Shenmue Dojo

This post is overly long and not really a big deal, but I believe it's possible that there was a section of FREE exploration cut (or at least significantly reduced) towards the end of the game. So when Ryo gets fired from his job, it's around 10.45am and from the Alpha Trading Office you can either choose to wander around for a very short time, or go directly to meet Tom, before auto-jumping to meeting the Mad Angels at 10pm that night. Meeting Tom will trigger the point of no return, in the sense that you're on a linear path of move instructions, battles and cutscenes to the end credits. If you choose not to walk towards Tom, Ryo's watch will sound at around 12.30pm or 1pm, and you'll go there automatically. So that gives you barely 10 real-time minutes of final FREE gameplay.

I do find it strange that there's no kind of menu prompt informing you of this, the way there was in Shenmue II (At the end of Disc 2, you're informed that saying goodbye to Xiuying will trigger Ryo's departure for Kowloon, as well as the option to have one final day of free time before infiltrating the Yellow Head Building.) But what's also strange is that during that short window between getting fired and meeting Tom, you can have a significant amount of unique conversations with NPCs relevant only to that point in the game, with it even being possible to travel back to Dobuita and do the same. Even the fortune teller has a unique reading for Ryo, foreseeing his eventual meeting with Shenhua. You can have a specific conversation with Ine-san at that point too, but have to make a bit of a speedy dash to the Hazuki Residence in time to get it. In a moment uncharacteristic of Shenmue, you have so little time that you have to pick and choose where you're going to go/who you're going to speak with.

I think it's possible that after learning the Tornado Kick/saying goodbye to Tom, FREE gameplay was intended at one point to resume until 10pm that night, giving you a more natural and relaxed pace to explore/train/speak with people one last time, as opposed to jumping straight to the Mad Angels meeting. Perhaps the team felt that the slower pace would've killed the building momentum of the story at that stage, or they wanted to include the scene of Ryo watching the airplane from the harbour in a more essential way. I dunno. But it's interesting that after being fired, Ryo's notes inform us that he "should check with everybody", yet the game barely gives us ten minutes to do so.

Great post.

I've always found that strange, myself. The most optimal way of maximizing the amount of conversations you get is by making the day you say goodbye to Tom New year's day. That way, all of Ryo's friends will be in one place, outside the Yamanose shrine.

But even then, you have to choose between dashing for the bus and calling Nozomi, speaking to your friends or family, or just some random npc you like. But the point is that you can only really pick one path because you're pressed for time.

If there's ever a Shenmue HD, maybe they can change it there? That would be cool.

Yeah, it just seems odd that they would go to the length of including all those unique moments (and Ryo's notes even encourage you to speak with everyone) only to barely give you a chance to experience them. A nifty strategy there Chaikilla, but as you say, being under such time constraints makes it feel very unnatural. BlueMue has included a few of the final conversations in the Random Dialogue videos on his brilliant youtube channel, there is definitely more to be heard though.

This is something that's always bugged me as the game very rarely takes control away from you, and yet it just rushes through the end.

Goro has unique dialogue during that bit I seem to remember as well. Does Fuku-san have anything interesting to say as well? Does Guizhang? Can't recall.

Seem to remember that if you ring Nozomi as well, pretty sure Ryo almost says that he loves her. It is one of the most interesting parts of the game though, it is so crammed full of interesting NPC interactions and in such a short time frame.

Is it possible that the time crunch was intentional, to force the player to make a tough decision about how to use a very limited amount of time? It doesn't change the overall plot trajectory but it does have consequences in terms of personal meaning for Ryo/the player. It would be interesting if someone could ask Yu Suzuki about this some time.