Shenmue III General Thread

Watchdogs had a ton of potential, to be a fantastic, epic breaking game. Even I had hope for it. But unfortunately, things don't always turn out great. x_X

 

Shenmue III seems to be an ok game overall but its story is a huge disappointment.
Shenmue III's story literally retcons the ending from Shenmue II (that famous cliffhanger was for nothing!) Shenmue III got rid of the Magic Sword we see at the end of II, III even remakes the ending from II just to not have it there, the sword or any other references to magic get no mention at all.
The sword was supposed to be a huge plot element that would move the story forward, its absence could explain why Shenmue III's story feels so rushed and poorly executed.
Basically the intended story for III got rewritten completely!
But what replaced it? Well 95% of the story from III is literally all the things Yuanda Zhu tells you in Shenmue II, Ryo is told almost everything Zhu already said in II and Ryo acts like if all this was new information to him, it makes not sense! the only new things we learn in III is the name Shenhua's father and that Sao was given the mirrors to protect them, just that. (I suppose Yu had no idea on what to use to fill in the empty space after getting rid of that part of the original script, let's keep in mind that the story for VF RPG wasn't made by just Yu, the thing was also made with the help of a few movie directors)
I saw an interview Yu had a few years ago and apparently he was planning to get rid of magic elements from the story after a having heard a few "fans" complaining about magic in Shenmue.
You always hear stuff about Yu not wanting to compromise his vision and wanting to tell the full story with 5 or 6 games (But he already compromised his vision by altering the intended story so drastically, the worst part is that this wasn't because of limitations but just terrible decisions by Yu)
then what is even the point?! I don't want to sound rude or anything but all this "not compromising my vision" thing seems a little bit hypocritical now.

It's also worth mentioning an entire section was removed from Shenmue III along with a good number of features and the Great Wall of China having more presence than just the ending. (but those things were probably just limitations created by Yu blowing the budget for trying to do so much stuff at the same time)
Although the cut area probably was a big blow to the story too.

If anything it seems Yu was more interested in just making a game instead of telling a story... If he wanted to create a new game then Shenmue III is the worst thing he could've picked.
If he wanted to just make a new game he should've gone for a new Virtua Fighter or maybe a new Outrun (something more simple)

 

Shenmue is too ambitious.

When i heard about Shenmue 3 at E3 2015, i was like "Great, ok so Shenmue is back ?"

But, Yu Suzuki after all these years ? Why you don't make your comeback first with a new Virtua Fighter ? With your main IP that you mastered ? When we are a lot more in the fighting game genre again this generation console than the last one ?

Shenmue is too hard. If you want to make it great, you need a decent budget, and even more after 20 years.

Virtua Fighter 6 would have been a better choice and a safer project.

 

@Thesch28
I haven't played Shenmue 3 yet. But from reading your post, I really hope they bring back, the sword and magical elements. Because those things really fit in well, in Shenmue's epic story. I mean, when gamers back then, saw the medallion talisman thing in Shenmue 1, it was obvious that magic was a big part, of the games story.

Magical elements together with real martial arts, fits the story of Shenmue well, and opens up the possibility, of more epic stories. Without the magical elements, Shenmue would just be another boring, generic, cheesy coming of age life story plot, that we have seen many times before, in many other games, cheesy tv shows and cheesy movies.

 

This dude TSCH doesnt have a clue what he is talking about. The "reshot" cave sequence was heavily truncated and only put there for continuity purposes. .It was only put there as placeholder and not a shot for shot remake or "retcon". These bandwagon fake Shenmue fans who didnt even contribute to the kickstarter and just want to be alarmists about every little thing in the game.

The sword IS in the damn game SHENMUE 3 , if you complete tne Bailu village chapter of the game, you see it.

Duh, its an RPG. DUH, its a personal story about a teenager avenging his murdered father. The Bailu village section is a personal story , and a magnified analysis of Ryu, Shenhua, and all the villagers there in. If you care at all about Shenmue, and are a true fan, you will enjoy Shenmue 3. Its slow because its supposed to be slow, its a human story about two kids getting to know each other. If you just put Ryo to sleep every time you return to Shenhua's house, you are fucking up. You are supposed to make Ryo have a conversation with Shenhua for as long as she wants to talk , to build up trust and empathy. During the Kickstarter phase Yu Suzuki stated the game would have a "trust" system where you build a relationship with the characters , and they will react differently to you based in that over the course of the game. It may even change the outcome of the game. Just because there isnt a "Trust Meter" next to Shenhua's head doesnt mean that mechanic isnt in the game. You should play Shenmue 3 with that informed fashion with that in mind.

If you just have a peripheral, superficial , rudimentary knowledge of the first two Shenmue games you pirated to play on your phone, you would have outlandish, unrealistic expectations of what would be in Shenmue 3. It is an Oddessy intended to be 16 chapters. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Saying Shenmue 3 has redacted all magic elements from the game is complete ignorance because:SPOILER ALERT****************
Shenhua Ling herself is a magical element. She is a psionic and psychic-tortures the head thug to interrogate him at the end of the Bailu chapter.

If you bothered to have any side conversations with Shenhua , which Tsch clearly didn't, you would know Shenhua has a psychic rapport with the animals of the forest and they can tell her when danger is near ir the weather is about to change.

*****************/END SPOILER********

Owned Tsch.

Shenmue is not a game series for people with short attention spans. Most of it will be lost on casuals. There's always Monster Hunter and Final Fantasy for dudebro's looking for pyrotechnic eyecandy with no substance.

I think its telling of a given critic's attention span if they label Shenmue 3 a disappointment, yet cant clear the first chapter after over two weeks post release. L - O - freaking -L.

 

Magic is just Science we don't understand yet, and given TSCH's posts in his case that covers an umbrella of Grand Canyon proportions. Its not removed , because Shenhua herself is not removed. If you ignorantly expected Shenmue 3 to be a Streets Of Rage / Golden Axe Hybrid, that betokens your own ignorance. If you read in advance Suzuki wanted to take the magic elements out, how is that a surprise to be "disappointed" about . You obviously didn't buy the game at launch, as you can't clear the first chapter village after 19 FUCKING DAYS, so you could have read Yu Suzuki's supposed article BEFORE purchasing the game. Chalk that up in the ignorance column. Have you even played the first two games? How much magic was in those? Answer, little to zero. Your logic is blowing my mind . Stop writing sequels in your head and getting butthurt when the professional product doesnt match your fanfic.




Maybe Yu Suzuki is deliberately lying to throw off the public on the third act of the franchise. It would be pretty anticlimatic if we already knew the on ChiYou world arise and cause a calamity at the end of the series. Its like when people asked the Russo Brothers if the Wasp would be in the fourth Avengers movie, they lied and said "No".

 

SEGA still owns Shenmue, but Virtua Fighter is clearly the most important and the most successful work of Yu Suzuki.

SEGA can make the same deal with him again for VF, and he saids recently that he has to see with SEGA because he would like to make a new Virtua Fighter.

He also saids that Virtua Fighter and Shenmue are the things that he is the most proud in his career.

 

First of all i didn't expect Shenmue III to be a ''Streets Of Rage / Golden Axe Hybrid'' i barely know anything about those series.
And yes, i did know in advance that Suzuki wanted to take the magic elements out but that was long ago '' but recently hearing about how he wanted to actually do more games to tell the full story to (not compromise his original vision) gave me hope that maybe he actually wanted to tell the original story.
Anyways the point is that Shenmue II's 4th disc is a huge contrast with the rest of game, you see Shenhua interacting with Nature in weird ways like being able to control the wind and move flowers, (also II's entire ending)

That's one of things that made II's ending so impactful, so far you've been in a pretty normal world and suddenly you see some weird stuff that has no explanation.

Other hints at magic in the series would be some of the things we see on the project Berkley CG Intro although these seem to be stuff that would appear near the end of the original story.
Anyways (I didn't expect magic to fully kick in Shenmue III.... Not at all that would've been very forced actually, but i expected III to answer the questions II made with its ending or at least make us see Ryo and Shenhua talk about the weird things they saw in the cave and then try to ask Shenhua's father about that once they saved him.
The sword only gets mentioned by Shenhua's father in the opening scene of III which is a remake of II's ending. (also the sword appears as part of the game's main menu) anyways the opening scene plays out weirdly you don't see the sword or the red laser which came out of the mirror and then got reflected from the sword to then get to the to fire it up torch instead the torch fires up on its own, as if the laser was there before but then got removed from III's version of the scene at some point during development.


I just expected III to tackle or acknowledge II's ending and continue from that considering it's supposed to be a sequel, Anyways there is a small chance that maybe the story could actually pick things up in IV and maybe III was simply targeted towards newcomers by not advancing the story for the most part but why do that if it would end up hurting the story which was one of Shenmue's strongest points? so then what was even the point of having a recap movie?

 

Thanks alot dude , I only beat Shenmue 2 50 times on 3 different region versions. Having a glowing sword for two seconds in a games ending in no way implies the next game will be entirely magic based with fireballs and magic amulets. Go play World of warcraft for that crap.You know what, I love the ignore button. Filters out the idiots. TheSch28 why don't you come on Xbox live so I can Krush Groove your n00b ass into next week. The Sword is obviously made of Phanton River Stone, dumbass, and it resonates off of Shenhua and Ryo. It's not "magic" and as its made or Phantom River stone, it's purely just ceremonial sword. Whatever idiotic notion you had that Ryo would start fighting with a magic sword Like Zelda's Link is just a product of your depleting brain cells. Its a kung Fu RPG. All conflicts will be settled with Ryo's Kung Fu. This is not fucking Harry Potter. Get a fucking clue. Suzuki Focused the plot in Shenmue 2 on finding the Treasure of the lost Dynasty with the mirrors because Ryo is comepletly ill-equipped to fight the demon ChiYou if it ever were summoned.

You know what I think? Thesch and the other brainiac complaining about potato faces are just disgruntled Xbot fanboys and they want to direct bitter bile at any game not on their third rate system. Have a nice life.

 

Yo calm down a bit gotogonodance, that's just a game at the end. Even more when we are not talking about Virtua Fighter here.

And Shenmue 3 is "ok good", but it's clearly not on the same level of 1 & 2.

 

Yes maybe budget but it's still a fact.

That's why i got salty first...

I knew that it was not enough for a Shenmue game (and even more 20 years later), i already knew it would flop.

Shenmue and Virtua Fighter are very close games and they share a history together.

Yu Suzuki saids recently that he wants to make a new Virtua Fighter, but after years he had the chance to make his comeback in video game development with Shenmue 3.

SEGA is all about money ! Shenmue 3 had to be succesful and make money.

Maybe SEGA will not even give him the right to make a Shenmue 4, or at least does he really has enough money to make it happen ?

How SEGA would agree to tarnish the image of the company with a new Shenmue 3 bis (Shenmue 4), or to take some risks for VF6 with Yu Suzuki now ?

They 100% own the rights. When you think Shenmue or VF, you think about SEGA first.

 

Yeah. And that kinda worries me.

Very true.

 

"idiotic notion you had that Ryo would start fighting with a magic sword" I mean those are idiotic notions but they're not mine, Ryo fighting with a magic sword would be totally out of place and would be wack! same goes with fighting with magic (that's why Shenmue Online was going to suck!) also if anything the sword seemed to be more like a KEY than anything else but whatever.
(THE PROBLEM IS HOW III ACTS LIKE IF II's ENDING WAS A SMALL DEAL, WHY ISN'T RYO ALSO INVESTIGATING ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THESE ANCIENT ARTIFACTS, maybe try to discover more details about the legend of the Ancient Emperor and the Rulers who wanted the hidden power of the mirrors)

By the way Shenmue is not an RPG... not at all, it may have taken some inspiration from them BUT in the Project Berkley video Yu Suzuki says Shenmue is not an RPG but instead a "Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment" game Aka "FREE" not an RPG, you even see the word RPG covered up with a Red X in the Project Berkley video.
Anyways i also agree with Ryo having to end conflicts with his Kung Fu skills although also solving conflicts by just talking wouldn't be out of place if it ever happened.
(Also just in case you didn't see what i said before... YES, SOLVING THINGS WITH MAGIC WOULD BE LAME I TOTALLY AGREE!)

Also... dude please, i don't have any consoles. Any current Gen console is a luxury where i live, Not many people in Nicaragua know or care what a Xbox is (most people here still play games on the PS2) and i don't have one of those either.
Please don't act like if you know me because you don't! also i don't know who you are either.

 

So I just recently started Shenmue 3, and there are some things I like and others I am not feelin so far.

Likes: The fact that it displays each NPC's name is a good help. Helps give more of an idea who and where everyone is in a particular area, so I can appreciate that. I love the instant access to training and sparring. Not saying it didn't take too long to get to that in Shenmue 1, but I like the options that open up to you early in the game. I like seeing how stuff gets actually highlighted more in the notebook. I like the amount of space you get in the free battles. I felt like this was lacking in most areas you have to fight in Shenmue 1.

Dislikes: The stamina gauge is a turn off for me. I get the more realistic factor to it, but it is annoying to adjust to so far. I feel like I have found myself spending money mainly on food than anything else to keep my gauge full or close to it. I really preferred more of Shenmue 1 and 2's battle system, where there is a good balance of punches, kicks, and throws. Hopefully there will be more to learn in Shenmue 3, but I feel like it is lacking throws, and that certain commands I am used to seeing for certain moves are different now (Elbow Assault for example).

Very interested to see how the story picks up along the way. I am curious though. To all those that backed this game via Kickstarter, do y'all feel y'all got your money's worth?

 

Bro, you just started the game. If you at least beat the first third of the game you wouldn't be asking "did you get your money';s worth" Backhanded insult. The real Shenmue diehards who were on Shenmue dojo .com for years would never give you an objective answer to that question anyway. It's too much time and energy and fandom involved. If it weren't for Shenmue Dojo, I would not even know about VFDC. Shenmue Dojo and VFDC used to share the same blast city parent server back in the day.

Btw I saw your stream when you were pretending to be knowledgable about Shenmue. It sounded like you were reading off a script you just wrote 10 minutes earlier. Acting like its an accomplishment to remember Inesan's name. Whats your best time on 70 man battle bro. Conspicuously completely ignorant of the events of Shenmue 2.

 

First off, I am not, and never will be your bro.

Second, you obviously didn't do a good job reading what I even wrote. If you did, you would have taken into account that I specified that I recently started playing the game, and last time I checked, I commented on what I was exposed to so far.

Third, you have no idea to this day of what you are talking about as far as my knowledge of Shenmue, considering the fact that you never even engaged in any conversations with me about it, when I have been discussing about Shenmue not only on my streams, but also on Twitter, using actual facts. Don't believe me, ask CMoney, ask MadeMan, ask others in my so called streams that actually contribute to the conversations, but honestly, I really don't care if you do or not.

Fourth, I'm the last person you should even be trolling considering I have never started any sort of beef with you period, yet you find some random ways of trolling me and other people as well, just because you don't agree with how they feel or what they say about something. You have done all this, yet on so many occasions, you have asked and begged for invites to my VF Arena streams. Your tendencies are an utter joke, and honestly, I have lost all respect that I have ever had for you. The only mistakes I made were feeding into your nonsense. Well from this day forward, I am not acknowledging you nor responding to anything you may ever direct at me ever again. I have tried to be civil, and I have to play things off and carry on as normal, but you just flat out have to always start stuff and rile people up for no reason, and yet have the nerve to call other folks out, when you are really no different from them. I'm done with you and expect no further association with you period. Carry on and take care.

 

Blitzball wrote: A wall of text saying absolutely nothing.

Thanks for the Bible of babble, Ned Flanders. TLDR. Your complete lack of knowledge about anything substantial or cool about Shenmue speaks volumes more than your wall of text. The hardcore put down for this game and the frauds pick it apart. Setting the bar so low for your question, "Was Shenmue 3 kickstarter worth the Investment" is a weasley way to take a jab at the game. You've lost this argument. Go away.