I have just finished Shenmue! What a first experience it was...
I had very, very few expectactions before trying it out. I thought it would be hard to enjoy and would probably be one of those product of it's time, a "you needed to be there" situation. In my case, it didn't end that way thankfully. I legitimately enjoyed the experience. The 5 hubs felt very intimate and quickly I became familiar with the environments so it didn't take me long to know where was what and who was where so, I became attached to those place relatively fast.
I'll say, I wasn't THAT big of a fan of the later part of the game, although I didn't mind the whole forklift thing (it was even fun at time) I feel the whole thing dragged on a bit too long (5 days minimum) even when you understand why I feel it could have been...shortened a bit. Still, it was a small issue, for me, in what ended up being a solid game. While it's not gonna be "the best game of all time" for me, I can safely put it up there with the great ones. By now we've had almost 20 years of great game so, although the story is nothing I haven't seen before it still caught my interest greatly.
I can see why this game is as highly regarded as it is though, even without putting myself back in 1999. The scope of the game was pretty insane and ambitious and I cannot wait to begin Shenmue II soon.
If you have any questions to ask me regarding my first time with the game, feel free to ask!
I had very, very few expectactions before trying it out. I thought it would be hard to enjoy and would probably be one of those product of it's time, a "you needed to be there" situation. In my case, it didn't end that way thankfully. I legitimately enjoyed the experience. The 5 hubs felt very intimate and quickly I became familiar with the environments so it didn't take me long to know where was what and who was where so, I became attached to those place relatively fast.
I'll say, I wasn't THAT big of a fan of the later part of the game, although I didn't mind the whole forklift thing (it was even fun at time) I feel the whole thing dragged on a bit too long (5 days minimum) even when you understand why I feel it could have been...shortened a bit. Still, it was a small issue, for me, in what ended up being a solid game. While it's not gonna be "the best game of all time" for me, I can safely put it up there with the great ones. By now we've had almost 20 years of great game so, although the story is nothing I haven't seen before it still caught my interest greatly.
I can see why this game is as highly regarded as it is though, even without putting myself back in 1999. The scope of the game was pretty insane and ambitious and I cannot wait to begin Shenmue II soon.
If you have any questions to ask me regarding my first time with the game, feel free to ask!