Endurance Run: Shenmue - Part 16

I really love Vinny, he's amazing

This was great. Also, I am again reminded as to why I am thankful that I live in a reality where Dan is a video game journalist and not a cop.

I am such a terrible but I keep watching this damn Endurance Run because that this game has drained Alex of his will to live, and this episode finally broke Vinny is just beautiful.

@nagafen: Different strokes man! I do like the Shenmue games, and I do think Shenmue II is better-made. They're very flawed games but I really like the immersive aspects and talking to NPCs and stuff. I just enjoy the games, both when they came out and now, while TOTALLY understanding how others could be completely and utterly put off by them.

Worst episode becomes best episode.

lmao the comment section did not disappoint on this one. What a dumb moment. I just love hearing/watching Vinny have to endure this game.

Special Guest Appearance: Kermit the Frog

I'm here to defend Vinny on something! I've been seeing a lot of blame, a lot of finger-pointing going on that they did this to themselves by taking too long getting to Asia Travel in the last episode. But not only could they not have known the consequences, the window of time for finding Asia Travel is narrower than you're putting forth. The earliest that they could get out of the Hazuki residence was noon, and you have to have the Asia Travel business wrapped up by 4 in order to get everything to happen on the same day. That's only about 15 minutes of real time. I've been in this exact situation, myself, and I would bet that this is how it plays out for most people.

This episode showcases the kind of magic only Shenmue can inspire, including a demonic Thunder Road.

The travel agent guy saying "tomorrow" elicited the kind of response that the doctor in Groundhog Day elicits from Phil Connors when the psychiatrist suggests meeting tomorrow.

I feel that we've hit a new kind of level here. This is truly GiantBeast

Uh, I think Shenmue has broken GBeast and Dan.

This is the gift that keeps on giving. I thought it could never get better than "Fire____" but then this happened. This is why I love this dumb website.

I'm pretty sure this has entered into the realm of performance art now.

I think it's hard for people to dissociate the game's impact on release from its current value as a game. At the time, its commitment to realism (including waiting) and cinematic presentation were groundbreaking. Kind of like how Final Fantasy 7 had so much more reach because of its ambition and production value, Shenmue left a big impression on people. It's kind of like Phantasy Star Online in regards to online social interactions and Metal Gear Solid in cinematics, except those two are still enjoyable games while Shenmue is an interesting experiment.

It is still a great example of game design ambitions of the '90s and how far we've strayed from them. Warren Spector said his dream game is contained in a city block that holds enough density that it could hold people's attention for an entire game. Now we have stuff like Skyrim and No Man's Sky which are large worlds full of empty space and repeating textures, models and scenarios. At least in this regard, Shenmue is still progressive in its virtual space populated with unique assets and ideas, even if it's very visually dated now due to the hardware. And yet, I expect Shenmue 3 to go more in the direction of Skyrim with a large open world of nothing because making a game like Shenmue now is so much more expensive due to how much work it takes to make 4k assets. It's a large part of why I look forward to a future where we hit diminishing returns in visual fidelity and as a result see big studios see what they can do with worlds, physics and gameplay when they don't have their budget restricted by state-of-the-art graphics. It's weird to look at the original Deus Ex and PlayStation Final Fantasy games and see how far their sequels' worlds have devolved in density and scale for the sake of graphics.

Wow. They actually did it. I get the feeling these guys are re-experiencing the old "I don't like this game but I have to play it to the end to review it so i'm going to engage with it as little as possible." Putting that in front of an audience would have been great, right?

This episode along with the recent Box Maker stream encompass the reasons I've been a subscriber since Day 1.

I love GB for this. They don't let a shit game get in the way of content. Dan singing is the best. I love GB.

@tigerthecat5: You know the Endurance Run is free content right...? Unless that's the joke you were just making....

But yes we should all pay more. Tis the brutal truth....

This was the best of times to play videogames.

Kermit Dan is the best Dan. My god you haven't even gotten into a forklift yet.

@jcibella: On the other hand, you could say that they failed to Endure and resorted to leaving the game running rather than playing the game for another 20 minutes. They might just wanna end the entire ER now. In fact it might be time to pack it all up, turn off the lights, and go home. Shenmue has destroyed GBeast.

When life gives you Shenmue, make uh.. music I guess.

Here's a random set-up to a joke:

RyU walks into a bar in DobuitO asking where he can find the best ManPUKEen ramen.

The bartender says....

(Now you fill in the rest. I'm trying to figure out the rest myself)

Now I realize why the local children are so eager to play with Ryo...they are bored out of their fucking minds.

@lonelyspacepanda:

Lemme get this straight...

They are pretty much at the point where they're waiting for the call.
The speed run hits that point at about 2:11:06.

Then the SPEED RUN takes another 6:15:12, INCLUDING 4:14:46 of PURE FORKLIFT ACTION, to complete the game.

We're already at 13:05:50.

We're never going to wake up from this nightmare.

@nasar7: They are going thru what we would be playing this horrific game. This episode was the best because sometimes in gaming, you just have to walk away.

@vaeng: I wasn't kidding when I said there's going to be a Forklift Week.

Shenmue may be shit, but tit made for a good Endurance Run.

Give me Phantasmagoria 2 any day over this game.

When I realized Vinny was singing let it go I lost it

You're assuming it is not possible for them to descend further into madness. This is the point in captivity where everyone is still trying to keep eachothers spirits up through song. They can't quit until they are truly dead inside.

I was like like "yeah a long episode we'll see some progress now!" no....no progress...at all...

Yeah, that's definitely something I can appreciate. I spent around 60 hours in Life is Strange, exploring pretty much every little detail, because they all told you some unique little things about the world and its characters. I played about 6 hours of Skyrim until I got bored. LiS, in that regard is definitely a game that seems to take up and refine ideas seen in Shenmue. And so did Deadly Premonition with the way shops open and close and NPCs actually move around in the world depending on the time of day and certain events. Comparisons to Gone Home (a game I didn't like as much as the others mentioned here) are obvious as well.

In a lot of other ways though I feel like Jeff isn't too far off when he says that Shenmue went left where every other game after it went right, for better or worse.

Puzzle of Flesh is awesome. They bring it up with such hate on this site but I found it so entertaining. Obviously I'm sure not in the ways the developers intended but nonetheless.

Why do they think that stores would be closed on Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day in Japan?

This is my favorite episode on the citadel.

@vaeng: Even funnier when you consider Dan said they had to cram the last 7 1/2 hours of the game into the day before he left. I have a feeling things are going to get real hellish pretty soon lol

"I can't remember if we have three episodes after this or thirty."

Oh Dan...

@vaeng said:

If the forklift section takes up so much of the speed run, I'm guessing it just can't be done that much quicker than in a normal playthrough. So I'd wager that Vinny & friends will get through it in 6-7 episodes tops. Wouldn't mind being proven wrong if it leads to more comedic gold like in today's episode.

Great episode. I love their growing resentment for every character in the game; Tom, Fuku san, Ryo

The Space Ghost: Fire Ant of Endurance Run episodes.

This would be less frustrating if I knew that there will be a new episode going up tomorrow. Having to wait three more days for a real episode is rough. I wish they'd upload these on weekends, too, but I assume they have data showing that viewership drops on weekends.

Speaking of the next episode (or maybe the one after), I wonder how many of you remember that getting a job involves Goro telling you to come back tomorrow.

this is the most giantbomb video of the year.

I actually see very little of that attitude. But then again, I don't read every comment, just skim through them. I did notice the people shouting how awful this game is, though. Maybe I have a selective perception because this game is very nostalgic to me even though I also think it's very flawed and downright awful in some aspects. And I don't blame them getting angry at the bullshit the game pulls in this episode at all.

Also, this is no different than ANY OTHER NICHE GAME ON THE PLANET. Every one of them has their staunch defenders screaming from the rooftops how amazing a game is. For me personally that'd include such titles as Planescape Torment, Deadly Premonition and Nier.

And for the people talking about how long the forklifting takes in the speed run, don't worry, that parts simply unskippable. I wouldn't be surprised if that part took them about as long as the speed run since it's basically forced work+scripted events. It's also the worst part of the game IMO.

Hey, they found a hidden cutscene! They could have continued it by calling Nozomi, but you have to take what you can get here.

This episode made the whole "Dan moving to NY" thing so much better. It's going to be this every week isn't it?

Kermit Neil Young is the best part of this game.