Cost over $20 million to develop and was the most expensive Video Game to ever be developed at the time. The project took seven years to complete by Sega's game-development AM2 division. For this feat, it has a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
If you go to the altar room in Ryo's home and ring the bell before praying for his dad every day till the games end, After the final credit roll you'll get a secret ending with his farther and a Young ryo fishing
Yu Suzuki originally wrote Shenmue with 16 chapters and originally intended to have the series span 4-5 games. However, with only moderate success achieved with Shenmue (Chapter 1), Shenmue 2 contained chapters 3-5 in one game and some parts of the intended game were cut out. The time Ryo spends on the ship traveling from Japan to Hong Kong was meant to be part of the game (Chapter 2).
In Japan, the vending machines allowed players to get various real-life drinks from the Coca-Cola Company. These include Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, and Georgia Coffee Original. However, because Sega only got the rights to use them in Japan, they were changed to more generic Bell Wood machines. These instead offer Jet Cola, Jet Soda, Fruda and Bell Wood's Coffee.
It is possible to meet the very famous (in Japan at least) senior executive officer of SEGA Yukawa-san in Shenmue as a hidden event. To see him you must get the 'happi' and 'suit' figures of him at Abe Store in Sakuragaoka's raffle. The best way to get to see him is if you have only one of each statue. It is recommended you save as soon as you get one, and then keep trying to be sure you don't get the same one twice. When you have them go to Takara Sushi on the 9th of any month after 8 pm. He will be sitting in the bar eating. In the Japanese version of the game, Ryo used to talk to him, afterwards, he would run away. If you want to see him again go outside and back in again. You can do this as many times as you like between 8 and 9. On the international versions, Mr. Yukawa is not interactable. Mr. Yukawa was the main subject of the Japanese playable demo: "What's Shenmue"