Shenmue IV Will Happen - Here's Why!

It's less that 7/10 is considered rubbish and more like big publications moved their scale toward 9-10.
There's been a period (and it's still the case) in which anything decent was a 8, anything good was a 9 and anything great was a 10.

That's also the reason why Metacritic doesn't apply the same scale for movies, which a 61 grants you a green "generally favorable" score.
The day the press starts using a scale from 3 to 10 again is the day a 7 wont be average anymore but good.
That will never happen. Publishers put way too much stock in Metacritic scores these days and many get pissy with publications who score their games below an 8. The current scale allows sites to stay on the good side of publishers a little more without having to bend to their wills quite as much. That said, the likes of Square Enix and Nintendo have still been known to blacklist reviewers or send out “suggested changes” even with the current scale.

For a change to happen it would take all of the big publications to make it in unison, but there’s no real incentive for them to do so as most people seem to accept things as they are. It would also effectively invalidate all of the scores given to games using the current scale, which is arguably far more problematic than the current situation.
 
It is a shame that 7/10 games aren't considered good anymore and a lot of people end up skipping them. The majority of my favourite games over the last 3 decades are probably in that 7/10 range at least from the critics point of view. I've probably had way more fun with those types of games, as I feel that they actually try to do something fresh and new or maybe just aim to have that element of fun more so than some of the games that tend to just tick certain boxes to get those 9 or 10 out of 10 scores...(especially in the game length area).
 
I agree with Metacritic 6.7 for Shenmue 3 (the PS4 version), in my view loads of flaws with the game play, but nice atmosphere, fun to wander around the world, and plenty of humourful moments. Unfortunately less than 7 does a mean a "train wreck" to a lot of people. Obviously I hope they make 4 and take it further. 6-7 means decent, 'all right', to me.
 
I think it says more about the individual if they refuse to play a game because it "only" got a 7/10 or whatever. 7 to me suggests that it is a good piece of work that have flaws and that your mileage will vary depending on factors such as whether you enjoy the genre or not.

In a way, Shenmue - along with other cult games - are almost critic proof; fans will buy it regardless; it's just a shame that people might be put off because it's "only" a 7/10 or whatever. I can understand if you only have finite funds, then you'll probably go with something else, but I do wish that Metacritic wasn't the end all and be all. It's a handy tool, but to be honest, my gut tells me i'll enjoy a game more than any critic's opinion. It makes me happy if a critic agrees with me, but unless the review is a hatchet job (and bias aside, there were a couple of hatchet job reviews for Shenmue III), then it's unlikely to sway me.
 
Eh.

Times change and views change.

I saw SaGa Frontier Remastered got some pretty high marks, but I remember it being somewhat panned in my younger days in all my gaming magazines.

Also, NiER Gestalt is one my favorite games of the PS3 generation and it was a 7. There were several others--Duke Nukem Forever comes to my mind, actually. Critically savaged, but I really liked it because it accomplished what it set out to do, which was play like old shooters in the PC Doom era.


Another 6-7/10 that was beloved? Legend of Dragoon.
 
It's less that 7/10 is considered rubbish and more like big publications moved their scale toward 9-10.
There's been a period (and it's still the case) in which anything decent was a 8, anything good was a 9 and anything great was a 10.

That's also the reason why Metacritic doesn't apply the same scale for movies, which a 61 grants you a green "generally favorable" score.
The day the press starts using a scale from 3 to 10 again is the day a 7 wont be average anymore but good.
So then by moving the scale a 7 isn't considered/interpreted by people as a solid game anymore?

Or have I missed what you're getting at?
 
So then by moving the scale a 7 isn't considered/interpreted by people as a solid game anymore?

Or have I missed what you're getting at?


Exactly the point.
A 7 isn't seen today as a good score because the review scale moved up thanks to far too generous reviews.

Before, you could play a 5/10 game, it'd be average. Today, a game getting mostly 5 is usually so bad it can even be broken on some aspects.

It's not that people changed and think "7 isn't good enough". You judge a scale with other elements.

To give a concrete exemple, if most publications gives a 8 to any game that is decent, that means a 7 from them is less than that. And that's the issue with today's publications, they're inflated.

That's why people today think a 7 isn't good because the scores have been devalued by the press. And you can see that from a publication to another. Some publication will give a game a 5 while another will give it a 7, despite having the same opinion of that game. But the publication giving a 5 might be used to a lower scale and dont consider a 5 a bad game but an average game, while the other will consider that a 7 is an average and flawed game.

Then again, you can see that with Metacritic's own guide. The reason movies get a different scale than games is because movie critics doesn't have a scale inflated like the gaming industry.
 
In a way, I must admit that it's for that reason that i'm starting to appreciate Eurogamer's non-scoring policy. That said, even they have a technical 4 point system: Avoid, no score, recommend and essential. The annoying thing is that a no score is still suggested as a fair game, but people still think of it as "poor". (They gave Shenmue III a recommend which is a relief). Better yet, I wish most reviewers would do like magazines did in the old days and have a 2nd opinion on the same review. As I mentioned earlier, the person who reviewed NieR Replicant, Persona 5 Royal etc gave it a "no score" which I annoyingly got upset with because these are games I adore or in the case of Replicant am excited to play.

Based on all the systems i've seen over the years, i've long since believed that a score out of 5 is best, because at least you know where you stand. The annoying thing is that a 3/5 which suggests good/average is the equivalent of a "60" on Metacritic which indicates less than average, so even that is flawed. I'm sure I read somewhere that depending on the website, certain scores carry a higher "weight" than others?

I'm as guilty as anyone, but this obsession with scores is demoralising for all involved.
 
I was a big fan of Reviews in the 90s. But after the death of my favourite gaming magazines in 2000 and 2001 I stopped to care About Reviews. Internet Reviews are worse and not as good as printed Reviews anyway. Too many wannabe Gamers in the gaming journalism space that take themselves to serious.

The Mainstream Gamers today are even worse. They threat meta critic as a Religion. I do not care About meta critic I do not care About scores.

Scores are meaningless because tastes are different.

There are so many good rated games I would not rate that good. I consider God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn and Last of US as rather boring.

I would only give them a 7 at best. They have Nothing new to offer.
 
Shenmue 3's lead programmer and apparently Ys Net's Chief Technology Officer still shows up as actively working at Ys Net on LinkedIn... Either he doesn't update his profile, which is hard to believe, or YS Net's still ticking' away...
 
Shenmue 3's lead programmer and apparently Ys Net's Chief Technology Officer still shows up as actively working at Ys Net on LinkedIn... Either he doesn't update his profile, which is hard to believe, or YS Net's still ticking' away...
Unless anything has changed from when I spoke to Ryan last year, Yu Suzuki had a team continuing working at YSNET and on payroll.
 
If the pitch was successful and Shenmue 4 is set in stone, I hope theres announcement this year, I feel they should do that because after an 18 year hiatus I don’t want to be kept in the dark for so long about whether the series will continue or not
 
Did you have any indication on what they are working on? Like contract stuff, prototypes ect?
This was before I spoke to Cedric and it was relatively non-descriptive in what they were doing. so I can only assume, after Cedric's interview, that they were working on the Shenmue 4 pitch.

However I have always (as have others) begged the question of how the hell are they keeping the lights on. I'd imagine they have some other work going on, otherwise I can't see how people are being paid.
 
I wasn't sure if posting his page here was ok, but his name is easy enough to find if you know who worked on the game. Come to think of it, I've never searched for YsNet on LinkedIn. Anyway, no idea if what I posted has any relevance, but it's nice to know the lights might still be on at Ys Net. Anyone know where they're officed these days?
 
I wasn't sure if posting his page here was ok, but his name is easy enough to find if you know who worked on the game. Come to think of it, I've never searched for YsNet on LinkedIn. Anyway, no idea if what I posted has any relevance, but it's nice to know the lights might still be on at Ys Net. Anyone know where they're officed these days?
As of last December? Still at the office where Shenmue III was developed.

Meaning for at least a year post-launch they were paying for office space that could support a 30-40 person core development studio (though I imagine the team is slimmed down after dropping the contract workers). 🤔

So either Shenmue III sales revenues are sufficient to keep them going for the time being, or they've got contract work (might be worth looking at the credits for No More Heroes III when it releases), or they've got a backer.
 
It amazes me the information we have access to now versus when Shenmue IIx had shipped or when Shenmue Online was announced and shown off or even Shenmue Gai was released. We can infer based on job postings and social media more than we ever could in the earlier days. Crazy.
 
I think our biggest telltale sign is how Cedric deviated from "shopping around" to "can't comment".

That's a big difference and suggests something could be happening. I don't see why "no comment" would all of a sudden replace the other statements without an NDA or exclusivity agreement forthcoming. If

I don't think we'll see it at E3, but maybe sometime this year it'll be confirmed. Covid-19 isn't over yet, so I think it'll continue to affect the industry as a whole throughout this year.
 
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