Games Similar to Shenmue??

I completely forgot about Good Life. Since he announced Deadly Premonition 2 I thought he'd given up on it. Good to know it's still in development. He's really doubling down on his Twin Peaks vibes and I can't get enough of that.
 
Yeah, def. still in development. Just got a project update a few days ago.
 
Bump. Cradle is $2.59 on Steam right now. It's one of my favorite games. If anyone has a PC I think at least a few people here might appreciate it.
 
I'm two years late to this conversation but if you like Shenmue I wholeheartedly recommend The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa, available on I think every platform now (100% Switch, PC, Xbox).

You play as a teenager in 80s Japan, it has beat em up combat, routine NPCs, no hand holding, very much a game you feel like Shenmue.

School sim elements, mini games... I loved it and it's clearly heavily inspired by Shenmue I in particular.

Hope this is helpful to other people who have the Shenmue bug! Praying that III comes to Xbox.
 
One game I've heard about surprisingly is an Evangelion game on the PSP called 'Evangelion 2 -another cases-'. You can walk around the world talking to people, you can go inside areas and buy items at stores exactly like Shenmue, some days you have to go into a mech and destroy enemies, altogether you have about 13 playable characters with their own story. It sounds amazing and I want to play it so badly, but the problem is it's completely in Japanese! There was a team working on translating the game with the source on GitHub, but they stopped working on it. Hopefully it gets translated one day. :( but for the people who know Japanese I'd recomend trying it!
 
Not sure about anyone else, but Shenmue wasn't my first tase of FREE, although certainly usurped and perfected the style: Mega Man Legends

Damn shame the third was cancelled :/

Nomad Soul another common similar game; finally about to play Shadow of Destiny in a few weeks! Been waiting for about 20 years, finally found a copy of the game a bit ago.

*edit* allow me to clarify: going into the Caves in 3D Mega Man engine and going to the shopping mall was ridiculous to my pre teen brain
 
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Bully: Scholarship Edition


Funny enough Bully is another one of my favourite games of all time which I played before Shenmue. This must be why I loved Shenmue so much. Bully certainly is a great 3D open world adventure game and I feel like there's not enough games like this. Grand Theft Auto will always be classic but it never feels as mesmerising as the aforementioned games.
 
Try Yuan Xuan Sword 7 . It's not extremely similar, but it can be quite theraputic outside of battles and the Mahjong mini game is brilliant. The opening sequences do have a Shenmue-esque vibe about them, though.

 
Try Yuan Xuan Sword 7 . It's not extremely similar, but it can be quite theraputic outside of battles and the Mahjong mini game is brilliant. The opening sequences do have a Shenmue-esque vibe about them, though.

This game looks really really good but for me personally fantasy villains in an Asian setting is so overdone its an automatic turn off, but in this case I actually think it may be doable because it looks like they fit in well with the lore and it doesn't look like an RPG either which is refreshing. Is this a sequel number 7? Or is it just the name of the game?
 
Try Yuan Xuan Sword 7 . It's not extremely similar, but it can be quite theraputic outside of battles and the Mahjong mini game is brilliant. The opening sequences do have a Shenmue-esque vibe about them, though.

I played the Xuan Yuan 7 demo on Steam and really enjoyed it, thanks again for the recommendation!! I'm looking to possibly buy it on Xbox Series (or PS5) since my computer isn't ideal for this game, but I like the 45 minutes of it I tried. I noticed there are older titles like Gate of Firmament. Are the older titles worth experiencing too do you know? I looked on youtube and they look a little more Final Fantasy-ish than Ghost of Tsushima-ish like XY7 does.
 
Is this a sequel number 7? Or is it just the name of the game?
It's the 7th entry but is a standalone title (y)

I noticed there are older titles like Gate of Firmament. Are the older titles worth experiencing too do you know?
I've only played 7 and GoF as they are both on Xbox. GoF was also really good so I would highly recommend it!
Glad you enjoyed the demo of 7, it is a fantastic game! :giggle:
 
It's a standalone title :)


I've only played 7 and GoF as they are both on Xbox. GoF was also really good so I would highly recommend it!
Glad you enjoyed the demo of 7, it is a fantastic game!

I'm going to check out GoF as well. Have you seen this game franchise by the same creator as Xuan Yuan? This game looks good too. Have you played it?
 
Bully: Scholarship Edition

I'm talking about the gameplay of it though since the story of Bully is just there to make you laugh.

What similarities it has with Shenmue ?

1.You have to sleep at night like Shenmue games.
2.You have distinct looking npcs.
3.You can talk to every npc.(But you can reply to them positively or negatively instead of asking them directions.)
4.You play as a teenager similar to Shenmue.
5.You can buy sodas from vending machines.
6.You can earn money by doing some side quests similar to Shenmue.
7.It has lots of mini games in it.
8.Combat is hand to hand similar to Shenmue.(But with less depth)
9.You can somehow feel that the world is alive. When the classes start you will see students moving into classes.(And then you barely see them. At night you can't see any students. And you can see students interacting with each other like Bullies bullying nerds)
10.You can learn new combat moves similar to Shenmue games.
I actually met Gerry Rosenthal recently who played Jimmy. I adore that game too
 
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is like medieval Shenmue.
Somewhat similar plots, very immersive, unique and detail-oriented.
 
I could have sworn I mentioned Shadow of Memories / Shadow of Destiny on this thread! Oh well, further chance to gush about it!

Set in A fictional German Town you play as Eike Kusch, a man who suddenly gets stabbed one day out on a walk and falls into a state of Limbo. There he meets a strange being called Homunculus who grants him powers to time travel and find ways to prevent his death through making changes in the past.

The premise as intriuging as it is isn't why it relates to Shenmue but the games sense of exploration. Much like Shenmue there are tons of little secrets to find through navigating the envorinment and the games rewards aren't neccessarly ones that give gameplay advantages like new wepaons or items but simply through extras little scenes in the town. There are at least two Sidequests within the game to which Eike can give gifts to other NPC's purely through kindness and it's moments like this, hidden sequences which expand the sense of community in the game to where it really shines.

Like Shenmues NPC's, they really stand out! While there daily schedules aren't as detailed as Shenmue, the game has set chapters and the NPC's will appear in different places and comment on different goings on. But one cool feature is how the game presents it's heritage! In this game you go further back into the past and you will be various NPC's ancestors - All who have a similar look and same actors to their decesendants. One NPC has an obession with Oval shape objects and at one point you can even go back 100 years in the past and give his grandfather a pocketwatch to start that obession. It's also fun to go through the different ages and see all the little differences but still see how the layout is the same.

I'm still working on my Youtube channel to offer fun and helpful videos to riase awareness over the game. I'm still hoping Konami port it to modern systems - Mostly hoping this Playstation Plus Premium package will offer it as a backwards compatible title. But I'll leave my channel and Wiki info below incase your interested about the game :)

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5iu997K9_zHim6xtfmx-vw
Fandom - https://shadowofmemories.fandom.com/wiki/Shadow_of_Memories_Wiki
 
the life is strange games are fun, theyre slower paced than most games with good stories, i just finished a couple of the sherlock holmes games too (the devils daughter and crimes and punishments) they were pretty fun, again slow paced and having to talk to everyone, investigating things. but really theres nothing like shenmue 1 and 2, i'd rather forget about 3
 
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