Pros: Very good game play, excellent story, explains a lot.
Cons: Character control, 3D a tad blocky, repetative sound
The Bottom Line: This game is only slightly under what I expected, but still is an excellent game. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes this game style.
Note: I finished this game in about two weeks of on-and-off playing. Final update as of December 01, 2002. All star (*) ratings are out of a possible 5 stars (*****).
Introduction:
This game is a continuation of the original Shenmue Dreamcast (DC). The story picks up where Shenmue Dreamcast leaves off. You play Ryo Hazuki from Japan. He is on a mission to avenge his father’s death at the hand of Lan Di. After a boat trip, you are now in Hong Kong looking for Lan Di. In this game you finally find out what Shenmue is. The game also comes very close to explaining the dragon and phoenix mirrors (we will find out what they do in the third game installment).
Graphics: **** ¾
This game is a very solid **** ¾ stars graphically. The graphics are excellent. However, I have to preface that by saying that Halo is still the absolute best graphics I have seen on the Xbox to date. The texture mapping on Shenmue II, however, is top notch. The 3D characters could have been a slight bit higher resolution. They seem a bit blocky in places.
The display doesn't seem quite as nice as when I played Shenmue Dreamcast. I think this is mostly because I had a VGA adapter on my Dreamcast. There isn't one officially available for the Xbox yet.
Sound: ***
The music could be better. Specifically, in certain places (in the hotel room) there are repeating loops of samples. These repeating loops are simply grating on the ears. Each Quarter (section of Hong Kong) has a separate theme. Some of the themes are better than others. None of them are specifically outstanding. I understand the mood they are trying to set. However, I would have appreciated it if the game designers would have taken advantage of the Soundtrack feature that the Xbox offers. This would have allowed the player to choose the Soundtrack.
Voiceovers: ***
Ryo’s voice actor is excellent. Joy’s voiceovers are not bad either (helper character for Ryo in Hong Kong). They managed to get the same person to do the Ryo voiceover as Shenmue Dreamcast. However, I can’t exactly say good things for incidental characters. The creators must have had limited voice actors available. The acting is a bit tedious. Sometimes the lines are said too slowly. Almost as if the computer is deciding what words to put together based on single word samples. They also used slowed down samples to create lower voices. This is very noticeable and almost as grating as the sample loops.
Gameplay: *** ½ (updated)
The game continues with the same controls that Shenmue Dreamcast offered. Unfortunately, it’s rather limited. Control of Ryo is a little tedious in places. You are limited to controlling Ryo through the digital keypad. I would have preferred an update to the control engine in Shenmue II. I would have liked to see something more like Halo for ground characters.
As a side note, I have found that my Xbox digital keypad on the controller is a bit sloppy reading input. I have to assume that most Xboxes are like this. It doesn’t exactly pick up the exact movement when I press it (because the button is sloppy). In the QTE game modes, this can make the game even more challenging (read annoying) because you have to fight with the controller to provide the correct movement. The game does compensate by each progressive miss and allow you to enter the correct sequence more slowly (although, I feel that's a little patronizing). Thankfully, this doesn’t hinder the game too much, but it is a bit frustrating. I blame this more on the Xbox controller than the game designer. However, the game designer should take into account the sloppiness of the digital keypad and not require precisely timed movements. Dreamcast’s Digital pad was much more accurate.
The sloppy controller is taking its toll as I progress through the game. In fact, there's a part where you have to get to the 10th floor of the Ghost Hall building. This building has basically been gutted. There are these planks on certain floors that you have to cross using QTE events. With this level: save early, save often. If you fall, you start it all over from the bottom. All of the QTE sequences suffer because of the sloppy digital pad.
Here's one more gripe about the game (minor, but still a gripe). You can easily save a game anywhere. However, you have to turn the Xbox off and back on in order to get back to the load game menu. I've found no way to load a saved game from within the game nor have I found a way to get to the main menu. This is hassle. But, it was the only way I could get through the plank level. When will game designers learn about saving and loading games? As a result, I've lowered my rating by ½ star.
I think I'll try to pick up another controller and see if I get better results. The controller I have is the original controller that came with the unit. Perhaps a newer controller might alleviate some of the sloppiness.
Game Modes:
There are several game play modes available (that I’ve found so far):
1) Free Roaming: Ryo is free to roam just about anywhere. You can enter buildings, talk to people, buy things and take photographs.
2) Fighting: This is where you and someone else spar with a health meter.
3) Quick Time Events (QTE): This mode is where you have to input a specific movement at a precise time. If you fail to enter this movement, you fail to avoid the obstacle. These events are usually related to chasing someone.
4) Job: This is where you have to do a specific task to earn money.
5) Mini-Games: Slot machines, Afterburner II, Hang-On, Arm Wrestling
6) Spy-mode: Where you sneak around following someone making sure you don't get caught by them. Just before you're about to get caught, there's a QTE to help you hide. The gripe I have about Spy-Mode is that I get jaded by the cinematic part of it, when a QTE arrives, I miss it. I miss it because I've set the controller down waiting for the cinematic to be over. Then, you have to do it over. (updated)
Money and Jobs
The beginning of the game (and hopefully not all of it), Ryo is way too preoccupied by making money to the detriment of actually moving the game forward. In one place, you have to pay off a person to make them give you vital information to move the game forward.
I have found that the sleeping and money pre-occupation become less important as you progress. You still need to sleep and get money, but you don't have to specifically sleep anymore (you can if you want) or go take a job. I have to preface this by the fact that I played one of the gambling games and got up to $1500. You still need money to buy maps, so you'll still need to work if you're broke.
The jobs I have found so far include the following:
1) Lucky Hit Stand (gambling)
2) Cargo carrier at the Pier
3) Cargo carrier in Kowloon (Thousand White Quarter Warehouse).
The Lucky Hit stand is where you operate a gambling operation. The game consists of a slanted board with nails. You drop a ball at the top and it bounces off the nails ultimately ending up in either an X or O slot at the bottom. If you get an O slot, you win (or tie) that round. The customer plays against the dealer for three rounds. You have to win one more round than the dealer to win the game. Ryo gets 50% of all winnings over the $300 you start with. You get no pay for even or less money than you started with. The problem with this job is that it takes WAY too long for the games to complete. I’ve spent at least 15 real minutes trying to get past this event because we kept tying. In a tie you keep playing until someone wins. With this one, you can make about $75 max (if you’re incredibly lucky) and you usually make nothing.
As a cargo carrier, you move these crates (with the help of a guy who helps) from one palette to another. Because of the sloppiness of the digital pad controller, this task is very tedious. On the other hand, you get $10 a crate. If you even pick up one crate, you are guaranteed to get $10 no matter if you move it across the room or not. This is a much more solid way to make money. You can do this about 3 times in a day. I think you can move up to 6 crates in the given time interval for that ‘job day’ before they let you go.
You can also earn money by gambling (arm wrestling or playing darts) or selling things at pawnshops. There are also slot machines just like the Shenmue Dreamcast. Unfortunately, the only thing you win here are Sega Tokens. You do not win money (that I’ve found). It’s actually very inconsistent that you can’t win money here. It is gambling and you should be able to get money for the slot play.
Fighting Moves: (updated)
The fighting mode of this game is not too bad. It's pretty much like any other fighting style game. However, unlike the Shenmue Dreamcast where there were specific places to go and train, I've found that Shenmue II doesn't easily point out these places. Generally, you can find someone to spar with in the parks. But, when you spar, you can't connect with the person (they're usually way too fast). So, you can't tell if the moves are effective or not. Only in real combat mode do you find out if they are effective. And usually in real combat, you are fighting 4-6 people at the same time.
You can also learn new combat moves by people teaching them to you or by someone handing you a document containing a new move. Again, it's a little difficult to find someone to test the moves on. Here's a hint, don't even bother to try to fight against Lishao Tao (Xiuying), she's way too fast. You will never hit her. Although, she does save Ryo several times throughout the game.
Mini-Games: (updated)
The mini-games include Afterburner II (which is locked in the Yellow-Head building), Hang-On (Phoenix Building), Arm Wrestling, Dice Gambling, Lucky Hit and Darts. There may be others, but these are the ones I know about so far.
You can also play the mini-games directly from the main startup menu. Just select your saved game and go.
Interaction with People:
You can interact with anyone you see. Unfortunately, this interaction is limited to the task at hand. When you converse with someone, it will always be about whatever current thing you happen to need. You still can’t strike up random conversations.
However, in Shenmue II, you can have multiple lines of questions available to you based on things you've done. For example, you may be looking for two different things. These two different items will appear in a dialog choice menu before you ask your question.
Maps and Quarters
Hong Kong is divided up into towns. A town is divided up into quarters. A quarter is a small segment of buildings roads and people. These quarters contain various apartments, commercial businesses and sometimes parks. Each quarter contains a map for that quarter. You can buy maps at $10 a map. It’s almost a given that you have to buy the maps unless you want to get lost. Finding the map stand for the given quarter can be a challenge in itself. Once you have a map, a map shows up on the screen to help you mark and keep track of places. I've found the quarter map. It's located off of the system menu. I'm not certain it shows all explored quarters, but it does show most of them.
The game starts in Wan-Chai (they pronounce it wan-zai). I am now running around in Kowloon looking for the guy who wrote a letter Ryo back in Shenmue Dreamcast. In Kowloon, not only do you have quarter maps, but now you have building maps. All of the buildings in Kowloon seem to connect together. So, you'll definitely want a map to know where you are.
Time
Time continues to march on no matter what you are doing. The game forces you back to your guesthouse to sleep at 11 PM. According to the manual, the game starts in the winter and ends at the following summer. It's very easy to finish the game before you run out of time. Also, tedious and time consuming tasks become less and less important as time progresses. As you get to the last chapter of the game, you won't even worry about money or sleeping. There is no boss at the very end of the game. However, there is a boss you have to fight and defeat right before the last chapter of the game. That's not to say the final boss is easy, but if you do the right things, you can get defeat him.
Bonuses Included with the game
The game includes a bonus DVD. This DVD is the entire first game compressed into a movie. You can watch this DVD to pick up on what happened with Shenmue Dreamcast. This is supposed to be some kind of consolation for those who can’t pick up this first game and actually play it. If you get a chance, I would pick up a Dreamcast and Shenmue to actually play it.
Conclusion
Barring some of the silliness that I’ve run up against in Shenmue II, it is still very much worth playing. The game holds up well against Shenmue Dreamcast and, in a lot of places, adds a lot to it. If you enjoyed playing Shenmue Dreamcast then you will likely enjoy playing the Xbox edition of Shenmue II. If you've never played Shenmue and like this kind of semi-realistic kind of game, you'll like Shenmue II. And thankfully, they got rid of that silly forklift race from Shenmue Dreamcast.
I would give this game 4 3/4 stars. I feel that 4 stars is too low. So, I'm giving it 5 stars simply because the story and interactivity is so great (even with the flaws mentioned above). I highly recommend this game.
Picking up where the first Shenmue left off, you'll assume the role of Ryo Hazuki, a young man tracking down his father's murderer -- and trying to un...More at Amazon Marketplace
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