Shenmue III's Ending was Clutch

deathofaninja

deathofaninja

Joined
Aug 27, 2019
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Shenmue III
From the close up to wide shots, I got to see some of that famous Shenmue cinematography. I was also very impressed with Lan Di's dazzling animations in the fight, his tall size, costume and character model all equally impressive.

Did they spend most of their budget on the ending cause I definitely felt a bump in the quality overall.

What did you think of the ending?
 
I wanted the game mostly for the story. And after seeing so many things, from Project Berkley to other teasers. I can't believe that the story would be so barebones.

I felt like Yu-san probably held back for some reason. Shenmue II had three chapters in them, and there was SO much story. Shenmue III covers two towns, and the Castle. Which makes me assume, the game is supposed to cover three chapters. And I don't believe three chapters would have so little meat on the bone. Something odd happened...

But yeah. The ending was well crafted. It just didn't have much content. From seeing earlier footage and some of Yu's comments. I think you were probably supposed to walk the Great Wall like at the nd of SII, and...the Castle was supposed to be much bigger and have a lot more things happening there. The whole thing felt shortened and spread out.
 
The ending wasn’t bad, but it was very rushed and underwhelming compared to the legendary epic ending of Shenmue II. I think a nice walk along the Great Wall with some interactive dialogue as you approach the next destination would of been nice.
 
Yeah, the sequence with Lan Di was electrifying.
But in the grand scheme of things it added nothing and could easily not exist, it was just a visual treat for fans not something of substance.
 
I've just finished the game and... wow :) I really really liked it. Then the last message "the story continues" made me grin... yeah, I'm pretty sure Suzuki has a way to bring us to the next chapter of the saga.
 
If I had one word to describe the end: "nightmare"

I mean in the formal sense of "dream". Everything felt so unreal:

- The atmosphere : ghostly, desolated, bizarre.
- The plot timing. The story evolved as fast as a weird dream, plus the ultimate jump to the Great Wall. The whole segment looked something apart.
- The temple girl and the fat martial artist. What were they doing there? (Probably got the word from Bei, but still, this was unreal as f)
- The Niao Sun twist
- The magnetic presence of Lan Di
- Ryo looked instructed by the devil when he met Lan Di. I found his reaction surprisingly violent and regressive.
- Shenhua being kidnapped felt like the beginning of the nightmare as it deeply changed my perception of Niaowu then. (Great point of the plot)
- The "stronghold of the wicked" line also did pre-influence my mood.
- I'm not even mentioning the Chai's family photo that I missed in my playthrough.


A "nightmare" in the metaphorical sense as well. I mean everything suggested a design mess, a fascinating Titanic:
- QTE instead real battles while the bodyguards looked like original main characters. Horrific waste.
- The fight against backers
- Some unusual clunky animations
- Absurd difficulty (first fights insanely easy, ultimate QTE way too hard)
- Humor badly introduced
- The fear of Shenmue IV and all our long-time theories turning into average canon (non-)story.

I beat the game over my insomnia, in the middle of the night, so it made my experience even more hallucinatory!

I did love the end though. The idea of merciless Ryo entering the Chi You Men Castle to smash up the villains until he met Lan Di was cathartic as hell. The music, the filming, the Chinese architecture with the giant Bhudda in front, the fan service (finally met Niao Sun and Lan Di), that was so epic!

But I felt utterly disgusted at the same time for all the reasons we read there. So it's a very mixed feeling.

The end even led me to spend a sleepless night to keep thinking about it. Yep I'm completely shocked by what happened xD
 
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Yokosuka said:
- The stupid mandatory side quest
- The fear of Shenmue IV and all our long-time theories turning into average canon (non-)story.
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The side quest wasn’t mandatory. If you mean the one where you have to get the camera, ring and plate for the guy downstairs. Can’t think of any other.

Can you elaborate on the second one above?
 
Sh3ppy said:
The side quest wasn’t mandatory. If you mean the one where you have to get the camera, ring and plate for the guy downstairs. Can’t think of any other.

Can you elaborate on the second one above?
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Is it not mandatory? I thought it was necessary in order to progress?
 
Sh3ppy said:
The side quest wasn’t mandatory. If you mean the one where you have to get the camera, ring and plate for the guy downstairs. Can’t think of any other.

Can you elaborate on the second one above?
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I'm pretty sure it was. My Ryo refused to open the door leading to the prison hub before I collected all the asked items.

About the second one, I share the thoughts made on "Niaowu's relevance to the plot" thread. I'm not sure if Suzuki really knows what he's doing storywise considering the different holes in the story and the narration quality in Shenmue 3. The lack of valuable dialogues and interesting revelations over the end begin to worry me.

Sorry if I cannot develop more. I certainly need to think twice to get a fairer opinion.
 
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gladias9 said:
Yeah, the sequence with Lan Di was electrifying.
But in the grand scheme of things it added nothing and could easily not exist, it was just a visual treat for fans not something of substance.
Click to expand...


At one point or another he'd have to finally face Lan Di. I'd rather him do it multiple times instead of the classic video game method of the boss talking shit the entire game and you finally meet him at the very end and defeat him in one fight.
Ryo needs to learn you cant do that. Thats the Bullshido way of thinking. Thats what Xiuying was trying to warn him in the first game.
For some odd reason, Lan Di was showing Ryo mercy (maybe there's more to Lan Di we'll see later), but then at the end he was like 'okay if you want to die so bad ...." then Ren stepped in last minute with that fake mirror which saved his life lol
 
I just can't believe they didnt even give mr muscles a name, or even mention or name Niao Sun for that matter ... Its like what the hell,happened!?!? XD
 
JoshTehKing20 said:
I just can't believe they didnt even give mr muscles a name, or even mention or name Niao Sun for that matter ... Its like what the hell,happened!?!? XD
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I think he does have an official name they just didnt mention it in game.

No one aside from Ryo and Ren actually speaks to Niao Sun so there wouldnt be a need to say her name. Sure Shenhua spoke to her at one point but it was an offscreen flashback. I mean Ryo and Ren could have asked her for her name (before and after) but before she probably woulda given them a fake name and after, well I doubt they cared that much at that point. Only other person that would refer to her would be Lan Di and they had no interaction so...
 
Budgiecat said:
I think he does have an official name they just didnt mention it in game.

No one aside from Ryo and Ren actually speaks to Niao Sun so there wouldnt be a need to say her name. Sure Shenhua spoke to her at one point but it was an offscreen flashback. I mean Ryo and Ren could have asked her for her name (before and after) but before she probably woulda given them a fake name and after, well I doubt they cared that much at that point. Only other person that would refer to her would be Lan Di and they had no interaction so...
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Again, it loops back to storytelling. As another user (I forget who) posted elsewhere, the whole Niao Sun twist / reveal would've carried more weight if 1) Ryo even knew she existed, say by a character at least mentioning her name once in Niaowu and 2) 'Niao Sun in disguise' did anything to win Ryo's confidence instead of just being there.

There was actually A TON of potential there for a big reveal - either by a confidence trick, like luring Ryo into a trap by preying on his instincts to "act without hesitation, to do what is right" (YI), or alternatively as others have said, by an attempted seduction (which, knowing Ryo, would be unsuccessful but very interesting).

Or anything really. There was massive scope for a payoff to Niao Sun's reveal.
 
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Yokosuka said:
I'm pretty sure it was. My Ryo refused to open the door leading to the prison hub before I collected all the asked items.
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It definitely wasn’t as I didn’t do it and went and rescued Yuan by defeating chai again etc. I went back to a saved game downstairs as I realised I didn’t get the stuff and wanted to complete every side quest. Anyway it’s not really of that much importance.
 
Sh3ppy said:
It definitely wasn’t as I didn’t do it and went and rescued Yuan by defeating chai again etc. I went back to a saved game downstairs as I realised I didn’t get the stuff and wanted to complete every side quest. Anyway it’s not really of that much importance.
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Oh I think I figured out. The quest probably becomes mandatory if you press Square/X to talk to the guy and accept to help him. So my mistake.
 
Also why didnt Ryo recognize Chai at all?? I expected at least a " YOU again!! "

But nout nothing... It's like why put him in the game at all? Having said that at least we can establish Ryo is at least stronger than Chai now xD
 
JoshTehKing20 said:
Also why didnt Ryo recognize Chai at all?? I expected at least a " YOU again!! "

But nout nothing... It's like why put him in the game at all? Having said that at least we can establish Ryo is at least stronger than Chai now xD
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Yeah I was a bit underwhelmed by the lack of Ryo's reaction at Bailu when he saw Chai apart a shy "You again".
Shenhua didn't ask any question about him. And since you immediately travel to Niaowu then, it was impossible to get any further feedback.

There's ton of unsatisfying details regarding the story and narrative. The random introducing of Ren is one of them.
 
Yokosuka said:
Yeah I was a bit underwhelmed by the lack of Ryo's reaction at Bailu when he saw Chai apart a shy "You again".
Shenhua didn't ask any question about him. And since you immediately travel to Niaowu then, it was impossible to get any further feedback.

There's ton of unsatisfying details regarding the story and narrative. The random introducing of Ren is one of them.
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Yeah I was expecting Ren to show up just as Ryo would get his first beating in Bailu, save him and say something like " Hah think you owe me one karate boy " ... Ryo responding with " That Ren!! "

Or something to those lines xD
 
Yokosuka said:
Yeah I was a bit underwhelmed by the lack of Ryo's reaction at Bailu when he saw Chai apart a shy "You again".
Click to expand...

And Ryo said that when he ran into Chai the second time in Bailu Village - so "you again" was a reference to the fact he had just seen him.
 
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