Shenmue 3 is a perfect game for "director's cut" after completing the series. Right now we can't see the full potential of the third game, especially in the story department.
I'm definitely behind the idea of releasing episodic Shenmue games with one big location for $20-30 each. They will make more money from the fanbase that way. Shenmue 4 with 3-4 Episodes and Shenmue 5 with 3-4 episodes... After that complete editions on physical disk.
I agree with what you said, but I'm not sure about the episodic formula.
The risk to not complete the series of episodes is very high for games that aren't so popular.
Focusing on Shenmue 4 and 5, two complete games, is probably better than focusing on like 8 episodes example Shenmue 4 episode I, II ,II, IV and then Shenmue 5 episode I, II, III, IV.
Many things can go wrong during the development of other episodes, it just take one single episode with poor sales and the whole plan will be abandoned, and then we can really say farewell to the brand.
As for Shenmue 3, I'm glad it was made that way, as a real Shenmue game and a real Shenmue experience, and not something different (Life is strange, Yakuza, etc.).
My only disappontments are the lack of Baisha and the Great Wall (that I hope will return in Shenmue 4 together with the train chapter), and the battle system, Shenmue desperately need the Virtua Fighter engine.
I was overall pleased, but I do think it was a game with a bit of an identity crisis. There seemed to be two main camps:I certainly think that a more focused game would have gone down better with fans and critics. It almost felt like Yu tried too hard to please everybody, and in doing so, ended up pleasing hardly anybody at all.
I don't think the scope of Shenmue was big enough. Shenmue 3 was not a true sequel to Shenmue 2. It was the best version of Shenmue we could get. Shenmue 2 felt like a quantum leap compared to Shenmue 1. While I'm grateful and like Shenmue 3 you have to just accept what it is.
You don’t think shenmue 4 will happen why’s that?I expected a good story and an okay game. Got an okay game and a bad story. I should have realized that the cut scenes may not have been as cinematic and ambitious as 2, but never would have expected the story to be as poorly written as it was. The game could have been better with some very simple tweaks in design and writing - the food thing was whack and the menu organization was really lazy. No idea on how to know how many scrolls and Chobu cards you were still missing, even the first game had a set number of slots for move scrolls. The button combos is combat also had no rhyme or reason.
There were hints of charm and Shenmue vibe with the conversations with Shenhua and some of the Bailu quests (hide and seek) but to cut Baisha and make Bailu what it was was a bad choice....but probably too late before they realized.
Just didn't have a decent team in place to make it happen with the budget, unfortunately, but some simple things could have been done differently that wouldn't have affected the cost.
Haven't touched 1 or 2 since finishing 3 four years ago, it's all left a bad taste in my mouth.
I'd also be a day 1 Shenmue 4 buyer, but I don't think it's happening ever.
If that was going to be the size of Niaowu on a low-budget Shenmue 3, I would've hated it.
When I saw arcade cabinets in the Arcade with the inscription "Coming soon" I expected that they would add new things with patches... Then I didn't know that the money ran out a long time ago.
Of course it was a true sequel to Shenmue 2. Somethings were retconned, sure, but Yu Suzuki changes things up that much that none of the Shenmue games turned out how they were originally written.
And Shenmue 3 was exactly the right scope. Yu said it "expanded inward" whereas Shenmue 2 "expanded outward". S3 was a more personal journey.
I agree that we didn't get enough story after an 18 year wait, but Shenmue 4 will rectify that.
Do you think it would’ve better if it released under sega in 03I know Shenmue 3 was a true sequel. If Shenmue 3 had released on schedule with Sega and AM2 backing it I believe we would've got a completely different experience. Yu still delivered us the best Shenmue experience he could with what he had.
#LetsGetShenmue4
Do you think it would’ve better if it released under sega in 03