DAP wrote: Himuro,
it's surprising, yet inspiring, to see your love for Guilin. Here are the main reasons you said you love it:
It's so beautiful in its contrast to the rest of the series with its sights AND sounds. The fateful meeting, the ambient music, the conversations, the easy-going tone of it, the mystery of the stone cave.
Urban vs rural; the physical vs mystical; patience vs impatience.
The music is probably the most staying part for me.
The hawk scene still gives me chills when I see it.
Pretty much every mystery in the series is grounded in Guilin.
Which of those reasons (or another) is the cherry-on-top of your love of Guilin?
Did you love Guilin that much 10 years ago?
Have you visited Guilin IRL?
I think the urban vs rural and material vs immaterial is my favorite. It really changed my perspective on how I viewed things, such as rural life which I considered inferior to my suburban living when I played it. It literally changed my world view and made me hope for something more in nature and in this world. I remember one part where they're talking about cows and how in Japan, they eat cows. I thought that was natural because I was American and hey, we eat burgers. But Shenhua talked about how they couldn't eat cows because otherwise they'd have nothing to fertilize or help till their land. It truly showed the disparity between lifestyles Ryo (me as a stand in) had in contrast to Shenhua. And while it seems obvious, it really opened the mind of a naive 20 year old city kid's mind to a different way of living. I learned that there's some things that the city doesn't and can't offer. It has inspired me to want to go camping out in nature and just look at the stars some time. I've been planning on doing that once a year, actually.
Yes I have felt the same exact way about Guilin since I first played it in 2006.
I have not visited Guilin but it is one of my goals to do so someday.
Why is it surprising I love Guilin so much? Almost all of my Shenmue related avatars are Shenhua doing something rural in Guilin and it's deliberate - I am in love with the area so much and I cannot wait to explore it in III.