Endurance Run: Shenmue - Part 07

@mckinley: Some of those cutscenes are crazy-hidden. I've played this three times and there's cutscenes I still have never stumbled upon.

I feel like I waited my entire life for Vinny to go into Bob's Pizzeria

Cut my life into pieces...

One could make a strong argument on if it's a "side-quest" then it's optional and not mandatory, but I'll leave that.

We get it, you guys love the game. But let them explore at their own pace. Even if they discovered all of that, I doubt that their opinion on the game would change that much.

Anyway, they spent nearly an hour doing nothing on last episode and yet it was the best episode so far. Remember, this isn't a speedrun and it isn't a gameplay guide. This is a video series of how they experienced the game. They don't have to do everything.

Also, daily reminder that all of the episodes are already recorded and it doesn't matter how much people whine about the way they're playing because nothing will change.

@gregalor: I'm hoping he discovers the run button is analog and the notepad button next, lol. Dreamcast and its confusing 6 main action buttons man!

@mckinley: Wow how substantial. It's almost like that stuff is exactly what I said: window dressing and not substantial gameplay.

Give me a break dude I have played this game before. Go for a walk and take a few breaths.

For sure, it's definitely a game that's perfect for multiple playthroughs just to see everything. I won't be too specific, but there's one particular scene where people come over to visit Ryo at his home, and I had never discovered that until 10 years later.

@gregalor: First and only take? That does answer a lot of questions, cheers. ;)

The best crab rangoon stuff is over at a Fork and Screen in Olathe, KS (at least the best I've had). It's a dip with just a pile of crab rangoon middle-stuff and wontons to dip them in and it is utterly amazing.

OMG!!! this is the best thing ever. Please do part 2!!!

Man, by the time Ryo is done asking people where X is, the bad guys will be half way to Canada. Maybe he should have just called the police.

Ryo definitely listens to Evanescence, Papa Roach, and Our Lady Peace.

@zabant: OK. I will.

Glad Dan is loving NYC. Truly one of the greatest cities in the world. The only thing great about SF is its natural geography.

Vinny found the Saturn in this episode...
I'm hoping that means from this point forward he realizes that the look button can be used to interact with objects, not just look at things.
I mean, he used the look button in the Tomato Convenience Store a few episodes ago, but I guess at the time he didn't realize just how useful it is.
Hopefully now that he used the look button to interact with something in the house, he'll start to use it more, and maybe he'll finally find that cassette player.

Every example I have seen for things that they can do just sound like pointless distractions.

What fun side stuff is there?

Shenmue people...

This ER just keeps getting better!

I just had a revelation. Shenmue is written and acted exactly like a Tommy Wiseau joint. Especially Tom. Tom could be played by Tommy Wiseau in the adaptation.

@supersambo: I think the only thing that would satisfy you is if this literally happened:

@supersambo: Everything in life is a pointless distraction if you really want to get into it.

I love how they stop at EVERY restaurant except the Chinese one, and they pass by the Chinese restaurant one three times. They even has a substantial 'Three Blades' event with the owner and likely bumped into the delivery guy NEXT TO THAT RESTURANT.

And, yeah sure don't go back in the house because...Why would they other people you live with have anything to say. And yeah there are seven rooms in that house that obviously have nothing in them....no office you father used, no alter to the family, no clues about your life in YOUR OWN HOUSE.

You know you can....stop watching, right?

Some things actually happened this episode! Not a lot of things, but some!

They really had to use wrestling to make Dan understand how the mafia works? Seems about right. I'm eagerly waiting for them to explain sex the same way.

I would totally work for Godfather Vinny

Ah yes, that's a quality voice on the pizza man!

who is vinny talking about when he mentions the singer with the tattoo on his stomach? the only one i know is Trevor Strnad from Black Dahlia who has "HEARTBURN" written across his, but i doubt vinny knows them.

Tell me about the Three Blades.

The militairy surplus guy is by far my favorite. He sounds like an old cartoon character, and he looks like he knows how to party.

Thanks for the great content. I haven't played this game in so long and it looks rough the more I see of it. Watching it back like this makes me appreciate the Yakuza games a lot more. I beat the two Shenmue games and yet I played the first two Yakuza games all the way to the end and never finished them. I think I got distracted by side stuff and didn't bother completing the story. The main bosses of that series seem appropriately over the top but I wasn't really interested in the overall plot of "I don't want to be the boss but I'm going to beat the shit out of people until I decide who's the boss." You guys are probably already aware of this but the final bosses of the two Shenmue games are utter dog shit, crazy old kung fu Gollum and a big fat guy. It's already so absurd that Ryo is like 17 or 18 and he's beating the crap out of groups of grown men and yet the lack of pay off at the end of both games is astonishing to say the least.

Vinny and Alex are carrying this entire feature for me, those two together in just about anything is the best thing on this website. Sorry to keep harping about it but I think Dan brought very little to this series so far. You could have gotten almost anyone if you just needed a third guy to crack up at your jokes and grill you guys about random topics while ignoring the hilariously bad voice acting. Not saying you guys should have paid laser like attention to the silly dialogue but it's been a long while since I've heard it and it was Vinny's one and only chance to soak in the awfulness.

@zabant: I'd rather be in Alex's shoes.

loving this

Sigh...we're gonna have to deal with them called Ine-san mom the whole Endurance Run aren't we?

"I've never understood mafia stuff," said Dan, surprising nobody.

@nickux: I wonder what basic thing they'll educate him on tomorrow!

@the_ruiner: Does the game ever explicitly address Ryo's actual mom at any point? Where is she? Is she dead too? If they need to go to some room and zoom-in on some piece of paper on a table to find out, I bet they will go on thinking Ine is Ryo's mom.

The discussion about having to time waste carried on from the previous episode so i feel like commenting on it, there are 3 or 4 useful activities and a couple side questy things (which are totally missable so don't feel too bad) which could have been done at this point in the game.
You do have the disadvantage of the Danstractions :P, and Vinny's sense of direction being pretty phenomenal, but hey that's the endurance run and i get it, there's no wrong way of playing a video game... i mean hey you got to the end right? I just hope the bad experiences don't colour your and other people's opinions of Shenmue.

@kasaioni: I'm not sure if it's explicitly stated in the game itself (other than assuming you know that he absolutely wouldn't be calling her by her name), but it is definitely stated in the character biographies on Disc 4. People are acting like the guys are being total idiots about this, but I didn't know until about a year ago.

This is, quite honestly, the weakest counterargument. Nothing improves and no discussion happens if the people who have criticisms just don't participate. You're basically saying "please let this be an echo chamber because I don't like the opposing sides."

So please, either let the naysayers say nay, or respond to them with something of merit instead of some passive aggressive dismissal.

The thing about the 'they're playing it wrong' argument with this and every single otherEndurance Run is that in none of these cases have they played the game in a way that is at all crazy for somebody playing a game with no prior knowledge of it and talking over it/recording it in the process.

@squirrelnacho: The problem is the game gives you practically zero guidance to find any of that stuff. This episode was a great example of that. They ran into the random encounter with the restaurant guy and for once actually gave them a clue as to something they could go do, and the game did squat to help them locate it even when they were actively searching and looking at the map. They got distracted because checking every single restaurant for some random event that could end up being nothing is boring.

Maybe for some people aimlessly wandering around trying to find something to do is fun, but the game certainly doesn't do much to help along those who don't automatically appreciate that kind of thing.

Sorry to say, but being a millionaire does not make you immune to mockery. This year's election is all the proof you could ever need of that.

@gregalor: Yeah, I don't think they'll figure it out unless it's involved in the main story somewhere, or they do some research on Japanese culture and honourifics.

Man, the comments on these videos are pretty rough. As someone who has also never seen this game before this feature, I'm enjoying it.

Keep it up, boys. I promise the silent majority are enjoying the hell out of this ER!

That's specifically Sonic CD Amy.

I think this was what Vinny was referring to. It's The Black Dahlia Murder vocalist.

@likeassur: There's no purpose coming to these videos daily (which the person I was responding to has done) to criticize and attempt to change the course of a feature that has already been recorded in its entirety. If it were being recorded and they were reading the comments, it'd be a totally different story.

Writing paragraphs upon paragraphs about how the GB crew is playing the game incorrectly does nothing to improve the feature itself, so why bother watching something that you don't like and that you know isn't going to change to suit your needs? It makes no sense to me.