Shenmue Reborn

- Andy Kelly

Until now, the only way to play the original Shenmue was on the Dreamcast. But thanks to a relentless campaign by fans to bring it to modern platforms, and UK development studio D3T, Yu Suzuki’s ambitious martial arts epic has finally been given a new lease of life. Shenmue I & II collects the first two games in the series, enabling you to play them in 4K with a few subtle visual tweaks including anti-aliasing and subtle bloom lighting.

“The love and passion that went into these games is clear to see,” says Noel Austin, technical director at D3T, when I ask him why he thinks Shenmue has such a cult following. “The world is incredibly detailed and researched, and really makes you feel like you’re living in Yokosuka in the ’80s. Also, there’s very little hand-holding. You have to use maps and talk to people, which is quite refreshing in this age of constant objective markers.”

D3T first received the Shenmue archive from SEGA back in October 2015 and there was a huge amount of data to sort through before development could begin in earnest. “Ramp-up was slow while we picked through the massive data archive and planned the approach we would take to porting it,” remembers Austin. “Over the lifetime of the project, at least 20 people have touched the code, although the peak team size was probably around ten developers.”

“The pressure was immense,” he adds. “Both from the expectations of the community and the importance of the Shenmue brand within SEGA. We know how passionate the community is about the game, and rightly so. The fans worked really hard in pushing for this re-release, and we were grateful to be the studio given the opportunity to bring it back.”