An optimistic game set in a bleak world.

The great soundtrack and amazing English voice acting drive this incredibly fantasy road trip story.

The gameplay is classic Atlus, only with a job system to shake things up a bit, and it mostly works.

My main disappointment is the dungeons are pretty lame, on the most part. Coming from Persona 5 - this team's last game - it's really disappointing how simple the dungeons are. But everything else, from art style, story, gameplay and soundtrack is just a pleasure.

Best game in years.

While these games lack a large, sprawling open world, they instead focus on micro details. Drawers can be opened, objects picked up and examined. Everyone has their own routine in the day.

It's this sense of feeling like you're in a living, breathing place that makes Shenmue I & II so magical. Couple that with a revenge tale and the aesthetic of a 1980s Asian action film, and you get something that no one else has really accomplished before or since.

Of course, many people will hate Shenmue. That's fair enough. But while they can deny that it's good, they cannot deny that it's unique. And it's that uniqueness that makes Shenmue I & II so special to its fans.