Shenmue. I finished it tuesday night. It took me about a week. So much for the huge epic.



I did enjoy it though. The story really wasn't too bad. Some of it was interesting. For some reason driving the forklift was my favorite part. There weren't that many real time fights though... which, considering the fighting engine sucked donkeys nuts, wasn't too much of a dissapointment.



Some of the voice acting was just bad. Really bad. I'm sure they just grabbed a few people out of the marketing department for the small bits... even then, I couldn't believe anyone could actually be that bad... but luckily it WAS only the small parts that sucked. The lead, Ryo, was pretty good. Nazomi... she was a bit annoying at times. She always seemed desperate. Granted Ryo could be a dick when dealing with the fact that she had it bad for him, but really, she needed to lighten up.



The story got me interested enough to want to pick up the next chapter when it comes out. It was a little on the cliche hong kong action flick storyline side... but it held together pretty nicely. There are supposed to be 16 chapters... I don't know if I believe they'll actually make 16 chapters...



Oh, and all the little extras are total fanservice. I laughed out loud when I went to one of the toy machines and it spit out a Ristar figure... what the fuck? Heh... The mini-games were cool too. The full versions of Hang On and Space Harrier were in the arcade. They also had a game of darts... which... I got addicted to at one point in the game.



Sega has been releasing a ton of pretty good games lately. Shenmue, Jet Grind Radio, Ferrari F355, Grandia 2, and Skies of Arcadia. I just got Skies of Arcadia... it seems alright so far... but not that great. I need to pick up Grandia...