Trivia
The working title of this game was Virtua Fighter RPG and the protagonist Ryo was in fact based on Akira from the Virtua Fighter series.
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.
Video's showing the Saturn version of Shenmue are included as well in Shenmue 2 (Xbox) once completed.
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.
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.
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.
Contributed by
Vance (97) on Jun 18, 2003.
Shenmue was originally in developmen for SEGA Saturn.
The Dreamcast versions (both the Japanese and European versions) of Shenmue II both contain a video of scenes from the Saturn version, accessible when you beat the game and save your file. (I am not sure if the Xbox version does). The scenes are EXTREMELY impressive, given the power of the Saturn.
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.
Shenmue 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 are slated to be included on Shenmue 2.
Contributed by
Zovni (9138) on Jul 18, 2001.
