Our last Wishing on a Game feature concentrated on Rare’s killer series, Killer Instinct, with the dream of a third installment. This time we look at arguably one of the most influential games of the last 15 years, a game that defined the Dreamcast. That game is Shenmue, but what would we want if Sega ever decided to develop that much-wanted third installment of the series.

There were many great games on the Sega Dreamcast; games such as Sonic Adventures, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Power Stone, andVirtua Fighter, among others, kept gamers occupied for hours on end, but there was one game that had every Dreamcast owner drooling, one game that was so far ahead of its time that many people thought it couldn’t be done. It had romance, it had death, it had action, it even had everyday jobs to gain money. It had gambling, it had pool games, and it was the first to introduce quick time events (QTE). So what was this legendary game? None other than Shenmue.

Developed by Sega-AM2 under the direction of the legendary Yu Suzuki, Shenmue was a masterpiece. It gave birth to the “FREE” acronym, which stands for “Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment." This is how Suzuki was describing the game throughout development. What Suzuki was implying was the fact that he wanted to give the player the freedom and interactivity they come across every day in real life. He achieved this goal by simulating aspects of real life that include morning, afternoon, and evening time settings. The Shenmue world would revolve around these different times; shops would open in the morning and then shut in the afternoon, pubs would start getting busy during the evening times, the streets would become less populated throughout the night, and people would be doing their usual daily routines just as they would in real life. This was unheard of at this time. He also included the option of working to gain money as well as build trust with people who might give you information. Again, this was unheard of back then, and created that extra bit of realism Suzuki wanted.

Shenmue’s story revolves around Ryo Hazuki and his quest for revenge for the death of his father at the hands of Lan Di. The game opens with a hard-hitting bang with the death of Ryo’s father which then sets the tone for the rest of the game. The death of his father came because Lan Di wanted a special item by the name of “Dragon Mirror” which Ryo’s father processed, when Lan Di threatened to kill Ryo, his father gave up the location details and once Lan Di had said item in his hands he killed Ryo’s father. Once this dramatic cut scene is over the game starts and it is up to you do some investigation and ask people around the town if they saw anything surrounding the incident. The information Ryo receives leads you to where you will be spending most of your time, the city of Yokosuka. Throughout the game you meet some very interesting and intriguing characters which include Master Chen and your “love” interest Nozomi. There are many different twists and turns throughout the game, and we could spend all day discussing it.

Shenmue II carried on from where the first left off and improved on some of the complaints surrounding it. This mainly had to do with the game’s slow pacing. Though it improved on these gameplay complaints, many thought that the sequel didn’t have the same effect as the original. The game wasn’t nearly as detailed as the original and felt a bit underwhelming when compared to the groundbreaking original.

At this point in time many other games started using the same gameplay mechanics that Shenmue introduced, and like the infamous Matrix effects, these lost the original wow factor. So, why hasn’t there been a Shenmue III? Well Shenmue II, an Xbox exclusive, sold pretty badly. Add that to the huge loss Sega incurred while developing the first, which cost over 70 million dollars, and you don’t come up with a very profitable series. Yu Suzuki, as you may have heard, recently stepped down as creative designer at Sega. This comes as no surprise, considering Suzuki hasn’t been in the frame since Virtua Fighter 4 and thus hasn’t had much say in pushing for Shenmue III. So what would we want in a third installment?