We’ve stumbled across this wonderful article by Davide Soliani on his personal website. Davide is the creative director for the Mario + Rabbids series and has worked on a large number of video games across the years.
Titled ‘What’s Shenmue’, Davide dives into what made Shenmue special all those years ago. In particular, the realism and world stood out – ‘It was December 29, 1999 when Joystick Fun managed to get me an imported copy of Shenmue. And Shenmue hit me like a bolt from the blue. It was unbelievable for the time — a game that pushed far beyond the boundaries of anything I was used to. I remember two precise moments that made me realize this magic wasn’t affecting just me, but other people as well (and anyone who denies it is lying).
“There was simply no escaping the charm of that game. Impossible. At some point, about six hours in, I ran out of cigarettes (I was still smoking back then, fortunately I later decided to quit). I looked at my friend and said, “Let’s go get cigarettes at the tobacco shop.”He looked at the screen and replied, “Okay, tell me which way it is — I didn’t see where it was.”
“I looked at him, confused, and said, “No, I mean in real life. Let’s step outside for a minute — I need to buy cigarettes.”
“That moment made me think a lot. Something as mundane as going to buy something in the real world had suddenly become a plausible action inside a video game. Today it might sound trivial, but in 1999 it absolutely wasn’t.”
Later on, when working at Ubisoft, he brought in the demo of What’s Shenmue, wowing his colleagues with the insane technology and details in the faces demo. At the time, this was ground breaking beyond anything had ever seen. The industry respect still resonates to this day.
‘the magic was so strong, and the technology felt so alien, that for a few seconds it actually seemed plausible to a small group of mesmerized developers.’
Davide is now in the midst of replaying Shenmue, safe in the knowledge that magic will never go away. But, like us, wanting more! ‘God, how I wish Yu Suzuki could finish this saga. Governments should give him the money to do it — not letting him finish it feels like a crime against humanity.’
He also follows Shenmue Dojo online, which is incredibly flattering! Thank you Davide for this article and for following us!
