Shenmue II

• When you start the game, spend all your money as soon as you can buying lighters and toys from the first vendors you see.

• You'll need $500 at one point to progress the plot in Hong Kong, and at least $500 for the same reason in Kowloon.

• Earning money in Kowloon is significantly harder then in Hong Kong, so have a comfortable amount saved before leaving the city.

• To quickly earn money find a high/low gambler with a large max bet, then simply save/reload to win every time

• The collectables in the game serve no purpose other then to be sold at pawn shops

• Fangmei has a relatively long, detailed sidequest that is very hard to get. You have to talk to her, or walk by and have her talk to you multiple times, with Ryo giving the 'correct' answers to increase her affection for Ryo, then finding her in certain spots throughout the city at certain times to progress the quest.

• There is much less side content then Shenmue 1, and most of it is very out of the way or gated by certain requirements. Finding it without a walk-through would be prohibitively time consuming.

• You only need to succeed in airing out the books on time once to access the library. Then you'll get rewarded a few times with a martial arts technique. Once that is done it is faster to simply drop the books as often as you can to finish the minigame in a much shorter time

• If you explore, there are some unmarked alleys that serve as shortcuts to other city areas

• There's a certain series of QTEs between areas where failure at any point in the chain sets you all the way back to the beginning of the area rather then the beginning of the QTE. It's during the hunt for Yuanda Zhu where you have to cross long wood planks over missing floors.