It, feeling different, to me is quite a bad thing, especially when the journey and actions of the characters are essentially the same. The only merit in doing this is, if the outcome of the changed actions is different as well, according to the new ones.
Shenmue without Ine-San, Nozomi and Fuku-San realizing the high price Ryo is paying for the satisfaction of getting revenge is barely anything to me.
To make it more concrete: because of time constrains they needed Ine-San to give Ryo the letter sooner. But they couldn`t do that if she was against his actions. So they took this character trait from her and gave it Yamagishi-San. By doing that, they actively compromised Ine-Sans character in favour of a very minor character. A very crucial character in Shenmue 1 is essentially nothing in this anime. That`s just objectively bad.
I really do think, as I stated before, Ryo delving into the abyss and going through a rocky hard path willingly and him not wanting to directly involve loved once, but the very same getting jeopardized by the situation, is an essential part of Shenmue. That`s why Nozomi getting into her situation with Terry because of her own actions rather then Ryos is also just bad to me. That`s essentially betraying Nozomis character. Changing a character from a very heart-warming, sympathetic and empathatic character into reckless one doesn`t make the character better in any way!
I do watch it up until now but I think the chapter 1 of the saga is already botched. I do think Shenmue II is a bit more straight forward and action-oriented so my hopes are, that I can enjoyed it for that alone.