Shenmue II

Shenmue II is an open-world, action-adventure game developed by Sega AM2 and published by Sega. The game was released in 2001 for the Dreamcast in Japan and Europe. Microsoft secured the North American rights to the game for the Xbox, and the port was released in the region in 2002 and elsewhere a year later.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) You can buy maps throughout the world, which adds a mini-map on the bottom right of the screen, drastically improving navigation.
 * 2) It has a much faster pace than the previous game. You'll be playing fights within the first 30 minutes when the first game would take hours before doing so.
 * 3) You can now fast-forward time to activate important events, removing much of the downtime in the first game.
 * 4) The Xbox version has analog control, which is much smoother than using a D-pad for movement.
 * 5) The Xbox version also comes with a DVD titled Shenmue the Movie, which is a recap of the events of the first game. This is great for players who didn't own a Dreamcast thus didn't play the original Shenmue.
 * 6) Fighting system based on the Virtua Fighter series.
 * 7) Vast world to explore.
 * 8) Excellent soundtrack.
 * 9) The quick-time-events make a return from the previous title.
 * 10) A lot of sidequests and accessories to buy.
 * 11) There's a cameo of Ristar.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The Xbox port doesn't have a lot of extras or graphical improvements over the Dreamcast version.
 * 2) The English voice-acting is poorly done.
 * 3) The infamous ending of the game. To reach to the villain's base, you most walk in the forest during two days in real time (we are not joking). After reach the place, instead a boss battle, there is nothing, what lefts for Shenmue III. It's completely frustrating for those who spent a lot of time walking around just to see that they got nothing but an open ending. It doesn't help that the sequel came out 18 years later after this game.

Reception
Shenmue II recieved critical acclaim, but sold rather poorly when compared to the previous game, selling 15 thousand copies worldwide according to VGChartz, which was a major downgrade in terms of profitability when compared to the first game which sold 1.2 million copies worldwide despite high development costs, Because of that, the series was put on hiatus for over a decade until a successful KickStarter for Shenmue III after Sega gave Yu Suzuki the IP.