Shenmue Character Comparison

ShenSun

ShenSun

Site Staff
Joined
Jul 24, 2018
Here is an amazing comparison video by @ShenSam showing the evolution of the Shenmue characters from the saturn era all the way up to the PS4


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Lan Di and Ren look better, Shenhua looks worse. Ryo looks good from some angles and not so good from others.
 
Even though I had a lot of worries and issues with Ryo’s model leading to the games launch, I think overall they did a really good job of faithfully translating all the main models in the new engine.

I am also pleased to see the tradition of Lan Di’s model being the most detailed and arguably well constructed continuing on in this game. If I have one complaint I tend to agree with John regarding eye animation.

 
Ren's big nose in S3 looks weird imho, also his eyebrows look off. Agree on Ryo. Something just looks off about the S3 model.

Lan Di looks fantastic in S3.

NNot even gonna start talking about S3 Shenhua. That issue of her basically having or not having become a different person has been discussed at length.
 
One of the strongest positives that really shines in S3 was how they really nailed the character designs, especially Ryo. He looks fantastic in the final product after looking so weird in the earlier screenshots
 
In terms of visual style, I really like S3 Ryo, Shenhua and Lan Di. Ren looks good but his features are a little soft. He's missing that extra layer of facial detail, at least in most lighting conditions. I'd say the shrine maiden is in the same tier as Shenhua, Ryo, etc., and Chai is also great.

Honestly, the thing that bothered me the most about Ryo in S3 is how...not good...some of the fighting animations look. Many of them do look good, but man, some of them, like the Reverse Body Check, a very important move, the technique is shoddy. He has his palm facing up during the elbow. I don't think it looks at all like a "booty bump" like some people love to go on about, but the technique still isn't great.
 
I really like that natural evolution in the models and find it quite impressive they kept the Dreamcast feel of those 4. A lot of love and care went into them.

Shenmue III is a good looking game but does have some wonky NPC's and animations, correct that and I don't think many would complain.
 
Yeah, if shenmue 4 can have that consistency with all the character models and get rid of those exaggerated playdough looking npcs, along with implementing modern animations/ facial animations, and a good directed dub, it would look absolutely stunning.
 
ShenSun said:
Yeah, if shenmue 4 can have that consistency with all the character models and get rid of those exaggerated playdough looking npcs, along with implementing modern animations/ facial animations, and a good directed dub, it would look absolutely stunning.
Click to expand...

I mean even in biggest games in the industry there is varying qualities in character models, especially when it comes to NPC’s. A more cohesive and unified style for all models would be welcome however.

The two biggest gains I can see from a presentation perspective that wouldn’t necessarily be out of a hypothetical budget Shenmue 4 would be;

HDR implementation

I honestly have found this the most impressive leap this generation when implemented well, even more than higher resolutions. It gives so much more depth and vibrancy and I could only imagine how much better Bailu could have looked during golden hour with proper HDR lightening. It’s something I hope they implement moving forward.

Animation

Pretty broad category but I hope with improved technology and presets they can improve everything from Ryo’s walking and running animation, to more bespoke animations for character interactions. This extends to the models themselves, now I won’t lie I don’t expect motion matching like seen in the Last of Us Part II but significant gains can still be made.
 
I think the outsourcing of NPC models hurt S3. They were obviously given to different companies and that's why they all look rather... odd in some places and fine in others.
 
Sonoshee said:
I think the outsourcing of NPC models hurt S3. They were obviously given to different companies and that's why they all look rather... odd in some places and fine in others.
Click to expand...


The problem came from the direction, not the outsourcing.
Lakshya Digital, the studio which was used for outsourcing has done a lot of work for AAA games. They didn't suffer from the same issue.
Among the games they're credited for:
Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid V, Nier Automata, Shadow of War: Middle Earth, Just Cause 3, Gears 5, Borderlands 3.

Those games doesn't have that issue you see with Shenmue 3.
 
Honestly I think that each one of them look very good for their own generation.
I my opinion they have made a great job with the main characters in Shenmue 3.
The only thing I could complain about is in regards to Shenhua's character that is the one that differs the most from the original.
I also enjoy the new Shenhua; but some of the charm and innocence of the original was lost in this new transformation.
 
GhostTrick said:
The problem came from the direction, not the outsourcing.
Lakshya Digital, the studio which was used for outsourcing has done a lot of work for AAA games. They didn't suffer from the same issue.
Among the games they're credited for:
Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid V, Nier Automata, Shadow of War: Middle Earth, Just Cause 3, Gears 5, Borderlands 3.

Those games doesn't have that issue you see with Shenmue 3.
Click to expand...

Well we know Lakshya were responsible for NPCs like Shiling, which were of a higher quality than some of the other NPCs, which may have been created by other studios. IMO maybe they should have given all of the NPCs to Lakshya.
 
A unified style for 4 would probably be good. However, I'm beginning to enjoy the more comic like characters a lot more, because they have character, like the grandpa in bailu. Lin's father is still bad though.
 
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