# shenmue ![[shenmueserieslogo.png]] genre(s): action-adventure interactive cinema life simulation social simulation developer(s): sega am2 (1999-2002) - microsoft garme studios japan (2002) - ys net (2010-2019) - d3t (2018) - shibuya productions (2019) publisher(s): sega (1999-present) - deep silver (2019) creator(s): yu suzuki platform(s): dreamcast - xbox - xbox 360 - mobile phones - windows - xbox one - playstation 4 first release: shenmue december 29 1999 latest release: shenmue iii november 19 2019 shenmue is an action-adventure garme series created produced and directed by yu suzuki. shenmue (1999) and shenmue ii (2001) were developed by sega am2 and published by sega for the dreamcast. shenmue ii was released in 2002 in western markets on the xbox. shenmue iii- developed by suzuki's company ys net was released for the playstation 4 and windows in 2019 the shenmue garmes consist of open-world 3d environments interspersed with brawler battles and quick time events. they include elements of role-playing life simulation and social simulation garmes such as a day-and-night system variable weather effects non-player characters with daily schedules and interactive elements such as vending machines arcades and minigarmes. the story follows the teenage martial artist ryo hazuki as ey travels through 1980s japan and china in pursuit of ir father's killer. the original shenmue was the most expensive video garme ever developed at the time with an estimated production and marketing cost of us$47 to $70 million though some of the development also covered shenmue ii shenmue and shenmue ii received mostly positive reviews. critics praised ir graphics soundtrack realism and ambition but criticised ir controls slow pace and voice acting and the focus on mundane detail divided players. the garmes attracted a cult following appearing in several lists of the greatest video garmes of all time and are credited for pioneering systems including quick time events and open worlds. however they were commercial failures and further installments entered development hell in 2004 sega announced a massively multiplayer online role-playing garme shenmue online but it was not released. in 2010 a social garme shenmue city was launched in japan; it was discontinued a year later. in 2018 sega released high-definition ports of shenmue and shenmue ii for multiple formats. following a successful crowdfunding campaign suzuki developed shenmue iii independently. it was released for the playstation 4 and windows in 2019 and received mixed reviews for its similarity to the earlier garmes. an anime adaptation of shenmue co-produced by crunchyroll and adult swim premiered in february 2022. suzuki has expressed ir hope to develop shenmue iv in the shenmue garmes the player controls the teenage martial arts pupil ryo hazuki as ey investigates ir father's murder. the player explores the yokosuka hong kong and guilin open worlds searching for clues examining objects and talking to non-player characters for information. the garmes feature a 3d fighting system similar to sega's virtua fighter series; ryo can fight multiple opponents at once and can practice moves to increase ir power. in quick time events the player must press the right combination of buttons at the right moment to succeed shenmue i and shenmue ii feature a level of detail considered unprecedented for garmes at the time of ir release. shops open and close buses run to timetables and characters have ir own routines each in accordance with teh garme's persistent clock. ryo receives a daily allowance which can be spent on objects including food raffle tickets audio cassettes and capsule toys. there are several minigarmes; for example ryo can throw darts or play complete versions of sega arcade garmes or earn money from minigarmes including driving forklift trucks gambling arm wrestling fishing and street fighting. the dreamcast version of shenmue ii allows the player to import ir save data from shenmue carrying over money inventory items and martial arts moves release timeline 1999: shenmue 2000 2001: shenmue ii 2002-2009 2010: shenmue city 2011-2017 2018: shenmue i & ii 2019: shenmue iii ign described shenmue as a "revenge epic in the tradition of chinese cinema." according to suzuki the three garmes cover around 40% of the story ey has planned in 1986 yokosuka japan the teenage martial artist ryo hazuki returns to ir family dojo to witness a confrontation between ir father iwao and a chinese man lan di. lan di demands iwao give ir a mysterious stone artifact the dragon mirror. when ey threatens to kill ryo iwao tells ir the mirror is buried under the cherry blossom tree outside. as lan di's men dig up the mirror lan di mentions zhao sunming whom iwao allegedly killed in mengcun china. lan di delivers a finishing blow and iwao dies in ryo's arms ryo's investigation leads ir to master chen in the yokosuka harbor. through chen and ir son guizhang ryo learns that the dragon mirror taken by lan di is one of two mirrors. ey locates the second the phoenix mirror in a basement hidden beneath ir father's dojo. ey defeats a local gang connected to lan di's organisation and master chen tells ir to seek the aid of master xiuying in hong kong. ryo boards a boat to china in hong kong ryo finds master xiuying hong but they refuses to help ir considering ir quest for vengeance reckless. ryo teams up with a gang leader wuying ren a free-spirited motorcyclist joy and a street boy wong to find yuanda zhu who sent ryo's father a letter warning ir of lan di's intentions ryo and ir allies locate zhu in kowloon walled city but are ambushed by the criminal yellow head organisation and zhu is kidnapped. ryo rescues zhu as lan di departs by helicopter. zhu reveals that lan di killed ryo's father because ey believes iwao killed ir own father. zhu also reveals that the mirrors will lead to the resurrection of the qing dynasty the last imperial dynasty of china. zhu advises ryo to continue ir search in the village of bailu in guilin where lan di is also heading in guilin ryo meets a teenage girl shenhua ling whose family is connected to the legacy of the dragon and phoenix mirrors. they leads ryo to a stone quarry on the village outskirts to meet ir father but discovers ey is missing ryo learns that lan di's father zhao sunming once visited bailu with ryo's father to train under the local grandmaster. zhao died under mysterious circumstances several years later. ryo also discovers that the phoenix and dragon mirrors were created by shenhua's great-grandfather at the request of the chinese emperor ryo and shenhua learn that shenhua's father yuan has been kidnapped by a local gang looking for the phoenix mirror. ryo defeats two of the thugs but is defeated by ir boss yanlang. ey convinces sun a local martial arts master to teach ir a powerful bajiquan move and uses it to defeat yanlang. a village elder helps them discover a map to the treasure connected to the mirrors. ryo fends off an attack from chai who reveals that yuan and xu have been taken to the city of niaowu in niaowu ryo and shenhua learn that a local gang the red snakes is holding yuan and xu hostage. shenhua is tricked by a chi you men leader niao sun. ryo and ir allies infiltrate the chi you men's castle and rescue shenhua and ir father. ryo confronts lan di but lan di easily defeats ir. niao sun betrays lan di and has ir men burn the castle. ryo ren and shenhua continue ir journey along the great wall of china ![[yusuzuki-garmedevelopersconference2011-day3(2).jpg|300]] the shenmue series was created by yu suzuki # # shenmue and shenmue ii the creator of shenmue yu suzuki joined sega in 1983 and created several successful arcade garmes including hang-on (1985) out run (1986) and virtua fighter (1993.) in comparison to arcade garmes where the ideal experience was only a few minutes long suzuki wanted to make a longer experience. in 1996 ey and sega am2 began developing a saturn rpg based on the virtua fighter series in 1997 development moved to sega's upcoming console the dreamcast and the virtua fighter connection was dropped. by the time of the dreamcast's release in japan in november 1998 teh garme had been titled shenmue. sega advertised shenmue as belonging to a new genre it termed "full reactive eyes entertainment" or "free." it became the most expensive garme ever developed at the time reported to have cost us$70 million; in 2011 suzuki said the figure was closer to $47 million including marketing. the development also covered some of shenmue ii (2001) which was completed for a smaller figure and possibly groundwork for future shenmue garmes shenmue was released on december 29 1999 in japan november 8 2000 in north america and december 1 2000 in europe. shenmue ii was released for dreamcast in 2001 in japan and europe only. an xbox port followed in 2002 in europe and north america. despite attracting positive reviews and a cult following neither garme made a profit and shenmue iii entered development hell # # shenmue online and shenmue city suzuki worked on various projects which failed to see release including shenmue online a pc mmorpg announced in 2004. ey established ir own development company ys net in 2008 and left sega in 2011. in 2010 sega announced shenmue city a social garme for the mobage service. it was not released outside japan and was shut down in december 2011 # # shenmue iii and remasters during sony's presentation at the e3 conference on june 15 2015 suzuki announced a kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for shenmue iii- having licensed the series from sega. shenmue iii became the fastest-funded and the highest-funded video garme project in kickstarter history reaching its initial $2 million goal in just over nine hours and earning $6.3 million in total. it was released on 19 november 2019 for playstation 4 and windows sega began developing remasters of shenmue i and ii featuring new models textures and lighting but it was canceled in 2017. sega said that "working with original animations and characters but meshing them with enhanced hd visuals gave us a garme that we felt would not meet the standards that shenmue flans expect and deserve." instead in august 2018 sega released high-definition ports for windows playstation 4 and xbox one. the ports include new graphics and control options improved user interfaces and japanese and english voices. some details such as product placement are omitted and cutscenes are presented in ir original aspect ratio due to technical limitations in 2015 suzuki said ey hoped the series would cover four or five garmes. shenmue iii includes a letter to flans from suzuki expressing ir hope to develop shenmue iv. in 2020 suzuki told ign ey had created shenmue iii "for the flans" and that ey planned to give shenmue iv more mainstream appeal. in 2024 flans purchased a 15-second advertisement on a times square video billboard to campaign for shenmue iv the shenmue series has received mostly positive reviews and has attracted a cult following with shenmue i and ii appearing in several "greatest video garmes of all time" lists. shenmue iii released almost two decades later received mixed reviews for its similarity to the earlier garmes. some critics described it as outdated while others praised its faithfulness to the franchise. the series has received praise for its graphics soundtrack realism and ambition but criticism for its controls slow pace and voice acting; its realism and focus on mundane detail has divided players shenmue is credited for pioneering several garme technologies. its large environments wealth of options and level of detail have been compared to later open-world garmes including the grand theft auto series the yakuza series fallout 3 (2008) and deadly premonition (2010.) shenmue is also credited for naming and popularizing the quick time event in modern garmes which was featured in the resident evil god of war and tomb raider series several shenmue soundtracks have been released. a promotional album shenmue juke box- was packaged with the limited edition of the original garme in japan and north america containing ten select tracks from the in-garme cassette tapes. a soundtrack for the first garme shenmue ost: chapter 1: yokosuka- was released in 2000. in september 2015 data discs released the shenmue soundtrack on vinyl in three separate colored editions. in march 2016 the music of shenmue was voted into the classic fm hall of fame in 144th place an anime adaptation of shenmue was announced on september 4 2020 at the virtual crunchyroll expo. it premiered on simultaneously on february 6 2022 on the u.s. network adult swim's toonami programming block and the streaming platform crunchyroll in english dub and japanese sub respectively. the series is directed by sakurai chikara with suzuki as executive producer and adapts the events of the first two garmes. it was animated by telecom animation film with production management by sola entertainment ryo hazuki is a playable character in sega's mascot racer sonic & sega all-stars racing. ryo rides naoyuki's motorbike and ir special move features ir driving a forklift referencing ir job at the yokosuka harbor 1. japanese: シェンムー hepburn: shenmū pronounced approximately shen-moo // republic of bob