A new dawn in gaming.
The major thing about this game is how beautiful it is done. The graphics are breath taking. The characters are well detailed, animated, and lite. The back grounds are even more engagning as you can pretty much pick up and handle anything you want in the game. This helps the story line of Ryo looking for Lan Di, the man who killed his father. Ryo must follow the bread crumbs around until he finds Lan Di. Though by the end of the game you don't get to fight him, you fight one of his henchmen, but that leaves it open for a sequel that I'm sure will be better then this one. Along the way you will learn Martial Arts manuvers, you will engage in free fight scenes while saving your love interest or rescuing a child. Then there are the button action cut scenes that you have to pay attention to or else you get thumped. This can be a fight scene, something falls on you, what ever. The sound track is entralling and the voice acting solid. Although there are some mis-translations between Japanese to English, but they aren't noticable. They might even tickle your funny bone a little bit. The only glaring problem is the play control. You can't use the joystick and have to use the + pad. Looking around and running is done with the triggers, so it can cramp your hands. I wouldn't suggest sitting and playing for hours on end, but it's difficult not to. All in all I'd have to say that Shenmue is a well rounded title worth a play through by casual and hard core gamers. It has the charisma of a Zelda game, the feel of a modern day action/adventure game, and the story of a great play. So sit back and let your Dreamcast whisk you away.