One of the greatest games of all time
Shenmue plays like an action adventure role playing Beat em up if you will and it really works it also has moments of stealth and mini games you can play down the arcade you even get a job! this game is as close to real life as you can get this game sucks you in like no other.
You Play as Ryo, Ryo witnesses his fathers death and of course goes out for revenge but it is the way the story develops and progresses is what makes this game the classic it is, You end up really caring for Ryo and if his father was not enough to worry about there is a side story throw into the mix the love connection between him and a girl called nozomi its really touching stuff.
The games actual beat em up style consists of QTE (Quck time events) in which you must press the corresponding button on your control pad and interact with what is going on in the scene it is so simple yet so advanced. The other part of the fighting style is much like Tekken or Virtua Fighter but much more cleverer and well choreographed.
Not all the voice acting is perfect but they way it is done is just such a charm, there is a scene right near the end of the game where you have to take on about 80 guys in the harbor area its fast paced stuff.
Shenmue is genius i strongly urge you to play through this classic