Shenmue 2

Review - The Dreamcast's finest is finally ours...

The Dreamcast’s swan-song?

Finally, the wait is over. Yes, tired Dreamcast owners rejoice, It’s Shenmue II! After all of Sega’s ummming and ahhhing about it’s release, it has finally hit our shores. For all of you wondering what all of the fuss is about, where have you been? Shenmue was the most awesome game on the Dreamcast, so this should be even better, right? Well…. sort of.

The plot is simple, you play Ryu Hazuki, a young Japanese man who is on a quest for revenge against Lan Di, a nasty piece of work who killed Ryo’s father. The only leads that Ryo has is a letter from an address in Hong Kong and a mysterious Phoenix Mirror. Not a lot to go on by any means but Ryo seems rather peeved about the whole affair and will stop at nothing until revenge is his. Fair enough. I wouldn’t try to stop him, he lives in a Dojo! Anyhow, Shenmue II picks up where the first one left off. Ryo arriving in Hong Kong, very alone and with only one lead; the letter from Hong Kong. Go to it Ryo!

There have been several changes to the format this time around. Firstly, there is no dubbing. Gone are the English Voice overs of the original, the speech is all Japanese with English subtitles. Many may feel this is a bad thing, I however, think that it is an improvement. The game feels even more real now, I mean, the game is set in Hong Kong and China. Do they all speak in English? Nope. It all adds to the incredible sense of realism that the game emits.