Shenmue I & II on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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SEGA®’s most requested re-release of all time finally comes to a new generation. Shenmue delivers an epic story of revenge within a unique open world that is still unrivalled in depth and detail. Return to the epic saga that defined modern gaming. The saga begins…again.
Shenmue I & II is a adventure, open world and story rich game
developed by D3T
and published by SEGA.
Released on August 21st 2018 is available only on Windows
in 7 languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
It has received 2,945 reviews of which 2,619 were positive and 326 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.5 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 34.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for 2.66€ on Instant Gaming.
The Steam community has classified Shenmue I & II into these genres:
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows 7 64Bit
- Processor: Intel i3-560 / AMD FX-4300
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti (1GB Vram) / AMD Radeon 6990
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 30 GB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Shenmue is a game series that is famous for many reasons. It is considered by many as the best game for Sega Dreamcast console. It was the most expensive game ever published at the time, with development costs mounting up to a staggering 70 million dollars. It was also a game that coined the infamous Quick Time Events (QTEs) that were used excessively in gaming industry for the next couple of years. Recently, Shenmue was given a BAFTA award for the most influential game of all time. Gentlemen, what you're looking at here is a living piece of gaming history. Your story begins in Japan in the year 1986. You are Ryo Hazuki, a high school student and son of a famous martial artist Iwao Hazuki. The game begins with your father being killed by the mysterious Lan Di, who also steals a precious mirror that your father brought back from China. Unable to prevent your father from being defeated in mortal combat, you set out to find Lan Di and avenge your father's death. The story of Shenmue is a story about a young man on a path to become a master of the martial arts, as well as finding his true self. The saga of Shenmue was originally intended to span over five games, but the complete story was never finished since only three games were ever released. This is a remastered version of both Shenmue I and Shenmue II in a single game with HD textures and high resolution. When Shenmue first came out in 1999, it had graphics like no other game on the market. The game featured incredibly detailed characters with full voice acting support, set in an interactive open word with time flow and realistic weather effects. Even by todays standards, the graphics in this remaster are pretty decent. Shenmue also defied any established game genre and can be vaguely described as a "fighting adventure with RPG elements and lots of minigames". I believe the same formula was later used to produce Yakuza games, however those games feel totally different. All I can say is that Shenmue offers a completely unique gameplay and I was blown away by its originality. When I first started playing, I wasn't too impressed with the game, but it started growing on me very quickly. By the time I finished my playthrough, I was completely awestruck. What I liked the most about Shenmue is the incredible atmosphere that envelops the player like a mantle. This is mostly due to fantastic world design and amazing music score, but there is also something else, a special ingredient undefinable by words. Shenmue is one of those rare games that have a soul and it's a game that you will always remember once you finish it. This is how I imagined the Far East looks like when I was a kid... martial arts, Zen philosophy and oriental music. The realistic gameplay elements, like going to sleep every night or learning new combat moves by actual practice, only heighten this feeling of immersion. Some players may not appreciate Shenmue because of its slow pace, Quick Time Events and (arguably) bad controls. Despite the numerous revolutionary innovations it brought to the world of gaming, it definitely isn't a game for everyone. Most of the gameplay consists of walking around and asking questions, which may not appeal to modern audience. Also, some tasks that Ryo will have to accomplish are repetitive and can become tedious. All of these things bothered me a little during my playthrough, but I am willing to let them slide. I cannot even begin to imagine how amazing Shenmue was 25 years ago. Even today, the game feels ahead of its time in some aspects. If you possess a certain degree of patience and can get over the clunky controls, you'll probably enjoy it as much as I did. Score (out of 10): 8
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For the best experience, make sure you've never played anything more advanced than this and then have children and lose your hair before playing the third one. It's clunky, but it's still the best kung fu movie I've ever played.
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Shenmue 1 is a masterpiece that set new standards for its era. With its innovative gameplay elements and a richly detailed world, the game offers an immersive experience that remains impressive even today. Tip: If you get stuck, resist the urge to look up a solution online right away. Instead, visit the fortune-teller and choose "hint." This unique mechanic helps you progress while staying true to the game's spirit. A must-play for fans of narrative-driven and authentic adventure games.
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It's more like a meditation on daily life than a videogame. Compared to today's open-world games Shenmue I & II seem downright unimpressive at a first glance. But even though the world in Shenmue is ridiculously small, the side activities are very limited and the plot is barely anything more than a rather basic revenge story, Shenmue I & II are a very special and unique experience even today. My impression during the first minutes of Shenmue was mixed. The game made me curious and for a 25 years old Dreamcast title the presentation is decent at the very least with especially detailed grafics and character models for the time and good music, which makes the game quite atmospheric and interesting to explore. On the other hand, the sound quality of the voices is very poor because it's extremely overcompressed and the controls seem a bit stiff and delayed at first. The gameplay is super slow-paced. 95% of the time you just run through the various small areas and talk to people, trying to find clues that'll lead you to your father's murderer. The gameplay has barely any action at all and it is really just about exploring the gameworld, getting to know the important NPCs and soaking up the atmosphere, which I enjoyed quite a lot. It was very relaxing without being boring. Your diary always tells you in a very short and straight-forward manner what to do and where to go next to progress the story. Everything else is up to you to discover, so the game completely flows exactly as fast or slow as you wish. But as much as I see this as Shenmue's biggest strength, it might be the ultimate turn-off for other people. The games indeed feel just like an old tech demo sometimes, because the gameplay mechanics really aren't that deep. The combat (which occurs only very rarely) seems tactical at first with all those possible moves and combos that you can learn, but in the end half-arsed button mashing will absolutely get you through the majority of the game and probably only the very last few fights will give you a small challenge. Many action sequences are even further reduced and minimal and consist of simple and often slightly annoying quicktime-events. Due to the limited gameplay mechanics, some parts of the game actually start to drag heavily. For example towards the end of Shenmue I i started to refer to it as the "forklift simulator", because it forces you to repeatedly race the exact same unskipable forklift race and then just makes you drive around crates from point A to Point B for hours on end. Shenmue I & II really feel like a mundane nine-to-five job at certain times and if that was the developers goal, then they fully succeeded. Some people may also criticize that Shenmue II does next to nothing to really innovate and neither develops the gameplay formula nor the presentation. It looks, sounds and feels literally just like a big add-on to Shenmue I, but as a positive aspect Shenmue II's seamless continuation of the story and consistency in the controls, presentation and artstyle form a very cohesive experience in combination with Shenmue I. At least the streets of Hongkong in Shenmue II are more colourful and lively than the small japanese town in Shenmue I and it also has better music in my opinion but that's purely subjective. In the end, after easily fixing some minor grafics glitches and getting to grips with the slightly stiff controls I actually started to enjoy Shenmue quite a lot. Due to its slow pacing, great atmosphere, relaxing music and low overall difficulty it's the perfect game for stressful times when you really just need to shut down for an hour or two and immerse yourself into a well-made and atmospheric world. If it weren't for the somewhat stiff controls, overcompressed sound, a few dragging sections and the generally non-existent replay value, Shenmue I & II would easily be a solid 5 (maybe even a low 6) out of 8, but the gameplay premise is indeed somewhat of an acquired taste and it might be just too slow and "unexciting" for people who are looking for some action, so for currently 35 Euros at full price this collection is way too expensive. Highly recommended if you are looking for a more relaxed and atmospheric adventure experience though. _________________________________________________________________________________ SHENMUE I & II Genre: Adventure / Open-World Sandbox / Fighting Release: Q3 2018 ( ) 0/8 Simply one of the worst games ever made. Don't waste any money on this. ( ) 1/8 Bad. Seriously flawed with barely any redeeming qualities. Worth a couple of Cents at best, if at all. ( ) 2/8 Sub-par. Only for hardcore-fans of respective genre / series. Don't pay more than 5 bucks. ( ) 3/8 Meh-diocre. It‘s okay. Don't pay more than 10 bucks. (X) 4/8 Decent, but not for everybody. Don't pay more than 15 bucks. ( ) 5/8 Good game, Must-play for genre- / series-fans. Worth 20 to 25 bucks max, if you are not a fan. ( ) 6/8 Great game, universal recommendation. 30 bucks would be a steal for this. ( ) 7/8 Outstanding game, a milestone of it‘s respective genre. Definitely worth its full prize. ( ) 8/8 Simply one of the best games ever made. Get this, the prize doesn't matter.
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I grew up knowing about these games, but had never played them. Until now. They are incredible. They are also deeply weird and experimental. Shenmue -- especially the first one -- is a mix of point-and-click adventure, walking sim, life sim, and fighting game. Most of the gameplay involves walking around and talking to people, absorbing the sights and immaculate vibes. Every now and then, the game presents you with a QTE event or battle sequence to check that you're awake. One of the main themes of these games is boredom. Or rather, patience, slowness. The Shenmue experience is about being slightly bored all of the time. Not entirely bored: you're still engaged and immersed, of course. But everything you do is at least a little bit boring. In Shenmue, if you want to grab something from a cabinet, you have to stare at the cabinet, then open it, then find the object inside the cabinet, pick it up and inspect it, and then store it in your inventory. This takes approximately half a minute, maybe more. It will feel like hours. Eventually, you get used to it. Or you don't and just stop playing. Thing is, though, everything in the game, even the boring parts, feel entirely by design. It's a revenge narrative about the importance of taking things slowly, meeting people, reconsidering your goals, etc. The boring parts feel purposeful. That's key to my acceptance of them. I just get into the flow, acclimate to the leisurely pace. It also helps that, again, the vibes are always immaculate. That object you just picked up from the cabinet is probably going to be lovingly rendered and designed -- within the constraints of graphics from 25 years ago, of course. You also chose to pick it up: the vast majority of the game's detailing is optional. You get as much as you put in. Shenmue II is, for lack of a better word, a more normal videogame. There's more action and the story is far more propulsive. It is an equally magisterial experience, if perhaps not quite as delicate, interesting, and authentic as the first outing. That said, while it's more normal than the first game, that doesn't mean it's actually normal compared to all other games. The entire final act, without spoiling too much, is a long (long) walk through nature. Now, this long walk happens right after the most action-packed sequence in the franchise, so it feels like a well-earned cooldown sesh. It's fine. It's vibes. You pick up wood in a cave. 10 out of 10, would light a fire again. I will say this: Shenmue II clearly influenced open world design in ways Shenmue hasn't. The original remains a unique oddity, perhaps too small, self-contained, and meandering to be truly imitated. I think calling these games "dated," as many would, is both missing the point and not really helpful. This is not how most or any games played in 1999. It would not be how games would play later, either. They are very expensive art games. Hugely expensive. The closest modern comparison isn't actually the Yakuza titles, but Death Stranding. One of the best parts of Shenmue is when you open the cabinets below the kitchen sink and jump at the sight of a scuttling cockroach. Your protagonist comments, "It's just a cockroach." Peak immersion.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Shenmue I & II is currently priced at 34.99€ on Steam.
Shenmue I & II is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 34.99€ on Steam.
Shenmue I & II received 2,619 positive votes out of a total of 2,945 achieving a rating of 8.54.
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Shenmue I & II was developed by D3T and published by SEGA.
Shenmue I & II is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Shenmue I & II is not playable on MacOS.
Shenmue I & II is not playable on Linux.
Shenmue I & II is a single-player game.
Shenmue I & II does not currently offer any DLC.
Shenmue I & II does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Shenmue I & II does not support Steam Remote Play.
Shenmue I & II is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Shenmue I & II.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 08 June 2025 03:31 |
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| SteamSpy data | 08 June 2025 17:12 |
| Steam price | 14 June 2025 20:40 |
| Steam reviews | 12 June 2025 13:56 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Shenmue I & II, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Shenmue I & II
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Shenmue I & II concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Shenmue I & II compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
15
Developer
D3T
Publisher
SEGA
Release
21 Aug 2018
Platforms
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