Shenmue is a strange game that always fascinated me. The open-world adventure follows Ryo as he pursues his father’s killer across Japan and China, but sometimes he’s on an urgent search for sailors, and others he’s just hanging out by that old capsule-toy machine.
Much like the Dreamcast itself, Shenmue was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. An open world with a large cast of characters, tons of mini-games, and brawler-style combat might have been a little ambitious for the Dreamcast. I was late to the party on getting the console, but when I did, Shenmue was one of the first games I picked up.
A few years later I would finally get around to playing Shenmue II on the original Xbox and spent a long time feeling bad that the story would more than likely never see its conclusion. With Shenmue III aiming for a 2019 release date and remasters of the original two games on the way, it finally looks like Ryo’s tale of revenge will be concluded, but I just don’t think I care anymore.
Source: Destructoid Yakuza eliminated any interest I had in the return of Shenmue