Ryo Dies in Shenmue’s Game Over Ending
In the Sega Dreamcast classic, Shenmue, there’s a somewhat hidden “bad ending” in which the game’s protagonist, Ryo Hazuki, is killed by the game’s villain, Lan Di. This “game over” ending is actually pretty well hidden, and I doubt that anyone playing Shenmue with the goal of beating the game ever encountered it naturally. So let me explain how this ending fits in with the rest of the game’s plot, and offer an explanation as to why AM2 might have spent time making this ending in the first place.
Shenmue begins with an opening cinematic that launches the game’s plot and immediately creates the central motivation which will drive Ryo and the player who controls him. The game begins on November 29th, 1986. Ryo arrives home to a confusing disaster. His live-in caretaker Ine-san is lying hurt on the ground, his friend Fuku-san is unceremoniously beaten and tossed out of the family dojo, and Ryo discovers his father, martial artist Iwao Hazuki, in the midst of a showdown with a mysterious man wearing Chinese robes.
It's obvious right away that the mysterious man is dangerous. Iwao sternly commands Ryo to “stay back!” It’s then that the Chinese man demands that Iwao answer a question, “Where is the mirror.” To which Ryo’s dad replies “I’ve no intention of telling you.”
The confrontation instantly turns violent, and Iwao Hazuki is swiftly incapacitated with a deadly martial art. The attacker again demands to know the location of the mirror, and again Iwao refuses. The mysterious man then threatens to murder Ryo, unless Iwao gives him what he wants. Iwao, rather than see his son die, gives up the location of the mirror. Lan Di’s henchmen retrieve it while Lan Di reveals the second purpose of his attack – revenge.
“Do you remember Zhao Sun Ming? That’s the name of the man you killed in Meng Cun.”
Iwao, stunned, replies “It can’t be… you?”
“Get up,” Lan Di brutally commands. “I’ll allow you to die like a warrior.”
The Chinese man kills Ryo’s dad, takes the mirror, and leaves without another word.
At this point in the game, both Ryo and the player know nothing except what we’ve seen in this opening cinematic. That Ryo’s father apparently killed someone some time ago, that there is some sort of mirror that’s important enough to kill for, and that both the mirror and Iwao’s life have been taken by a mysterious man in Chinese robes.
Who is the man who murdered Ryo’s dad? Why did he want the mirror? What does any of it mean, and can Ryo avenge his murdered father? Answering these questions is the primary goal of Shenmue, and by the end of the game we’ve answered many of them.
We soon learn that the man who killed Ryo’s father is named Lan Di, and that he’s the leader of a criminal organization based out of Hong Kong called the Chi You Men.
Later in the game, Ryo discovers more about the mirror from an old compatriot of a friend of Iwao Hazuki, Master Chen. Master Chen tells Ryo that the mysterious mirror is called the Dragon mirror, a legendary artifact which Iwao Hazuki apparently brought back to Japan from China. He says that the mirror has the power to open the gates of heaven and earth, thus resurrecting the Chi You, a world-devouring monster from Chinese folklore. It’s not clear whether this refers to a literal monster, or it’s a metaphor for something else, and even Master Chen admits that he does not know the full extent Lan Di’s plan.
However, and this is critical to the plot of Shenmue and to Shenmue’s “game over ending,” Master Chen reveals that the stolen Dragon mirror is powerless unless it is paired with a second legendary artifact known as the phoenix mirror. Unbeknownst to Ryo and, apparently, to Lan Di, Iwao Hazuki actually possessed both mirrors.
Ryo eventually discovers the location of the second mirror, hidden in a secret basement of the family dojo, retrieves it, and continues his quest for answers and revenge.
Eventually he learns that Lan Di has left the country, and the goal of the game changes from “find answers” to “chase Lan Di.” Ryo learns where Lan Di has fled to, arranges transportation, works a job to raise money for the ticket to Hong Kong, makes some new friends, and defeats some new enemies. Throughout all of this, time in Shenmue never stops. The hours and days and weeks go by, and as time passes there’s a vague pressure that Lan Di will get away.
If we’re playing Shenmue with any sort of ambition to see the ending of the game, we’ll probably finish the story at some point in the in-game month of January, see the credits, and then move on to Shenmue II.
However, if the player doesn’t pursue the goals of the game and somehow manages to run the clock out all the way to April, we see the first hint that there’s a fail state ending to Shenmue.
I should add, in case I’ve not made it clear, that finding this ending is really difficult. I mean… this is really a crazy amount of time, like three or four months of in-game time longer than you need to beat the game on even the most leisurely completionist playthrough. I mean it, genuinely, I can’t imagine anyone taking this long to beat this game. I spent literal weeks of my life just making Ryo stand in his room for days and weeks doing nothing except going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning. And then I had to do it again and again for four months of in-game time. This ending is truly hidden.
Getting back on track.
If Ryo still hasn’t closed in on Lan Di by April 1st, we see our first hint that we’re going to fail. This comes in the form of a dream in which Shen Hua, a girl that has haunted Ryo’s dreams throughout the game, warns him of an approaching ominous enemy. If the player then fails to complete the game in another two weeks of in-game time, we finally see the bad ending on April 15th.
Lan Di has learned of the second mirror, knows that Iwao had it, and returns to finish the job.
I have a couple of ideas as to why this ending may exist. It may, of course, just be a little easter egg inserted into the game on a whim, but more likely it’s there so that the player is forced into working their way through the actual plot of the game in the way that its creators intended.
See, at a certain point in Shenmue, Ryo learns he needs a large sum of money to make the trip to Hong Kong. He earns this money by working in the Yokosuka harbor, and through this work he ends up meeting many people who are integral to the overarching plot of the Shenmue series. The developers obviously want the player to experience all of this, because to skip this money-making phase of Shenmue would ruin the game. But Ryo working in the harbor isn’t the only way that Ryo can make money in the game.
Ryo receives a daily allowance of 500 Yen. He receives this money no matter what, at the start of every day. So, hypothetically, it would be possible for Ryo to just lounge around at home and spend no money until he’d amassed enough free Yen to buy the ticket to Hong Kong. By doing this, Ryo could spend a year or more just amassing money and completely skip the entire third disc of the game. This would be game-breaking.
So it’s possible that this bad ending was made to force progression in the game, so that Ryo and the player have a hard deadline. You must find your way by April 15th, or you lose the game and Ryo dies.
I’ve no idea if this is the actual reason that this ending exists, but I’m glad that it does. It’s another tiny detail in a masterpiece of a game that’s bursting with tiny details.