I bought my original Dreamcast almost the day it launched in the US. I played a lot of Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, some Crazy Taxi, but somehow, Shenmue passed by, with me completely oblivious to it for a long time. Over the years though, I kept hearing about this amazing game, but never made the effort to locate a copy, and eventually, I gave my Dreamcast and games away to my little sister so she could play with Chao to her heart's content. I always felt uncertain of this decision.

Today, I went on a trip to an amazing used game shop in a nearby town and decided to pick up a new Dreamcast for myself as one of my purchases. I needed to choose a game though. I went through the options in the case before me. Sonic Adventure? I could get that anywhere. D2? It was missing discs and the clerk thankfully remembered that ("I keep telling them not to put this out!"). Then I saw that they had a copy of Shenmue 1. Sold.

The copy was in pretty bad shape. The case was falling apart, the discs were badly scratched, and it didn't have the main manual (just the passport one). I also overpaid for it, but the clerk resurfaced the discs, I ordered a new quad CD case online, and now all I need for completeness is the manual. Still, I now own Shenmue.

As I am about to play this masterpiece for the first time, I decided to keep a journal of my progress and experiences for you all to enjoy. I appreciate any advice you might have on making this the best possible experience it can be, as well as comments on my progress. I hope you all enjoy this record as much as I hope I will enjoy playing this game. :)

August 8, 2016

I just finished my first session of Shenmue. Here are my initial thoughts.

After an exciting intro, I quickly discovered that unraveling the mystery of my father's murder would not be an easy one. I quickly found myself wandering around my neighborhood, getting used to the controls. One of my neighbors found an orphaned kitten and, not knowing how the menus worked, accidentally chose to give it tofu instead of the obvious fish. Oh well, lesson learned. I did learn that the kitten's mother was killed by a speeding black car...not unlike the one Lan Di, my father's killer, and his thugs were driving...

I asked some neighbors about the men and their car, and although I got a lead on someone who saw the car, I couldn't find them before nightfall. I headed home for the night, feeling very unsure of myself.

I spent the remainder of the evening exploring my home, and just as I was starting to get frustrated, I found something very interesting in father's study. A letter addressed to myself, giving some advice on life. It definitely seems like he knew what was coming.

I decided I would not get much done at night, so I called it a night. I went to bed and saved my game.

I am quite impressed by how atmospheric the game is. It's a very unconventional game, with a leisurely pace, but also quite charming. Even just walking around my home, I found a cutscene where Ryo saw an old tree that reminded him of happier days, training with his dad as a child. While walking around town, I bought a few capsule toys from a vending machine. My first one was a weight. Ryo's unimpressed reaction mirrored my own. Luckily, trying again yielded better results, earning me figurines of Sarah from Virtua Fighter and Amy Rose from Sonic. I decided to not spend any more money for now.

So far, I am pleasantly pleased with the game. I will definitely be playing more in the near future.

August 10, 2016 1:45 pm

I started off my second day with the intent of finding Yamagishi-san to ask him about the car, but life is never clear-cut. I decided to see how Fuku-san was doing, so I went to the dojo. I found him working on a punch called the Pit Blow. His injuries from the other day were still effecting him though, so I decided to work with him a bit on improving his (and my) technique. After a little practice, we managed to get the hang of it.

I quickly realized that I still have much to learn, though. I wasn't paying full attention to my surroundings as I entered town, and something unfortunate happened. Two boys playing soccer kicked the ball at me, and before I could react, it smacked me in the chest, bounced off, and hit a little girl in the face. I was unharmed. The little girl...not so much. I felt very disappointed with myself as I continued down the hill.

Another surprise occurred shortly thereafter. As I looked for Yamagishi-san, I met a nearsighted old woman looking for the Yamagawa residence, but she couldn't read the nameplates. It took a while, but I finally found the place and guided her there. She was quite grateful.

While searching for the Yamagawas, I found the Yamagishi residence as well. Yamagishi-san was very helpful, telling me that Lan Di's car sped off in the direction of the shopping district. As I started there, I noticed a map by the side of the street pointing out all of the homes in the area. Doh!

Asking around, I learned that the local hot dog vendor had a run-in with Lan Di, and after a little more investigation, I decided that my next step should be to get some insight about Chinese people from...a local Chinese restaurant. It was getting late though, so I slowly made my way home.

While I was out, I got a soda from a vending machine...and got lucky! I got a special can that I can redeem for a prize! I also bought a couple capsule toys, which were a super ball and Sonic the Hedgehog.

I think this was a very productive session. I might play more later today.

Hey guys, sorry about the lack of updates lately. I did something really stupid recently. I wanted to show my sister the game, and I deleted my save file, without checking when we would be able to play. We still haven't played any yet. #-o

I've decided that if we aren't going to play sometime soon, that I will just have to start over and quickly make it back to where I was. Sorry about the inconvenience. :sad:

Hey, guess what? My sister came over this morning and I finally had a chance to show her the game. We actually almost made it back to where I was before, and I even found a couple of secrets I had missed before! I experimented a lot more with the zoom feature to investigate objects in my house, and I am amazed by the amount of detail in this game, especially when it seems superfluous. I found I was able to rummage through all of my desk drawers and cabinets, and found a cassette player, an additional tape sitting on my desk that I had missed before, and a photo of Ryo and his friends. I also found lots of spare sets of clothing that I will most likely never change into. :P

I also found a Sega Saturn under the TV, but I couldn't get Ryo to play it, or even turn on the TV. :sad:

This time, I fed the kitten the fish, and got some additional dialog with Megumi. I also figured out how to name the kitten. My sister and I finally decided on Mimi, although I did jokingly recommend Sasuke, just to tease my sister with her disdain for Naruto.

I bought a soda, mostly to show my sister all the things you can do in this game, and wouldn't you know it, I got another winning can to make up for the one I lost when I deleted my save! Am I just lucky? Or is it because I tried to pick the same soda I did the first time? In any case, I should try booting up the Passport Disc next time I play and see what I won.

In one game day, I managed to make it back up through talking to Yamagishi-san. Next time, I will most likely get to new parts of the game, and I will definitely let all of you know what happens! I got permission from my sister to play without her as long as I show her the more interesting or exciting parts. Just to be clear, she liked the game and appreciated its "realistic fiction" vibe, but she doesn't have much free time (19 credit hours in one semester!? I would die within a week!), so playing the whole game with her doesn't make sense logistically.

In any case, that's all for today. See you next time, when I will most likely tread some new ground!

Crazy Taxi's port is arguably greatly diminished in lacking crucial licences like the soundtrack, and their learning experience for that spurred them to work towards mostly undoing the legal knot that was Jet Set Radio's soundtrack.


I remember buying the PSN port of Crazy Taxi and being so disappointed that they changed the soundtrack. I could live with the store names being changed, but it's just not Crazy Taxi without "YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!"

Well...last night I played some more. After learning Pit Blow again, and getting the soccer ball QTE right this time, I went to Abe Store to redeem my winning soda can...and didn't win anything. Feeling frustrated, I decided to buy one soda, just in case I might win again, and against all odds, I got ANOTHER winning can! I then proceeded to not win anything again. :mad:

I went down to Dobuita to do some investigating, but I went a different way than usual and ended up getting lost in an unfamiliar part of town. However, this ended up leading me to a place I had heard great things about...You Arcade! I played Hang-On (for the first time ever, actually) and made it through the first checkpoint, I got to Level 2 on Space Harrier, and I discovered that I have a talent for QTE Title, getting the high score! \:D/

However, by that time, it was already the middle of the afternoon. The day had whizzed by without me noticing. As I tried to get back to where I was, day turned into night, and this time around, Tom didn't seem to know about the black car! I had to find another lead, and someone kindly mentioned that the Hamburger restaurant owner knew something. Talking to him revealed that Nozomi had seen the car. By that time, though, it was already almost 8 PM, so I headed home for the night.

It wasn't a very productive day, but I don't care too much. I had so much fun at the arcade that it didn't really matter. I'll talk with Nozomi in the morning and get back on track then.


In other news, I finally found and purchased a manual for my copy of Shenmue, so with the game migrated over to the new 4-disc CD case I got previously, the game almost looks brand new, or at least well taken care of.

Hey, guys. Sorry about the lack of activity lately. I've been very busy with school and other things and I haven't had time to do any playing in a while. I'll try to return to the game sometime soon, though.

I'm...BACK!

Hello, everyone! Long time no see. After a long hiatus, I am finally back to playing Shenmue! Here's the crazy whirlwind of events that happened today!

I started the day by looking for information on that darn black car, and I finally made some progress and got a lead!

I talked to Nozomi about the car, which I had heard the previous day that she had had a run-in with, and she pointed me to Tom, whom had previously said that he knew nothing about it...until I unlocked new dialogue by talking to Nozomi... #-o

Gripes aside, Tom remembered having a run-in with Lan-Di and his men, and told me I should try talking to someone at the Travel Agency. Going there, I was recommended to ask the owner of a nearby Chinese restaurant, which I did.

The owner of the Aijiichi Chinese Restaurant, after a little coaxing, gave me some interesting info about a relationship between Chinese immigrants who found careers as Barbers, Tailors, or Cooks, known as the Three Blades. He also gave me the names of a few business owners in the area who could possibly tell me more.

It was around this time, though, that I got involved in...an incident.

Rounding a corner, I bumped shoulders with a ruffian who decided that he and his friend were going to beat an apology out of me. I had better things to do, but the guy wouldn't have it, and threw a hook at my face, which I dodged, sending him tumbling forward to the ground. Suddenly, his friend came at me, and, being just a little too slow to react, plugged me in the face with a couple jabs. His next attack wasn't as lucky. I caught his kick and gave him a good punch to the stomach, ending his assault. I then quickly finished off the first guy. After making it clear who was boss, I went on my way.

The cook I was told about wasn't at work yet, so I talked with the tailor instead, and he told me that I should talk to the barber. So, I made my way towards his shop, when I decided on a whim to take a small detour. On my way, I passed a small antique shop, which I decided to stop at out of curiosity. It was a good decision, for I discovered that they had several old martial arts scrolls for sale! I happily bought one and read it excitedly. On the scroll was the instructions for a new technique for me to learn! Feeling quite satisfied, I made my way to the barber shop. The owner, Liu-san, told me that his father might be able to answer my questions. I will definitely have to make a visit to him tomorrow.

I headed home for the evening. I spoke briefly with Fuku-san, who remembered an interesting detail about Lan-Di and his men. They all had tattoos resembling a family crest.

One last thing. While goofing around at the dojo, I looked behind some scrolls on the wall and found something very strange. Behind one was a strange panel with an indentation, and behind the other, one with a slot. Both looked like something was supposed to be put in them.

This rabbit hole just keeps getting deeper and deeper.

Um...wow. I guess it's been a while. My most sincere apologies! I want you all to know that I have NOT lost interest. I've just had a lot going on this past...year... OK, I have no excuses. I tend to get really distracted by every new thing under the sun. However, I just heard that Shenmue 1 & 2 are getting a re-release, which reminded me of this thread.

In honor of the re-release announcement, I'm going to try to pick this back up and continue playing soon.

See you then!