by Henry Spencer » Mon Dec 02, 2013 7:43 pm
Yakuza isn't really similar to Shenmue aside from both being developed by teams within SEGA...Yakuza actually didn't start out as being popular anyway, it's only built its name over time. Yakuza is more of an action adventure with beat 'em up combat whilst Shenmue is more interactive based (similar to point and click adventure games) adventure game. Yakuza had the added bonus of releasing on the most popular consoles in Japan (PS2, PS3) which is the territory that Yakuza sells the best; whereas with Shenmue, it was released on a console that sold like shit (Dreamcast) and it appeals more to people outside its home country where it was developed, so yeah, very different series once you look at them in that way.
Unfortunately for us, Shenmue no doubt got part of the blame for the Dreamcast's demise, since SEGA bet a lot on it, hoping it would be the killer app for them...and Suzuki fell into obscurity for a loooong time.
I can think of a few video games that ended on a cliffhanger; Advent Rising, Psychonauts, Anachronox, Beyond Good and Evil, Tactics Ogre (well, at least until the PSP remake resolved it), Vagrant Story...the list goes on