Endurance Run: Shenmue - Part 11

I've been waiting for this character to show up, haha.

"Shenmirror"

That is not the thumbnail I want to see at 3 in the morning

@papercut: But it wants to see you. :D

I like how Vinny artfully avoided/didn't pick up any of the items in the house.

I'm 10 minutes in and this episode is making me want to staple my nutsack to the ceiling.

Not sure if anyone from the staff if watching the comments, but the Youtube video is only 10 minutes long, watching the site video for now.

That's the best 3am thumbnail I could hope for.

"Back to Dubojto!"

Pronouncing Japanese is Dan's Fireboylt.

Gosh, I had forgotten about that creepy guy! O_O

This disc sure is packed full of jam.

@vinny Youtube version is only 9 minutes long.

I was just looking for some educational software about the best ways to ask for directions when lost in a strange city. This is perfect!

Dan, we have a chair with draws at my library.

Its like a 18th century version of a school desk-chair you sat in in high school - with draws! It is a favorite among the public who come to our library every day.

Why not come to Nantucket to see it. We'd love to have you.

Finally! Vinny's looking in drawers and using the look button to search the house! He didn't take anything out of the drawers yet, but... I'm hoping next episode he finally finds that cassette tape player in his room and listens to the cassette tape he bought.

Haha I was watching the youtube version and suddenly got a little confused.

Hahaha hang a left through Disc 1 @danryckert

Can't stop laughing at Dan's "I love you?" I don't know why it's so funny to me but damn.

Everyone's mad on YouTube because it got cut off there at a bit over 9 minutes.

If only they'd come first to Giant BOMB dot com. It's a website.

...so we all KNEW they would walk right past all the martial arts moves at the antique shop, right? We all could have called that Vinny move.

YouTube video says 9 minutes? o_O

How far are we from Stevedore Simulator 1999?

People were playing this because The Sims wouldn't come out for a few more months

I really like how they've turned on Tom

@monkeyking1969: It's a cutscene isn't it? They go in and out. No browsing.

But there was no prompt or anything to pick up any of that stuff at any point? Are you actually supposed to just somehow know that you can interact and pick stuff up in the drawers even though there's no prompt even if there's a prompt for literally every other interaction in the game?

@simkas: There was no prompt for opening drawers or removing art/scrolls from the walls or turning the lights off via switch and yet somehow they were able to figure that out.

@serujiow: Seriously. Do some people really need a prompt over everything and never experiment? Press A.

It is pretty inconsistent about prompting you about what is interactive and what isn't and it is difficult to see what is a usable prop and what is background texture. I am saying this as someone who also loves this game (and this feature inspired me to dig out my Dreamcast and play along at home and it looks much better on a VGA cable than on these videos)!

@smarri: It seems pretty obvious to me. Interact able stuff is rendered in 3D and isn't a flat texture. But whatever, it's just strange that Vinny of all people isn't experimenting with every little thing like he usually does in adventure games.

I think Andy Sirkus got his inspiration for Gollum from the Shenmue flea man.

I don't quite get why the called the episode so early when they're right in the place where they could save and wrap up in another 25 or so minutes and make it about an hour and a complete episode, seems oddly paced at times.

@simkas:Yes, incredibly, games used to come without tutorials and hand holding. There was once a time when there were things called "adventure games" where you were expected to click on everything and use all the items in different combinations to solve puzzles and/or move the story along. It was suggested to read something called a game "manual" which wasn't actually in the game but came in the game case, there were no digital version of either the game or said manual. Sometimes you literally had to take out an irl piece of paper and a pencil to write things down or draw your own maps. Some games even had "game overs" and health being restored from "health pickups" instead of just waiting a couple of seconds.

If this all sounds baffling remember this game came out 17 years ago which makes it older than most of the users on this very website. This game started development in 1996 (the same year Bubsy 3D was released) which was less than half of a decade into games finally being able to flesh out a world in three dimensions. Honestly, not every single aspect of game design had been ironed out at that point. The game surprisingly was well received by reviewers because nobody knew what they were talking about back then and everyone tied an onion to their belts because that was the style at the time.

Thankfully we've now reached a point where we have homogenized games and made them all play exactly the same so as to prevent any confusion among children and armchair game designers. What a time to be alive.

The controls aren't the best, but the help button that keeps showing on screen explains some of the controls, and there's also a very helpful and short manual. The game does explain these things. There are no prompts on things that they can zoom in on. There aren't any for the drawers.

The controls could be bit more obvious sometimes, but it's not like there's been no explanation.

@squirrelnacho: you say they don't seem to know the controls? Yeah they definitely don't know the controls, Vinny is still going through the inventory screen to get to the journal :)

Pretty sure the "marble column" is a low ply space heater

Is the letter on Iwao's desk not readable? I thought it was significant. Or did Vinny somehow not think to press 'A' once it was highlighted?

You mean 'just know' like everyone else who played that game figured it out within the first ten minutes or at least the first 10 hours of starting the game? Yup.... that is what we expected.

Hey, I gets it! Three heads are worse than one, because you have people saying things or second guessing your second guesses. But, truly, if they spent two extra seconds thinking it would make the game smoother for them. Oh, It is funny to be sure when they come within seconds of discovering something then walk away. It is a trade off, but one that will have consequences later.

I'm hooked on watching this too then end, but i'm betting Vinny spends an 'unrecorded day' grinding. Or, that they actually don't finish at all because Vinny can't get past a fight I have in mind. Its 50/50.

Yokosuka , the place that sends you mad:

@morelikelames: yay for nostalgia for clunky, obtuse, and outmoded game mechanics and design methods!

i especially don't get the desire for manuals. sure i thought it was neat to have, but we've moved on from that. the sort of hand-holding you mention (in game prompts and tool tips, tutorials, etc) are pretty much taking over for what manuals provided. and failing that, you've got the internet. it's 2016 unfortunately, and things have moved on and changed. i personally prefer not having to deal with the frustrations of what amounts to a 3d pixel hunt.

@morelikelames: Oh for fucks sake. Shenmue does not predate the idea of button prompts and tutorials. Ocarina of time had lengthy tutorials. Myst clearly indicated what object could be interacted with.

Shenmue is incredibly inconsistent about what you can and cannot interact with. Over and over the duders have been punished for trying to stray from the very specific path the game has in mind. In this video they try to ask Ine-san about the mirror only to find that they cannot until they activate a specific cut scene. That is bad game design. There are a lot of remarkable and cool things about Shenmue. But it's very bad at explaining its systems to the player.

Having to refer to a manual to learn a game's system is bad design. Manuals are a holdover from a time when memory was limited. Game over screens are a holdover from when arcades needed players to constantly put in coins. Pixel hunts in old adventure games were dull and irritating. Digital distribution cuts down waste and allows makers to sell directly to customers. Health pickups are neither inherently good or bad. Health pickups make New Doom fun but regenerating health is key to the flow of Halo.

Games were not better "back in the day." Vinny, the one playing the game, played stuff "back in the day" and he's finding Shenmue obtuse and confusing.

Me: "Finally, the Shenmue people will finally shut the fuck up about them not searching the house."

Shenmue people: "They didn't [insert complaint here]!"

...Fuck everything.

Everything they ever wanted, oh like an objective?

HEY OREO!

@edmundus: It's readable. It actually triggers a short voiceover cutscene. There are a handful of other scenes and flashbacks you can trigger around the house that aren't essential but do a nice bit of characterization on Ryo and his relationship with his father. It helps flesh things out.

Lan Di has cursed the youtube video and made it only 9 minutes long. He will pay for this!

9 minuets? Its like the first 20 episodes of Persona 4 all over again.

Edit: Turns out its ~30 minuets, youtube is being weird, switch the quality to steaming if you are getting the 10 miniuet video.

I guess I will just never "get" Shenmue or it's weirdly rabid fanbase. I always thought it would have been better as an fmv game.