It's not. It's basically, "I used to love Shenmue, then I played the re-release and these are the reasons why it's a bad game". He spends a couple minutes on how the sequel was a big improvement, but it's a fraction of the video compared to the negative tone of the rest. You could argue the sequel isn't as important to the overall story of "Shenmue as a franchise", but if you're going to wedge in a mini-review of the first game, why not do the same for the second, especially if you like it so much?
I watched/listened to it again, it's far more about the fall of Sega than I remember it being. I don't think he explains why it's a
bad game per se; he explains why not all of its ideas "work" and how big swings like that are necessary to move the industry forward. His criticisms of the game aren't wrong (objectives are vague, not a lot happens, there's forced waiting, there aren't a lot of side activities etc.) and he explains how most of his complaints are addressed in the sequel. His opinion is very close to my own regarding the series but I agree that a proper review of S2 and all the things that are good about the series would be welcome.
His videos are classic "shit sandwiches" -- they start off with praise and how much he cares, then settle into a stream of negativity, and finally finish up on a slightly more positive note, so you feel like you've watched some balanced criticism.
I don't think that's fair. His reviews are all about coming to terms with nostalgia, which is why he always affects that melancholy tone and addresses the negative aspects he found revisiting something he liked in his youth. I don't think that his objective is to shit on the game and couch it between moderate praise; he's simply looking at the game through more mature eyes.
Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but when these YTers find a formula that works, they very rarely stray from it, and we all know negativity and controversy get the views.
Again, I think it's less "negativity" (he has plenty of positive videos) and more "confronting nostalgia without rose tinted glasses". But maybe I'm not being cynical enough.
That is a classic HR strategy to "soften" the blow of what you really want to say to the employee/coached person the initial ans final positive points are not important at all ans the middle section the criticism is the real message. My previous roommate who was amateur football manager/coach applied such strategy and explained my the reasons for it and I think it had a name but I can not remember.
He makes it
very clear that what he finds appealing about Shenmue is its epic story and grand scope. S1 and S3 greatly downplay this aspect of the series, so it makes sense that he doesn't like those games. He is not trying to shit on Shenmue, he is explaining what he likes and doesn't like about the games.
He says: "Critically the idea of Shenmue's vast journey was now starting to take form...while Shenmue 1 was the first of its kind and suffered for it, Shenmue 2 was a refinement of those ideas and proof that there really was something here, there was a
vision to Shenmue." and I think that's
exactly how many fans feel. Shenmue 1 is not what we thought the series was going to be like going forward, Shenmue 2 is.
