Ryo Hazuki – Shenmue
Shenmue should’ve been the Dreamcast’s epic. Instead, it’s a curiosity, a footnote in video game history. Before Rockstar wrote the book on story-driven open-world sagas, Ryo Hazuki centered a multi-disc game with a storyline that would put any current prestige Netflix drama to shame. Maybe he was too bland to last — it’s campily funny watching him stoneface his way through increasingly intense situations.