{"id":605515,"date":"2026-03-21T21:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T21:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-has-a-bit-of-everything"},"modified":"2026-03-21T21:00:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T21:00:50","slug":"the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special\/","title":{"rendered":"The Video Game City Week: Shenmue&#8217;s harbour is everything that makes the game so special"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special.jpg\" \/> <\/p>\n<p><em>Hello! Welcome back to the Video Game City Week. In this piece, Matthew makes the case for including Shenmue&#8217;s harbour in our ultimate video game metropolis. And, if you wanted more Shenmue in your city, while not check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmue-3s-hotel-niaowu-is-a-cosy-place-to-spend-your-time\">Aamir&#8217;s piece on Hotel Niaowu<\/a> from earlier in the week?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Shenmue isn&#8217;t for everyone, and the make or break moment, I think, is in the last third or so of the story. Though the heart of the game is undoubtedly in its sleepy neighbourhoods and the downtown area of Dobuita, with shops, bars and arcades lining its winding streets, the harbour is when things get truly interesting &#8211; and is where the game&#8217;s devotion to the everyday and all its mundanities &#8211; which I mean with the utmost affection, as it&#8217;s the game&#8217;s strength! &#8211; is at its purest.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s be more clear what I&#8217;m talking about &#8211; it&#8217;s working the forklift job. Shenmue&#8217;s final stretch removes the freedom that teenage detective work provides, and locks you into a 9-5 job moving crates from one warehouse to another. Shenmue is a wonderful slice of escapist tourism that has aged brilliantly, especially for those who want to experience a taste of virtual Japan (and Japan in the <em>80s<\/em> no less), but you could argue being put to work is going a step too far.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-has-a-bit-of-everything\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-has-a-bit-of-everything\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello! Welcome back to the Video Game City Week. In this piece, Matthew makes the case for including Shenmue&#8217;s harbour in our ultimate video game metropolis. And, if you wanted more Shenmue in your city, while not check out Aamir&#8217;s piece on Hotel Niaowu from earlier in the week? Shenmue isn&#8217;t for everyone, and the make or break moment, I think, is in the last third or so of the story. Though the heart of the game is undoubtedly in its sleepy neighbourhoods and the downtown area of Dobuita, with shops, bars and arcades lining its winding streets, the harbour is when things get truly interesting &#8211; and is where the game&#8217;s devotion to the everyday and all its mundanities &#8211; which I mean with&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"excerpt-more\"><a class=\"blog-excerpt button\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":605516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[259,59,44,27,7263,6449,6810,60,7620],"class_list":["post-605515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eurogamer","tag-action-adventure","tag-pc","tag-ps4","tag-sega","tag-sega-dreamcast","tag-shenmue","tag-story-rich","tag-xbox-one","tag-yu-suzuki"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Video Game City Week: Shenmue&#039;s harbour is everything that makes the game so special | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hello! Welcome back to the Video Game City Week. In this piece, Matthew makes the case for including Shenmue&#039;s harbour in our ultimate video game\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Video Game City Week: Shenmue&#039;s harbour is everything that makes the game so special | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hello! Welcome back to the Video Game City Week. In this piece, Matthew makes the case for including Shenmue&#039;s harbour in our ultimate video game\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-21T21:00:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"The Video Game City Week: Shenmue&#8217;s harbour is everything that makes the game so special\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-21T21:00:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":251,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/05\\\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Action-Adventure\",\"PC\",\"PS4\",\"Sega\",\"SEGA Dreamcast\",\"shenmue\",\"Story Rich\",\"Xbox One\",\"Yu Suzuki\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Eurogamer\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Video Game City Week: Shenmue's harbour is everything that makes the game so special | Arcader News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/05\\\/the-video-game-city-week-shenmues-harbour-is-everything-that-makes-the-game-so-special.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-21T21:00:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"description\":\"Hello! 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