Even 25 years after its release, Shenmue still blew me away. Despite the massive influence it’s had on everything to come out since, I haven’t seen any game that quite captures the same spirit as Shenmue, even with its closest counterpart in the Yakuza series. The world of Yokosuka is the most finely detailed I’ve seen in any game to date. Sure, it’s not nearly as big as something like Grand Theft Auto, but the pure amount of things in the world to see, do, and experience more than make up for it. If I had an idea to try doing something, chances are the game allowed me to. It’s such a joy stumbling upon random things and being rewarded for your curiosity.

Shenmue’s story is also a massive landmark in the industry. There were story heavy games on the SNES and PS1, such as the Final Fantasy games, but nothing that is as cinematic as Shenmue. I don’t think that it’s an understatement to say it changed the way games tell their stories going forward. The plot is simple, but extremely effective. It keeps you guessing, and does a great job at stoking the player’s curiosity, further fueling the fun of exploration I mentioned earlier. I like that Shenmue doesn’t explain Ryo’s pre-existing relationships to the other inhabitants of Yokosuka to the player, and instead leaves it up to your imagination and allows you to infer. It makes the world feel even more believable to me.

The combat is the weakest part of the game, but it’s still pretty fun! It was difficult to learn (especially with the baffling decision to not have any in-game explanation for the controls), but once you get a feel for it it’s pretty fun. It’s slow paced and requires the player to give thought to each input, lest they be beaten to the ground. The second to last fight in the game made me really start to enjoy it. I only wish there were more opportunities to fight.

All in all, I think Shenmue is still a fantastic game. I avoided it for a while as common opinion made me imagine it’d be quite antiquated nowadays, but I’m so glad I decided to give it a shot despite that. Absolutely astonished me!