Random Shenmue III Thoughts

That's the best way of putting it. It really is the calm before the storm...especially considering the ending of III.

This is how i view Shenmue III and i really feel that Shenmue IV will really be the storm. Ryo is not alone anymore on his journey, Shenhua and Ren are with him, i really feel that if Shenmue IV happen it will be The Chi You Men Arc, an arc where Ryo will learn a lot about this organization, where we will see all the leaders, what all the leaders want and much more.

If this happen we will probably see a lot of fights, i think we will see Ryo and Ren fighting a lot against The Chi You Men members in Shenmue IV, it is time to learn more about this organization in my opinion.

I feel that in Shenmue IV Ryo will train with a shaolin monk, maybe in Luoyang/pagoda forest, this part i think it would be slow pace, if Shenmue IV happen i think it will be a mix of slow pace and fast pace, this is what i hope for Shenmue IV.
 
Last edited:
Remember when people were making the claims that Shenmue III looked like a PS2 game?

Here's an Actual PS2 game being upscaled on PS5

Grand Theft Auto_ Vice City – The Definitive Edition_20211122174113.jpg

Now here's Shenmue III

kWwChB36dRFYqrcpB9LnUV.jpg

Yeap, totally looks like a PS2 game ;) :D

(Not to bring back old wounds, but I've been playing GTA Vice City lately and I am still dumbfounded how anyone could make the claim that Shenmue III looks like a PS2 game. As for that GTA Trilogy...while it's not entirely unplayable...it is indeed very rough, but I'll say more on that over in the gaming section)
 
Completely agree. Shenmue III looks totally appropriate for a AA PS4 title, and there's a lot of intentional artistry in the colours, the foliage, and how the vistas are created that push it a step above - and whisper this part - some AAA games in the right conditions.

dwn_shenmue3screenshos4jyy.png

dwn_shenmue3screenshow8j07.png

dwn_shenmue3screensho05j0o.png
 
I sometimes tell myself that most people who say Shenmue III looks like a PS2 game likely wasn't around when the PS2 was a thing. The thing is, some PS2 games still look pretty great today (Metal Gear Solid 2, Ridge Racer V etc), but comments like that just really piss me off.

It's not about creating a narrative, it's just plain ignorance. Sketchy frame rate and pop in aside, Shenmue III looks beautiful. Then again, what do I know? I think Model 2 games look fantastic nowadays and most AAA games look tedious and dull.
 
I didn't know where to share these thoughts because it concerns Shenmue online and there's no section for that (or maybe there is and I'm blind) but apparently there was a beta that people played in China around 2005. Apparently there were massive changes made to the combat system (for the worse!). From what I was told, Shenmue online originally had the vf engine before removing it!

This is all just speculation but I found it fascinating. If anyone has anymore info I'd love if you could share.
 
I spent 4 hours on Twitch streaming Shenmue III today and didn't even notice the time fly by. I still very much love it. Just hanging out in this game is still relaxing as all hell in its own low key way. There really is just an abundance of things to do in this game. Like I spent at least an hour or two hunting down Chobu Chans just to get more move scrolls I never really went for in my first playthrough. And enjoyed every minute of it.
 
Last edited:
Hi everyone, I don't know if it was mentioned on the forum but according to a recent tweet from Cedric Biscay it seems that SIII didn't sell well:
(he can't comment on the sales but if he doesn't communicate on it is a sign that it was not great) 😓
 
Last edited:
Think you're taking that out of context; the tweeter (lol) was talking about the 1 mil mark, so I think Ced was commenting specifically on that number and not that it didn't sell well at all.

The, "plié," has me a bit confused, as that translates to, "Fold," so I can't grasp the context of the last few words.

Must be a colloquialism.
 
Hi everyone, I don't know if it was mentioned on the forum but according to a recent tweet from Cedric Biscay it seems that SIII didn't sell well:
(he can't comment on the sales but if he doesn't communicate on it is a sign that it was not great) 😓
This isn't anything hugely new. He told us this back when I interviewed him last year. In fact he used that wording more or less.

My impression is that based off the Kickstarter the publishers thought it would be a much larger sell than it was. Couple that with a couple of controversies, odd marketing and an average of 7/10 rating and that changes v quickly l.

We know it did financially fine overall and at least made some money.
 
Remember when people were making the claims that Shenmue III looked like a PS2 game?

Here's an Actual PS2 game being upscaled on PS5

View attachment 13494

Now here's Shenmue III

View attachment 13495

Yeap, totally looks like a PS2 game ;) :D

(Not to bring back old wounds, but I've been playing GTA Vice City lately and I am still dumbfounded how anyone could make the claim that Shenmue III looks like a PS2 game. As for that GTA Trilogy...while it's not entirely unplayable...it is indeed very rough, but I'll say more on that over in the gaming section)
I generally think it looks much better than most will admit. I was pretty damn shocked when I first loaded the game. The animations and pop-in are where things fall a bit flat for me. You really can't find significantly better environments, though. I've played enough current and next gen games to feel safe in that opinion. There are aesthetic clashes & details that aren't great, of course, but graphics are the least of Shenmue 3's issues IN MY OPINION.
 
Think you're taking that out of context; the tweeter (lol) was talking about the 1 mil mark, so I think Ced was commenting specifically on that number and not that it didn't sell well at all.

The, "plié," has me a bit confused, as that translates to, "Fold," so I can't grasp the context of the last few words.

Must be a colloquialism.
"Plier le game" is an expression to say a huge success. I think that they are a bit disappointed by the sales but I hope they keep believing in a future SIV. As a lot of people said, the anime is a good thing for the future of the serie, I just hope some investors will take the risk to continue the saga with games even if they are not very profitables.
 
I suspect whichever publisher picks it up will require some sort of internal/external producer to take care of the issues that popped up in most Shenmue 3 criticism. “Finish the story, Yu” will be a big part of it. Now that I think of it, maybe those types of compromises are part of whatever’s holding up an announcement? I know that’ll be a big obstacle for Yu Suzuki if it does come up. All speculative, of course, but I don’t think he’s getting money if he can’t show whoever’s publishing/backing it that he does have an ending in sight. I think that’ll become THE issue if 4 is being considered. He’s going to get much more external pressure…
 
Last edited:
At this point it doesn't really matter if Shenmue III has sold over 1 million copies or not. Publishers are more interested in the revenue made during the initial release when games are retailing for full or almost full price.

Given we're two years out and the game has gone on sale for a *very* attractive price several times across PC and PS4, I wouldn't be shocked if the numbers are actually crawling towards 1 million, but the revenue isn't really enough to get publishers to sit up and pay attention at the price point it's selling at.

I do wonder if it's what's helping keep the lights on at YsNet though, so nothing to be especially miserable about.
 
I'm thinking they have a fairly modest office (if they have one; there's no longer an office address on the website) and few, if any, actual permanent employees. The folks listed in the credits--Yu Suzuki aside--are any of them actual Ys Net employees? For all we know they're just keeping the LLC/corporation alive and doing little else? Not trying to be a downer... just not so certain there's a "Ys Net corporation," so to speak, beyond Yu Suzuki using the name when he's working on a project. And if there is, I've seen little sign they've done anything, publicly, since Shenmue 3's last patch. I'm still curious who's developing that "Red Goes Faster" game.
 
Last edited:
I'm thinking they have a fairly modest office (if they have one; there's no longer an office address on the website) and few, if any, actual permanent employees. The folks listed in the credits--Yu Suzuki aside--are any of them actual Ys Net employees? For all we know they're just keeping the LLC/corporation alive and doing little else? Not trying to be a downer... just not so certain there's a "Ys Net corporation," so to speak, beyond Yu Suzuki using the name when he's working on a project. And if there is, I've seen little sign they've done anything, publicly, since Shenmue 3's last patch.
Not sure that's the case. They were still in the office Shenmue III was developed in as of November last year, which is appropriate for about 30/40 people based on reports. If they were shedding staff after the project wrapped up, they'd probably not wait for over a year to move offices, surely. Removing the address is inconclusive either way.

As for employees, Shenmue III's development staff was comprised of contract workers, outsider partners, and YsNet staff proper. I don't know the distribution besides those clearly marked in the credits as coming from outside or contract workers like the Westerners that Switch interviewed last year, but I'm pretty certain they did have actual employees. As far as I understand the situation, some or all of them are still there, but this is second hand information and obviously not fully representative of the entire comings and goings at YsNet.

The silence is a Schrödinger's cat situation, unfortunately. Just have to hang tight and see what happens.
 
As for Cédric's comment, roughly translated (and not machine translated), it would be "Hello ! I cant communicate informations on that matter but you don't give numbers when you didn't nail it". Implying the game didn't set the charts on fire.

We know indeed the game did financially "fine" at "launch" (I insist on that part, because after that first comment, they never commented it anymore), likely because Deep Silver likely made their money back and a bit more because of the Epic Store deal but may not have made significant revenue overall.

Now, I don't know what YsNet is doing but clearly, I doubt they're paying staff to sit around for two years. So either they've been working on something, Shenmue or not, or they basically run a skeleton crew now. At some point, we'll hear something because they can't just run without any money or projects.

The silence doesn't inspire confidence but it doesn't mean nothing is happening. It could be that the game is being unveiled 6 months to a year before release, to avoid the same stigma... or it could mean that nothing is happening.

As for the feasability of Shenmue IV... There are two reasons why a publisher throws money at a project:
- They know it'll make money. There are games that are being made, even if average, because they still bring sizeable revenue and the ROI is very good on those projects.
- They know it won't make money but it'll be a good look for their portfolio. Those games are usually high quality games, which gets high to very high scores on Metacritic (yes, it is important, more than you think nowadays) even though they won't make money or lose some. Those are the kind of projects that are more of an advertisement for the publisher. (That's why Activision is publishing Sekiro, or EA is publishing It Takes Two or why Microsoft is publishing Psychonauts 2 after buying the studio.)

After Shenmue III though, Shenmue IV falls in neither cases. I don't know or see which publisher would do that honestly.
 
I just don't think it's wise to announce anything until after the anime debuts. If they reveal Shenmue IV now both the fair and unfair negative connetations that people associate with III will just damage the brand. Shenmue Anime is so far removed from the launch of SIII at the moment that it has the chance to bring new people into the fold and the consensus to the trailer has been really positive.

If the anime is as good as what's been shown so far suggests, they can ride off that postiive wave into a Shenmue 4 announcement then that's best for all parties concerned IMO.

I think it's fair to say that the fanbase for Shenmue is there as is shown by the wave of merchandise and anime and of course the kickstarter funds but what's there doesn't match up with the natural expensive cost that these game take to produce.

Rock and a hard place but fans expect fully voiced NPCs, day night cycle, open world gameplay and nicely choreographed martial arts cutscenes but all these things are expensive. Personally I would be happy with even a classic 2D top down Shenmue towns with 3D fighting but then it's not Shenmue anymore and you divide even more the fanbase.

Nobody wants to risk 20million dollars on a project just to break even or worse lose money

Now if you've got a popular and succesful anime out in the world a lot of those worries subside somewhat.

The franchise is in both a great and extremely difficult spot at the same time but at least we definetely have the Anime coming to look forward to
 
Back
Top