Games Similar to Shenmue??

the life is strange games are fun, theyre slower paced than most games with good stories, i just finished a couple of the sherlock holmes games too (the devils daughter and crimes and punishments) they were pretty fun, again slow paced and having to talk to everyone, investigating things. but really theres nothing like shenmue 1 and 2, i'd rather forget about 3
I agree with you on Life Is Strange, once again it is another one of them games which allows you to go at your own pace and explore - While not in an open world enviornment, you get changes to explore the scenss you are in.
 
I played Shenmue for the first time this year and became a huge fan of the franchise.
I think it's unique. I've never played anything like it.

Note: with rare exceptions, I don't play games made by westerners.
 
Shenmue is unique, nothing is like it however theres some games that have a similar feeling and funnily enough Yakuza games are nothing like Shenmue, the world building, investigative and slow pacing isn't there.

Some games that gave me a shenmue feeling:

Way of the Samurai
Deadly Premonition
Shadow of Memories
Kenka Bancho
No More Heroes
Omikron: The Nomad Soul
Heavy Rain
 
Stray is giving me great Shenmue vibes. It's free on PS Plus and cheap on Steam.
I finished it yesterday. Playing it through one more time. If you like Stray check out Spirit of the North. Also free on PS Plus.


 
I'm currently searching for Shenmue-alikes too, good luck to us both. I'm even debating getting sleeping dogs (and people think yakuza is dark...). So anyway, besides all the obvious titles, heres some you may have missed.
For Yu's initial concept I'd recommend:
Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance
Final Fight: Streetwise.
Jade Empire

All are Ps2/xbox era fighting rpgs. I havn't played FF and it's expensive and I see it devolves into zombies and guns as the game progresses so probably just Beat down.
For story/plot:
Hiryu No Ken series (mostly jp only). U.S title for S on snes = Ultimate Fighter
For exploration with immersion/laborsoflove I recommend pretty much anything by pirahna bytes.
Gothic series
Risen series
I own them all but only played about 10 minutes of Gothic 1. 1+2 are supposed to be amazing but I can say for sure 1 has crummy controls. 3 is apparently bad I guess? Risen 1 is a very drab game but VERY immersive, first lengthy game I've ever played twice through back to back. Pro tip: if you don't want your character looking homeless for too long there is a seaman's shirt in a chest on the first farm. Risen 2 is my favorite but clearly wasn't finished in time so its.... yeah you'll find out if you play.
If I think of more I shall return.
 
I'm currently searching for Shenmue-alikes too, good luck to us both. I'm even debating getting sleeping dogs (and people think yakuza is dark...). So anyway, besides all the obvious titles, heres some you may have missed.
For Yu's initial concept I'd recommend:
Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance
Final Fight: Streetwise.
Jade Empire

All are Ps2/xbox era fighting rpgs. I havn't played FF and it's expensive and I see it devolves into zombies and guns as the game progresses so probably just Beat down.
For story/plot:
Hiryu No Ken series (mostly jp only). U.S title for S on snes = Ultimate Fighter
For exploration with immersion/laborsoflove I recommend pretty much anything by pirahna bytes.
Gothic series
Risen series
I own them all but only played about 10 minutes of Gothic 1. 1+2 are supposed to be amazing but I can say for sure 1 has crummy controls. 3 is apparently bad I guess? Risen 1 is a very drab game but VERY immersive, first lengthy game I've ever played twice through back to back. Pro tip: if you don't want your character looking homeless for too long there is a seaman's shirt in a chest on the first farm. Risen 2 is my favorite but clearly wasn't finished in time so its.... yeah you'll find out if you play.
If I think of more I shall return.
Cool!

Sleeping Dogs and Yakuza feel nothing like Shenmue other than it taking place in Asian countries. Sleeping Dogs was good enough maybe 7.5/10 or 8/10 I bought it on deep sale for about $4. I find the Yakuza games unplayable.


Jade Empire is decent.

Thanks for the recommendations!
 
Oh! Indigo Prophecy ,how did I forget that one?? Actually that's probably the most like shenmue I can think of, but it's heavy on the supernatural. You could probably get it for most systems, it had a tiny revival recently. I havn't gotten very far in it but def recommend.
And I'd like to refine my original posting and really recommend Risen 1. All of pirahna bytes work is laboroflove kind of stuff and every game they release they try new things to refine their formula and make them more playable, nothing theyve made is 100% good as I've seen but theyre still in business so that's gotta mean something. Risen 1 has the BEST dungeons I've ever played in any rpg, you have to use your own brain and eyes to get through them- much like Shenmue exploration. And the game offers you a variety of paths to a single end also like Shen. If you live in Germany it's coming to Nintendo Switch!
 
Oh! Indigo Prophecy ,how did I forget that one?? Actually that's probably the most like shenmue I can think of, but it's heavy on the supernatural. You could probably get it for most systems, it had a tiny revival recently. I havn't gotten very far in it but def recommend.
And I'd like to refine my original posting and really recommend Risen 1. All of pirahna bytes work is laboroflove kind of stuff and every game they release they try new things to refine their formula and make them more playable, nothing theyve made is 100% good as I've seen but theyre still in business so that's gotta mean something. Risen 1 has the BEST dungeons I've ever played in any rpg, you have to use your own brain and eyes to get through them- much like Shenmue exploration. And the game offers you a variety of paths to a single end also like Shen. If you live in Germany it's coming to Nintendo Switch!
I've played Indigo Prophecy back when it released, thanks! If you like Indigo I highly recommend another game from the same creator of that game: Detroit Become Human.
 
Fahrenheit as we know it here in Europe is indeed a nice game. The presentation is great and the story is also interesting. It has horrible controls though judged by modern standards and I really would not compare it with Shenmue. the gameplay is too linear for that and you also cannot interact with your environment as much as you can in the Shenmue games.

I would still recommend the game for people that are into classic adventures that do not mind the clunky controlls.
 
Risen 1 you also have to find trainers in order to raise stats and gain skills, blending them seamlessly imo with the game world. Ex: Ris2 comes to mind,
when training toughness with a native, he explains to the nameless hero how the Tonka warriors are so much better at ignoring pain than the foreigners and offers insight into their mentality. However if you train with Blake the pirate he says something along the lines of "aaww, does the poor little baby have a ickle wickle scratch??"

Beatdown is an underrated game too but not outright good. Capcom cranked it and ff streetwise out at the same time. Ff was given western influence and beatdown eastern. Playing the game *feels* like shenmue because everything is so dated and you traverse small sections of the city at a time with loading screens in between. Its unique that there is both 3d and side-view fighting. Decent character dressup as I recall, never occured to me but you might be able to make a guy look kinda like Ryo. Its probably not what youre looking for but if you want to recruit every character it requires ALOT of exploration with specific timing and I think a few random encounters, in a way that's *kinda* like shenmue... My advice, dont recruit every character.
 
I've played Indigo Prophecy back when it released, thanks! If you like Indigo I highly recommend another game from the same creator of that game: Detroit Become Human.
Oh i didnt know they made that. Maybe Ill have to add it to my 'check for steam sales' list like shen 1+2. I remember seeing that game everywhere and just kinda wrote it off as yet another lifestrange/untildawn boomer.
A blog recommended Remember Me as a shenmuealike. I wouldnt exactly agree with that but I found out it was the Life is Strange devs' first game. I coulda bought it for $5 back when 360 still got sales but didnt.
 
Oh i didnt know they made that. Maybe Ill have to add it to my 'check for steam sales' list like shen 1+2. I remember seeing that game everywhere and just kinda wrote it off as yet another lifestrange/untildawn boomer.
A blog recommended Remember Me as a shenmuealike. I wouldnt exactly agree with that but I found out it was the Life is Strange devs' first game. I coulda bought it for $5 back when 360 still got sales but didnt.
Detroit Become Human is free on PlayStation Plus, or if you only have PC there is a free demo for it on Steam. It's a fantastic game. If you like Fahrenheit/Indigo and Detroit the same guy that made those made Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls. All interesting games, but personally I think Detroit is the only one that's truly fantastic of his games, its also the most recent.

G2A dot com has Shenmue 1 & 2 for Steam for $5 USD right now on deep sale.

Remember Me doesn't feel like Shenmue at all to me. A mediocre 3rd person action title.

Life Is Strange: True Colors is phenomenal and Tell Me Why is also really good if you like decision based games. The older Life is Strange games don't really interest me much.
 
Yes Detroit become Human is also a very good game.

Disaster Report 4 also has some Shenmue vibes due the city exploring element. It has no fighting action though.

Another Adventure that has little Shenmue vibes would be Dreamfall the longest Journey. It is not as open as Shenmue but you can also walk around talking to people and explore stuff. A Hand to Hand Combat System is present in the game but is not as good as the one in Shenmue.
 
Yes Detroit become Human is also a very good game.

Disaster Report 4 also has some Shenmue vibes due the city exploring element. It has no fighting action though.

Another Adventure that has little Shenmue vibes would be Dreamfall the longest Journey. It is not as open as Shenmue but you can also walk around talking to people and explore stuff. A Hand to Hand Combat System is present in the game but is not as good as the one in Shenmue.
I recently saw dreamfall while looking up 360 compatibilities. Seems unique. From what ive seen its kinda like eternal darkness? Despite its crumminess how much hand to hand combat is in the game? Can you spar with a trainer or random encounters to increase the amount?
 
It is more a classic adventure and not really a full blown action adventure like Eternal Darkness. They are some fight scenes but there are not as plenty as in an average action adventure.

You can practise fighting at the beginning of the game in a gym with your instructor. Later in the game there is another practise season when a new playable character is introduced.
 
Thanks for the Shenmue heads up Otber. I just picked up all 3 because 3 was so cheap. I've seen absolutely nothing about the game I like but I figure for the cheaper than dirt price I got it for I might as well give it a go and make an opinion based on my own playing. I didn't even like 2, it was too weird for my taste. The criminals and many characters didnt look real to me, Kowloon looked nothing like Kowloon- a stark contrast to the meticulously crafted Yokosuka of 1, and for some reason I doubt there were wushu masters on every street corner.
I saw a trailer and beta footage of Shenmue Online for the first time the other day, it made me sad. The trailer was exactly how I envisioned the future of Shenmue.. except for the spells. How stupid to try and make it a clickfest rpg.

Also if you havn't played it I want to upvote MK Deception's Konquest mode which somebody else mentioned.
 
I thought that I did write some recomendations in a thread like this, but I don't find it.

Anyway, I recommend Final Fantasy XV, it gave me many similar vibes in some aspects.
 
Disaster Report 4 also has some Shenmue vibes due the city exploring element. It has no fighting action though.

God, that was a fun game! Loved the exploration elements and weird humour (one quest has you hunting down a toilet roll for a gentleman who can't leave the loo until he has it :ROFLMAO:)
 
God, that was a fun game! Loved the exploration elements and weird humour (one quest has you hunting down a toilet roll for a gentleman who can't leave the loo until he has it :ROFLMAO:)

I know you don't like it, Sonoshee, but RGG games have been doing that for over a decade, culminating with 7 making it a recurring substory ;)
 
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