Still, as impressive as the playable environment is, the most profound aspect of the game are the inhabitants themselves. Not only is the world populated by over 300 NPCs, each one was given as much love and detail as any of the main characters. In Prima's Official Strategy Guide, pages upon pages are devoted to the NPCs. Each one has a name, biography, age, address, height, and even a designated blood type, including the stray animals scattered about the towns. If a young gamer were to pick up and play Shenmue today, she would most likely ignore 90% of the sprites, assuming that they were randomly generated from a batch and would likely cease to exist once off screen, as modern games have taught her to do. She would never know that if she were to randomly pick any of them—maybe the old woman sweeping in front of her hair salon, or the business man waiting by the bus stop—and follow them around, she would learn that person's daily schedule—where they lived, what time they woke up, where they worked (if they worked), what ramen joint they would eat at for lunch, who they would socialize with on the weekends, what bar they would frequent on Friday nights. Sadly, she would never know the staggering amount of life teeming inside this game.

It's hard to blame this perspective entirely on the times. Even then, if a player attempted Shenmue without knowing what it was, they would most likely end up befuddled. Where am I supposed to go? Where's my score? How can I tell if I'm good at this game or not? Up until then, sandbox video games had yet to be truly realized. Nintendo was starting to play with the idea in titles like Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda, but even so, these games were examples of nonlinear gameplay as oppose to a true sandbox. They told the player, "Here's your goal. It's up to you to figure out how to get there," but Shenmue took the concept one step further and said: "Its up to you to choose your goal."

Without a hand to guide them—with no strict missions and virtually no threat of game over—most first-time players didn't know how to even begin, quickly getting frustrated by the lack of direction, throwing down the controller while her friend pleads confounding things like, "But you haven't even opened up any drawers yet!" or "Did you try running through the pigeons?" or "Look! You can feed a cat! Here's a million yen; go down to the 7-11 and buy a can of tuna fish. You won't regret it."

Alas, despite the desperate cries for attention coming from Shenmue's fanbase, the general gaming public ignored the title, their eyes focused on the exciting new console breasting the horizon—the PlayStation 2. Shenmue's poor timing, plus a painful localization and the fact that it was released on a system that was soon to be deceased, led to a heartbreaking and abrupt end to this magnificent game, a passionate fling that many gamers to this day have yet to get over.

That's why for every E3 since the dawn of the show, Shenmue rumors have always floated to the top of the speculation barrel, even after all these years. The game was simply too massive to die overnight, and its spirit has haunted the industry ever since its untimely death in 2001.

But now it's happening. As of midnight EST on June 16th 2015, a Kickstarter has engaged for the release of Shenmue III. Supposedly, the campaign is just a front for Sony, who is using the promotion to safely gauge people's reaction to the idea without having to commit to it. If that's true, Sony didn't have to wait long for an answer. The campaign was given thirty-one days to reach a goal of 2 million dollars, and it reached 1 million dollars within the first hour, and obtained its full goal by sunrise. It is a thrilling event, and even if you can't join in the fund, hopefully you can at least join in the excitement. [nd]