3 ms·
If you only look at the Japanese release dates then sure. But Mizzurna Falls was a mess of a game and never released in the west. Shenmue, however, had been in
by laumars 6y ago
If you only look at the Japanese release dates then sure. But Mizzurna Falls was a mess of a game and never released in the west. Shenmue, however, had been in development long before Mizzurna Falls had started (since Shenmue was first developed as an RPG for the Saturn) and even with the pivot to the Dreamcast, it was only released the following year after Mizzurna Falls.
Shenmue also has a much higher polygon count, all the NPCs had voice actors, it had action sequences, mini-games, etc. It was a hell of a lot more immersive than Mizzurna Falls in every imaginable way.
- anthk 6y agoTrue, I forgot the Saturn protoypes, my bad. But the concept of "open world" could date back to Ultima RPG. You could set Ultima VII under an "open world" genre.
- laumars 6y agoYou could argue the concept of open world games date back to 70s with Dungeons and Dragons. The point I was making was that Shenmue introduced the world to a new way of approaching game design -- even if not all of the ideas were truly unique it did still package them in a way that hadn't been (successfully) tried before. Which is why it's such a memorable game.