Ideally, What Did You Want From The Development of Shenmue III?

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I will simply say that I am truly grateful that Shenmue III exists, and nothing can take that feeling away. However, we all had different expectations during Shenmue III's development phase and this is the thread for that. Ideally what would you have wanted?
 
Save Niaowu (& Baisha) for Shenmue 4. Target polishing and unity instead of ambition.

Make Bailu Village as the true Yokosuka of Guilin and source of intriguing mysteries implying village history and Iwao's past (but keep Mr.Su lol).

More storytelling built around Ryo's training and progression. Less trivial mini-games, more complete dojo and training/working mini-games.

Deepen the Affinity System. More dialogues and secret social interaction with characters. That's the main enhancement I expected since dialogues became very repetitive in Shenmue 1 & 2, their weakest point in my opinion. Bring back the informal side quest system. Maybe get ride of English dub to do so.

Make the environment fully interactive... well YSnet did it in a brilliant way so thank you!

Obviously, these decisions would have been easier to take if Yu wouldn't have:
- so much respect for fans
- promised Niaowu and Baisha in 2015
- featured Niao Sun so much since the Dreamcast footage (and Shenmue Orchestra)
- to deal with the concept of stretch goals (mini-games x4, etc.)
- so much talented employees for modeling 3D objects in UE4
 
I honestly had very low expectations. I figured it’d be hard to live up to 15 years of anticipation, especially with the game being developed under less than ideal circumstances. That’s why I’m not one of the guys who can’t stop pouring negativity everywhere. I expected the worst and came away somewhat happy. I am hopeful for the future of the series and I know nothing can take away from my love for the series or admiration for Yu Suzuki.

I am positive Shenmue 3 would’ve been another one of my favorite games had it come out when it should’ve, riding the incredible momentum of Shenmue 2’s unforgettable cliffhanger ending. That would’ve been the perfect scenario and obviously we lost that a long, long time ago. I’m completely open to any idea Yu Suzuki comes up with next and think he will learn a lot from this experience. I have no doubt he’s paid attention to a lot of the criticism out there.
 
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Considering it was a kickstarter project, I assumed that combat/mini-games/free-roam would be a 2nd priority due to the budget.
I expected more emphasis on the writing, all three locations advertised on kickstarter and a narrative heavy experience.
 
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I just wanted more scenes with the supporting characters, broom girl whose name I forget could have been great.
 
Ideally, I would have wanted it on DC in 2003.

Yu once said S3 would expand "inward, not outward", so I expected the game to focus on character development and be narrative-driven. But except for the Shenhua talks in Bailu, character development was extremely weak. And even the Shenhua talks didn't add much to some of the most important plot points such as the Prophecy, the mirrors, Shenhuas powers and so on.

In hindsight I'd have preferred Niaowu cut in favor of Baisha being in S3.
 
Ideally, I would have wanted it on DC in 2003.

Yu once said S3 would expand "inward, not outward", so I expected the game to focus on character development and be narrative-driven. But except for the Shenhua talks in Bailu, character development was extremely weak. And even the Shenhua talks didn't add much to some of the most important plot points such as the Prophecy, the mirrors, Shenhuas powers and so on.

In hindsight I'd have preferred Niaowu cut in favor of Baisha being in S3.
Cutting Niaowu is something I'm in favor of.
Going by the plans to include a perspective system that shows other characters point of view, I definitely expected Shenhua and Ren to play larger roles in the narrative.
 
Ideally, I would have wanted it on DC in 2003.

Yu once said S3 would expand "inward, not outward", so I expected the game to focus on character development and be narrative-driven. But except for the Shenhua talks in Bailu, character development was extremely weak. And even the Shenhua talks didn't add much to some of the most important plot points such as the Prophecy, the mirrors, Shenhuas powers and so on.

In hindsight I'd have preferred Niaowu cut in favor of Baisha being in S3.



I stand in the same position.
Same.for the "developping inward". I felt like Shenmue III would've been a smaller world but rich and detailled with a strong cast of characters. Instead we got a world that felt big but shallow.
 
Also:
I would've cut most of the mini games in Bailu. It makes absolutely 0 sense. Bailu is supposed to be a village lost in mountains. And yet it seems to be nearly as equipped as any village from that era. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it was more modern than that kind of village in China back then.
Heck, Langhuishan was supposed to be where people from Bailu comes to get some stuff. In fact, Bailu is big af.
So you come from Shenmue II, where Bailu is depicted as a mystical isolated village... to a random chinese village with gachapons, arcade and Shenhua has a freaking fridge.

It makes absolutely no sense. The focus on mini-games and such not only had a budget cost which impact the presentation and the fledging of the story but also the story as a whole and the progression system.
 
Like a few others, my expectations were very tempered given the nature and limited resources of the development. Once I was playing the game I was genuinely blown away by the scope and ambition of the world YSnet manage to accomplish. Especially given what we’d seen in other other KS games.

i did think the interactions could have definitely been deeper. Even those with Shenhua which are the most fleshed out in the game. Once you get to Niaowu, which I love and I’m glad they included, I was somewhat disappointed with the very limited role Shenhua has in the 2nd half of the game.

So overall it very much exceeded my expectations. But there’s no doubting I would have liked the narrative to delve deeper and the interactions to be more fleshed out. Lastly, I do think there is some definite romanticising of the original games. They are my absolute favourite games of all time by far, but they most definitely had their shortcomings which sometimes are glossed over these days. Especially when compared to III.
 
I wanted it to feel like a Shenmue story while developing the characters, relationships between them and the overall story. At least they nailed the first part.

At first I was a bit disappointed with the relationship between Shenhua and Ryo as it sort of falls off half way through the game, but I’m no wondering whether YS intended for Shenhua to become distant with Ryo upon leaving Bailu.
 
It makes absolutely no sense. The focus on mini-games and such not only had a budget cost which impact the presentation and the fledging of the story but also the story as a whole and the progression system.

I’m not sure having the mini games in Bailu would have really added that much to the dev cost when they were essentially copy and pasted between Niaowu and Bailu.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else take exception to Shenhua having a fridge. “Not a fridge!!”
 
I’m not sure having the mini games in Bailu would have really added that much to the dev cost when they were essentially copy and pasted between Niaowu and Bailu.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else take exception to Shenhua having a fridge. “Not a fridge!!”



If it was just the fridge, it'd be fine. It's Bailu village as a whole that feels like more modern and in fact more knowledgeable about the outside world that what Shenmue II let you believe.
 
If it was just the fridge, it'd be fine. It's Bailu village as a whole that feels like more modern and in fact more knowledgeable about the outside world that what Shenmue II let you believe.

Don’t get me wrong, I get your point, but i can’t say it took me out of the game at all, or even bothered me. They took many liberties with Guilin, even as far as the general vegetation and landscape which is completely different in real life. I did love Bailu.
 
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I didn't expect much but still wanted continuity and it disappointed.

I don't really care about mini games and level up of kung fu, I wanted an interesting story (including areas and characters development) without retcon (which go beyond the sword).

At least the gameplay and the cinematic feeling lean toward correct.
 
Originally, I thought Bailu and Niaowu would both be about the size of Dobuita, filled with mostly non-interactive NPCs, and a handful of interactive characters in each area. Kinda like a slightly expanded Telltale game. And until we got the first real combat screenshot, I honestly thought the fighting was going to be a basic QTE-fest (based on some of Yu's early comments). I definitely didn't think we'd be able to zoom in and examine individual objects in first-person again. I didn't expect the world to be detailed, or look very good at all.

In so many ways the world of Shenmue III exceeded my expectations, and I respect the team for pulling it together given the circumstances. However, in an ideal world, there's no denying I would've liked deeper characters and more character interaction. Not even necessarily more plot, because I was fine with the story for the most part -- just more friends made along the way. More emotional resonance.

Of course, in an ideal world, we would've had sections where we played as Ren and Shenhua, and Baisha would've made it in but alas, it wasn't meant to be. I'm hoping we'll see some of that in Shenmue IV.
 
Of course, in an ideal world, we would've had sections where we played as Ren and Shenhua, and Baisha would've made it in but alas,.

See, I think this would have helped a lot with the “emotional resonance” as you put it. Which btw I think is the ideal term.
 
Some interesting stuff here.

I'll break mine down into realistic and crazy.

Realistic:
I don't see the use for the Dragon Engine. Unreal does a stellar job. I'd have liked more optimizations for console.

Tbh I'd have liked something on a par with Shenmue 1 in terms of the story, building towards a massive climax ready for Shenmue 4. This in combination with the world/minigames in 3 would be great.

Better animations and polish.

Crazy:
VF6 engine to be used for fighting.

Full mocap for all animations such as walking, fighting etc

Shenmue 1-5 in one massive PS5 killer app all remade from the ground up. Proper class VO dubs and a shit load of Sega games in the world!
 
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