[LagunaVII]

Im not going to lie by the christmas of 1999 my dreamcast was pretty much gathering dust, I had grew tired of Soul Calibur, I had given up trying to get all the emblems on Sonic Adventure and Toy Commander had seriously lost its appeal. There seemed to be nothing that could keep me from my school work.

Then came christmas morning, I picked up a gift that seemed the size of a dreamcast game only a lot thicker... to this day I couldnt tell you who got me it, or the reasons behind it, though whoever it was now has my eternal thanks. The gift of course was a copy of Shenmue. Now I didnt reallyfollow game magazines at the time and we didnt have the internet, I really had no idea what this game was about, but as I said my dreamcast was gathering dust, I thought id give it a go.

The game, however did not get off to a good start, no disrespect to corey and the gang, but the voice acting was terrible, the games pace at the start was very slow, but for some reason I could see the potential,  I stuck it out. To be fair, the capsual toys and kitten had me intrigued. I was playing to collect and nurse.

Then one day I stepped onto the street of Dobutia, my god I was blown away. Never before had I seen so many NPC's on one screen, id never seen so much to do before that wasnt apart of the main story. My gaming background was the classics, Sonic, Mario, Street Fighter. You know the basic going from A to B. Never before had I seen a game with a random arcade thrown in there, or a random park you could go to to fight thin air. I was begining to get hooked.

Dobutia, I believe, also had the first of a new gaming feature I had not seen before. The QTE. I had watched my friend play Final Fantasy and had recently come off the back of Sonic Adventure so I knew the importance of the cut scene to game story telling, but interactive cut scenes? Things got interesting.

needless to say the game was not slow pace anymore, before I knew it, it was about 3.30 in the morning and I cant turn the Dreamcast off because there 0was sailors to find or that elusive high score to get on Hang on. Who needs sleep anyway. I needed to progress. Before I knew it, I had tracked down Charlie, found a random phone number and was on the way to the harbour

For some reason I had skipped the playstation, it doesnt matter why in the end, but the point im trying to make is I had never played MGS. I was aware of the premise and thought it interesting. When all of a sudden Shenmue gave me Metal Gear Ryo, I was plessently suprised. Ill admit that it did take a fair few attempts to find the old warehouse number 8. But thats what shenmue had done to me. I needed to get that next diary entry. All nighters were now inevitable.

As time went on, the game became so much more. An RPG, a fighter, a puzzle game and before I knew it a racer and a life sim. Who would have thought racing and the working fork lifts could have fun or for that matter had a place in a video game. Needless to say it worked and just showed how truely brave shenmue was with its gameplay elements.

I think I was now back at school now and the sleepless nights still hadnt stopped. The end was night and I still hadnt got that boombox from the tomato mart, by this point id given on the gold dural. Unfortunately it seemed my collection would never be complete. Unfortunate, but it wasnt the end of thw world.

I think it was early one thursday night when I got to the nazomi kidnap scene. Now the game had become a motobike game too? What more could this game throw at us? Oh how how does a 70 man battle suit you? That was really intense, I think the game was finished at 11.30 that night. Whatever the time the game got started again 5 minutes later.

Overall I found Shenmue to be a wonderful experience, yes it had its flaws, but what game doesnt? It was emotional, thought provoking, enjoyable, had a mild difficulty. But what more ended withba guaranteed sale of its sequel to me and a game I thought worthy of a second play straight away.

I know lots of people cite metal gear or final fantasy as the games that proved that games were a medium for telling stories but for me it was this little beauty from Suzuki and injust couldnt wait for gim to take me to Hong Kong

[James]

Only just had a chance to read this. Nice post, I'm sure a lot of people can relate to these vivid memories.