EpicRPGTales adds Shenmue to its RPG Hall of Fame, and explains why the mundane day-to-day existence on offer is a compelling distraction in a quest for vengeance and justice.
We’ve all been there, right? When a task, no matter how important it might be, is the thing you should be putting your full attention on, but it’s just easier to do a bit of that maybe, and then reward yourself with a walk to the shops, a bite to eat, perhaps even play a video game.
That big job? It can wait until later, or tomorrow, or even next week, right? Procrastinating can be fun, sometimes.
In video game worlds, there’s something especially ludicrous about that phenomenon. How many open-world RPGs have presented you with world-ending stakes that have a sense of urgency, but you have to go fishing or whatever? The logic in terms of the game makes sense. You’re ‘powering up’ for the big finale, making sure you get the whole picture. In reality, you’d be left hooking bits of fish carcass out of the massive crater that used to be your hometown, having left that urgent issue on the back burner for the in-game equivalent of a month.
Then there’s Shenmue. Smaller, more personal stakes, with the same temptation to procrastinate; however, in this case, it fits the world and character. Shenmue is a role-playing game where living your regular life mattered as much as your quest for vengeance.
Shenmue is the Sega Dreamcast’s flagship game, a fate that ultimately proved to be somewhat cursed for both. It’s a fantastic example of a new console featuring a game that showcases what the future should look like. A life-sim RPG epic that still hasn’t technically been finished to this day (which isn’t a procrastination issue, as funny as that would be).
Legendary Sega director Yu Suzuki created the Shenmue series. This developer had helped create multiple arcade classics, including Space Harrier, Out Run, Virtua Fighter, Daytona USA, and Virtua Cop. Now he wanted to do something more ambitious for the home market, and for the late 90s, what could be more ambitious than a detailed life sim RPG on a console?
That Shenmue That You Do
The story of Shenmue is a tale of a young martial arts enthusiast, Ryo Hazuki, who seeks to avenge the murder of his father. But he’s just a kid, it’s the 1980s in Japan, and there’s little to go on. So obsession be damned, it’s going to take a bit of time to get around everywhere and find the necessary information.
Shenmue’s Yokosuka is a living, breathing thing. The NPCs have jobs and daily routines, the day passes into night, so businesses open and close, the weather and time of year change. You can only do so much on any given day in Shenmue, so keeping an eye on who is about and what’s open becomes essential not only in pursuit of vengeance, but for downtime as well.
It’s all very grounded by RPG standards, and taking a step back, rather mundane for the most part. Yet that’s the magic of Shenmue. Like so many ‘mundane job’ games of today, something is enticing about living out a life only just adjacent to your own instead of a truly fantastical one. In 1999, I too was wandering about town, waiting for the arcade to open, but I got in far fewer martial arts fights. Ryo had a motive for his wandering that I didn’t, but I liked to imagine I did on those dull days with little to do but walk.
Much like life, however, Ryo doesn’t have an infinite amount of time to go on these nomadic coin-op excursions if he wants to seek out his father’s murderer; there is a sense of urgency. But the stress on that urgency is very much up to you, and it’s easy to see how heading down an investigative path might lead you to get distracted.
Maybe helping out somebody else leads you down a different rabbit hole. Many a time comes when you look at Ryo’s watch and decide, ”Is this worth pursuing soon?” and if the answer is no, how do you fill the time? Well, there are capsule toys I still haven’t collected, and I suppose I should get in some martial arts practice, but then there is always that nagging feeling I should be getting on that vengeance train a lot earlier.
Yokosuka is home to Ryo, and by extension, to me as well. The game opens with Ryo and his dad getting whooped by the villainous Lan Di, and Ryo’s father dies in his arms. He shouldn’t have to go out and search for a killer, and the world of Shenmue represents that hesitation. The sedate, mundane existence Ryo could live in is just there, offering bright lights, a steady, if small, income, and routine.
To see it through to the game’s end means overcoming this reluctance and trading in Ryo’s adolescent life for a job, and embarking on a journey beyond his homeland. Life can never be like it was in Yokosuka, but we got to say goodbye to it at least.
Read about all the current EpicRPGTales RPG Hall of Fame Entrants here.
You can play Shenmue in the Shenmue I & II HD Collection.
