So back in the day Virtua Fighter was the biggest hit in the arcades. It had the best graphics music and gameplay and was fully 3D! So thus Yu Suzuki spawned Shenmue.
Shemnue tells the tale of a stoic young boy named Ryo who studied the martial arts with his father until one faithful day it snowed. Ryo's own father was killed by a chinese mafiod named Lan Di and stole the sacred mirror back to China. Now Ryo is sad and must do deeds and learn the wudo to defeat him. This combo back sports 2 video games and continues the saga with a free poster! Now Ryo must talk to people. Twists and turns go through the plot .
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay of Shenmue is really good! About everything in the environment is animated and interactive. You can talk to NPCs and spar with them at times.
With in all that the combat is essentially Virtua Fighter 2 style fair. It's 3D and deep. It takes many minutes to master.
Ryo has tank like controls.
In the first game the interface is good but the second game is where it tries to copy Ocarina of time and you will see what I mean when you see how the buttons are mapped. Ryo may move clunky but he
Did I mention there are minigames?! Oh so many, you will gamble gamble gamble. You will buy things and even play Space Harrier! Or Super Hang-On!
There are some driving stages and even forklift stages.
GRAPHICS
The graphics of Shenmue are some of the best on the Sega Dreamcast and they look excellent in HD! All the models are nice and detailed and the environment is very good looking. Very detailed and like actual Japan where everything is quiet and nice with cherry trees raining down peddles.
SOUND
The sound in Shemnue can be a bit awkward as Ryo is very emotionless. Sounds like a Kung-Fu dub. The SFX are nice though as well as the OST which is calming to scary.
OVERALL
Shenmue maybe old by todays standards but its still worth the pick up.