December is here, Christmas is approaching, and when I look outside the window of my little office space, I see snow falling signaling that winter has indeed arrived. I live in a small harbor town south of Oslo, with a small local community, ships docking into port daily just down the street, and friendly narrow neighborhoods where everyone knows everyone. You might be wondering what the significance of this is, but maybe some of you already know where I’m going with this: my town has some strong similarities to Yokosuka, the town in which Shenmue takes place.
Seeing that the snow has fallen and winter is showing its cold rear end, I found myself drawn to play and write about this game. And in doing so, I was once again reminded of the masterpiece that is Shenmue. Few games have offered such a sense of realism. Every character has a purpose, a reason of being who they are. Yokosuka feels like a place that is alive, not only because of polygons or special effects, but because of real emotions. All your feelings and senses are triggered in this game, and one of the main reasons behind this is the amazing score by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Yuzo Koshiro, Osamu Murata and Ryuji Iuchi.
So join us in getting chills to the sounds of Shenmue chapter 1 -yokosuka- (more…)
