Yeah, I don’t know how easy copies of Shenmue would be to track down; I’m also a little worried that battery-backed memory may be starting to go dead now (Dreamcast VMUs), but maybe that’s overblown. So, with the current state of the VGC, it probably wouldn’t be a good choice. Then again, maybe that’s a bug with the current state of the VGC; if a few Shenmue fans want to get together and play it, why shouldn’t the VGC welcome them?

I’m having some problems with Yakuza 2 as well. It does remind me a lot of Shenmue, but when it does, I’m usually thinking, “I should play Shenmue again,” because Yakuza just isn’t cutting it. The biggest annoyance for me is the camera. It’s confusing every time I walk a few yards and the camera shifts to a new fixed perspective and suddenly I have to switch directions on the analog stick to continue in the same direction.

Sometimes the objectives are unclear as well, so that stops any momentum I have built up in the story. I’m also not a big fan of grinding for money to reach some arbitrary goal that lets me continue the story.

The thing Yakuza 2 is really missing, as a comparison to Shenmue, is the calendar system and the small things, like you mentioned. In Shenmue, I really enjoy the feeling that the world is doing its own thing around me, and if I wanted to, I could just stop and live a normal life, going to the store, working a job, etc. in that space. Yakuza 2 seems much more linear in that way. The world is there to lead me through the story, and though there are lots of optional sidequests and side activities, they don’t fit together into a living place like Shenmue does.