Endurance Run: Shenmue - Part 09

Hey there

Cool!@

Mother's Earth, Comrades

I really hope this isn't another episode of frustration

This has been a lot of fun, but they made things more difficult for themselves by not familiarizing with the controls a little more. That doesn't mean they would have necessarily completely changed their opinion, and the game has definitely aged compared to when it game out, but they would have had a somewhat easier time.

Edit-when they had time at the end of the day that would have been a good opportunity to explore their house more, instead of walking through the town after everything was mostly closed.

Still, it's great that they decided to play it and it's been entertaining, and it's understandable that some people might not find the game appealing.

I'm ready for forklifts!

Shenmue: The Game About Asking For Directions

Is Vinny really going to call Ine-san "mom" for the whole game?

Disc 2 hype!

@curufinwe: Probably!

I like how Vinny realize finally that X brings up the notebook and then he still goes into the menu to open it.

Disc 2 here we come!

"Totally the same shot."

So some people may laugh at this, but the first time I played this game way back in 2000, this was the part that really made me start falling in love with the game. It seems sort of derivative now, but back then I had the same experience as the guys just had - I had no idea what the game wanted from me to find this Warehouse #8, and the only person who really points you in the right direction is Nozomi, whom I didn't talk to for a long time.

When I finally got the answer, it was sort of a revelation about what the game expected from me. I had been wall crawling everywhere and trying to think of every "video game-y" solution I could come up with, but the actual answer was simple. If it's 1986, and you have a phone number but no address, and you want to find the address, what do you do? Obviously you look in the fucking phone book. The fact that you could real world logic your way into that answer, and then actually do it, felt really amazing at the time. I really felt like I was playing a real world simulator as part of a story that was way more interesting than anything happening in my 8th grade life. It changed the way I saw the game and made me so excited for what else was to come. It also helped that this part led directly into disc 2, a new area where things start picking up a tad.

I can already smell the forklifts.

Dan and Alex actively oppose happines

DISC 1 DONE!

I think it's about time to embark on some forklift operations.

Is it wrong that maybe the best part of this Endurance Run is hearing it just suck all the life and wonder from Alex's voice?

I actually had the same exact feeling when I was playing this, and I was around the same age. I was kind of bored with this game up until that point, but I was also playing it alongside one of my friends which kept me going, but when I realized I could use the phone book, something about the world felt more interactive and deep than anything I had played before. I was a big point and click adventure fan, and this started to feel like a really innovative version of those. I also was a sucker for the QTE scenes. I also don't remember the voices being so terrible.

Arcade guy kinda reminds me of Zap Rowsdower

Watching these has been really interesting because it turns out I remembered way less about this game than I expected. I mean, the general flow and stuff is all what I remembered, but the specific beats of looking for the warehouse and stuff.

Excited for forklifting!

I lost it at the arcade guy saying "you knooooow".

Loving this series. Thanks guys for showing me what I missed all those years ago.

The culmination of several hours of gameplay, and the thrilling conclusion to an action packed Disc 1, is Ryo getting on a bus.

Everybody's saying it's time for forklifts, but isn't the forklift stuff not until Disc 3, or am I just mis-remembering?

@allodude: Isn't he supposed to be avenging the death of his father? Seems like this game could have used a totally different set-up for what it wants to do. Although I guess it is more realistic that a teenager is going to get nowhere to find a murderer if he does everything but call the police.

oh hey dlddggglkjdryooooo

So the arcade owner is totally Bubs from Homestar Runner.

I'm thinking you meant Mike Pipper (the grizzled bearded guy they meet) because that's who I thought of.

Has Ryo been emotionally crippled by the murder of his father?

@vigorousjammer: That's correct. Something happens at the end of Disc 2 that requires him to work and earn extra money on Disc 3.

Only in Shenmue would getting on a bus be a moment of triumph.

@allodude: Wait till you see how the game ends!

Um....

Um...

ARE YOU FRONTING WITH ME

Did they still not realize that they are getting 4 dollars per day...?

Agreed. I think Shenmue does a lot of admirable things, but its main problem (and the reason I don't blame the guys at all for the way they're playing it) is that its story and many of its characterizations are totally at odds with the goals of its design. For example, the first time the guys attempted to interact with a piece of world-building minutiae (trying to use the phone in Ryo's home), Ryo says "fuck that, gotta avenge Dad," flatly denying them the opportunity to interface with the game's ostensible strength. That kind of dead-ending happens all the time in this game - random passerby tell Ryo to fuck off, Ryo tells people who invite him to interact with them to fuck off (e.g. capsule machine kid), and most conversations with NPCs who actually give him the time of day are Ryo simply asking about the next plot objective and the NPC either pointing him somewhere else or not.

I like the game, but I can't fault anyone for not appreciating Shenmue's worldbuilding when the game mostly only communicates an interest in railroading the player through a mediocre revenge drama.

I had to make sure if the Twitter account on Honey's shirt was already taken. It is.

The real Shenmue starts here.

How Vinny gets lost in Sakuragaoka never ceases to amaze me.

I love this so much, but at the same time it's super frustrating to watch and not be able to grab the damn controller out of Vinny's hands. The X button is RIGHT HERE!! R trig and look at any building and it tells you what the hell you're staring at, but no you keep running in circles looking for the stupid map. I also feel like there is a fortune teller that can give you hints for like 100 yen, how they have managed to stretch this out for 8 hours and not stumbled upon that is beyond me lol.

@dudelongcouch: It's interesting to hear how people reacted to this back when it was released, thanks.

"This was a lot of interaction for 1999!"

But... you haven't been interacting with stuff...

Loving this, onto disc 2!

How do you get this far without even TRYING to train before bed to see what it does?

Hey Dan, let he who is without wrestling obsession cast the first anti-Disney stone.

Disney >>>> wrestling

Please go back and feed that little kitten.

@colonelxanders: Arcade guy is Bubs and the patches guy is Coach Z.

@therioceph: Last episode, they said that this episode they would check out the Abe Store and get cat food. Guess not!

@stise: This is the reason I don't get the people yelling at them for "not playing the game right." The game provides so little positive reinforcement for doing anything besides the main quest. In this episode when they tried to engage with the side content by playing pool there was no reward or appreciable change to npc behavior. I understand that this was the first game to even have stuff like that but it's simply poorly executed.

Cool, maybe now Shenmue will become a video game.