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Follow our tips to conquer the long-awaited Shenmue remaster
We've waited many years for this remaster of the first two Shenmue classics – these tips will ensure you don't get lost in Dobuita.
With Shenmue 1 and 2 making their way to Xbox One, PC, and PS4 very soon, a new generation of players finally has a chance to engage with perhaps the most ambitious game of its era. The scope of this immaculately-rendered world of sleepy fishing villages and bustling Hong Kong streets was unmatched when it was originally released.
Though it's now recognised for its much-lauded technical achievement, Shenmue has also developed a reputation as a consummately-inaccessible classic – the type of game that requires frequent jaunts to walkthroughs, wikis and crumbling fansites just to figure out where to go next.
But while some superfans might insist that the subtle charms of wandering around the streets of Dobuita for hours on end might constitute the ideal Shenmue experience, these tips will maximise your enjoyment of this nearly 20-year-old classic.
1. Talk to everyone, study the map and knock on every labelled door
This might be a tad obvious to those who've actually watched someone stumble their way through some of the game's early hours, but the Shenmue series – especially the first instalment – is much closer to a detective simulator than a traditional action-RPG.
Since lead character Ryo knows practically nothing about the dark-robed figure who murders his father in the game's opening hours, it's up to you to pry clues from his friends, neighbours and acquaintances as to what to do next. Though the path forward can sometimes seem a bit murky under the flood of information, checking the latest page of your notebook and cross-referencing it with the map of the area you're prowling will usually give you enough to go on to find the next cutscene or brawl.
If not, speaking to one of the game's core non-player characters, like the hot-dog vendor, Tom, will remind you what exactly Ryo's goal is at the current stage of the plot.
2. Learn how to manage your time
Even as you help Ryo put together the information he needs to move his investigation forward, you'll find that the availability of many of the key figures you need to speak to is strictly limited by the in-game clock, which ticks forward at a speed that can sometimes feel like a crawl, especially when you're waiting for one of your friends to come out and trigger the next cutscene.
As such, time-management skills are absolutely critical to your success – knowing how long it takes to sprint your way from Ryo's house to inner Dobuita can make the difference between a day of hard-won progress and another 30 minutes waiting for the sun to saunter across the sky so you can go to bed and try it all over again. And remember, time moves when you're staring at your notebook or admiring your toy collection so keep an eye on your Timex to avoid another wasted day.
3. Learn how to properly waste time
The lack of a time-skip feature – now standard in mega-RPGs like Witcher 3 – remains one of Shenmue's most controversial design decisions, with some decrying it as an obvious (and easily-remedied) flaw. Regardless of where you fall on this particular aspect of the game, the developers have declined to add this function to the re-release so it's best to use this time as an excuse to explore your environment, which is probably what creator Yu Suzuki intended in the first place.
In Shenmue 1, you can waste hours trying to beat the high scores at You Arcade (helpfully located right next to a variety of key plot locations) on Sega classics like Hang-On and Space Harrier. Or you can test your reflexes with darts or the QTE minigame. With Shenmue 2, you get the ability to earn a little money with side hustles, like arm-wrestling or pachinko.
4. Don't neglect your training
Though it doesn't always reflect its origins, Shenmue began life as a Virtua Fighter RPG, and, as such, Ryo finds himself batting away gangsters with his fists every now and then. Though the actual guts of the game's fighting system can seem a bit opaque at times, your moves get more powerful as you use them so figure out which combos work best for you, find a training area (the parking lot in Shenmue 1 is a great example) and start pumping them over and over to maximise your damage.
While these sections aren't exactly difficult, especially if you pump the evade button to take advantage of Ryo's slow healing, there are a few battles near the end of the game that might test your mettle if you're not a VF fiend so keep practising. In general, stick to attacks with substantial range against boss enemies, get in close to use grabs and you’ll be fine.
For those who really want to turn Ryo into an unstoppable fighting machine, the techniques that you learn from martial arts masters and the scrolls that you can buy from various shops in both games are typically quite powerful, such as Tom's easily-exploitable Tornado Kick, so try to level them up when you can. There's one particularly tough fight in the first game that you're essentially supposed to lose (hint: it’s at the arcade) so if you can survive that one, you have our respect.
Ryo isn’t that great at talking, but his fists are plenty expressive
© Sega
5. Gambling is the quickest way to make money, but only if you win
In Shenmue 1, you have limited options when it comes to earning a little extra income, but you typically don't have to worry too much about your cash-flow, especially once Ryo gets his part-time job as a forklift operator at the harbour. In Shenmue 2, you very quickly lose all your hard-earned scratch due to an unavoidable pickpocketing so you should buy as much merchandise as you can carry in the opening scene when Ryo steps off the boat, and sell it back later at pawn shops to get at least some return.
While the warehouse minigame can be entertaining in short bursts, the best ways to fatten your wallet are a little more recreational. If you're decent at mashing buttons, the arm-wrestling minigame can often prove more lucrative than schlepping around crates.
If you're really hard up for cash however, you can use a simple exploit to fill your wallet in just a few minutes – simply save your game in front of one of the all-or-nothing gambling games, max out on one side and then keep reloading until you win a bundle. This is the best way to complete your capsule toy collection, if you're gunning for that.
Shenmue I & II HD Collection is out on PS4, Xbox One and PC on August 21.
