About the potential of a Shenmue 3 Director's Cut

Rikitatsu

Rikitatsu

Joined
Jul 27, 2018
Can't help but to think back to how much wasted potential Shenmue 3 had, it was going really, really well until the last 20% of the game, where suddenly it shits the bed in a big way. Literal nobodies like fat guy #42, fisherman master. shrine maiden NPC are suddenly main characters, involved heavily in the finale, I'm not even gonna talk about the comic relief stuff they did. Or Chai's pointless encounter, or the out of place fetch quest... etc... It was super duper weird.

But most of all, I think what soured the game to me most was Muscle Guy... Not only does Ryo loses to another small time gangster after getting his cheeks clapped in Bailu, you basically have to repeat the same process in Niaowu, just to learn a simple variation to the technique you learned earlier. That's when the game started to fall apart for me, it was clear they ran out of funds and had no choice but to pad the game's length in such a way.

A potential Director's Cut could alter and flesh out a few parts to make the game a worthy sequel to Shenmue 2... If it were up to me:

- Losing to Muscle Guy #1 in Bailu and Muscle Guy#2 in Niaowu shouldn't be mandatory, you can beat them ala Chai in Shenmue 1
- Flesh out Niaowu side characters with more cutscenes, story beats, and conversations... And they still shouldn't included in the trip to the castle.
- Preferably, in a perfect world, the Castle is now in a third area, Baisha, with it's own set of NPCs and events, and villains.
- Improvements across the board to the combat system, including the addition of throws and counters.
- Significantly alter the stamina system, or remove it all together. Introduce better elements to spend your money on instead of hoarding Garlic. I had more fun spending my money on moves scrolls in Shenmue 1&2 than healing items in 3
- Better 3D models for the main cast at least, with better facial animations and lip sync
- Re-done English localization, preferably bringing back the old cast like Eric Kelso for Ren and Paul Lucas for Lan Di
- Migration to UE5 to make use of Lumen real time GI.


Looking at the list above, it's unlikely to ever happen, getting Shenmue 4 is already a big ask, let alone revisiting a game that bombed to make changes nobody but fans will appreciate... but a man can dream
 
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It's an interesting idea for sure. I agree with pretty much all the points you made, but just for fun, here's my take on what I'd do:

In a 'Director's Cut', Mr. Muscles absolutely needs to be fleshed out more as a character. I get the feeling he was supposed to be Shenmue III's Dou Niu, but he's so unmemorable that I don't even remember his actual name. I'd add more encounters with him before the big fight as well as elaborate on his back story.

The whole 'Reverse Body Check' quest would be cut and replaced with something entirely different, or at least tweaked enough to the point where it didn't feel like a total repeat of the Bailu version of the quest.

On the subject of scripted losses, I actually don't mind them so much (terrible, I know!) and feel they can be a cool way to progress a narrative. I do agree though that the way they are handled in Shenmue III are subpar. On my first playthrough, I emptied Yanlang's health bar but still somehow lost the fight which felt pretty unfair. I'd tweak unwinnable fights to be so tough that Ryo just doesn't stand a chance.

The Fortified Castle area was fine in theory, but I would have expanded on it greatly and made it a much longer part of the game. Think storming the Yellowhead building.

It's a nitpick, but out of all the songs they recycled from Shenmue I & II, it's an absolute crime that they didn't bring back Working Man for the forklift job! That would definitely get rectified. Whilst on the topic of songs, I'd also probably want to rescore the game to use more unheard/original compositions which were weirdly few and far between considering how many they said they had archived.

On top of this, I'd make general alterations to the English dub. For instance correcting the "heaven dragon earth comrade" voice line when speaking on the phone with Guizhang, and fixing some of the weird grammar and out of place lines. Oh also, original voice actors and better writing for the phone calls!
 
I feel like untethered from expectations and all the pre-release anticipation I enjoyed Shenmue 3 a lot more in my subsequent playthrough. While it’s very unlikely to happen here is what I what I would want to see in a prospective directors cut edition-

Affinity system This was something talked during the production but outside some superficial changes really had no real impact on the game. I would have some of the the NPC’s of Bailu suspicious of Ryo at the beginning and through completing individual activities or side quests be able to earn their trust, giving you information or items as a reward. This would also tie into the story about eradicating the thugs in the village, as Ryo’s reputation grows.

Also during pre release interviews Suzuki said this system could effect players relationship with Shenhua. Again it was relatively minor, so I would give scenarios where the player had to make tangiable choices and those choices having impact over the entire adventure.

Improved characterization with real stakes- I think most of us agree the characters and lack of stakes hurt Shenmue 3’s story. Most of the characters needed additional scenarios to be fleshed out. Master Feng is one obvious example where there was potential for so much more story and getting insights into Iwao’s journey, his ethos and time in China yet was given practically no screen time. In addition I would have scenarios rewritten in Niaowu so you could sense how powerful and dangerous the Red Snakes are and the destruction they were causing. In addition have Ryo’s life be in real peril unlike what we saw in the final game.

Improved combat- Addition of throw moves and grapples are obvious enough. I would also have a dedicated dodge button and like to see snappier response to commands along with improved animation.

Fixing broken QTE’s- It’s the one aspect that remains broken. I would give most commands an additional 1 to 1.5 seconds for players input. In addition bring back multi path QTE’s like Shenmue 2.

Honestly as much as I enjoyed Shenmue 3 it’s certainly a game of what if’s. Putting aside small budget they had, most of us have envisioned what a true sequel on Dreamcast would have looked and played like. So this isn’t getting into things like the games font, UI elements, animations and other things.
 
I had a huge response typed out to this, which I have just ended up deleting. All it transcended into, was criticism and solutions to nothing but the writing of Shenmue 3, which isn't exactly what this topic about. It's never, ever going to happen, but like the OP says, a man can dream.
 
Here's some changes that i think are reasonable; as in don't require huge amount of new content to be made or script changes:

  • Tweak the hit detection on the fighting system
  • Make enemies get up quicker from hard knockdowns
  • Change the reverse body check into one of Akira's other techniques (push pull throw? stun palm of doom etc?)
  • Ditch the fetch quest at the castle. I know it was a stretch goal but it is extremely out of place and kills the buzz from travelling over ready for the big finale. "Let's DO THIS" "Nah fam find my plates and camera first"
  • Make the interactions with Niao Sun unmissable so the end reveal has more impact (I only saw her once in the scripted scene in the market on my first playthrough)
  • Tweak the music boundaries so music doesn't stop in odd places e.g near the cliff by the Shenmue tree if you go too far near the cliff edge
  • Change the evening curfew to 11pm
  • Alter the HP and cost values of food items to make more sense
  • Fix the corrections with the dub/subs
Here's some pie in the sky fixes:
  • Rework the NPCs into 1 consistent style. Those ugly cartoon faced NPCs have to go. Double up on used models, give them sunglasses or hats if you have too, but get rid of them. Yu really should have strived for consistency on this
  • A secondary forklift route
  • Throws, parries and true counters in combat system
All that said I still think it's a tremendous achievement considering all the developmental factors. I recently picked up a Panasonic OLED TV and had a wonder round Niaowu at night and it's just beautiful. The Save Shenmue shrine at night, going through the back to the waterfall area with the fireflies is just stunning. The one area they totally killed it was the environments.
 
The only thing I would want is the original ending and some tweaks to the battle system. But in general, a directors cut will never happen so it's not good to dwell on "what if?" in this case. I think the best you could hope for is a PS5 version or maybe a Switch port (if that was feasible)...but yeah, I don't see any Directors Cut happening for Shenmue III.

I'll just stick with what I have and hope for improvements with the next game.
 
Peter said:
I had a huge response typed out to this, which I have just ended up deleting. All it transcended into, was criticism and solutions to nothing but the writing of Shenmue 3, which isn't exactly what this topic about. It's never, ever going to happen, but like the OP says, a man can dream.
Click to expand...
Since we never got a full review from you I still would have loved to read your thoughts on Shenmue 3’s writing and what alternative paths you would have liked to see them take.
 
I don't think that a dc will ever happen, but maybe it would be possible to change many things with modding.
The cutted scences of course are lost forever, except Ys Net make them public somewhere...
 
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