SHENMUE III - REVIEW ROUNDUP

mjqjazzbar said:
I like it, but the lack of visible progress or varierty when you do One Hit Punch, Horse Stance or Rooster Walk is disappointing. I know it would've taken a lot to make these more complex, but I found their execution underwhelming.
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It's subtle but there is some visible progress. Ryo shortens his distance in one-inch punch as you progress, and holds a deeper squat as you improve at horse stance. Pretty cool attention to detail, but I agree: the mini-games are very basic. I think Yu was trying to evoke the feeling of practising basic kung fu techniques in real life, which is repetitive by its very nature, and allows you to enter a "zen-like" state. From that perspective I think it works. Whether or not they could've slowly added complexity to the mini-games without losing that feeling, I'm not sure.

I think the issue is probably variety, not complexity. They're supposed to be simple mini-games, but the fact that you can only pick between two of them for half the game, then three later on, is what makes them grow a bit stale, in my opinion.

The fact that there's no striking/blocking on the wooden dummy (but you squat in front of it) is strange. A third option to strike the dummy, even if it was just rhythmic button combos, would've been awesome. Just another thing that would've been nice if they had the budget.
 
The idea of "money is not a problem in Shenmue II because you can save scumm" is not a positive point for SII, actually it indicates that making money in that game via legal ways is the most fucking boring way of making money in any Shenmue game
 
Kyo_JP said:
The idea of "money is not a problem in Shenmue II because you can save scumm" is not a positive point for SII, actually it indicates that making money in that game via legal ways is the most fucking boring way of making money in any Shenmue game
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Shenmue II’s key points where you need money ($500 to see Ren for example) is quite easy and manageable to do without gambling or save scumming.
 
Truck_1_0_1_ said:
lol not really.

If you DON'T know about the lighters, then you will indeed need to work constantly or, gamble.
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That. My first gameplay was a nightmare between moving boxes for peanuts and hosting Lucky Hit. It is easy with a playthrough
 
Kyo_JP said:
That. My first gameplay was a nightmare between moving boxes for peanuts and hosting Lucky Hit. It is easy with a playthrough
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I remember, back in the day, not thinking about save scumming and moving boxes for hours until I got the Ren money and then some.

I appreciate the challenges with money in Shenmue III but they're no worse, for me, than Shenmue 2 in that respect.
 
orient said:
It's subtle but there is some visible progress. Ryo shortens his distance in one-inch punch as you progress, and holds a deeper squat as you improve at horse stance. Pretty cool attention to detail, but I agree: the mini-games are very basic. I think Yu was trying to evoke the feeling of practising basic kung fu techniques in real life, which is repetitive by its very nature, and allows you to enter a "zen-like" state. From that perspective I think it works. Whether or not they could've slowly added complexity to the mini-games without losing that feeling, I'm not sure.

I think the issue is probably variety, not complexity. They're supposed to be simple mini-games, but the fact that you can only pick between two of them for half the game, then three later on, is what makes them grow a bit stale, in my opinion.

The fact that there's no striking/blocking on the wooden dummy (but you squat in front of it) is strange. A third option to strike the dummy, even if it was just rhythmic button combos, would've been awesome. Just another thing that would've been nice if they had the budget.
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It's strange to me that, since there is supposed to be such an emphasis on training in S3, there are so few ways to train compared to earning money. There are only 4 ways to train martial arts including sparring, and there are literally twice as many ways to earn money including forklifts, chopping wood, fishing, collecting herbs, trading items on top of the (at least) 5 ways to gamble and that's not even including all the arcade minigames.

Kyo_JP said:
The idea of "money is not a problem in Shenmue II because you can save scumm" is not a positive point for SII, actually it indicates that making money in that game via legal ways is the most fucking boring way of making money in any Shenmue game
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Weird choice then that Suzuki would focus on such a universally disliked aspect for the sequel...
 
Truck_1_0_1_ said:
lol not really.

If you DON'T know about the lighters, then you will indeed need to work constantly or, gamble.
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...What about lighters? LOL I have played Shenmue II about 3478y347 times and it's my favorite game of all time, yet strangely I never cared about the lighters or knew they could make money.

How? lol
 
Real1 said:
...What about lighters? LOL I have played Shenmue II about 3478y347 times and it's my favorite game of all time, yet strangely I never cared about the lighters or knew they could make money.

How? lol
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Right at the beginning of Shenmue 2 before Wong steals your bag you use savings and buy all the lighters in beginning two areas which you pawn off later. Ensuring you have enough money to get hint for Xuixing in Yan Ting apartment and enough money to meet Ren without having to work.
 
code l name said:
Right at the beginning of Shenmue 2 before Wong steals your bag you use savings and buy all the lighters in beginning two areas which you pawn off later. Ensuring you have enough money to get hint for Xuixing in Yan Ting apartment and enough money to meet Ren without having to work.
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Oh neat. I usually spend it but I don't think I used to spend it on lighters specifically
 
code l name said:
Right at the beginning of Shenmue 2 before Wong steals your bag you use savings and buy all the lighters in beginning two areas which you pawn off later. Ensuring you have enough money to get hint for Xuixing in Yan Ting apartment and enough money to meet Ren without having to work.
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Wait... you actually pay the guy at Yan Tin?

You know you don't have to pay him and he gets all pissy, right?
 
Truck_1_0_1_ said:
Wait... you actually pay the guy at Yan Tin?

You know you don't have to pay him and he gets all pissy, right?
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I know you don’t have to pay him full amount, but I thought you have to give him minimum payment to trigger next scene? I’m assuming if you just run to Man Mo Temple you can bypass this?
 
Sadly, no: doesn't let you proceed until he spills "Man Mo," THEN you can head to the Temple.
 
Truck_1_0_1_ said:
Sadly, no: doesn't let you proceed until he spills "Man Mo," THEN you can head to the Temple.
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Right that’s what I thought (again smart way for the game to nudge players into partaking in the monetary system). So you do have to have some money to proceed, which is where selling lighters comes in handy.
 
iknifaugood said:
1. It cost $500, which you can earn with about 10 minutes of save scumming (there are no such easy outs in S3).
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Yes, there are such easy outs in SIII. It involves the same thing, too: save scumming while gambling. The game is practically screaming at the player to go gamble at those points in SIII, too. It depends slightly on the fluctuations of store/prize shop prices, but in general you can cash out 20k tokens for 2k yuan, which is practically nothing to get. If you're decent at Lucky Hit, there's one board in both Bailu and Niaowu that will get you well over the amount needed to pass those gates in one or two wins, if you max bet on them. Even if you just wanted safer bets, max bet on a KaChouFuGetsu table that lets you throw down 2k tokens, and you're up to 20k in only three wins (six wins if the max bet is 1500 tokens).
 
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