Was Shenmue 3 comical compared to 1&2?

It’s meant to just be an approximation of the sort of game people might play in a remote Chinese village, and it’s one of the most ‘Shenmue’ things I’ve ever seen.

Suzuki even mentioned that he added it in the hopes of maybe 10% of players actually finding some enjoyment in it. It’s not something that should possibly ruin anyone’s day—.
 
I cannot remove the horrors of the rock paper scissors game in Shenhua's house from my memory.

That was one of the moments the game became a joke to me.
I actually liked that part a lot. Was great to show a more easy going Ryo than usual. It was very well suited to show the development of the character. but of course it looked funny because the facial animation techolgy was not advanced enough to show such stuff in a convincing way.
 
I cannot remove the horrors of the rock paper scissors game in Shenhua's house from my memory.

That was one of the moments the game became a joke to me.
Getting on your high horse about this in particular seems strange when the entire series is known for being unintentionally dumb and funny. At least this time they meant it.
 
Aw come on, Face Off was one of the nicer surprises in the game for me (and sadly one of the few surprises in a game that I wish had more surprises)

I don't know. The first two games have some weird dialog moments that were humorous. I think a lot of the NPC dialog was in the same vein. As for the Shenhua thing...I really didn't find it humorous the first time I saw it. I was more intrigued by what she actually did and whether it was hinting at something more going on with Shenhua. I kind of just wanted to know what she did.

I don't know...tone wise? I thought it was more Shenmue as I knew it. I didn't see a major change at all. When it came to tone, I felt like it kind of got Shenmue for what it was.

I mean you can say something about the lack of stakes in the game, maybe. Like the whole "you're weak! Train up and try again" scenarios. But then again, even then I still think to myself what stakes did the first two games really have when you were instantly given a retry screen when losing a major fight in those games? I think this is a David Cage moment where Shenmue kind of is trying to avoid the game over screen (with exception of the "Bad Endings") but the solution isn't an easy one to pull off.
 
Are we forgetting the S2 spy tape recorder - 'let me touch it' conversation? The humour was there in S1+2 but it felt more subtle and didn't extend to the fights, which were always given tension and meaning. Essentially they were treated with respect, if you can call it that.

I didn't dislike S3's usage of comedy in the fights/cutscenes per se, but making them comedic by showing how easily Ryo or 'strong' enemies can be defeated with 1 punch devalues the effort and seriousness of the training in 1+2.

The way Ren fails miserably at beating up the muscle bound guy in the dark factory building in S3 was both funny and emphasized the enemy's strengths, it added to the narrative - rather than a split-second tension destroying gag - and was a great example of how do it right, in my opinion.
 
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Well, Shenmue 2 has a stereotypical effeminate gay man who chases you around a building with a chainsaw while wearing zebra pants. He screams at the sight of dirt and is ultimately defeated by...having a rubbish bin poured over him.

This series has definitely had its more zany moments.
 
I like that funny Elements. Reminds me of a Martial Arts Anime with comical elments. I am big fan of Ranma 1/2 for example so some funny elments are more than welcome Especially these days when games take themselves too serious anyway and some strange People see


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Of Course we like Shenmue for different reasons. I like Shenmue as game. I love it for the Details and the openess of the world that put many modern day games to shame.

I do not like it for the Story. The Story is bland ,a typical martial arts Revenge Story that Shows how the Protagonist evolves, defeat the bad guy, let go the grudge of the past and become a better Person that forgives the bad guy and lives happy until the end of that life.

The journey is in that case more interesting than the Story itself.

Ok we cannot rule out that Ryo is gonna kill Lan Di but i doubt that.

We already found some hints in Shenmue that Ryo is not a Killer. He refused to buy some swords in Hong Kong when the arms dealer offered it to him at the Sword stand.

In Kowloon he refused to kill the Cowboy Hat Girl at the illegal Tournament. He has not the Darkness in himself yet to be a cold blooded Killer.
 
I don't think that at all about Shenmue 1 and 2.
I don't know how it's possible to play through 1 and 2 as an adult without noticing how bizarre it is for Ryo to be asking complete strangers questions like "I'm looking for someone who knows about Chinese people", let alone the odd responses he gets back. I'd list examples but really, I don't think it's necessary. So many of the character interactions are...unnatural. That's probably the best word for it.

I didn't see that aspect of the series when I was 13, but now I do. It doesn't diminish the experience for me but it's undeniably a thing.

It's baffling to me that people can call this out about S3 but think it doesn't exist in 1 and 2. Total double-standard, and only something you'd hear within our little fan bubble.
 
Well, Shenmue 2 has a stereotypical effeminate gay man who chases you around a building with a chainsaw while wearing zebra pants. He screams at the sight of dirt and is ultimately defeated by...having a rubbish bin poured over him.

This series has definitely had its more zany moments.
This. Shenmue has always been comical in some ways. It didn't suddenly start with 3.
 
Well... Other than Hong Dejing falling into the river after demonstrating the uppercut, wait, actually no. Lemme describe it to you this way: the third installment was meant to cater to the fans right? And it does! It has its own somewhat archaic feel to it when it comes to the fact that you begin the game in the cave - a scene that ended with a cliffhanger back in 2001.

During this time it seemed that all hope was lost due to Sega's financial problems, yet because of the fans' craving for the series to continue, Suzuki granted our wish and we finally got the third installment, even if it took us 18 years of our time.
The question here is whether the third game is comical: it is, but not too much, considering you need to run important errands for the people of Bailu, rescue your friend's father and his accomplice and ultimately face your biggest enemy.

Comical parts? They're everywhere, but they're included to make the game a little bit more enjoyable for the player.
Bailu: hide and seek with the children and "No, I haven't!"
Niaowu: QTE fails with the wooden beam and the fire extinguisher to the face (ouchies) and of course your boss falling into the river while trying to perform a martial art move.
DLCs: chawan signs giving you prizes, one of them being the almighty chicken gizzard and finding the lost kid on the ship (never judge a book by its cover).
 
I don't know how it's possible to play through 1 and 2 as an adult without noticing how bizarre it is for Ryo to be asking complete strangers questions like "I'm looking for someone who knows about Chinese people", let alone the odd responses he gets back. I'd list examples but really, I don't think it's necessary. So many of the character interactions are...unnatural. That's probably the best word for it.

I didn't see that aspect of the series when I was 13, but now I do. It doesn't diminish the experience for me but it's undeniably a thing.

It's baffling to me that people can call this out about S3 but think it doesn't exist in 1 and 2. Total double-standard, and only something you'd hear within our little fan bubble.

That is so true. Of course that dialog is out of context to skip the naturalised japanese citizen part to make the dialoge more meme worthy but that dialogue is still comic gold.



I am also fortunate enough to have experienced the whole 3 games an adult within a time frame of only 3 years. Did not play S1 for the first time in 2018 so I had to wait only 2 years for S3 which a very short amount of time compared to most verteran fans here.

I really love Shenmue but it is hard to ingore that some parts of the game especially the videos are comic gold. Especially in the English dub.

Some of them are even Resident Evil Level of comedy.



Which is sad in a manner of speaking S1 had a much highter budget than Mikami had with Re 1.

it does not make the game worse, the quirks are a part of the experience and I do not want to miss them to be honest but they also should not be just attributed to S3 just because the nostalgia the verteran fans have for the old game.

Nostalgia is very powerful. I can related to that. I am Fan of RE since the second game so I have no problem to take the series serious despite their flaws or puppet like animations. I still think they are great and can tell a story pretty well. But still they are flawed if see them in a more realistic way. Especially to the way dialogues are written and delivered now.

Same goes for Shenmue by the way.I do not mind them I can still take the story very serious but again I cannot overlook the flaws.
 
without noticing how bizarre it is for Ryo to be asking complete strangers questions like "I'm looking for someone who knows about Chinese people"
It's a video game. There has to be some structure to it for it to function. The goal is to investigate and we do so by going around talking to people.

The oddness of it is due to many things - it's from 1999 so the tech is old as hell which makes the transitions from one person to another quite wonky; it's translated and from another country/culture so naturally by our understandings things will be unusual/different; I don't know what the official number is but all the characters in the game are voiced. Even by today's standards that's quite an accomplishment, but naturally some will be of lower quality.

Most modern games have scenes acted out with more than one actor now. When you get a single person in a studio alone reading off lines with no context or interaction, of course it will be noticeably more awkward than actors playing off of each other.

It's baffling to me that people can call this out about S3 but think it doesn't exist in 1 and 2.
I don't find it baffling. 20 years passed. Tech improved and standards advanced. Even the smallest of indie games can have excellent writing and acting.
 
It's a video game. There has to be some structure to it for it to function. The goal is to investigate and we do so by going around talking to people.

The oddness of it is due to many things - it's from 1999 so the tech is old as hell which makes the transitions from one person to another quite wonky; it's translated and from another country/culture so naturally by our understandings things will be unusual/different; I don't know what the official number is but all the characters in the game are voiced. Even by today's standards that's quite an accomplishment, but naturally some will be of lower quality.

Most modern games have scenes acted out with more than one actor now. When you get a single person in a studio alone reading off lines with no context or interaction, of course it will be noticeably more awkward than actors playing off of each other.


I don't find it baffling. 20 years passed. Tech improved and standards advanced. Even the smallest of indie games can have excellent writing and acting.
So because they're old, you can essentially put on the nostalgia goggles, ignore the unintentional cheese, chalk it up to the tech of the time, or whatever. That's fair enough. The difference is, I'm totally fine with doing that with 3, now.

I don't care if it's old or new, it's a game built in the style of the Dreamcast games, therefore I went in expecting a similar experience, and it was. I personally believe that's what we signed up for, and at no point did I ever think we were going to get The Last of Us levels of character writing. I'm not saying it's wrong to want those things, I just never expected it.
 
Interesting Point of view but the cheese delivered in S1 and 2 was not the fault of the technique. 1999 was not the Stone age. People could talk back then and social Standards were also the same. So you cannot say that it was impossible to write natural soundings dialogues back then. The game was a japanese one. So they translated it literaly from japanese to English.

That does not work. The is that so Ryo says a few times was literally translated from そうですか (sou des ka) which makes pefectally sense in japanese at least as far as I can tell still a beginner in japanese but the Translation is that so just sounds weird. Even I can say that as a non native English Speaker.

With more Money and the will the re write the Dialoges they could have done a much better Job in 99. Dialogues today are not better because of the tech they are better because the whole Industry became Americanised. They have a whole dubbing Industry now.

Even the big japanese Studios hire known actors now and not some nobodys as they did in the 90s like Capcom did with RE 1.

But if sega did not have the Money back then for 1 and 2 to re write the dialogues to make them more suitable for native English Speakers it is delusional to expect that from a low Budget title like Shenmue 3. It is phenomal game for that low Budget.
 
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Yeah, of course Shenmue was an incredible feat at the time, and deserves a huge amount of respect for pushing the industry forward in so many areas at once. But any super ambitious game is always going to fall short in some areas, and those areas for Shenmue were the dialogue and translation (among other things, depending on your tastes).

Of course they could've delivered a better script and a more polished localisation at the time -- games existed with much better writing already, out of Japan no less -- but then something else would have to give, and it wouldn't have been the Shenmue we know and love.
 
I am happy how it turned out. Very happy . I am not sure if that was intentional or not but the Goofy dialogues in English suits Ryo really well and makes him more likeable. Ryo is not perfect and to go on a journey with him to be become better makes the Shenmue games so enjoyable for me.
 
But any super ambitious game is always going to fall short in some areas, and those areas for Shenmue were the dialogue and translation (among other things, depending on your tastes).

Of course they could've delivered a better script and a more polished localisation at the time -- games existed with much better writing already, out of Japan no less -- but then something else would have to give, and it wouldn't have been the Shenmue we know and love.
I hope you're not talking to me because I think S1 and S2 are phenomenal games and the stories are excellent. That's why I'm still here 20 years later.

I think the actual voice work is good quality for the most part. I think Corey did well. I think the dialogue system incorporated into the game is what betrays him (and the game) and is the actual cause of the ridicule it's received all this time. I think if you listen closely to just Corey's lines then he does a good job.
 
I hope you're not talking to me because I think S1 and S2 are phenomenal games and the stories are excellent. That's why I'm still here 20 years later.

I think the actual voice work is good quality for the most part. I think Corey did well. I think the dialogue system incorporated into the game is what betrays him (and the game) and is the actual cause of the ridicule it's received all this time. I think if you listen closely to just Corey's lines then he does a good job.
There's a big difference between story/plot and dialogue/translation. I think the overarching story in S1 and S2 is very good. I do not think the dialogue is great. It's serviceable.

Corey did a fine job. The average NPCs are literal amateurs and it shows.

Shenmue 1 is my favourite game of all time, but even I can admit this.
 
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