Wich games have been remotely able to surprise you as Shenmue did?

Earthbound is the game that made me a gamer, as opposed to a guy that "liked Mario as a kid". I had never before been immersed into a game like I was when I brought Earthbound home as a kid. Best blind buy of my life, all to the big box and strategy guide being included. It is the only game that I would say tops Shenmue for me, mostly because I played it first as a kid, but since I finally got to see that series end with Mother 3, Shenmue might be #1 now, just because the mythical Shenmue III has been my holy grail of gaming for so long now.

Shenmue is the last game that totally blew me away. Part of that is due to being older, and video games no longer having that sort of effect on my life anymore, the other is that we've delved so far into 3D gaming that the sheer "wow" factor from generation to generation is not there anymore. That doesn't mean there aren't incredible games on consoles every year, but the jump from SNES -> n64, or even from n64/PSX to DC/Xbox/PS2 just isn't replicated anymore. I feel like every generation from the PS2 on has just been more gradual or incremental changes, your eyeballs don't pop out of your head anymore when you boot something up.

Honorable mentions as far as lasting gaming experiences for me would be: Fallout 2 (3/NV), Metal Gear Solid, GTA3. But they pale in comparison to the feeling after finishing Earthbound and Shenmue (well, Shenmue II as well, I guess). I would actually say the experience of GTA 3 was almost as mindblowing as Shenmue as far as being so deeply immersed in a game and its world.
 
Last edited:
None sadly. Shenmue simply was everything I wanted from a game at the time and nothing else came close to it since.
Still there are other games that left their mark, Soul Reaver 2, Metal Gear Solid 2, The Witcher 3, Deus EX (including recent ones) etc.
 
Like most people, for me it's:

Final Fantasy VII
Super Mario 64
Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2 (and more recently 5)
Zelda Ocarina of Time and BotW
....and Shenmue
 
Yakuza series
Killer 7
Shadow of the Colossus
Journey
Zelda series in general
Max Payne 3
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Red Dead Redemption
The Walking Dead
Project Zero 1,2,3
Silent Hill 1,2,3,4
Metal Gear Solid, especially 2 and 3. 5 being my least favorite
Resident Evil series, especially 2,3 and Code Veronica
Skies of Arcadia

Not all for the same reason but most of them share a sense of immersion.
 
Drakub said:
Like most people, for me it's:

Final Fantasy VII
Super Mario 64
Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2 (and more recently 5)
Zelda Ocarina of Time and BotW
....and Shenmue
Click to expand...

You have the same exact taste as I do. Love all your choices. With the exception of Zelda OOT, I still own all these games from when I bought them way back when.
 
Apparently we're supposed to be talking about "wow" moments and stuff that "blew us away," but honestly Shenmue didn't even do that for me.
It's not really that kind of game, is it?
I played it initially without knowing much of anything beyond what I'd seen in a few screenshots. And the graphics were great, sure, but I had little expectation otherwise. I was raised on PC point-n-click adventures, so most of the game on my first time through simply struck me as one of those, but in full 3D. There was no individual "wow" moment, really.
It's not like, say, Shadow of the Colossus, when ride your horse across a vast plain to encounter your first enemy, and you realize the sheer scale of everything. Or the original Far Cry, when you emerge from the initial underground bunker and see this vast, open island environment ahead of you. Those are great games -- and great moments -- but those "wow" moments, those examples of being "blown away," are moments of instant gratification. Quick jolts of surprise and wonder that are amazing on your first encounter (and are great to think back on), but you get used to them after a while, and you can never truly re-experience them with the same sense of shock and awe.
Shenmue isn't like that.
Shenmue is a slow burn.
It's the kind of thing that I beat the first time, put it away... then couldn't get over this odd feeling like all I wanted to do was replay it. Go back to Dobuita and Yokosuka and keep exploring and talking to people and finding new things. Keep getting to know this small town. Barely a week after playing it, and I could listen to the music and already get a shiver of nostalgia from the main themes.
It was never a moment of "wow," but rather a later realization that nothing else really feels like this particular game.
It was more of a low-key "...huh." That sounds unimpressive at first, sure, but it's the kind of experience that stays with you a bit longer.
It's like the difference between being tickled, and being told an incredibly clever joke. Being tickled will make you laugh, sure, but it gets old quick. A really clever joke might not make you laugh uncontrollably, but it has the power to make you smile when you think back on it, over and over again. And obviously one of those things is far more enriching than the other.
That's Shenmue.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top