I wrote a post about a year ago about finding out that Dan Crenshaw wrote several in-depth guides for the JRPG Suikoden III in 2002-2003, but the post seems to have been lost to time and also we may have some new people who need to know this, so here is all the information again, including what Hexbear users dug up last time (I'm sorry to say I cannot credit anyone, since the original post seems to be gone):

In 2002, someone with the creative username dan_crenshaw posted 3 separate in-depth tutorials for the JRPG Suikoden 3. These include the most comprehensive complete walkthrough of the game, a list of all the story scenes/endings, and every piece of information that the private detective you can hire can tell you about the underage girls that are part of your army (it's a JRPG).

All of these guides were written right when Dan Crenshaw had finished high school, but before he started university (at which point they stopped being updated).

I still have not found a better way to check the number of Dans Crenshaw than http://howmanyofme.com/ though there was some discussion last time about the reliability of the site. According to that site there are 11 Dan Crenshaws and 106 Daniel Crenshaws in the US, for a total of 117. This number is probably higher, but the site COULD find 1.65 million Daniels in general, so they seem to have at least a decent sample size.

The additional clue provided is the e-mail adress he provides to contact him about problems/questions with the guide, which is dshaw999@bellsouth.net. Last year we found out that while he is from Texas, where BellSouth did not operate at the time, at the time he finished High School and when these guides were written he was not living in Texas, but in Colombia, where BellSouth DID operate.

Putting together all the information we have we know that there are not very many Dan/Daniel Crenshaws, the one we are thinking about is EXACTLY the correct age for having written this in 2002, he DID have the time in 2002 to do this and he was living in the correct area to have that e-mail adress at the time.

Pictured is main character Geddoe, the one-eyed mercenary that I am sure did not influence him in any way.

  • Thylacine [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    so he took his eye out to become more like Geddoe. everything is starting to make more sense

    • Evilsandwichman [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Dan after being captured in Afghanistan:

      Taliban: Hey, you like Suikoden? Me too!

      Dan: Neat! My favorite character was this guy called Geddoe!

      Taliban: Oh Em Gee! We are like soul brothers! I totally just had a cool idea!

  • ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I remember the last time this came up, I sent emails to his campaign and his rep. office asking about it. Never got a reply back, sadly.

  • Praksis [any]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Alternative timeline where Den Crenshaw is a video game reviewer

  • Thordros [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    We need to find a journalist who is willing to ask this question, verbatim:

    "Mr. Crenshaw, do you regret propagating steps to reproduce the Level 99 Chris exploit for Suikoden III? Didn't that ruin the game for newcomers to the franchise?"

  • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    private detective you can hire can tell you about the underage girls that are part of your army (it’s a JRPG).

    i don't remember suikoden 3 being paedo bait

    • Utter_Karate [he/him, comrade/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Just a bit of a dig at JRPGs more than anything. You can recruit underage girls, but with the selling point of the games being the number of characters you can recruit this is pretty much just child representation. And you can have any character investigated by your detective. You will always reveal only useless tidbits like (copied from Dan Crenshaw's guide):

      "He chews leaves. These leaves are herbs that cause drowsiness. They grow somewhere in the Castle."

  • Runcible [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I don't remember much about the series other than that suikoden 2 was really good

  • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Do people still write those IGN walkthroughs? They were so handy for JRPG's that had cryptic stuff hidden in them.

  • Neckbeard_Prime [they/them,he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    The guide:
    https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/536777-suikoden-iii/faqs/20702

    User profile:
    https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/community/dan_crenshaw

  • TawnyFroggy [she/her]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I really looked into this last time it came up because I was active in the Suikoden community way back when and am seriously wondering if I was casual internet friends with Dan fucking Crenshaw at one point, but nothing really turned up.