Shenmue III - What Happened? ft. Super Eyepatch Wolf

Super Eye Patchwolf was a fan too. Is he no longer a fan because he didn't like S3 and sees no promising future for Shenmue and so now he should be quiet? Anyone who has bought the game is in some way a "fan". I absolutely relate to those who feel great despair after playing Shenmue 3, but I also share the same hope as those waiting for Shenmue 4.

Suzuki has already gone on record to say he wants the game(s) to appeal to more than just the old Shenmue fans, and I'm sure they have the same aspirations for the Anime.
What a selfish hypocritical statement. While I can not speak for anyone else, I am not going to judge where Eyepatch Wolf's allegiances lie. You came in here accusing people of having a victim mentality and now here you are acting like a victim.

Eyepatch Wolf put out a video on a public forum where you're bound to get blowback. But I guess Shenmue III fans should just shut up and allow critics to shit on the game just because they agree with your own bias.
 
Let's all simmer down a bit here, I don't think this whole thing is as black and white as people are making it out to be.

Yeah, it's true that the views of a few YouTubers are ultimately irrelevant considering that as a franchise, Shenmue is in the best place it's been in the last ten years. We have re-releases of the original titles, a new game (regardless of the mixed reception), an upcoming anime, and a plethora of extremely strong fan projects such as Shenmue World and the Dragon and Phoenix collection. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter if a few people say "Shenmue bad" to an audience who would never have played it anyway.

But at the same time, I also think it's completely fair to be critical of SEW & Matt if you genuinely disagree with their assessment. To expect a community literally built around Shenmue to just sit back and be like "ok sure" when the franchise is so heavily criticised in front of a large audience is frankly silly. Of course people are going to get upset and it's not really fair to say they don't have that right.

So let's just all try to hear each other out instead of continuing with the 'I'm right, you're wrong' mentality, yeah?
 
The problem with e-celebs like him is that they enable this weird online community of gaming hobbyists who depend upon their almighty youtuber's opinion on anything pertaining to computer games. I'm not allowed to like Shenmue 3 because he has a lot of likes and views on his videos, apparently.
Literally no one said you're not allowed to like a game. This is you making yourself a victim because someone didn't like a game you liked.
And no, I'm not going to watch his next video on Shenmue 3. I don't give a crap about his view whoring for money and mob rule bullshit.
More angsty aggression for the same reason above.

This doesn't need to be true shenmue fans vs the world. Everyone is free to talk about the game.
 
My problem with this wolve guy and all the other critics is that their criticism is so hypocritical. So generic. Sure thing Shenmue 3 does some things different than your other average modern game but is that really that bad? Nobody complained that every modern day everbodys darling game play the same.

Ghost of Tsushima, Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption, Horrizon Zero Down, Assassins Creed and so forth all play the same .

They are all open worlish games with tons of crafting elements, collecting stuff and so overly dramatic story. Nobody seems to care. they are happy with the fact that 99 per cent of modern games are Assasins Creed clones.

No Shenmue 3 is not a perfect game. It should be or it even must be criticized but not the way these Youtubers does.


They just make fun of it because it gives them clicks. That is how the internet works. Shenmue is not the only field that is affected by that.

In the end it just ridiculous. There is no ultimate law how a game has to be. Just because some features became common place in modern games does not mean that they are really making games better. This features are just there and people are got used to it but they really make games better? I do not think so. At least not in every instance.

To appeal of Shenmue is to get thrown into a world as a simple guy that has to find his own path of life. You have to grow with Ryo and get used to the world and it's inhabitants.

Giving Ryo god like powers to see blinking icons on the map, fast forwarding time or teleport from one point to another point in the game kills the immersion.


The stamina feature is a good way to show that Ryo is not invincible. Yes the Stamina feature can be annoying and might slow people down. That is true.

That criticism is valid on the one hand. But on the other hand the criticism is a but hypocritical because many modern games do not mind do meaningless side quests , that slow the gameplay down as well. Such side quests do not have anything to do with the story.

The stamina stuff is part of the world and the experience to be Ryo. Unlike side quests which are just about collecting meaningless stuff.


Tastes are different in the end and nobody has to like Shenmue. Buf Shenmue should be allowed to be Shenmue. Molding Shenmue into the modern gaming tropes does not do the Series any favors.

Shenmue is good because of it's unique or according to some other individuals flawed gameplay mechanics.

If you remove them Shenmue is not Shenmue anymore.

So i would be pleased if the critics would stop making the world think that Shenmue would be a better game with modern features.

They are free to think that but speaking with authority that it would be bette for sure is a bit premature.
 
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The game was a let down and Yu needs that team he had with the first 2 games helping him.
He made some poor choices with 3, A game fans waited for since 2001 for and to add to everything the story only took one step forward.


People ask why make this video now?
Because Matts subs asked for it. More importantly the people who donate money to him asked for it.

The video had over 10k views in an hour and currently has over 159k views. And in response to the post about Matt needing Super Eyepatch Wolf because he didn't have a leg to stand on. No it's something he does often. Gets his friends involved in subjects they have strong interest in.

Nothing that was said in the video was a lie.

And really people.. using covid as a reason why this shouldn't have been made? Come on.
Yeah, Matt gets people who are big fans of whatever they title or industry he is covering to guest star. Maximillian Dood for Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, SEW for Shenmue, Jay Hunter for Wrestling, etc.
 
Yeah, Matt gets people who are big fans of whatever they title or industry he is covering to guest star. Maximillian Dood for Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, SEW for Shenmue, Jay Hunter for Wrestling, etc.
Why not Joe from Gamesack, Johnny from Happy Console Gamer, Aris from Avoiding the Puddle etc who all have big followings and are proper Shenmue fans? I mean I know why - clicks of course
 
Why not Joe from Gamesack, Johnny from Happy Console Gamer, Aris from Avoiding the Puddle etc who all have big followings and are proper Shenmue fans? I mean I know why - clicks of course
Maybe Matt doesn't know those people, maybe their schedules wouldn't align, dont know. The people Matt does collaborations he has known long before these videos were made. Hes been doing YouTube for almost a decade now. And whatever a "proper" Shenmue fan is, having access to someone he personally knows appear to be very knowledgeable about the series, of course hes going to go to the person they know and not someone they may not even know. You can ask why Matt didnt get *insert personal favorite "real fan" YouTuber* for any of his guest appearance episodes you don't like.
 
When i meant 'real fan'I meant someone who actually knows what they are talking about. Max is one of the strongest supporters of MVC : I despite it's critical and commercial failure so it makes sense to have him on the show as he is someone who is invested in the game on a very intimate level and really knows what the game does and doesn't do well. SEPW Shenmue video is dishonest and full of inaccuracies that have been pointed out by many posters here and highlighted in the Virtua Bros video. So getting on someone that already has a million view video that already absolutely trashed the game and it's creator is a bullshit move, just another platform to spout more nonsense. I'm sure Matt looked at the million views that SEPW got then looked at HCG's 79K review video or Gamesack's 103K and thought gee which one is going to send more traffic to my page and put more money in my bank account? It's a business after all and outrage and hyperbole make clicks. Shenmue III is a 7/10 game in every sense of the word and the spread of reviews put it around that mark so i'm tired of these guys making out like it's a 2 or 3/10 game, ragging on low hanging fruit for easy money and dragging down the good name of this franchise with it.
 
Literally no one said you're not allowed to like a game. This is you making yourself a victim because someone didn't like a game you liked.

I was speaking about someone I knew outside of this community who actually cited reasons why I should not like Shenmue 3. I blocked him because I wasn't in the mood for drama from someone who hasn't spoken to me in years online - until I was playing Shenmue 3.

There are plenty of people here who aren't fans of 3. I'm not personally biting each of their heads off. They're not imposing their gaming views on me, so I don't care. I only care when grown adults tell me what I should and shouldn't like.

And it's a fact that people who comment on youtube 99.9% of the time deliberately act like assholes. I've noticed that they're trying to cause a war between Nagoshi (Yakuza) and Yu Suzuki (Shenmue) when there isn't one.
 
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Ended up watching this video (helps if you play it at 1.5x speed).
It's not as egregious as I thought it'd be: the focus is really more on the major difficulties of development, timeline, etc. SEW naturally took his time to complain about the fighting system, but it was a much tamer account.

On the one hand, they were addressing issues we ourselves discussed on the forums before/after S3 came out, I can't guilt them there.
On the other hand, and I presume this is what irritates most here, it's a pity to see them using their platform to dunk on games rather than provide what'd I'd call content with "integrity."

I saw this lack of integrity in this video when they turned to criticism. It's much easier to simply describe how S3 happened (recount development history) than it is to present an argument for why it's good or bad. Can't really get the point across? Just cut randomly to Chobu Chan for teh laughz: you got me!

In a sense, I get it: McMuscles got big using his deadpan humor, and SEW has some coherent essays, esp. on film. They know what gets them clicks, and they'll ham that up. So too, I think we can make more of it than they do: for them, this is just two friends, teaming up given their interests/styles, to get more fans. YouTube is their job, and this is just work for them.

That said, in terms of "integrity", I'm like most of you in just being tired of these videos. The unimpressionable don't waste time watching them, and McMuscles/SEW know the impressionable will lap them up. Just the nature of the beast, I suppose.
 
It's a tough one thinking back and I do think that we are going around in circles with this.

In the grand scheme of things, compared to something like Cyberpunk 2077, Fallout 76 etc, Shenmue III got off comparatively lightly; that said those games are huge and are able to weather the storm. I guess it wouldn't bother me if we knew that Shenmue was a relatively safe series. I believe that the anime, merch etc are a good indicator that the series is safe, but until that Shenmue IV reveal trailer comes along, I don't think we can be blamed for being at best defensive (at worst insecure).
 
So being critical of a critic is "playing the victim" now? I guess you would feel that way since it matches your bias. Ironically though, I did not have an issue with the majority of the video since Matt was simply stating facts. I think most people simply took issue with Eyepatch Wolf and how his criticism hasn't changed.

While it's completely in Eyepatch Wolf's right to have a negative opinion on Shenmue III, it's also within other people's rights to disagree with that opinion and state their own. It does not mean that Shenmue fans are "playing the victim" just because they have a different view than him.

And this is coming from someone who dislikes Shenmue III.

Why should it change? The games not gotten better over time so if he didn't like it when it came out he won't now as the issues still exist.

And not saying you but for a video many on here claim not to have any interest in watching they have a lot to say about it.
 
I don't like S3 at all and I enjoyed SEPW's previous Shenmue videos since I think they provide a great (albeit imperfect) articulation of my experience with the series. Even I'll admit that very little new is being added to the discourse at this point but it's worth pointing out that this is all coming from the perspective that S4 is off the table and S3 stepped on massive, obvious rakes. About the only semi-new criticism I enjoyed was when SEPW mentioned that Suzuki radically redesigned the combat to make the game appeal to a wider audience but left in/added many mechanics that would alienate that same audience. Definitely a valid critique imo but not worth a 20+ minute video for.
 
Some of you said something about button mash in battle. Is that so? Am I the only idiot that learn all the combos to fight? I mean, I'm not an expert on battle games tho.

Plus, I'm watching that video that somebody uploaded, the response made by the guy with long hair. He's saying there are people that just smashed buttons in S1 and S2 and doesnt consider battle system that important for the series. Agree, I was one of those, I just smashed buttoms in the original games, and took my time to learn the fight system in S3, thats why maybe I liked kinda more the battle system of S3, but still, I wouldnt consider it "smash buttoms, something will happen". Everytime I said "fuck off, I'll try that" they beated me.

Gotta say (didnt finish the entire video) it's kinda interesting the fact that this Matt is saying "why you change something THAT important for the original games like the fight system?" but then they rage about how the game has a lot of things that are lazy for modern games. So, keeping the old fight system it's good, but open a box searching for stuff is wrong. Yeah boy, keep it up.

Imo Shenmue its about atmosphere and exploration (life simulator like somebody said). I dont have the truth, but anyway.
 
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He's complaining about the money, saying that the game pushes you to do stuff to get money. Am I the only one that picked a lot of stuff and was full of money?

Oh my fucking Jesus christ now the Lan Di stuff scaping, I really dont get it, guys, are you here for the ending? Or are you on this because of the journey? Because I thought this series was about "the journey", maybe I'm wrong, maybe I got it all wrong, because I cant stand that somebody is actually mad because Lan Di scaped. What the hell did you expected? Take off a gun and kill him?

"19 years of wait for nothing" holy shit, I'm glad I didnt give a visit to this guy. I can't stand it.
 
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Isn't gambling illegal in mainland China, anyway? Maybe that's the reason for acquiring tokens and selling the prizes for money. (The CCP were referenced by one of the kung fu masters in 3, after all: they banned martial arts after deposing their last emperor, Pu Yi.)

Hong Kong was owned by us until the late 1990s. They're more Westernised than their neighbours. That explains the gambling games in 2.
 
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He's complaining about the money, saying that the game pushes you to do stuff to get money. Am I the only one that picked a lot of stuff and was full of money?

Oh my fucking Jesus christ now the Lan Di stuff scaping, I really dont get it, guys, are you here for the ending? Or are you on this because of the journey? Because I thought this series was about "the journey", maybe I'm wrong, maybe I got it all wrong, because I cant stand that somebody is actually mad because Lan Di scaped. What the hell did you expected? Take off a gun and kill him like this?

"19 years of wait for nothing" holy shit, I'm glad I didnt give a visit to this guy. I can't stand it.
This is the thing I never got. In what world did people seriously think S3 was the end? I get that people wanted it to be the end for fear of the series not continuing. But Yu was always very blunt in saying it’s not the end. He never lied to anyone. He straight up said there was still this much left of the story to go in pre interviews for S3.

I mean sure I can understand the story was underwhelming complaints some have but I’ll never understand the “oh my god, it didn’t end” complaints. I’m here for the journey. I want to be taken to new places and learn new martial arts techniques. That’s always been the appeal of these games. If I’m being completely honest. I think the revenge story is maybe the weakest part of the game. Sure it’s a motivator but I’ve seen so many better revenge stories that I can only say the truth that it’s the weakest part of it. The lore and journey is what has always kept me here. The lore of those mirrors that still remains to be fully explained and the journey of going place to place meeting people and learning martial arts.

that’s what I love most about these games and makes these games stand out from everything else on the market.
 
I think the revenge story is maybe the weakest part of the game. Sure it’s a motivator but I’ve seen so many better revenge stories that I can only say the truth that it’s the weakest part of it.
It's not been completed so how do you know if it's good or not? It's the main driver for the series.
 
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