Smitten with Shenmue: How to Enjoy the Game
I tried out Shemue a couple of months ago and played for about an hour and bounced off hard. Something about the pacing felt off, and I was in an impatient, depressed headspace. Initially, I could not handle the incongruity of just witnessing my father being murdered and then getting Tails from Sonic in a gachapon machine the next day. It felt wrong. So I stopped playing it and moved on to Resident Evil 4, which I loved and scratched that action-y itch. But I could sense there was something special about Shenmue, and I wanted to give it another go.
About a week ago I started playing Shenmue again, picking up my save where I left off in the You Arcade. My experience was completely different. I'm totally smitten with Shenmue and absolutely loving the experience. Going into a revered game like Shenmue can be challenging since expectations are high. But also, I didn't even know what kind of game it is. I went into the game thinking it was going to be like Yakuza, which is kind-of-sort-of is, but also it's very much its own thing—a unique, trailblazing experience.
As I write this, I have played it for about another ten hours. And Shenmue has become one of my favorite games. Unless it somehow tanks it in the second half, it's easily an all-timer for me. I've never quite experienced such a shift in personal perspective on a piece of media or art. Sure, maybe some discussion and analysis can lead me to deeper appreciation. But I've 180-ed on Shenmue in a way that maybe, just maybe could help others give it a try for the first time (or second time). I've been thinking about it a lot, and here's what I'd say to someone about how to enjoy Shenmue!
You decide your experience (a.k.a. roleplay Ryo) (a.k.a. don't talk to everyone)
Playing Space Harrier in the arcade the day after my father was murdered in front of my eyes? That was my choice. The game didn't force me or encourage me to do that. When I realized that I was the problem, not Shenmue and not Ryo, I realized I needed to play the game differently.
You must remember you are an 18-year-old martial artist whose father just died. You want answers. You want revenge. You will ask everyone about what you're fixated on. And because of this, if you talk to every single human in the game, you will very quickly burn out and get sick of hearing Ryo ask where the sailors are. Instead, ask a few, explore, check your notebook. But do not give into the completionist tendency to talk to every single person and check every single house and every storefront. Imagine if you tried to do that in real life, it'd be absurd. I did this for a bit and it was detracting from the experience. I regularly have to break myself out of this tendency in games.
The game will give you situations where you need to kill some time naturally. For me, it helped to embrace that fact and not just totally "hang out" in the game's world. While modern open world games give you checklists and an arrow for what direction to head, Shenmue is more free form. So what I do is set out each day to make one step toward my goal and don't try to push it too much. Maybe I go to Tomato Mart and buy a cassette and listen to that at the park. Then I talk to the barber. Then I feed the kitten and head home. I don't try to do it all. I pace myself. This helped a lot with my enjoyment!
Shenmue is realist (martial arts) fiction
There aren't too many games that are grounded in realism. I can't really think of any others that I've played, actually (but I am sure there are others!). Games are usually some form of heightened reality or add magic to the equation or are sci-fi or fantasy. But Shenmue is a work of realism with the plot driven by revenge. The martial arts, as least so far as I've seen, don't seem fantastical. Since I don't have many games to pull from, it's helpful to relate others work I've enjoyed and feel similar: the novel the The Count of Monte Cristo; Akira Kurosawa's film Drunken Angel; Bi Gan's Kaili Blues. (I'll have to think more about some others!)
There's almost a slice-of-life aspect to the game, where you explore the areas and time passes. Some days are mundane. Others have a bit more action.
The realist aspects of the game: you walk home at night and if you return too late, you'll be scolded; you sleep and wake up; you interact with the world through doors and drawers in first person; you look at things in first-person focus in on them.
Because there aren't many games of this style, it took me a bit to realize and adjust.
Shenmue's roots, as far as I can tell, seem to be in classic adventure games. Except the primary differentiator and key appeal is that you get to explore the fully realized world as time passes. The world changes around you, and I find that world, while small, quite interesting.
I cannot say whether or not Shenmue is authentic but it sure feels like it is!
You've got to meet Shenmue on its own terms. Shenmue is not ironic or post modern. It's sincere. And Ryo is naive. And there's not a ton of action. I quite like these terms! I was bringing a lot of expectations to it since it's so revered. But I also didn't understand or know what it was. I thought it was Yakuza and was expecting combat and high drama. It starts with intense narrative, but then you quickly realize that this game is slower and unique and a bit odd and is charming and is ambitious.
Bask in the music
Absolute high point for me is the music, I love it. The ambient music while you explore. The tracks in different establishments. It's special and unique. At times almost like Angelo Badalamenti meets Ryuichi Sakamoto. It's familiar but doesn't feel derivative. I love the FREE tracks that play as you explore. My favorite track in the game so far is "Maeda Barbershop" (listen on YouTube).
I've been listening to the soundtrack on repeat and for some reason it's very comforting to me... it's chill in a way and soothing. I love it!
Pace yourself
If you're connecting with Shenmue, it might be tempting to play for four hours a day or something. But I've found that I enjoy the game most when I take it slow and play for an hour or two. (One or two in-game days.) By having time to think about the game between sessions and enjoy it over the course of weeks, instead of days, I've come to appreciate it more. I think slowing down and not speed-running also matches with the atmosphere and intent of the game.
I'd love in the future to replay the game one day at a time, starting on November 29 (the game starts on November 29, 1986).
Shenmue is Slow Cinema (a.k.a. why "boring" is a good thing)
Some of my favorite films fall into a genre known as "Slow Cinema". Wikipedia:
Slow cinema (sometimes called contemplative cinema) is a genre of art cinema characterised by a style that is minimalist and observational, with frequent use of long takes, emphasis on extended duration, and sparse narrative elements.
I love the films of Tarkovsky, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Bi Gan, Ozu, Tsai Ming-liang, etc. If you enjoy any of their works, I think you'd enjoy Shenmue if you haven't played it! It's an easy recommendation then.
If you've never heard of any of them, well, let me try to sell you on why I find this genre so enjoyable and powerful and how it relates to Shenmue:
You will be sitting there watching a scene go on and on without a cut. Maybe the camera is static, maybe it isn't. Any normal movie would have cut 30 times. It'd fit three scenes in that period of time. And you're sitting there and you're going "huh, this is a long take" and thinking about things other than the movie and you have to force your attention back to the movie and this is a mental exercise that is rare in cinema, a medium that usually keeps moving forward, relentlessly, 24 frames per second. You notice things you wouldn't have otherwise. You notice what's on your mind. But you also notice what's in the frame. You appreciate things you wouldn't have otherwise. You slow down a bit inside. And especially in today's world, that slowing down is something I very much appreciate and welcome. They are entertaining in a non-traditional way. This boredom, it allows a magic trick to happen: it warps time and experience and then when something that'd otherwise be trivial happens, it becomes a highlight by contrast. The slowness increases the impact. (The scene in Stalker where the color changes, for example, is a prime case of this.)
Slow cinema reminds me of the experience of looking at a piece of art and studying it. The best scenes (and movies) connect in the way the best paintings do, except there's sound and context and, for me, a bit more power to that at its best. When the insert credit podcast hosts talk about "hang out games", I often think of Slow Cinema as the film version of this concept, as there's just more time you're spending with the scenes and they're often less narratively driven than normal cinema.
When it became clear to me that Shenmue is slow cinema x realism, I was able to approach it with the right mindset and patience. The moments of Shenmue that remind me of Slow Cinema are when I am walking around the town. When I'm buying items one-by-one at Tomato Mart. When I'm looking at the map in the city and trying to navigate to my destination and I'm getting lost.
I realized I needed to slow down, be patient with the game, and take it at a much slower pace. Which is unusual for games!
If boring is a pejorative to you, you might enjoy Yakuza more then! It's like Shenmue but with more punching and high drama. The Yakuza games even share one of the directors of the Shenmue. Yakuza has the same exploration of Japan but is told in a more heightened, modern fiction style.
Shenmue is the kind of game where you can run everywhere, but you might choose to walk to soak it all up and slow down a bit.
Shenmue is a game about observation
More so than any other game I've played, Shenmue is a game about slowing down and taking in the sights and sounds. It's about looking around and seeing what you notice. While there is combat in the game and there's dialogue, to me, it's the observation mechanic that stands out and that I enjoy the most.
I'm so excited to play the rest of Shenmue. I'm currently trying to get to the Old Warehouse No. 8. I think I'm about halfway through the game. I've been playing on Steam Deck, where the game works quite well (but has some quirks), but I went so far as to buy a Dreamcast so that I can play Shenmue on its original hardware. I can't wait for the game to arrive! I'm also excited to play Shenmue II and Shenmue III.
I am planning to share my in-depth thoughts on Shenmue when I finish it. I've got some other ideas for projects related to the game/series as well. So here's to hopefully many more posts about Shenmue!