Detective Ryo: Im on the case! The mystery is really starting to take shape and Ryo is getting deeper and deeper into what lead to his fathers death. Ryo is so enraptured in searching out his fathers killers that he blindly walks into a Travel Agency scam and gives away all his money and Fuku-Sans savings as well. Just so happens the scammers were associated with the exact gang he is trying to track down, WHOOPS. As the player you can see it all happening from a mile away, but Ryo is naive and desperate. Its pretty punishing to walk around town while waiting for the travel agency to open back up and have Ryo ask everyone about the place. Every single person seems to have some anecdote about how AWFUL the travel agency is and that Ryo should avoid it at all costs (too late, whoops).
Mirror Mirror: The other main focus of Disc 2 is tracking down a pair of ancient Mirrors (they look like fancy marble coasters, but I guess thats what mirrors used to look like before … regular mirrors). You have to solve a series of various locks throughout the Dojo and Hazuki residence which eventually leads to Ryo crawling down into a spooky hidden basement. Flashlight in hand its the most survival horror that I recall Shenmue ever getting. Its pretty exciting because its so different from everything else you’ve done in the game so far. Lots of the puzzles are just conversation strings but now you are moving objects and looking for clues hidden within the environment. The game does a good job of peppering different changes of pace throughout to keep you intrigued.
Disc 3???: There is a dramatic conclusion to Disc 2 and I am totally JACKED to put in disc three, but, the brakes get slammed and I skid to a stop. The Dreamcast cant read Disc 3! Disc 2 has been functioning perfectly fine after needing to use a burned CD-R for Disc 1. Ill be doing the same for Disc 3 it seems. This is a documented problem so I am not worried its my 20 year old Dreamcast, but its so confusing why this never happened when I played the game the first time. Thankfully im stuck enough in the past to still have the ability to burn CD-Rs. The journey will have to continue once this burn finishes up!
