I remember reading about Shenmue (AM2 of CRI, Sega, 2000) in the magazines back in the day and really marveling at how cool it all sounded- a revenge/investigation story, a town with characters that live their own lives outside of interacting with you, life in small-town Japan...but I didn't have a Dreamcast, so I never got to play it and eventually forgot about it as everyone else seemed to move on too. But over the past 5 years, I've also become a huge fan of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series, and I eventually decided it was finally time to play Shenmue. Listen in to the discussion to hear what we think! Guest info: Luis Aguasvivas. Find his writing and games criticism at https://aguaspoints.com/ and more at https://linktr.ee/laguav TIMESTAMPS Intros/Personal Histories/Opening Thoughts 0:22 Story Setup/Setting 14:37 Gameplay/Closing Thoughts 39:51 SPOILER WALL/Thank Yous 1:16:24 Music used in the episode Shenmue - Sedge Tree (Takenobu Mitsuyoshi) Hip De Hop (Yuzo Koshiro) Working Man (Osamu Murata) Hazuki Residence (Takenobu Mitsuyoshi) Tears of Separation (Ryuji Iuchi) Check out Dave's appearance on 1 Hour, 1 Decision talking about the first hour of Avowed! https://linktr.ee/tc1h1d Support Tales from the Backlog on Patreon! or buy me a coffee on Ko-fi! Join the Tales from the Backlog Discord server! Social Media: Instagram Twitter Facebook Cover art by Jack Allen- find him at https://www.instagram.com/jackallencaricatures/ and his other pages Listen to A Top 3 Podcast on Apple, Spotify and [other podcast platforms](atop3podcast.fireside.fm)! Support Tales from the Backlog