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

Inner journey, personal relationships and plot heavy is what I hoped for. While the arcade, mini games, working and running around chasing chickens is all novelty that reminds us of the earlier games uniqueness I would rather they had moved the story further than just finding out about Shenhuas adopted family being the mirror creators.
 
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.


China wasnt that ass backwards in the late 80's even in rural areas
 
I definitely think having three or four different gambling areas in Bailu was a bit much.
 
Lol that type of thing didn’t even register with me.

now, a town with a few dozen people needing more gambling opportunities than Yokosuka. I do find that a bit unnatural.
 
Lol that type of thing didn’t even register with me.

now, a town with a few dozen people needing more gambling opportunities than Yokosuka. I do find that a bit unnatural.

No, i didn’t feel a fridge was out of place either. Especially as you can see generators running these things. I was just referencing a poster who seems to have quite an issue with Shenhua having a fridge.
 
No, i didn’t feel a fridge was out of place either. Especially as you can see generators running these things. I was just referencing a poster who seems to have quite an issue with Shenhua having a fridge.


No, you're just making it a bigger deal than I made out of it to conveniently skip all the fair criticism that I mentionned before.
Basically: "I wont bother with arguing, I'll just pick the fridge out of all arguments and be a clown about that".
 
Bailu definitely feels too big and modern for a small village in late 80s China. Heck, it feels too modern for a remote small village in even today's China.

But I don't mind. Shenmue is a video game instead of a travel documentary and the developers are allowed to take artistic license. It's not like their presentation of Kowloon or Hong Kong matched reality exactly either.

As for what I would have wanted. Hard to say. I didn't really follow the Kickstarter updates after the first year and went into the game with pretty much blank expectations. Well, I would have enjoyed more interactions with Shenhua. Those evening talks with her in Bailu were great and I would have liked the relationship between her and Ryo explored deeper.
 
Bailu definitely feels too big and modern for a small village in late 80s China. Heck, it feels too modern for a remote small village in even today's China.
I personally don't think that Shenmue aims to be a realistic game. It kinda looks like that next games are going to add some supernatural elements to the story.(Shenhua has some hidden powers.)
 
Back in 2015, I imagined Bailu would focus more on "working" QTE mini-games like miking cow, raising vegetables, transporting the chopped wood yourself like the Xiuying's books, interacting with the cows to transport some stuff etc. The more you work, the more you prove your truthfulness, get affinity with NPCs and unlock new dialogues or events.

I think they should have more brainstormed this way but I understand these type of mini games are more difficult to design and make fun. In the meantime, designing rural working mini games would probably mean no Niaowu neither.

At least, the NPCs could have said "because it's currently the Game Festival, it's a longtime tradition that occurs every four years here in Bailu!" or "At Bailu we do love games!". But the trick may have looked trite so I don't know.

As a former director said, Shenmue was not to be "real" but to have a reality.

Never visited Hong Kong but I did travel in some big cities of South-East Asia and Shenmue 2 felt incredibly realistic. It wasn't faithful in terms of dimension but the atmosphere was 100% accurate, more than Sleeping Dogs in my opinion.

The logic behind Bailu looks a little different. Yu intended to convey a painting scenery while make sure the game is fun and easier to produce at realism cost.
 
No, you're just making it a bigger deal than I made out of it to conveniently skip all the fair criticism that I mentionned before.
Basically: "I wont bother with arguing, I'll just pick the fridge out of all arguments and be a clown about that".

Was I poking fun at this?


and Shenhua has a freaking fridge.

Why, yes I was. It’s not exactly a huge deal, but I apologise if you took offence at my sophisticated sense of humour.

for what it’s worth I do agree that in some respects Bailu does seem to be somewhat more advanced than one would have imagined in that setting. Doesn’t really bother me though.
 
Basically wanted another autistic handcrafted, handcoded, handpainted masterpiece.

Instead got an unreal engine demo cashgrab.

If yu were truly passionate he could make something interesting.

What made shenmue interesting was that it was different for it's time.

Recalling the early days of the kickstarter, the unreal "engine" was chosen almost immediately. Once I heard of that, I knew it was not going to be anything interesting.

I think Yu is too shallow.
 
Wanted a great story that didn't feel so meh and shallow..
Decent music instead of reused music in places that it didn't fit in
New caspule toys instead of that random crap that they used..

Better written characters
 
Wanted a great story that didn't feel so meh and shallow..
Decent music instead of reused music in places that it didn't fit in
New caspule toys instead of that random crap that they used..

Better written characters
lol do you remember that epic music that played when you cut through the sunflower grove to come across that offering site? The one with the drunk master who trains you by chasing chickens. That was so freaking weird.
 
lol do you remember that epic music that played when you cut through the sunflower grove to come across that offering site? The one with the drunk master who trains you by chasing chickens. That was so freaking weird.

Man i thought the whole time something was wrong or i screwed up hearing that weird music lol
 
No, i didn’t feel a fridge was out of place either. Especially as you can see generators running these things. I was just referencing a poster who seems to have quite an issue with Shenhua having a fridge.
It's another lame retcon of shenmue 2, like the new room, new painting, etc. Even the martial hall is because we don't encounter it in your way to the house of shenhua.
 
From the story side, I wanted it to pick up the pace after S2 and get more complex with more substories happening in parallel (I wanted Ryo to get overwhelmed and feel lost in a puzzle that's way bigger than he realised he was getting into), and explore some cool Chinese mythology and maybe a more spiritual side to mastering Kung-Fu. I wanted the stakes to get higher, and the world to feel a bit more dangerous over time, yet maintain that the answer is in keeping an open mind and a level head.
Some of the characters in S3 had dialogue to that effect, but the actual game and execution had no feeling about it at all for me. In S2, Xiuying and Jianmin and even that Zongquan guy gave the feeling of martial arts as a way of life... and Dou Niu and Ghost Hall Building's planks and Yuan chasing with a chainsaw felt like legitimate danger. In S3 it was a matter of finding the right book and doing a new move once and suddenly all the problems in the world were solved.

Graphics, sounds, voices.. I'm happy with these, and some places like the open fields of Bailu look better than I thought would have been possible with the budget. I do wish for the old QTE beeping sound though. I shudder at the wording of some of the dialogue though - "Please and thank you".. really?!

From an exploration and adventure side I was hoping to continue being able to wander around and look at items on shelves and see shops full of trinkets that had nothing to do with the story. I also wanted to feel like I was in a community that was alive with people who walked around and did things, and over time I'd get to know them. I'm glad that I did indeed get to wander around and look at random things, but I didn't feel like I made any friends or got to know anybody other than Shenhua (which worked awesomely in Bailu, and fell off to near-nothingness in Naiowu).

I guess I wanted to see more story points and more building of friendships and relationships. The exploration and even stuff like Tama the kitten in S1 were slow and living magical moments that made Shenmue different to many other games, so I was hoping for more of that. Instead it felt more like a bunch of fetch quests and a constant need to get cash to buy garlic and dumplings to keep me alive. In Shenmue 1 and 2, I could tell you a lot about the various characters and places I know. In Shenmue 3 I barely knew any because the conversations didn't get any deeper, and I was stuck surviving the requires game mechanics I needed to fulfill to progress and pay for food.
 
Basically wanted another autistic handcrafted, handcoded, handpainted masterpiece.

Instead got an unreal engine demo cashgrab.

If yu were truly passionate he could make something interesting.

What made shenmue interesting was that it was different for it's time.

Recalling the early days of the kickstarter, the unreal "engine" was chosen almost immediately. Once I heard of that, I knew it was not going to be anything interesting.

I think Yu is too shallow.
You were never going to get that for the budget. Not a chance.

You don't have to have liked the game but saying Yu Suzuki lacks passion is purely ridiculous. Do you know his thoughts? Do you know the processes he went through to make the game? His note at the end is enough of a display of passion.

Shenmue was different for the time but it was never going to be groundbreaking this time around. I'd suggest expectations were too high.

Be dissatisfied in the game, that's your view and its respected. If Yu Suzuki lacked passion the game would never have been made anyway.
 
Was I poking fun at this?

Why, yes I was. It’s not exactly a huge deal, but I apologise if you took offence at my sophisticated sense of humour.

for what it’s worth I do agree that in some respects Bailu does seem to be somewhat more advanced than one would have imagined in that setting. Doesn’t really bother me though.
Shenhua having a fridge wasn't as unrealistic as this scene of Shenmue 2.
image14.jpg

Where Lan Di is hanging from ladder of the helicopter and just by moving his neck the pilot somehow realizes that he should escape.

One thing I kinda disliked about this scene was that there was no real need for Lan Di hanging from that ladder.(He could easily been in the chopper and Ryo could still see him.)

Guess this is how Lan Di uses choppers.
 
Shenhua having a fridge wasn't as unrealistic as this scene of Shenmue 2.
image14.jpg

Where Lan Di is hanging from ladder of the helicopter and just by moving his neck the pilot somehow realizes that he should escape.

One thing I kinda disliked about this scene was that there was no real need for Lan Di hanging from that ladder.(He could easily been in the chopper and Ryo could still see him.)

Guess this is how Lan Di uses choppers.

Not only that but Lan Di could have absolutely annihilated Ryo right there and then for daring to mess with his plans. I love the helicopter scene but I’m almost certain that if this were part of 3, some folks would use what I said above as a stick to beat the game with.
 
Back
Top