Its crazy how strong nostalgia is, i never bothered with shenmue when it was originally released so thought i'd try the remasters when the latest one was released and it lasted about 30 minutes the game was so bad it was unbelievable the control scheme had aged so badly i couldn't move past it.
It's remarkably condescending to attribute my opinion to nostalgia. Also inaccurate.
It was a revolutionary game that represented a huge step forward at the time - graphics, the open world that actually felt alive, branching choices and multiple ways to progress the story, etc.
It's certainly aged, and newer games have adopted and polished those features, but it was groundbreaking and still has a depth few other games have managed.
Still, it could be quite slow, so if you need non stop action a la COD then it makes sense that you wouldn't like it.