Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Shadowrun on the Sega CD blends two very different gameplay traditions into a single experience. In its adventure segments you move your party through Neo-Tokyo by selecting commands—“Look,” “Talk,” “Move,” “Use”—from an on-screen menu. There are no contrived “pull this lever then that lever” puzzles; instead you gather clues the way a real street samurai detective might, by talking to informants, hacking into corporate databases, and following leads through dark alleys and neon-lit nightclubs.

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When a lead turns dangerous, the game shifts into turn-based combat. Battles occupy the full screen and allow free movement of each party member across a grid-like arena. You can choose from melee weapons, ranged firearms, or spells drawn from your shaman’s repertoire, all resolved by virtual dice rolls that you can either trigger yourself or let the computer auto-resolve. Enemy mooks, rival corporate deckers, and powerful magical foes each require different tactics, turning every encounter into a small tactical puzzle.

A third layer of gameplay arises when you jack into the net. In cyberspace you pilot your decker through abstract “data mazes” to engage in hacker-vs.-hacker showdowns. These encounters play more like classic roguelikes or early dungeon crawlers—grid movement and turn-based strikes—but dressed up in neon wireframe graphics rather than dungeon walls. Together, these three modes create a varied play loop that rewards investigative patience as much as strategic combat decisions.

Character progression feels solid, if a bit slow. As you earn karma points, you can boost your party’s core attributes—body, intelligence, charisma—unlock new spells, or equip high-end weapons and cyberware. Leveling up never breaks the game’s deliberate pacing, ensuring that every new ability or piece of technology feels earned rather than handed out.

Graphics

For a late-cycle Sega CD title, Shadowrun’s visuals are surprisingly polished. Backgrounds are richly detailed pixel-art renderings of Neo-Tokyo’s grimy backstreets, corporate spires, and smoky bars. Character portraits that appear during dialogue are drawn in a manga-influenced style, lending personality to every member of your four-person crew, even if those portraits remain mostly static.

Combat screens are functional rather than flashy: the grid-based arenas use simple tiles and sprite-based figures, and attack animations are brief but clear. You won’t see lavish fireballs or fully animated sword slashes, but you will appreciate the smooth scrolling and the clarity of the UI. Each menu icon and dice-roll graphic has a satisfyingly chunky style that reminds you you’re on a 1990s CD-ROM console.

Cyberspace battles dial back to minimalist wireframes, evoking the look of early virtual-reality sequences in films and anime. While these sections lack the color depth of the overworld, they convey a real sense of entering a different plane of existence—cold, digital, and dangerous. The stark contrast between in-world exploration, street fights, and cyberspace helps keep the visuals fresh throughout your playthrough.

There’s also occasional CD-audio backing. Short, moody loops of electronic and rock-influenced tracks underpin exploration and combat, raising the overall production values beyond what you might expect from a late-era Sega CD release.

Story

Set in a gritty Neo-Tokyo rather than the usual Seattle locales of its SNES and Genesis siblings, Shadowrun’s narrative is steeped in corporate intrigue and urban decay. You begin by hunting down a ghostly warrior terrorizing a city district, only to uncover a web of conspiracies involving rival megacorps, street gangs, and paranormal cults. The plot unfolds at a deliberate pace, with each new lead taking you deeper into back‐alley magic rituals and high‐tech boardroom machinations.

Your party of four—Rikudo the street samurai, Mao the shaman, D-Head the elf decker, and Shiun the ex-corporate operative—offers plenty of roleplaying hooks. Dialogue choices let you play Rikudo as a by-the-book enforcer or Mao as a compassionate mystic. Though the scenarios themselves tend to follow a fairly linear detective structure, your approach to each situation can vary widely depending on which character’s skills you lean on.

Fans of the original FASA tabletop RPG will recognize references to lore—spirit binding, awakened magic, and the ongoing war between magic and machinery. Yet even newcomers can appreciate the noir-flavored script and the sense that every side quest might reveal a new criminal mastermind or hidden paranormal hotspot. It’s a story that rewards exploration and conversation as much as it does gunplay and spellcasting.

Occasional light RPG tropes—fetch errands, simple “go here, talk to him” missions—can feel repetitive, but the richly imagined setting and the interplay between technological and magical threats keep the narrative engaging from start to finish.

Overall Experience

Shadowrun for Sega CD is a niche gem. It’s far removed from the more action-oriented SNES and Genesis entries in the series, trading flashy set pieces for methodical investigation and menu-driven interaction. This makes it a slower, more contemplative RPG experience, one that will appeal to players who don’t mind taking notes and reading dialogue lengthily.

That said, the blend of detective work, turn-based combat, and cyberspace hacking offers a unique triple-layered game loop you won’t find in many other 16-bit titles. The setting of Neo-Tokyo, with its neon haze, seedy backstreets, and high-rise corporate espionage, feels fresh and cinematic. The small moments—interviewing a nervous informant, barely surviving a dice-decided firefight, or narrowly escaping a hostile hacker in the matrix—stick with you long after you power down the console.

For collectors and retro-RPG aficionados, Shadowrun on the Sega CD is an essential curiosity. It represents both the end of a console’s lifespan and an ambitious effort to bring a complex tabletop universe to life on limited hardware. If you’re seeking a deep, character-driven adventure peppered with tactical battles and cyberpunk flair, this late-‘90s CD-ROM title still holds up as a compelling—and occasionally unforgiving—experience.

Overall, Shadowrun is best approached with patience and a willingness to embrace its menu-heavy interface and deliberate pacing. For those who do, it delivers a rich, multi-faceted journey into a world where magic and technology collide in neon-lit shadows.

Retro Replay Score

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