Time to Visit Yokosuka - Game Invaders: The Theory and Understanding of Computer Games - page 121

Ryo very well. He is part of a very close-knit community who respected his father
and family. Later in the game, Ryo's investigations take him away from his local
community and out into the big, bad world of Yokosuka and beyond.
The development of the game was produced and directed by Yu Suzuki who
coined the term “full reactive eyes entertainment” (FREE) for the generic gameplay
mode. In other words, the player should be able to do pretty much anything they
would in the real world. You can follow the quest, or go shopping, talk to people,
play on your Dreamcast, go to the amusement arcade, and so on.
From time to time Ryo comes up against baddies who are in some way con-
nected with those who committed the murder and has to fi ght them in order to
survive. All the clues Ryo uncovers and the contacts he makes are added to a note-
book which can be referred to when necessary. He can also collect objects for later
use, in true adventure fashion. There are many more activities for you to get Ryo to
do in the game but we will go into those in detail when we consider agency.
GENRE AND ACTIVITY PROFILE
Let ' s fi rst see how the press deals with Shenmue in terms of genre. Mostly they
seem to classify it as action adventure but they encounter problems because of its
genre-switching features; we discussed these in Chapter 2. So in some of the reviews
you would think the game was an RPG ; while in others you would think it was just
a beat - ' em - up and that all you did was wander around town until the next fi ght came
along. Of course the fi ghts do come along and you cannot avoid them but you won't
get anywhere in Shenmue if you just wait for them and do nothing else. In fact, if
you don't get out and about and talk to people the fi ghts will not come along at all.
Then there are also driving sequences and a lot of watching cut scenes. How does
Shenmue match up as action adventure or an RPG even? Let ' s check its activity
profi le, presented in Figure 9.1.
The highest scoring activity is confronting, which is the only one to get a
maximum score. There are then fi ve middle ranking scores, in descending order:
investigating, music, attacking, trading, and communicating. This is an interesting
mix to say the least. Investigating, trading, and communicating all belong to strategy
and tactics and are not only more measured activities but also very much what you
do in the main FREE mode we just discussed. Attacking is of course very twitchy
and quite in keeping with Shenmue' s fi ghting mode. It is, however, unusual for music
to score so highly in this type of game, but it does make sense because music in
Shenmue is tied in so closely to cut scenes, changes of time of day, mood changes,
and so on.
This is interesting, as confronting and investigating are actually quite separate
in the game. The main exploration and puzzle solving mode is very defi nitely action
adventur e or RPG : you can talk to people, collect items and information, and
perform a whole range of other non-twitchy activities, but you can' t fi ght anyone.
In other words, it is not action adventure . The action only comes out through the