- Joined
- Nov 29, 2020
Hi all, you may not believe it but I'm a huge Shenmue fan and had been looking forward to III for years and finally just finished it. I have probably had the busiest year of my life and just didn't have the time to sink into it (or any game) the way I wanted to -- and I really wanted to spend time with it like I did the original two -- soaking in the world, spending time working, exploring, etc. -- so all that to say, I've finally, 20 minutes ago, watched the credits roll.
Even more difficult doing it this way is that I didn't want any reviews, commenters, etc., to colour my experience with the game. So writing this now, I have no idea what the fan community thought of III, nor what reviewers may have thought of it.
So my big takeaway: It's an imperfect, beautiful, satisfying game, with minor deficiencies. But given the fact that it didn't have a major studio backing it, the fact that we got such a beautiful world to explore (as a Kickstarter game!) is pretty remarkable.
Story
Starts off pretty slow, and I'd say doesn't have the same engaging flow throughout that I and II did. The game does become much more enjoyable when Ryo arrives in Niaowu. It seems like a transitional chapter, but I really loved the finale. The shivers when Ryo fights Lan Di! I did hope that sequence went a little bit longer, though. And it takes guts by Yu Suzuki to not resolve the story here and bet on a 4th entry, but at the same time I wouldn't want him to rush it either. Great to see Ren in an important role! Even though the justification for him being there initially is just... "treasure?"
You can really feel like Yu has some very interesting story pieces that he's still setting up in this game, especially in the finale.
Fighting
At first I wasn't sure about this, but I felt the fighting system really deepened the more you played the game. I really enjoyed the circuits in Niaowu, going through progressively harder opponents to win skill books. I really worked on levelling up Ryo's fighting skills before heading to the final sequence, and having done that it was really easy to cruise through the final opponents, including this master kung fu artist (forget his name). There were guys at the dojo who were more difficult to beat than that guy. Also, not sure how I feel about the recovery drinks that save you during a fight -- tended to take away the challenge having those in your back pocket.
Voice acting
Awful, but it is Shenmue. Also was disappointed that they recast all of the original voices beside Ryo. Ryo's voice acting is awful (is someone directing this guy? Does he have any context to what he's reacting to?) but again, it's Shenmue.
Graphics
Beautiful. I love the style of this game, and the sunsets in Bailu Village and Niaowu are frequently stunning. It's a rare game that is able to capture a world like this in such a way that actually stops you in your (in-game) tracks. There's the occasional hiccup but nothing that really bothered me.
Side-quests
A mixed bag, but there are enough here to keep you interested if some bore you. It was great to see the return of the forklift, though I wouldn't have minded seeing more of a varied track to keep things interesting. I also really enjoyed the economy in the game -- collecting herbs to sell at the pharmacy, for example. There are enough items to make this seem worth it (new clothes, for one) that makes it feel like the economy actually matters, compared to I and II where the money was all to advance quests forward.
Music
One of my favourite parts of the Shenmue experience, and though I didn't feel like the music hit the heights of I and II there are some great tracks. The main Shenmue theme is one of the best in gaming history IMO. My favourite in this one, I think, is what plays when Ryo is chopping wood -- so calming. And then frustratingly it cuts out whenever Ryo chops wood into that weird techno track, but I'll track it down for myself later.
Overall, I'm walking away from this wanting more and feeling like the best is still to come. I think what happened here was that they had a big job, creating the world of Shenmue on a much lower budget, and some of that shows -- a lot of this is world-building, and the game gradually grows more impressive as it goes on, really reaching its peak in the final 1/4.
OK, now I'm going to go read what everyone else thought.
Even more difficult doing it this way is that I didn't want any reviews, commenters, etc., to colour my experience with the game. So writing this now, I have no idea what the fan community thought of III, nor what reviewers may have thought of it.
So my big takeaway: It's an imperfect, beautiful, satisfying game, with minor deficiencies. But given the fact that it didn't have a major studio backing it, the fact that we got such a beautiful world to explore (as a Kickstarter game!) is pretty remarkable.
Story
Starts off pretty slow, and I'd say doesn't have the same engaging flow throughout that I and II did. The game does become much more enjoyable when Ryo arrives in Niaowu. It seems like a transitional chapter, but I really loved the finale. The shivers when Ryo fights Lan Di! I did hope that sequence went a little bit longer, though. And it takes guts by Yu Suzuki to not resolve the story here and bet on a 4th entry, but at the same time I wouldn't want him to rush it either. Great to see Ren in an important role! Even though the justification for him being there initially is just... "treasure?"
You can really feel like Yu has some very interesting story pieces that he's still setting up in this game, especially in the finale.
Fighting
At first I wasn't sure about this, but I felt the fighting system really deepened the more you played the game. I really enjoyed the circuits in Niaowu, going through progressively harder opponents to win skill books. I really worked on levelling up Ryo's fighting skills before heading to the final sequence, and having done that it was really easy to cruise through the final opponents, including this master kung fu artist (forget his name). There were guys at the dojo who were more difficult to beat than that guy. Also, not sure how I feel about the recovery drinks that save you during a fight -- tended to take away the challenge having those in your back pocket.
Voice acting
Awful, but it is Shenmue. Also was disappointed that they recast all of the original voices beside Ryo. Ryo's voice acting is awful (is someone directing this guy? Does he have any context to what he's reacting to?) but again, it's Shenmue.
Graphics
Beautiful. I love the style of this game, and the sunsets in Bailu Village and Niaowu are frequently stunning. It's a rare game that is able to capture a world like this in such a way that actually stops you in your (in-game) tracks. There's the occasional hiccup but nothing that really bothered me.
Side-quests
A mixed bag, but there are enough here to keep you interested if some bore you. It was great to see the return of the forklift, though I wouldn't have minded seeing more of a varied track to keep things interesting. I also really enjoyed the economy in the game -- collecting herbs to sell at the pharmacy, for example. There are enough items to make this seem worth it (new clothes, for one) that makes it feel like the economy actually matters, compared to I and II where the money was all to advance quests forward.
Music
One of my favourite parts of the Shenmue experience, and though I didn't feel like the music hit the heights of I and II there are some great tracks. The main Shenmue theme is one of the best in gaming history IMO. My favourite in this one, I think, is what plays when Ryo is chopping wood -- so calming. And then frustratingly it cuts out whenever Ryo chops wood into that weird techno track, but I'll track it down for myself later.
Overall, I'm walking away from this wanting more and feeling like the best is still to come. I think what happened here was that they had a big job, creating the world of Shenmue on a much lower budget, and some of that shows -- a lot of this is world-building, and the game gradually grows more impressive as it goes on, really reaching its peak in the final 1/4.
OK, now I'm going to go read what everyone else thought.