Special Items in Kowloon's "Magic Rooms" | Exploration Series Final Part | Jcgamer

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.

Links to the previous parts:

• Part One: Furniture, Sinks & Benches
• Part Two: Wall Hangings, Clothing and Dolls
• Part Three: Appliances, Bottles, Ceiling Fans & Plants

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.

Category: Containers

Containers of all shapes and sizes can be found scattered throughout the rooms: kerosene containers for stoves, gas bottles and trash cans. As seen before, some of the objects in this section share the same three-dimensional models with color variations.

Category: Large Vases & Pots

A collection of rather substantial vases and pots. Their size is impressive - some even tower higher than a television!

Category: Miscellaneous

This category holds several items that didn't fit into one of the previous categories:

• Ash tray, packet of cigarettes
• A box of tissues - SEGA brand, of course.
• A cardboard box: the Chinese characters on the side identify it as washing powder.
• A piece of wood :a strangely-twisted piece wood.
• A pile of wood: left over from a construction job, perhaps?

The cigarette packet is actually a little Easter egg of sorts, in much the same way as the one that could be found in the new Warehouse #8 in Shenmue I.

In the first game, the packet of cigarettes was marked with the word KATANA, as a nod to one of the early working names of the Dreamcast console.

Here in the second game, the packet has the characters 弐研 ("Niken" in Japanese). This is an abbreviation for Dai-Ni AM Kenkyu Kaihatsubu = AM Research & Development No. 2, better known as AM2 - the development group that Yu Suzuki headed during the development of Shenmue.

Along the top of the packet are some words which might just be "SEGA CIGARETTES".

Cigarette packet in Shenmue II

Cigarette packet in Shenmue I

A large straw hat on a table conjures up an image of sunny open spaces, contrasting with the drab interior.

Straw hat

A cylindrical holder contains three sticks of incense or something similar. (It is also an interesting case of texture reuse: it appears the developers have used the same texture for the container as for each of the sticks, stretched out or compressed appropriately to fit each shape).

Incense sticks

A rather endearing toy dog.

Toy dog

A box for what looks to be a children's toy model plane. The Chinese characters on the front read vertically 飛行機 = airplane (the illustration kind of looks like one if you squint!),

Toy airplane box

Rare Objects

In this final section are the rare objects, those items that are found in only a handful of the rooms.

Shogi Game Board

A wooden game table, with a 9x9 grid marked out on the top, suitable for playing Shogi (Japanese chess). You may recognize a similar board that could be found in the first Shenmue game, in Iwao's room.

Shogi board in Kowloon (left) and an image of a Shogi game in progress (right).

Side-note: the game of Go is also played with a similar grid, typically with a 19x19 layout although with smaller grid sizes of 9x9 and 13x13 also seen.


SEGA Mark III

Just as Shenmue I had the Saturn console, in Shenmue II Ryo is able to discover a SEGA Mark III - although this one is not playable! This was an early home console that was released in Japan in 1985, and rebranded for North America as the Master System the following year.

SEGA Mark III as seen in the Shenmue II (left) vs the real thing (right)

Silver Pistol & Machine Gun Toys

The boxes for two types of toy guns can be found. One is a silver pistol, and the other a machine gun.

Toy pistol

Toy machine gun (or "MACSINGUN" as the cover would have it)

These are not new to Ryo however, as they can be found in stock at the Abe Store in the first game.

Toy guns at the Abe Store in Shenmue I

Revolver

This last item, the revolver, is one that hints at the seedy underbelly of Kowloon, and is also the rarest item of all, being found in only two rooms, namely rooms 1003 and 1203 of the Black Heaven Building. However Ryo is not tempted - it is not possible for him to interact with it in any way.

Revolver

Where to Find the Rare Objects

Jcgamer's handy chart below reveals the exact locations of the Rare Objects (click to enlarge).

Final Comment

Many thanks to Jcgamer for his research and investigation into this topic. We hope you enjoyed this journey through the "magic rooms" of  Kowloon. If you feel inspired, why not go exploring and locate some of the items yourself?

About the Author

"I played Shenmue when it was first released on the Dreamcast here in Canada back in 1999 and it is one of my most fondest Christmas gifts. All these years later after shedding tears of joy over the Shenmue III announcement I am learning Japanese and still playing Shenmue 1 & 2 which I consider to be one of the most unique gaming experiences out there. I consider it something that transcends both games and movies in terms of immersion."
- JCgamer

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