If there's any game that's an argument to break Steam's "Recommended" binary for something with a middle-ground, it'd be this game.

The graphics are inconsistent- and yet, ultimately convey the Shenmue look with all its warts. Environments legitimately have a lot of charm and good color palettes. Interactive NPCs all have names and there's less of a focus on the "generic NPC" like Shenmue and especially Shenmue II. However, you can't talk to everyone like you could in the originals. That, and the stamina system turns the game into a slog at times.

The locations are larger than I had assumed they'd be (but not large at all by modern open world standards), but one modernization I would've liked would be the ability to backtrack to Bailu after getting to Niaowu. The game has a looser plot with less tying Ryo down so it would've worked fine.

The fighting system is confusing at first and is more like a command-queue system. There are some improvements over the original fighting system (like targeting) but almost no one is going to find it an improvement over the original games. It almost feels like they were going for a simpler, beat-'em-up style of gameplay, and if that's what they were going for, they should've made it more visceral and immediate. As it is, it feels sloppy at first and the ragdoll sometimes results in unintentionally hilarious posing. Snake Power is basically "I hate this fighting system" juice. Throws are absent, too.

All-in-all it's a slow, sleepy title and not a whole lot happens until everything happens. I think this was always the intent, but the execution and budget rush hurt it more. The final events in the game happen so quick and unexpectedly that it completely ruins the narrative weight of the actually-quite-large developments that happened. It feels like it's all brushed under the rug by the time it's said and done. It's over in minutes.

Even with all this, I still really liked this game. If you can still play the old Shenmues to this day and enjoy them, there's still a lot here to enjoy. Just keep your expectations tempered.

One last criticism that comes to mind has to do with the way backers and Shenmue-fanservice were integrated into the game. It's immersion-breaking and disrespects all the work done on the game. It turns it into a "product". You shouldn't be able to buy capsule toys of people Ryo knows (or of himself!) and see super-deformed Chai hanging around in the arcades. That and that dang building right there in Niaowu! They should've integrated this content out-of-universe somehow (for example, maybe provide the Shenmue-themed capsule toys as gifts for progress, that can only be viewed in the game's menu, and Ryo is never seen physically handling it or retrieving it). There's also a fight near the end of the game where it's a bunch of very-not-Asian looking people and you just have that realization "I bet this was a backer tier".

If there's any game that's an argument to break Steam's "Recommended" binary for something with a middle-ground, it'd be this game. The graphics are inconsistent- and yet, ultimately convey the Shenmue look with all its warts. Environments legitimately have a lot of charm and good color palettes. Interactive NPCs all have names and there's less of a focus on the "generic NPC" like Shenmue and especially Shenmue II. However, you can't talk to everyone like you could in the originals. That, and the stamina system turns the game into a slog at times. The locations are larger than I had assumed they'd be (but not large at all by modern open world standards), but one modernization I would've liked would be the ability to backtrack to Bailu after getting to Niaowu. The game has a looser plot with less tying Ryo down so it would've worked fine. The fighting system is confusing at first and is more like a command-queue system. There are some improvements over the original fighting system (like targeting) but almost no one is going to find it an improvement over the original games. It almost feels like they were going for a simpler, beat-'em-up style of gameplay, and if that's what they were going for, they should've made it more visceral and immediate. As it is, it feels sloppy at first and the ragdoll sometimes results in unintentionally hilarious posing. Snake Power is basically "I hate this fighting system" juice. Throws are absent, too. All-in-all it's a slow, sleepy title and not a whole lot happens until everything happens. I think this was always the intent, but the execution and budget rush hurt it more. The final events in the game happen so quick and unexpectedly that it completely ruins the narrative weight of the actually-quite-large developments that happened. It feels like it's all brushed under the rug by the time it's said and done. It's over in minutes. Even with all this, I still really liked this game. If you can still play the old Shenmues to this day and enjoy them, there's still a lot here to enjoy. Just keep your expectations tempered. One last criticism that comes to mind has to do with the way backers and Shenmue-fanservice were integrated into the game. It's immersion-breaking and disrespects all the work done on the game. It turns it into a "product". You shouldn't be able to buy capsule toys of people Ryo knows (or of himself!) and see super-deformed Chai hanging around in the arcades. That and that dang building right there in Niaowu! They should've integrated this content out-of-universe somehow (for example, maybe provide the Shenmue-themed capsule toys as gifts for progress, that can only be viewed in the game's menu, and Ryo is never seen physically handling it or retrieving it). There's also a fight near the end of the game where it's a bunch of very-not-Asian looking people and you just have that realization "I bet this was a backer tier".