The character faces, every NPC having spoken dialogue, painstaking detail to the smallest details in the world, real time schedules through out the world, fully functioning in-game arcade, were incredibly advanced for when Shenmue first came out. Shit that just seems basic now were pretty god damn mind blowing at the time. Definitely doesn't translate today, if you come into it completely fresh now it's mostly just an awkward feeling game that's put together poorly.This is probably the healthiest way to describe it. If you were there at the time, it was definitely a novelty to be able to buy toys and open drawers, but nothing about it holds up now. Even in its day, there were probably PC adventure games that handled the passage of time far better.