With the release of Shenmue in Japan recently, this has allowed many people to see the marvel that is Shenmue! or is it?.
While there is no doubt that Shenmue is the greatest graphical piece of art to ever been seen on any system or arcade, but what about the all important gameplay?. The gameplay, which is still good, isn't at that level that many invisioned it. On the scale of one to ten, Shenmue's gameplay is rated by many as a seven or eight. Also, people are upset at the length of the game and the size of the areas. While it is true that you can explore many areas, it isn't, on most regards, up to par with what you would expect from the highly touted game.
My take on the situation is that if something gets so over hyped than it can only go a little backwards. Take Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace for instance. Now it wasn't the greatest movie in the world, but it was hyped as the second coming. And you know what happened with that. But Shenmue is kind of the same but not quite. The thing about Shenmue is that it is a truely great game. It is a beautiful and wonderful game but people thought it would be an eighty-hour journey, where you can explore every nook and cranny in all of China and enjoy a massive twisting and winding storyline that would nock the socks off of any Final Fantasy Game. If you expect all that then you'll have to wait for the sequal
