They have aged horribly. Unless you reaaaaaaaaaaally want to play them, I'd suggest just watching a Let's Play on Youtube or something.

Do it. The graphics have suffered, but otherwise the game is just as good as it was then. That is, it's still clunky as fuck, but the way it is paced with slow exploration getting spliced with combat and only good use of QTEs I've seen in a game makes you overlook that.

Plus playing games within a game is so god damn fun.

Noooope.

They've fucked up big time if they don't re-release those games between now and 2017-2018, that's all I'm saying.

I still play a lot of old games, so whether something has aged rarely bothers me. I replayed the first disk of Shenmue this weekend and had a great time. I may even stick with it.

ahh just do it it'll be fun

If you haven't played them before, then I wouldn't bother. They were both kind-of clunky when they came out, so I can't imagine they have aged well. If you don't have any nostalgia for how weird/ambitious and different they were at the time, then I think it would be tough to play them now when you probably won't get any of that (well maybe still weird).

Also, I don't know where you live, but in North America I think Shenmue II only came out on the original Xbox. Just something to consider if you don't have one already.

Play them without guides, you'll love them!

@cameron said:

This is correct.

Shenmue 2 isn't that bad. A couple of years ago I went to a retro game shop and picked up a copy of Shenmue 2 for Xbox. Xbox version kinda sucks. The voice acting is garbage but its kinda funny. The game isn't that bad still. But looking at the highlights for Shenmue 1 that game looks like its just awful. Also my girlfriends brother was reminiscing about it recently and just saying how fucking boring it is. I've never completed Shenmue 2 though. I got about 1/2 to 2/3 through the Dreamcast version, I might give it another shot possibly.

Shenmue is so fucking Dreamcast. If you have any nostalgia for the DC, I'd recommend Shenmue. It's got that quiet, homey je ne sais quois to it that many Japanese DC games have. If you don't have any nostalgia for the DC, skip it.

On the other hand, I tried to play Shenmue 2 on XBOX, and it was not fun. It felt like a larger version of the original, but the world didn't feel meaningfully populated or any denser than the original. It also dropped the charming small scale of the original for a "big city" setting, and frankly lost a lot of its charm in doing so.

Well just remember, Shenmue created the quick time event. (I'm pretty sure anyway, don't remember them before the first game). I haven't played them in a long time, but I feel like it's good qualities should still hold up. Learning fighting moves and the combat was cool, even the quick time events weren't to bad.

I only just played Shenmue for the first time this past year and loved it, in fact, I posted my thoughts on it here http://www.giantbomb.com/shenmue/3025-602/forums/it-s-2015-and-i-finished-shenmue-for-the-first-tim-1768579/#10. Yes, there is quite a few things about Shenmue that doesn't age well (voice acting, movement controls a bit stiff), but there's quite a lot of charm in those games as well, and that first game was really ahead of its time in a lot of ways, being the precursor to every urban sandbox game that would come after it, as well as the attention to detail and how every single NPC in that game is unique and has their own daily lives that will change day to day, and the way the weather patterns change randomly and can cause the entire world to be covered in snow at random is really cool and is something you don't seen in most games. It is not a game for everyone though, and I think you're enjoyment with Shenmue will be based on what you're thoughts are on games like Heavy Rain or L.A. Noire. It's very slow paced, but is very unique to this day and has a lot of heart, I'd recommend at least giving it a chance, just know going in that if you're expecting a pure action game, you're going to hate it, it's more of an immersive life simulator with some action sprinkled in then it is a pure action style open world game.

To me, this is just a yes or no answer. If you're going to play one, you have to play the other. If you're interested in the third (and whatever comes after that), I'd say yes, definitely play them, but if not, then definitely not. There are still some fine qualities to them I'm sure, but a lot of it by now, and even when they were released are experienced with a good laugh (voice acting). My brother played through the first on Dreamcast, as I watched him, and then I later played the second through on Xbox. I enjoyed it quite a lot. It was years ago that I would discuss the want for a third, by now, I am not as interested, though I'll still play it when it comes I'm sure.