How immersive do you think Shenmue 3 will be?

mjqjazzbar

mjqjazzbar

Joined
Jul 28, 2018
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Shenmue IIx
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Ghost of Tsushima
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mjqjazzbar
After playing Shenmue 1 again for the first time years, I remembered just how limited the game could be. For instance, you can't eat any of the food you purchase from the Tomato Mart or even purchase food from restaurants like Hot Dog Tom's stand. Then there's the issue of Ryo wearing the same outfit every day for months on end. Hell, he even sleeps in his clothes.

Another thing that sticks out to me is how when you run into someone in the forklift it's like you've hit a brick wall, with Ryo even grunting like he's the one who got hurt. Take it one step further and walking into people on the streets of Dobuita or Hong Kong doesn't even elicit any kind of reaction from NPCs.

Obviously there are lots of limitations by design or due to the technology of the day, but I wonder how Shenmue 3 will approach these types of things. What level of immersion are you expecting from Shenmue 3? I guess we do have to keep the game's budget in mind...
 
That'd be funny.

You know, in Yakuza all that happens when you run into someone is you kind of shove them out of the way. That's the type of thing I imagine happening in a modern Shenmue.

I just really want Ryo to say "yes" when Tom says "Hey Ryo, how about a dooooog?"
 
I don’t want the game to be too realistic. I don’t want Ryo to be constantly eating, drinking, using the bathroom, changing clothes, going out on dates, etc.

I love Shenmue 1 & 2 the way they are and I’m sure I wouldn’t have loved them anywhere near as much had Ryo needed to use the bathroom twice daily, eat meals three times daily, stayed over at Nozomi’s house every day, etc.

It’s a game, not real life. I enjoy playing video games because it’s an escape from real life.

An overly immersive Shenmue 3 is not what I’m hoping for. I want the game to have that Shenmue feel.
 
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You’re right. Part of the reason you eat food in a Yakuza is because you carry your health, whereas in Shenmue you have no health outside individual fights. All the same, you can drink soda. Why not have some fun eating food, too, even if it serves no purpose?
 
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Yu Suzuki already said the NPC's won't be as advanced as in the first game, which is a shame. Maybe we'll get Shenmue 2 immersion, where the NPC's hang out in certain areas, but don't have homes or schedules.

Kingdom Come is the first game in ages with NPC's that sleep, work and relax in bars. Ironically it's also published by Deep Silver, but uses CryEngine instead of Unreal. Too bad they can't use the coding.
 
I don't think it will be that immersive sadly. The budget probably isn't big enough. I expect something like Shenmue 2 but with a smaller world.
 
xettex said:
Yu Suzuki already said the NPC's won't be as advanced as in the first game, which is a shame.
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In the first game, a lot of the NPCs know Ryo and so it makes sense for them to be overfamiliar with him whereas in the second game most of the NPCs obviously don’t know Ryo and so for all of them to discuss their personal lives with a stranger would be somewhat presumptuous and not in keeping with the fish-out-of-water vibe which, I’m sure, the developers were going for.

It only makes sense that this also be the case for Shenmue 3, perhaps not so much due to budget constraints as to create the appropriate atmosphere.
 
I'd like the "handling" of Ryo as you're walking and turning to be smoother, and expect the NPCs to move and turn more organically, too. But due to Ryo's character I wouldn't really expect to be able to run him into NPCs and bump them aside as in Yakuza, or bowl them over as in GTA. He's much too polite.

As far as the environments go, I'm quite confident they'll be very immersive just from the beautiful screenshots and glimpses we've seen in videos so far. Even the relatively simpler I & II environments are still able to draw me in with their atmosphere. I was playing last night and when I finished for the evening I was rather surprised to see that it was midnight, as opposed to whatever time it was in the game, which had totally drawn me in. Shenmue III's environments are going to be a quantum leap in terms of detail.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
You’re right. Part of the reason you eat food in a Yakuza is because you carry your health, whereas in Shenmue you have no health outside individual fights. All the same, you can drink soda. Why not have some fun eating food, too, even if it serves no purpose?
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Didn't Yu say something along the lines of him wanting to have side activites that someway reflect back to the player in more then just a way to kill time? So fishing might raise some stats or help raise punches due to the arm strength needed, or maybe he learns a new move from it. I could be mixing that up with how he wants more player choice to effect relationships though, with how you treat Shenhua.

I think the world looks great from the shots we have seen, being at awe with the enviroment and the level of detail should make that part very immersive. I was at awe at the sites to behold in DQ11 which is also done on the Unreal Engine, but I think Shenmue 3 will pull this off in even more spades with the details. The fact they got an architect on team who worked on Shenmue 1 and 2 and helped make those world so immersive, shows even in the previews.

The sound matters too like the hussle and bussle background sounds should also add another layer, while outside them in the fields, flowing water and nature sounds should also add that extra level of immersion.

NPC's I'm still on the wait and see since we have seen so little of the gameplay and behaviour/quanity for what they will bring into the game world. I expect they should bring even more life to the towns atleast aesthetically.
 
RyoHazuki84 said:
Though I wouldn’t want a pissing arcade game.
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Why not? SEGA literally make them.

sega-toylet-1.jpg
 
Zoyous said:
I'd like the "handling" of Ryo as you're walking and turning to be smoother, and expect the NPCs to move and turn more organically, too. But due to Ryo's character I wouldn't really expect to be able to run him into NPCs and bump them aside as in Yakuza, or bowl them over as in GTA. He's much too polite.

As far as the environments go, I'm quite confident they'll be very immersive just from the beautiful screenshots and glimpses we've seen in videos so far. Even the relatively simpler I & II environments are still able to draw me in with their atmosphere. I was playing last night and when I finished for the evening I was rather surprised to see that it was midnight, as opposed to whatever time it was in the game, which had totally drawn me in. Shenmue III's environments are going to be a quantum leap in terms of detail.
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Even if there were some acknowledgement from Ryo he was about to bump into an NPC, like he slows down when he runs up to someone, it would create some added realism IMO.
 
Really like your idea of Ryo slowing down when running up to people or bumping into them when he passes them closely.

I never thought of S2 being less immersive than S1 though. Quite the contrary to be honest. It would have made absolutely no sense for Ryo to have as much interaction an familiarity with NPCs in S2 as in S1. That's the anonymity of a big city, versus his backwater hometown in suburban Japan.

So concerning NPCs, I think S3 should be somewhere between S1 and S2. So of course the streets in rural villages should not be as crowded as in S2's Hong Kong but also Ryo should still everything and everybody should feel new and unkown to Ryo and the player.
 
RyoHazuki84 said:
I am going to assume the population of the villages he visits is less than that of Yokosuka
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Choubu will have around 200 NPCs, which is comparable to Wan Chai.
 
With 200 NPCs Choubu is even less likely to have Shenmue-1-like schedules unfortunately. Meanwhile if Bailu has around 10 houses I think it'd stand out if the NPCs didn't have work/sleep routines and their own dedicated homes.
 
It's going to be around as big as Shenmue 1.
Since there probably going to be 3 chapters with 3 locations in the game.
Shenmue IV will be a bigger game through like Shenmue II. Probably the biggest game in the series.
 
Choubu sounds like size of Wan Chai, so I think Shenmue 3--with Baihlu Village--will simply be a hyrbrid fo both game styles. Surely the villagers are strangers, so there might not be the familiarity and nuanced personal detail as Yokosuka (or perhaps they do because of Shenhua's familiarity), but still follow a schedule routine. Whereas Choubu will be akin to Aberdeen where NPC are plentiful enough to just blend into the immersion and only really help for directions or random small details. Such as when sleuthing about Yuanda Zhu/Five Stars in Shenmue 2; only shop owners will give scant details, yet every single one of them has heard the name before.
 
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