Shenmue III - What Happened? ft. Super Eyepatch Wolf

[Tsukuyomimagi99]

I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but imo it's also worth pointing out

• Shenmue 1 had the benefit of working with the already created and familiar VF3 engine, which itself had the benefit of the VF2 engine, which had the benefit of the VF engine. And of course, Shenmue 2 had the benefit of Shenmue 1. S3 had fucking nothing.
• Shenmue 1&2 had the benefit of primarily being made by a large group of employees that are actually in direct contact with each other, are used to working with one another, and are used to working under the production infrastructure Sega spent decades creating and refining for peak efficiency
• Conversely, S3 had no such pre-existing infrastructure to work with. They had a small handful of people that worked on phone apps. They had to build a new team of people that have never worked together, many of which were contractors from overseas that don't even speak the same language as them since they didn't have the same preexisting supply of full-time employees Sega did. Sega effectively paid the cost of creating that well ahead of Shenmue ever beginning production.
• Yu was probably rusty as fuck at the start of S3's production since he hadn't made a new non-mobile game in about a billion years. Conversely, he was a well-oiled machine during S1&2 considering he was producing several titles every single year around that time.

If you ask me, I think the majority of S3's dev time and cost had to go into aspects of creating an infrastructure where the development of a large game can occur. This is a matter already taken care of and paid for ahead of something like the latest Yakuza game or even the previous Shenmue games.

You bring up some good points, however, I must respectfully disagree. This might sound insensitive, but for someone who ended up with a twenty-million-dollar development budget, had access to Shenmue's intellectual property rights, and had several publishers backing him, should have come out with a vastly superior product. Many independent developers would have killed to be in Suzuki's position. It's no one else's fault that Suzuki hired the staff that he hired or how he directed them.

Also, take into account that many independent developers with fewer resources and manpower than Suzuki have created outstanding video games. Or the fact that as technology has evolved, so too has the work process. In other words, what was expensive and laborious in the late 90s and early 00s could be simplified today.

Since Suzuki is a legend who revived the Japanese arcade scene in the 1980s, I have higher standards for him than your common developer. This is not to say that Shenmue III is a terrible product from an artistic or technical standpoint, but it could have been better.

 

[Dietsoap]

You bring up some good points, however, I must respectfully disagree. This might sound insensitive, but for someone who ended up with a twenty-million-dollar development budget, had access to Shenmue's intellectual property rights, and had several publishers backing him, should have come out with a vastly superior product. Many independent developers would have killed to be in Suzuki's position. It's no one else's fault that Suzuki hired the staff that he hired or how he directed them.

Also, take into account that many independent developers with fewer resources and manpower than Suzuki have created outstanding video games. Or the fact that as technology has evolved, so too has the work process. In other words, what was expensive and laborious in the late 90s and early 00s could be simplified today.

Since Suzuki is a legend who revived the Japanese arcade scene in the 1980s, I have higher standards for him than your common developer. This is not to say that Shenmue III is a terrible product from an artistic or technical standpoint, but it could have been better.

While I don't agree with the implications of everything here, I do think this is a completely reasonable take. What some indies could do with $20 million in particular is something I think about a lot.

 

[Guy-ManAfterAll]

You bring up some good points, however, I must respectfully disagree. This might sound insensitive, but for someone who ended up with a twenty-million-dollar development budget, had access to Shenmue's intellectual property rights, and had several publishers backing him, should have come out with a vastly superior product. Many independent developers would have killed to be in Suzuki's position. It's no one else's fault that Suzuki hired the staff that he hired or how he directed them.

Also, take into account that many independent developers with fewer resources and manpower than Suzuki have created outstanding video games. Or the fact that as technology has evolved, so too has the work process. In other words, what was expensive and laborious in the late 90s and early 00s could be simplified today.

Since Suzuki is a legend who revived the Japanese arcade scene in the 1980s, I have higher standards for him than your common developer. This is not to say that Shenmue III is a terrible product from an artistic or technical standpoint, but it could have been better.

I both agree and disagree :

I do agree that Shenmue 3 could have been better with just simple tweaks here and there, and that, given their budget, they could have done it. But, also, I disagree because we don't know exactly what happened backstage, you know ? Alot can happen backstage, many time it's unforseen. Sometimes it can directly inputed to poor decisions from management (Suzuki or Biscay), sometimes it could be completely something else. It's hard to explain...

But I know, since I'm working in videos, that sometimes you've get everything to make a great project within the budget. And yet, you still fail because of some unforseen stuff. Like a technical issue making it impossible to shoot a scene how it was intended to be, so you lose hours on trying to solve the problem and shoot it in a different less meaningful way, stuff like that. I'm pretty sure those things happens while making a video game.

 

[xatruio]

You bring up some good points, however, I must respectfully disagree. This might sound insensitive, but for someone who ended up with a twenty-million-dollar development budget, had access to Shenmue's intellectual property rights, and had several publishers backing him, should have come out with a vastly superior product. Many independent developers would have killed to be in Suzuki's position. It's no one else's fault that Suzuki hired the staff that he hired or how he directed them.

Also, take into account that many independent developers with fewer resources and manpower than Suzuki have created outstanding video games. Or the fact that as technology has evolved, so too has the work process. In other words, what was expensive and laborious in the late 90s and early 00s could be simplified today.

Since Suzuki is a legend who revived the Japanese arcade scene in the 1980s, I have higher standards for him than your common developer. This is not to say that Shenmue III is a terrible product from an artistic or technical standpoint, but it could have been better.

Credit due to indie developers with much less--aside from RGGG and Shenmue, most of my PS4 favorites are smaller titles. Nevertheless, they're creating amazing experiences although not Shenmue. Being developed 20 years ago doesn't mean it is easy or cheap to make now. So far ahead of times some features are still unique and no big budget project or programmer has attempted again, or must be easy and cheap 20 years on? Cannot have both ways.

Also, We're discovering more and more a sad reality: Sega in classic biazzare behavior seems protective of the engine despite being dormant for 15 years before Sega Europe took notice of the #SaveShenmue campaign and then years to finally convince Japan behind the scenes for an HD release only after seeing the Shenmue 3 KS blow up. Even still, D3T had plenty of docs, but not absolutely everything in their HD reissue porting efforts (or else they probably might've had a smoother launch regardless of being rushed into the slow August window). Sadder still, YSnet had even less. IP rights are names and imagery... no any engine or assets. Hence the decision whenever Sega allowed the IP, but obviously not the engine and they went for Unreal re-build from scratch.

I think the amazing efforts of the Dragon and Phonenix collection are what Suzuki preferred (pretty sure Cedric mentioned Dreamcast engin was pondered as an option in early days presumably 2014 or 2015), but simply was cheaper to go with an Unreal rebuild than either paying out the nose to Sega for much worse license fees; if Outrun and HangOn were too expsive for the arcades, how tight do you think Sega were for the whole damn thing?

 

[Tsukuyomimagi99]

Credit due to indie developers with much less--aside from RGGG and Shenmue, most of my PS4 favorites are smaller titles. Nevertheless, they're creating amazing experiences although not Shenmue. Being developed 20 years ago doesn't mean it is easy or cheap to make now. So far ahead of time some features are still unique and no big budget project or programmer has attempted again, or must be easy and cheap 20 years on? Cannot have both ways.

Also, We're discovering more and more a sad reality: Sega in classic bizarre behavior seems protective of the engine despite being dormant for 15 years before Sega Europe took notice of the #SaveShenmue campaign and then years to finally convince Japan behind the scenes for an HD release only after seeing the Shenmue 3 KS blow up. Even still, D3T had plenty of docs, but not absolutely everything in their HD reissue porting efforts (or else they probably might've had a smoother launch regardless of being rushed into the slow August window). Sadder still, YSnet had even less. IP rights are names and imagery... no any engine or assets. Hence the decision whenever Sega allowed the IP, but not the engine and they went for Unreal re-build from scratch.

I think the amazing efforts of the Dragon and Phoenix collection are what Suzuki preferred (pretty sure Cedric mentioned Dreamcast Engin was pondered as an option in the early days presumably 2014 or 2015), but simply was cheaper to go with an Unreal rebuild than either paying out the nose to Sega for much worse license fees; if Outrun and HangOn were too expensive for the arcades, how tight do you think Sega was for the whole damn thing?

I apologize for not being clear on the technology point. I understand that development is hard work, I simply meant it has become more efficient. There plenty of assets that both professional studios (like Ryu Ga Gotoku) and amateur developers alike can draw upon. This is why we have a vast tapestry of independently developed video games in comparison to the 90s and early 00s. That's because technology continues to evolve.

Also, pardon my ignorance, but what exactly does Shenmue III do that other developers and publishers of open-world video games could not emulate if they wanted to? As for your point about SEGA, I am in absolute agreement with you as to why the ports came out as shoddy as they did. I blame SEGA Europe and Japan more than D3T since they did the best with what they had.

None of this, however, changes the fact that Suzuki at the end of the day, ended up with a twenty-million-dollar development budget. It does not change the fact of the staff he chose to work on Shenmue III or how that staff was guided.

 

[Guy-ManAfterAll]

I apologize for not being clear on the technology point. I understand that development is hard work, I simply meant it has become more efficient. There plenty of assets that both professional studios (like Ryu Ga Gotoku) and amateur developers alike can draw upon. This is why we have a vast tapestry of independently developed video games in comparison to the 90s and early 00s. That's because technology continues to evolve.

Are you sure that it has become more efficient ? For me, it seems it's the opposite. Nowadays, big AAA games that are similar to what Shenmue was back then take way more resources today, both financially and humanly. If you look at a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, who is, in my opinion, as big nowadays as Shenmue was in 1999. Well RDR 2 costed allegedly 800 millions (we don't have a clear answer, but sources go from 750 millions to 950 millions) of dollars, took 7 years of development and there are more than 3000 names in the end credits. Apparently, it's around 1'600 persons involved in the development directly, and 1'400 actors.

And let's remember that Yakuza 1, released in late 2005 costed 21 millions dollars. Approx' the same budget as Shenmue 3 in late 2019. Noting also that since then, there have been inflation etc...

For years now, the cost and time of dev' has tremendously exploded. For example, a game like Final Fantasy X costed around 32 millions dollars and took roughly 3 years of development, and back then it seemed HUGE. But today, these kind of costs and dev time, it seems quite normal, it's not even AAA.

It's not to say that Shenmue 3 couldn't be better, I 100% agree with you that with this budget, things could have been better. But I do believe that for a game like Shenmue, 20 millions is still quite low. Having to voice act every NPC differently, programming them to have a daily routine, to answer your different questions at different times etc... It costs alot of money. Just as they had to motion capture every martial art technique that was used in the game, that cost alot of money.

Also I would like to note that they didn't start the dev' with 20 millions ready. They started with less, and some of the budget was added later on with DS and then EGS.

So yeah, while I agree with you that alot could have been better, maybe, as you said, with better people at some key positions, still they did a really really good job with the budget in hands.

Also, pardon my ignorance, but what exactly does Shenmue III do that other developers and publishers of open-world video games could not emulate if they wanted to?

I think some stuffs like talking to (almost) every NPCs and asking them questions to help you out with your investigation, and them having an answer to give you, for example. Or that most NPCs have a clear routine everyday instead of just hanging in one place 24/7. I think this is those kind of stuff that I haven't really saw in any other video games I played.

None of this, however, changes the fact that Suzuki at the end of the day, ended up with a twenty-million-dollar development budget. It does not change the fact of the staff he chose to work on Shenmue III or how that staff was guided.

Are we sure that these 20 millions were purely development costs ? Isn't it the total cost for Shenmue 3 (marketing, distribution, KS fees, etc...) ?

 

[Tsukuyomimagi99]

Are you sure that it has become more efficient? For me, it seems it's the opposite. Nowadays, big AAA games that are similar to what Shenmue was back then have taken way more resources today, both financially and humanly. If you look at a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, who is, in my opinion, as big nowadays as Shenmue was in 1999. Well, RDR 2 cost allegedly 800 million (we don't have a clear answer, but sources go from 750 million to 950 million) dollars, took 7 years of development and there are more than 3000 names in the end credits. It's around 1'600 persons involved in the development director and 1'400 actors.

And let's remember that Yakuza 1, released in late 2005 cost 21 million dollars. Approx' the same budget as Shenmue 3 in late 2019. Noting also that since then, there has been inflation, etc...

For years now, the cost and time of dev' have tremendously exploded. For example, a game like Final Fantasy X cost around 32 million dollars and took roughly 3 years of development, and back then it seemed HUGE. But today, this kind of cost and dev time seems quite normal, it's not even AAA.

It's not to say that Shenmue 3 couldn't be better, I 100% agree with you that with this budget, things could have been better. But I do believe that for a game like Shenmue, 20 million is still quite low. Having to voice act every NPC differently, programming them to have a daily routine, to answer your different questions at different times, etc... It costs a lot of money. Just as they had to motion capture every martial art technique that was used in the game, that cost a lot of money.

Also, I would like to note that they didn't start the dev' with 20 million ready. They started with less, and some of the budgets were added later on with DS and then EGS.

So yeah, while I agree with you that a lot could have been better, maybe, as you said, with better people at some key positions, still they did a good job with the budget in hand.

I think some stuff like talking to (almost) every NPCs and asking them questions to help you out with your investigation, and them having an answer to give you, for example. Or that most NPCs have a clear habit every day instead of just hanging in one place 24/7. I think this is the kind of stuff that I haven't seen in any other video games I played.


Are we sure that these 20 million were purely development costs? Isn't it the total cost for Shenmue 3 (marketing, distribution, KS fees, etc...)?

So are you saying that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios don't reuse game assets for each iteration after 2005? Or that independent developers don't do the same thing or use a well-established game engine that's cheaper instead of building their own from scratch? I mean, the most common sentiment I see around here is that Shenmue IV will reuse assets made from the development of Shenmue III ergo, Shenmue IV will be cheaper and slightly easier to make.

Also, in my opinion, the difference between a AAA game and a non-AAA title is the bloated budget for things like advertising. There isn't any difference in quality as one can easily point to Cyberpunk 2077 or Final Fantasy XV as examples. Meanwhile, you can then turn around and point to well-developed independent video games such as A Hat in Time or Hollow Knight which had minimal budgets by comparison.

As for the twenty million dollar budget, fair enough, I am no authority on how that money was spent. However, what I will state is that according to interviews after Suzuki made a deal with Embracer, is that the development budget "stabilized". You can interpret that however you like, but keep in mind that due to the deal, we were able to get a bigger game overall with more stretch goals reached.

 

[Guy-ManAfterAll]

So are you saying that Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios don't reuse game assets for each iteration after 2005? Or that independent developers don't do the same thing or use a well-established game engine that's cheaper instead of building their own from scratch? I mean, the most common sentiment I see around here is that Shenmue IV will reuse assets made from the development of Shenmue III ergo, Shenmue IV will be cheaper and slightly easier to make.

I think there might have been a misunderstanding from me, and I'm truly sorry if that's the case. I was talking about Shenmue 3 only. Now, of course I believe that they will reuse assets from 3 to make 4, just like RGG Studios reuse assets for Yakuza, and just like Ubi reuse assets for Assassin's Creed and basically every studio for every sequel of a license (and sometimes, reuse assets for other series as well, but that's another discussion). So yes, I fully agree that Shenmue 4 can be better with the same budget as Shenmue 3 or even slightly lower. I think I misunderstood that part of you saying games were cheaper to make nowadays, sorry.

Also, in my opinion, the difference between a AAA game and a non-AAA title is the bloated budget for things like advertising. There isn't any difference in quality as one can easily point to Cyberpunk 2077 or Final Fantasy XV as examples. Meanwhile, you can then turn around and point to well-developed independent video games such as A Hat in Time or Hollow Knight which had minimal budgets by comparison.

It's completely true. But now, games like CP77 or FF XV have a scale that HK doesn't have for example. It doesn't mean that the end product is better. Far from it I'd say, since often I like playing small budget games better than the high AAA budget. Higher budget doesn't mean higher quality.

But I also think that talking about the budget is... I don't know, I can't find the right word for it, but I think it's not enough. There's so much more to analyze, it's really a case by case analysis, like you should take into account the genre, the company's history, the context etc... And it's not even necessary even ? I know it sounds weird and kinda paradoxal considering my previous post. But for me, we shouldn't car how much budget went into a game. The only question we should ask ourselves is "is the game any good ?". Because if a game is good, people won't care if it costed 1 million or 80 millions dollars. In the end, all they want to know is wether they are going to have fun or not. And this is were we should talk about Shenmue 3. The thing is, we keep saying "they could have done better with 20 millions dollars !", but I think we should put the "with 20 millions dollars" out and just keep "they could have done better". Because, in the end, that's what is true. The storytelling was really lacking, there are a few issues with the fighting system (and mostly the game feel), with the presentation and with the optimization for PC. Would I be ready to excuse all these problems if Yu Suzuki had only 5 millions dollars instead of 20 ? I'll have to say no, because the issues I'm pointing out now are issues I've been poiting out since the game's launch back then, so before I knew the budget was around 20 millions and when I tought it was around 10 millions at most.

As for the twenty million dollar budget, fair enough, I am no authority on how that money was spent. However, what I will state is that according to interviews after Suzuki made a deal with Embracer, is that the development budget "stabilized". You can interpret that however you like, but keep in mind that due to the deal, we were able to get a bigger game overall with more stretch goals reached.

No no, that's not what I'm trying to say at all ! I agree with you totally. Let's remember that they had to cut Baisha out of the game, while weirdly enough, the first tiers of the stretch goals were all Baisha related, that Yu Suzuki said that at 5 millions dollars, he could implement the features he wanted to see the most (the baisha character perspective system) and that in an Interview for Shenmue Master, he said that Baisha was the most important place in the game. So clearly, at somepoint, something went wrong during dev'

Now, the question I'm asking myself is : is it Yu Suzuki's fault ? For example you point out that the people Yu chose to work with weren't the good people. But who knows how much that's true ? Maybe they were the good ones, but something happened. Maybe Yu wanted to work with some other people but couldn't for whatever reasons ? For example, Yoshimoto was announced as returning for the script of Shenmue 3, but in the end it wasn't the case. But we don't know why. Was Yoshimot too busy on other projects ? Was it a budgetary constraint ? Did they differ on an artistic view point ? It's really hard to tell.

 

[Tsukuyomimagi99]

I think there might have been a misunderstanding from me, and I'm truly sorry if that's the case. I was talking about Shenmue 3 only. Now, of course, I believe that they will reuse assets from 3 to make 4, just like RGG Studios reuse assets for Yakuza, and just like Ubi reuse assets for Assassin's Creed and every studio for every sequel of a license (and sometimes, reuse assets for other series as well, but that's another discussion). So yes, I fully agree that Shenmue 4 can be better with the same budget as Shenmue 3 or even slightly lower. I think I misunderstood that part of you saying games were cheaper to make nowadays, sorry.


It's completely true. But now, games like CP77 or FF XV have a scale that HK doesn't have for example. It doesn't mean that the end product is better. Far from it, I'd say since often I like playing small budget games better than the high AAA budget. A higher budget doesn't mean higher quality.

But I also think that talking about the budget is... I don't know, I can't find the right word for it, but I think it's not enough. There's so much more to analyze, it's a case-by-case analysis like you should take into account the genre, the company's history, the context, etc... And it's not even necessary? I know it sounds weird and kinda paradoxical considering my previous post. But for me, we shouldn't care how much budget went into a game. The only question we should ask ourselves is "is the game any good ?". Because if a game is good, people won't care if it cost 1 million or 80 million dollars. In the end, all they want to know is whether they are going to have fun or not. And this is where we should talk about Shenmue 3. The thing is, we keep saying "they could have done better with 20 million dollars !", but I think we should put the "with 20 million dollars" out and just keep "they could have done better". Because, in the end, that's what is true. The storytelling was lacking, there are a few issues with the fighting system (and mostly the game feel), with the presentation, and with the optimization for PC. Would I be ready to excuse all these problems if Yu Suzuki had only 5 million dollars instead of 20? I'll have to say no because the issues I'm pointing out now are issues I've been pointing out since the game's launch back then, so before I knew the budget was around 20 million, and when I thought it was around 10 million at most.


No no, that's not what I'm trying to say at all! I agree with you. Let's remember that they had to cut Baisha out of the game, while weirdly enough, the first tiers of the stretch goals were all Baisha related, that Yu Suzuki said that at 5 million dollars, he could implement the features he wanted to see the most (the baisha character perspective system) and that in an Interview for Shenmue Master, he said that Baisha was the most important place in the game. So clearly, at some point, something went wrong during dev'

Now, the question I'm asking myself is: is it Yu Suzuki's fault? For example, you point out that the people Yu chose to work with weren't good. But who knows how much that's true? Maybe they were the good ones, but something happened. Maybe Yu wanted to work with some other people but couldn't for whatever reasons? For example, Yoshimoto was announced as returning for the script of Shenmue 3, but in the end, it wasn't the case. But we don't know why. Was Yoshimot too busy on other projects? Was it a budgetary constraint? Did they differ on an artistic viewpoint? It's really hard to tell.

No need for apologies as I enjoy a good debate. You have been very articulate in your posts and have shown weaknesses in mine so I thank you for that. I agree that the budget doesn't matter as long as a video game is good. However, what we define as good is subjective.

I did not enjoy Shenmue III, as I felt the story was hollow and poorly paced. I thought the mini-games were redundant and shallow, unfulfilled promises, and a combat system that was inferior to the first two games. However, I know many people did enjoy Shenmue III and that's perfectly fine with me as they see something in it that I don't. I do, however, enjoy video games that I know were made with a lesser budget than Shenmue like I am Setsuna or Oninaki.

I agree with you that I don't know what other problems Suzuki had behind the scenes. It's just that I hold Suzuki in such high esteem that I believe he can do better. That's why in the end I will criticize him but that doesn't mean my respect for him is gone. Till Suzuki dies, I will never give up on him pushing boundaries for others to follow or on Shenmue because I love this franchise.

This will be my last post on this topic but thanks for the friendly debate.

 

[Guy-ManAfterAll]

No need for apologies as I enjoy a good debate. You have been very articulate in your posts and have shown weaknesses in mine so I thank you for that. I agree that the budget doesn't matter as long as a video game is good. However, what we define as good is subjective.

I did not enjoy Shenmue III, as I felt the story was hollow and poorly paced. I thought the mini-games were redundant and shallow, unfulfilled promises, and a combat system that was inferior to the first two games. However, I know many people did enjoy Shenmue III and that's perfectly fine with me as they see something in it that I don't. I do, however, enjoy video games that I know were made with a lesser budget than Shenmue like I am Setsuna or Oninaki.

I agree with you that I don't know what other problems Suzuki had behind the scenes. It's just that I hold Suzuki in such high esteem that I believe he can do better. That's why in the end I will criticize him but that doesn't mean my respect for him is gone. Till Suzuki dies, I will never give up on him pushing boundaries for others to follow or on Shenmue because I love this franchise.

This will be my last post on this topic but thanks for the friendly debate.

No thank you for your politeness in this debate ! And in the end, we agreed on major points, so it's cool haha.

And yes, I agree that what can be define as good or not is mostly subjective ! I'm sad to see you didn't enjoy Shenmue 3, but I totally understand how and why. As you said, I am sure that Yu Suzuki can do better and I'm pretty sure that with Shenmue 4 he will correct the flaws present in Shenmue 3.

See you soon !

 

[bcdcdude]

I think Shenmue III was under more scrutiny than most games of its time due to it's Kickstarter nature. Many games are hidden behind a veil of secrecy and only shown when needed. Obviously, with Kickstarter, you can't do that (well you can, but it wouldn't go down well). I think we also have to take into account that Suzuki-san doesn't really play games and whilst some people use that as a trump card, I tend to find that pretty lazy. David Lynch is one of the finest directors around, but he barely watches films!

I think i've said this before, but I also believe Shenmue is in an interesting situation in the history of gaming; because the first game was so ahead of its time and because many people were unable to play it until the HD editions, it becomes somewhat more desirable (you only have to see how many people want a remaster of Panzer Dragoon Saga for example). But for some folk that have never played it - when they do and it's not what they expect - their pride is wounded because you hear so many people say what a great game Shenmue is and they get angry about it.

As for the budget, again we're in a situation where we have more information than normal when it comes to finances, but many people simply don't get how game development works. Shenmue III is odd in that it's not exactly an indie game, but it's not a AAA game either. Using a movie analogy again, you only tend to get two types of films these days; micro budget or gargantuan blockbuster budgets. The mid range ($20-$30m) budget films are very rare nowadays as the margin for success is rare. Shenmue III feels like one of those films.

Even though I've said that as long as you've played the game, you're free to say your opinion, it doesn't stop the fact that it hurts a little. I totally get it; I don't understand a lot of popular games (I'm still struggling with Death Stranding), but the difference between Shenmue and say your Ubisoft games is that Shenmue is constantly on a knife edge with regards to its future. Granted, the upcoming anime and the hard work making SIII makes the future a little rosier, but until SIV is announced, I feel I have to defend the game as much as I can, even though I struggle with it at times. Some folk just get a hard on annoying others and as tough as it is, sometimes you just have to accept that trying to reason with them is a fools game. After all, we live in a world where bad people do bad things and get away with it. It's a bitter pill to swallow.

I've also said before, the 2nd playthrough is much more pleasurable as I don't have to worry about the stamina system, but I accept that it was an idea that had good intentions, but perhaps wasn't implemented as well as it could've been.

Long story short - I believe the game was made with the best intentions and that makes me want to defend the game where I can.

 

[xatruio]

Curious; where was 20 million substantiated--Yu Suzuki interview? Also possibly another misleading "70 million" where the license fees and kickstarter dues, rewards everything else? Tbf if so, 20 million seems decent for what we got. There's tons of small layers from the first two games. Legitimately can only think of... cassettes/jukeboxes, big or small, darts, soda... only superficial things missing.

 

[Tsukuyomimagi99]

Curious; where was 20 million substantiated--Yu Suzuki interview? Also possibly another misleading "70 million" where the license fees and Kickstarter dues, rewards everything else? Tbf if so, 20 million seems decent for what we got. There are rare tons of small layers from the first two games. Legitimately can only think of... cassettes/jukeboxes, big or small, darts, soda... only superficial things missing.

Yu Suzuki Interview: Reflecting on Shenmue III and Future Plans [IGN Japan] | Translation

A blog on the Shenmue series of games from Yu Suzuki with a mission to translate articles, videos and updates for English-speaking fans.

www.phantomriverstone.com