With Shenmue 3 right around the corner, we here at Suggestive Gaming figured now would be the perfect time to take a look back at the story so far to get everyone up to speed. Before we begin, however, we do ask that you consider supporting us on Patreon. I played through these games myself on stream in preparation for this video over the course of over a month.
And with YouTube constantly changing what they do and don’t monetize, your support would greatly help to get more of these videos out, and more frequently. We do understand if you can’t, so just hit that subscribe button and turn on notifications so you can be a part of the Dram Team and watch live as we play through all these games. Without further ado, this is What You Need to Know about Shenmue.
Our story begins in 1986 where our protagonist, Ryo Hazuki, is returning home to his family dojo in Yokosuka, Japan. There, he discovers his father, Iwao, engaged in a battle with a man in Chinese garb named Lan Di. Lan Di demands that Iwao reveal the location of something called the “Drgon Mirror”, but he refuses.
Ryo attempts to intervene, but is overpowered by Lan Di, who then threatens to kill him. This causes Iwao to give up the location of the Drgon Mirror: under the cherry tree outside. As Lan Di’s men go to retrieve the mirror, he asks Iwao about a man named Sunming Zhao; whom he claims Iwao killed in Mengcun.
He then tells Iwao to stand up, so he can “die like a warrior”. Lan Di quickly finishes Iwao off with a powerful strike, just as his men arrive with the Drgon Mirror. They then exit, leaving Iwao to die in Ryo’s arms.
After resting from his wounds, Ryo, fueled by vengeance, sets off to find the man who killed his father. After asking around town about what his neighbors saw the day of the attack, Ryo ends up with no leads, and more importantly, no closer to finding Lan Di. However, as he returns home, he finds a letter addressed to his father from a Chinese man named Yuanda Zhu.
After having the letter translated, Ryo discovers that Zhu was warning Iwao about “those who pursue the mirrors” and sought to have him meet with a Master Chen for assistance. Ryo goes to the harbor to meet Master Chen and his son, Guizhang. Chen informs Ryo that another mirror, the Phoenix Mirror, also exists, and that he needs to prevent Lan Di from obtaining it at all costs.
Ryo returns home and finds a secret room under the family dojo, where he is able to locate and obtain the Phoenix Mirror. By visiting various elders in the town, Ryo learns more about the mirror, notably that a sculptor from Guilin was ordered by an emperor of China in ancient times to engrave a “guardian” of the “sky lord”, symbolic of the North Star, onto a stone mirror. These guardians are the Drgon and the Phoenix, two legendary creatures in China, and the two mirrors are believed to compliment each other with the properties of Yin and Yang.
After returning to Chen, Ryo learns that Lan Di has gone to China. With help from his childhood friend and love interest, Nozomi Harasaki, Ryo gets the idea to take a boat to China, and heads to a not-so-reputable travel agency to buy a ticket. However, as he attempts to retrieve the ticket, Ryo is attacked by a man named Chai, a low-ranking member of the “Chi You Men” criminal organization that is led in part by Lan Di.
Chai takes Ryo’s ticket and destroys it. Afterwards, Ryo goes back to the travel agency to get some answers, where he learns that the Chi You Men have ties to the local “Mad Angels” biker gang, who mostly deal at the docks. After taking a job at the docks driving a forklift, which in turn leads to some.
. . extracurricular activities.
. . Ryo begins to investigate the Mad Angels.
However, after angering the gang, they kidnap Nozomi, and make a deal with Ryo to release her and lead him to Lan Di if he takes out Guizhang. Ryo meets with Guizhang to stage a fight, but it turns out to be an ambush, and the two fight side-by-side to defeat the Mad Angels. Afterwards, Master Chen, sensing Ryo’s purpose now surpasses simply anger and vengeance, arranges for Ryo and Guizhang to take one of the family business’ boats to Hong Kong.
However, as they are about to leave, Chai ambushes them once again. Ryo is able to defeat him and kick him into the water, but Guizhang is unable to travel due to the injury sustained in the attack. Master Chen arrives and tells Ryo to seek the help of a martial artist named Lishao Tao; and he then boards the ship to Hong Kong alone.
— Shenmue: Side Story — On the night before arriving in Hong Kong, Ryo discovers that Chai had actually stowed away on the boat, and kidnapped a little girl to lure him. On the deck of the ship, the two fight once more, with Ryo throwing Chai into the water again. The girl is reunited with her mother, who thanks Ryo once they are back on land.
Ryo then sets off to find leads to locate Lishao Tao. On his way, he meets a girl on a motorcycle named Joy who helps him get familiar with the area, but shortly after he is swindled by a young boy named Wong, who steals his bag, containing all of his money and the Phoenix Mirror. Ryo is able to find Wong and retrieve his bag and begin his search for Lishao Tao.
This leads him to the Man Mo Temple, where a monk named Hanhui Liu informs him that he will be able to meet the master once he learns the four aspects true Martial Arts, the Wude. At some point during this time, Joy calls Guizhang, whom she has known since he helped rescue her from a kidnapping plot when she was a child, and informs him that she has met and taken a liking to a “samurai type”, but clarifies that it is nothing serious. After meeting with various Martial Artists in Hong Kong, Ryo finally meets Lishao Tao, who is a young woman named Xiuying Hong.
Ryo then spends the next few days working for her and her young assistant, Fangmei Xun, at the Temple. While at the Temple, Ryo discovers a book called Wulinshu, written by Yuanda Zhu (the man who tried to warn Ryo’s father of his attackers) inside the book, he recognizes a name: Sunming Zhao, the man Lan Di claimed his father murdered. He also finds a piece of paper containing a secret “sign” that Ryo can make with tea cups at the nearby shops to communicate with associates of Zhu’s.
Later, Ryo learns from Fangmei that Xiuying was raised in an orphanage with her older brother, Ziming, who left her one day to join the Chi You Men in hopes to find who was responsible for their own parents’ murder. After that, she never saw him again. Ryo then tries the sign a found at various tea shops, eventually meeting Shuqin Zhang, who tells him to meet later that night.
At the meeting; however, members of the Chi You Men-connected “Yellow Heads” gang arrive and kidnap Zhang. Ryo follows them and saves Zhang from his kidnappers, meeting a high-ranking member of the gang, Yuan, in the process. Zhang then reveals that even he does not know where Yuanda Zhu is currently hiding, and tells him to find a man named Wuying Ren who may know his whereabouts.
Ren, as it turns out, is the leader of the gang “The Heavens” who stole Ryo’s bag when he first arrived in Hong Kong. After investigating the gang, Ryo is ambushed by them, but is rescued by Wong, who gives him shelter and helps him find Ren by giving them a Zippo lighter with the Heavens’ insignia on it. Using the lighter and a bribe, Ryo eventually secures a meeting with Ren, who agrees to take him to a deal involving the Yellow Heads.
However, during the deal, Ren escapes with the money, leaving Ryo to deal with the angered Yellow Heads. With help from Wong and Joy, Ryo finds Ren and the Heavens. Ren actually agrees to help Ryo find Zhu, but with the condition that he can catch him.
Ren runs off, and Ryo chases him to the roof of a nearby building. The two then fall off the building onto the back of a van, where the Phoenix Mirror falls out of Ryo’s pocket. Ren spots the mirror and asks about why Ryo is looking for Zhu.
Ryo explains his motives, and Ren, now believing there’s money to be made in helping him, tells Ryo to meet him in the nearby city of Kowloon. Ryo then goes to say his goodbyes to the new friends he made along the way, and has a discussion with Xiuying, who warns him to not become like her brother, who sold his soul for vengeance. In Kowloon, Ren arranges a meetup with Zhu through one of his former associates, however, this turns out to be a setup, and the two are lead to the Yellow Heads’ leader, Dou Niu.
The two are knocked out, handcuffed together, and thrown in a cell. When they awaken, they are able to work together to escape and make their way back to Ren’s hideout. There, Wong helps remove the handcuffs, and Joy arrives in Kowloon to assist the two as well as scold them for not saying goodbye.
Ryo and Ren interrogate Zhu’s associate who set them up, and he leads them to a wiretapper named Huang. Ryo goes to his room and steals a bin of cassette tapes which Ryo and Ren listen through. In the tapes, they hear a conversation with Yuan and Dou Niu in which Yuan reveals she had captured one of Zhu’s men to get information on his whereabouts.
Ryo and Ren track down Yuan and rescue her captive, Zhang. Back at their hideout, Zhang leads Ryo to a nearby building where he and Ren find Yuanda Zhu. However, shortly after their introductions, Yuan, Dou Niu, and the Yellow Heads arrive and kidnap Zhu.
After a short battle outside, Dou Niu overpowers Ryo, but he is saved by Xiuying, who takes him to recover at a nearby chapel, where she once again warns him to not follow his path of revenge. Ryo ignores her warning once again and returns to Ren’s hideout, where Joy informs them that Zhu is being held in the Yellow Head Building. Ryo finds the place heavily guarded, but he is soon met by his father’s old friend and martial arts partner Kai, who informs Ryo that if he impresses a scout for the Yellow Heads by winning street fights, he may be able to infiltrate the group.
After impressing the scout by defeating various high-profile fighters, Ryo meets him underground, where the entrance to the Yellow Head Building is revealed. Ren arrives and knocks out the scout, and the two enter the building with a little help from Wong. The pair make their way to the 17th floor, where they fight and defeat Yuan, who reveals that Zhu is on the 40th floor of the building.
Continuing their way up, the two learn that Joy and Wong have been captured. Ryo fights a mysterious martial artist named Master Baihu, who like Lan Di, practices the deadly Tiger Swallow style. He defeats him to free Joy.
On the roof, the three find Wong, being held by Dou Niu. They also find Zhu, being led to a helicopter containing none other than Lan Di himself. Joy and Ren are able to retrieve Zhu, and Ryo fights Dou Niu one last time, finally defeating him while Lan Di observes the whole thing.
Afterwards, Lan Di’s helicopter flies off, and the group take Yuanda Zhu back to their hideout. There, Ryo tells Zhu that Lan Di killed his father, and asks him why. Zhu explains that like Ryo, Lan Di was out for revenge after Iwao killed his father, Sunming Zhao.
Ryo can not believe that his father could kill, and Zhu agrees, but knows that Sunming Zhao died, and Iwao returned to Japan with his mirrors. Zhu then explains that when the mirrors are brought together, the two form a key to unlock the treasures that were hidden away to restore the Qing Dynasty. Zhu then advises Ryo to continue his search in the Bailu Village in the remote city of Guilin, as that’s where the descendents of the mirror live.
It is also where Lan Di is headed. Ryo says his goodbyes to his newly made friends, including Xiuying, who gives him her half of a Yin Yang pendant given to her by her brother as children, leaving him with one final warning not to fall into the same hatred he did. In Guilin, Ryo finds a girl attempting to rescue a drowning deer.
He saves her and she introduces herself as Shenhua Ling. Shenhua, who had previously appeared in Ryo’s dreams, reveals that she is from Bailu Village, and agrees to take Ryo back. Once at the village, Shenhua shows Ryo the Shenmue tree, whose flowers she was named after by her adoptive parents.
Ryo admits that he feels as if the Shenmue tree has a spirit, one that he has known for a long time. Shenhua agrees, remarking that she has felt this way since she was a child. At her home, Ryo discovers that Shenhua’s family is connected to the creation of the mirrors.
Shenhua, figuring her father would know more about the mirrors, offers to take Ryo to the stone pit, where he has been working for days to finish something. On their way to the stone pit, Shenhua notices that there are no birds along the path. Sensing something wrong, the two head quickly to the stone pit, where they find no signs of her father.
Instead, they find an open door that leads to a cavern where they find a note written by Shenhua’s father claiming his “work is done” and the “time of destiny has come”. He leaves her a family heirloom: the “Sword of Seven Stars”, and tells her to go with the “one who holds the phoenix” to “find the proof”. Ryo places the sword in a pedestal, which reveals another in which he places the Phoenix Mirror.
The two then combine to shoot a beam of light that sets off a contraption revealing two giant depictions of the Drgon and Phoenix Mirrors. Shenhua then recites a prophecy that foretold their meeting, and the two look to the giant depictions. As they realize their paths were destined to cross, we see our final glimpse of the Shenmue story… at least for now.
Hey everybody, thank you so much for watching this video, and as always please remember to like, subscribe for more great gaming content, and leave a comment suggesting what you’d like us to cover. Huge thanks to Ben, AKA “ArmBreakFire” for his help in writing the script, and we’d also like to thank our current Patrons for making this possible: Stephen Castaneda, T. U.
M.
