Consider this:
Here's my approach. Compose some music first. Put all my thoughts into a tune without
telling anything. Then let the staff, planners and scenario writers, listen to it.
And when each of them get some inspiration, I collect them and start shaping them into
a form. Getting ideas from various people including my thought is a good way to create
things with no particular color. Without writing sentences, without drawing pictures,
just music stimulates the imagination to create a new universe. So I made the music first. Read more.
Yu Suzuki first creates the music and (based on that) then creates the universe. So, in Shenmue there is a 1-on-1 relationship between music and the game itself. Shenmue it is a great game, so it has great music, or, Shenmue has great music, so it is a great game. Both of these sentences [and especially the second one, based on what Suzuki-san said (i.e. he first make the music, then the universe)] are valid, only when the inspiration that they have gathered from the music , have taken some excellent form (and reflects the greatness of the composed music)· and this is something that happens in Shenmue.