Is SIII appealing to the eye?

[Dietsoap]

Not janky apparently...

Yeah, there's nothing janky about this. It's a fortune teller guy putting himself into a trance.

 

[Tsukuyomimagi99]

First of all, this is more a design choices post rather than one about graphics.

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I started considering that the "graphical problem" is not the reason casuals say the game doesn't appeal to the eye (the game looks at least from the ps3 era which is good for me)... I have to say tho that even I feel what they mean by that.

Instead, I am now thinking that maybe what we feel are not the graphics but the juxtaposition of 2017 textures, 2015 illumination and 2011 models. Do you think that could be the problem?

Also, by comparing SII's Guilin and S3's, are you satisfied with the design choices?

For me, in the character design aspect I miss the Langhuishan charm (the kids or the old man sleeping for example). I feel the characters in the trailers could easily be from Hong Kong.

With casual gamers you tend to get one shot at making a good first impression. Unfortunately for Y’s Net and Deep Silver they failed to do that with the 2017 teaser. Most casuals don’t really care about the situations behind the scenes or what hidden pressures Yu Suzuki and his team had to live up to. Most gamers are used to highly polished trailers that have highly detailed character models, high resolution textures, and fluid animation. What they saw in 2017 was an early beta and assumed that this was the best that his team could come up with. You compound that with the general distrust of crowd funding platforms mixed with high quality independent video games often made by one or two people you have a recipe for disaster.

When it comes to my perception of their design choices I haven’t really formed a final opinion on it yet. The game is still a work in progress which constantly plastered over every trailer they release. The IGN Japan footage shown was B-Roll footage and while opinions from E3 vary the demo had some praising that it looked better than the IGN footage we were shown. Then of course we have to remember that Suzuki is using the “Agile” method so maybe these last five months are finish the designs. Basically I’ll only be able to form a final judgment when the game is released.

With that being said, I don’t think my opinion as of right now is going to change that dramatically. You have to remember that Shenmue 3 is on a limited budget. You have to remember that Suzuki had to form his team at Y’s Net from scratch that all have their own strengths and weaknesses that he had to harness as efficiently as possible. It’s not like his days back at Sega where he had a much bigger budget and was working in perfect synchronization with the all-star AM2 team. Or burdened with managerial duties on top of being a creator.
Yu has also stated in interviews that every character is on a tier to receive a certain level of love and care. Which is why we see such a drastic contrast between someone like Ryo and some generic NPC.

As for how Bailu Village is portrayed in 3 I am fine with it since we’ve seen so little of the village to really form a comparison from Shenmue 2. And finally as someone who would’ve taken Shenmue 3 as a game boy game I am happy that Shenmue 3 looks as decent as it does given the circumstances. If this was Shenmue 3 developed by Yu Suzuki working at Sega with a much higher budget and working with AM2 team I would be a lot more critical. But for now I just feel blessed that I’ve lived to see a day I thought would never come, a continuation of the Shenmue series.

 

[orient]

The game looks great in my opinion, with a few caveats.

I don't think there's anything particularly "dated" about the environments, lighting or texture work. It clearly doesn't have the absurd production values of a AAA game, but it looks like the true sequel to Shenmue II: bright, colourful, and detailed. It's trying to evoke the look and feel of the original games instead of aiming for realism, and I appreciate that.

The animation is getting a lot of criticism but I see nothing in the actual character movement that's bad, it's really just the lip-syncing and facial expressions that aren't up to the same level. But they're working on it.

I guess Ryo's walk is a bit stiff, but it's better than the originals. His long strides actually remind me of Kazuma Kiryu's walk.

I think some NPCs look incredible (I love the old dice guy) and some look very bland by comparison (turtle race guy) -- there is a lack of consistency there -- but honestly, I can live with it in a game with 500 NPCs.

 

[Nathanial Essex]

I'm dead serious.
The guy erratically swinging his neck around isnt jankiness. It's a decision to make him mystically weird.

This was so obvious I'm surprised you had to point it out.

 

[code l name]

Sorry but I dont understand where Shenmue I or II were janky ?
Sure, they had tank controls but that's because Dreamcast only had one stick.

I wholeheartedly agree. I think people are viewing the original titles in a vacuum because they were cutting edge (especially first game) and had production values that took many other develop re years to catch up to.

 

[ShenmueTree]

Ryo and Shenhua's body/moving animations are just plain amazing, I must say. They have a lot of subtle but very realistic movements. Their facial animations needs a bit of work but even those have moments of subtle greatness as well.

There are some NPC body & facial animations on the otherhand that are not so great...