How about a game of Lucky Hit? Would you like to try Lucky Hit? I mean, actually getting any given new character in SEGA Heroes (Free) right away feels like a game of Lucky Hit at times. Anyway, with Valkyria Chronicles behind us, SEGA has moved on to the next franchise it’s bringing to SEGA Heroes. All those who guessed Shenmue win the proverbial kewpie doll, and the first representative is naturally the protagonist, Ryo Hazuki. You can score him in the latest event in the game, titled Hazuki Dojo.
Shenmue is of course the wildly ambitious Dreamcast adventure game whose development was headed by the legendary Yu Suzuki. The scale of his goals was matched only by the game’s budget, and although the game sold quite well, it didn’t do as well as many hoped. A revenge tale set in the 1980s, Shenmue told the story of Ryo Hazuki, a young man whose father is murdered suddenly by a mysterious man named Lan Di. His pursuit of the killer takes him to China, and that’s about where the story left on in Shenmue 2. A third game was successfully Kickstarted and will probably come out someday.
None of that is really all that important for SEGA Heroes, though. What matters is Ryo’s specs. He’s an Epic Blue Controller-type, which means you need at least 50 character shards to unlock him. You can get those shards through the event or by getting lucky with a gem chest. His MAX Skill is Gachapon, which sees him pop open a toy capsule, dealing damage and gaining an attack buff in the process. Forklift Fiasco is his Star Skill, which sees him drive a forklift across the battlefield, damaging enemies and dealing a three-turn stun. Finally, his Passive trait is Revenge-Driven. He’ll gain Focus anytime an enemy is stunned, and if a stunned enemy is defeated, he’ll gain 8 Mana. Yeah, this guy could be dangerous.
This leaves me somewhat curious as to who will fill out the four slots for Shenmue. Unlike Valkyria Chronicles, there aren’t a ton of important or memorable fighters to pick from. Lan Di seems a lock, but beyond that I’ve no idea. Ren? Chai? Shenhua? Joy? Tom the Hot Dog Man? Fuku-san? The developers are going to have to get a little creative here, and that makes this a very interesting pick. I just hope that whatever the next game is, it has some non-human characters. Who do you think the other Shenmue representatives will be?
