Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter
9
Time to Visit Yokosuka
Time now to travel to Yokosuka, in Japan, and visit someone Clive got to know
quite well. His name is Ryo Hazuki; he is sixteen and has been having a rough time
lately. Recently some people broke into his father's dojo, where he taught a particular
form of martial arts, and killed his father. Ryo was left alone in the world except for
his ageing grandmother and has been on the trail of his father's killers ever since.
Clive has been helping Ryo out, as have tens of thousands of other people, most of
whom, like Clive, have never been to Japan.
Yokosuka is across the bay, a very large bay, from Tokyo. It is also on the
Dreamcast, which means it's time to analyze one of our favorite games. We'll use
all the theories and models studied so far to analyze the game from various view-
points and see what we can fi nd out and how to put it all together.
SHENMUE
On the back of the box—containing no less than three CDs for the game itself and
a fourth for the online extras—we fi nd the following: “Open your eyes to the most
compelling form of interactivity ever experienced outside the real world. Shenmue
is a passionate and gripping story, captured in a beautifully rendered 3D world,
brought to life using ' Magic Weather ' and ' Time Control ' technologies. Interact with
a huge cast of characters with movements as intricate as a twitch of a fi nger, experi-
ence real-time fi ghting and discover the host of online features available. This is
clearly not a game but an experience never to be forgotten.”
This sounded great to Clive who, for one, certainly did fi nd the experience
memorable, and he is most defi nitely not alone. Of course we want to fi nd out more
about how the game works, why it works, and how it does and doesn't differ from
other games. Does it live up to its publicity blurb?
Shenmue is a quest in which the hero, Ryo Hazuki, has to fi nd his father's killers.
To do this he becomes an amateur detective and must fi nd out who knows anything
about the events surrounding the murder. No one knows anything in great detail but
there are lots of clues to be gathered by talking to the local people who all know
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