Shenmue Dojo @ Gamescom ’19 – Deutschland , Demos and Dreams coming true

The most comprehensive and exciting writeup out of the lot.

I seriously recommend that everybody reads this!
 
Been away from the forum for a while but had to come back to say how good this writeup is. Peter's love for Shenmue is contagious to the point this article has me more hyped for Shenmue III than anything we've seen so far.
 
Incredible write up! It has made me even more excited for the game now! I'll post this on the Kickstarter page to shut up the naysayers :)
 
Nice to hear you warmed up on the combat during your first sparring session! There might be a few grumbles initially when the demo launches, but I expect others will warm up to it just like you did, and crucially; once they begin to level up moves.

The old Shenmue style of fighting kicked in immediately, taking my time for my opponent to make his move, before evading, moving and then hitting him with the counter elbow. Quickly I began to really enjoy the fight, spurred on by more QTE prompts coming up, only this time, receiving an “excellent” rating for the speed of input. I felt better, and as the sparring came to a close, my confidence, as well as reassurance once again, was high. Yes this was a new, and somewhat less stringent fighting system but, it still felt so Shenmue, and so Ryo Hazuki. If this was my initial feeling with my first fight in Shenmue III, then I just know the rest of the game will be OK, with over a reported 100 skill books to obtain. My biggest fears about Shenmue III had all been put to rest.
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Sparring seems pretty naturally integrated as a way to teach players commands without being overbearing with tutorials. Interesting to hear you "learned" Counter Elbow Assault in this sparring session - I guess that's how they're handling bringing most of Ryo's moveset back without overwhelming new players from the start?
 
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Sure, it isn't VF large allocation of budget, but it is a journey of martial art enlightenment, plus Yu--there's no way the fighting won't still be great and fun.
 
Its funny; when Peter mentioned that, "Yu asked if I had tried the demo yet..." I thought it would've turned into:

"he replied; 'no, no, that's no good! I will make sure someone gets you to play the demo right away!' Then he ran off to yell at Koch Media people and forced them to bring me into the booth to play." lol

That would've been something!

But a great write-up indeed; good to know that the demo will most-likely be the same as this. I won't be missing out on too much, then! :D
 
Amazing read and thank you for the informative and detailed impressions Peter.

Specifically I was looking for any sort of input to allow Ryo to enter a first person mode to look at the world, and I was not disappointed. A pull of the L2 trigger, just as it was in the original games, will pull the camera to a first person perspective, to look around the beautiful Village in all its glory. This is where I will talk about my only little niggle I had with the demo. When in first person, a cross hair will appear in the middle of the screen, as well as a photograph type lined box around it. That, I didn’t like, unless it’s a necessary inclusion for some sort of possible photographing mission later on in the game. If not, then I am not sure as to why it’s been included in the game, but out of all the things to complain about, I am very happy this was the only thing I could find.
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I really hope the crosshairs/photobox can be disabled in settings menu. I understand with new systems the third title is a bit more ‘gamified’ but I’m a strong believer in giving players options to disable or toggle elements including the HUD. Going in First person mode was always way to get more immersed in the environments, and I hope nothing takes away from that.
 
Blown away by this write up, I could literally picture the environment, and Peter really made me feel like I was there almost, part of me is happy now to skip the demo it feels like i've already played it :D
 
Nice write up, although there's something I dont understand with the fighting system:
How does input for the techniques works ?
Like, from what I get, you press a string of buttons, then it makes the move, right ? But is it like a combo ? Like you make AAB, which means punch punch kick then it makes the move ? Or does the input wont do anything until you make all 3 of them to do the technique ?

Also, what about the music ? How was it ? Any theme you recognized from it ?

As for the visuals: It's definitely what I expected. I can get criticism on the animations or some 3d models. But the environnement and the lighting work... Heck even with compressed footage, I could tell from there that it was superb. Shenmue III really nailed its implementation of PBR and those Bailu shots with the sunset clearly proves it.

Also last but not least, those impression also confirms what I always knew: 45 minutes is far too short to have an opinion on this. Even someone like Peter who knows Shenmue, which means, who feels at home when he play it, couldn't do everything in 45 minutes. Now imagine the people trying for 15 minutes at E3. As Yu Suzuki said and wished for: You really need like 3 to 4 hours to get a grasp on it.
 
Now this is a well informed and detailed preview. Glad to have read one by a huge fan.
 
GhostTrick said:
As for the visuals: It's definitely what I expected. I can get criticism on the animations or some 3d models. But the environnement and the lighting work... Heck even with compressed footage, I could tell from there that it was superb. Shenmue III really nailed its implementation of PBR and those Bailu shots with the sunset clearly proves it.
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I think the games final implementation of lightning and final pass, will pleasantly surprise a lot of people.

Peter referenced this at 4K and 60FPS, it would be nice to get confirmation from Suzuki. I’m doubtful of resolution but I would hope PS4 pro owners get closer to PC benchmarks.
 
GhostTrick said:
Nice write up, although there's something I dont understand with the fighting system:
How does input for the techniques works ?
Like, from what I get, you press a string of buttons, then it makes the move, right ? But is it like a combo ? Like you make AAB, which means punch punch kick then it makes the move ? Or does the input wont do anything until you make all 3 of them to do the technique ?
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Yeah, that's my question too. Is it just one press to throw a standard punch? Like A on its own will throw a standard punch? While button strings (like A, A, B) will pull off an individual flashier move from your move set?

Like in the old games, to do an Elbow Thrust, it was (-> -> + A.) But since they're not using the D-pad anymore for directionals then for Shenmue III it becomes say (A, A) to pull off an Elbow Thrust.

The way I'm understanding it is since they're not using the D pad anymore for directionals...then A and B will be your standard Punch and Kick while button strings will pull off other iconic moves from your repertoire, such as your Elbow Thrust and what not.

That could be kind of cool and a good work around not having directional inputs in a more standard modernized Analog 3D based fighting system. Since they're not using the D pad anymore for directional inputs while fighting and I would not want to use the Analog stick to try and pull off directionals (that would be horrible.)

And it would still theoretically slow down fights and bring in some timing and strategy and not just turn it into a button mash fest ala Yakuza (which can easily get button mashy at times; if I have one gripe with Yakuza's combat it is that it is a little too brain dead at times)

It's a shame that it seems a bit floaty or light...but I'm still really keen to get my hands on that combat system and try it out for myself. I trust them to do the open world exploration stuff just fine...but I'm really keen to get my hands on that fighting engine and play around with it at my own pace.

Anyways great write up. The most detailed write up we've had yet. I am so glad the hit L2 to go into first person view and examine everything has returned.

It feels like Shenmue. It looks like Shenmue. It's all coming together pretty nicely :) Not long left now.
 
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Actually sorta of excited for no directional inputs. Over the years of experimenting Shenmue to death, I've found doing the buttons combos the way we theorize Shen3 will do, also produces cool combos and unique strings, rather than relying exclusively on left/right combos.
 
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