One major aspect of Shenmue's world is that every NPC is an individual character with a unique design, and every one has a daily path/routine. (And you can talk to all of them and discover their personalities, etc. There were even short backstories written for every one of them.) It goes a long, long way to creating the feeling of an intimate, living open world.
There is no EXP in Shenmue. You can unlock new moves and hit points and stuff, but if you get better at combat, it's because you get better as a player.
Shenmue basically created (or, if it didn't do that, popularized) the QTE. They show up in cutscenes with action in them fairly regularly.