"The Dreamcast's last hurray, stolen from the U.S. by evil Microsoft!"

Shenmue II, the sequel to Shenmue for the Dreamcast, only represents chapters 2 through 5 of the 16+ chapter long series created by Yu Suzuki (he's also credited for creating other great Sega classics, such as the Virtua fighter series). Even when this game's credits roll, you know the story is far from done. I'll be willing to bet that there will be at least 3 more Shenmue's after this one to complete the series. With that said, the game is pretty long and HUGE within its own rights!

With the premature death of the Dreamcast imminent, Shenmue 2 was set to be the last hurray for Dreamcast owners around the world. However, the game was never released in the U.S., so that it would appear exclusively on the XBox in the U.S. (evil, evil Microsoft!). Fortunately enough, you can still import a copy from Europe, which features the original Japanese language with english subtitling (a BIG improvement over the horrible dubbing which was in the first game).

Shenmue 2 fixes all of the problems with the first Shenmue. One of the biggest complaints with the first game was that you'd have to spend a lot of time just waiting around for some event to occur. In Shenmue 2 however though, you can just go to where the event will occur, and you can warp the time ahead to experience the event immediately if you want.

The first game took place in Sakurgoka, a medium sized town, so the game world in the original Shenmue wasn't all that big, at least, compared to the 2nd Shenmue's world. Shenmue 2's world of Hong Kong is down right HUGE! Hong Kong is divided into different quarters (Wise Man's quarter, Luck Quarter, etc.), plus there's Queen and King's Streets, Aberdeen, Worker's Pier, Scarlet Hills, etc. And each area has unique shops which you can go into and talk to the people inside. The world is bustling place with thousands of people easily. Furthermore, you can take stops to play Pachinko, the slots, or various other dice-rolling gambling games. You can even get a part-time job to earn extra money, or sell all your stuff off at 6 different pawn shops. With the world being so huge, you might think you would get lost (and you still do). However, Sega has added maps to the game, making Hong Kong easier to navigate. Also, you can talk to people and they will usually take you to wherever you want to go! Oh, and there are 4 game discs, and you leave Hong Kong after only the 2nd game disc! I don't want to spoil anything for you, but you can guess that there are plenty of other places for you to visit other than just the area around Hong Kong.

The graphics are down right impressive. Despite the Dreamcast's ''inferior hardware'', I doubt the XBox will even be able to rival this game in the graphics department. All of the people are well animated, and they aren't too repetitive. Each character's face looks quite realistic, and moves in synchronization with their dialogue too. The resolution is high, the polygon models are nice and well rounded, the cities are huge and detailed, the streets are populated by plenty of people, and the textures are nice and crisp, the only thing which really suffers sometimes is the frame-rate, and at some points the textures will be a bit blurry. A tribute to the Dreamcast's graphic capabilities.

Shenmue 2's sound is superb as well, the streets of Hong Kong sound just like I'd imagine them too. The music is pretty similar to the first game's music, which means its great.

As far as gameplay goes, you basically go around talking to various people looking for clues or hints. They'll usually refer you to different people, who will refer you to different people, who will refer you to even more people. Basically it goes on and on like this as you try to meet different people. It may sound dull, but the storyline advances a little as you meet each person. Furthermore, things aren't usually so simple as just going up to someone and talking to them. You'll usually have to beat up a bunch of guys in a free-fight, or do some QTE.

That brings me to my next point: fighting. The 2nd disc of Shenmue 2 probably has much fighting as the entire first game did. The fighting system is pretty simple, you use the D-Pad, and have a punch, kick, dodge / parry, grab, and run buttons. There are a lot of different moves you can perform though using different button combinations. The fighting system isn't a super-human fighting system where you can shoot fire-balls out of your hands, but it's more realistic, using real Martial Arts moves.

If you liked the first game, or just like playing good games in general, then you REALLY HAVE TO IMPORT THIS GAME! You won't be disappointed! Don't support evil conglomerates like Microsoft, support the dyeing Dreamcast! This game goes in my own personal top-10-best-games-of-all-time list, and it's sad how little recognition this game receives, especially considering how much time, money, and work Sega put into making it. The LEAST you could do is buy it!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 04/18/02, Updated 07/19/02