pierrot wrote:I wouldn't even bother replaying the first one. Just watch the recap video.
I would very much disagree with this. A lot of the things Suzuki was aiming for in the Shenmue experience were stripped from the sequel due to people just not getting it.
Some people couldn't appreciate the simulated beauty of standing in the rain, listening to a cassette tape you bought at the Tomato convenience store, waiting for your bus to turn up and take you to work. the ability to open any cupboard, take out a packet of noodles and stare at it. The small lives going on all around you in Yokosuka that could lead to new discoveries everytime. The crows calling at dusk on your way home. Calling Nozomi just to chat before you slept.
Yes, the sequel ramped up the size and scale of everything but it also sacrificed the realism that, for some of us, made Shenmue an absorbing window into what was then a far more mysterious and alien culture.
I can remember the first time I learned online that Yokosuka and Dobuita street were real existing places, not just RYO's fictional realm. I set my heart on visiting it and have since done so twice.
The first Shenmue game is the reason I now live in Asia. There aren't many games I can think of as having such a profound effect on someone's life.