dame dane lole!!! sorry wrong game. shenmue is actually a pretty swag game on paper but it ends up sucking because the sega gemesis can't really capture the art film aesthetic the game is trying to capture very well, as well as the story just being really generic. i think i'd relate more to the protagonist if he wasn't a bumbling thumbsucker with really awkward dialogue and body language (which describes every character). really dig the aesthetic though! as famous GOOD PERSON Steve Jobs put it "For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through."

I'm raising a kitten in a cardboard box. I'm getting into street fights at 2 a.m., to the vexation of my live-in housekeeper. I'm playing Hang-On in the arcades to pass the time between one reckless encounter and the next and -- wait, is that Santa Claus?

This game is as clairvoyant and transportive as it is clunky and overambitious. Suzuki and co. put Shenmue's unprecedented budget to good use and made a gorgeous technological marvel, but some may find its languid pace and obvious age off-putting two decades later.

That said, there's truly nothing like it. If it hits, it will be impossible to forget.

If you ever plan to experience Shenmue with the expectations that:
it's a "Proto-Yakuza" or it's an "Action Kung-Fu flick" then you will certainly be in for a disappointment since Shenmue is non of that, I would really classify it more as an "adventure" game.

(outside few key moments), Shenmue's plot could be passively summarized in montage sequences at the intro of any other story but the fact it instead makes an entire game out of it is commendable if not admirable, It certainly takes it's time for world building which modern discourse tend to let you believe it's always views as nit positive, The mundanity of Ryo Hazuki life sells the idea that he's not destined for anything special despite his traumatic and unique circumstances he faced, you're not rewarded cash for fighting on the streets and being a badass, you're rewarded cash for being a good boy and coming home early or working part-time, Shenmue never glorifies violence and instead promotes common Japanese values like abiding the law, being functional member of society and a hard worker, I would like to add that Ryo as a character wouldn't have worked if all you saw him do on screen is just fight all the time, that would reduce his relatability factor in my opinion.

Ryo's an active protagonist, Who desires to seek the truth behind his father's murder, he often tries to avoid needless conflicts and uses his fighting skills as self-defense, while he does have some pride and doesn't take kindly to be viewed as weakling by his piers, it doesn't mean he will standby and see others get abused and extorted by those who have strength, His determination to find the truth is admirable and even relatable but can also be self destructive as the discouragement from many adult figures in his life pile up, he shows some understanding that the road ahead would be rough and potentially cost him of a happy life, But living with unanswered questions is worse for him.

At gameplay side, the attention to details is really great and often rewarding, the game rewards you for both exploration and recontextualizing previous conversations for later events, nowadays, developers would often place "notes/hints" in corner to nudge you to some secrets but Shenmue 1 doesn't pull punches, if you didn't pay attention it's your fault then, with that being said, it's really easy to get disconnect with the game considering how time works and many story moments are only triggered through specific times, Shenmue 1 gonna involve a lot of waiting and that would been fine in 2000s, but nowadays it's easy to pull your smart phone and get distracted by something else while you wait, there are some stuff do to but ends up just being 3 similar tasks, lastly the map I had to pull separate window because I ain't running to the other end of the area just to locate specific building, I don't have much to say on Combat side of things but it's fairly versatile and pulling throws on goons at each other is satisfying.

I would recommend Shenmue under 3 conditions:
1- Switch to JP audio (Frankly most of the bad reputation IB is thanks to the poor dubbing)
2- disable fast travel (this mechanic added in HD ports can make it easy for you to miss special cutscenes, so disable it)
3- keep in mind you're playing slow burn adventure game.

A bizarre, beautiful and ambitious game. While I think it is hard to approach for newer players, this does an amazing job at making you feel like you are living in a fictional world. I would say things in Shenmue feel more 'alive' - even with the cheesy late 90s voice work - than most AAA games do today.

I really like this game's strict adherence to 'time.' You can't fast forward, you can't rewind, you go by the in-game time. If you need to do something at like 6 p.m., you need to physically wait for the time to change. I admire that they went this route. Hey man, you wanna fill those few minutes with something to do? Go buy some capsule toys!

Do not listen to people who try to dissuade you from playing this game. It is something you must experience for yourself. It may not be for you but hopefully you can see what they were going for.

The implications of what games could be in the future, and what this game was for its own time, were among the first things to attract me to this Dreamcast gem. Living in this world with an in-game clock, NPCs with a schedule going about their lives, all whilst investigating the death of our father like an amateur sleuth trying to piece together the info was an exciting thought for me. I'm only sad that, after all of these years, I've never played the sequels and I know that the story isn't resolved in Shenmue 3. I want some closure!

Shenmue is one of the most AAA video games I have ever played. Look at the release date, man. That's a pretty old game! Shenmue had people walking around meticulously detailed homes and picking up items to closely examine them long before modern Sony latched onto this idea and made people hate it. I always knew people loved Shenmue, but I can't help but feel the quality of it has been completely undersold to me. I was aware of the goofy English voice acting and forklift driving, but was not aware of its Yakuza (Like A Dragon)-like structure. Not to say it's exactly like a Yakuza game. There is far less combat and a bit more interactivity with the world itself. While Yakuza is a blend of JRPG and Beat em up design, Shenmue is sort of constructed around a point-and-click adventure game structure (and fighting game combat). Narratively it has a similar flow as well. A domino effect of events continue to fall throughout the experience. It starts with one goal that gets stretched out with steps added on in between A and B. It plays out like a detective mystery. Talk to this guy to learn about this other dude who wants to meet you somewhere at a certain time to tell you about a specific thing. It's a wonderful chain of events.

Shenmue does something I find unique with its 'quests'. It yearns for a realistic human experience. For example, you might be trying to find out where a character likes to hang out at night: This leads you to ask people around town for clues. Normally a game will push you along this process and tell you where to get this information from. I don't mind this streamlined narrative design in most games, but I do appreciate how Shenmue approaches the idea of gathering information. You have to discover it on your own and sometimes the people you ask will not be helpful at all. They may be completely wrong or you may discover a better idea than that which was given. An example that comes to mind is when Ryo needs to obtain a plane ticket. He gets advice on where to go. You go to a travel agency but it's far too expensive. Someone says to ask another character about cheaper flight ideas because they travel a lot. Before I even reached this character I decided to chat with a guy by the vending machine. He then tells me that traveling by boat is the way to go if I want to save money. This indeed is how the story will progress. I assume talking to the friend who's a travel expert would simply result in them telling me they don't have any ideas for me, but I loved this natural feeling of chatting with a stranger and obtaining new solutions without being strictly directed to do so. This feeling lives on for the entire game. People are people in the world of Shenmue. They aren't quest givers. You gain a sense that this town is alive and the people actually know each other. It's authentic.

There's an intended inconvenience to everything as well. You don't have a minimap, you have map posts around town. As far as I know you can't even get a map to carry around with you. This was slightly tedious to me at first, but I loved this when I started to get around based on the visuals alone. I knew Ryo's home and all the towns like my own house after a while. If I ran around with my eye fixated on a minimap all the time I would never memorize the geography. I developed a morning routine. While working on the story objective I would get a coffee from the vending machine, snag a couple toy capsules, purchase food and drink for the stray cat, and continue with my day. I made sure to talk to certain characters every day. When one of these characters tells me I'm one of their best friends by the end of the game I felt rewarded for my intrinsic desire to talk with everyone. I would probably get the same dialogue from that character near the end of the game, but because of my daily encounters with them it felt like a reward. He's my best friend too!
I didn't want to be home too late. I wanted to go play pool with the scumbags at the bar after work. I wanted to take care of the cat. I wanted to collect all the toys. I wanted to win the forklift race. I wanted to get a raise every day.
I repeat the 'want' to emphasize that I wanted to do this, I did not need to. Shenmue is not interested in forcing the potential of its experience on you. Something so many modern AAA games fail to achieve. They have an amazing experience but only if you do it their way. Shenmue's world detail and player freedom is staggering. Not just for 1999, but in general.

I've seen some criticism over the part of the game that becomes a forklift simulator as well. I can understand this not being fun for some, but Shenmue never lost my interest. I had fun working as a forklift driver. There was a simple enjoyment in doing the work well and making more money every day. However, I believe the repetitive nature is on purpose and totally intended. Ryo is about to graduate high school. He's 18. The guy is about to become an adult right as his father is killed. The first half of the game is still driven by this plot, but you have so much free time to run around the towns and have more "fun". Suddenly you're working full time. You gotta wake up earlier. You only get free time during lunch and maybe a couple hours after work. You see co workers more than your own friends and family. The feeling of not having free time anymore is crushingly real. I missed being able to check on the cat with the town locals. Most of the shops I would visit were closed after work. Life was devoured by work and the main plot. I would possibly feel nostalgia for the first half of the game if I were to replay it. This is cool thematic narrative design. Ryo is forced to grow up as fast as possible. The game provides a bite sized serving of what it feels like to...grow up and get a job. Never does Ryo lament his youth and complain about work before bed every night to hammer this idea in. You experience it and feel it for yourself.

Shenmue is a fantastic looking game as well. The changing skies. The shifting of weather. The barking dogs of the neighborhood. The bustling noise of a busy street. I love using the trigger to control running speed like a gas pedal on a car. I love how perfectly Ryo walks up stairs (people obsessed with accurate stair climbing animations will adore Shenmue). I love collecting music tapes that all have unique album art. I love collecting toy capsules. I love that there are two different versions of darts to play and an arcade with older sega games. I love that I can take pictures off the wall of my home for no reason. The amount to do is almost unnecessary. The voice acting is goofy and compressed to hell, but if you can't have fun with that, the Japanese voice acting can soften the silliness. I think the goofy old "obviously voice acting" voice acting is fun to experience, but it is not what defines this game. It's not always that bad. I was still capable of taking the story seriously.

Of course the story isn't over and Shenmue II is waiting for me. There's a lot of mystery and unanswered questions. I love that! It's an absurdly confident video game. This left a huge impact on me. Shenmue is an all timer. This was my first time playing it and I was consistently impressed by it. It's not impressive for it's time, it's impressive for right now.