Shadowrun Trilogy Retrospective

Hello friend, stay a while and listen. Today we are exploring the entire Shadowrun trilogy made by Harebrained schemes. In this long form deep dive video essay (do I have enough keywords yet?) I’ll begin with a general overview of Shadowrun as a tabletop game. It's one of the most interesting setting I've ever interacted with as it combines Tolkienesque high fantasy with William Gibson style Cyberpunk. Meaning you can both stop the dark lord by destroying his ring of power in the morning and jack into the matrix for a high stakes data heist after lunch. I'll take a brief look at the earlier attempts to transform Shadowrun into a video game on the Super Nintendo, Sega Megadrive / Genesis, the Sega Mega CD and the Xbox 360. However the real meat of the conversation is about Shadowrun returns, Shadowrun Dragonfall, and Shadowrun Hong Kong. I’ll be talking about the Kickstarter and early development of the Seattle based returns game before creating a character and diving into a story that starts as a simple murder mystery and quickly escalates into a world ending bug apocalypse scenario. Along the way we’ll explore the characters, world art design and game mechanics and when it’s wrapped up it’s time to move onto Dragonfall, The Director's Cut. In Dragonfall we’ll zip on over to the flux state of Berlin where I’ll talk more about the world, lore, the politics and mythology that weaves through this very unique part of the 6th world. And if that wasn’t enough for you, well for our final chapter we’ll be heading all the way into east Asia to see what it’s like Shadowrunning in Hong Kong. So grab some popcorn and sit down to enjoy the talk. Whether you be an elf, dwarf, troll or Orc, all are welcome. Let’s explore these games and see what makes them great. #shadowrunreturns #rpg #cyberpunk —------------------------------ links—----------------------------------------------- @Indigo_Gaming cyberpunk part 1 https://youtu.be/sttm8Q9rOdQ?si=C4_D0YA2mhPu5ivm Wall Street Journal’s Kowloon Walled City video https://youtu.be/dj_8ucS3lMY?si=z5gvFc03hbwhnSVf South China Morning Post’s Kowloon Walled City video https://youtu.be/Mq4jAwPdCMw?si=9z5geB1zHbKmd3wM @gothgamernation Planescape Torment video https://youtu.be/3xJSHL7E4sc?si=ka8k07gjq-q5FQg5 @webeharebrained Graft announcement trailer. https://youtu.be/YhQZYJkfe8w?si=4zdjcRg17KGEScMy —----------------------- Chapters—-------------------------------------------- Shadowrun Returns----------------------------------------------- 00:00 Start 04:02 The 6th World 12:30 Development 18:30 Game Overview 19:46 Character Creation 26:06 Story Setup 34:34 Safe Havens 38:47 Hiring a team 41:07 Combat 49:19 Story conclusion 55:37 What came next? Dragonfall--------------------------------------------------------- 58:27 Game Overview 01:01:09 Story Setup 01:11:26 Gather your party (companions pt1) 01:17:37 Magic and cybernetics 01:19:26 Companions Continued 01:24:56 Missions 01:33:30 Main story continued 01:35:43 regarding the apex mission bug Hong Kong------------------------------------------------------------ 01:42:20 Story Setup 01:50:52 The Old Walled City 01:55:08 The New Walled City 01:59:52 The New Crew 02:01:25 A Text Adventure 02:04:32 The New Crew Continued 02:14:59 Running in Hong Kong 02:18:07 Story Continued 02:22:08 Prosperity tower mission 02:27:37 Hong Kong Conclusion Conclusion-------------------------------------------------------------- 02:31:41 More From Hairbrained Schemes and series conclusion 02:33:36 Sign off —-------------------------- Socials—---------------------------------------- Support me on Patreon and help me make this my full time job https://www.patreon.com/Arkham666 All the hottest takes on coca cola are here https://bsky.app/profile/arkham666.bsky.social My Facebook page that a few people follow https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077425298397 Instagram (I sort of use this sometimes) https://www.instagram.com/samblenderart/ Tip me a coffee here https://ko-fi.com/arkham666 Commissions at artstation https://www.artstation.com/the_rotton_core