love to see shenmue on this! would you mind if I included this as a ballot for the master list located here?

I don't mind, go on man. Shenmue as a whole is just one of the most important games on the industry and even with people don't understanding FREE in general is still funny to see something like Red Dead Redemption 2 taking inspiration. Awesome game, even if I prefer everything in Like a Dragon series.

I totally agree! the game really forces you to play at a certain pace that imo has garned it a lot of unnecessary criticism, but you're right on the money that its influence has seeped into modern highly-detailed stuff like rdr2