Finished Shenmue after 14 years

[blueswirl]

Back in 2000 I bought my Dreamcast. I'm a huge Sonic fan and when I played Sonic Adventure for the first time on my nephew's Dreamcast, I knew I had to have it.
A friend of mine bought Shenmue and showed me how you could buy Sonic figures in the game. I thought that was pretty interesting, so I tried playing Shenmue, but I didn't like it because the gameplay was slow compared to Sonic and I thought the controls were weird.
My friend told me time and time again how great Shenmue is and that I should play it. Years went by and he told me about all the detail that's in the game. How you can open almost every drawer, pick up things, examine items, use the telephone, how you can practise moves, etc. So around 2013 I bought Shenmue 1 and 2 through eBay.
I played Shenmue 1 on my Dreamcast console I bought back in 2000, but now on my HDTV with VGA adapter. I thought the graphics and detail in the game held up very well. So I played up untill disc 3 and got stuck in the harbor. I got in a loop where some event didn't happen and I got to work everyday and go to bed and this would go on and on. Eventually I stopped playing. In 2014 I decided to play the game again and I tried to load my save file from 2013. Somehow I got an error about the save file being incompatible because I was playing with a VGA adapter. Which is strange because I also played the game before with a VGA adapter. I tried to fix this by editing my save file with the Dream Explorer disc, but unfortunately it didn't work. So, I decided to start a new game and start all over again.
This was my first complete playthrough of Shenmue 1 and I became a fan. I needed to get used to the controls, but when I did I thought they were just great. The pacing was also something I needed to get used to. Now I don't think the game is slow anymore because when you have to wait a day there is so much you can do. Go exploring, talk to NPC's, go to the arcade, practise moves, etc. It's fantastic!
So when I finished Shenmue 1 I immediateley started playing Shenmue 2 untill I finished it. After Shenmue 2 was finished and I was left with the cliffhanger, I just wanted more. So when I heard about Yu Suzuki doing a postmortem about the development of Shenmue 1 at GDC 2014, I knew I had to see it and I had high hopes for a Shenmue 3 announcement. When that announcement wasn't made I was dissappointed.
I was excited to hear about the Shenmue 3 announcement at E3 2015 and I backed the Kickstarter with $100. I just wanted to be part of this amazing franchise and to have my name in the credits of the most anticipated game of all time is just a fantastic bonus!
So this is my history with Shenmue and although it didn't grab me the first time, it sure did by the time I finished it. I know now I will keep playing it and I'm already playing it again for my second playthrough.

[amiga1200]

good read!
welcome to the crakhaus!
pull up a chair, bust out the credit card, and cut up some fat white lines.
have fun, see you around.

[Hyo Razuki]

About time you finally finished it. Great story you told us there.

I thought the graphics and detail in the game held up very well. So I played up untill disc 3 and got stuck in the harbor. I got in a loop where some event didn't happen and I got to work everyday and go to bed and this would go on and on.

Around 2002, a friend always came to my place to play Shenmue. We had the exact same bug happen on his playthrough. I think it was either the day when they beat up Goro and then the QTE battle in the warehouse occurs or the day you were supposed to run into Tony and Smith in front of the Cafeteria and chase them through the harbor. Anyway, the Mad Angels just wouldn't show up so there was no way to continue the story. There was no way to rescue that playthrough, no matter what we did. He had to start over again.

Anyway, let's enjoy the next 2 to 3 years, waiting for Shenmue 3. I still can't believe we will one day live in a world where Shenmue 3 exists.

[Thief]

About time you finally finished it. Great story you told us there.

I thought the graphics and detail in the game held up very well. So I played up untill disc 3 and got stuck in the harbor. I got in a loop where some event didn't happen and I got to work everyday and go to bed and this would go on and on.

Around 2002, a friend always came to my place to play Shenmue. We had the exact same bug happen on his playthrough. I think it was either the day when they beat up Goro and then the QTE battle in the warehouse occurs or the day you were supposed to run into Tony and Smith in front of the Cafeteria and chase them through the harbor. Anyway, the Mad Angels just wouldn't show up so there was no way to continue the story. There was no way to rescue that playthrough, no matter what we did. He had to start over again.

Anyway, let's enjoy the next 2 to 3 years, waiting for Shenmue 3. I still can't believe we will one day live in a world where Shenmue 3 exists. [-o<

From my experience, the way to fix the loop is to change your forklift route. If you're going down the very narrow pathway near the water, then you'll get stuck in the loop. You need to instead take the actual road (near the bus stop) in order to continue the game.

[Giorgio]

This is a great original post.