Shenmue Dojo

Yeah, I plan on re-playing S1 and 2 again and I am looking forward to getting to Disc 4 on 2 in particular A part of the game that used to get me frustrated and depressed will now be a nice preview of what's to come!!!

myshtuff wrote:

Crimson Ryan wrote:

Henry Spencer wrote: Nothing will beat S2 Disc 3 for me. Kowloon was such an amazing location. Been fascinated with it ever since. Although I was in the camp that really enjoyed Disc 4 too. I hope the same amount of small details that Disc 4 had work their into Shenmue 3 (Shenhua and the dialogue choices and all that).

Read City of Darkness!

Such a good book. Glad I picked it up a couple years back. Probably harder to find now.

The authors actually released a second edition via Kickstarter. Should be easier to find now

The big mirrors revealing themselves still gave me chills.

I have my DC copy at my parents house on the other coast of the US (boo!), and just let my friend borrow my Xbox version, so I''ve been watching the dojo videos of Guilin the past few days. What I remember most about Disc 4 was how perfect the timing felt - like you were able to decompress after the action from Disc 3 and just slowly take it all in and reflect on all of your actions up to that point. The 2-3 hours were paced perfectly and never felt like it lastet too long or too short. Then, new story elements started to set in to intrigue you (and leave us with a crazy cliffhanger :-P)

Like Ryan Payton said in his Shenmue interview, Guilin was a huge video game achievement that's kind of a shame many other people weren't able to experience.

Such an awesome post. I thought of this and can't wait to experience it. I live in a new place, have a new set up and it's crying to be blessed by Shenmue. I am psyched to analyze the hell out of disc 4 once again, knowing the questions will soon be answers. This is the type of post I like seeing around here, I could feel the emotion. I'll share my own after I complete disc 4 as well.


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Im mega busy at the moment but have just loaded the emulator with Shenmue in it. I've just moved and ensured the DC was well packed with the Mue games! Currently my TV is on the floor along with a washing machine in its packaging - which should paint a picture of the state of play!! However once I've got things sorted I think a full on DC playthrough of 1 & 2 back to back is in order for me!

I remember only bits and pieces of Disc 4. I completed SII a couple of times on DC and then bought an X-Box for the english dub (which is pretty bad) and actually got to the end of Kowloon and couldn't bring myself to playing through the finale!! (I went back and did it a while later - started afresh again!)

I was so excited to find Shenhua and reach Bailu village first time I romped through Disc 4 and was like WHHUTTTT!! It actually took me about 4 playthroughs to realise you could leave Shenhua's house! I need to go back and properly enjoy Disc 4 rather than dredding whats coming!

I think I'll do a replay at some point. Trouble is, though I'll be playing Shenmue 1 on the DC, do I play Shenmue 2 on the DC or the 360 via BC (I haven't played the Xbox version yet, despite owning it for a while)? I intend to get a VGA box of some sort for my DC.

It'll be interesting to play. One of my bugbears with games not being treated as art is that so many games are about grand plots, killing and action, not about taking your time and day-to-day tasks that would be encountered in real life. It'll be interesting to see what I think of the Shenmue games with this in mind.

I'm currently re playing Shenmue 1 on my Dreamcast and will be following it up with Shenmue 2 afterwards.

My whole outlook on them has changed knowing we're getting a third. (I often never finished S2 in recent years as it kinda made me sad but not so anymore).

I have multiple save files across my vmu's for shenmue 2. among them no less than 3 savefiles for disc 4 of shenmue 2. one right before the shenmue tree, another at the start of disc 4 and another one right before the crag where you see that eagle fly and it gives me goosebumps to this day!

life_247 wrote: Im mega busy at the moment but have just loaded the emulator with Shenmue in it. I've just moved and ensured the DC was well packed with the Mue games! Currently my TV is on the floor along with a washing machine in its packaging - which should paint a picture of the state of play!! However once I've got things sorted I think a full on DC playthrough of 1 & 2 back to back is in order for me!

I remember only bits and pieces of Disc 4. I completed SII a couple of times on DC and then bought an X-Box for the english dub (which is pretty bad) and actually got to the end of Kowloon and couldn't bring myself to playing through the finale!! (I went back and did it a while later - started afresh again!)

I was so excited to find Shenhua and reach Bailu village first time I romped through Disc 4 and was like WHHUTTTT!! It actually took me about 4 playthroughs to realise you could leave Shenhua's house! I need to go back and properly enjoy Disc 4 rather than dredding whats coming!

what?! you can leave shenhua's house? I've played at least 6x through shenmue 2 and never knew this!

Yeah, I think there's not much to do outside though? You can walk around a bit and look at the tree, but not much more than that..? I usually just go through the entire house, looking at everything, trying to trigger every scene that can be triggered.

The 4th disc has always been bittersweet for me. On the one hand, it was really exciting and mysterious, because it gave you a little bit of a taste of Shenmue 3. On the other hand, well, I spent the last 10 years convinced that I'd never play Shenmue 3, so that part just made me really depressed every time I played it.
So because of this, disc 4 always evokes really confused feelings for me.

Of course, now everything is different, and I can't wait to go through Shenmue 1 and 2 when I'll have some free time this Summer. It's the same game Ive played so many times, but I'll be able to enjoy it so much more now that I can see it in a completely different light. Oh man, I can't wait.

The 4th disc is a perfect ending to Shenmue 2. It's basically a 3 hours ending that you get to play through instead of just watch. It reminds you of everything that you've done since leaving Japan, and teases you about what's to come. I'm glad they put that chapter at the end of Shenmue 2 rather than at the beginning of Shenmue 3. It would have been tedious and annoying to begin a game that way. But as an ending, it's perfect.

drunkensailor wrote:

life_247 wrote: Im mega busy at the moment but have just loaded the emulator with Shenmue in it. I've just moved and ensured the DC was well packed with the Mue games! Currently my TV is on the floor along with a washing machine in its packaging - which should paint a picture of the state of play!! However once I've got things sorted I think a full on DC playthrough of 1 & 2 back to back is in order for me!

I remember only bits and pieces of Disc 4. I completed SII a couple of times on DC and then bought an X-Box for the english dub (which is pretty bad) and actually got to the end of Kowloon and couldn't bring myself to playing through the finale!! (I went back and did it a while later - started afresh again!)

I was so excited to find Shenhua and reach Bailu village first time I romped through Disc 4 and was like WHHUTTTT!! It actually took me about 4 playthroughs to realise you could leave Shenhua's house! I need to go back and properly enjoy Disc 4 rather than dredding whats coming!

what?! you can leave shenhua's house? I've played at least 6x through shenmue 2 and never knew this!

Haha yeah it took me a long time to figure it out! There's a back door that looks like its a flat texture (like its a picture of a door but not one you can go through) but out you go into the garden area. Unfortunatly Ryo does his whole "I cant leave here now" type speech when you try and wander off. I think theres another scene can be triggered with the tree?? Im not 100% sure its been YEARS since I've played mue to be fair.

Can't you just walk right off the open porch/veranda, and into the tree area? I don't remember that you had to go through a door. Could be wrong though.

Henry Spencer wrote: Nothing will beat S2 Disc 3 for me. Kowloon was such an amazing location. Been fascinated with it ever since. Although I was in the camp that really enjoyed Disc 4 too. I hope the same amount of small details that Disc 4 had work their into Shenmue 3 (Shenhua and the dialogue choices and all that).

Have to agree, the location is an incredible choice by yu Suzuki, I've been reading up about it since the day I decided to search it up. It's quite fascinating since I'd always wondered while ryo and all these shady gangs were ruling the streets why there weren't any police around, but read about the walled city and you can see why. I really hope this location is revisited in a future shenmue game, it deserves it.

Maybe after years of passing they can redesign it to better resemble the actual walled city, since in reality it was a lot more dark and dingy, and crowded.

Disc 4 is so rural and the dynamic change in surroundings from city to country makes such a good variance in the contrast, I really enjoyed it, furthermore I have a liking for all of the locations in shenmue 1 and 2.

I just finished disc 3 again and after all this time it's still as epically mind blowing as the first time I played it.
Those QTE's in the Yellow Head Bldg are nothing but pure, raw adrenaline

Now then, Disc 4... my lovely, lovely disc 4...