Thomasina said:
People who didn't like the game have nothing to do with Shenmue 4.
Shenmue 3 and its quality are what negatively affected Shenmue 4.
Random gamers not liking the game probably won't have an impact on its chances, but some of the negative reviews and media coverage definitely had an impact on the decision making of potential newcomers, who ended up skipping the game.
This means that people who didn't like the game
and were vocal about it most definitely affected
Shenmue IV's chances, at least to some extent.
Because rather than thinking for themselves, people tend to use review scores on aggregator sites to decide the quality of a product and whether or not they'll give something a chance. And nowadays everything that averages to below 75% is considered mediocre, which is absolutely ludicrous.
That's why I'm not a fan of people putting too much stock into reviews and scores. More often than not it comes across as a popularity contest, when that's the last thing it should be: Quality is not objective fact. It's very personal and thus different for everybody.
Someone's 4 might be your 10 and vice versa.
With all of that said I don't see how anyone who's put any thought into this can come to the conclusion that
Shenmue III hurt the series.
Without
Shenmue III, this conversation wouldn't even be happening and we'd still wonder about a potential revival of the franchise. Hell, most of us wouldn't even be here right now.
Since the
Shenmue III kickstarter, we've see
Shenmue I & II come to modern systems, a ton of merchandise being released and we're watching a weekly
Shenmue anime. None of this would have happened without
Shenmue III, regardless of what anyone may think about its quality. That should be overwhelmingly clear at this point.
Thomasina said:
It's amazing to still see people furious over the super eye patch wolf guy's review. Who cares, let it go.
It's because 'influencers' who use hyperbole clickbait negativity to feed their bottom line - and in the process possibly hurt an already struggling franchise - are amongst the lowest forms of drifters. They live in echo chambers where their hot takes aren't challenged and are in dire need of some well deserved pushback. Obviously, the fans care. And this
is a fan forum. I think it's amazing that you're amazed by this. And slightly ironic, since you're the one obviously 'still furious' about
Shenmue III.
Thomasina said:
And as for my own opinion, I have little faith in Shenmue 4. I didn't like S3 and I have no idea what S4 would offer or what it would be. S3 shattered my perception of what the Shenmue series has to offer moving forward. If S4 turned out to be like S3, I would be done. I think S4 would have to rebuild the series and I think that's a bad place to be.
If that's how you feel, unfortunate as it may be, that's how you feel.
There's nothing wrong with (strongly) disliking something, but when people go out of their way to continuously shove their negativity down the throats of an otherwise mostly positive community, it gets a bit tiresome and makes you look sad.
How about somewhat more fair and constructive criticism? It makes people take you more seriously.