If you ever plan to experience Shenmue with the expectations that:
it's a "Proto-Yakuza" or it's an "Action Kung-Fu flick" then you will certainly be in for a disappointment since Shenmue is non of that, I would really classify it more as an "adventure" game.

(outside few key moments), Shenmue's plot could be passively summarized in montage sequences at the intro of any other story but the fact it instead makes an entire game out of it is commendable if not admirable, It certainly takes it's time for world building which modern discourse tend to let you believe it's always views as nit positive, The mundanity of Ryo Hazuki life sells the idea that he's not destined for anything special despite his traumatic and unique circumstances he faced, you're not rewarded cash for fighting on the streets and being a badass, you're rewarded cash for being a good boy and coming home early or working part-time, Shenmue never glorifies violence and instead promotes common Japanese values like abiding the law, being functional member of society and a hard worker, I would like to add that Ryo as a character wouldn't have worked if all you saw him do on screen is just fight all the time, that would reduce his relatability factor in my opinion.

Ryo's an active protagonist, Who desires to seek the truth behind his father's murder, he often tries to avoid needless conflicts and uses his fighting skills as self-defense, while he does have some pride and doesn't take kindly to be viewed as weakling by his piers, it doesn't mean he will standby and see others get abused and extorted by those who have strength, His determination to find the truth is admirable and even relatable but can also be self destructive as the discouragement from many adult figures in his life pile up, he shows some understanding that the road ahead would be rough and potentially cost him of a happy life, But living with unanswered questions is worse for him.

At gameplay side, the attention to details is really great and often rewarding, the game rewards you for both exploration and recontextualizing previous conversations for later events, nowadays, developers would often place "notes/hints" in corner to nudge you to some secrets but Shenmue 1 doesn't pull punches, if you didn't pay attention it's your fault then, with that being said, it's really easy to get disconnect with the game considering how time works and many story moments are only triggered through specific times, Shenmue 1 gonna involve a lot of waiting and that would been fine in 2000s, but nowadays it's easy to pull your smart phone and get distracted by something else while you wait, there are some stuff do to but ends up just being 3 similar tasks, lastly the map I had to pull separate window because I ain't running to the other end of the area just to locate specific building, I don't have much to say on Combat side of things but it's fairly versatile and pulling throws on goons at each other is satisfying.

I would recommend Shenmue under 3 conditions:
1- Switch to JP audio (Frankly most of the bad reputation IB is thanks to the poor dubbing)
2- disable fast travel (this mechanic added in HD ports can make it easy for you to miss special cutscenes, so disable it)
3- keep in mind you're playing slow burn adventure game.

A fun mash-up between the mechanics of like a dragon and def jam series, clumsily executed climax aside, the story and characters are nicely built on top of the main series which serves as a cool foundation for what comes next.

The narrative of this game isn't quite what I expected and I found that refreshing in way to be gradually surprised on where it could head next, unlike the tv drama style storytelling present in main series, this one is more of a sports manga (The story even presented literally with a comic/manga panels in motion style) with Tetsuya starting out as delinquent who just causes mayhem where ever he wonders ends up in trouble with the Tojo clan and his only salvation being completing set numbers of matches to earn his freedom, as the plot progress, after being exposed to the underground arena, Tetsuya starts to slowly morph into someone who wants to develop his own way of life and philosophy while encountering many demons of his past during his journey, overall I found the small cast to be fairly likeable and tetsuya specially being among my favorite main characters presented into the entire series, perhaps that's bias considering his journey strongly resembles Yabuki Joe from ashita no joe but it's trope that I don't get sick of personally, that being said the "conspiracy" aspect in this plot felt quite weak and it was presented way late than I would have liked where there's info or context that's presented right before moments away from the big revelations and I felt cheated by it many times considering that if it was presented much earlier in the plot, it would have left more room for players to connect the dots together which is the point and fun of figuring out the mystery and answers in my opinion, the final boss is the most underwhelming in entire series period, although I will give kurohyou a medal for the fact that the plot was much more small scale than what you see normally in the series which helps a lot considering it takes place in same timeline as the main series and even many familiar faces show up for some really cool fan service, so kudos for devs for trying to maintain consistency.


The gameplay as I mentioned is more of a crossover of both worlds where it is largely based on the wrestling/fighting game system of Def Jam: Fight for NY: takedown while borrowing few elements from main LAD series like the heat system and moves making the combat arguably bit more complex than the main series, although despite the game offering up to 20 "unique" styles, I argue they're not as unique as they sounds, many feel more so a variation of an existing style with only difference being passive buffs and unique animation, whether you prefer sticking to only punching, grabbing, kicking or all in one balanced style, you're not missing much by sticking to a single style outside unlocking more "extreme styles" or varying up your playstyle to reduce the reputation nature of this game, I do have gripe that the heat moves tend to be locked to 2 based on their retrospective fighting style, I believe PSP still had enough buttons to allow for more variations inputs to perform heat attacks considering there are attacks based on your direction inputs too, I understand that might have likely meant less fighting styles but I wouldn't have cried for quality over quantity which what Yakuza 0 and Like a dragon Ishin ended up doing much better eventually...

Playing on hard difficulty, average goons/thugs can present good challenge that slowly pushes you to consider how to approach your battles although some tend to be bit more spongy even with MAX stats, perhaps that's just the difficulty also increasing enemies durability, the bosses on other hand aren't step up in challenge unfortunately, difference only being that they can perform heat attacks and special "combo" sequence that can only be avoided by carefully dodging out of it, add to that just like main series, you can stash tons of healing items and it makes encounters even more cheese-able, I will commend the developers for mixing healing items and buff items into one category just so you don't become too powerful and allows more room to think if you're willing to sacrifice medication in exchange for more power, The brand new "injury mechanic" is nice mechanic that adds pressure on you to play for more carefully before allowing yourself to sustain blows that can leave you more vulnerable, although those too can be healed up by med kit but plus for trying out new stuff...

My least favorite parts had to be generally traversing the streets which harkens back to the ps2 era yakuza games, although unlike those, not only is Tetsuya more slower than Kiryu was before, but also the camera shots tend to cut more abruptly which can be nauseating to deal with early on and delivers sour impressions, part of it PSP limitation which I can understand but speeding up Tetsuya or present fast travel points for the other end of the maps as an option would have been better than nothing, there's also no item management on phone booths, only present on your home which can be tad aggravating if you plan to switch stored items, lastly the upgrade system being purchased through money currency is tad problematic, specially in first 4 chapter when everything (including healing items) are fairly overpriced for what you get, although mixture of part time jobs becoming available and higher rewards does eventually wash away that problem, in theory it might present difficult question of of choosing between increasing your stats/moves or keeping yourself well equipped for battles, that's practically thrown out the window when you can easily fail early on unlocking moves by losing against the dummy opponent and costing you decent amount for cash, so yeah, always save before!

While I complained a lot, I still think this game is worth experiencing for any Like a dragon/yakuza fan and even those who want to play interest obscure PSP games, it earns my recommendation,

Special thanks to the Translation Team at (TeamK4L) For their long efforts, you guys ROCK!