The Shenmue 3 Review Thread

Real1 said:
Trying to sway public opinion is starting to affect me mentally. I respond to SO. MANY. COMMENTS. trying to explain how a Shenmue-fan views this game. It's mostly like talking to brick walls.

I wish the reviews stop soon. When they do, I guess I will finalize my list and put it in its own thread for preservation.

I'm going to add more score-less reviews to the list now... I have some ideas on how to sort them. I already started with two as you can see, but I'm gonna add Kotaku and Polygon as well.
Click to expand...
You've earnt a cold beer or 4. The work you're doing is much appreciated.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
If they’re lucky enough to make a Shenmue 4, I hope they read and take some of the criticism from the more negative reviews to heart. There is truth in all of them. There is always room for improvement. Not saying a 40/100 or 50/100 is a fair score, but the game isn’t perfect and I think many of us agree the poor reviews tend towards being less harsh than the scores look.
Click to expand...
I fully agree, there's alot of excuses that can be made for Shenmue 3, it doesnt excuse some issues but it does explain away alot, the same cannot be said about 4 and theres some things that definitely need work. Hoping if a 4 happens at the very least I really hope they'll understand memeing up the dub and translation was a horrible mistake for 3 that probably cost a fair amount of sales. I think they really underestimated how important voice acting in games has become in the past decade.
 
Sheephead said:
As I've finished the game, I checked out the article and it was full of shit lol. The guy didn't understand what happened for starters and clearly doesn't know shit about Shenmue in general. Really crap article to be honest :p
Click to expand...

He made one decent point that I maybe kind of agree with...other than that, he literally tried to convince me that Iwao and Sunming's friendship really isn't that relevant...despite the fact that it means EVERYTHING to the story. I won't say any more but I did feel he made one decent point. Everything else just baffled me.
 
danielmann861 said:
Why is it in most of these of reviews I keep seeing the words "Combat in the original games was clunky and Shenmue III is no better"

I think that's just a self admittance that THEY weren't good at the combat more than anything...those of us who did get good know just how damn good Shenmue II's combat could be :D Especially when you mastered timing on counters such as Swallow Flip and Counter Elbow Assault...boy does that stuff feel great to hit when you get the timing down :D

Eh, what do I really expect? Most of these reviewers don't play fighting games and simply button mash so of course they didn't get it.
Click to expand...
Probably went back and played some of the original games to give them some legitimacy when they used some buzz-phrase like "a game stuck in the past" and so on. Yeah, play the game today and the combat can use a bit of polish but 20 years ago it was deeper than most combat games.
 
Nathanial Essex said:
Probably went back and played some of the original games to give them some legitimacy when they used some buzz-phrase like "a game stuck in the past" and so on. Yeah, play the game today and the combat can use a bit of polish but 20 years ago it was deeper than most combat games.
Click to expand...

I still think it's deeper than most contemporary third person hand to hand combat today. The original game is a bit rigid (the timing windows are really tight and button inputs equally so) and the camera is at times too wonky for its own good but the combat itself still has pretty incredible depth to it.

While SII was borderline perfection in terms of speed, timing windows and camera improvement (the camera is drastically improved in II)...SII was awesome in every regard when it came to fighting and I would still say it has more depth than most contemporary third person action games...has way more depth over the one (or two) button reversals of Yakuza or Sleeping Dogs. As much as I love Yakuza and Sleeping Dogs, their combat has nothing on Shenmue II.

The joy of timing and landing Swallow Flip on Chai in the final battle of S1 surpasses most modern day experiences IMO
 
I am trying to avoid spoilers and even spoilers in regards to expectations around length, quality of the story and so on so have not read the review in full. However, I did read the summarising paragraph from Gamespot.

The worst element of Shenmue, however, continues to be the combat, which is every bit as clunky and unsatisfying as it was back in the Dreamcast days. You're forced into an awkward angle where it's hard to see everything around you (which is awful when you have more than one opponent), the button combinations needed to perform various skills don't flow together well, and it simply feels laggy and unresponsive as a whole. You can "cheat" somewhat and simply do training exercises to level up your strength and stamina if you want to struggle a bit less with fighting, but it still doesn't serve to make the combat itself any more fun.

Shenmue III has its moments. It delivers on the promise of creating interesting and engaging new environments for Ryo and friends to explore and play around in. Yet, I can't help but think that the game's dogged determination to retain the same "feel" of its Dreamcast ancestors at any cost hurts it immensely. The creative team seems determined to not move anything forward substantially when it comes to Shenmue-
-including the story, which ends on yet another unfinished cliffhanger
. Shenmue III is certainly an interesting game thrown out of time, but that doesn't mean that it's always enjoyable to play.

I am not too far into the game so take this opinion with a pinch of salt, but I would say it's fair to call the combat system clunky. However, when she then compares it to the Dreamcast games saying those games were "clunky and unsatisfying" it's obvious she's just hating. There is no way someone with two brain cells playing the game at the time can make such comments about the combat. Then she says you can "cheat" to level yourself up and make fighting less of a struggle...Seriously? Did she refer to a levelling up system as a cheat?

Also, the whole thing of retaining the feel of the Dreamcast games. What is wrong with that? Even from a non-fanboy perspective, it is said like they kept the same old graphics and questionable audio quality. It's not a side-scroller or a game with cell-shaded graphics, good or not it's simply a game made in 2019. As I mentioned before, it's like that's the whole buzzword to use when bashing the game.
 
Even now, what aside from fighting games has deeper combat than the original Shenmue games? Because honestly I can't think of one. Maybe you could argue something like DMC4/5 or Bayonetta 1 are apples to Shenmue's oranges and are deeper in some ways (more shallow in others), but that's about the most I could see.
 
Nathanial Essex said:
I am trying to avoid spoilers and even spoilers in regards to expectations around length, quality of the story and so on so have not read the review in full. However, I did read the summarising paragraph from Gamespot.

The worst element of Shenmue, however, continues to be the combat, which is every bit as clunky and unsatisfying as it was back in the Dreamcast days. You're forced into an awkward angle where it's hard to see everything around you (which is awful when you have more than one opponent), the button combinations needed to perform various skills don't flow together well, and it simply feels laggy and unresponsive as a whole. You can "cheat" somewhat and simply do training exercises to level up your strength and stamina if you want to struggle a bit less with fighting, but it still doesn't serve to make the combat itself any more fun.

Shenmue III has its moments. It delivers on the promise of creating interesting and engaging new environments for Ryo and friends to explore and play around in. Yet, I can't help but think that the game's dogged determination to retain the same "feel" of its Dreamcast ancestors at any cost hurts it immensely. The creative team seems determined to not move anything forward substantially when it comes to Shenmue-
-including the story, which ends on yet another unfinished cliffhanger
. Shenmue III is certainly an interesting game thrown out of time, but that doesn't mean that it's always enjoyable to play.

I am not too far into the game so take this opinion with a pinch of salt, but I would say it's fair to call the combat system clunky. However, when she then compares it to the Dreamcast games saying those games were "clunky and unsatisfying" it's obvious she's just hating. There is no way someone with two brain cells playing the game at the time can make such comments about the combat. Then she says you can "cheat" to level yourself up and make fighting less of a struggle...Seriously? Did she refer to a levelling up system as a cheat?

Also, the whole thing of retaining the feel of the Dreamcast games. What is wrong with that? Even from a non-fanboy perspective, it is said like they kept the same old graphics and questionable audio quality. It's not a side-scroller or a game with cell-shaded graphics, good or not it's simply a game made in 2019. As I mentioned before, it's like that's the whole buzzword to use when bashing the game.
Click to expand...

Here's what's crazy is Heidi Kemps is a big Sega nerd. I didn't know she was reviewing the game but once I saw her name on the review not only was I ambushed by her rating but her apparent disdain for the prior entries as well.

Listen I'll tell you what though, what I do respect from Heidi is she's not trying to be disingenuous by praising what this series was then knocking it now. Shes essentially saying this isn't my series, sorry not sorry.
 
Dietsoap said:
Even now, what aside from fighting games has deeper combat than the original Shenmue games? Because honestly I can't think of one. Maybe you could argue something like DMC4/5 or Bayonetta 1 are apples to Shenmue's oranges and are deeper in some ways (more shallow in others), but that's about the most I could see.
Click to expand...
Despite being 20 years old, there are still so many things Shenmue does which other games don't do today. And you can compare apples with applies with that statement. Skyrim, Mass Effect, GTA, The Witcher and even Red Dead Redemption don't live up to some of the stuff Shenmue did. Now, some may be because for the most part it was not necessary but how many games have over 100 unique characters with their own schedules? Weather that mimics real life, bespoke music for almost every scene, location, mood etc. Look at games like Yakuza, Ninja Gaiden, The Witcher and so on. Combat focused adventure games but their combat is no where near as deep as the original Shenmue games (maybe in regards to dodging and timing but definitely not move set).
 
Okay, get this.... Gamespot gave Mighty no9 a 50/100 as well.

Shenmue III is OBJECTIVELY better than Mighty no9.
 
Yeah I mean there's some good to be found in Mighty No 9, but considering its funding on Kickstarter and the type of game/genre it had no business being as mediocre as it was. It should've relatively been as good as Bloodstained. Or heck Mega Man 11!

Shenmue 3 in relation to its genre and what its trying to be is far more impressive and a greater success in terms of accomplishment to me which unfortunately will go unrecognized due to similar scores from the likes of IGN and Gamespot. It is what it is.
 
I mostly try to keep a level head with all these reviews, but the misinformation we’re seeing re. the combat, especially when claiming the originals had subpar fighting mechanics, is starting to grate somewhat. Wish I could call them out on that in particular.
 
Regarding the issue with combat, I agree with a lot of outlets that it's not the best, the animation is stiff and clunky and the responsiveness is not great either

Having said that I'm still having a lot of fun with it. Like some people here have mentioned already, there's a lot you can experiment with beyond mapping moves to right trigger.

There are some simple combo openers like Triangle, Triangle, Triangle which you can link to any other face buttons for a knee/ high kick etc.

There's so many moves to play around with, so this is on thing that I think they dropped the ball with. They definitely should have had a tutorial for the combat system.

"Just hit x,y,a,b buttons" is one of the most ridiculous lines of tutorial text I've ever seen lol.
 
orient said:
Will EZA even affect metacritic?
Click to expand...
they are on metacritic, dont know if they have much weight, at this point theres not gonna be anything really making the score move up or down from a single review more than a point or 2 cause theres so many reviews included
 
I really do not but buy the buzzwords of the journalists. If they do not know what to say they use buzz words like stuck in the past. They ae not objective at all.

Sure Shenmue 3 is not your average 2019 game (that's the reason why I enjoy it more than most of the other 2019s games, Maybe I am stuck in the past too :unsure:)

but These wordings does not make any sense. Every game is stuck in the past. The improvements the gaming world made are rather cosmetic. Core Gameplay is still the same since the early days of 3d gaming.

So literally every game is stuck in the past, not only Shenmue. Every true Innovation in the last 20 years, other flopped, or did not make enough Impact to stay. Motion controls, 3d gaming and now VR. As Long a we Play games with Controllers games are stuck in the past literally.
 
currypowder84 said:
Thing is the Gamespot review is very well written. It highlights the good and bad and is really very fair. At that point it's really up to personal tastes, its not a spiteful uninformed review so can't really hate on it.
Click to expand...

I hope Gamespot changes their review score like they did for S1
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top