What did you like about the story? What did you learn?
I loved getting to know Shenhua, the conversations with her every night, and the daily interactions were fantastic. I loved getting to know the people of Bailu village, from the jealous dweeb who's in love with Shenhua, to the annoying little kids, the young martial artist who's fawning over Ryo, etc.
I loved finally meeting the "old lady" who uses the herbs gathered by the villagers to make medicines for the village folk, as mentioned by Shenhua on the walk to Bailu at the end of Shenmue II. I loved hearing about Iwao and Zhao Sunming training together and developing their martial arts. I loved finding out there's a god damn second Shenmue tree that Iwao Hazuki trained under every day.
I loved Ryo being Ryo and begging Grandmaster Feng to teach him generations' worth of martial arts in 5 minutes so he can crack on with getting himself killed facing Lan Di, and Grandmaster Feng telling him to fuck off. I loved seeing Ryo seek out an old drunken martial arts master who has him do seemingly ridiculous tasks in exchange for training him, only for it to be revealed that the silly tasks were actually a part of the training itself, I thought that was an awesome little kung fu movie trope done really well.
I loved learning about the origins of the mirrors, their connection to and representation of the Emperor and the Empress. I loved seeing Shenhua's mystical/magical abilities teased even more when she extracted info from the thug at Hermit's Nest.
I loved travelling to Niaowu with Shenhua, and seeing her trepidation over leave her home village for the very first time. I loved how Madam at Hotel Niaowu felt like such a classically charming "Shenmue" character, as did the rich couple in room 207. I loved the mysteriously alluring woman Ryo and Shenhua are both drawn to on the boat, and later in Niaowu itself, who turns out to be fucking Niao Sun, and we finally see her after all this time!
I loved tracking down the Red Snakes, beating up their crew and then getting bodied by Ge. Having Shenhua tend to Ryo's wounds, getting rinsed by Ren for being battered by them, taking Ren back the next day and having both of us get our arses kicked. Then having to seek out an ancient Bajiquan move scroll in order to take him on.
And most of all I loved the final encounter with Lan Di. That fight was absolute perfection, and exactly what I have built it up to be in my mind for going on 20 years now. Lan Di just effortlessly parrying absolutely everything Ryo throws at him, and beating him down and nearly killing him without breaking a sweat. Completely cold and ruthless. It was fucking amazing.
I just feel a complete disconnect from the people who are disappointed and say nothing happened in Shenmue III, and that we learned nothing. That is not how I felt about it at all. I feel like we learned plenty, loads of really interesting events took place, and lots of great new characters were introduced. I'm not sure if I just took it slower than most of you guys or what, but I found it absolutely wonderful from start to finish, and it is easily up there with Shenmue and Shenmue II for me.