My Shenmue 3 impressions (5 hours in)

mjqjazzbar said:
lol who is disappointed and dissatisfied? it seems like almost everyone is loving it. i mean i know there's some stuff about the ending, but overall I felt the tenor of these threads was pretty optimistic...
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I admit I am.

Overall it is fun to play and to explore. But I think they had a lack of cinematic skill and scriptwriting for events in the story. Storytelling is not as good as with the AM2 crew (whoever was responsible)
. Very dull antagonists (even the returning ones), no surprises, nothing new revealed about some story elements.

The overall bigger story does not progress at all its like after Shenmue 2 again. No info on Zhao Sunming, no info on mirrors, in short: all of the mysteries that kept this community curious remain still unsolved, are not even touched storywise.

It feels like Shenmue 3 is a prolonging game that delays solving some plot elements.
 
code l name said:
I’m genuinely sorry you read more than you would have liked. I think we can attest part of the beauty of Shenmue is finding those small moments on your own. That’s why I’d like to keep this thread for general impressions, observations and thoughts.

Regarding plot intensive discussions, the ending and future chapters are best served by the other thread and boy do I have a lot to get off my chest.

So after you complete
the game you can load essentially new game plus which carries over your Kungfu levels, move scrolls token and money. You can decide starting from Bailu or going straight away to Niaowu

Completely unrelated but I want to see if anyone can get soccer ball from pail toss guy. And if so please write me a guide!
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For pail toss, first align the line with the other bucket on the left, then push the line until it touches the closer side of the bucket you are going for.

The trick is to avoid placing the line in the middle of the bucket, but instead putting it more on the side closer to you.

Shouldn’t take more than a few tries if you follow my instructions.
 
code l name said:
I’m genuinely sorry you read more than you would have liked. I think we can attest part of the beauty of Shenmue is finding those small moments on your own. That’s why I’d like to keep this thread for general impressions, observations and thoughts.

Regarding plot intensive discussions, the ending and future chapters are best served by the other thread and boy do I have a lot to get off my chest.

So after you complete
the game you can load essentially new game plus which carries over your Kungfu levels, move scrolls token and money. You can decide starting from Bailu or going straight away to Niaowu

Completely unrelated but I want to see if anyone can get soccer ball from pail toss guy. And if so please write me a guide!
Click to expand...

...I got the soccer ball from the pail toss guy. That was actually first thing I did in the whole game, haha!
 
ValoniMahoni said:
I admit I am.

Overall it is fun to play and to explore. But I think they had a lack of cinematic skill and scriptwriting for events in the story. Storytelling is not as good as with the AM2 crew (whoever was responsible)
. Very dull antagonists (even the returning ones), no surprises, nothing new revealed about some story elements.

The overall bigger story does not progress at all its like after Shenmue 2 again. No info on Zhao Sunming, no info on mirrors, in short: all of the mysteries that kept this community curious remain still unsolved, are not even touched storywise.

It feels like Shenmue 3 is a prolonging game that delays solving some plot elements.
Click to expand...

Would you rather have had a 10 Hours story focused game with barely any decent quantity of gameplay? Good luck selling that to people other than diehard fans.

It’s a fucking Kickstarter project that by a miracle turned out into a proper modern game, when will people realize this?
 
Shenhua-Nani? said:
Would you rather have had a 10 Hours story focused game with barely any decent quantity of gameplay? Good luck selling that to people other than diehard fans.

It’s a fucking Kickstarter project that by a miracle turned out into a proper modern game, when will people realize this?
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Well actually I would have preferred that. After all, Shenmue Games have always been story focused games.

In 3 it is like they tried to make less story and more gamey gameplay.

The gameplay is superb.

But after all that:
I'm trying to think about what this game gave me to take in storywise.

I found myself basically with the same questions as before.

I can't help it sorry, this is how I feel. It is a pretty fun game but it feels more like a fanmade game than a true sequel to me.
 
If I could share some of my own first impressons (Just because there isn't a thread dedicated to everyone's just yet.)

So, I can’t speak for any elements of the story. Because honestly, I only just scratched the surface in terms of that. At least that’s how it feels. I played about two and a half hours to three, and as someone who didn’t touch the demo when it got released. I have to say that it those first couple of hours flew by, I had a lot of fun. There was almost too many things to do at one point, too many things to try out. Just on a personal level, I found it amusing that Shenhua split off from me to go and find answers and the first thing I do is find the pail toss guy and start trying to win a soccer ball. But all of those mini games are very fun, collecting the herbs is very fun, I even love chopping the wood. That song that starts to play when you’re getting good at chopping the wood? Amazing.

The fighting is taking some getting used to, but I love the feeling that you’re training and getting better. It actually feels like there’s a point to doing the training mini games and sparring with people rather than just killing time until the next story beat. But the actual fighting itself, while it looks great in the motion. I sometimes find the act of fighting to be a little bit clunky, but this is probably just a new system that I have to get used to.

So far my favourite thing about the game, and this was the moment just before I switched off was getting to talk with Shenhua. Actually getting to see Ryo’s personality was really nice, and that’s been my biggest takeaway from it so far, is that Ryo feels a lot more fleshed out when the game intends for it to happen. He still has these awkward bits of dialogue that make me laugh, but it feels like a nice evolution of the game.

It’s early days, but honestly I’m just happy for the experience at the moment. The best thing I can say is that it feels like I’m just continuing the story completely as I would have all those years ago if Shenmue 3 was released back then. I’m really curious to keep playing and get further but I knew tonight was a work night so I had to cut myself off and drag myself away from the PS4.

At the moment I’m satisfied. But I appreciate that I am very much at the beginning of this whole thing.
 
code l name said:
Completely unrelated but I want to see if anyone can get soccer ball from pail toss guy. And if so please write me a guide!
Click to expand...
When I got it (after spending like 50 panda bucks), the retical was touching the back tip of the bucket. Very hard to get because of Ryo's power constantly moving up and down.
 
Shenhua-Nani? said:
The trick is to avoid placing the line in the middle of the bucket, but instead putting it more on the side closer to you.

Shouldn’t take more than a few tries if you follow my instructions.
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quicktimefailure said:
When I got it (after spending like 50 panda bucks), the retical was touching the back tip of the bucket. Very hard to get because of Ryo's power constantly moving up and down.
Click to expand...

Thanks for tips. Were you guys tossing at the low or high end of Ryo’s tossing arc? I was able to get rest of buckets but soccer ball continues to allude me. It shall be mine!
 
Shenhua-Nani? said:
Would you rather have had a 10 Hours story focused game with barely any decent quantity of gameplay? Good luck selling that to people other than diehard fans.

It’s a fucking Kickstarter project that by a miracle turned out into a proper modern game, when will people realize this?
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Kickstarter project or not it failed to deliver on two aspects that make Shenmue what it is. Characters and Story. Seems like Yu had intent to deliver on these aspects but just couldn't in the end. If this were to be the standard going forward, even some of the most diehard Shenmue fans would be left disappointed. Since the groundwork is all there, hopefully Yu can focus on characters and plot going forward. You need to keep in mind that the fans wanted the STORY to continue more so than anything and Yu even considered making a game with very little gameplay and just a focus on story. Story and character are whats most important with Shenmue. Hell the fanbase was willing to take books, manga, and movies even since games were no longer on the table. If we don't have a compelling story and fleshed out characters...what is it that we have to sell new fans on?

Yakuza arguably does everything else "better" in regards to what modern gamers might find refreshing. Story, atmosphere, and character has always been the hook for this series after Shenmue 1 in particular not aging well for example. I like the game but that final segment, the ending, and the way the supporting cast is handled has kept me from LOVING the game.
 
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kaliskonig91 said:
Kickstarter project or not it failed to deliver on two aspects that make Shenmue what it is. Characters and Story. Seems like Yu had intent to deliver on these aspects but just couldn't in the end. If this were to be the standard going forward, even some of the most diehard Shenmue fans would be left disappointed. Since the groundwork is all there, hopefully Yu can focus on characters and plot going forward. You need to keep in mind that the fans wanted the STORY to continue more so than anything and Yu even considered making a game with very little gameplay and just a focus on story. Story and character are whats most important with Shenmue. Hell the fanbase was willing to take books, manga, and movies even since games were no longer on the table.
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i think ill play the game for myself and form my own opinion which is why i have stayed away from watching spoiler videos and judge a game from that
 
So after speaking with others on Restera and carefully reviewing the Digital Foundry preview I am now speculating the game on PS4 Pro framerate may be uncapped. It’s certainly not as smooth as PC footage. I’d love for some confirmation.
 
OK. I just saw the ending, and I don't share this negative sentiment.

I thought the ending was pretty damn good. I'm not gonna spoil anything for anybody, but I thought the scene was VERY compelling. Actually much better than Shenmue 2's. Actually, the very end with them climbing, kinda reminded me of the end of Shenmue 2, but sort of more quickly.

It's a very beautiful ending. It's better than the ending of the first game, for sure. And better than second game's too.
At least Ryo to go touch Lan Di this time. And it was an awesome motion captured scene. I was a little confused on wether or not Lan Di got the mirror. But the scene was awesome.

You guys are hard to please.
 
DanyTargaryen said:
OK. I just saw the ending, and I don't share this negative sentiment.

I thought the ending was pretty damn good. I'm not gonna spoil anything for anybody, but I thought the scene was VERY compelling. Actually much better than Shenmue 2's. Actually, the very end with them climbing, kinda reminded me of the end of Shenmue 2, but sort of more quickly.

It's a very beautiful ending. It's better than the ending of the first game, for sure. And better than second game's too.
At least Ryo to go touch Lan Di this time. And it was an awesome motion captured scene. I was a little confused on wether or not Lan Di got the mirror. But the scene was awesome.

You guys are hard to please.
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Very interesting, that's good to hear.
 
DanyTargaryen said:
OK. I just saw the ending, and I don't share this negative sentiment.

I thought the ending was pretty damn good. I'm not gonna spoil anything for anybody, but I thought the scene was VERY compelling. Actually much better than Shenmue 2's. Actually, the very end with them climbing, kinda reminded me of the end of Shenmue 2, but sort of more quickly.

It's a very beautiful ending. It's better than the ending of the first game, for sure. And better than second game's too.
At least Ryo to go touch Lan Di this time. And it was an awesome motion captured scene. I was a little confused on wether or not Lan Di got the mirror. But the scene was awesome.

You guys are hard to please.
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Lol those guys prob thought they would whoop lan do or something. I don’t know the ending btw
 
Truck_1_0_1_ said:
Indeed; if one follows the GDC cards, chapters 4, 5 and 6 give the impression that its fighting and training, with characters being repeated (Lan Di and the Big Brute, along with Shenhua) and the only new person being Niao Sun, who also is in the next chapter card and more prominent.
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Where does one find these GDC cards, out of curiosity?
 
code l name said:
Thanks for tips. Were you guys tossing at the low or high end of Ryo’s tossing arc? I was able to get rest of buckets but soccer ball continues to allude me. It shall be mine!
Click to expand...

my toss was at more of the lower end. have the arrows go as close to the bucket as you can before it goes behind the bucket.
 
Great game so far but not perfect, can't be blind to it's faults. Anyone noticed how the reuse of using the old music sometimes works perfectly but other times just feel like fan fiction. For the most part it does work though but hearing new music is better. Loving this game.
 
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