There's always a win possible. If you cant make a big world filled with content. Make it a smaller world.
Untrue. The problem with 3, as said before, is how prevalent this is in the story, how it unfolds, how it's done and how it's repeated in the exact SAME structure for both areas.
Why ? Because Shenmue I and II not only avoid to dedicate that to be their main plot point, they also fledge it in a different manner and in a more characterized one.
Yes, in Shenmue I, you end up "chasing thugs". But how does it unfold to reach that ? You have all the first part of the investigation, before any thug is involved. You have Ryo dealing with is father death, you have a lot of memorable characters introduced, with their stories unfolding. You have the relationship between Ryo and Nozomi. You have all the developpement between Ryo remembering his father in the house, Ryo's interactions with Ine-san and Fuku-san. You have the discovery of Dobuita and the locals, all with interesting interactions and stories. It's only until you meet Charlie (a minor antagonist that already leave some impressions) that we're starting to deal with thugs in some way. And from there, it's not an active search for the thugs. You learn about the mirror, you learn about the 3 Blades, and you end up learning about Master Chen. It's only from this moment that the game actively starts being about fighting thugs, the Mad Angels. But why do you happen to step into the Mad Angels ? Because Chai (another memorable antagonist) get in the way to your ticket for Hong Kong, as Ryo's goal was to go there to fight Lan Di. You end up investigating the Mad Angels to learn about Lan Di. Ryo doesn't care about fighting Terry at first. A lot of events unfold in a non-linear way and you end up with varied set pieces (the motorbike segment) and meeting even more memorable characters (Mark, Guizhang, Goro).
In Shenmue II, you end up "chasing thugs" too. But then again, it's not the main plot point. You arrive in Hong Kong to meet Tao Lishao and Yuanda Zhu to help you in your quest to learn more about Lan Di. You end up meeting thugs, because Wong steal your bag. You also beat the hell out of them. And then you proceed in your investigations, in which you meet Xiuying, learn about the Wude and in the process meet a shitload of interesting characters. Joy, the 4 masters teaching you about the Wude, Wong, Fangmei. Every events unfold in a non-linear way and doesn't follow a linear pattern. It's until you learn more about finding Yuanda Zhu that you get in the way of thugs and you are introduced to one antagonist, memorable as well, Yuan. The more you step into their stuff for your own quest, the more you interact with more thugs and you get to meet another great character: Ren. Non-linear stuff unfolds and you get to Kowloon. Does the same structure repeat here ? Hell no. You get into a wild city and pursue your investigation, which gets you to the tape section, an entire segment about following Yuan and you manage to find Yuanda Zhu after many kind of events that wouldn't happen in the first half of the game in which you end up in a pseudo fighting tournament to infiltrate YHD, HQ of Dou Niu the major antagonist of the game. You proceed to make your way in with an amazing set piece with a lot of gameplay ideas (the infiltration, the lights and such), you end up meeting a minor antagonist, yet fucking memorable that is Master Baihu and you get to fight Dou Niu in a mind blowing set piece.
Think this is over ? Here comes CD4. Fucking amazing narrative experience, with a non-linear structure again.
Now, let's get to Shenmue III shall we ? First thing you do in Bailu: You search for Shenhua's father. The very first 10 minutes, you hear that two thugs are causing troubles in the village. The very first 10 minutes, your objective is to investigate to find the thugs. All the quests unfold to lead to the 2 thugs, which you proceed to defeat. Then, they have a MUSCLED boss no one cares about, who beat the shit out of you the first time. You investigate again to search the father again and you meet the muscled boss and his two minions again. He beat the shit out of you. So you seek the help of an old master who accept to train you if you pay the cash. He trains you, you beat the guy and you learn that the princess... sorry the father is in another area. So you go to that area. You learn that 2 thugs are causing troubles in the area. You find them, it leads you to their MUSCLED boss no one cares about, who beat the shit out of you the first time. You investigate again to search the father again and you meet the muscled boss and his two minions again. He beat the shit out of you. So you seek the help of an old master who accept to train you if you pay the cash. He trains you, you beat the guy.
To make it clear once and for all. The problem isn't to chase thugs. The problem is how Shenmue III does it. How it does it twice. And how it does it twice the SAME way as the main story arch for the SAME story reason.