I’m not trying to cater to anybody, just making an observation based on what Yu said in this recent interview and several of the others that preceded it. You may view the opinions of first time players as “trash,” but the team over at YS NET clearly doesn’t. As I said in my last post, I can certainly see why they’re keen to hear from everybody who played the game rather than just fans, as only addressing the complaints of hardcore fans will likely lead to another inaccessible game that flops financially. Personally, I’d like to see them earn a profit for all of their hard work this time around and I’m sure that they would too.
Also, nowhere does he say that he will be giving more weight to feedback from one particular group of players. As far as I read it, all of the feedback will be considered when making plans for the next game as well as their own experiences, not just feedback from those who are new to the series.
The one thing that I will agree with you on is that making the game more accessible without watering down the true Shenmue experience will be incredibly challenging. I expect the eventual solution will be them having two different modes (a more traditional “Shenmue” mode and then a casual mode with quest markers and the like), but only time will tell. Whatever the best solution is though, they’re not going to find it by only looking at one side of the picture.
I think there is a little misurunderstanding
with "people
you are trying to cater", I was referring to YSNET / a future S4 publisher, not you tomboz.
Also the "trash feedback" didn't come mainly from newcomers. For example the few S3 newcomers I encountered were even
positive or had at least some constructive feedback (that lead me to think that without tha KS hate campaign, S3 could've had a chance on the market).
Trust me A LOT of the toxic feedback came from fans (ex fans, let's called things with their name), the rest from people who barely touched the game and were there only to ruin the party.
I trust Yu Suzuki, but a big portion of the feedback he probably received, especially the most vocal, should be ignored.
Also why Shenmue 4 should be more "accessible", when the same market / industry can rewards "casual un-friendly" games like Dark Souls?
What prevented S3 from being successful is not the HUD, or the stamina - food system or the quest marker.
The problem was and will always be only one: MARKETING.
With good marketing you can sell basically anything, with bad marketing you can't sell even the best game in the world (Shenmue).
If they want to make Shenmue 4 a success, together with fixing the REAL issues and shortcoming of S3, they'll need a flawless marketing campaign.
