A french national video game magazine has published a retrogaming review of Shenmue this month in its 11th issue written by someone who has never played it before, amazed by the reputation of the game.
I have not been able to scan as I only read it in the shop but the article has itself nothing particular anyway. It's only focused on two pages but was covered as one of the three biggest features of the issue by the magazine promotion, demonstrating how Shenmue is still well considered in a country where Shenmue has never been translated (terrible decision by Sega) and where Dreamcast and Xbox sales were very confidential.
The article is pretty well written and mainly focused on the the art essence and the gameplay mechanics. Among the positive remarks, the writer is impressed by the radical approach of life routine, surprised by the quality of QTEs, qualifies the game as an "anti-AAA" and finishes his article by describing the beautiful end of the game.
The weaknesses have also been mentioned like the linearity or the abusive use of "go to point C before to go to point B awaiting to go to point A".
The only thing that has annoyed me is when he talked about Shenmue as a bad selling game which I still think it's a cliche.
Well, it's always a pleasure to see Shenmue still alive in the local medias.
Title translation :
Shenmue, the UFO from Japan