This was probably the closest thing the Dreamcast had to the Saturn's Panzer Dragoon Saga. Although not quite to the same extent, availability is pretty scarce, and the game is still highly sought after, even if it's not worth anything like as much in terms of cash. I don't think that many people have actually ever played Shenmue II, even although they've almost certainly heard of it. But mention it to someone who stuck with the Dreamcast until this last moment and they'll probably have a lot to say. The Shenmue games were like our Ocarina of Time.

Shenmue II got released at the end of 2001 in Japan and Europe only, and was one of the last big Dreamcast releases. (The European version was later released in Australasia in early 2002). Like Panzer (which was one of the last Saturn releases), the on-screen text was translated but voice dubbing was skipped as by this stage, it was too late and if any more time was spent on localisation, the console would be well and truly dead and no longer 'financially viable' by the time the game hit shelves.

SEGA of America claimed that not dubbing over the voices was due to gamers complaining about the sometimse laughable voice-over done to the first Shenmue game. Of course, this was obviously grade-A corporate bullshit, because after they shelved the US Dreamcast version, it showed up on the Xbox with American actors jabbering over the dialogue. I haven't sat down and played it all the way through because I don't have an Xbox, but I have heard that it is awful!

Cancelling the US Dreamcast version of Shenmue II produced one of the most hilariously ironic situations ever. You see, European Dreamcast owners (and all of the other territories that used the same PAL video standard) up until this point had been getting the shaft, with games such as Daytona USA and Outtrigger being released with their online gaming modes ripped out. In fact, with the exception of most of the Xbox 360, people buying European video games consoles STILL get the shaft with late releases (which is why I don't buy European games consoles even although I live in Europe). It sounds cruel, but it was hilarious to watch forums filled with xenophobic 13 year old American kids (who'd probably never heard of Europe in their lives let alone bought games from here), whining about how there was no hope left and how they would never get to play Shenmue II on the Dreamcast because Bill Gates was the son of Satan, and how America is so discriminated against when it comes to games (you have NO IDEA!)

This was all despite the fact that the Dreamcast was one of the easiest consoles to play imports on in the history of gaming. Why?

1. Most British stores are not as insular as American ones and will gladly ship products to any country in the world. Some of the smarter US users ordered their copies from Electronic Boutique UK and Gameplay, for example.
2. The Dreamcast is ridiculously easy to play imports on. For the ultimate convenience, there's the mod chip with four wires to solder to the main board. Of course, soldering is obviously not for everyone, so alternatively you can easily download a software boot disc that will load anything and cost you the price of a blank CD. Going down a notch further, you could have had a professional boot disc (DC-X or Action Replay) from your local EBGames store for only $20.
3. You don't even need a video standards converter or multisystem TV, contrary to what IGN claimed! An NTSC Dreamcast will output 60hz games in NTSC, the US standard video format!
4. Some Electronic Boutique stores in America even stocked European copies of the game bundled with boot discs to play them with, making availability and compatibility issues redundant. The only problem with this was the price. Yet American gamers STILL acted like this was the worst possible thing that had ever happened to them!

Anyway, rant over. Contrary to popular belief, SEGA of America were the ones who translated the game - they pulled it at the eleventh hour after a cash injection from Microsoft to give up exclusive rights to the Shenmue series. As well as that, the game was censored for its American iteration. It's unknown who was responsible for carrying out the cuts and modifications, but word is that Yu Suzuki himself in Japan oversaw the censoring of certain scenes that involved a character called Ewan. Ewan was a stereotypical homosexual who smoked and fluttered around and hung out with a nasty gang. For the Western version, Ewan was given a sex change and a voice overdub and became Yuan, so instead of being a girly man, s/he's now a manly looking girl. I'm not entirely sure what this was supposed to acheive.

Depending on how you feel about the whole game, the last disc of this last game will either be downright boring, or one of the nicest things you've ever seen in a game. Ryo walks with and runs after Shenhua (Shen-whah), the mysterious girl who's somehow connected to the Phoenix mirror that caused his father's death, through the woods and eventually ends up with her in a Phantom River Stone pit. After that, the game ends on one hell of a cliffhanger. With the death of the Dreamcast and Microsoft's downright shitty handling of the sequel in the US, gamers will probably never know how the story ends.

If you've never played the Shenmue games, they're probably the best reason to pick up a Sega Dreamcast. The first game is still exclusive to the system and is likely to stay that way, and the best version of the second (i.e. no badly overdubbed voices) is on the Dreamcast as well.