Okay, now I'm fully awake and had some time to process it all. Let's go through this.
I think, like everything I've seen from this game so far, it's a mixed bag. Some stuff looks good while other stuff looks rough.
The faces are truly the worst of it I think. When you look at some of the faces, it's like their mouths are the only thing animating. The rest of the face is stiff. There is no bone movement and so it has that disconnect. In many ways we've been spoilt by games that offer unbelievable facial capture and its very clear that this is all hand animated. With that said; I don't think that's a valid excuse. I think you can do better in hand animating. BUT when you compare the English trailer with the Japanese trailer, I think it's made worse by the fact that the English dub does not match the mouth movement of the Japanese.
Japanese and English are two entirely different languages hence the disconnect in the lip sync. So maybe this will get better and maybe that's why they needed the delay.
I think the Japanese version is very much done and I think everything you see here is indicative of the final product. If anything, I think the hold up now is actually the English version and the fact that it wasn't finished. Or I could be wrong on that but I'd be willing to bet that is the case.
I think the Japanese version of the trailer played a little better and I think it was because the mouths are synced a little more competently to the Japanese dub at this point in time.
To me the facial animations are the worst of it as a whole, but it doesn't bother me too much. I can live with stiff faces that don't fully animate or aren't performance captured. The facial animations have always been the worst of it to me. Even though it has gotten better, it still isn't great and sadly, for many people, that shit leaves an impression.
I think everything you see here is indicative of in game. Those chase sequences are obviously QTE sequences without the prompts. And I think some of them looked nice. This one in particular I liked
I actually really like this moment in the trailer. It's very Shenmue. Very QTE. If there is one thing I would say about it. The editing seems kind of jarred.
The sparring looked nice. I think the color vibrance is still there. I love seeing that AM2 blue sky again.
I don't hate it but at the same time I do get why people don't like it either. There's just something about it all that is still a bit jarring. Whether it be the un-synchronized mouths, the stiff facial animations, some of the jarring animations or what not. It's not perfect; it screams budget through and through. For me, that is fine. I knew this wasn't open cheque book Shenmue like the first two games were, but for casual audiences that have no care in the world for Shenmue? Of course they're gonna rag on it for what it is.
Hell, even as a fan, I still have issues with it. I think some of the character designs don't look great. Ryo and Shenhua look better than ever but some of the side characters just look rough and not in a great way. I think there's a total disconnect in design philosophy. Some aspects look better than others.
I'm sure I'll be called a hater by someone. I didn't hate it but I do understand people's concerns. I really do.
