So, i finally had the time to play the game and i actually finished it!
They absolutely nailed the skeleton of the series and some of its vital organs: Bailu and Niaowu were wonderful to look at, and they had plenty of side activities to offer, and there was a lot of great potential.
Of course, like i'm sure everyone has already said, it lacked most of the real meat.
I would've actually been more than fine with having a smaller scale, less epic story about Ryo traveling around, meeting people and powering up if the game actually gave me any form of character fleshing out, story set pieces, cut scenes and actual stuff going on in return, and it's really hard to argue that everything about this aspect didn't feel severely undercooked and rushed.
I actually liked the ending quite a bit, i can see why it left the "i just want to beat up Lan Di and be over with it" crowd unhappy, but it left me super hyped for the next game, that at this point HAS to raise the scope, the quality of the story and its stakes no matter what.
Overall, i liked for what it was: clearly not a full fledged, high budget classic Shenmue game but rather a solid foundation for what is going to (hopefully) come next.