With today's post we welcome back Chao Yu, who presents a Chinese television documentary about the life of Wu Lianzhi, with translated English captions.
Chao can be found at the Shenmue Dojo as yuc02, and is a long-standing supporter of Phantom River Stone on Patreon.
Hey guys, I recently found an old (circa 2008-10) Chinese TV documentary about Bajiquan grandmaster Wu Lianzhi (吴连枝), which gave a fascinating view of the life of a person who inspired Yu Suzuki in his creations of the Virtua Fighter and Shenmue series.
Through the documentary, one learns of how Wu grew up in Meng Cun as a youngster gifted in martial arts, but often got involved with fights at school and broke the family code. Later on the show explained how he (and indeed his ancestors) did not initially earn a living through Bajiquan, but a tragic event thrust him into the martial arts world spotlight, ending with him carrying the burden of passing down the Baji style onto the next generations. Finally as his tireless efforts began to pay off, a chance meeting with Yu Suzuki gave him the chance to travel abroad, and his name soon spread throughout the world.
Back in 2019, I discovered in Shenmue something truly special and mind-blowing to myself that again proved that Shenmue is more than just a game. Admiring its breath-taking detail led me to discover a seasonal change that only a handful of people would ever realistically discover. In Japan, at the turn of spring cherry blossom season springs into life, bringing picturesque cherry trees into bloom with their sakura blossoms that are certainly a showstopper. And this is also the case in the game, with the Hazuki Residence’s Cherry Tree going through a gradual transformation over a number of weeks, as blossoms begin to bloom, eventually leading to a spectacular display.
The petals then start to fall, leaving them scattered on the ground, another fantastic detail.
This whole process can be considered a bit of a metaphor it seems, as Ryo is warned of time running out on his quest just before the blossoms start to dwindle - “When the cherry blossoms fall, the dragon shall descend on you” - and when the tree’s life cycle is finished so is Ryo’s, as Lan Di returns to the Dojo with the knowledge of the second mirror; in the process dealing Ryo the same devastating blow he performed on Ryo’s father at the start of the game and taking the Phoenix Mirror. This scene makes a point of showing the Cherry Tree at the end of its life cycle.
This date in the game is around the middle of April, a time which only an extremely… extremely… extremely slow player would reach - or someone deliberately taking advantage of the day skip (even doing this, the player would need to halt the day skips and continue to waste a day at a time as the tree reaches its full bloom).
The above information may not be new to you diehard Shenmue fans out there today - but over the last week, whilst working on the next release of the Suka Pass app with Switch, I had a bit of an epiphany that I’m looking forward to sharing with you today. I would love to hear your opinions!
Welcome to the third and final part of Daniel Mann's scanlation of a manga about the early days of the legendary games creator Yu Suzuki. The original was published in 2019 by DenFamiNicoGamer,
In this part of the interview, Yu Suzuki talks about how Virtua Fighter evolved, and paved the way for the development of Shenmue. The manga ends with a tribute to the legend that is Yu Suzuki.
Part Two of Daniel Mann's scanlation of a manga that was originally published in 2019 by DenFamiNicoGamer, about the early days of the legendary games creator Yu Suzuki.
Thanks to Daniel for making this fun manga about Yu Suzuki's life accessible to English-speaking fans!
In this part of the interview, Yu Suzuki talks about the first supervisor he had at Sega, the first game he wrote (Champion Boxing), the realism of his hit game Hang-On and more.
We welcome back guest contributor Daniel Mann, who has produced a fantastic scanlation of a manga that was originally published in 2019 by DenFamiNicoGamer, about the early days of the father of Shenmue and numerous revolutionary games: Yu Suzuki.
Many thanks to Daniel for making this fun manga about Yu Suzuki's life accessible to English-speaking fans!
This is the first installation of a three-part series. (Note: the manga panels read right to left).
-Switch
In “Waka-Ge no Itari: Game Creator no Seishun” (The Youth of Game Creators), Keiichi Tanaka takes us on a journey through the passionate, youthful and excessive memories of the game creators who struggled mightily during the youthful years of the gaming industry (1980-1990).
For our 20th edition, this week we welcome an icon in the gaming industry: the one and only Yu Suzuki. He created a number of iconic titles in the 1980s before going on to pioneer the 3D fighting game with Virtua Fighter in 1993. He is also the general director of Shenmue III, the long awaited third installment in the popular video game series, which is set for release this November (2019). He is without question a legend in the video game industry.
In this interview, Yu Suzuki reminisces with us about his childhood and his love for handicrafts, his days in college, his early years at SEGA and much, much more.
Segalacious is back again with a new post, this time an analysis of the background of Yamagishi-san and some intriguing ties to Virtua Fighter lore!
-Switch
In terms of its history and lore, there is more to Shenmue than meets the eye. Though it retains its own distinct identity as a stand-alone series, Shenmue’s shared history with Virtua Fighter means that its world will forever be inextricably tied to the same backdrop as Sega’s greatest fighting game franchise. Like the Yin and Yang of traditional Chinese philosophy, no full understanding of one can be obtained at the expense or deficit of the other.
Just as an unassuming character like Shigeo Yamagishi once taught Ryo the secret of Yin and Yang, a look below the surface of this character’s past reveals insights that deepen one’s understanding of both Shenmue and Virtua Fighter to such an extent that neither can be looked at in the same way ever again. Prepare for a glimpse into the heart of each series’ deepest lore. Let’s get into it!
Just as Yamagishi-san taught Ryo the secret of Yin and Yang, his past holds the key to some of the deepest lore shared by both Shenmue and Virtua Fighter.
It is a great pleasure to welcome Segalacious to the blog for the first time with an intriguing theory post on the ever-mysterious White Leaf! Over to Segalacious.
-Switch
Shenmue’s universe is one steeped in mystery and intrigue. Secrets regarding the martial arts as well as the secrets of history linger just beyond the reach of Ryo, and therefore the player, every step of his quest for revenge as he walks the path of destiny. Most enigmatic of all is Ryo’s father, Iwao, whose shrouded past contains not only a closet of skeletons, but apparently an entire basement full of them as well. During Ryo’s search for the Phoenix mirror in said basement, he discovers a white leaf inside of an old Chinese zodiac book. After commenting with surprise that the leaf is not even dry, Ryo places it in his inventory where it has remained without another reference and, seemingly, without purpose for the entirety of Shenmue II and III.
In his eternal search for answers, finding this item probably didn’t provide Ryo much re-leaf.
That this leaf remains to this day in Ryo’s inventory suggests that it must have some kind of significance to Shenmue’s story down the road. Is it simply to foreshadow Ryo’s leaf catching training in Wanchai’s Man Mo Temple, a tasty herb meant to be used for tea, or something more? Put on your tinfoil hats, Friendmues, because it’s time for a Shenmue Theory. Let’s get into it!
Hi everyone! It's been a little while (again...sorry about that), but I'm back with another Shenmue 3 post. Thanks, once again, to Switch for graciously providing the opportunity to share with you! As I did previously for Martial Hall in Bailu Village, today I'm going to take a deep dive into who the name plaques posted on the ranking boards at Wu Shen Hall represent.
If you missed my previous Niaowu Confidential post highlighting Ma Jialing, you can find it here:
The Wu Shen rankings initially present a somewhat more daunting task than did those at Martial Hall due mainly to the addition of 5 extra Duan rankings, and a higher number of name plaques per rank. Also to be contended with are the greater size of Niaowu in general over Bailu and the lack of a convenient in-game way to translate those name plaques (à la Man Yuan Temple).
Nevertheless there is a logic to who is included here that makes it much easier to handle than you might think. First, we do still have all of the trainee monks occupying the left-most positions at each rank. Second, it turns out that the Rose Garden fighters are also all ranked members of Wu Shen Hall! This effectively cuts the number of not easily translatable names in half.
The first curious thing to mention is that Wu Shen instructor, Hu Guitong, is not actually listed on the boards at all! Very strange....
Hu Guitong is not listed... what's the deal with that?
Without further ado, let's start with the board on the left wall (the master and novice board):
A vast amount of merchandise has been produced for the Shenmue series since its release on the Dreamcast in Japan back in 1998. As an avid Shenmue collector, it used to surprise me, but now I have more of a shocked feeling that SEGA and various other companies have released such an incredible amount of items for a game series that is seemingly considered "niche".
People are often quick to attack the total cost of the original games as setting world records for the most expensive games every created. However, if you take into account all the merchandise that came with the marketing that Shenmue had, from small video game shop events to huge-scale events such as E3 and TGS (not to mention its own special events) and with batches of new items being added quite often to this day, some of those original "losses" must have been recouped by now!
In this post I'd like to take a more specific look at all of the clothing items that have been released and sold since 1998.
After reading this post, the next time you see a tweet from SEGA asking fans what Shenmue merchandise they would like to see next, and someone inevitably chimes in thinking they have an original idea for a "Ryo Hazuki jacket"... you'll be able to let them know that there have already been 6 (and technically more)!
I'm going to go through everything that I am aware of (and for the most part, own myself), in chronological time order.
Let's begin with the aforementioned Ryo Hazuki jackets!
JACKETS
[2001] SEGA Promotional Jackets
For the sake of completeness, let's start by mentioning the jackets that were created by SEGA for their promotion of Shenmue 2 in 2001. This is the technicality mentioned above about the number of jackets made to date.
Japanese voice actor Masaya Matsukaze wore one at events such as the AM2 Summer Festival, and in a mock "television commercial" promo video for Shenmue II.
Masaya Matsukaze wearing Ryo's jacket at the AM2 Summer Festival event in 2001
The jacket also made an appearance in a mock "television commercial" for Shenmue II
Hello and welcome to Part I of Niaowu Confidential! Thanks again to Switch for the opportunity to post at Phantom River Stone!
If you missed my earlier series, 'Bailu Village Secrets', Part I is here.
Today I'd like to delve into a character that pretty much every player will be familiar with, but who makes her presence felt around town in some intriguing and non-obvious ways, Ma Jialing!
Jialing in her element
Yu Suzuki, in a production interview for Shenmue III, has stated that Jialing is one of his favorite NPCs in the game. At one point he mentions her as one of the 'Three Beauties of Niaowu' - a group of three women who each have a secret customer phone card somewhere in town!
Jialing's secret phone card
See here for Switch's excellent post translating the interview:
The first thing new players are likely to notice upon entering Hotel Niaowu for the first time are the hair curlers. Jialing has a perpetual rainbow of large curlers twisting her dark hair; how that doesn't hurt like crazy after a few minutes I have no idea. Otherwise, Jialing dresses for comfort in slippers, a loose floral skirt, and a bright red cardigan. It's a very motherly vibe all in all, and that sense only increases when first confronted with her blunt, no-nonsense demeanor. Jialing feels like an homage to the popular 'badass landlady' character trope seen in old kung-fu movies (think 'Kung-Fu Hustle).
In this Kowloon Exploration series, we have been examining the variety of furniture and other objects that fills the rooms of Kowloon's skyscrapers in Shenmue 2. All screenshots were taken by Jcgamer who carried out a thorough investigation of each room, capturing and cataloging everything found.
This post is the final part of the series, and we've saved some special items for last!
As well as rounding off our survey of more common items that can be found in multiple locations (Bags, Containers, Vases and Miscellaneous) we'll also present some rarer ones that can be found in only a few rooms - including revealing the location of the legendary revolver!
Category: Bags & Cases
Among the items In this first category, Bags & Cases, are a business-style case, hard-shell travel suitcases, a ladies' handbag and even a dubious-looking bag that looks perfect for holding bundles of cash.
Throughout the last two posts I've been dropping what I hope were enticing hints about one of my absolute favorite characters in Shenmue III, Kong Mei. Now the time has finally arrived for a deep dive into a life that's taken many fascinating (and easily missable) turns!
A Kindly Shop Owner (or A Prickly Granny)
A view of Panda Market at night
Panda Market becomes accessible fairly early in the story when Ryo is tasked with tracking down the stone mason, Ke Junhao, and it's about the closest thing to a bustling downtown as you'll find in Bailu. Depending on the time of day, Ryo can encounter different villagers going to and fro as they shop at the fruit stand, take in the savory aroma of steamed buns, and line up in front of the Bai Jiu Stand (seriously, Su Hong must be doing gangbusters).
Welcome to part 3 in this series on the "magic rooms" to be found within Kowloon's skyscrapers in Shenmue 2, in which we present the findings made by Jcgamer who has thoroughly explored the Kowloon rooms and taken screenshots of all the individual items found inside, and finally carefully sorted these into categories for our enjoyment!
The previous parts revealed the great variety the developers put into populating the rooms:
Today we turn our attention to the categories of Electrical Appliances, Bottles, Ceiling Fans & Light Fittings and House Plants.
Category: Appliances
The main types of electrical appliances to be found in the rooms are television sets and refrigerators.
The fridges show the greatest variation, with different colors (white, green, red, yellow), sizes (full-size, half-size) and doors (one-door and two-door styles). The family photos taped to the front of one of the fridges are a nice touch.
The variation in the TVs is more limited, with some having cabinet doors underneath, but only a single style of set to be seen.
Hello again everyone and welcome to part two of Bailu Village Secrets! If you missed it, in part 1 we took a look at the ema housed in Man Yuan Temple and the stories they tell about the village and its inhabitants.
Today I want to focus on Martial Hall. Situated on a picturesque overlook with a gorgeous view of the Verdant Bridge, Martial Hall is the first building Ryo encounters in his descent from Shenhua's home down into Bailu proper. Here Ryo can practice his horse stance and one-inch punch on the wooden training dummies out front and polish his fighting techniques by either sparring with or challenging the five resident monks.
Five Tigers
Ryo starts out unranked and must defeat each monk in turn - from Red Tiger at 1st duan to Gold Tiger who stands alone at 5th duan – if he wants to reach the top of the rankings posted on the dojo wall.
Hello Everyone! First off I'd like to thank Switch for the opportunity to post on Phantom River Stone and to share this with you all!
This is going to be the first in a series of posts examining Bailu Village in detail. Shenmue 3 depicts Shenhua's childhood home as an idyllic, rural, mountain community with a long history; one in which just about everyone knows everyone else, and nothing much changes day to day. It's a small wonder then that the coinciding events of the attacks on the village stonemasons and the arrival of Ryo Hazuki is of such keen (if wary at first) interest to just about everybody.
One of the key features that made Shenmue so distinct when it first released was the fact that Ryo could talk to every NPC he came across. These NPCs often had unique ways of responding to Ryo that made them feel like real people with lives beyond their relevance to Ryo's journey. Shenmue 3 by and large continues this tradition. In Bailu alone every villager that Ryo can speak to (which is the vast majority of them) seems to have a unique response to almost every single topic of investigation. Often these unique responses shed light on the villagers themselves, their relationships with each other, and their life aspirations.
In addition to conversing with the locals themselves, a number of physical locations throughout the village reveal even more details about its inhabitants; some of which are very easy to miss on a standard play through. It is these locations that I'm going to focus on starting today with Man Yuan Temple – and in particular the racks of wooden wishing plaques, known as ema, inside.
The History of Ema
The tradition of hanging prayer ema is actually a Japanese custom with historical roots in Shintoism. In the Nara period in Japan (AD 710 – 794) worshipers would donate horses as offerings to shrines in the hope that since the horse was revered as the vehicle of the gods (kami), the kami would be more likely to listen and answer the worshipers' prayers. Horses were prohibitively expensive for most Japanese people of that era however, and over time clay and wooden sculptures came to be used. These sculptures in turn evolved into wooden plaques with a picture (e) of a horse (ma).
Following on from Part One of this series (Furniture, Sinks & Benches), we continue with Jcgamer's exploration of the various objects to be found in the maze of "magic rooms" to be found within Kowloon's skyscrapers in Shenmue 2.
Today's post covers several more categories including Wall Hangings, Clothing and Dolls.
Category: Calligraphy
Some of the residents of Kowloon Walled City have tried to bring a little elegance to the general filth and grubbiness by displaying framed calligraphy on the walls of their rooms.
Below are four pieces of calligraphy artwork found.
Calligraphy
These are written with traditional Chinese characters.
yuc02has kindly provided some possible interpretations of the characters and their meanings below:
Calligraphy #1:
The overall meaning is not clear, but the first two characters 典君 ("Dian Jun") may refer to the name of an extremely powerful bodyguard of Cao Cao, one of the 3 kingdom leaders in the Chinese historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The bodyguard's name was Dian Wei. In olden times people addressed each other by adding 君 ("Jun") as an honorific.
Calligraphy #2:
The characters resemble 圣贤书 which is the name for a collection of textbooks by Kongzi (Confucious) and Mengzi (Mencius).
Calligraphy #3:
These characters appear to be 高阁才人 which literally have the meaning of a female official of a traditional dynasty, in a high-rise building.
Calligraphy #4
Written in traditional Chinese characters, this means "shielding against wind and rain".
The depiction of Kowloon in Shenmue II is memorable for its sheer scale and size, with a number of high rise buildings soaring up to the sky. Even more remarkably, especially for the time the game was made, is that a great portion of the rabbit-warren of rooms inside the buildings are actually accessible to the player, even if visiting them is not required to advance the game's story.
With Yu Suzuki's typical attention to detail, these extra "filler" rooms were not simply left empty, but were filled with all kinds of dilapidated furniture and various small items that evoke a lived-in feeling.
Long-time Phantom River Stone patron Jcgamer has undertaken a room exploration marathon to screenshot and catalog the wide variety of objects to be found in these Kowloon rooms, and in today's post we present Part One of his findings, which will continue across a number of posts.
Browsing these is sure to give an appreciation for the effort the development team put into crafting realistic-looking rooms that many players may pass by perhaps without even realizing the possibility of glancing inside. Become a Patron!
Today's guest post is by Hiki, and introduces a traditional Chinese item for maintaining dexterity that features some familiar motifs.
Today I want to show something really interesting. I want to show you Baoding Balls or Healthy Balls.
My mother died in 2017, and these Healthy Balls was hers. Today I was looking at the balls and reading the instruction paper and I saw that this may have a connection with Shenmue. In my opinion, perhaps the Baoding Balls were the inspiration for Yu Suzuki to create the Dragon Mirror and Phoenix Mirror.
Video:
Synopsis of the Healthy Ball
Being a traditional product of Baoding City, the Healthy Ball is famous throughout China and all over the world.
The history of the Ball can be traced back as early as the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 D), when it first came out. Solid at the beginning, it was used to build up physical strength and to limber up the joints, as well as a tool for self-defense. It remained solid till the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911 A D), when it was fashioned into a hollowed one with a soundboard inside. Since then, the Balls have been handed down from generation to generation.
They are also known as "Double Balls of Roaring Dragon and Singing Phoenix," for two balls are usually manipulated together, sounding different tones.
This is the part that I think has a connection to Shenmue, in my opinion. I think the Baoding Balls were the inspiration for Yu Suzuki to create the Dragon Mirror and the Phoenix Mirror.
I think that this is awesome. The Baoding Balls will be in my Shenmue Collection. I know this is not an item that appears in the games but I think it has a connection with Shenmue.
What do you guys think?
About the Author
Shenmue is my favorite videogame series of all time. Shenmue is so special for me and for many fans around the world, so I decided to create a YouTube channel called Shenmue コレクション (which translates as Shenmue Collection).
I plan to upload everything about Shenmue. I'm not trying to compete with other Shenmue channels, all I want is to create a beautiful collection of Shenmue videos to show my love for Shenmue and to help promote the series.
In this channel you will find Shenmue content of all kinds:, me playing the games, the soundtracks of the games, interviews with Yu Suzuki, me playing Shenmue songs on piano, me talking about Shenmue, me showing my Shenmue collection and much more.
In the word of Iwao Hazuki: "Your friends... Keep friends... Those you love... close to you..."
-Hiki
Thanks to Hiki for the post submission, and it's great to see another channel created in the Shenmue fan community featuring original content - we look forward to performances of Shenmue pieces on the piano! Why not subscribe to Shenmue Collection on YouTube and keep an eye out for more.
If you enjoyed the recent revoicing of Ryo's telephone call with Fuku-san in Shenmue 3 by the original voice actor, Eric Kelso, then don't miss this second treat in the form of a telephone call with Guizhang that has also been revoiced by Eric.
The arrangement of the recording work by Eric and the redubbing of the video was carried out by James Reiner, who comments in the video description: "The BGM and subtitles are done in post edit. I also changed the script a little so it is not canon."
As James alludes to, he has made some changes to the wording compared to the Shenmue 3 lines: the phrasings of the spoken password sequence accurately reflect those from in Shenmue 1, and Guizhang has regained his usual gruff tone and attitude towards Ryo from the first game. Plus - he now makes mention of the accident that befell him at the end of the first game!
It has been amazing to see what has been achieved by fans together with Eric generously giving his time freely to carry out these recordings so we can hear these characters chatting with Ryo just as they sounded in the first game.
We welcome guest contributor Patrick Fuller back to the blog with something special that's sure to bring a smile to the face of players of Shenmue III who have fond memories playing the English dub of the first game.
As a fan, one of my most anticipated features of Shenmue III in the build-up to release was the ability to contact characters from the previous two games with an international phonecard.
However, anyone who has reached the Hotel Niaowu will have noticed that the payphone in the lobby has some technical issues. Long distance calls are fine, but often the people on the other end of the line will sound slightly different than expected.
Rather than wait for Ma Jailing at the front desk to have this fixed, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands.
I met Eric Kelso earlier this year in Japan, and whilst I was too drunk to remember any of it, luckily, he remembers me and has been kind enough to record the script for Ryo’s phone calls with Fuku-san.
For anyone who wants to hear what Ryo’s conversations would sound like with the original voice actor, get ready to bathe in some nostalgia and enjoy the video.
About the author: Patrick (Paddy) Fuller
I’ve been a Shenmue fan since back in 2002 and have not been able to get this series out of my head since. The world has so much depth and presents something new with every playthrough.
![Exploring Kowloon's "Magic Rooms" [Part 3] | Jcgamer](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy1UTKLMIm0ZvZfOQ_S3i_Q7uOLvrqp5p3VWYD46SXYqdPyYURELeO4mhQDITwHV4ZghoAtqtaWBpq8MM0QLG8-sacRDQhDO7FmfJijLsB2A2LYPU2a0uFddJG5wTJEWvZOXMvKJiqaWAP/s1600/title.png "Exploring Kowloon's \"Magic Rooms\" [Part 3] | Jcgamer")
