Do you think saving Yuan was always going to be S3's main plot point?

I still wonder who it was that "stayed the night before" in the crag where Ryo and Shenhua took turns to sleep.
I can't see Lan Di walking up mountain paths when he had a chopper.

That’s actually an interesting question that I never thought about before. I always assumed it was some random traveler/villager to/from Bailu.
 
Even if he wasn't kidnapped they would've spent time looking for him regardless, so I think searching for Yuan was always intended. However, the fact that much of the lore uncovered in Bailu appears to have been part of the original plan leads me to think the kidnapping probably was, too.

Searching for Yuan is the perfect reason for Ryo to actually spend time with Shenhua, and build a bond between the two by doing something that benefits both of them. I mean, you can't just say two characters' destinies are intertwined and then not actually have a good reason for them to spend time together.

I guess you could argue the plan could've been for them to search for Yuan, only to find that he'd been murdered -- and now they're both out for revenge against Lan Di! -- but that doesn't work at all for me.

Firstly, you already have the "father murdered" parallel with Lan Di, where it carries a lot more weight. Secondly, Shenhua is the yin to Ryo's yang. She is calm and Ryo is hot-headed. Murdering Yuan at this point in the story, before we've even gotten to know Shenhua properly, would be a sloppy move from a narrative perspective. (Not saying she won't be tempted by a form of revenge at some point, but not now).
 
Probably the Blue Snakes or what their name was. Yanlang's gang.
Can’t prove it for sure, but I am almost positive the Blue Spiders and Red Snakes were not intended to exist until “New Shenmue III” was being developed and retconning majority of the original story arc. Who knows what, if anything, it originally meant.
 
Can’t prove it for sure, but I am almost positive the Blue Spiders and Red Snakes were not intended to exist until “New Shenmue III” was being developed and retconning majority of the original story arc. Who knows what, if anything, it originally meant.

Yanlang was originally in the chapter illustrations so perhaps they were planned all along. Kind of like Terry of the Mad Angels, Dou Niu of the Yellow Head etc.
 
I think the same as Orient.
It just felt anticlimactic to save Yuan so early in the macro-story while his letter sounded literaly as a swansong, for so little revelation eventually. I expected to meet him much later in the saga.

I wonder to what extent the emotion would have been different if:
- the game was story-filled as much as Shenmue 2.
- the cave scene was not so dramatic. Because the end of Shenmue 2 feels really pointless now.
 
Great question. The impression I got from the end of Shenmue II was that Yuan had died from natural causes and left the whole prophecy thing for Ryo and Shenhua to discover. The way the letter was worded sounded more like a goodbye than an "I'm being kidnapped by some thugs but will see you soon" message.

With that said, in addition to the fact Bailu does not appear to be like anything previously described, I wouldn't be surprised if the entire story was changed somewhat.
 
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