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Shenmue is the story of a young Japanese teenager named Ryo Hazuki. Ryo’s father was murdered by the Chiyoumen, a sinister crime organization led by the nefarious Lan Di. Shenmue II picks up where the original left off, as our hero Ryo, finds himself in Hong Kong hot on the trail of his father’s murderer. Shenmue II is an epic story that will eventually (hopefully) encompass half a dozen games or more. Shenmue II covers what are Chapters 2-4 in a story that spans over a dozen chanpters. Shenmue III and IV are reportidly already in the works. In Shenmue II, you’ll play Ryo as he explores bustling cities of China, bent of avenging the death of his father at the hands of Lan Di. Ryo will learn much along the way. He’ll make new friends who will help him in his quest, take jobs to earn money, do quite a bit of detective work and expand his already formidable martial arts skill-set with new moves and maneuvers. It’s easy to become attached to the characters in the game, especially Ryo, as you watch him grow as a person and maybe even come to understand revenge isn’t always the best answer………. Naaa!

For gamers not familiar with Shenmue, it was originally a story based Adventure Game released in 2000 for the Dreamcast. The basic plot is the same, Ryo Hazuki is searching for Lan Di, the man who murdered his father. Intermixed in the plot is the puzzlement of two odd mirrors. Somehow these mirrors were connected to the death of Ryo’s father. Lan Di claimed one of them, the Dragon Mirror, after he killed Ryo’s father. The second mirror (the Phoenix Mirror), was found by Ryo in the basement of his dojo in Japan.

In Shenmue II, Ryo arrives on a dock in Hong Kong, still searching for his father’s killer. He’s following a lead to seek out a man named Yhuanda Zhu, who supposively knew his father and may know why his father was murdered and where to find Lan Di. You’re dumped right in the middle of the action as you soon fall victim to a bag thief and find yourself left broke and stranded.

The game plays like reading a book. It’s very immersive and has a very in-depth plot. It’s one of the best stories I’ve played through in a long, long time. Most all the characters are unique and interesting and have some depth to them. There isn’t a lot of fluff in the main plot, just meat and potatoes. One of the coolest things included with the game is a DVD movie of Shenmue 1, which highlights all the important parts of the first game. This was a great idea to help bring Shenmue newbie’s up to speed with what’s going on from the first game. If you are new to Shenmue, watch the movie before you dive into the game.

The setting of Shenmue is fantastic. The world is so alive, it really reminds me of an epic RPG world on the PC. The game uses it’s own day and night cycle. Most shops and markets aren’t open late at night, forcing you to go back to your hotel or hideout to rest until the next day. While this can be more immersive, it can also be frustrating to an extent because it feels rather suffocating trying to get everything done during the day before everything closes at night. Man, I am a picky bastard, aren’t I? The plot itself is set on an unofficial timer. You are supposed to complete your goals by the coming summer. This really shouldn't be a problem as you have more than enough time to explore and still stay focused on your objective. On the same realistic note, you can interact with everyone – they all have something to say, even though it may be the same thing you just heard from the last guy, I still thought it was a nice touch. The bulk of the game takes place in the Hong Kong area. The large cities are split up into “Quarters”, complete with mini-maps to help you navigate around without getting too terribly lost (which was a problem in the original). If you’re lucky, you may even find someone who’s willing to walk you to whatever location you’re looking for if you ask nicely! You can also mark points on the map for later reference, although you can’t atually label them with text.

One of the first things you’ll need to do when you arrive in Hong Kong, is get a job. You’ll need money for various things ranging from living quarters to bribes. Almost right off the bat you’ll meet a motorcycle-riding chick named Joy (and later her enterage of thugs), along with a streetwise kid named Wong. Joy will help you find a place to stay and get you set up with a job packing around crates. There are also various forms of gambling that can turn a tidy profit as well, if you have the patience for it. One key thing to note is that Shenmue II supports the Xbox "Soft Reset". Hold both the black back and forward/start buttons together for a few seconds and the game will reload w/o having to turn off the Xbox. You will need this feature later, trust me, as you cannot load a saved game from within an in progress game. From there, you’re left to investigate leads and run around the city of Wan Chai. As mentioned before, the areas are divided into quarters and have maps to help you navigate around. Most of the time you’ll be talking to various people, picking up new leads and finding out a bit more about your fathers murder. This is what’s called “Free Quest” mode. The ultimate goal is finding your fathers murderer, Lan Di, but there are some meaty sub plots and stops before you get to that. In essentially what are the three chapters of Shenmue II, you’ll wander around the streets of Wan Chai, the skyscrapers of Kowloon and finally the open countryside of Guilin. Each chapter has it’s own sort of theme. Chapter 2 is for acclimating yourself to the game, investigation and meeting new friends who will be with you through the game. Chapter 3 involves running around lots of big buildings, infiltrating and lots of action. Chapter 4 is almost all cut scenes as you walk the country side of Guilin, with a bit of simple action elements thrown into the mix. The story itself is pretty linear, and I definately felt like I was being guided the entire way. There are a few instances where you'll have a couple options on how to approach a scenario but it all seems to end up the same way anyway. The story is great, but it definitely feels like it's set it stone, hence my comment above about “playing a book”. The world itself may be non-linear and realistic, but the story is the exact opposite. The only option for dialogue you typically have is what you are currently looking for at the time. A few occasions later in the game give you multiple dialogue options, but if you've played any RPG's on the PC like Fallout or Morrowind then you may be dissapointed with the limited dialogue choices. You won’t be changing many plotlines or uncovering hidden story arcs in Shenmue II, so don’t plan for that and you’ll be fine.

The three biggest action based elements of Shenmue are the Free Battle, QTE and Command QUE modes. Free Battle occurs when Ryo is faced with, well, a battle! Sometimes it’s one opponent; sometimes it’s six! The camera angle switches to a rather unintuitive, sea-sickly angle and sometimes has trouble following the action. The combat engine is a scaled down version of the Virtua Fighter engine so at least the gameplay is smooth and fashionable. When combat is over, the camera snaps back to the normal Free Quest mode. It’s all very seamless and integrated well. QTE mode, or Quick Timer Events, are the other significant element in Shenmue II. Things like packing crates or books, will present you with a series of buttons and/or directions that you need to hit in order to succeed at whatever you are trying to do. This all happens during gameplay and is nicely integrated with the game.As the QTE event progresses, the QTE's will be presented a bit faster and more often. For the most part, most of the QTE's are relatively easy, if not a bit repetitive. There’s another form of QTE, however, which is a bit more challenging and it's called the Command QTE. When a Command QTE occurs, a diagram of the controller will pop up and the diagram will instruct you to hit certain directions and or buttons to execture an ingame action sequence. This is a new feature to Shenmue II, for those of you that played Shenmue I. You’ll run into the first of many near the start of the game when you are chasing the kid who swipes your bag, through the streets of Wan Chai. These events are more like an interactive cut-scene, ala Dragon’s Lair. You’ll be entranced by the cut scene while you miss the buttons you are suppose to hit in order to dodge the tossed over garbage can, or leap over the table in the diner, as a rough example. These action sequences are a great idea, but poorly implemented. More times than naught, they come out of nowhere and totally catch you by surprise. The majority of them will let you retry, while reloading your last saved game will be the best option for others. That took the whole immersion factor right out of it for me. The game would flow along very nicely until one of these events, then WHAM! - reload saved game or retry and try it again when I'm expecting it.. *sigh* When you do manage to be prepared for the sequences, you’ll have to concentrate more on what button or direction to hit next, rather than watch the scene itself. If they slowed it down just a TAD, you could spend a bit more time enjoying the cut scene, rather than worry about the .5 seconds you have to hit the correct direction on the controller.

Graphics-wise, Shenmue II is passable. Shenmue II was actually released in Japan over a year ago on the Dreamcast. Microsoft snatched up the rights to do the American version. The graphics don’t really push the limits of the Xbox and oddly resemble the blocky, polygonal appearance of a fighting game. Maybe they got a bit more than just the fighting engine from Virtua Fighter? The soundtrack is good. A lot of the main characters have their own little soundtrack theme, which is kind of nifty. The voice acting on the other hand, leaves much to be desired. It sounds like the voice actors were reading their lines from a script they hadn’t even looked at or prepped before hand. There are a lot of unnatural pauses and incorrect emotion from the characters. Maybe it was the editing? I’d hate to blame the voice actors if in fact it was just a piss-poor editing job.. Either way, the voice acting blows and is really only one of two MAJOR strikes for this game.

So what’s the other “major strike” against Shenmue II? It’s the pace of the game. Shenmue II isn’t paced for everyone. It’s definitely a slower game… an acquired taste, as I like to say. Even if the QTE cut scenes sound fantastic and action packed, on top of the many free style battles, action oriented gamers probably won’t dig Shenmue II. Those of you who are interested in a great story and don’t mind a slower paced game (with still a bit of upbeat action thrown in) will like Shenmue II for sure. It’s hard to say, really. I didn’t think I would enjoy it much at first, but the story drew me in and kept my interests perked throughout the duration of the game. My motivation was a hunger to see just how the story unfolded. Will you get to exact your revenge on Lan Di in a climactic battle of martial arts skill and prowess? Or will revenge have to come at a later time? You’ll have to play and see for yourself.