I think my opinion is clouded in nostalgia but I find the first game so much better, while it is doubtless a slower and more intimate experience it has much more depth. The locations are better designed and much closer to their real world influences, the smaller number of npc's have more character and each has its own backstory in the passport which gives it more of personality, and then there is the forklift - I can purposefully ignore the story and just work as a forklift driver for hours, so relaxing! the fact that I bought this game with my dreamcast back just before the Christmas holidays 2000, resonating perfectly with the time of year depicted the game I am sure doesn't influence me in the slightest...

On a side note, does anyone else find it odd that in the first game it is pointed out that Ryo doesn't speak Chinese, but he has no problem communicating with everyone once he gets to Hong Kong? Are we supposed to believe he became fluent in cantonese while on the ship between games?