Potential Shenmue 3 Retcons?

Man, I'd love a thorough post-release interview where Yu explains himself.
 
Tentei (the Chi You Men true leader) is seemingly cut according to Niao Sun in the finale claiming the she is the new leader assuming Lan Di is killed in the fire. Could Ziming Hong be cut as well?

This is honestly one of my biggest worries. I'll be highly upset if Lan Di is the only leader now.
Ziming Hong definitely isn't cut though, if you look at the Yin-yang half that Xiuying gives Ryo, it says the other half is in her brother's possession, so I'm sure he'll show up.


I also really hope the treasure isn't just some gold, unless it's retconned it has to be more than that. In the first game, Guizhang says if Lan Di gets the other mirror, nothing will be able to stop him. So unless it's been retconned, the treasure has to be some kind of power thing.
 
The only actual retcon I'm aware of is that they've changed the sword of the seven stars to a much shorter blade, like a dagger. I was a bit taken aback by that, and really not sure why they would bother. It's not like having Shenhua plug the sword in there would really change anything.

The mysterious tiger scroll found in the dojo is gone, although I did find a named move scroll in the ‘key items’ menu which may have replaced it.

Nah that scroll is definitely still there. It's the "Secret Poetry Scroll" in Key Items. In Shenmue it starts out as "Mysterious Scroll," and then when you have Guizhang translate it for you, it becomes "Poetry Scroll," so it is for sure the same item.
 
Isn’t the scroll just describing the deadly move Lan Di used?

Yeah, I have always assumed this to be the case. "With twin fangs strike" is what always jumped out at me, and immediately brought Lan Di's death blow to mind. I'm assuming the master who wrote it is in Mengcun, and we'll find out more when we get there.
 
The biggest problem by far is with the mirrors. It’s said they form a key that has something to do with the constellations. They also have some kind of magic property since the Phoenix mirror literally shoots a laser that lights torches on fire. Except now in S3 we know that they were created in Bailu village so recently that there are people in the village who were alive when they were created. Ryo literally talks to the descendant of the man who built the magic mirror, who had the blueprints in his house, who worked in the quarry where said magic mechanism was built and it just never fucking comes up. So the mirrors are either now just a key to a treasure or future games are going to have a very hard time explaining this.

Mmh... not exactly. The mirrors are the result of a process that was worked for generations. It's hinted that the Bailu community was created around this mysterious stone cave ages ago. Then generation after generation of stonecutters worked on these and the mirrors were completed in the early XX century. But they're just the final result of a process that was started with the creation of Bailu village (Shenhua says that the whole Bailu economy, farmers and trade, was said to have originated to support the stonecutters).
 
The letter in the cave strongly implies that Mr. Yuan is dead (listen to it again). He is obviously alive and well. Since he exposit's nothing and is basically a glorified McGuffin, I'm not convinced he was always planned in the story.

This is something that took me back when I started the game, and now that I've finished it, it makes even less sense.

Each of the other stonemasons were kidnapped from their homes in Bailu village.

From where was Yuan kidnapped? I may have missed something, but it seems really odd. At the end of II you got the sense he died after completing his life's work with those mirrors. Here he's kidnapped at an undetermined point... and for some reason the Red Snakes keep on kidnapping other Red Snakes? I wouldn't think Yuan had time to go home after completing those mirrors in the cave. Was he kidnapped while walking about in Bailu?

To me, this was definitely a retcon.
 
He must have known he was being hunted and wrote the letter believing he was going to be killed, but he was rescued before that happened.

I feel it was strongly implied in Shenmue II that Yuan was coming to the end of his life, what with Shenhua's repeated mentions of his sickness, trying to gather herbs for him, him talking about watching over her in his letter...
 
Then generation after generation of stonecutters worked on these and the mirrors were completed in the early XX century. But they're just the final result of a process that was started with the creation of Bailu village
Unless I missed something, the blind lady says that the design for the mirrors was brought to Yuan's grandfather by the envoy. Shenhua even clarifies that it must be the blueprint they found in her house. Even the design on the mirrors matches the design on the flags so they can't possibly be older than the early 20th century.

What's special about Bailu village is that it's home to phantom river stone and it's never elaborated on why that's special. S2 implies that Yuan heard voices from the stone but this is never brought up. Again, I'm not sure how any of this can be expanded upon in future games because we're no longer in Bailu village and unlikely to return, at least for some time. All we know is that Bailu is home to famous stone cutters who became known to the emperor, Yuan's family specifically, and he commissioned the mirrors to be built, presumably as a key to a treasure. Then they built giant versions of the mirrors in the quarry hidden behind a magic mechanism that causes a sword to float before shooting a laser out of the phoenix mirror just for fun, I guess.

They also have a scroll painted by the worst artist they could find that shows a phoenix and a dragon over a pile of gold, which the blind lady assumes is hidden away in the mountains. And also Niaowu for some reason. This story is a fucking mess.

Again, unless I missed something, I'm not inclined to think it goes deeper than anything I just described if that was all the information we gleaned from the village that all of this stuff comes from, told to us by a lady who was alive at the time.

(EDIT) ALSO at some point the village started reciting a poem about a dragon and a phoenix that pertains to Shenhua's destiny (a destiny predetermined since ANCIENT times) for some reason. And somehow knew that someone holding the phoenix mirror specifically would meet her. Shenhua's father and the blind lady both tell her to "go with this person" and "find the proof". And it never. Comes. Up.
 
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This may not be a retcon, as I may simply be remembering incorrectly, but did Shenhua not state in 2 that Yuan is actually her uncle, although she calls him father? Also something about her giving him a hard time when she was younger. As far as I'm aware there was no mention of this fact in 3.
 
This may not be a retcon, as I may simply be remembering incorrectly, but did Shenhua not state in 2 that Yuan is actually her uncle, although she calls him father? Also something about her giving him a hard time when she was younger. As far as I'm aware there was no mention of this fact in 3.

She calls him her father, but also says he's not her biological father, and that she doesn't know what happened to her real parents. From the Shenmue tree cutscene, it's implied that her real parents are from a long time ago and that Shenhua is older than she appears:


EDIT: Also, if the tree in the cutscene and the flashback are one and the same, then the tree is a lot smaller when Shenhua was a baby, implying again that Shenhua may be at least decades older than she appears.
 
This may not be a retcon, as I may simply be remembering incorrectly, but did Shenhua not state in 2 that Yuan is actually her uncle, although she calls him father? Also something about her giving him a hard time when she was younger. As far as I'm aware there was no mention of this fact in 3.

Yes I think you're right. Her real parents died when she was young? I always assumed their deaths were connected to the mirrors.
 
Yea Mr yuan was underused in this by that I mean when we rescue him at the end I was hoping that there would be some dramatic revalition but all we get is Lan di's real name again lol and know one knows how's his father died lol , we already got this info at the end of two and it was delivered with much more wonder and mystic

I hope some.of the dlc will expand things a bit
 
- Tentei (the Chi You Men true leader) is seemingly cut according to Niao Sun in the finale claiming the she is the new leader assuming Lan Di is killed in the fire. Could Ziming Hong be cut as well?

Ziming isn't a leader...
 
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I think it’s sort of determined that she is royalty (artwork and dialogue deduction) and is much older than she appears.
 
Yea Mr yuan was underused in this by that I mean when we rescue him at the end I was hoping that there would be some dramatic revalition but all we get is Lan di's real name again lol and know one knows how's his father died lol , we already got this info at the end of two and it was delivered with much more wonder and mystic

I hope some.of the dlc will expand things a bit
Ryo must have bad short term memory. Yuan Da Zhu already explained that to him
 
The only actual retcon I'm aware of is that they've changed the sword of the seven stars to a much shorter blade, like a dagger. I was a bit taken aback by that, and really not sure why they would bother. It's not like having Shenhua plug the sword in there would really change anything
This may be because Suzuki originally intended it to be a dagger. See this interview here.
 
Also, if the tree in the cutscene and the flashback are one and the same, then the tree is a lot smaller when Shenhua was a baby, implying again that Shenhua may be at least decades older than she appears
Centuries. Remember she says the Shenmue tree was this big when her grandfather was a child. Unless it's a different tree in a different location. Regardless, the style of dress may mean it's a different time period.
 
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