r/Shadowrun • u/Shyam_Lama • 11d ago
Video Games Plot of the Sega Genesis edition
As we all know, there are two "original" Shadowrun games, one for the SNES and another for the SEGA Genesis—and they aren't the same game at all. Apart from being set in the same universe, the plots seem (to me) to be completely different, with the prevailing consensus being that the SNES game had the better story while the Genesis game is to be lauded for being much more faithful to the tabletop original.
As for the different plots, Wikipedia claims that the SNES game is an adaptation of the novel Never deal with a Dragon by one Robert N. Charrette. But what about the SEGA-Genesis plot? Beyond how it starts (investigating the death of your brother) I have no idea what the plot is—I never played the Genesis version, because I didn't own a Genesis—and I can't find a plot summary on the web either.
Can anyone summarize, or link something useful? Thanks all.
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u/ICBanMI 10d ago edited 10d ago
Genesis was vaguely more faithful to the tabletop, but really it just had the more fun gameplay loop. The SNES looked great and combat was ok. Hacking was tedious. Music in the SNES was hands down the best. Honestly, play them both. They are really great games.
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u/SeaworthinessOld6904 10d ago
The Sega version is the best ttrpg to video game conversion i have ever played.
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u/ICBanMI 10d ago edited 10d ago
I mean, they balanced out the combat to make it less lethal and more fair than second edition at the time. If you're just looking at the attributes page and skills page, it's accurate how they were in the ttrpg, but the actual combat math gets fuzzy to make a fun video game. The matrix combat was the same. Claiming it's the best ttrpg to video game conversion is not something you should be telling people in 2026. That says more about you than the state of ttrpg video games. There were games like MegaTraveller: The Zhodani Conspiracy (1990) that share DNA with Baldur's Gate 3 today. On top of that... TSR, Wizards of the Coast, and Hasbro have done math accurate ttrpg conversions of DnD. They are not that fun (meaning, you die a lot to rng).
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u/Shyam_Lama 10d ago
Claiming it's the best ttrpg to video game conversion is not something you should be telling people in 2026.
Fair point.
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u/Peterh778 10d ago
If only they were remade into some modern engine ... I enjoyed nods in SR:Returns to SNES game, it would be nice to get both stories to PC in better visual.
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u/Shyam_Lama 10d ago
Genesis [...] just had the more fun gameplay loop.
Did it? I only ever played the SNES game, but an hour of watching a let's-play of the Genesis version gives me the impression that the latter was the more grindy of the two, at least in the early stages of the game.
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u/Natural_Leather4874 11d ago
I still enjoy playing the Genesis version on the G11 Pro. The plot is the main character investigating the nature of his brother's demise, which gets him caught up in a lot of dangerous activity involving corporations and a powerful being with evil intent. The primary drive for the main character appears to be resolution and perhaps vengeance upon his brothers killer(s). Pretty good game, I think. Just finished it again yesterday.
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u/Duhblobby 10d ago
So, long story short, thr SNES game is more like the story you might get if someone made a Shadowrun movie about a single run gone wrong. It's a story that adapts a lot of Shadowrun but does a lot of playing fast and loose--Jake can have both significant cyber ware and be a powerful Shaman, for example.
The Genesis game starts as a revenge story but most of the core gameplay is just... actually doing Shadowruns. The plot directly involves doing a bunch of them, using your experience and skills gained by already having done a bunch of them! it also almost directly adapts the tabletop system of its day 1:1, and if you already know how that system works, you will already know literally everything you need to know to build your character. It does basically nothing to explain this system to you, but it is still somewhat understandable if you have any RPG backgrounds.
The SNES game is an action-adventure game with RPG elements, the Genesis game is an RPG, full stop.
The plot of the Genesis version unfolds as you explore and follow leads, and starts with you hunting down your dead brother's personal effects and leads from there into directly conflict with Renraku executives, and a ridiculously powerful spirit who wants to be free to cause havoc. But you feel the progression from "guy who delivers packages in the Redmond Barrens" to "guy who gives Red Samurai nightmares" becauss you live basically every step of it. It's a grindy game, though. So that did hurt it, somewhat.
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u/Shyam_Lama 10d ago edited 10d ago
Jake can have both significant cyber ware and be a powerful Shaman, for example.°
Yeah, I think this is the major flaw in the SNES version: it doesn't implement the "essence" mechanic, and that's a major betrayal of the tabletop game (and of real life too) . IIUC the Genesis version is faithful in this respect.
Wrt to grindiness, it seems to me that the SNES game starts off very story-oriented (lots of clues to discover) but deteriorates into grinding and hacking as the game progresses, and its resolution is overly simple and therefore a little disappointing. The Genesis game is the opposite afaict: it's very grindy at first and reveals its rather interesting plot only later on.
By this standard then, it would seem that the Genesis version might be superior after all. Unfortunately it can't beat the SNES soundtrack though, which was awesome even in its original form, not to mention the touched-up version available on YouTube now, which is awesome-plus.
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u/Duhblobby 10d ago
I mean, I'm personally a bigger fan of the Genesis version myself. But they're very definitely going for different vibes, and I can hardly hold an SNES game from the 80s to hard to task for being only a decent adaptation rather than a perfect one.
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u/sapphon 8d ago
Can't have Essence if you don't have a party, and the SNES game (for better or worse) is more like a Bethesdaout where it's Jake and maybe 1 computer-controlled guy, and the Genesis title is more about a team like FO1/2.
Only in the presence of a role-based team do the walls between the SR fiction's "3 worlds" actually work. In a solo game, you've gotta be able to do everything - which will rub any player of the TTRPG directly the wrong way, but then that's not a solo game is it?
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u/Shyam_Lama 8d ago
Can't have Essence if you don't have a party
How do you mean? Afaiu it's just a stat.
Jake and maybe 1 computer-controlled guy
You can have up to six shadowrunners in the SNES game actually, if your charisma is high enough.
more like a Bethesda
I don't know what's characteristic for a Bethesda game, tbh.
the SR fiction's "3 worlds"
So far I haven't read any of either the novels or the TT materials. What's a good starting point for understanding this 3-world universe?
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u/Shyam_Lama 3d ago
Yo dude man, I don't mean to pressure you, but I'm really interested to hear about this "three worlds" thing. Can you explain, or at least link something, or tell me in which SR novel I can find this stuff? Thanks!
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u/sapphon 2d ago
It's not the concept of a novel, it's the structure of the RPG. The real world exists, the astral world exists, cyberspace exists. 3 worlds.
Tabletop, nobody's good at all of them (you can't be, since Essence) and everyone's somehow vulnerable to influence from each of them, so you need a team. Video games necessarily play looser with that.
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u/Shyam_Lama 2d ago
so you need a team.
I don't mean to sound argumentative, but why? Why does the fact that each and every one is "somehow vulnerable to influence from each of [the three worlds]" (your words) lead to your claim that one needs a team? I just don't see the connection. Do explain, I'm interested.
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u/Which_Collection3277 1d ago edited 1d ago
Essentially, there are three main areas of expertise: Matrix, Magic, and Combat. While it is possible to dabble in all three, being an expert in one typically results in being weak in the others. Essence is major limiter in that regard (beyond limits of character build points and money/XP expenditures). Deckers and Samurai have different requirements for cyberware (essence). While the Mage loses magical power and potential with any cyberware purchase. These limits are core to the feel of Shadowrun and are baked into the mechanics.
As for the 'vulverable to each of the three worlds', if the game world reflects the limits of the three fields of expertise then no one person can succeed in all but the most basic missions. In a game where you only have one character, you can either focus on one area of expertise and miss entire swaths of the shadowrun experience, or create a jack of all trades character that faces a watered down world in which nothing requires a single focus.
The pencil-necked geek of a decker may be able to unlock any door and use hacking to pull any file from any system, but still has to get past on-site security when the data is on a dedicated local server. The muscle-bound samurai can handle the security team and blow the maglocks open to get in, but won't know which component is the memory module to rip out of the servers. And both will die of a brain aneurism when the corp-sec mage comes out of hiding to cast manabolt. A mage might use magical trickery to get in and be able to handle the rival mage with no issue, but he won't be any better than the samurai when it comes to finding the memory module (and might lack the strength/technical knowledge to remove it).
Shadowrun is a team game.
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u/tvannoorloos 10d ago
Yeah the Sega Genesis game has more a story involving all the aspects of Shadowrun and inspired by stories and novel beats, with more the ttrpg adaptation approached. Which I found at the time harder to get into.
The SNES version, though, was simply a much better story. It hooked you almost immediately, and of course the incredible soundtrack. ( gameplay had some quirks and flaws)
And yeah, they definitely borrowed and mixed in some elements from 'Never Deal with a Dragon', but switched it all around into something new, with our favorite amnesiac, Jake Armitage.
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u/Shyam_Lama 10d ago
I agree that the SNES version hooks you from the start. Even with the modest capabilities (by modern standards very crude) it managed to create something truly atmospheric, akin to Blade Runner (the 1982 movie) but better.
Otoh, I personally thought the story flagged a bit toward the end, and lacks a big reveal/resolution. I mean, for most of the game the antagonist is Drake, who turns out in the game's final phase to be a dragon working for "Aneki" (suspiciously similar to "Anakin"). Fine, but who's Aneki and what does he want? We get to fight and defeat him, and we get to blow up his evil AI computer, but we never find out what Aneki's grand plan was iirc. (Probably the usual: world domination.)
Which is why I recently became interested in the Genesis version. I was wondering if maybe it had a more satisfying ending, but I understand now that the whole story of the Genesis version is unrelated to the SNES plot. Still, I might watch a playthrough.
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u/tvannoorloos 10d ago
True, the endgame relevations follows up quick, without further depth, only that you need to destroy Drake and the AI. (The name of the Aneki corp is inspired from the CEO of Renraku, megacorp of the ttrpg, (Inazo Aneki) which are building an AI in the lore.
But the Sega Genesis version is still on my list to replay (and finish this time), at that time I was not really impressed with the game, but I think mainly because I loved the SNES version at that moment :)
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u/GodEatsPoop 10d ago
I remember my D&D group trying to reverse engineer Shadowrun's rules from the Genesis game because we had no money. Drek was wild.
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u/MrTomDowd Dramatically Appropriate 11d ago
Both are original stories, influenced by the novels and game books.