Trivia
Budget
In the 2008 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, the Dreamcast version of
Shenmue is listed as the most expensive game ever to develop at $70 million.
Development
Shenmue started development on the SEGA Saturn. The Dreamcast and Xbox versions of
Shenmue II both contain a video of scenes from the Saturn prototype, accessible when you beat the game and save your file. The scenes are impressive given the limited power of the Saturn. The working title was
Virtua Fighter RPG and the protagonist Ryo was in fact based on Akira from the
Virtua Fighter series.
The game was supposed to be quite longer than what it ended up to be. The game progressed further into Hong Kong and even had flashback sequences were you got to play as young Ryo. Due to time constraints and market pressure the decision was made to cut the game at the point were Ryo sets sail to Hong Kong, however lots of the mentioned sequences were already produced and included in
Shenmue 2.
Inaccuracies
The game takes place in the mid-80s on a definite timeline, but the weather is inaccurate. There is an unlockable mode to play with the actual historical weather for that period of time.
Marketing
During promotions at Tokyo of the original Dreamcast version Sega used displays featuring real forklifts (as used in the harbour scenes) holding TV's displaying previews of the game.
Mini games
Shenmue features the ability to play
Space Harrier and
Hang-On, the original 80's arcade games made by Sega. Both games were also created and designed by
Yu Suzuki.
References
Although the game takes places in the 1980´s, Ryo Hazuki has a Sega Saturn hidden under his TV set. Said console was not available in Japan until late November of 1994, but like the references to
Sonic,
Virtua Fighter and
Virtua Racing games, these things have no effect in the game and where included to please Sega fans.
Awards
- GameSpy
- 2000 – Dreamcast Game of the Year
Information also contributed by
Chris Chidester;
David Mackenzie,
J. Michael Bottorff,
Juan Pablo Bouquet,
Karthik KANE,
Lain Crowley,
tangledcontrolpads and
Vance
