[Feature] - Shenmue (or why its open world still matters)

Open world games are a dime a dozen these days. In fact, I would say it’s a genre that is completely over saturated and in need of a rest. Or at the very least in need of a complete overhaul in presentation. But there was a time when the concept of the open world game was entirely new and fresh. That time was December 2000 and it came with the release of Yu Suzuki’s opus magnum Shenmue. A game that some might say pioneered the genre and led the way for what was to come.

At its time of release, it was entirely revolutionary in presenting a living breathing world unlike any other seen in gaming before. Its ambitions were off the charts. This was a game that aimed to present a living breathing world encapsulated in a video game. And to this day, it still remains one of my favorite examples of the open world genre.

Shenmue Chapter 1 takes place in Yokosuka. A virtual recreation of a real life district about 30 to 40 minutes outside of Tokyo. Being a coastal city, Yokosuka plays host to the United States Fleet Activities. Therefore it's a place with a strong American representation as a whole. Having traveled there in real life, I can tell you it's certainly not uncommon to see many Sailors walking about. Within Yokosuka is Dobuita Street and it is here where most of Shenmue Chapter 1 plays out.

Set in 1986, Shenmue pits you in the role of Ryo Hazuki. A 18 year old teenager and aspiring martial artist who witnesses the murder of his father Iwao at the hands of a man known only as Lan Di. With this he swears that he will avenge his fathers death and thus begins his journey.

But where do you begin when you have zero clues as to who this man even is? Why did he kill Ryo's father? And where did he go afterwards? This leads to Ryo questioning the residents of Yokosuka in search of clues. Most of the core gameplay is simply just Ryo walking around town asking the residents of Yokosuka questions. Armed with his trusty notebook, Ryo jots down every detail he can find as the plot progresses.

At its heart, Shenmue is a detective game. It is all about hearsay, conjecture and finding the truth as to what really happened. Time also plays a vital role in Shenmue as the game adheres to an in-game clock. A day in Shenmue lasts about 40 minutes in real time. It’s a full day/night cycle complete with a full blown weather system to boot. As a matter of fact, it allows an option to play with a weather cycle that is completely accurate to real-world weather data from that time period. Quite a neat little attention to detail.

Everything is dependent on time in Shenmue. Meetings are set to certain time periods that the player must adhere to in order to advance the plot. In between, the game will frequently let you off the leash to explore Yokosuka at your own pace while waiting for the next event. Within Yokosuka, you can find all sorts of treats to fill your time as you wait for the next meeting to advance the plot.

What was mind blowing at the time was the level of detail presented in this world. It was a full living breathing city unlike any other seen in gaming at that time. The people of Yokosuka had their own schedules that they lived by. Shopkeepers had their daily routines of opening shop, serving customers and then closing shop at the end of the day before heading home. There were capsule toys to buy from the many Gacha machines.

There were many stores to explore where you could buy items such as move scrolls to build your move list. There was a fully functional arcade where you could play classic SEGA arcade games such as Space Harrier or Hang On to pass the time. You could talk to almost everyone that walked around town and they all had lines of dialog that would change depending on the current event you were pursuing. You could look at and pick up almost every item in the game. You could spend time leveling up your moves as you trained in a random parking lot. Hell, you could even open every door and drawer in your house just simply because you could.

The detail presented in this game was off the charts compared to anything else that was on the market at the time. There was a real sense of place and atmosphere that was unrivaled.What was exciting about Shenmue and what remains impressive about it to me to this day is the way in which it presents its world. In most games, the world usually revolves around the character. Everything is central to what the character is doing in the here and now. Shenmue aims to present the opposite. Instead, it plays up the illusion that Ryo is simply a small part of his world as the world moves on with or without him.

It's a place that actually has a lived in history about it. The people of this town have known Ryo ever since he was a child. The local store keep affectionately refers to Ryo as "Baby Boy Ryo" every time you enter. Old timers and children alike just casually sit in a park going about their daily lives. At night, the drunkards come out and stumble around town as they bar hop. It goes an incredibly long way to build the illusion of a world that feels lived in as it highlights the daily habits of its residency.

There are many side quests and cut scenes in the game that can be entirely missed simply because you weren’t in the right place at the right time. Seeing that the game is set in 1986, there are no cell phones. So for instance, if you stay out wandering town late at night then you will most likely miss a phone call back at home from your love interest Nozomi. Hence you will miss a particular scene that plays out between them. But this isn’t an instance of the game punishing you. Rather it’s an instance of the game giving you freedom to play as you see fit without giving you a roadmap or checklist to adhere to (as most modern open world games do these days.)

That’s the remarkable thing about Shenmue though. It’s a game that really wants you to explore its world at your own pace and leisure. Depending on how you play, it will always reward you with something new and unexpected. It’s a game that is not entirely about going from plot beat to plot beat, but rather a game that urges you to soak in its environment and simply live in its world. Other than the missing gaps in the notebook, it gives you no indication as to what you can find or maybe have missed out on. There is no mini map. There are no mission quest markers. Everything is entirely dependent on you exploring the world at your own pace and finding the hidden details buried within. In that sense, it's very organic in a way that most open world games are not.

In too many open world games I never really feel that I’m living the character's life. I remember when Grand Theft Auto 3 was released a mere year later for the PlayStation 2. The size and scope of its open world was awesome for the time. It was a genuinely fun game letting you cause mayhem at your own free will. But even back then, I remember being somewhat less than impressed. While the game was pure unadulterated fun at its core, I couldn’t help but feel that it was nowhere near as revolutionary as the game I played a mere year before it.

Let’s be honest, Grand Theft Auto 3 was quite a muddy game to look at. Yes, the sheer unadulterated mayhem it let you cause in its sandbox was fun as all hell, but the actual world it presented was rather bare bones in terms of attention to detail. NPCs were just meaningless cannon fodder to be killed with ease. Buildings were just empty backdrops with no sign of life. Outside of Telephone Box Side Quests and Hidden Packages, there was no real sense of discovery to be had in GTA III.

While it may sound like I’m ragging on GTA III, please don’t get me wrong. I wholeheartedly love GTA III and still consider it to be one of my favorite games of that generation. But there was no denying that going from the insanely detailed Shenmue to GTA III was maybe slightly underwhelming for me and in some ways felt like a step backwards. Shenmue showed me a glimpse of something beyond anything else I had seen in gaming at that point and it was just a little too difficult for Grand Theft Auto III to compare.

In fact, I remember when Grand Theft Auto IV was finally released on PlayStation 3. I remember reading the reviews at the time and how game journalists were praising IV for presenting a living breathing city where NPCs would do Yoga in the Park. I remember reading these trade reviews and thinking to myself “wow, it took Rockstar an entire generation to catch up to what SEGA was doing way back on the Dreamcast.”

It’s for these reasons that I still find myself going back to Shenmue and find myself still marveling at its impressive technical scope. Sure, we take all of these things for granted in open world games nowadays. Day/Night cycles, full weather cycles, in-game mini games among others are commonplace in most open world games nowadays.

But going back to Shenmue on the Dreamcast is a reminder as to just how far ahead of the curb Yu Suzuki and his team really were. They were doing all of these things long before the competition and they did it at a level of minute detail that took the competition many years to catch up. In many ways, Shenmue still remains one of my favorite open world games simply because of how it presents its world as a place that urges self discovery and full immersion without guides or checklists. Something that I feel most open world games could still learn a thing or two from.

-Daniel M