The only areas changed are those subject to licensing deals, such as Timex and Coca Cola, or small quality of life improvements like the ability to save anywhere. By retaining the textures and simply running the game at a higher resolution and frame rate, the original intent and feel is retained - something that isn't always true in more hands-on remasters. Yeah, Shenmue has a lot of textures that look grainy as hell when the game is running at 2160p or 1080p, but it doesn't really matter. I actually really appreciate it in this case. It's good stuff, a sort of belt-and-braces approach to porting an old game. Sure, the textures are the same quality and the minor tweaks offered in the different new control modes for the game don't do much to stop it from often feeling like a frustrating, plodding nightmare, but this is still easily the definitive version of Shenmue, running in widescreen (in game, anyway - story sequences remain 4:3) and at a locked, solid 30 frames per second where the Dreamcast and original Xbox versions would dip down to the low teens. One has to say that if Sega wanted to call this a HD Remaster they could very well get away with it. When I casually refer to the releases as 'Shenmue HD' in an email, a Sega representative is quick to correct me: this isn't Shenmue HD, it's just Shenmue and its sequel in one package. Sega are being very careful not to call this release of the two games that make up the Shenmue series so far Shenmue Remastered or even Shenmue HD. If nothing else: Shenmue is a landmark title, and it deserves to have a higher quality, more reliable method of playing other than digging out an original Dreamcast or taking your chances on rocky performance with emulation. This is great news for the cause of video game preservation. Now that fan demand has managed to make Shenmue 3 a reality, albeit with a different publisher and under a vastly reduced budget, Sega has finally seen fit to revisit the original titles that got this lengthy journey started. Its unfortunate fate is intrinsically intertwined with the ill health of the Dreamcast and Sega, too, and that's part of the decision making process that led to another aspect of its status as legend: it's an unfinished story, a tome that feels barely complete. You see, Shenmue is the sort of mad, one-man vision that is seldom made these days, and practically never for a budget as comparatively large as Shenmue's, which had an outlay that broke records at the time of its release back in 1999. There's no two ways about it: Shenmue is one of the most important games ever made, though in a way that's as much down to where it was unsuccessful as much as where it excels. Shenmue is a legendary series for a lot of reasons, but mostly it's to do with cost and scale. Players should know they're in for an uneven, sometimes archaic feeling ride, though. Historic and classic, Shenmue and its sequel deserve a classic re-release.
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