All of that being said.... I hate Shenmue.
Well, hate is a strong word. Let's talk about what I don't like about Shenmue, and why I don't want to be the "Shenmue Guy" anymore.
After going to E3, and being discovered as the Shenmue Guy, I started live streaming on Twitch a play through of the original game for Dreamcast. looking back, the game doesn't hold up. The characters, story, gameplay, voice over, and especially the QTEs all fall flat. So, let's break down what I think are the shortcomings of this game.
1. Characters
I believe that in order to have a good, thoughtful, and engaging story, you have to have characters that are equally so. Shenmue does not have any of these. The story is about Ryo Hazuki, who comes home one day to find his father being confronted by a mysterious man from China, asking about a "mirror". Ryo's father is killed by the mysterious man in cold blood and leaves with the mirror in hand. Ryo then scrambles to his fathers side to hear his last words which are thus: "friends, those you love, keep them close". Ryo then swears revenge, and sets out on his quest to hunt down and kill the man who killed his father. This is pretty typical of a kung fu movie, and even more typical of a video game. The thing is, Shenmue sees itself as a game that tells a story about self discovery, and evolution, yet throughout the entirety of Shenmue, Ryo's character arc goes from angry, to angry. He's flat. He's boring. His attitude and focus does not change at all. Ryo pushes everyone aside to focus on his goal of vengeance. This is the opposite of his fathers last wish. Ryo does not keep anybody close to him. In fact, he pushes them all away if they refuse to help him or try to dissuade him of pursuing vengeance. What is the point of this character? What is the point of this game? Ryo might just be an example of what not to do. Now, I'm not entirely sure of what I would do if I saw my father killed by some guy. I think that I would try to go after him too, but I would also go to the police. Something that Ryo has not done. In fact, nobody even mentions the authorities at all. Late 1980s Japan must have been a lawless time, where vigilantes who know karate solve all the crimes and deliver justice.
Now, I've seen a few martial arts films in my day, and most of them specifically say not to seek out revenge, or use martial arts in a manor of offence. I went to grade school with a kid who was in a karate school, and he always said that karate was not for beating people up. I guess it wouldn't make for a good story if the main character didn't have any flaws, or obeyed the rules, but Ryo doesn't even consider the fact that he is going against the teachings of his father. These teachings are barely referenced throughout the game, unless you do very specific things at very specific times. Plus, there are framed pictures of mantras and mottoes all around Ryo's house about keeping one's mind "as clean as a polished mirror". This is the games attempt at theming, because of the aforementioned mirror that the mysterious man was asking about, and the constant mention of the polished mirror. None of this reflects (eeyyyyyy) very well on Ryo, as his mind is constantly clouded by anger.
2. Story
The story of the game is pretty typical of a video game, of which most plot points revolve around rescuing a princess or girlfriend, and vengeance. This plot can also be summed up in a kung fu movie that only lasts about an hour and a half, rather than the envisioned six part series of game that the director Yu Suzuki had originally planned.
I've heard it said that if you're going to tell a story about a character, why not make it about the most interesting part of their lives. I'm paraphrasing because I don't remember the exact quote, but Shenmue is boring. There is a lot of aimlessly wandering around, and even more waiting around. Ryo is supposed to be a highschooler, but is throwing himself into these situations that not even a sensible adult would follow through on. Like when seedy looking individuals tell him to meet them in a dark alley at a specific time, and Ryo actually does it! Aside from the few and far between moments where Ryo is doing something interesting like beating up bad guys, or sneaking around in places he's not supposed to be, he's talking with random people around town trying to follow up on leads that he doesn't have. The structure of the games story starts out pretty strong, but about half way through it, you feel as though you're just grasping at straws because the leads that you do discover never lead anywhere. I don't think that a game like this should be a linear experience, but there should be some amount of hints or clues to guide you through it.
Take a game like L. A. Noire. This game is about being a detective and solving murders. Players have to explore, discover, and logically put together all of the information from said clues and witness testimonies to make sure that they come to the truth. Shenmue is the start of this kind of experience in video games, though I can't help but feel as though this could have been executed better. Storytelling is something that transcends media. Video games are notorious for having bad stories, though in this day and age of gaming, stories have gotten a lot better and much more engaging. Still, if a game like Chrono Trigger, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VI (or is it III?) can have stories with characters that I find interesting and relateable, what is Shenmue doing wrong?
3. Presentation
One thing that I cannot front Shenmue for doing poorly is its environment. The game does really make you feel like you're in small town Japan. People in the town of Dobuita and Yamanose walk around, and meet with their friends. They go shopping, they have errands to run. It all feels very organic. However, they all look and talk like robots.
The animators of the game seemed to only put time and effort into the movements and animations of Ryo, the main character. Everyone else moves like wooden dolls, and their faces don't emote when they speak. It's really weird when the only person who does is just the one character. Maybe Ryo is stuck in some kind of poorly made simulacrum of Dobuita. I'm not sure, but the terrible voice acting doesn't help to resolve that hypothesis.
Every character, including Ryo, speaks with a very flat and boring tone, doing very little to add to the immersion of the game. Those that do attempt to add character, only add caricature. These few actors that the studio had at their disposal must have been getting tired of working on the game, and maybe were just phoning it in for those lines, but everybody just sounds awful. I know that these were the early days of the immersive storytelling game, but I think that voice acting had been around for a time longer than 3D video games.
4. QTE
Imagine walking down the street to go to the store, and someone who passes you by suddenly shouts at you to press X, if you don't do it, they punch you in the face. That, in essence, is what a Quick Time Event is. Shenmue was the game that brought them to the forefront of video games. For some reason, they have become a trope in video games. QTEs are an unnecessary addition, and nothing would be lost if they were to go away. Even in Shenmue. If Shenmue didn't have its notorious quick time events, nothing would be lost from the story or the experience of the game overall. It's as though the developers believed that because Shenmue is a video game, and not a movie, that the players must have some kind of interaction, otherwise they would get bored. Even during conversations with characters, players have to push the A button in order to keep things moving forward. Why am I not allowed to listen or watch? What if I want to take notes on what is being said? Why do I have to always have to hold the controller? I think that cutscenes and dialogue scenes can serve as bookends to scenes or acts of the story. There's no real balance to the ebb and flow of Shenmue's storytelling method. It's either very slow and boring, or it's very intense action.
5. It's Boring
Shenmue is, overall, a boring game. Most of it is just wandering around town, talking to anybody that you can talk to in order to find the next clue, or whatever, to get to the next action sequence in order to advance the plot. After awhile, the game loses it's charm, and it all becomes mundane. There's no way to advance time. There's too many dead ends or leads that don't get you anywhere. Most of the time, I would just happen to come across the next thing that I was supposed to do. That's no discovery, that's an accident. Shenmue WAS a masterpiece for its time, but it's time to take off the nostalgia goggles. I don't see that Shenmue III is going to change or make any kind of improvements to its formula or design philosophy, and it'll be another boring game, trying to masquerade as a deep and intelligent story about revenge and changing ones heart.
