Random Shenmue III Thoughts

Really interesting, would be nice to know more about your time in China, if you want to share with us. I really want to visit Guilin someday.
It may make for an interesting discussion on Shenmue podcast dare I say? Flagging this for @spud1897 to consider.

Unrelated but I thought they did a pretty good job with the games fight choreography. I wanted to share this cool AMV-

 
"There is an ultimate end to the quest, but it will have a sequel. It's easy if you imagine Star Wars. You get to the end of a complete story with each film, but it's only part of a bigger version", Suzuki reveals. "You know Episode I? Well, this game is the same as Episode I. I have a very big scenario for Shenmue - sixteen chapters in all - and this is only the first. We've just finished chapter one, and I have many ideas for the other fifteen already. It's a long story."

Yu Suzuki on Shenmue. Official Dreamcast Magazine, November 1999.
Ryo: Lan-Di, fight me, I WILL AVENGE MY FATHER!
Lan-Di: No, I AM your father!
Ryo:
 
What if Shenmue III had released on the Dreamcast with the exact same story content that we got in the Shenmue III we did get? Obviously, I don't think that would have been the case had it come out on the Dreamcast as I do believe the game would have been somewhat different...I think we would have seen Baisha for one thing...but what if?

What if you got the exact same story from Shenmue III (current day version) in a hypothetical Dreamcast or Xbox version? Do you think people would have been more forgiving back when or would they still be annoyed about the lack of true progress?

Just a random thought.
I think people would have been more forgiving in a way, and not in another way:

If Shenmue had been a healthy-selling series with a guaranteed continuation and not a 18-year gap between releases, the Shenmue III script might have been perceived as filler or as moving too slow, but not as a missed last chance of telling the story. Thus some people would have got tired and abandon the series, but most would be simply waiting for the next dose in 2 years time or so.

But, on the other hand, the lack of cohesion with the previous games (like Ryo seemingly not remembering Chai, or Yuan revealing Ryo more or less the same info that Yuanda Zhu had revealed already at the end of II) would have been way more baffling back then with so little distance from the previous game. And, of course, the scarcity of backstory for secondary characters and the disorienting slapstick comedy at the climatic ending would have stood out even more then than they did these days after such a long time.

I think, though, that these latter problems wouldn't have existed if the same AM2 writers of Shenmue I & II had worked on III.
 
I think, though, that these latter problems wouldn't have existed if the same AM2 writers of Shenmue I & II had worked on III.
Shenmue 3 has been on my mind lately. I was recently rewatching review from @DoubleO_Ren and as we know the whole ending from Cedric seemed cobbled together but the biggest missing element which few talk about is how undercooked Niao Sun’s role is and the civil war breaking out amongst the Chiyoumen. I know in the original design document she was supposed to be a boss fight so I can only imagine what a fully fleshed out ending could have provided.
 
Wow, never knew that, that's amazing! :love: Don't even get me started on Lan Di slowly being revealed to be a sympathetic villain.
I probably shouldn’t stoke this flame, but I’ve been sitting on this for a while now. Niao Sun is listed by name in the credits for Shenmue III. There’s an antagonist from The Empire Strikes Back who is also never called out by name in dialogue, but listed in the credits, and that’s Boba Fett.

Never once have I ever heard anyone complain about Boba Fett as a character in TESB because he was ‘nameless.’

Anyway, this is probably one of the most coincidental of coincidences.
 
I probably shouldn’t stoke this flame, but I’ve been sitting on this for a while now. Niao Sun is listed by name in the credits for Shenmue III. There’s an antagonist from The Empire Strikes Back who is also never called out by name in dialogue, but listed in the credits, and that’s Boba Fett.

Never once have I ever heard anyone complain about Boba Fett as a character in TESB because he was ‘nameless.’

Anyway, this is probably one of the most coincidental of coincidences.

Yeah but Boba Fett also sucked. He couldn't capture Han without Vader's help and was ultimately killed by a blind man with a stick.
 
Yeah but Boba Fett also sucked. He couldn't capture Han without Vader's help and was ultimately killed by a blind man with a stick.
Listen, I'll have you know I was a big fan of Boba when I was a kid! --but yes, he sucked raw eggs in Return of the Jedi (coincidentally when someone actually used his name in conversation).

I guess if Niao Sun pratfalls into a vat of acid or something later on, we'll have our answer on how much Suzuki references Star Wars.

Also, Niao Sun is great. I don't know what you're talking about.
 
I probably shouldn’t stoke this flame, but I’ve been sitting on this for a while now. Niao Sun is listed by name in the credits for Shenmue III. There’s an antagonist from The Empire Strikes Back who is also never called out by name in dialogue, but listed in the credits, and that’s Boba Fett.

Never once have I ever heard anyone complain about Boba Fett as a character in TESB because he was ‘nameless.’

Anyway, this is probably one of the most coincidental of coincidences.
Its also worth mentioning that Chai, the main antagonist of the first game, only tells us his name in dialogue right at the end of a 25-hour long Shenmue 1 ("You are not going to Hong Kong, because the great Chai will defeat you!"). Up until then, he's just known as 'that creepy skinhead'.
 
IMO Shenmue 3 is a few steps down when comparing it to its two predecessors. For everything Shenmue 3 lacks its still a soild game. Kinda how the English voice acting in Shenmue is so bad its actually good, those are the vibes I get when playing Shenmue 3. It still has the Shenmue essence, charm and magic.
 
Really enjoyed this video on Shenmue 3; it makes fun of the series but without the intent to trash it. At least it felt that way to me.

 
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:

Had to laugh at his exasperation. It IS kind of ridiculous how literally one guy's opinion drives so much of the discourse among people who haven't played the game.
 
Had to laugh at his exasperation. It IS kind of ridiculous how literally one guy's opinion drives so much of the discourse among people who haven't played the game.
Its sad but its true; even the other day I was watching a video with a guy talking about the first two shenmue games and then he started talking about that he wasnt going to play shenmue 3 because he had watched super eye patch wolf's video on the game and didn't think it was worth playing instead of trying out the game for himself.
 
Its sad but its true; even the other day I was watching a video with a guy talking about the first two shenmue games and then he started talking about that he wasnt going to play shenmue 3 because he had watched super eye patch wolf's video on the game and didn't think it was worth playing instead of trying out the game for himself.

Anybody who doesn't play Shenmue 3 because a YouTuber they like spoke negatively about the game was never a fan in the first place. Shenmue 3 could've received a zero(0) from gaming journalists and I would've still played and cleared the game. I've been waiting on this game for 20 years.
 
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:

Not totally related, but I had kind of forgotten about how much I absolutely love the song that plays when examining things in Ryo's room during the day. That's another one where I basically just sat and made Ryo stare at apples for way longer than anyone should reasonably stare at apples for.

I can only imagine how much more damaged I made Ryo look from other people's perspectives just through the way I played the game.
 
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