Shenmue
I have played and own more games than I really care to admit, so choosing a favorite for me is really an impossible task. However, there are a few games that really jump out in my mind as particularly memorable experiences. The one I want to bring up today is Sega's Shenmue for the Dreamcast.
Shenmue's story is a basic revenge setup, involving a young Japanese guy named Ryo Hazuki seeking justice against the mysterious murderer of his father. The story is decent, but the game really shines in the painstaking attempts it makes to recreate 1980's Japan. The amount of interactivity the game allows is simply amazing. The player can enter just about any shop and talk to just about any NPC, all of whom are voiced (sometimes hilariously poorly in the English version) in order to gain clues about the mysterious man who killed Ryo's father. In fact, the experience can be really overwhelming at first since there is so much to explore and get caught up in. As you spend more time with it though, you feel a sense of belonging and attachment to the little community of Dobuita. I began really caring about all the strange little personalities and events that took place in each character's lives. This makes the otherwise conventional story seem personal and engaging in a way that only a video game has been able to pull off, stressing the difference between "interactive fiction" and "fiction with long pauses of gameplay in between".
Shenmue's story is a basic revenge setup, involving a young Japanese guy named Ryo Hazuki seeking justice against the mysterious murderer of his father. The story is decent, but the game really shines in the painstaking attempts it makes to recreate 1980's Japan. The amount of interactivity the game allows is simply amazing. The player can enter just about any shop and talk to just about any NPC, all of whom are voiced (sometimes hilariously poorly in the English version) in order to gain clues about the mysterious man who killed Ryo's father. In fact, the experience can be really overwhelming at first since there is so much to explore and get caught up in. As you spend more time with it though, you feel a sense of belonging and attachment to the little community of Dobuita. I began really caring about all the strange little personalities and events that took place in each character's lives. This makes the otherwise conventional story seem personal and engaging in a way that only a video game has been able to pull off, stressing the difference between "interactive fiction" and "fiction with long pauses of gameplay in between".
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