Your shenmue discovery story

My dad gave me birthday money and took me to best buy to get a gift for myself. Instantly knew I wanted a game so I went to the game section searching for DC games by looking at the back of the cover and finally ran into Shenmue. I thought this looks interesting so I decided to get it for my birthday. Took it home and the rest is history. I was blown away and turned out to be the best birthday gift ever! Oh the very next day my mom let me stay home from school so I can play Shenmue :)
 
Was quite young when I started college, received a student loan to pay for textbooks etc. used it to buy a Dreamcast and loads of games instead.

129969639840.gif
 
I remember reading about Shenmue via Electronic Gaming Monthly and being completely in awe of the screenshots and what they were writing about it. I KNEW I had to play this game immediately. Sadly, I was only 14 when Dreamcast launched and wasn't able to afford a console of my own, but via much begging I was able to get Dreamcast a year later on Christmas of 2000 along with Shenmue shortly after it's launch. I was blown away and the game was all that I expected and more. I immediately made a deep and intimate connection with the game, and I imported the sequel from Europe as soon as I could the year after. Shenmue is a huge part of my life for over half of my life at this point. It wasn't until the announcement in 2015 that I started getting in touch with the rest of the community online, glad to finally meet so many like minded people... and the rumors are true, we are all crazy...
 
  • Like
Reactions: SCQ
I wrote mine down for SEGABits' favorite Am2 memory article a few years back: http://segabits.com/blog/2015/02/01/segabits-forum-members-round-table-sega-am2-memories/

"Favorite AM2 memory…of course it has to be Shenmue. The first Shenmue to be exact. I can’t remember exactly when it was, but it was either late 2001 or early 2002. Before Shenmue II came out in North America, my friend was over at my house. My parents had came back from town, and made a stop at the flea market. They picked up three games to try out on the good ol’ Dreamcast: Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense, Grandia II, and Shenmue. Of course, we tried them all. Vigilante was fun, and the only one we could both play at the same time. Grandia seemed cool, but not something to play when a friend is over. And Shenmue, I honestly brushed it off as being just another game. Wow, was I wrong.

After my friend left the next day, I was able to start exploring more of the two games that were one player only: Grandia II and Shenmue. I ended up getting blown completely away by Shenmue, more than any other game I had ever played…the graphics, the music, everything was incredible and I loved it. I still remember being terribly sick, home from school one day, and I was so thrilled that I got to play it all day . I remember I was on disc 2, trying to sneak into the old warehouse district, and I kept failing. Shozo Mizuki came and helped me, several times. I could not figure this out. I was so frustrated, that when my mother came in to bring me some breakfast (scrambled eggs and bacon in a bowl, I still remember ), that I asked her to try it for me. Keep in mind I wasn’t even in middle school at the time. Of course, she got it, and at this time it was much easier since I had maps and less guards due to Shozo’s help. She gets me in to Old Warehouse #8, and I continue the game. I was so shocked when Guizhang said “We always have trouble with that gang…those dirty bastards.”

Anyways, I continued on, loving every minute of it, especially the forklift job, and finished the game. Was incredibly impressed, I was mesmerized by this game. It was instantly my favorite video game of all time, it was a story that drew me in, and made a personal connection with me…I felt sorry for Ryo, I felt his pain throughout all of this, and as cheesy as it may sound, I feel like I kind of grew a little with him through the second game as well. I was constantly on the internet looking up anything and everything I could about Shenmue II, or if one existed. I was not a current gamer by any means…the Dreamcast was not bought new, in fact, the last console we bought first hand was a Genesis. So I didn’t know anything about DC dying, or Shenmue II coming to the Xbox,- right away. I remember finding all sorts of pictures and screenshots, and a really old Project Berkeley ad that was about thirty seconds long, that I still have never seen since (except on my computer!) . I read all sorts of rumors that Ryo would be able to call home to Japan in Shenmue II, would receive letters from Nozomi, and more. Finally, I got word that Shenmue II was coming to Xbox, and I immediately convinced my parents to put one in Walmart layaway. I am in sixth grade now, and I remember instantly making my way over to the video game section every time my family was in Walmart. They had up the Xbox demo disc with the Shenmue II Zhang QTE sequence on it, that started with the Dou Jiang Free Battle.

I don’t think I ever quite beat that demo due to me never knowing what to do with command QTEs, but I still was in love. So excited to finally get this game. Eventually, I think it was either December 2002 or January 2003, we got the Xbox and Shenmue II out of layaway. The Xbox came with Rallisport Challenge, SEGA GT 2002, and Jet Set Radio Future, but all I wanted to play was Shenmue II. We got home with it, and I was so excited! My brother had gone to a school dance that night, and my dad wanted to try out the games with me, but didn’t want to watch me play Shenmue. We glanced through the other three games, and he even stayed for a bit to watch, and then I was all alone to enjoy the experience. I remember thinking that I needed a memory card to save my game and that I wouldn’t be able to save, but when I found out I could, I was ecstatic! I still have that old Xbox with me very first Shenmue II clear file on it…I should go back and check the date, but I think I beat the game around March or April. After that, still not knowing much about the franchise and SEGA’s current situations, or Shenmue III, I again swarm the internet to find out when Shenmue III is coming out, because you can’t end a game like THAT!!! I stumble upon the Shenmue Dojo on Gamespy’s Planet Xbox, and finally registered as a member in April of 2004. I remember all of the letdowns, all of the LanDC hacks and discoveries, the announcement of Shenmue Online, the announcement of Shenmue Gai…all of it. Such a wonderful time playing through those games all those years ago, and here is to my undying wish that we will someday see the ending of the Shenmue saga, as it was meant to be, in a video game.
Of course, playing through Shenmue made me experience Space Harrier, Outrun, Hang On, and Afterburner II. Those were great games, and I have also enjoyed playing Virtua Fighter 2 on Saturn and PC, Virtua Fighter 3tb on Dreamcast, Fighters Megamix on Saturn, and more. But nothing compares to Shenmue for me.

Good times, great memories. Thank you, SEGA - Am2."

Only edit I have to make the story is now we have Shenmue III coming out! And that sadly, my original Shenmue II saves are all gone :'(
 
Wow this was such a long time ago...I'm 28 now..and the first time I got my hands on Shenmue was for the Dreamcast back in like 2002.
I had a friend who was watching this local channel here in New York City called "MNN" and the channel had a local show of some random dude in the Bronx doing video game reviews. After my friend watched it some random night he told me about and explained it like some crazy Japanese game where some kid does karate lol. He told me the name and lo and behold it was Shenmue. I didn't think much of it at the time...I was too into other Dreamcast games and never used to buy those Gamepro magazines that had the latest news on games.
I think it was the summer of 2002, I walked into this local Dominican shop ran by some old man who sold videogames and in his top shelf he had that iconic game (That moment is ingrained in my head). I saw the cover of the game, Lan Di, Shenhua and Ryo. Was intrigued and quickly realized that this was that "crazy Japanese" game my friend had told me about.

Took it home...the rest is history.

Lifelong fan ever since.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SCQ
I first heard of it from my brother demonstrating a friends copy of the game (which he freshly borrowed from) and I remember him explaining to me and my dad the sheer amount of things that you could do in his bedroom and it just looked amazing.

Although my bro was quick to dismiss the game as "boring", I was in awe at the attention to details and emotionally invested at the spectacle of the intro.

It's easy to dismiss/take for granted certain things when you're older, but back when you're 10-11 you genuinely had limitations. I couldn't just buy and drink a can of coke or roam/explore beyond late afternoon.The game's sense of freedom by being independent, having a curfew, engaging socially with townsfolk, deciding what you wanted to do activity wise while waiting for the next event and helping townfolks was a special part of that experience for me that deeply resonates with you as a kid.

It's like that with point and click games too, the games presentation or interface didn't actually matter or occur much to you because you were so invested with the character's interests and assisting them through figuring out the next puzzle.

Also, I will never forget how amazing the trailer for Shenmue 2 from the Dreamcast demo disc looked, my jaw dropped with how amazing and authentically they captured China. Just wow.
 
I bought a Dreamcast again around 2012 to replay a couple games I used to have as well as try out new stuff since you could easily burn games now. I basically just burned a ton of random games to try out. Shenmue happened to be one of those. I had never heard about it even once so I had no expectations. I was very impressed with the graphics and presentation and my jaw dropped when I learned this had been achieved in 1999 as it looked better than most games from the PS2 era as well.

The opening cutscene had me hooked from the start and as I progressed through the game I loved it more and more. Im a sucker for unnecessary detail in games and Shenmue had this in spades, more than any game Ive ever played and that's still true to this day its only been topped by Shenmue 2 lol. I loved that I could open all the drawers and doors in Ryos house, that I could talk to all these characters and they always had something new to say. This is gonna sound silly but when I realized this game was really pushing boundaries was when I talked to Mario at Bob's Pizza and he had things to say about the family crest and the Phoenix Mirror. The most unassuming, inconspicuous, joke character in the whole game had dialogue for something so random you'd never think twice to ask him about it.

Then after I finished 1, I bought Shenmue 2 for Xbox and that really sealed the deal and cemented these games as my all time favorite. The journey was so epic and unlike anything I had ever played before. And the fact that I only played these just a few years ago and I loved them that much I think really testifies how great these games still are.

After seeing what was possible almost 20 years ago now, I've kinda gained a critical eye to modern gaming. How has nothing even come close to the level of detail presented in these 2 games? We now have hardware tens of times more powerful and almost no storage restrictions, yet I don't know a game where I can go into an apartment building and go into every room just for fun or talk to this many NPCs and have meaningful conversations. The closest I can think of are the Elder Scrolls games and thats really it.

And here I am just rambling about the technical aspects, I also absolutely love the story and characters, the music and the settings. These are really special one of a kind games and I pray Shenmue 3 recaptures all of this.
 
My relationship with Shenmue is a bit complicated. You could describe it as "love" at the second sight. I got a Dreamcast in July 2000 to play Resident Evil Code Veronica and I have also read things about Shenmue in some game magazines. I found it potentially interesting but at the time of the Release I fell for the hype for the upcoming Ps2 in the gaming magazines unfortunately. I just cared for the upcoming Ps2 release and the Dreamcast was not interesting for me anymore. I like the Dreamcast though for many other games so I kept it.

Then over a decade later in early 2018 I cleared my stuff and found some of my old Dreamcast Magazines in the basement. I came across an article of Shenmue 1 and i found it interesting again. Then i check out the first part of a lets play of Shenmue and then I decided to give it try. Was quite expensive to get Shenmue 1 and 2 for the Dreamcast (luckily I am European, so we got the Shenmue 2 for the DC). but I do not regret it. I enjoyed both games a lot. They are some peace of Art. After finishing Shenmue 1 and 2 I was hyped for the part 3. I also donated money for the slacker backer event. Got the digital Soundtrack and the disc based version for the ps4.
 
It was around 2000, I was about nine-years old. I had never been an avid gamer but had played some Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Die Hard Arcade and Super Star Wars on a Saturn and SNES that my older brother would borrow from friends. Then one such friend brought over a Dreamcast with Sonic Adventure and Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation. I begged our mum for a Dreamcast and soon I had my very first console. Around this same time my sister was dating my now brother-in-law who invited me around his house for a curry. He handed me a package wrapped in a plastic bag (I forget the store - either Electronics Boutique or Game). I slipped it off and there was Shenmue 1. He said he had no idea what it was about and that he hoped I enjoyed it. I remember being amazed to see a game that contained four discs and being glued to the manual on the journey home before firing the game up when I got in. It blew me away! I probably played Shenmue 1 every day for the rest of that summer and annoyed the heck out of my family who wanted to use the TV. I then hunted down an Xbox just to play Shenmue 2 (I could never find a copy of Shenmue 2 on Dreamcast for some weird reason) and the rest is history.
 
When I was a freshman in high school in Arizona, I lived a mile away from a store that sold games from Japan. I was opened to how awesome the Saturn truly was thanks to that store and they were selling Jaoanese Dreamcasts when it was released in Japan in Nov 1998.

I played Virtua Fighter 3 when I visited the store and I enjoyed it since I was already a Virtua Fighter fan. When I looked at the case, I noticed a case called Project Berkeley and asked the clerk what it was. He told me it was a tribute to Yu Suzuki’s works and an intro to his killer app game, Shenmue, which he told me was conceived as a Virtua Fighter RPG.

While I was taking Japanese classes at my high school and having the highest grade at the time, I still didn’t understand a lick of it lol. But I was impressed with the visuals and I was already a life long fan of martial arts flicks so a lot of the aesthetics appealed to me.

As time went on, articles in English progressively came out explaining its grand ambition to change gaming. With 56k back in 1999, I waited for hours to download the latest footage and trailers.

Due to how poorly the Saturn was treated in the US, my brothers and I decided to get an import Dreamcast as our end of the school year present. This was in May of 1999 and I would be turning 15 the folllowing month. While Shenmue largely played an influence in my decision making, I was still impressed with the games it had in Japan at the time was well as the games that were soon to follow.

Of course, I got Virtua Fighter 3 and enjoyed watching the Projecf Berkeley disc. After a year of studying Japanese, I understood a little. I took Japanese up until my junior year of high school also because of Shenmue.

Then finally on New Years Eve of 1999, I visited that game store again to see if they had it, and they got their first 20 or so shipments. I was the first in line to get it and I used whatever XMas money I got from my grandma and sister to buy it. I even still have the receipt in my old room at my parents house in a shoebox!

Japanese was the only subject I was good at in school and my parents thought it was a good companion for my studies. At that time, I wasn’t sure if I would ever visit Japan in my lifetime, but at 15, Shenmue would be the closest I was going to get.

The moment I got home, my brother and I played that game for the rest of our winter vacation. And when it became the year 2000 AZ time, we were playing Shenmue.

We were amazed with the detail the game put into what you could do. We enjoyed exploring Sakuragaoka, Dobuita and the Harbor. Most of my Japanese skills were limited to greetings, ordering, and asking for directions and it minimally worked for my brother and I.

Then later in 2000, we bought the English version out of support for the franchise.
 
In 1999 I was on holiday in Florida at Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park. The innovations pavilion had a whole area dedicated to SEGA. In one area they had Dreamcast demo stations running the What's Shenmue demo disc. That was my first experience of the game. I didn't realise what I had stumbled into. Over a year laterI started following the Western release of the Dreamcast and Shenmue but for a long time past that I didn't realise I had already played Shenmue previously!
 
Got a hand-me-down Dreamcast for Christmas in 2001, Shenmue was one of the games we got with it. It was one of my favourites back then, and I've only appreciated it more and more with age. I play through it at least once a year, and every playthrough I find something new.
 
My first time learning about the game actually came from my brother who told me that some video game was being released on the dreamcast that was really in-depth, in terms of what you could do within the game. I didn't give it much thought beyond that point until one day I went into an Electronics Boutique (a long since closed down video game store.) where they had Shenmue available to test out and play.

My brother again informed me that this was the game he had told me about weeks ago, and sure enough I decided to give it a go. I was still relatively young at the time. I would have been 11 at the time, which still makes no excuse for the fact that I somehow managed to get lost in the screen of Ryo's watch, for the whole time I was in the store. Perhaps even more bizarre was that spending ten minutes trying to figure out how to get out the watch screen was apparently enough for me to want the game to own. For all of its time-keeping goodness.

The rest, I suppose, is history.
 
Dad. Some of my first memories is playing the Commondore 64 and some kind of blue space man PC game, this was all pretty rare in late 80's early 90's middle of nowhere north of Norway (literally nowhere, a small island just north of Russia). This was all my dads doing, he was and remains a gamer, and for my sixth or seventh birthday he got me a SEGA mega drive II and some games. This was obviously some ploy as he got to play all the games himself too. Parents to be, take heed. Anyways, that was it, I was a SEGA fangirl.

When the DC came out I wanted one. Badly. We weren't rich, the DC was expensive, there was this new PlayStation thing coming out competing too. But just as dad backed me a few years later wanting that minidisc player (remember those?) instead of a MP3 player, well, there goes. Again, he obviously got to try out the games too and we found Shenmue on one of those demo discs that came with some god awful game where you did air board races in space. Loved it, couldn't get enough of it, had my best friend over and we played for hours. We even ended up doing our school books up with card board color backs but with pictures of the characters in color themes complete with correct pen color. Maths was green with Lan Di, Joy was in orange for Norwegian languages. Mom was annoyed when I couldn't just stop or save for dinner during the roof top battle, but dad stayed in the living room watching the screen.

Shenmue brought me to this forum where I met amazing people, meeting up with some. It got me hooked on East Asia and had me apply for high school in Hong Kong. Literally changed my life, all with the best sound track ever. Few days ago DaMulder told me about this rewamped forum. It is heart warming to see so many familiar and so many new names.

Two days before DaMulder msg me I got a text saying that Shenmue I and II will go on sale soon for PS4 so get the preorder in now. The text was from my dad.
 
Nobody had a Dreamcast except one friend where I used to live and he imported the game right out of Japan when it came out. Love at first sight even though we had to play a guessing game of what to do in order to progress in the story. Years later I skipped most of the PS2, Xbox era and never touched Shenmue 2 at all when it came out. It was actually the ShennueDojo (and Yu's Shenmue Postmortem) that got me inspired to revisit the series once again. Hardcore fan since then.
 
I think the magazine I first saw it in was called VGM or VGUK Magazine or summat along those lines. The issue had a couple of cars on it (one upside down above the other I think), and a pull-out guide for Ocarina of Time.

Anyway I was hyped to fuck for Sonic Adventure. I read the comics and had a few of the games on Master System, with every pre-birthday or advent period being dedicated to asking my mam n dad for a Mega Drive. I was proper into it at the time and started to jump on the "I'm a SEGA kid, fuck Nintendo n your shit Mario game" type thing.

In this magazine though was something that I didn't believe the look of. I had a PC so also had a few PC game mags. Plenty had great looking screenshots, but the best were always from pre-rendered cut-scenes. This unbelievable-looking game though was apparently coming to Dreamcast, this future game tech that I thought I'd only ever get to catch a glimpse of as we passed by the video game shop whilst we were dragged into WHSmith or Wilkinsons or some other boring shop that adults go to.

Fast-forward a few years and I'd got a Mega Drive, but I wasn't really interested in expanding my number of games beyond the main Sonic entries and Super Kick Off (I already had shitloada Master System games as they used to go for 50p each at Grey Mare Lane market) Instead I started to save up for the fabled Dreamcast.

Even our kid wanted in on it, and we managed to raise about £60 between us (which was the equivalent of making us millionaires back then!) We showed my mam n dad the listing for a Dreamcast with three games (Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, UEFA Striker, and oh yes: Sonic Adventure!) If anyone remembers it, there was a shop on Sky Interactive called either Gameplay or Gamestation or summat. The logo looked like a yellow ladder with a blue ring around it within a black box. When it launched, one of the main advertising features was that they sold Dreamcasts. Anyway, we begged em to chip the rest of the money towards it and we wouldn't have to get any presents for Christmas or our next birthdays. Somehow... they actually agreed! (You have no idea just how rare this kinda shit happened!)

It ended up being everything I dreamt it would be and more. With the PS2 coming out at the time (it was already but kept selling out so wasn't readily available) everyone at my school was tryna ditch their DC and games in order to raise funds for it. Soon I had a huge list of games I could buy at bargain prices, but I needed to sift through the shit and unearth the diamonds.

To do this I started buying Dreamcast magazines (I'd previously bought a few despite not having one at the time, which was pretty sad, but nowhere near as sad as what I used to do with the Argos catalogue...!) By this point there was quite a substantial number of games that had been reviewed, so naturally you look for the 8s, 9s and 10s. Down the sides of the ratings section they had mini-reviews of games that'd already been covered (kinda like a "previously on Prison Break" segment), one of them, you can probably guess, was Shenmue...

Now, at the time, I didn't realise this was the same game I'd read about a few years before. All I knew was that it said the graphics were out of this world, you're a young Japanese kid out to solve the mystery of his father's murder, and it was a "real life simulator with martial arts". The rating was 10. I was stunned by the mere thought of such a game, and practically interrogated everyone I knew at school about it. Nobody I talked to had heard of it. I was guaranteed never to play this masterpiece.

Every summer we'd go to Lincoln. I've previously mentioned that I didn't grow up poor, but we didn't have money to just throw about, and as such couldn't afford to go abroad for our holidays. Plus we have family there that we stay with. Hence, Lincoln.

Over the previous two months I'd built up this ridiculous image in my head about what this Shenmue game might be like (to this day nothing has ever come close to that imaginary game btw), and it was eating away at me.

One place I love in Lincoln (which I'm sure Frasier will nod his head at if he actually shows his face) is Poppins. Or it used to be called that, now it's Jay Dees. A nice little diner on the canal where every time I'd order burger n chips with a milkshake and some proper nice pancake with ice cream for dessert. It was the food kids dreams are made of.

As I'd finished my first year of secondary school, it was finally time for me to do my own thing instead of bein dragged from shop to shop lookin at shit clothes and naff tat. Naturally I gravitated towards the market where the toys and video games are, as my dad n brother fucked off to the sports shop.

Usually I'd look to get as many Master System games as I could, but this time I had a fucking Dreamcast! Though I only had enough for summat old n shite like Blue Stinger. As my eyes scanned across the table though, there it was... Shenmue.

I saw the price and panicked. No way can I afford a £15 game! I raced in n out of the shops lookin for my dad to beg him for a tenner. He was the best bet. My mam woulda told me to get fucked. Instead of "if you don't ask you won't get", she used to say "can I have never gets".

Anyway: my dad. He's never been into these new fangled techy things, and video games? What!?! Thing is though, he's the one who sat me in front of a black & white tele to watch 60s Batman, bought me the films and the comics, anything Batman-related he just had to get me. It was almost as if he put his love of City into my brother and his love of Batman into me.

That changed in 97 though. Batman & Robin is hilariously bad now, obviously. When he took us to see it though it was great, but... it kinda changed me. Usually as a kid I'd get disappointed if I got the wrong thing (my mam 'bought' me a Superman costume for my 5th birthday ?), but I'd always love that thing that I actually wanted. Until now. I was disappointed. I liked it, but it wasn't what I hoped it would be.

For a while after that it wasn't Batman: The Animated Series I was watching, it was Sonic the Hedgehog. Nor was I reading Detective Comics or Batman Adventures. No, in its place was Sonic the Comic. SEGA had taken DC's place, and this Shenmue thing was like saying "dad, there's this really massive epic Flash film, can we get it?"

My dad never "got" games, but he defo got kids stuff. Being the top guy I rarely give him credit for, he fucking did it, and got me a pack of Pepsi Max for the night to boot (obviously to keep me occupied as they went to the pub)

That game wasn't what I expected it to be, as absolutely nothing can match the wild imagination of a kid brought up on fiction, but it was still the best thing I'd ever seen or played up to that point.

Things even got a little spooky when I saw the Berkley graffiti as the place I was staying at was on Berkley Drive.

Anyway, bit of a long-winded story, sure, but that was how I discovered Shenmue.

EDIT: @Araviel: The C64 was fucking quality. My mam broke my heart when she sold it (including joysticks, light gun, cartridges, countless cassettes, and disks) for a bleedin fiver ?
 
Last edited:
@Mittens2317 that is atrocious! A fiver...

I like your Shenmue story a lot, btw. Very recognizable the whole "alright but it'll be your birthday and Christmas gift!" or the panick of trying to scrap enough together to get what's so close.
 
My story is pretty boring. I had a Dreamcast and used to buy Dreamcast magazines and saw this game with mind boggling graphics and vending machines and authentic coka-colas (I'm not sure why that last point impressed my young mind so much), and I was sold. It was all very mysterious and when it actually came out and I started playing, it was no less mysterious. It was like nothing I had played before (nor was it like anything I would play after) and I was utterly enthralled. Me and my brother were playing together on the same save and sometimes he would play while I was at school, so I remember sometimes using the payphone in my school for 20p at lunhctime just to check if he had got much further without me, and being so annoyed when he had.
Unfortunately we encountered a rare bug in the forklift section of the game which prevented us from advancing with the story, and frustrated and confused I just gave up after many hours of trying.

A year or so later Shenmue 2 suddenly pops up in the Electronic Boutique Christmas pamphlet thingy, and just from seeing that cover art my imagination was captured by Shenmue once more. I got it as a Christmas present and it was everything I could have hoped for and more. It fulfilled all the promises the first game made of getting to have an exciting, mystical journey through China. It had both so much contrast to and continuity with the first game, and I was determined to complete this one (I was really bad at games, so completing one was a big thing for me). I stayed up until something like 2 or 3 in the morning on my final session with the game, and I was overwhelmed in completing it. Overwhelmed because I had actually completed a game, because I was knackered and had school the next day, but most of all because of the beauty of the experience that I was immediately sad had ended (though I didn't anticipate the wait for the continuation would be quite as long as it ended being) and that cliff hanger of an ending. I'd never experienced such emotions from a game before.
 
It all started way back in 2000 at a little store called Blockbuster. I was 9 years old and got a Dreamcast for Hanukkah. When I was walking through the different shelves for games I came across Shenmue, but funny enough didn't pick it up because it didn't look interesting. Over that summer I went back multiple times and got all the typical Dreamcast Classics like Crazy Taxi and Sonic Adventure and played the hell out of them. Eventually I needed a new game and decided to give Shenmue a try. I wasn't expecting much because RPGs weren't really my thing and I knew close to nothing about Japan which the game was obviously themed around. I took it home and started playing it. Funny enough I actually stopped after the first disc and returned it thinking I would never play It again. A few weeks later I suddenly started thinking about the game again and rented it a second time and from that point I was hooked after I gave it another chance. A few months later I bought a copy for myself and over the course of the next year or so I beat the game probably five different times. I showed it to all of my friends and honestly most of them didn't really get it, but there was one who caved in and loved the game as well.

Eventually Shenmue 2 was announced, but obviously it didn't come out for the Dreamcast in America. I was fairly new to buying stuff online at that point, but I found a game importing site called ncsx.Com where I bought the European version of shenmue 2 for about $70. I of course played it the second it came in and beat the game in pretty much one sitting. Over the course of the next year or two I played this game multiple times just like I did the first one. I couldn't put this game down.

Eventually I started wondering when the third game would come out and went online to look at more about the history of the game which is when I eventually found shenmue dojo in '03 maybe and joined the forum. The rest of course is history as I've played these games time and time again always finding something new and never getting tired of it. Even though I started getting into anime around this time, the series sparked my interest in Japan which eventually led me to start learning the language in high school and eventually traveling to Japan for the first time in 2010. One year after that I did an international Co-op in Japan for 6 months where I also visited the real life Yokohama and Dobuita.

It probably sounds super cliche to say this game changed my life, but in some respects it did. It gave me a window into a culture I never understood when I was younger and eventually gave me enough courage to go there myself to try and make it on my own. This game also branched out into me learning about all sorts of other aspects of Japan, video games, and other sorts of interesting things I've looked into over my life.

To be honest, my passion for the series isn't even so much about the game itself anymore. It's more about what it has done to my life more than anything. Obviously I can't wait to play 3 and I pre-ordered four different versions of the HD remaster so I won't discount the games, but I honestly can't think of any other game, movie, or book in my life that has had this much of an impact on me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top