Oi, I don't post too much around here, but right now I feel like I need to, I'm kinda sick about this drama about Shenmue (And every other fiction that "divides" the Fan Base) I got 2 things to says :
1) Everyone is entitled to its opinion. We all felt different things while playing the Shenmue games, so we all expect something different. For example : Some people hated that Shenmue 3 felt like HD Dreamcast game, while it's exactly what other fans wanted. Of course, when you are releasing a sequel 18 years after the previous episode you are going to divide the fans. It's obvious, because what some people loved about Shenmue isn't necessarily what every fan loved as well.
I'm gonna take an example that is absolutely not Shenmue related, but has the same stuff happening than Shenmue 3 : Star Wars ! The fanbase is clearly divided with the newer movies, right ? Well recently, I was out with some friends, we were all huge Star Wars fans, so we were talking about the new ones. Suddenly I said that I really like the Swords's fights in this trilogy, that I liked that it went back to a original trilogy "style fight", raw, emotional and romantic, charged with storytelling. And a friend jumped in to tell me that I was crazy ! That the fight in the prequels were much better, the choregraphy were impressive, fluid, that it was technical and you really felt that the Jedi were superior than simple humans. And then a huge discussion emerged from that, we were like 5v5 defending one style of swords fight over the other. Now, in this case, who are the "real fans" and who are the "fake fans" ? Well, everyone was a real fan. In their own way. But even though we were all fans, we were fans for different reasons, and so we expected and wanted different things out of those movies. So basically, it was obvious and sure that some fans would be disappointed by those fights as they are now. But if they made fights closer to the prelogy, well, some other fans (like me) would have been disappointed. So, you were obligated to disappoint some fans.
It's the same with Shenmue 3. Yu Suzuki took some decisions with Shenmue 3 that were sure at 100% to disappoint fans. There was no other way around it. When he chose to make a game close to the philosophy of Shenme 1&2, it was sur that it would disappoint fans who wanted a more modern take on Shenmue. A same can be told about various decisons. Granted, other problems from the game aren't tied to that and Shenmue 3 clearly has some flaws.
But that's what infuriates me, it's people like SEW (and other YouTubers, not even necessarily haters) that give you their take on the game but say it like "it's the only truth", and that if you don't believe it, you are stupid. If you think otherwise, you are stupid. And you dismiss a lot of things (positive or negative). For example, alot of critics about Shenmue 3 absolutely don't take into account the realistic material condition in which it was made : An indie Kickstarted game with a limited budget (and some of that budget was added only after half the development was done (Deep Silver), that was made from scratch after a 15 years hiatus, with a brand new team that never worked together before, with an engine that was never used by the team and the developer before that was chosen because they could cut costs on it, etc... But just like some very valid criticisme is dismissed by some fans who want to defend the game with all their souls and make it sound like all the flaws of the game are budget related, while it was obviously a problem in planning, management and decision making.
But there is one thing that I don't understand, I REALLY really really don't understand, I'm trying but I swear I don't, it's coming from haters of the game, it's when they say "Yeah, I wish Shenmue 3 was never released. Shenmue is dead to me". Alot of people say that and I seriously don't get it. I mean, I get that you were disappointed with Shenmue 3, I accept it. As I said before, everyone has their own opinion and felt different because what their expectetions were different, but I don't understand how come, even though the game isn't to your taste at all, that you'd prefer to be like we were 6 years ago : Shenmue was dead, Yu Suzuki was in exile. Now, Shenmue came back, Yu Suzuki is developing again, SEGA acknowledges Shenmue again (they didn't talk about it for so long and now they talk about Shenmue pretty often), Shenme 1&2 were finally re-released, the official Soundtrack of Shenmue 2 is getting a released, we have an anime coming, we have merchandising existing, Shenmue is spoken everywhere even outside the fanbase (sadly to sh*t on it, but still), and we have very good hope for a sequel not too long from now. You'd trade that to go back to the same place we were 6 years ago when Shenmue was inexistant ? How ? Why ? I don't get it ! Shenmue is finally back, we fought really hard as fans to finally make it come back, and now you want to destroy all that and just spread negativity all around ? I genuinely don't get it.
2) So much nitpicking about Shenmue 3 ! I don't love Shenmue 3 at all (I rate it 6/10, personnally, not good, not bad, just okay), but some (I said "some", not "all") negative points that are stated about Shenmue 3 are either wrong or just nitpicky (hear by that "you are right, but... Who cares ? It's not a big deal"). One of these statements that I don't understand is how Ryo gets beaten up by two chief gang members, that suddenly tell that Ryo sucks and that he learned nothing from Shenmue 2. I mean that's not really what happens. Him getting beatean up by those gang members aren't that Ryo sucks and was suddenly nerfed from Shenmue 2 to Shenmue 3, he isn't presented as someone who is weak, but as someone who is uncultivated. In martial arts, you don't necessarily win by being the strongest, but you win by being the most intelligent, the smartest. Here, the point is to show that Ryo gets beaten up because both times he is fighting against a stlye he doesn't even know. He doesn't the know how it works, so he doesn't know how to react against it. For these gang members, Ryo doesn't train to get stronger, he trains to understand martial arts better. He needs to learn and cultivate himself. Ryo is still young and still learning a lot, it's been like, what, 6 months since his dad died... And what, you already want him to be near invincible, know all the martial arts out there and know instinctively how to defend and attack against someone who use an unknown art to him and then go a be almost to a tie against Lan Di ? And it is just an example of how some people can be nitpicky about a part of the game for not much reason.