Yesterday was Shenmue Day in the Shenmue fan community — a time for players to assemble on social media to call on the powers that be (namely Sega and YS Net) to continue Ryo Hazuki's story.
The event was celebrated with various articles and community posts from the organizers at Shenmue Dojo, but also excitingly saw the release of a brand new Shenmue-themed fan game, from the developer sayuhhm.
The Tamagotchi-style game, which is called Virtua Pet: Chobu-Chan!, was built in Unity and is available for free on itch.io. It sees players taking care of Chobu-Chan — the small chicken-like mascot for the village of Niaowu in Guilin — who was previously the subject of an optional scavenger hunt in Shenmue III.
As you might expect from a game of this kind, the "goal" is to keep Chobu-Chan well-rested and well-fed, by earning money and purchasing food. However, there are also a bunch of other additional mini-games and activities to take part in.
This includes Shenmue classics like Lucky Hit! and Wacky Mole, as well as a new single-screen platformer called Super Chobu-Chan. Players can also visit the prize exchange too, in order to unlock various trinkets for their collection, in addition to travelling to three different regions of Guilin.
If you're a Shenmue fan or just love virtual pet-style games in general, you might want to take a closer look at this.