Steven Wrangell writes:
''By every crucial parameter but one - performance at retail - Shenmue is the golden child. The halcyon son of Sega's famed gamesmaker Yu Suzuki, its symbiotic throwback to the '80s suggests that 'greed is good' - indeed, having syphoned the best part of the company's resources since 1994, its guilty conceit places it head and shoulders above the profligate spending of lesser creatives.
Originally conceived as a 16-chapter parable documenting the life and climes of Japanese student Ryo Hazuki, Shenmue - and its Dreamcast/Xbox sequel, Shenmue 2 - reigned in the ambitions of veteran Suzuki when profitmongers foreclosed on Sega's hardware estate. But the living legacy of his unrelinquished dream is to be found in every corner, every interlinked pocket, of Shenmue's world.''
