Another great episode. Loved seeing the s3 characters, although they are really going hard on the prophecy - seems like it has bookended both episodes now, and 2 in a row where we have the shenmue music and prophecy playing over the final scene. Will be curious if this continues, although hard to see this concluding every single episode. Interesting stylistic choice if they do so however.
I think someone earlier said how they have cut out Shenmue's "side events" to focus on the core story, although actually this isn't the case. We've had at least 2 of these events already: the park fight with enoki in episode 1, (very missable in S1), and now double blow with Yamagishi (also missable). In fact Yamagishi san virtually gets his own mini arc this episode himself, as he comes to terms with Ryo's desire to learn the truth about his father, after initially, sensibly, trying to dissuade him. I definitely think there'll be more side stuff, and the Yamagishi scenes here were really well done.
The continued shift on Ryo's motivation is interesting here, especially considering a big part of the Man Mo temple section with Xiuying is about her trying to stop Ryo throwing his life away on revenge. I suppose though that they may ramp up the revenge side more as we go along - although to be honest Ryo is still embarking on a foolish, near suicidal mission regardless of the slight shift, so not too much has changed anyway. Ryo is still very single minded and naive here, so plenty of room to grow. Also, this version of the nightmare scene gives us the extra Lan Di moment which seems to be the real point at which Ryo becomes obsessed with finding the truth about his father.
I also love the added scenes again, the way they are developing Ryo/Nozomi is really well done - we get to see Nozomi's room! I always wanted to see something like that after the calls in the game with Nozomi, and I feel like the off screen mother calling is a reference to those calls too. Pacing felt more relaxed this week too, with less heavy lifting to do than episode 1. Guizhang and master Chen next episode. Bring it!