Shenmue is by far the greatest game of all time.
The game centers around the beggining of Ryo Hazuki's quest for revenge against the leader of a group caled the Chiyoumen. The world he explores and its characters are intricately detailed and the quest moves along at a perfect pace despite being a game based solely on the first chapter in an epic story. The action is based on a Virtua-Fighter like real-time fighting system and Quick Timer Events where you push buttons in sequence and watch coreographed fight scenes. The QTEs have been copies by more recent games like Resident Evil 4 and Indigo Prophecy but have never been duplicated to this perfection. The game is full of side activities and Ryo drives a motorcycle and forklift and can play old arcade games made by Yu Suzuki. The music as well is perfect.
Voice acting can range from great to awful depending on the character and the controls are stiff which akes navigating tight areas a chore at times but those are nitpicks when you consider how amazing the title really is.
If you can get a Dreamcast then you should get this game. You wont be disapointed.