Tell us your Shenmue story! Tell us how you got to the Dojo!

[Himuro]

So Thief and I were talking about how we're relatively new Shenmue fans. We both didn't play or get into the games until late in the 2000's (2006 for me, 2010 for Thief). I find that really interesting how we both managed to find Shenmue and enjoy it so late, despite everyone saying it hasn't aged well, or people only like it for nostalgia. Thief and I buck the trend.

So we posted our stories. I want to read more stories! Share yours! If you didn't play Shenmue until late, tell us! We want to know!

Here's mine:

My story is that I went to my best friends place. He lives far into the city, so quite a while from me. He just got his Xbox 360 - this was 2006 - and it was still new at the time. We went out for burritos at the best burrito shop in Houston, got ourselves full. We played games all night (GRAW, Oblivion) and I was really impressed with the 360. But when before I went to bed, I went one of his rooms, just snooping around because he had just moved there and I figured I could help him out with it in the morning. I found his Dreamcast, which we played with a bit when we were younger, along with Shenmue. I remember someone talking about it in High School, and I read a review of II when it came out in Xbox in a gaming mag, and it sounded really appealing to me, so I plugged it in.

I ended because enthralled. I was mesmerized by the game but found it completely hard to control and had no idea what I was doing, but I was fascinated. In the morning I asked him if I could have his DC and Shenmue. He said "sure!".

I made a topic on gaf trolling it because despite finding it amazing and captivating, I still found a lot of it worth making fun of. I caught the ire of Dojo and they made a topic just for me. I kept playing Shenmue 1 despite my misgivings, and my confusion and dislike of the game turned into appreciation, and from appreciation, it turned into like, and by the time I beat the game I fell flat out head over heels in love with it. I imported II from the UK immediately, and started a new game of Shenmue 1 as soon as I beat it.

You can read the topic where I caught the Dojo's ire here.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30288

[Thief]

Great idea Himuro -- I'll just copy paste my story from the other topic.

I just finished playing through Shenmue and Shenmue 2 and it was quite the experience. I cannot remember the last time I was that in to a game. Normally when I play through games I'll take breaks and hang out with friends and what not but that was not the case with Shenmue. People would call me and ask to hang out and I would respond, "I'd love to hang out but... I'd much rather play Shenmue... sorry *click*". Now that I've finished the game I've climbed out of my hole and have begun to run around telling all my friends how great it is. Of course, as soon as I tell them it's on the Dreamcast/Xbox they dismiss it as obsolete... bah ><. Since when are those consoles old? Anyways, I feel so alive.. and from a video game to boot... it's weird. I really want to go to Guilin!

I had one question though. Shenmue 1 is chapter 1 in the story, that makes sense to me. However, how is Shenmue 2 chapters 3 through 6? What happened to chapter 2? From what I gathered Yokosuka was chapter 1, Wan Chai/Aberdeen was chapter 2, Kowloon was chapter 3, and Guilin was chapter 4. While I don't question in the slightest that this sites information is correct in the chapters numbering, I am however curious as to why it's numbered the way it is. Anyways, I'm rambling, and tired. Great games... and oddly I really want to play them again... right now...

That's my first ever post on the Dojo back in 2010 :lol:
Kind of hilarious to look back at that.

I actually got into Shenmue on a whim. My brother was the type to buy a lot of games and then never play them. I however, never bought anything and played all his games. It was a pretty great deal for me, now that I think about it. He had bought Shenmue forever ago and it had just been on his shelf. One day I decided to play it and the rest was history.

It's funny, I distinctly remember taking Shenmue 1 after I had beaten it and I went up to my brother and said "This is mine now. You can't have it. I need it." and he let me have it. He didn't own the second game so I had to order that off the internet. The week long wait was torture. :P

[NeoShredder]

You can read the topic where I caught the Dojo's ire here.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30288

I love how the guy actually starts to like the game a few posts in.

Old wounds man. This is the problem with Funhaus and the like. I hope they play it through.

Anyway I don't have a massive 'epic' story about my time with it...i was only like 9 or 10 when the game came out...I don't think I had a Dreamcast until like 7 months before it was discontinued (I loved it and was so sad about that ) For me the Dreamcast whirring is part of the soundtrack!

I was captivated from the off really. I guess I didn't that many expectations of what "games" should be anyway and wasn't on the internet at that age so had no reviews to go on. Obviously being about 11 I didn't have the money to get or play all the different games for years, perhaps I had no "bias"? If I remember I think it game with the Dreamcast that we bought. Anyway, as I said, there are many adjectives I could use but captivated is really is word.

I remember picking up the Dreamcast magazine that said the DC was to be discontinued, and in that same magazine they were talking about Shenmue II....such mixed emotions! Anyway it talked about how it wasn't coming to America (Xbox only), and (for once) I felt so lucky being British!

So I get the 2nd, and the intro starts:

phpBB [video]

The most epic "the adventure IS continuing" moment EVER.

End of Shenmue II genuinly thought the Dou Niu fight was the end of the game...then Guilin was like a whole thing, and that was a nice suprise! Then we get to the cave, that ending.....

By about 14/15 I had a computer + internet of my own, so I was wondering what was happening with Shenmue III....

And here I am

[amiga1200]

gonna have to jog the braincell.
shortly after release, was lucky NOT to pay the full retail price, but not far off.
totally different time, and a good distraction from my main hobby.
too sterile of description, it was the 'ambiance' of it that pulled me in.
the story is great, but my brains was too focused on the tech and it's capacity, shenmue blew the dreamcasts insides to shit.
showed what the risc chipset was about.
took my head off.
back in gameplay brains, was definitely looking forward to the second chapter, the first got me hooked like sniffing coke of womans jubbies...MOAR!
part two did me in for a bit, was ultra-failing at the qte's for some reason.
got through it, and the coin-op games present in both games was a sure-fire plus.
who DIDN'T like (and puke up on occasion) afterburner, space harrier, and hang on played in a rollcage cabinet?
(why no g-loc in shenmue as well?)
good the games was added, a lot to say for having coin-op quality in the home. (yes, love SNK aes/mvs cops hardware too. not in my budgets though. )
...
primed for a third installment, never got to shoot my load, the game being looked into now.
life went on, but i'm still about.
don't have the same shenmue-drive as i once did, but i sure as shit, WOULDN'T turn it down if it showed up in my hands.
and for the record: it would fill a morbid curiosity, a past fancy to see the story concluded, ONCE AND FOR ALL!
...
like life, we wait..
the dojo?
pure stumbled onto it, it covers a game i like, figured, why not? (i'm starting to regret it, for non-dojo related reasons)

[Aimless Gamer]

I got Shenmue a bit after it came out and it was by far the best game I have ever played and i'm a very hardcore gamer. I remember getting up early to play it for the first time and I got so sucked in that about 14 hours later my mom said it was time for bed. Then it hit me, I was super hungry, thirsty, and really had to pee because I have done none of these all day.
The next day at school I could not stop talking about Shenmue and I met a friend who did the same. We became close friends and still are to this day. So I went to my local game store and preordered Shenmue 2. This was my first preorder and this was before preordering was a thing. Then the news hit me that Shenmue 2 was canceled. My buddy and I were crushed. I never knew about importing so I never got it for the dc.
Then when it was coming out for Xbox I quickly preordered it again. A bit before it came out I found this site. At the time this website was just a fan site (i think).
I lurked on this site for years but never made an account because I have SMA and its very hard for me to type. After a while the forums kinda fell in to hell due to Shenmue 3 lies, spam, and lots of stupid fights. So for a long time I just used this site for news. Then about 3 years ago I started back reading posts. I finally made an account a bit before Yu's Shenmue postmortem and felt right at home.

[south carmain]

When I was around 9-10 Shenmue was released in France but only in English. A friend of mine got it and since he didn't speak English he asked if I could play with him and help translate so I did. This was how I discovered shenmue however it wasn't until 2 years later that I actually owned a shenmue game which was the second on xbox which quickly became my favourite game of all time.

Years later I was bored and decided to shitpost on the dojo.

[Mystere]

I grew up as something of a Sega fanboy, choosing Megadrive over SNES and even Saturn over PS1 (big mistake in the playground, but I loved Sega's games; even today few games captivate me like VF2, Sega Rally, Daytona and NiGHTS), so it was almost inevitable I'd buy a Dreamcast.

When I did, in August 2000 I'd never heard of Shenmue until it was featured in an issue of DC-UK (yep, no internet!). I was 15 and I'd never enjoyed an RPG - never cared a bit for 'em - in fact my taste expanded little further than Sonic or arcade games. But here was this game citing itself as "more than an RPG" and "F.R.E.E." with ultra realistic graphics, epic story, and foreign backdrops far removed from my everyday life. Did I want to experience a virtual Japan? Yes I did.

The rest is history. Next year I bought SII on release day. The Shenmue games expanded my horizons in gaming and beyond (I'd never have learned Chinese if it wasn't for SII) and IMO, have never been matched since.

I stumbled across the Dojo purely by chance while searching for Shenmue. Prior to that, I used GameFAQS which I don't miss a bit.

[Jibby]

I made a thread with my story a couple of weeks ago, but I'll copy paste it here too. I'd say it's quite a unique story that shows that my appreciation for Shenmue is growing every day:

I'm a bit of a strange Shenmue fan. When the first game came out, I was only two years old. However my brother had a Dreamcast and Shenmue and I always watched him play it. A few years later, I too began to play the game, but being a very young child the most I ever did was buy toy capsules as I didn't even know that there was a story to progress (I also thought that Ryo's name was Shenmue )

Soon we got an Xbox and the faithful Dreamcast was put away but I never forgot the game where you buy drinks and toys. That eventually blossomed into my love for Shenmue. As I got older, I realised that there was much more too the game and that there was a deep story to be found. I started looking into the game more, reading about the characters and watching other people play it online. My understanding and love for the series kept growing until I pretty much knew the entire plot and almost every detail.

But when the Shenmue III Kickstarter was revealed, I realised that I never did revisit the game for myself. I never sat down with the intention of playing it on my own and taking in everything at my own pace. Tonight, despite being a huge fan of the game and franchise (which I know after reading this, some of you are going to debate), I finished Shenmue I on my own for the first time. It was completely different to watching a lets play. I feel that only now can I truly appreciate just how immersive the game is - something I didn't get from reading about the game or watching videos. It really feels as if I've rediscovered the game. It took me back to when I first started researching the plot properly. After doing such research I didn't think my love and passion for the franchise could grow any more, but I was very, very wrong and I realise now that whilst I thought the wait for III was a painful one, it was nothing compared to what a majority of you here were forced to endure. I got it easy.

[amiga1200]

something I didn't get from reading about the game or watching videos.

^^ THAT!
as for 'endurance' some gave up and folded to reality sooner than others, broken as it were.
...
i won't lie, i don't get that proverbial quickening from the hype of 3, too old to believe and put trust.
not sorry, but modified outlook for the times.
maybe i can get back the buzz, when an actual item is up for grabs, who knows?!

[MiTT3NZ]

Saw Shenmue in a magazine. Bought it. Liked it. Used the Dojo as a source of info. Kept gettin banned from other boards so eventually decided to sign up here (...and kept gettin banned)

[amiga1200]

^^ yeah, that's RICH!
getting banned from here, RIIIIIIGHT!
but according to FOES list, you're a staffer and can't add you.
there's a lot of irony at the dojo, or maybe choice of staffers are PISS-POOR to say the least.
(banned from here? priceless. can't say i've know of ANY site that allows users to become staffers when they have blemishes.)

[MiTT3NZ]

Ain't staff pal. Just an oversight with permissions n privileges.

[Axm]

Amiga is so cute.

[Axm]

Go to my dealer to cop some of the sticky-icky. When I get to his crib he tells me, "I'm fresh out, fam. Got to re-up. Be back later you know I always come through."

I'm ready to turn around and bolt, then he says, "Hold up for a sec homie. Here, check this though. This right here is Shenmue. It's a game about a Japanese teenager named Ryo from Japan who doesn't take shit from anyone. His dad gets dusted by this dude named Lan Di over a magic coke mirror, right?
Okay, then he starts whopping some asses looking for this dude and then he feeds kittens and shit.
Then, he gets a 9-5 so maybe he'll stay alive, riding a forklift and meets some dude who's Evlis in Japan.
Then this dude, Ren, snatches his main bitch and he gets a motorcycle and rides down to the harbor. right? He and his partner Guizhang fuck up, like, 50 dudes and take his girl back. It's dope."

And I was like, "aight."

Haven't seen him since then but I heard he got bumped off trying to pass a N64 as a GameCube. He was a good dude.

[Jibby]

Go to my dealer to cop some of the sticky-icky. When I get to his crib he tells me, "I'm fresh out, fam. Got to re-up. Be back later you know I always come through."

I'm ready to turn around and bolt, then he says, "Hold up for a sec homie. Here, check this though. This right here is Shenmue. It's a game about a Japanese teenager named Ryo from Japan who doesn't take shit from anyone. His dad gets dusted by this dude named Lan Di over a magic coke mirror, right?
Okay, then he starts whopping some asses looking for this dude and then he feeds kittens and shit.
Then, he gets a 9-5 so maybe he'll stay alive, riding a forklift and meets some dude who's Evlis in Japan.
Then this dude, Ren, snatches his main bitch and he gets a motorcycle and rides down to the harbor. right? He and his partner Guizhang fuck up, like, 50 dudes and take his girl back. It's dope."

And I was like, "aight."

Haven't seen him since then but I heard he got bumped off trying to pass a N64 as a GameCube. He was a good dude.

I see.