This in the image is a nightmare to me
XD Ay... Hiki de mi coraçao, you just made my day with this pic.
If Yu Suzuki see this I bet he will lulz his arse too. He's open to feedback to a limited extent, which is "I wont turn Shenmue to what is not". He wont change its nature because Shenmue is more important to him that to any of us fans. He isnt attached to the astonishing visuals, breathtaking soundtrack or unique game mechanichs but he's attached emotionally to the emotions it inspires (excuse redundance). YS will never turn Shenmue in GTA. I believe this so hard that in the remote case that us Dojo fans, get struck by a lightbolt in the head and demand turning Shenmue in GTA he will say "Well, fuck it, fuck you, its not gonna happen. Im retiring. Travel well people".
The guy seems to try a respectful critic approach but with strong mistakes like as you said transposing aspects that worked for lot of people to modern standards, a thing that can't be done with any form of artistic expression. In my opinionation, this way of proceeding devalues videogames as art media, and makes it closer to 1-use shaving razorblades or milkshakes. Probably if he reads your blog, specially how Shenmue 3 is played (your food and training routines log) he could change his mind. He gave credits to S1-2 so its not much of a lost cause.
The gun theory is maximum bollocks tho, It trash practically all pure martial arts movies from 60s to here. Bruce Lee with a uzi OMG. Spitting over Chuck Norris corpse... Then he take a piss over it too...Omg.
To me games don't age poorly, to me a good game will always be a good game
Ditto. This is also a common trope nowsdays. If you want to sound elevated you say "xyz game has aged poorly", in the same way that cool-long-time-ago magazine Rolling Stone said years ago randomly "this album is so nihilist"..."this band is kitsch" loud sounding words devoid of true meaning. It looked like writting about wine imho, that really ages poorly or nice not videogames. One can desdain entire generations. When my parents were kids, and me too, we got scared of Dracula or The Mummy. Today its not that scary. Means it aged poorly? Or people has become more hardened, less innocent? Really think about this Hiki, and rest of dojo friends.
You know when a child is bullied at school every single day? to me this child is like Shenmue, i never saw other game series getting this hate like Shenmue gets.
Yes I do.
Shenmue trascends critics, bad reviews, and meanings given by different people. Its what one want its to be, so for some it will be trash and to others It will be gold.
Last, when Shenmue IV gets finally announced before anyones think it will stop rotatives again and all the previous buzz wont matter.