3.5/5 ★ – Visionary_Gamer's review of Shenmue.

I’m trying my best to see through my rose-tinted 1999 glasses and marvel at the never before seen aspects of this game. Slowly opening drawers and cupboards, returning home every night to sleep, catching the bus to work every morning. These tasks, whilst mundane, had never been done in a game like this before. Gamers in 1999 must have been taken aback by the realism of this game. Unfortunately, I didn’t play it in 1999. And whilst I did dabble on the original Xbox for a short time, I only played it in full recently. The story alone is enough to drag you through the tedious tasks the game will have you perform. It was a great story of revenge with very interesting characters. The combat is okay but not fun enough to laud in any way. I played half of the game with the English dub which is hilariously bad at points. And half the game with the original Japanese voiceovers which I thoroughly recommend for some extra emotion and drama. Ultimately though, the realism is the games worst enemy. Whilst it is impressive at first, the act of “living life” quickly becomes a little tedious as you wait for the story to progress. Every time somebody told me to “wait until 2pm tomorrow” a wave of disappointment came over me as I just wanted to know what happens next. It was great to experience, and I’m definitely happy I have played this game that inspired so many newer games.