Shenmue 3 is really amazing

Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Lately I was browsing various forums around and it's sad to see all the negativity about this game, especially from ex fans.
Everytime I read lots of negative opinions, I almost start to have doubts: "and if they were right and the game was really bad like they say?".

And then for one reason or another I restart to play (this time for the story DLC for example) and everytime all my doubts disappears.

Shenmue 3 is really an amazing game, a rare gem.

It's always a good thing to question everything, even your greatest passions, so you can be more honest to yourself and genuinely experience something that you really like, and not something that you're convinced to like just because of nostalgia or partisanship.

And finally my truth is this, I really love Shenmue 3 because it's an amazing game that do things that I can't find anywhere else.

There isn't a real purpose for this topic, I just wanted to write this thing, maybe I should thanks all the haters around the internet for make me realize that my love is genuine :)
 
The story was certainly lacking and they should reduce the padding, but overall, i loved the game. Shenmue 3 has the best gameplay out of all the Shenmues. It just needs the pacing and storytelling of Shenmue 2 to really shine. But all good, Shenmue 4 is in a prime position to make a huge impact
 
Being a new Shenmue fan (i discovered the saga with the HD reamaster on 2019) i finished the 2 first games, and it was an amazing moment i felt something i never felt before with a game, then i played the 3 (day one) and... WOW ! What a fucking game ! Soo many things to do so many place to visit and i really liked the end of the game, now i can say Shenmue 3 is my favorist shenmue game hoping the 4 change this :p
 
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Being a new Shenmue fan (i discovered the saga with the HD reamaster on 2019) i finish the 2 first games, and it was an amazing moment i felt something i never felt before with a game, then i played the 3 (day one) and... WOW ! What a fucking game ! Soo many things to do so many place to visit and i really liked the end of the game, now i can say Shenmue 3 is my favorist shenmue game hoping the 4 change this :p
I really do think that the time we waited for a third game lead to expectations building to unrealistically high levels for long term fans. It’s refreshing to see that newer fans to the series didn’t have the same issue.
 
I liked the training and leveling up system. It made me see Ryo actually putting in effort to get better.

More moments like the restaurant scene in the dlc aswell in shenmue 4 lol. Great moment.

Shenmue 3 has all the assests, mechanics and gameplay to really shine, but i can see how that obviously couldnt be the sole focus of this project. Ysnet had to build a team, learn the engine, create the models, mechanics etc etc. Looks like it was too much in the end and cuts had to be made unfortunately.

Shenmue 4, they should reuse all that groundwork and make the sole focus story.
 
Being a new Shenmue fan (i discovered the saga with the HD reamaster on 2019) i finish the 2 first games, and it was an amazing moment i felt something i never felt before with a game, then i played the 3 (day one) and... WOW ! What a fucking game ! Soo many things to do so many place to visit and i really liked the end of the game, now i can say Shenmue 3 is my favorist shenmue game hoping the 4 change this :p

I am happy new fans are being brought to Shenmue.
 
I only want/
hope improvements like better animations in general, arcade zones being funny again (like in I&II), throw moves and story development. Ah, and not to hire the NPC- cartoonish designer, more NPC walking on the streets and the posibility to change Shenhua's clothes to the 1&2 ones. Too much? No, I think they can do it.
 
There’s no question Shenmue 3 has shortcomings and problems, many of which I’ve discussed at length.

With that said I do find a lot of the world very charming and it did feel like a continuation of Shenmue in many respects.

My morning decent from Shenhua’s house, past rice fields, over the Verdant bridge before reaching the town square or simply overlooking Niaowu from hotel balcony are small moments that are quintessential Shenmue to me.
 
I'll agree, I loved it too. There are issues with it, but the fact that we got a third game will always be amazing to me.

You also have to remember that you see a lot of hate posts around just due to the nature of a vocal negative minority. People love to cry on the internet about literally everything, but that doesn't mean that that is the overall opinion of the fan base. Most people who played Shenmue III are older folks who don't post on forums or reddit, and even if they did, it's people rarely post about things that they are happy about lol.

Loved 3, and hope that 4 will improve on 3 in every way, much like the jump from 1 to 2 :)
 
There’s no question Shenmue 3 has shortcomings and problems, many of which I’ve discussed at length.

With that said I do find a lot of the world very charming and it did feel like a continuation of Shenmue in many respects.

My morning decent from Shenhua’s house, past rice fields, over the Verdant bridge before reaching the town square or simply overlooking Niaowu from hotel balcony are small moments that are quintessential Shenmue to me.
The walk from Shenhua's house to the town square was mind blowing to me lol. In my first playthrough, I did not run that path a single time! Shenmue 3 is the reason I got a ps4. I kinda skipped the "new gen consoles" so the first time I played Shenmue 3 and did that walk thing, I was thinking to myself " man this is next lvl shit " lol.
 
I really enjoyed playing Shenmue 3. I'm playing it for the second time in japanese and I can say I'm enjoying it a lot more now. Now that I know the story I'm taking my time with the game and enjoying all it's features.
I can say that overhaull Shenmue 3 is the one with the best gameplay and it has also the best locations.
The weackest part is the story.
As for Shenmue 4, I believe that it needs to be well balanced in terms of storytelling and gameplay.
 
A vocal minority of 10 people are always going to be more visible than a silent majority of 100, especially on the internet, where you don't exist unless you speak. Shenmue 3 was a good game and Metacritic's user score speaks louder than critics who prefer generic cookie cutter open worlds and the 10% of people who didn't like the game.
My impression of 3 is that there's ultimately more side stuff to do than in 1 and even 2, and that narratively it topped 1. I can't say it topped Shenmue 2, though, because of its huge scale and incredible narrative payoff and atmosphere, but Shenmue 2 raised the bar incredibly high for decades and few games to this day have come close. I even enjoyed the new combat system, and found that I had to do more thinking with what move to use and when, since button mashing like I did with the first two games ended up getting my ass kicked quickly. I also appreciated that the game focused more on Ryo developing his skills, doubling down on his training introduced in Shenmue 2 and actually giving him real tournaments to fight in. My only disappointment with Shenmue 2 was that most of the arena fights had some kind of theme to them, which while varied made them less straightforward, and straightforward fights were what I wanted the most. Shenmue 3 addressed that problem by giving you three organized arenas.
If I were to change anything it would be to better flesh out Niao Sun by making her character a bit more involved in the overall Niaowu plot and pad the epilogue a little more by giving Yuan a bit more to say. Even something as small as letting you wander around town to say goodbye before taking the final boat out to the Great Wall would've been a more effective close.
 
Shenmue 1 wasn't a masterpiece in the storytelling department like its sequel was, but whatever the "3's story is better than the first's" crowd is smoking, I want some of it.
I disagree I think 1 was better at story and 2 was a better "game", but 2 was the most balanced.
 
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