- Joined
- Sep 20, 2018
There's indeed a big clash between Shenmue I-II and III on that matter, it's that III make sure to kill many supernatural elements and mysticism.
In Shenmue I-II, the mirors always held a big secret, a mystical secret. Talks about an ancient treasure. Talks about the Chi You. Bailu village also felt like a mystic village, in a mystic forest. I wont even talk about floating swords and such.
In Shenmue 3 though ? All of that is retconned. Yes, Retconned. I say it 100% sure. It's a complete rewriting. Bailu became a regular village. The floating sword a regular dagger. The mirors are a map for a not so old treasure.
You want to know how far the rewriting has been going on ?
Take the Shenmue II game over:
Lan Di kills Ryo and then comes to Shenhua and say "I shall take your power, for the Chiyoumen".
In III the same thing happens except Lan Di says... Nothing.
Everything mystical about Shenhua or Bailu is retconned.
And please, spare me that badly written scene which is obviously a joke where Shenhua use "her powers" against the thug when it's obviously a play on the trope of the "cute anime girl scarring the thugs".
Same for the "she can talk with animals" where Ryo has a surprised/nearly mocking reaction. Nothing is shown in a serious and mystical manner to take that seriously. In Shenmue II, when Shenhua was hinting at such things, it was said in a serious tone, with a lot of mysticism. In Shenmue III, it is said in a naive, nearly comical tone.
In the original design though
In the end, it was made into a sword and that's what matters. Yet it became a dagger... Without any powers.
It's not baseless, I explained how and why.
Let's be honest here, Shenmue III is doing its best to minimise any magical/mystical elements from the serie.
The only one that is open to debate is that Shenhua and thug scene... And even that is up to debate.
I have to agree, and sadly it's a big reason I'm less excited for Shenmue sequels than ever before. I'm disappointed they downplayed the supernatural elements that were brilliantly and slowly introduced. I really don't find the prospect of a 'hidden treasure' as interesting as supernatural implications from the previous games.
It's a shame that Bailu and the sword were forgotten about to such a large degree, especially as you said we probably won't be revisiting.
I can't believe I didn't even think much about the sword early on when playing 3, for some reason I think I was just excited about playing the sequel and more interested in meeting the characters than remembering the sword and 'magic' that immediately preceded it. The fact the scene was 'remade' didn't bother me as much until the rest of the game went in the same direction.