Your shenmue discovery story

Well, I didn't know anything about Shenmue prior to it's release. Let's first go back a little farther though and put the Dreamcast in the frame...

In the UK growing up, everyone either had a SNES or a Megadrive. Then, PlayStation was absolute king, I knew a few people with an N64, but it felt like EVERYONE had a PS. Then I remember, playing in the street one day as a kid, I was around 9 or 10. Some other kids were talking about a new Sega console. It was going to be called "the Sega Dolphin" they said, and apparently "the graphics were going to be so good on it that it would hurt your eyes!" That was the word on the streets. Naturally I was very excited.

I don't really recall the Dreamcasts actual launch, but Europe got some really really weird adverts for it, that were just bizarrely out of context (look them up on YouTube) So I don't think it had a great promo in the UK, and I didn't know anyone that owned one.. Besides my cousin who got one at launch.

It was 1999 in the summer and I went to stay at his house, and he showed me his new system. I was mesmerised, the VMU was incredible, he had online Internet connection. And we were only 11 and 10 at the time but I think we may have been the first Internet griefers. He had this social online disk, it wasn't dream key, I forget now, it was like a planet, and you could talk to people. We sent awful, awful, messages to someone called Darren over the keyboard. Sorry Darren. Anyway, I digress.

All the games my cousin had were cool, but a game called Shenmue really caught my eye. Instead of one plastic jewel case, the game comprised of 2 in a nice cardboard sleeve, the cover and rear of which were really interesting. I had literally just been introduced to martial arts movies. And here was this video game. Perfect. We booted it up, and we're instantly reeled in to the opening cinematic...

The graphics were fantastic. I remember not long before this experience, I and my best friend played metal gear solid for the first time, and I looked at him and said "graphics can't possibly get any better than this!". I was very wrong. Shenmue was visually incredible, and I specifically recall staring in wonder at the cutlery in the kitchen drawer of the Hazuki residence. (Take a look, they're so shiny!) The soundtrack was incredible and I remember the sense of immersion but also freedom the game gave us. Everything I had played prior to this felt very linear, A to B, kill, next level. Here though, I was more than happy to slowly work my way through the sleepy town, speaking to every NPC, following their daily routines, marvelling at what could be picked up. I loved so much that you could actually practice and improve your move techniques, I loved that Tom's hair looked like those little pipe cleaners. We would giggle at Ryo's lines, and Fuku-sans name like beavis and butthead. But we also fell into the serious tones when the game called for them. The game is my favourite of all time, it changed the way I looked at games and felt, forever. I am now a forklift driver (all those hours of simulation payed off!)

I always feel a little sad, despite there being a great community on here, no one else as a kid I knew experienced the game at the time. I eagerly await the new releases!

Sorry for veering off topic at times, my head is a little jumbled right now. Thanks everyone.
 
I grew up in era of the original Xbox, I was around 10-11 years old and quite often my father would purchase demos which contained usually 30+ games, the one I came across had 2 games in particular, one of which is many people’s favourite; halo, the other ofcourse was Shenmue. It was actually Shenmue 2 so bare in mind I went straight into the Shenmue series from the second game, the demo was quite short in that the moment you lost your bag, demo ended. The thing that actually spiked my interest was the simulation of real worlld (seems crazy for a 11 year old to think about), i must of clocked easily a good 30-40 hours of real-time in just walking around, buying capsules, drinks & most of all, darts! I’d easily wait 30 seconds for the right rotation to land the bullseye, come night it was the free stay lodge, at this point I had no idea of the story, as years went by I finally gave in and bought Shenmue 2. All I remember was in one sitting I made it all the way the Kowloon, so hooked to the point where my parents were going ‘time for bed’ and I was always like ‘5 minutes.. 5 minutes!’, I have never looked forward to waking up to finish a game than this one, pretty much from then on i’ve Just always associated Shenmue as my favourite series (just for the record, it takes a LOT in a game in order for me to even like it) - I thought my view was an interesting one provided I started out with Shenmue 2 and I’m in the same boat @Sean9014, no one I knew had even heard of Shenmue, probably because this was around 2010 so it seems i’m a young one amongst the community:p
 
On 9/10/99, my ten-year-old self came home from baseball practice to discover my mother playing Sonic Adventure on a Dreamcast! She joked that she wanted to play it first before my brother and I became glued to the TV; in the meantime, I took the PC demo trailer CD that came with it and I watched this:

(In retrospect, I find it interesting that that trailer mostly included content from II; naturally, when waiting for the sequel, I'd pop this in with excitement).

I had no idea what the hell I was watching plotwise, but I loved the music and the atmosphere. I read about it in the Official Dreamcast Magazine during the year, and it also featured a trailer that got me pumped up.
On 11/10/00 (I remember the tens, for some reason), I picked up the game at Best Buy and spent the entire weekend devouring it.

Interesting aside: when I got an Xbox on Christmas 2002, my parents hid the Xbox and the games until the morning of. However, she had the practice of letting us open a present on the 24th (Polish Catholic mothers are kind once a year). Turns out she forgot that she wrapped Shenmue II and mindlessly put it under the tree. Guess which present I chose? I was more excited about the game than the new console.
 
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When I was younger, I was never really allowed video games in the house. Which I was mostly ok with, since all my friends had their own systems, mostly consisting of various Nintendo consoles. As a kid, I thought that was the coolest thing ever. It was all I wanted to do whenever I went over to someone’s house, just play Mario. Being young and naive, i thought Nintendo was the only video game company in existence. How wrong I was.

A while later, I was at a new friends house, and I come in and just see a glimpse of the forklift race in Shenmue, and I remember thinking to myself ‘that’s a weird lawnmower simulator!’ And then forgot about it for a few months. That same friend introduced me to all things Sega, and it blew my 11 year old mind! Eventually, he got around to introducing me to Shenmue, and at first, I wasn’t as excited about it as I had been with games like Nights or Sonic Adventure. But then we played through Shenmue II. I enjoyed it more than the first, I think because I liked the different action and gameplay segments. I played through the Guilin part, and thought it was kind of boring, but when we got to the ending, oh boy did my opinion change! It just baffled me how such a ground breaking game could just end on such a cliffhanger without a continuation in sight! After I got home that same day I did my first piece of fanart for Shenmue, and kept on making fanart. I later got my own Dreamcast and a copy of Shenmue, and I’ve been a fan ever since!
 
On 9/10/99, my ten-year-old self came home from baseball practice to discover my mother playing Sonic Adventure on a Dreamcast! She joked that she wanted to play it first before my brother and I became glued to the TV; in the meantime, I took the PC demo trailer CD that came with it and I watched this:

(In retrospect, I find it interesting that that trailer mostly included content from II; naturally, when waiting for the sequel, I'd pop this in with excitement).


MY FAVORITE SHENMUE TRAILER OF ALL TIME...!!!

Absolutely adore the peak into beta Shenmue with lower poly Kowloon/Ryo/Ren/Lan Di and the alterneative Wong scenes which were altered to different situations or settings. Blew my mind how much the trailer looked amazing, yet they still squeezed a bit more power from Dreamcast for release. Most trailers were on Shenmue 2 because of intially being the meat of only one Shenmue game. Yokozuka was presumably only one disc before being beefed up and fleshed out.

Plus, Suzuki says only about a quarter or a third of Dremcast's potential was utilized. Makes sense, most systems really display their true power in the 3rd or 4th year. Headhunter, Sonic Adventure 2, Evil Twin, D2 and Shenmue were all within two, barely three years! Shenmue 3 would've been so gorgeous on Dreamcast :'( But I digress.....
 
I was a huge fan of Virtua Fighter 2. Played it to death everytime I went to an Arcade (or bowling alley). I also avidly read gaming magazines back in the day and one of the things you would always hear rumbles of was AM2 working on Virtua Fighter RPG. That was very appealing to me but of course it never materialized on Saturn.

Cut forward to the Dreamcast and Shenmue is finally revealed. Again, I was an avid reader of gaming magazines. I remember reading the coverage for this game in various magazines and was absolutely enthralled by everything I was hearing. A world that you could freely explore combined with Virtua Fighter mechanics just sounded bliss to me. The game looked unbelievable. I already knew I wanted a Dreamcast, but this game made me have to have a Dreamcast.

Christmas 2000 came about and I was offered the choice of a newly launched PS2 or Sega Dreamcast. I went with the Dreamcast with Shenmue; Crazy Taxi and Virtua Fighter 3TB.

Best decision I ever made. Started playing Shenmue and I was not let down in the slightest. It was truly unlike anything else that I had ever played. I was absolutely enthralled with the revenge story but more than that, I was stunned by the level of detail that the game offered. Being able to open every drawer or take every picture frame off the wall in the Hazuki residence was mindblowing...as stupid as that may sound to some, it was mindblowing to me that you could do all these little random things. The fighting was exactly what I wanted it to be...having played hours of Virtua Fighter 2, I felt right at home. Killing time at the arcade was awesome...and just talking to random people was unlike anything else.

It delivered everything it promised and I was hooked. I would tell my friends at school about this game and not a single one of them understood what I saw in it, but I saw genius in it.


And I still see that genius to this day.
 
On 9/10/99, my ten-year-old self came home from baseball practice to discover my mother playing Sonic Adventure on a Dreamcast! She joked that she wanted to play it first before my brother and I became glued to the TV; in the meantime, I took the PC demo trailer CD that came with it and I watched this:

(In retrospect, I find it interesting that that trailer mostly included content from II; naturally, when waiting for the sequel, I'd pop this in with excitement).

I had no idea what the hell I was watching plotwise, but I loved the music and the atmosphere. I read about it in the Official Dreamcast Magazine during the year, and it also featured a trailer that got me pumped up.
On 11/10/00 (I remember the tens, for some reason), I picked up the game at Best Buy and spent the entire weekend devouring it.

Interesting aside: when I got an Xbox on Christmas 2002, my parents hid the Xbox and the games until the morning of. However, she had the practice of letting us open a present on the 24th (Polish Catholic mothers are kind once a year). Turns out she forgot that she wrapped Shenmue II and mindlessly put it under the tree. Guess which present I chose? I was more excited about the game than the new console.

Can't believe I never noticed before Ren slapping Ryo at 1:32! And Ryo pushing him up against the wall. Wish they kept that.
 
Can't believe I never noticed before Ren slapping Ryo at 1:32! And Ryo pushing him up against the wall. Wish they kept that.
I'd have loved to have seen that scene. Don't mess with Ryo!

You can see the quality differences between that trailer and the final releases. Most of the models had been touched up and changed slightly by final release. This is why I have such confidence in 3 being top drawer.

Great to see that trailer again!
 
Wow this Trailer is really great. Saw it for the first time now. Quite interesting they were using mostly footage of 2 to advertise S1. Still a great Trailer though. Makes me want to play Shenume 2 again, although I have just finished it again 2 weeks ago. Never mind, Need to play S1 and 2 again in August anyway to as preperation for 3.
 
Circa 2000 - I use to go to either the grocery store or book stores with my parents, and I would browse the magazine section or sometimes just sit on the floor and read the entire thing. I dont remember what magazine it was but I remember reading about a new revolutionary game by famed developer Yu Suzuki.

Cira 2003/2005, being quite poor as a child even when Dreamcast went on sale for 99$, we could not afford it, and I didnt obtain one until several years later. One day, I was at a Rose's department store and I noticed in the back they had used copies of movies and dreamcast games for about $10. The first game I bought was Jet Set Radio and damn that game was fun. Another time, I picked up Shenmue. By this time I had forgotten all about this game. I did not remember it at all, even after I started playing it, I did not remember. It want until years later I realized this was the game in that magazine that blew my mind so long ago.

Unfortunately, I did not finish the game at that time. The disc would rarely work, and after a while it broke when my sister accidentally sat on it.

Skip to circa 2012, i havent had a dreamcast for years but I still remember that game from when I had one, I saw it being mentioned on several forums and it made me desperately want to finish it. I discovered the dojo, not knowing it existed until that year, not being aware of any previous existing forums either. I obtained roms of both of the games and completed them my pc using a cheap logitech gamepad. Finally, I achieved a long anticipated goal and fell in love with the series permanently.
 
I'm still trying to remember to be fair, I remember when the Dreamcast tanked and the games were going for £5 used in an independent game store I went to. I must of bought one in my early teens, (Which would be around the early 2000's) at budget price, I would read gaming magazines of the time but I'm sure Sonic Adventure would have been the main incentive - A game despite how badly it has aged, I still adore!

I can clearly picture Shenmue being plonked in a bargain bin, I guess I must of picked it up and gone from there! The first game has always been a title I adored and my main reason for keeping the console to be fair. I can't even remember how I got Shenmue II... I mean I have a Dreamcast copy which Also feels like I've had forever, so I might have picked it up at the same store, not knowing how limited it is. Over the years I have played Shenmue II on the Xbox more, so I am more familiar with the title on that system - Well Xbox 360.
 
I remember hearing about project berkeley way back in about 1997 in gamepro magazine. All the little things you could do to earn money and learn fighting moves to find who killed iwao. Never saw a mention of it again,

Fast forward to 1998 i had received a dreamcast from my dad as a gift for graduating the 8th grade. I got house of the dead and blue stinger as my first titles. Alternating between ps1 and dreamcast as a youngster my dad picked up re:code a and i then decided to rent shenmue at block buster video.

I was blown away by the graphics and all the little mundane things you could do in the world. I remember opening every door, cabinet, talking to everyone in the world, playing the games and trying to do as much as i could in my first playthrough. Then i finally beat shenmue and lost my mind when i saw lan di on that boat thinking to myself- HE'S RIGHT THERE?! LETS GET IT ON! I heard nothing about shenmue 2 until again- game pro magazine dedicated a tiny box to it saying it would be released in about 6 months time. I eagerly waited and got nothing. Then, i heard it wasnt coming stateside as the dc was officially dead.

I looked as hard as i could for shenmue 2 and a friend of mine directed me to buyritegames.com and i saw the import of shenmue 2 with the dc-x for 100$. I bought it and i waited patiently. I think i didnt leave the house for a good week or 2 straight expecting my package.

I tore it open as fast as i could once i got upstairs. I remember my hands shaking with excitement at finally having my hands on this copy. I put the game in and was immediately amazed at the scope of this game. It took me like 2 real life days to find wan chai cuz i stopped and looked at everything and wandered around. Then the lessons ryo got from the masters about the wude changed my life. Being a teenaged martial artist at the time and overconfident in my abilities i learned humility and respect in a way that my sifus were not teaching me. Shenmue quite literally altered the course of my life for the better.

Ryo at the start of shenmue could be considered to be very bland, but as the journey went on i could see how he grew up until the very last scene at shenhua's house. I felt that i was like ryo at the time and saw many similarities. My mother was sick when shenmue came out and she passed away from complications of aids. So i kinda understood what ryo was going through.

His journey in effect became my journey. A journey for finding acceptance in what i could not change,a journey for understanding how my life could be altered and a journey in becoming a man. It hasn't been easy. Him finally leaving that cave after so many years is sort of cathartic to me. I went through major depression and was suicidal for a long time. One night i snapped out of it partly because i would never get to see the end of the shenmue series if i did. That night i left that cave of manic depression and lo and behold about 6 months later shenmue 3 kickstarter wss announced. Now all I have to do is wait to see how our journey will continue.
 
A friend brought in the dreamcast magazine and showed me Shenmue and I was captivated by it.

I got it for my birthday & what a decision that was. I was enthralled and then couldn't wait for 2 which went beyond anything I'd ever played. I'll never forget it
Wow thats a great story how u felt in love to shenmue ❤
 
I remember hearing about project berkeley way back in about 1997 in gamepro magazine. All the little things you could do to earn money and learn fighting moves to find who killed iwao. Never saw a mention of it again,

Fast forward to 1998 i had received a dreamcast from my dad as a gift for graduating the 8th grade. I got house of the dead and blue stinger as my first titles. Alternating between ps1 and dreamcast as a youngster my dad picked up re:code a and i then decided to rent shenmue at block buster video.

I was blown away by the graphics and all the little mundane things you could do in the world. I remember opening every door, cabinet, talking to everyone in the world, playing the games and trying to do as much as i could in my first playthrough. Then i finally beat shenmue and lost my mind when i saw lan di on that boat thinking to myself- HE'S RIGHT THERE?! LETS GET IT ON! I heard nothing about shenmue 2 until again- game pro magazine dedicated a tiny box to it saying it would be released in about 6 months time. I eagerly waited and got nothing. Then, i heard it wasnt coming stateside as the dc was officially dead.

I looked as hard as i could for shenmue 2 and a friend of mine directed me to buyritegames.com and i saw the import of shenmue 2 with the dc-x for 100$. I bought it and i waited patiently. I think i didnt leave the house for a good week or 2 straight expecting my package.

I tore it open as fast as i could once i got upstairs. I remember my hands shaking with excitement at finally having my hands on this copy. I put the game in and was immediately amazed at the scope of this game. It took me like 2 real life days to find wan chai cuz i stopped and looked at everything and wandered around. Then the lessons ryo got from the masters about the wude changed my life. Being a teenaged martial artist at the time and overconfident in my abilities i learned humility and respect in a way that my sifus were not teaching me. Shenmue quite literally altered the course of my life for the better.

Ryo at the start of shenmue could be considered to be very bland, but as the journey went on i could see how he grew up until the very last scene at shenhua's house. I felt that i was like ryo at the time and saw many similarities. My mother was sick when shenmue came out and she passed away from complications of aids. So i kinda understood what ryo was going through.

His journey in effect became my journey. A journey for finding acceptance in what i could not change,a journey for understanding how my life could be altered and a journey in becoming a man. It hasn't been easy. Him finally leaving that cave after so many years is sort of cathartic to me. I went through major depression and was suicidal for a long time. One night i snapped out of it partly because i would never get to see the end of the shenmue series if i did. That night i left that cave of manic depression and lo and behold about 6 months later shenmue 3 kickstarter wss announced. Now all I have to do is wait to see how our journey will continue.
Sadly to hear that part about ur mother,,,she is always by ur side in ur heart ❤
 
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 :)
Wow thats cool yes Shenmue is the best birthday gift 4 sure....my birthday is 28.th of july but well this year I won't celebrate till shenmue 3 is here on the august 27...almost 1 month later more or less ❤
 
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Well, I didn't know anything about Shenmue prior to it's release. Let's first go back a little farther though and put the Dreamcast in the frame...

In the UK growing up, everyone either had a SNES or a Megadrive. Then, PlayStation was absolute king, I knew a few people with an N64, but it felt like EVERYONE had a PS. Then I remember, playing in the street one day as a kid, I was around 9 or 10. Some other kids were talking about a new Sega console. It was going to be called "the Sega Dolphin" they said, and apparently "the graphics were going to be so good on it that it would hurt your eyes!" That was the word on the streets. Naturally I was very excited.

I don't really recall the Dreamcasts actual launch, but Europe got some really really weird adverts for it, that were just bizarrely out of context (look them up on YouTube) So I don't think it had a great promo in the UK, and I didn't know anyone that owned one.. Besides my cousin who got one at launch.

It was 1999 in the summer and I went to stay at his house, and he showed me his new system. I was mesmerised, the VMU was incredible, he had online Internet connection. And we were only 11 and 10 at the time but I think we may have been the first Internet griefers. He had this social online disk, it wasn't dream key, I forget now, it was like a planet, and you could talk to people. We sent awful, awful, messages to someone called Darren over the keyboard. Sorry Darren. Anyway, I digress.

All the games my cousin had were cool, but a game called Shenmue really caught my eye. Instead of one plastic jewel case, the game comprised of 2 in a nice cardboard sleeve, the cover and rear of which were really interesting. I had literally just been introduced to martial arts movies. And here was this video game. Perfect. We booted it up, and we're instantly reeled in to the opening cinematic...

The graphics were fantastic. I remember not long before this experience, I and my best friend played metal gear solid for the first time, and I looked at him and said "graphics can't possibly get any better than this!". I was very wrong. Shenmue was visually incredible, and I specifically recall staring in wonder at the cutlery in the kitchen drawer of the Hazuki residence. (Take a look, they're so shiny!) The soundtrack was incredible and I remember the sense of immersion but also freedom the game gave us. Everything I had played prior to this felt very linear, A to B, kill, next level. Here though, I was more than happy to slowly work my way through the sleepy town, speaking to every NPC, following their daily routines, marvelling at what could be picked up. I loved so much that you could actually practice and improve your move techniques, I loved that Tom's hair looked like those little pipe cleaners. We would giggle at Ryo's lines, and Fuku-sans name like beavis and butthead. But we also fell into the serious tones when the game called for them. The game is my favourite of all time, it changed the way I looked at games and felt, forever. I am now a forklift driver (all those hours of simulation payed off!)

I always feel a little sad, despite there being a great community on here, no one else as a kid I knew experienced the game at the time. I eagerly await the new releases!

Sorry for veering off topic at times, my head is a little jumbled right now. Thanks everyone.
Thats a great story,,, mine experince with shenmue are somehow like the same in the way I love it ,and change my mind about other games and life.Im gonna post tomorrow how it was for me
 
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