Random Shenmue III Thoughts

In 2021, most people can't think for themselves. They have to be told what to like, think and feel.
I don't want to open up that can of worms, but switching off your brain and blindly letting YouTube do all your thinking for you is not only stupid, it can also lead people down some harmful pipelines.

I used to watch a fairly witty gaming YouTuber who had strong opinions about certain franchises. Then, once his audience grew large enough and demonstrated how sheep-like they were by blindly parroting his opinions and becoming hostile to any opposing views in their cultish fandom, out came the propaganda dump truck...
 
I don't want to open up that can of worms, but switching off your brain and blindly letting YouTube do all your thinking for you is not only stupid, it can also lead people down some harmful pipelines.

I used to watch a fairly witty gaming YouTuber who had strong opinions about certain franchises. Then, once his audience grew large enough and demonstrated how sheep-like they were by blindly parroting his opinions and becoming hostile to any opposing views in their cultish fandom, out came the propaganda dump truck...
Is it bad I literally don't watch any gaming Youtube channels? None have really ever interested me.
 
I don't want to open up that can of worms, but switching off your brain and blindly letting YouTube do all your thinking for you is not only stupid, it can also lead people down some harmful pipelines.

I used to watch a fairly witty gaming YouTuber who had strong opinions about certain franchises. Then, once his audience grew large enough and demonstrated how sheep-like they were by blindly parroting his opinions and becoming hostile to any opposing views in their cultish fandom, out came the propaganda dump truck...
Very, very accurate description. Seen it many times. Happens with many big youtubers outside of gaming too.
 
Is it bad I literally don't watch any gaming Youtube channels? None have really ever interested me.
I only watch HistoricNerd, Wrestling with Gaming and Gaming Historian.

All good production values and PBS vibes. Love em.
 
What mystifies me is why individuals value reviews in the first place. When it comes to entertainment media, reviews are nothing more than a subjective opinion. These opinions can not tell you whether said media is right for you or not.

Then there's a simple fact that you can watch playthroughs of video games without even playing them. This makes reviews even more pointless because showing is more powerful than telling. If I listened to every reviewer then I shouldn't enjoy such video games as Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Final Fantasy XV, or Metroid Other M.

While I don't think there's any harm in placing some value in other opinions, they should not override your own. All that matters at the end of the day is your enjoyment.
 
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This is yet another reason why I'm loving this Shenmue 3 playthrough.
Just listen to what Lawrence says about Super Eye Patch Wolf's video on Shenmue 3.
It starts at 1 min and 20 seconds:

He hit the nail on the head. I will say it does get tiring to just see people latch on to an opinion like it's gospel. But hey it's nothing new. Let us not forget the years of Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb shitting on Shenmue and the Giant Bomb fanboys just latching onto his opinion like it was gospel. Or the common sentiment that "Yakuza is Shenmue but better" even though we all know that's not the case. It's just moved from game journalists to YouTubers now.

I don't know, maybe it's just me but I've always subscribed to the idea of play it for yourself and find out. One mans review doesn't mean shit. I hated The Last of Us 2 yet I know of people here who loved it and thought it was one of the best games of last year. Or that time IGN told me Godhand was shit with its subjective review. I played it years later and loved the hell out of it and couldn't see what they were talking about with that review.

But yeah, I think it's just easy to latch onto an opinion and echo it like its their own because that's easier than it is to form an opinion of ones own. That and it's just trendy to be negative. Negative gains more clicks than positive. It does get tiring though. To see people who have never played a second of any of these games just echo the subjective opinion of one.
 
Unpopular opinion, but I don't like the interrogation scene in Bailu with Yanglang and Shenhua. There are several reasons for this, with the first being that I did not find it very humorous. The second reason being I found it out of character for Shenhua; and finally, it was a wasted opportunity to show how far down the road of vengeance Ryo was walking down.

Shenhua up until Shenmue III struck me as a pure soul who would never harm anyone. It would be one thing if Longsun Zhao or Tentei came after her but that's not the case here. Then again, I am not a fan of women abusing men in media for comedy, to begin with.

Finally, I did not like the scene because I wanted to see Ryo go Jack Bauer on Yanglang. This would show how far down the dark path of vengeance Ryo has gone. However, unlike Longsun Zhao, Shenhua stops him before he goes too far. It would have been a nice contrast between Ryo and Lan-Di in that the latter didn't have that emotional anchor to pull him back from the brink.

In either case, what's done is done.
 
Unpopular opinion, but I don't like the interrogation scene in Bailu with Yanglang and Shenhua. There are several reasons for this, with the first being that I did not find it very humorous. The second reason being I found it out of character for Shenhua; and finally, it was a wasted opportunity to show how far down the road of vengeance Ryo was walking down.

Shenhua up until Shenmue III struck me as a pure soul who would never harm anyone. It would be one thing if Longsun Zhao or Tentei came after her but that's not the case here. Then again, I am not a fan of women abusing men in media for comedy, to begin with.

Finally, I did not like the scene because I wanted to see Ryo go Jack Bauer on Yanglang. This would show how far down the dark path of vengeance Ryo has gone. However, unlike Longsun Zhao, Shenhua stops him before he goes too far. It would have been a nice contrast between Ryo and Lan-Di in that the latter didn't have that emotional anchor to pull him back from the brink.

In either case, what's done is done.

After you said that i even wanted to see the scene again, i saw the scene again and i continue to have the same opinion as when i played the game for the first time.

Interesting how people can see the same scene in different ways, this scene was serious to me. Shenhua just decided that it was time to use one of her powers to take the informations from Yanlang, she wanted to rescue her father, was something really important for her, and i felt that she didn't wanted Ryo to lose more patience so she decided to solve this alone.

When i saw her eyes like this i thought... "Wow... we will finally see her powers? this will be intense" sadly we don't know what she did, in my opinion she used one of her powers we just don't know what she did, i hope that in Shenmue IV we will have the answer to this.


Shenhua.png

In my opinion is not a scene with humor, Shenhua didn't do this for pleasure and fun, she just did this to take the informations.

Shenhua is still a mysterious character, in my opinion she is not just a pure soul, we are just seeing other parts of her personality, we are just seeing now that she have a strong side too, this scene and the scene with Ren are serious scenes, in my opinion was Yu Suzuki showing a little bit more that Shenhua is different from other people and that she has a strong side and powers, i hope we can see more about this powers in Shenmue IV, Shenhua is one of my favorite characters in Shenmue.

We don't know what she did to him but this scene was serious to me, but every person has a different experience and opinion about the game and i respect that. 😊
 
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Unpopular opinion, but I don't like the interrogation scene in Bailu with Yanglang and Shenhua. There are several reasons for this, with the first being that I did not find it very humorous. The second reason being I found it out of character for Shenhua; and finally, it was a wasted opportunity to show how far down the road of vengeance Ryo was walking down.

Shenhua up until Shenmue III struck me as a pure soul who would never harm anyone. It would be one thing if Longsun Zhao or Tentei came after her but that's not the case here. Then again, I am not a fan of women abusing men in media for comedy, to begin with.

Finally, I did not like the scene because I wanted to see Ryo go Jack Bauer on Yanglang. This would show how far down the dark path of vengeance Ryo has gone. However, unlike Longsun Zhao, Shenhua stops him before he goes too far. It would have been a nice contrast between Ryo and Lan-Di in that the latter didn't have that emotional anchor to pull him back from the brink.

In either case, what's done is done.
The yanglang scenes aren't meant to be humorous. There's a few scenes like this in the game that show off Shenhua's bizarre behavior. We made a thread about it a while ago

https://www.shenmuedojo.com/forum/index.php?threads/shenhuas-powers-in-shenmue-3.2852/

Although i admit, seeing Ryo go full on jack bauer mode would have been awesome. Shenhua would have made a good Chloe O Brien
 
Ryo is to good of a guy to go into Jack Bauer mode.
Ryo Interrogating Chai

1494417211-bauer-torture.jpg
 
I recall that Yu was apparently adamant with Brianna Knickerbocker that Shenhua be portrayed with more empowerment this time around. So she now has these moments in Shenmue 3 where she demonstrates a bit more strength, courage and sass than her Shenmue 2 incarnation.

With the Yanlang scene, in particular, I thought it was an interesting subversion that gave a bit more spice to her character. I think we were all expecting Shenhua to remain as this fragile damsel who Ryo had to safeguard constantly (myself included), and then 3 challenges that in a pretty comical way by revealing that she's a capable heroine in her own right who will complement Ryo nicely along their travels.

I know it's a deliberate character alteration, but I do prefer a slightly more fiery Shenhua than her pure, innocent maiden self from Shenmue 2 who at times felt a bit absent of a personality and would have been really dull to journey around China with. In 3, she still has that softness but also feels a bit more empowered and sassy this time, who I think will now have some really great moments with Ryo and Ren in the future games.
 
Shenhua.jpg

In my opinion was not a character alteration, Shenhua is still a mysterious character, we are just getting to know more about her, we are just seeing other parts of her personality, even in the Project Berkley we can clearly see a strong side of Shenhua where she defend herself and use one of her powers.

The point is... this parts of her personality was what Yu Suzuki wanted to do back then or this was a new idea? i don't know for sure, we have to ask him but i think it was his original vision to show that she is different from other people, to show that she have a strong side and powers.

In my opinion in Shenmue III she continues to be a sweet and gentle girl, this didn't change, we are just seeing new things about her, Shenhua is mysterious, there is still so much to learn about her, how many powers does she have? she have control of all of her powers or no? i have so many questions about her.

All i know is that i like her in Shenmue III, i like her in all the games, Shenhua is one of my favorite characters.
 
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I recall that Yu was adamant with Brianna Knickerbocker that Shenhua be portrayed with more empowerment this time around. So she now has these moments in Shenmue 3 where she demonstrates a bit more strength, courage, and sass than her Shenmue 2 incarnation.

With the Yanlang scene, in particular, I thought it was an interesting subversion that gave a bit more spice to her character. I think we were all expecting Shenhua to remain as this fragile damsel who Ryo had to safeguard constantly (myself included), and then 3 challenges that in a pretty comical way by revealing that she's a capable heroine in her own right who will complement Ryo nicely along their travels.

I know it's a deliberate character alteration, but I do prefer a slightly more fiery Shenhua than her pure, innocent maiden self from Shenmue 2 who at times felt a bit absent of a personality and would have been dull to journey around China with. In 3, she still has that softness but also feels a bit more empowered and sassy this time, who I think will now have some great moments with Ryo and Ren in the future games.
I am probably arguing semantics here, but I remember Suzuki stating for Knickerbocker to voice her as an equal, not empowered. I hypothesize that Suzuki gave this direction to Briana because he felt that would appeal to Westerners more. Because in that same interview, Ms. Knickerbocker stated that Haruka Terui portrayed Shenhua as more of a kind soul. Which I would hypothesize is more appealing to Japanese players.

However, to be honest, I am bored with the proverbial empowered female character trope because it's been overdone. To me, it sends the message that traits people consider to be feminine are inferior to traits people consider to be masculine. Also, it isn't like Shenmue was lacking in strong female characters, to begin with.

I think a female character can be both feminine and strong. For example, Mrs. Brisby from the Secret of Nimh movie is a quintessential example of this. In the end, the strong female trope is hardly a subversion anymore since it's extremely common. As is females usurping and abusing males.

As for Shenhua having a strong side that we didn't know about, I didn't need that demonstrated to me again. When we are first introduced to her in Shenmue II, she's diving head-first into a river to save a goat. We learn from her that as a child, she was a tomboy, and being raised by her stepfather, she learned many practical skills, such as hunting.

The reason I believe that the Yanglang scene was meant to be comedic, is for a few reasons. The first being that humor works by subverting expectations, and unless you are a hardcore Shenmue fan, most people are going to assume that Shenhua is weaker and less prone to violence than Yanglang is. The second being that Suzuki has stated in the past that he doesn't like his works to be too heavy or dramatic. Finally, the scene we saw was a "noodle moment" which is quite commonly played for comedy.

I mean, if this was a serious moment then why hide it? In the Project Berkeley trailer, we see Shenhua using her powers when Longsun Zhao is threatening her life. Also, take into consideration, that we have already seen Shenhua's powers being demonstrated so there's no reason to hide it.

Finally, this is not to say that I want Shenhua to be weak. However, what I do want is character consistency. I am going to pretend that scene played out differently in my mind. As I do not like what we got.
 
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