmue title, or the DC version of Shenmue 2, i feel the dialog should have remained in Japanese/Chinese with subtitles as in the DC version. Using Japanese/Chinese gave the game that final stamp of realism that it didnt even need, but never the less doubled its believable atmosphere. There is no point recreating a chinese city/countryside, where everyone speaks English. Although as ive said, perhaps Microsoft thought it nessesary to attract more gamers.
Other differences between DC & Xbox include: Reduced loading times for Xbox, which is expected, but in truth the loading times are never an issue on DC until you play the Xbox version and then return to the DC, you will notice the difference.
Thrown in for good measure is the ability to change the filter on the screen, meaning you can play the entire game in black & white, vintage brown or white & grained at the touch of a button. Pointless really, until used in conjunction with another extra feature, Snapshot. You now have the ability to take a screen shot at almost any point in the game, cutscenes included, again at the touch of a button. As well as allowing you to take scenic shots and relive the momories of the story whenever you like, taking pictures of certain characters also unlocks hidden Shenmue comic strips for your viewing pleasure.
A huge bonus for anyone new to the series is the inclusion on Shenmue: The Movie, with the Xbox version of Shenmue 2. This is a seperate DVD which takes you through the entire story of the first game using scenes from it. Its very well put together and gives you all the info you need to get right into the second chapter. It also saves anyone who has already played Shenmue from having to replay the entire game to remind themselves just what is going on. (Although its not as if that would be a chore)
As far as free bonuses go its definately one of the best extras given away with a game.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
master_betty
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Member: Robert
Location: Liverpool, UK
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Hopefully my reviews will help people spend thier money without dissapointment!
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