What’s Shenmue Demo Disc
Japanese Title - What's Shenmu: Yukawa (moto) Senmu o Sagase [What's Shenmue: Search for Yukawa (former) Senior Managing Director]
Developer - SEGA AM2
Publisher - SEGA
Director - Yu Suzuki, Keiji Okayasu, Toshihiro Nagoshi
Producers - Yu Suzuki, Toshihiro Nagoshi
Designer - Eigo Kasahara
Artist - Masanori Ohe
Composers - Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Yuzo Koshiro
Genre - Action Adventure; originally marketed by SEGA as the first game of its kind in a new genre called FREE (Fully Reactive Eyes Entertainment)
Dreamcast Release Dates - August 1, 1999 (Japan)
Current Average Price - Regular Edition $20; Famitsu Edition $250
In a basement game shop in Akihabara, Tokyo in the year 2004, I tickled my way through rows and rows of CD jewel cases full of Dreamcast GD Roms. The usual fare flipped by - De la Jet Set Radio, Vampire Chronicles, El Dorado’s Gate, and other common DC games found in unbelievably vast quantities back in those early days of Dreamcast obsolescence. Then I flicked past something that caught my eye and made my fingers quickly backtrack. A disc case with light blue artwork and the unmistakable overlay of something I’d seen thousands of times in one of my favorite Dreamcast games - the Phoenix Mirror.
The text on the front said “What’s” in English, and “Shenmue” beneath it in the familiar Japanese text. What’s Shenmue.
“What’s What’s Shenmue?” I thought.
I paid my yen and the man behind the counter bowed and handed back my as yet unknown to me Shenmue collectible. Nearly twenty years later I’m quite familiar with What’s Shenmue, an interesting and unique game. (Can I call it a game? A demo? A preview disc?)
Here’s everything you need to know about What’s Shenmue, with a full play-through video below.
What is What’s Shenmue
The full title for the disc is What’s Shenmue: Search for Yukawa (Former) Senior Marketing Director. When I returned home from Tokyo and got What’s Shenmue spinning in my Dreamcast, I quickly realized that it was a demo disc for Shenmue. For those not aware, demo discs were super common in the 1990s and early 2000s, and they offered players a short preview of a game in an effort to convince would-be buyers to spend their money on buying the full game. Demos still exist, obviously, but these days they’re almost entirely distributed as digital downloads.
But to call What’s Shenmue just a demo disc doesn’t quite tell the whole story. What’s Shenmue is a demo disc, sure, but it’s different from typical demo discs of the era.
Unlike most demo discs of the era, which usually featured a sample stage or gameplay taken directly from the final game, What’s Shenmue contains its own entirely unique scenario not found in the final release version of Shenmue. In addition to this unique scenario, there are numerous smaller differences between What’s Shenmue and Shenmue proper. Some characters that appear in What’s Shenmue never appear in the original Shenmue, but rather appeared in the sequel Shenmue II. Locations, such as the You Arcade, are different from the final version. Textures and character models are different. And in What’s Shenmue, Ryo can crouch at the press of a button - wild.
For these many differences, some significant and some less so, What’s Shenmue ends up being a unique experience for both casual Dreamcast fans and hardcore Shenmue historians alike.
Where Did What’s Shenmue Come From?
When the final retail release of Shenmue was delayed in Japan, What’s Shenmue was given out on Shenmue’s original release date to those who had pre-ordered the game. Another edition of What’s Shenmue was distributed through Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu (this version’s cover is orange, while the pre-order release version is blue). Today, the Famitsu release is rare and valuable - prices for the Famitsu version average $250 while prices for the regular blue version average $20. They are functionally identical aside from the alternate cover.
What’s Shenmue Contents
The What’s Shenmue disc contains two major components.
The first is the unique gameplay scenario intended to give the player a taste of what to expect from the world of Shenmue. In this game demo, the player controls Ryo Hazuki as we do in the full game. But instead of seeking clues as to the whereabouts of the mysterious men who murdered his father, Ryo is tasked with finding a man named Yukawa.
The second component of the disc includes four real-time movies which show characters from the Shenmue series. These four characters, Ryo, Nozomi, Xuiying and Mark, perform monologues explaining various aspects of the full game, giving players further details on what to expect. These are the same movies that were included on the final game’s “Shenmue Passport” disc.
Since What’s Shenmue was only ever distributed in Japan, there is no option for English voice acting or subtitles. However there are fan translations into English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and German (text only) available on the internet.
What’s Shenmue Gameplay and Plot
In the main scenario, Ryo is seeking a man named Mr. Yukawa. In a bit of meta-storytelling, Mr Yukawa isn’t just an in-game character. He was the real-life Managing Director of SEGA Japan during the Dreamcast era, a minor celebrity, and star of a series of Japanese Dreamcast commercials (he also appeared on certain editions of the Dreamcast’s retail box in Japan!). He occupies this same role in What’s Shenmue.
In What’s Shenmue, Mr. Yukawa possesses an unreleased Dreamcast game of great value. Someone is trying to find Mr. Yukawa and steal the disc, and Ryo is supposed to find Yukawa first and protect him from his would-be assailant.
The player guides Ryo around Dobuita, a town found in the final game. Here he asks locals such as Tom Johnson the hotdog vendor and Nozomi Harasaki if they known the whereabouts of Mr. Yukawa. During this fact-finding phase, Ryo can engage in many of the activities found in the final game. He can explore Dobuita’s streets and shops, talk to all of the many NPCs, drink a refreshing Coca Cola, and play games in the arcade. As Ryo gets closer to finding Yukawa, he may encounter and engage in a Quick Time Event (QTE) battle with Shenmue thug Enoki.
When Ryo eventually sleuths out the location of Yukawa and tracks him down, Yukawa assumes that Ryo is the man who’s after him and flees. A QTE chase scene ensues, similar but not identical to a chase in the final game. If the player successfully pursues Yukawa, Yukawa ends up cornered in the You Arcade. Just then, Yukawa’s real attacker arrives and demands that Yukawa hand over the Dreamcast disc. Ryo dispatches the would-be thief and saves Yukawa, after which they have a brief conversation.
Suddenly, Yukawa awakens at his desk. Behind him are piles of new Dreamcast consoles stacked in their boxes. He realizes the whole scenario was a dream. Inspired by his dream, he vows to sell as many Dreamcast consoles as he can so that Shenmue will be a great success.
What’s Shenmue Today and Buyer’s Guide
What’s Shenmue’s gameplay segment lasts about 30 minutes, but it’s an interesting 30 minutes for the Shenmue historian. It’s interesting to see the many differences from the final release, large and small. In You Arcade, for example, there’s a gambling slot machine in place of the jukebox which appears in the final game. Also in the You Arcade, the darts gameplay mechanics are totally different from the final game and the emulated arcade games Hang-On and Space Harrier are unplayable. There are characters here that are missing from the final game. Textures and models are different (such as Tom’s t-shirt). But these aren’t earth-shattering developments.
What’s Shenmue is a bit of an anomaly and buying an actual copy of the game isn’t an obvious decision. If you don’t speak Japanese, much of the content will be lost on you. And there’s nothing on this disc that’s life-changing, even for big Shenmue fans. But then again, copies of What’s Shenmue don’t cost very much these days - about $20. For me, that’s cheap enough to own an artifact from the time when the entire gaming world was eagerly waiting for Shenmue to drop.