Don’t get me wrong, I love Shenmue’s story. It’s the reason I waited 15 years for Shenmue 3 to come out and it’s the reason why I’ll continue waiting for a proper conclusion to Ryo’s journey until Yu is finally able to deliver one. However, it would seem that his motivation for wanting to make another Shenmue game stems more from his desire to develop new state of the art systems than to provide us with a proper ending (hence him wanting a bigger budget for Shenmue 4).
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though It’s hard to argue that having hyper realistic ball physics in Pachinko tables makes up for the pacing issues in the first game or that having weather based on historical data excuses the crummy voice acting and direction throughout the series. The aforementioned examples and the many others like them are cool and all, but, just as in Avatar, they’re arguably a case of style over substance. Let’s put it this way: would anybody even notice these things if they weren’t pointed out to them and do they actually make the games better?
Yu’s creativity and meticulous attention to detail are what made the Shenmue games so special and unique, but his failure to put as much thought into the story and the player’s experience are problematic and a big part of why Shenmue failed to achieve mainstream success. That so many of the fan base were left disappointed by Shenmue 3 is again indicative of this.
Last year, I heard from a very reliable source that Yu received an offer for funding on the condition that he took a step back from the project and allowed somebody else to direct (they wanted him to serve as the creative director). At the time, I was very much against the idea, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense.
Granted, I’m not convinced that the person who made that proposal was the right person to take up the reigns (they apparently wanted to make the game “more like Yakuza” despite having never actually played a Yakuza game), but having somebody who understands both modern video games and the Shenmue franchise at the helm with Yu working his magic in the background might not be the worst idea.