Your shenmue discovery story

Friday - 1st October 1999 (between 3:30pm-4pm)

That was the day my life changed forever.

Not just changed a little bit, but around 4PM, standing in the newsagents of a shopping centre (or mall for you Americans out there), my life split into two paths, and a choice was made. Go this way, or that way. Unconsciously, i made a choice that day, that would go on to define and shape the rest of my life.

This 15 year old's Friday routine was simple; go with my mum to The Kennedy Centre after school finished at 3pm, and as she got the weekly shopping in Curleys supermarket, i went off on my own to visit the usual 3 spots, spread out within the same shopping centre. First off was a video rental shop called "Xtra-Vision", which was never that exciting until a few years before when they started game rentals (Ahh the memories of trying to beat Turok 2 and WCW vs NWO World Tour in a single weekend!). I always went in there to see what was new, as well as to be mesmerised by the box art, both front and back, when those things were still as awesome as the game inside! After that, it was round to "Golden Discs". A music shop, with a decent dance/techno/house music section, it was where i bought my first ever cassette single back in the day. A choice between Sash - "Equador", and Dario G - "Sunchyme". I chose the latter, much to my regret. What can i say, i was a kid who loved the bass drum, and many a Scooter album was purchased in there too. Hey, it was the 90's , and fuck Take That.

I always save the best to last with many things in life, from the food on my plate, to the playing of multiple videogames i have in my library, and the visit the third shop in terms of the order i visited these places, was no different on my Friday routine. "Newsbeat", with its red and yellow sign was where i spent the majority of the trip, completely glued to the gaming magazines. At the front of the shop, the magazine rack ran the entire length of the left hand side of the shop. Kids comics were the first you came to when walking along that side, featuring such classics as The Beano and Dandy, serving as a reminder of where i had came from back in the 80's. I still have traumatic memories of pure rage, at someone who had ripped the free Iron Bru bar off of the Beano on the shelf before i had bought it, and only realising when i had gotten home. That was the last kids comic i bought back in the day, and ripped up my furry Gnasher Beano membership badge. in protest.

Further on down past all of the various topics of magazines (as well as the pornos on the top shelf which i wasnt tall enough to reach, but didnt deter me from trying!), the video gaming section was more or less at the back end of the shop. The student working their shift behind the till wouldn't even notice you down there, and it was like my second home throughout the years leading up to 1999. I was there reading them all throughout the years. From Mean Machines, to Gamesmaster, all the way to to the N64 Magazine. Some i persuaded my mum to buy just to shut me up, but most of the time, all i got for my pre adolescent whining was a good smack on the side of my head. But by this stage, being 15, i had learned how to scrape together a few quid. With my shiny new National Insurance card recently sent out before you turn 16, places could use that to blag a few months work out of you before you hit legal age to work, so i had a cushy part time job working a Thursday night and all day Saturday in a clothing shop in the city centre. It may not have been much, but £60 a week was like winning the lottery at that age! I knew finally, i could jump into a console lifespan at the very beginning, without any help or waiting on Santa Claus to deliver the goods, so it was the Dreamcast all the way for me. It was perfectly timed, with it coming out in a couple of weeks, and the Official Dreamcast Magazine having its preview issue with a video cassette attached to really hook me in.

It was in this shop, on Friday 1st October 1999, lifting Official Dreamcast Magazine (UK) issue 1 (November 1999 - i don't know why they labelled those magazines a month ahead) up off of the shelf, and reading the words, "Shenmue - the game that changes everything" that were blazened across the front cover alongside a huge image of a character we now know as Niaosun, where my life legitimately change forever. How very true those words came to be, on a personal level for myself.

I have the magazine i bought on that very day, sitting beside me right now, as i wanted to flick through it, and i could go on and on about it. But this post is far too long already. But the jist of how i felt was, finally, here is a game I want. What i play video games for. I want a complete world within a world. Escapism. Not some cartoony side scroller, or a first person shooter. I want to live in a game, and as i read the article in a frenzied manner, i coughed up my £4.99 without blinking an eye. I read and re-read that magazine all weekend. I even did the one thing you shouldn't do back in those days, and that was bring it into school to read at lunch. Shit like that would result in a kicking for sure in an Irish, sports orientated, all boys school. But some of the guys i hung around with actually said it looked good, and that was all the vilification i needed. This console, and this game would be mine.

The rest is now history, and as a result of that day, i now own the brand i visited for almost 20 years, have visited Japan, can call the creator a friend, learned life skills that would never have been possible, met great, great people from around the world. Despite having debts, no girlfriend, no house and no car... i wouldn't trade my life and all of the things i have done for them, no matter how much you paid me. I'm sure people will judge me, disagree, criticise or whatever. But all of that pales in significance to both the lowest of the lows thanks to this series, as well as the highest highs. It truly has shaped my life, and i will be forever grateful for that single day in October 1999 where lifting a single magazine did go on to shape 20 years of my life so far.
 
My mom bought an Xbox for my siblings and I as a Christmas gift, and we each got a game of our own. She gave me Shenmue 2, but I didn’t have a chance to play it that day because we had to leave for my dad’s house for the holiday.

When I got back she asked me , “Have you seen a kid named Wong? He’s wearing green clothing.” I had no idea what she was talking about! :LOL: She must have played it a bit while I was gone.
 
Long story short, I bought it for $22 brand new back in 2002 from an old gaming website that existed called vgfanatic. I missed that place. The cover art got me to buy it as I was buying games for my Dreamcast that I got a few months prior. I had yet to get games for it at the time. I was pretty amazed at how detailed and realistic the world was for the time. Re-played it a bunch of times since then.
 
Honestly I am impressed by some of the stories here since my story is much more mundane. Back in 99, I went down to our local game store “Buyback Games” to buy a new game after beating Sonic Adventure 1. I saw Shenmue and thought it looked cool so I asked my mom to buy it and that’s it. When I first played though the game while I was definitely engaged because of how unique it was I didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t till I was much older that I started to appreciate the charms the game had. When I started taking martial arts lessons and getting really into Asian martial arts that’s when the full effect of Shenmue became apparent to me. It was like a beautiful spiral martial arts lessons made me appreciate Shenmue more and Shenmue made me appreciate various aspects of Asian culture more.

It wasn’t till social media though that I learned that I wasn’t alone in loving and appreciating this series which was really humbling.
 
I was introduced to the game by my friend (who posts here but I don't know his username). We met in a Japanese class and he told me about Shenmue, which was his favourite game growing up. Once it came to Steam, I bought the 1 and 2 package in December and I've been hooked ever since. My friend and I basically talk about Shenmue like it's real life, which is probably pretty hilarious to anyone who hears us talking. As of now, I've finished Shenmue 1 and I'm currently in Kowloon in Shenmue 2. I was a baby when the games originally came out so I wasn't around then, but I've fallen in love with the series thanks to the release on Steam.
 
Captain Floofy said:
I was introduced to the game by my friend (who posts here but I don't know his username). We met in a Japanese class and he told me about Shenmue, which was his favourite game growing up. Once it came to Steam, I bought the 1 and 2 package in December and I've been hooked ever since. My friend and I basically talk about Shenmue like it's real life, which is probably pretty hilarious to anyone who hears us talking. As of now, I've finished Shenmue 1 and I'm currently in Kowloon in Shenmue 2. I was a baby when the games originally came out so I wasn't around then, but I've fallen in love with the series thanks to the release on Steam.
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As an old timer this makes me very happy! Welcome new friend, enjoy the Dojo!
 
Telekill said:
Great thread for the reboot of the site.

The Official Dreamcast Magazine back in 1999 (pictured below) is the first time I heard about Shenmue. I can't remember if earlier issues had much about it but I had a subscription since the first issue.

My Shenmue Story:

I had no idea this community even existed until July 2015. Sadly, I was one that loved Shenmue but had given up on a continuation ever happening. I remember reading the Official Dreamcast Magazine with Ryo on the cover and wondering what in the world Shenmue was (I used to have every issue and demo disc). Little did I know that the series would turn into a lifelong favorite of mine.

The magazine previews and trailers that came on the discs were enough to entice me to preorder the first Shenmue. It was just one of those games that I couldn't put down (with the exception of sleep and work). There have been few games that really pulled me into the story in as close to a full immersion as I think a game has ever come. When it ended, I was disappointed as there was no ending, but was expecting it given the previews. I eagerly anticipated the sequel so I could continue the story. Then disaster.

Living in America, we were one of the only primary gaming communities to not get Shenmue II on Dreamcast and I had no intentions of buying an Xbox for the port. I cursed Sega for leaving us out, but it was them who truly cursed themselves as Sega has never been the same since the end of Dreamcast. I figured that my time with Shenmue was at an end until a couple of years later, a friend of mine in college had gotten into Dreamcast. He was about as hardcore a Dreamcast pirate as I had ever seen as he had download dozens of Dreamcast titles onto his computer... including the European version of Shenmue II. He offered to burn me a copy and I accepted in order to continue the story.

I had to read the subtitles in order to understand the depth of the story but it truly was a masterpiece; being an incredible continuation. I remember playing through it while my girlfriend at the time (now wife) watched me play. Once I was done and the cliffhanger left all of us up in the air, I started to hope to hear news of a continuation. As time dragged on, I had kept my Dreamcast primarily for the Shenmue games, but it seemed as though the story would never complete. I had given up hope of a continuation as Sega seemed to be in the gutter.

Then there were murmurings that Mark Cerni was in talks with Yu Suzuki about potentially reviving Shenmue on the PS4 back around 2013 or so. I was truly excited at the prospect but the murmurings went away... until E3 2015. Before the show, people were anticipating a potential Shenmue 3 announcement as they do every year and I remember posting that it would never happen; I had given up hope. Of course, when Yu Suzuki walked out on Sony's stage my jaw quite literally dropped.

They announced the Kickstarter campaign saying it was up to us fans for the future of Shenmue. Feeling a bit guilty about participating in pirating Shenmue 2, I put in $100 into the Kickstarter. My wife remembered how much I enjoyed the series and regardless that money was tight for us, she gave the "ok" for the $100 backing as my birthday gift. I figure it would cover the $50 I would have paid for Shenmue II as well as the $50 I would happily pay for the third game. Plus having my name in the credits of a favorite series was an incredible backer reward. I also donated $13 on the slacker backer campaign for the digital soundtrack.

I'm really excited to have been part of the Kickstarter and seeing both Yu Suzuki's and the fan's dream of the story continuing become a reality. I saw so many fans in the Kickstarter comments, many of which mentioned the Dojo here, that I decided to join this community. I look forward to anticipating the release of the HD Collection releasing in less than a month as well as the third game and having many conversations about how awesome a revival this has been for the series, Yu Suzuki and the fans in general. Here's hoping to their success and the continuation with Shenmue IV and potentially Shenmue V as a finale.


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Yeah, I think it was this issue back in 99 that introduced me to Shenmue. I remember thinking it seemed really cool, but I was also 10 and didn't have the money to simply buy games I wanted. I didn't actually play the game until some point in the late 2000s.
 
As with Captain Floofy, when Shenmue came out, I was very young, as I was born in '97. Growing up, I eventually heard of it around 2008 or so in an issue of GameInformer, where the forklifts were mentioned, alongside the game's high quality. Even when the HD releases popped up on Steam, all I really knew was that the game was very good, but I didn't have much more info than that and didn't look into it.

Several months ago, I ended up watching Joel of Vinesauce. While I'd seen a video or so before, his personality really clicked with me this time, and I spent weeks watching different streams he'd done in past that interested me. Last month, on March 21, he uploaded another part of his ongoing Shenmue playthrough to his uncut streams channel. Upon seeing the title, I thought, "Huh, Shenmue... what exactly is that game like, anyway?" and started watching his playthrough of the first game in 2017. In very little time, somewhere around 2 hours, give or take a little, I knew the game I was watching him play enthusiastically was my sort of thing. So I got myself the PC releases from Steam, and the rest is obvious. Currently, I'm about to enter Kowloon for the first time in Shenmue 2, and loving everything Shenmue 2 has had to offer, as well.

Most everything about this series pleases me. The slow burn (though having a good enough hook to not become boring), the slice of life elements, the absolutely astonishing music, the way the game doesn't spare you from mundanity and tedium for the sake of making sure you and your character feel the same emotions and learn the same lessons, the level of detail that is still unmatched even now (while there's less to pick up in Shenmue 2, it still contains a tremendous amount of detail in the world), the combat in Shenmue 2 (the first game feels very unresponsive, to be honest), the interesting characters... It's so thoroughly unique and masterfully directed by Yu Suzuki to be this sort of game that doesn't care how anti-game it is while still having actual game mechanics, though it all is implemented to serve the world building, the storytelling, and the character development. I love it.

Now that I know how lovely this experience is, I find myself exceedingly frustrated by the tremendous amount of tedious ignorance and hatred towards it by so many fools. I want to punch someone when I see them compare it to Yakuza (especially if they say "Yakuza is better," or "Yakuza is everything Shenmue should've been) as though Yakuza carries this game's main elements and improves on them. It doesn't. It carries the serious storytelling, and some side elements, but is such a completely different game otherwise that I can tell if someone has ever played Shenmue simply by whether or not they think a Yakuza comparison is appropriate to begin with.

I also want to hit people whenever they bitch about waiting once or twice in Shenmue by saying, "Shenmue is a game that makes you wait around a lot," as they all give the exact same example of the tattoo parlor and no other examples. Aside from the situation surrounding the tattoo parlor, the only other time that I felt I was really being forced to wait was when I eventually learned that the Mad Angels hang out around the Tomato store in the harbour at night... but I learned it right after 7 PM, so I had to wait until the next night to actually trigger it. So it wasn't even a case of being forced, I just happened to learn the info the trigger the event too late.

Other statements I hate include, "Shenmue was never good," "Shenmue has aged really poorly," and "If you didn't play Shenmue at the time, you're wasting your time by trying to get into it now." Especially because I know for a damn fact that this is revisionist bullshit that didn't exist a decade ago. Every time I ever heard Shenmue mentioned, it was people mentioning it out of respect, even from people that hadn't played it, and I certainly haven't heard so many comparisons to Yakuza until recently. I've known about that series for years and years now, and people didn't start mentioning Shenmue until the Shenmue 3 kickstarter happened, and Yakuza started getting a bit more traction in the West. Now, a bunch of idiots who finally got around to playing Yakuza, but only know what they've heard about Shenmue are pretending they have any idea what they're talking about. Ugh. Oh, and anyone complaining about the English voice acting can bite me, because it was still better than a lot of voice acting around the time, and now the rereleases allow you to use the Japanese voice acting with ease anyway (which I do).

Sorry for the rant, mind you. Though at least it serves as evidence of the love Shenmue can still instill in players who go into it with some knowledge of what to expect and who are open to every unusual thing it tosses your way. Aside from the tank controls, stiff combat in the first game and some oddly strict QTEs (I'm not a huge fan of CQTEs in Shenmue 2 so far, honestly, especially since they pop up without warning, meaning the brain isn't as quick to respond to them as a single, very obvious prompt - not helped by the fact that the game didn't explain how they worked either. I'm not looking forward to the CQTEs that I know are coming up in Kowloon), I think the game has aged very well, and it sort of breaks my heart to think how many people who would enjoy the games have been scared off by fools.

Anyway, I love that I finally became interested enough to try these games, and I love how the games have taken so many steps to connect you to the story that this is the only series I've ever played where I have felt intensely emotionally involved in what's going on. My favourite moments of the first game are (1) a scene I actually missed, where Nozomi is crying in the park. When you confront her, she makes clear how she doesn't want to go to Canada, away from you, and she expresses disappointment that she didn't get to spend Christmas Eve with you, before resting her head on your shoulder, asking you to stay with her for a while, and wishing time would stand still (2) taking Nazumi home from the harbour, the lovely song 'Wish...' playing while a contented Nozomi clings to you, enjoying some of the last minutes she'll have with you before she leaves. It just makes me want to tear up, a feat I thought impossible for a game to accomplish with me. I'm glad for these games to touch my heart as they have touched all of yours for so long. I only wish I had been able to feel the joy that everyone else must have upon hearing those first notes of the theme at E3 2015, knowing that Shenmue was making a comeback. I look forward to experiencing Shenmue 3 with all the rest of you in August, even if I don't have quite the same level of relief as most of you do after waiting so long for this third game.

And thank you if you actually read this little novella of mine.)
 
Quick tip for CQTEs (apologies for thread diversion), don't forget Lishao Tao or Jianmin's kung fu advice! Another ingenious achievment by Suzuki in Shenmue is literally playing with principles of enlightened martial arts in mind; serene focus. The CQTEs are only jarring when your focus on them is too anxious. If you slow your breathe and mind, the prompts will slow down, too.
 
xatruio said:
Quick tip for CQTEs (apologies for thread diversion), don't forget Lishao Tao or Jianmin's kung fu advice! Another ingenious achievment by Suzuki in Shenmue is literally playing with principles of enlightened martial arts in mind; serene focus. The CQTEs are only jarring when your focus on them is too anxious. If you slow your breathe and mind, the prompts will slow down, too.
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It isn't so much anxiety, as the game properly taught me to maintain a calm focus, it's that my literal sperg brain takes a little too much time to switch back and forth between "Time to watch the cutscene," and "Time for QTEs." And if the first QTE is a CQTE, I will fail it every single time. Saving the duck-selling kid from thugs (while making the Chawan signs)? Failed it. Meeting Ren and giving him $500 bucks, only for him to pull out a knife? Failed it. This lack of prep time for me also includes chasing Ren through Lucky Plaza. I was able to handle the normal QTEs, then you get to the roof and it seems like you've done all the QTEs, because the pacing it had just set up with the QTEs prior is broken. My brain resets back to "time for watching the cutscene." Then BAM, CQTE, and failure ensues. If it had immediately followed the other QTEs, I suspect I'd have gotten it. This sort of problem where I take a little too long to switch gears applies to a great many things in my life, honestly. Ah well. I might just peek at a walkthrough for any mention of upcoming CQTEs so that I know when to prepare for them.

(I also apologise for the added thread diversion.)
 
I played "What's Shenmue?" in EPCOT Center Disney World before Shenmue was even out in Japan. The attraction was called "Innoventions" and you could always play games early there. I'd never even seen a Dreamcast at that point. Exploring and interacting with everything in Dobuita St was nothing I've ever experienced before in a game. And sure we all sucked at the QTE chase, and some guy walked off frustrated. But after a couple tries I got it, and that end cutscene blew my mind. I ran to an employee asking about the game. Thus my saga began =P

It's also where I discovered Kingdom Hearts early a year or so later!
 
I saw it at ToysRus back in 2002 and it was in a locked case with like four copies of the game. I ended up getting it for my birthday and was blown away by the game. I had to use Gamewinners.com to see a guide of what to do in the game. It was just a cool experience of seeing Japan and being able to visit it without taking a trip to Japan. From there in 2004 I had gotten a Xbox and I never really played it as my brother hogged it with Halo 2. I was attending college at the time and from time to time, I would go to the mall downtown. Inside the mall, there was a EB Games. I never been to EB Games before and it was such a different store than Gamestop. I was browsing the Xbox section one day and noticed Shenmue 2 for $19.99 with a red sticker. i was like "they made a Shenmue 2?". I ended up buying it and played it that same day. The graphics certainly looked better than Shenmue but it was weird using an Xbox controller compared to a Dreamcast controller. Was disappointed how Shenmue 2 ended with a cliffhanger back then. It was a cool experience seeing Hong Kong in the game and I loved how the game was longer compared to Shenmue. My love for Shenmue was probably bigger after playing Shenmue 2. So much that I bought Shenmue 1 & 2 for PS4 last year just to replay these games after 14 years of not playing them.
 
My very first forum membership was at the old official Sega boards from late Dreamcast era segue into 3rd party around 2001/2002. Always heard other posters raving about Shenmue and the trailers on the official page had me hooked. Played ch1 back to back, maybe even three times consecutive, before teaching myself about import discs and finding Shenmue ll on eBay. Also bought Shen2x to show support, but I only played once or twice before giving to my best friend at the time who loved the Zhang Dou Jiang fight/White Dynasty QTE demo from XBOX magazine. Dreamcast was my first sole system. Videogames were my old brother's decision earlier in life (and he defected us to Playstation; I was blown away by Virtua Fighter on Saturn and loyal to Sega still, as always). Shenmue was the first game I had ever found on my own and went out of my way to buy and play for myself rather than only play second player or watch my bros.

Began visiting the second old Dojo with burnt orange design, but not posting until 2003 green design. Despite leaving quietly in late 2007/early 2008 (maybe a scattering of infrequent posts in 2009?), I never gave up on the series, but Shenmue Online's cancellation definitely was a dagger to my heart; seeing WoW blowup and hearing about China/Korea game cafe culture instilled the belief ANYTHING Shenmue meant a chance to see Shenmue lll (ditto for phone games craze in Japan when Shenmue Gai was announced). In order to keep sanity, focusing part of my gaming obsession on MGS worked wonders, which I had known about of course, but not tried until TTS (which I still consider to be a fine remake and a classic example of hyperbolic internet hate). Although, I only rented it, whereas my first MGS play was Sons of Liberty. The hype for MGS3 was immense and kept me distracted from being too depressed about Shenmue lll. Ico/Colossus were also a huge help to keep my attention. Nevertheless, I always kept a faint dimming glimmer of hope because I noticed how entertainment and fashion seem to comeback about 5-15 years later. Look at all the remasters/remakes we've gotten since 7th gen for sufficient evidence.

Regardless of Kickstarter's birth and burgeoning effectivity, I confidently assumed time would roll around when retro-nostalgia kicked Sega into at least remastering the orginal two games--if not reboot--to gauge interest in continuing onto Shenmue 3/4/5. Needless to say, E3 2015 blindside me, for sure! Began lurking again on boards intermittently--had only briefly read main site news about Gai, but still kept off forums. Then reset my old password in March 2018 when FESfest announced the HD reissues.
 
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Ökay so, unlike many of you people here I was never a really big SEGA fan. My first console was the NES when I was 6, then I got a Mega Drive as well, on which I only really liked Sonic, which I played A LOT, but my focus was on the ol' Nintendo. After I got SNES, my Mega Drive was put by the wayside. Then, I was all caught up in the video game industry and got a N64 shortly after it was released (I was 10 when it released in 1997). At this time I was becoming a fanboy, hating on my friends who dared pick the PlayStation. I was impartial toward the Saturn however. I only hated Sony because they posed a threat to Nintendo lmao.

Anyway, the Dreamcast released and I was always going WOOOW everytime I saw my cousin play it. I decided I wanted one, but then Gamecube was released so I got that instead and forgot about the poor Dreamcast.

In 2003, I got my cousins' Dreamcast as a present (still have it <3). I decided that the only game I really cared about was this thing I heard about called Shenmue. I wanted it because I was becoming a giant weeb at that time so everything about Japan was of interest. Hentai too. So I bought it. I played it. And I loved it so much. It made feel a strange inner peace. So I started to try and hunt down Shenmue II which was already getting expensive. Since I could not afford it, I was sinful and pirated it. The pirated version had to have all NPC voice acting CUT in order for the game to fit on 4 CD's.

Despite this. When I got to Guilin in the game, I started crying because of how beautiful it all was. It was then and there that I decided that Shenmue II was my favorite game of all time.

It still is.

I cherish the Dreamcast for this. But the other games that system offered that I personally liked, I got for Gamecube. Sorry Dreamcast <3.
 
(After starting this, it went on for much longer than I thought! Like many of you, there's just tons of nostalgia and memories associated with this and a lot of this turned into my memories of playing the series. I guess what I'm trying to say is sorry/not sorry, haha.)

I grew up on the NES and later Genesis, so I was a big Sega fan. As the new 32 and 64 bit consoles came out I stayed put with my Genesis and doubled down by continuing to play my favorite games on the system. I had a few other friends who were big Genesis fans, too, so naturally when the Dreamcast was announced, we were all pumped. One of those friends was able to rent a Dreamcast a few months before launch and we played Sonic Adventure. My friend recorded gameplay on VHS and I ended up borrowing the tape for months, being amazed by the intro CGI scene, first loop in Emerald Coast, and the Killer Whale set piece. So yeah, I was even more pumped and I needed a Dreamcast as soon as possible!

Thankfully, the launch was right after my birthday so my parents bought it for me as my birthday gift (and funnily enough, I decided to get NFL 2K before Sonic Adventure). My friend, of course, got a Dreamcast as well. Back then I liked to just play games and see what my friends are playing and maybe pick up something that I liked, or maybe see something in gamepro. But my friend was a bit more hardcore and really big on having Official Dreamcast Magazine, Sega Channel back in the day, Saturn, etc, so he had more insight on what games were coming out in the future. He told me about Shenmue and all the features of the game and how it was going to be the best game on the Dreamcast. I went to IGN.com (it was around back then!) and read a lot of the preview articles about the game and downloaded some gameplay videos they had online overnight on 56k. Needless to say, I was floored and couldn't believe what this game sought out to do.

The game was finally released and scored a 9.7 from IGN! Duuuuuuude, this is gonna be the best game ever! I finally got it on Christmas in 2000 and was hooked immediately. It just resonated with me so well and I loved how all the pieces came together. Of course I understood that it was supposed to be a multi-chapter series, so I was on-board to follow the series as long as it could go. Unfortunately, we all know the story of the Dreamcast, so it hit me pretty hard when Shenmue II was canceled in North America. But fear not! Around that time I had joined (or perhaps lurked back then at) Shenmue Dojo and read that people were importing the game. "What does it mean to import a game, and how do I do that?". Thankfully, it was pretty common for the local game stores to import this game themselves, so for a Christmas 2001 gift my parents pre-ordered the game for me.

And man, the sequel was even more mind blowing than the first. The Japanese VO set a different tone, the pacing was improved, and there were many more action set pieces and adventure. I loved Xiuying and Ren as well as Dou Niu's Japanese VO (ruuuuuuooooooooooooo!). Jianmin's Iron Palm, Xiuying schooling you during your first fight, leaf catching, Xiuying saving your ass multiple times, and learning about Xiuying's past as she's imploring you to not follow the path of her brother were all beautiful moments in Hong Kong.

Kowloon had such a dingy vibe to it and I loved it, too. The first reveal of Dou Niu, escaping the building while handcuffed to Ren, following Yuan and the subsequent "parrot trick" by Ren, finding Zhu Yuanda, the 3 Virtua Fighter boss fights, the yellow head building rush with so much variation in gameplay and the best QTE choreography in the series, ended by the spine chilling Xiuying flashback and QTE. Then add in all the story reveals at the end of that chapter. "This is it, this is amazing and my favorite game of all time, and I still have 1 more disc left? How do you continue from here? I know I didn't meet Shenhua yet and I know that's supposed to happen. It'll probably happen at the very end of the game."

At this point it's wayyy past midnight, but there's no way I can stop playing after all that's happened. Ryo gets off the boat into Guilin and the environment is such a stark contrast to every other setting in the series, just lush and beautiful. I started by exploring the beginning area and didn't want to proceed up the trail right away, it was just amazing to see everything. After I decided to go up the trail it starts raining and Ryo starts running forward in a cutscene. Ryo looks across the river and the camera cuts to a shot of someones legs as they're running along the river. Holy crap, that's her! I just followed this crazy set-piece moment in Kowloon into what is possibly the most important event in the series, meeting Shenhua!

The game then turns into something absolutely special at this point. The entire focus of the game turns into a conversation between two characters for the next 2-3 hours. This is a character who's appeared in the game promotions, dreams, premonitions. This is the character who has a prophecy telling about the time you'll meet. And for all the build up you are not cheated one bit, you get a solid 2 hours to learn about the character, and for her to ask questions about you. This wasn't a cutscene or two, it wasn't 10 conversations of dialogue that only opens up one at a time everytime you finish a gameplay mission, it was a moment to sit back and reflect on everything that has happened in Ryo's life, his friends, his family, his travels since his dad was killed. Shenhua's lullaby outside the cave is my FFVI Opera Scene.

Someway along the path I get a prompt to select the "left" or "right" path. I choose left and see a cutscene where Ryo and Shenhua come across some dandelions. Ryo tells Shenhua that he used to blow the dandelions as a kid, and she says "you did that too?" She then closes her eyes, lifts up her arms, and the dandelions start blowing away. Is this why she's so important? Does she have magic, or is she just so in tune with nature? This is incredible, the series has been ultra realistic until now, what does this mean?

As we approach her house there's some more beautiful scenery with a giant tree up ahead. When I found out the meaning of Shenmue and Shenhua I was floored. The reveals and the payoff did not stop at this point, when I learned that the mirrors were created by her family, followed by the urgency to meet her father that day, and ending with the introduction of over the top magic with Shenhua's father knowing what was coming.

All of this just felt like one big lucid dream. I played it all the way through until around 5 in the morning, I couldn't stop the momentum of Guilin at all. I think it was a perfect way to end the game and works best because of the dichotomy between the frenetic action to finish Kowloon. I don't think you could have gotten away with a 2+ hour conversion to start a game. All of these moments are why I'm on board until the end of the series no matter what. It will find its way, just stay positive and enjoy the ride.

So me and the friend who got me into Shenmue started to grow apart a bit as we were finishing up high school. Life happens, you start to want to experience new things, hang with new friends, and we're all going away for college where our lives are going to change dramatically. We still had some mutual friends so would see each other now and then, say hi now and then, but those moments were few and far between, especially since I moved away. A couple of weeks ago I get a facebook message - my friend sent me a picture of him holding up a copy of Shenmue 3 and his backer case. We started talking a bit and decided we should hang out and have an old school game night when I come home for Christmas! We're just some grown-ass men going full circle back to when we were kids playing video games.
 
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