Shenmue 3- Retrospectives and Ambitions

   I have been a huge fan of the Shenmue series from day 1. Back in 1999, I was one of the 5 people that salivated over the teaser commercial showing the story of a martial artist teenager out to unravel the mystery of his father's murder. At the time, I didn't even have a Dreamcast system yet. All I remember was one or two of my friends talking about getting the game. I didn't take that long, however, as I tend to customarily. I got a Dreamcast system in my Junior year of high school, after some time of playing arcade fighters on it at friends' houses. I recall Marvel vs. Capcom being a huge hit during that time.

 Of the friends I knew who had gotten into the game, none of them seemed to have saw it out. There was 1 or maybe 2 that were avidly into it, but they talked about the pacing of the game sort of lulling them into some stagnation. Other releases at the time took the little attention that Shenmue had, away from it. When I got my Dreamcast, after Blue Stinger, I got a copy of Shenmue rather cheap at a flea market. Popularity has always played a big roll in game prices. And quality is not directly proportional, which I am grateful for. It was 2001 if I recall correctly. When I put in the additional disc, I was treated to not just empty extra content, but detailed discussion from the games characters about martial arts and the game's backstory. It was displayed in a 3D room, with completely rendered character models, set up like AI's. Soul Calibur would do something similar with its extra content as well.

   Shenmue was, and still is one of those games that is for a select few inquisitive minds. I fell in love with the game right away. It got labeled by most people as some cheesy mystery game, where you go around just asking questions. But that is a superficial, and layman take on the game and series, which disgusts me. The story is a purist's dream. If you watched old school martial arts films growing up, and not just for gimmicks or laughs, but as a student of the arts, this game immediately intrigues you with the attention paid to techniques and martial arts history, woven around the story of Ryo's father's murder. He's a character 18 years of age, who is finishing high school when a mysterious Chinese man with gangsters enters his family's dojo, demanding a mirror, killing his father in the process. He is caught off guard, and nearly killed himself in the process. The story feels so real and involving, with the power of the mirrors being a mystery that goes back to ancient chinese lore. What I love is the genuine way that you and the character are learning everything together. It really has you salivating to learn more about the story at each step, because of how simply it all begins, and I think that is so key to story development. The game's creator, Yu Suzuki, originally wrote 12 chapters to the story, and the first game covers the first one, while the sequel covered chapters 2-4.

   In the game, you have such a practical, and realistic life, as you work your way to hunt down, your father's killer, who's name you eventually learn to be Lan Di, and then another birth name that I won't spoil here. You find out that he has taken the mirror, and gone back home to Hong Kong. He is heavily involved with the gangs that run the shipping dock. In fact, they gave him passage into the harbor. You become involved with them, in order to get closer to him, and get a job working at the docks. There is danger at every corner, and you can be killed if not careful. You actually go through the process of working each day, to make money for your trip. Along the way, you learn a tad more about your father, and make friends at the docks, who are also enemies of your enemy, making them your friend- LOL.

   As the game goes along, you fall in love with learning martial arts moves from masters you encounter, who trained with your father, or are just local to the area. One of the most memorable characters was a drunken bum who you meet at the harbor during the night. He teaches you a real martial arts technique and also the ancient history behind it's development. That, and even his motivation for teaching you, and his entire character is the kind of heaviness that stays with you years after playing the game. The cool, and realistic thing about the game is the fact that you can actually play the game, and never meet him. That's how real it all is. I loved walking the streets and going to vending machines, and soba noodles shops. Everything is so natural and real. And it isn't over the top in doing so, like games of today. Everyone looks to GTA as the sovereign of sandbox games. Shenmue has a raw and passionate nature that no GTA game can touch. And the thing is, that that's a big part of the series' appeal. A purist like myself loves the premise of a game where, while you have seedy characters and a very real villain, the dialogue and plot don't rest on vulgarity and lewdness. There is a sense of innocence that is championed in the Shenmue games. Ryo is a tall, muscular, and mature youth, who was raised in a very disciplined manner by a very principled, though guarded and secretive father. He wears fitted jeans, and leather jacket, and carries himself with manners. And he's portrayed as character that the player is meant to admire. That is unheard of today.

 In the game, there is some back story, and characters that know him prior to the game's start, similar to the Baki The Grappler series. In fact, I believe there was some minor game that was made on PC, that covered earlier events, a few years prior to the release of the first Shenmue. When the game takes you to Hong Kong, for the second game, the pace picks up quite a bit. In fact, I was slightly put off by how much the second game initially gets away from the quite, contemplative nature of the first game. But as the story progresses, and you travel from Hong Kong, where you do battle with a gangster, to Kowloon, where you run across absolutely beautiful landscapes at the end of the game, it gets back to the deep nature of the game appropriately. In fact, it really fleshes out a lot of the story that intrigues you.

  We petitioned for over a decade and a half for the release of the rest of the series, and Yu Suzuki initially swore that our voices weren't loud enough to satisfy his pockets. I actually began to despise him personally after a while. Then, when we got the announcement that I thought would never come, at last year's E3, of his sudden passion to finish the series, I felt like it was too late. I want the game badly, but I feel like morally, a game like Shenmue just doesn't have a place in today's world, just like passion for the avante garde and jazz. There are, like I've said so many times, discussions about art, music, and intellect in general, that I literally can't have anymore, because the people who would engage in those discussions, just about don't exist anyomore. There are so few people at this point, including a large portion of those who support Shenmue, that are actually FOR the game.


  I watch Youtube channels, and I was even an active and front-running member of several Shenmue 3 campaigns. I tried, even at a point, to collaborate with a few other campaigners, in a project to spin off the series, if the rights would allow. All of those plans fell flat. Many of the so-called Shenmue fans, have changed personally over the years, into simple-minded, and block-headed, immoral degenerates, who I can't even conversate with anymore. So then, I began to wonder about what the game would be if it did come out. That bothered me. I saw the trailer, and I saw the stiff, and cheesy combat animations and mystical lore that the game is uncovering. It really just looks like a game that can end up being another millenial title- shallow, debauched, and unfulfilling. And I know that all of these so-called fans would be ecstatic with that.

   But then, I get hope when I think of the possibilities. Suzuki is still heavily in development. Very little of the game is finished. I am playing Mass Effect Andromeda now on the PS4. That game, is vilified by the gaming community. A pattern has been established at this point, that games that are actually good, are hated by idiot gamers. Luckily, Shenmue is a story that was written long ago, and at this point, he will release it as is, regardless. I just would like for him to consider some things that I will discuss here.

  Mass Effect Andromeda is a game series that I love as much as Shenmue. I absolutely love the series, and I look forward to reviewing the final game soon. So far, it is exactly what I wished for. The first game in the series allowed you to travel to several planets in the Milky Way galaxy, and engage in missions. As the series progress through Mass Effect 2 and 3, more exploration and depth was introduced into the game. The first 3 games were excellent, but I criticized the fact that, overall, the content of all 3 together, equalled up to one 50 hour RPG. That felt disproportionate. In this final game, all of that has been fixed. Not only can you travel more than ever, but the amount of landscape and content on that single disc is staggering. That is a showcase of what current gen systems do have to offer, and a game like Shenmue, is the best way to take advantage of that. When I look back, at how detailed Shenmue was, on hardware from 3 generations ago, just imagine how sick it could be on PS4. Just think- in Shenmue 2, you lived in an apartment in Aberdeen, which was completely recreated for the game, and worked several jobs across a bustling city, eventually traveling to other districts. When you look at the several humongous planets that you go to in Mass Effect, with villages, outposts, relic sites and caves, all filled with random NPC's, imagine if they condensed that detail into the Hong Kong, Japan, etc districts of Shenmue. Even with Zelda and Xenoblade on the Switch, we got a taste of current gen world overloads, which are becoming the norm now.

  It is amazing to think of the real life things Ryo can do, and the content they could put into the game. One thing for sure is that he needs to finish the last 8 chapters with this game. Also, make it 1 disc. Just like Mass Effect Andromeda, one disc allows you to make it a seamless adventure with an entire universe open to you to explore at your whim, rather than a lengthy adventure that moves like a timeline. Also, remove time limits. In Shenmue, you can live your life and linger, but after a certain amount of weeks/months pass in the game's real-time system, it auto-ends. Do away with that, and with the amount of technology available to them, they should take advantage of the weather system that Suzuki worked so hard at developing in the first games. It should occur over the course of seasons and years even. I'm not sure how much the story would allow that, but I would really like a game that is like Mass Effect Andromeda, where you move at your pace. Andromeda did it really well, and I hope Yu has looked at that game. In Mass Effect, you have a very heavy goal and mission, but you have so many side missions that are also important, that you can get lost in the game, traveling around and managing them for hundreds of hours. That's what I want in Shenmue. Make it worth the wait. Let it be epic, and a game that you won't just play through, but cherish and always want to put in your system.

  Monster Hunter, still stands, in my book, as the greatest game ever made, because it accomplishes being challenging, involved, and having a flow of gameplay that allows you to put in 1000 hours, and still feel comfortable picking it up and playing for hours on a whim. That is something I'd be interested in seeing Shemue accomplish. Here's hoping.

Rage in a City- Freedom Wars- Review

   If it's one thing that I always appreciate, it's games that not only offer challenge, but that teach you a unique and useful set of mechanics, that leave you a changed gamer. Achieving this balance has historically been lacking in the modern gaming era. I will discuss how Freedom Wars succeeds or fails in this review.


  This game was developed by SCE of Japan. It was released on the Playstation Vita in 2014. I must really take my hat off to Sony. They released a good handful of titles on the handheld console, and with decent variety. This game follows in the same Phantasy Star vein that so many games have taken over the years, including God Eater, Monster Hunter, and several others. You are a player in the center of a huge and deep story involving the survival of a dystopian society, that is one of many factions at war for meager rations in a war torn world. Due to the state of society, all besides the elite scientists, are branded sinners, and must live like soldiers for hire, completing assignments from the city, or Patnopticon's ward. As you complete missions, with varying worth, your sentence of 1 million years as a slave of the Patnopticon is reduced. It seems a very insurmountable number, as mission, at most garner few thousand years in reduction.

 The gameplay of Freedom Wars is very similar to God Eater Burst. You have no real magic system, but a set of skills like Monster Hunter. The weapons that you can use include Large melee weapons like Great Swords, Hammers, Long Swords, and Pole Lances; Small Melee weapons such as daggers, and a range of firearms. You have portable artillery weapons that you procure from large enemies, rocket launchers, and machine gun as well as sniper rifles. You can not only modify weapons, but build them as well, when you bring the necessary amount and type of materials to the factories that you construct and manage yourself. You can manage Weapon facilities, Medical facilities, Munition facilities, and Augmentation facilities. Medical, weapon, and munitions speak for themselves, but the augmentation facilities allow you to construct modules for you character that can improve various aspects of combat, such as offense, defense, and movement ability. These facilities can be made more efficient by collecting management staff and workers that you salvage from the field during missions.

   The story involves a world struggling for resources, that has been split into different warring factions, or cities. The state was caused by people from "On High" and a great and disastrous conflict with large mech creatures and the unleashing of a Casket device on the world. People from On High literally live above where the cities dwell. You discover that your city had a girl from On High, captured in a vault for experimentation, as she holds the key to what could bring about the conflict again, or neutralize it. You rescue her, and embark on uncovering those mysteries, as well as the disappearance of her father. It was intriguing.

 In the city, you have scattered citizens and sinners, and facilities to rendezvous with comrades and purchase supplies. You can trade components and supplies with other sinner as well. There is also the secret Cell Garden area, where you encounter heavily guarded items and machinery that answers questions to the games mysteries. When going on missions, you will be tasked with rescuing citizens, holding off opposing Panopticon forces, and destroying Abductor mechs, who capture citizens. You may also be tasked with collecting supplies. Abductors are the heart of the game. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and attack patterns. I use the word Patterns loosely, as they tend to do whatever the heck they want or need to to crush you, sometimes spamming a stomp or rage technique over and over again like an angry player more than an AI. The battles are very epic in scope, as taking down these bosses is quite a task. They are often assisted by rival sinners, and have insane health and defense. The idea is to craft weapons and mods that will maximize damage and defense, as each mission is timed.

  The issues with the game, were the idiotic modules and the enemy AI. As you progress into the game, the later missions will throw a task of defeating an Abductor at you. In some of these missions, the Abductor will only appear after several waves of other strong Abductors and sinners. Sinners are just like you, and carry weaponry and melee devices. Another core of the game that I failed to mention are Thorns. These are mechanical devices that are attached to a sinners arm. They come in Healing, Binding, and Shielding types. They can be strengthened and have different levels of charge. They also allow you to cling to things and use them as a grappling hook to get to places and cling to and drag down Abductors. Other sinners have them as well. Sometimes, when a battle is already hard enough, a few random sinners will employ insane defensive movement and high offense, wiping out your whole squad. You have a limited sustainability in missions, which is essentially your life stock. You can avoid losing a life if a comrade or Accessory revives you in a certain amount of time.


  Your Accessory is your surveillance robot, who follow you and keeps you in line, as part of the Panopticon's regulations. They can be customized and given set orders in combat, as well as equipment. They fight and protect you if necessary. The aim of the enemy sinners was insane at times and really made it difficult to contain them along with the overpowered Abductor. Movement in this game is controlled by the left analog stick, and the camera alone is controlled by the right stick. This is made an issue, because your character aiming reticle is controlled independently from the camera. It is a hassle trying to aim at zipping enemies, and keep them in front of your camera's view.

   You really begin to rely on the augmentations and weapon upgrades that your factories can make at the end of the game. But resources become a problem at a point, because the high level resources needed to make a weapon slightly beneficial in combat are carried by insane enemies that you are nowhere near strong enough to defeat. It became very infuriating. I did my best to use entitlement points to upgrade the equipment of my comrades to help. You gain these points upon completing missions. However, once a mission is played, the points gathered on it drop exponentially, so once you've played all of the main missions, it becomes impossible to go back and rack up points and useful items. You feel completely stuck. There are special ops missions that give you higher yields of points, but those are also, way out of your league. Like Hell Divers for the Vita, and Monster Hunter, this game is designed for you to play with butt buddies. If you don't have them, you are punished. I strain to think how it's practical that games today force you to rely on friends who play the exact same games with the exact same schedule as you, as well as consistent and reliable internet connection. What world are these developers living in?


  Graphically, the game was gorgeous, and it's good to see titles like this on the Vita, because it utilizes its power, and bolsters the argument against the system's idiotic detractors. There were several cutscenes that you can view again in the library, and each arena that you fought in was well designed and detailed. The game was in Japanese of course, but the music and sound was great. It was an excellent soundtrack.

  Part of the lure of RPG's from day one, building a character from a zero into a formidable hero that can  traverse their world with greater ease towards the end of a long journey. That has always been the payout. This game fails to do that miserably. The augmentations in the game are beyond stupid. You face Abductors that have shields, rocket launchers,are resistant to elements etc. You have the ability to knock off, or cut off all parts of an Abductor's body, but that is a task in itself. If you are familiar with the Monster Hunter series, it almost as hard as in that game at times. In your factories selection, even after improving your facility's output, you will find modules that help your character run faster for 10 seconds after respawing upon losing a life, or raise your defense for a few seconds after dying, or allowing you to do slightly more damage when at full health. There are modules that allow you to be noticed more by enemies or noticed less. These are the kind of wonky and stupid augmentations that they want you to work hard acquiring. You do have some attack and defense modules, and ones that apply boosts to specific types of Abductor encounters. The issue with those, is that, as badly as you need them, the boost they provide is almost unnoticeable. It's ridiculous. You keep thinking and hoping that useful modules will become available, and that things will level out, and they never do. I found myself just happy to be done with the final mission.


  The last boss has had many people miffed for a long time. I used a powerful scoped AR with a great sword towards the end, so I was well equipped for him, but he was still ridiculous. he has attachments on his body that come out up to 8 at at time and move like lightning. When near death, he can wipe out your entire party and stock of lives in an instant. It took me several days to figure that boss out, and even after the completion of the campaign, I'm stuck once again. My characters are still way too weak to compete with any additional missions. This type of bull crap should not be happening after the completion of an RPG, and it makes you wonder if the developers at SCE understand the genre at all. As a long time RPG player, I can tell you that we don't toil for 60-80 hours on a game, to struggle at the end. That sucks, and makes you want to get rid of it. If it weren't for that, I would really enjoy continuing to play. The mechanics of how combat works, and how you systematically fool and take down the Abductors is very rewarding. Battles really do feel epic. But hard missions have their place. Those kinds of missions, you brace for and prep accordingly.  It feels very out of place to have nothing but missions that can't be done available to you after the game is over. You feel as if you wasted time, and got no stronger over the course of the game.

  I was waiting to write this, because I was so annoyed the entire time. I will not find people to go online with, and I will not continue to run into a wall for this game. It's a decent adventure, with limited scenery and settings, as you go from ward to ward, to battle arena in dark abandoned cites. There are a cool cast of characters, though pretty small, and the city feels dead to a degree. One of the main comrades that I spent point getting strong, betrays and stabs me at the end of the game. So his skills are lost, making the extra missions that much more impossible. Due to the idiocy of the developers, this high potential game, is left being restrained to just a decent adventure meant for one painful playthrough. I give it a 7.9/10