In our recent lore-related posts, we carried out a detailed examination of the lore surrounding the Mirrors, and all the various events, beliefs, clues and motivations surrounding them that we as players have learned (along with Ryo) during the first three Shenmue games. These were also covered in depth by SkillJim in his stream for the Shenmue Dojo channel (which are linked at the end of each post).
- Mirror Lore & Celestial Connections in Shenmue | Part One
- Mirror Lore & Celestial Connections in Shenmue | Part Two
Mind Map:
As a summary of what was covered in these posts, and to make it easier to visualize how the various pieces of the puzzle fit together, here is the complete "mind map" diagram illustrating how these concepts relate to each other.
The diagram can be seen as a preview below.
There is also this direct link to the image for easier viewing and zooming. It has been saved as a high resolution image to retain the text detail, and will require zooming in close!
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| Mirror Lore Mind Map |
A few elements have been highlighted in yellow on the diagram as they represent some of the core recurring themes seen in Shenmue: the Prophecy that Shenhua recites, the symbolism of the Dragon and the Phoenix together with the Mirrors, and the mysterious "Treasure" they may point to whose nature is unknown.
Thank you! This mind map helps to connect some of the details of the lore that I was a bit fuzzy about, even having played the games a few times.
ReplyDeleteGlad it's helpful!
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