Shenmue IV Will Happen - Here's Why!

[Suzaku]

the Shenmue focus is the journey, not the story ending.
And in my opinion Shenmue 3 really succeed with continuing the journey, and that's the most important thing.

If the ending will come at the cost of the journey, now that would be the real failure for the series.

 

[Sonoshee]

I found the “story” in Shenmue to hinder my experience, so I suppose we all seek a different Shenmue experience. I want to see where this journey takes Ryo. I don’t think Shenmue 3 succeeded in doing that at all. If Yu Suzuki wants to play around with mini games, conversations, etc. perhaps he should focus on creating something more like Animal Crossing.

Shenmue 3 did progress the story, just not as far as some people would have wished.
Story and journey are too different things. I'm in it for the story, but also because I love the journey. Shenmue 3 was still a great journey.

 

[Suzaku]

yes, Shenmue 3 progress the story, A LOT if you take the ending in consideration.
But the journey is what really matter in a Shenmue game.

Of course those who expected to beat up Lan Di, marry Nozomi and close with the series were disappointed...
Too much wrong expectations from a big part of the community.

 

[mjqjazzbar]

IMO I thought the journey and story paled in comparison to the first 2 games. Maybe the first game isn’t a huge journey, but it’s tough to compare Shenmue3’s modest presentation to how incredible Shebmue 1 was in 2000/2001. Shenmue 3 lacks the wow factor of the first two games and maybe that all comes down to budget.

I don’t care about beating up LAN Di or Nozomi, honestly. I just expected much more after waiting 18 years. For instance, meeting memorable new friends and antagonists. Shenmue 3 completely fails at doing either of those things and I don’t think that has much to do with budget.

 

[Suzaku]

everything comes down to the limited budget.

But honestly I had wow moments in Shenmue 3 too, even speaking of mere graphics.

 

[Suzaku]

I repeat, too much wrong expectations.
That was a kickstarter game, not a 1999 Sega-AM2 AAA budget title.

It's not a matter of how long we waited, even after waiting for 30 years, it would still remain a crowdfunded project, even if people expectations grown for 30 years without control...

That said, even Niao Sun alone is worth the ticket.

 

[mjqjazzbar]

It doesn't matter if my expectations were right or wrong; they were my expectations and many others' expectations. No one is obligated to like Shenmue 3 just because it came out. That's certainly not a hot selling point for attracting new fans or keeping the current fan base in tact. I am definitely pleased that Yu Suzuki is back in the biz and has released a game in 2019, but I am definitely expecting more from Shenmue 4 if it does materialize.

Niao Sun looks great, but we learn nothing about her and have very little interaction with her in Shenmue 3.

I personally had few 'wow' moments aside from the first few minutes where I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

 

[Lan Di-sama]

Niao Sun was one of the most anticipated reveals in the game and it was a total flop. The two scenes we got were great but they didn't even introduce her by name. Hardly worth the ticket alone.

 

[TwiceFriedRice]

I must’ve missed all of the “wow” moments in 3.

 

[hyo_razuki]

I had some wow moments, but for all the wrong reasons, unfortunately. Those were due to the writing and storytelling. Mostly like "I couldn't have written it any worse if I tried to" moments. Don't want to go into detail here again. It's been discussed a million times.

Also had a couple of positive wow moments, to be fair. Mostly due to beautiful environments combined with an awesome soundtrack creating a great atmosphere. I mean, that abandoned temple in Bailu at night, with the way up there. Just brilliant! Or that hide-and-seek game with those kids (also fantastic music) . So Shenmue! Or Huaxiao Temple and Blossom Road in Niaowu. The sidequests on the boat also couldn't have been any more Yakuza-esque in the best possible way.

While I also consider S3 the weakest game in the series by a mile (and also probably my disappointment of the decade in gaming) , the game does have its moments of brilliance, which is baffling.

 

[Arcadio]

Please stop talking about problems that have been repeated countless times.It is no use repeating these tasks. The only thing we can do is wait for Suzuki's next move. There is nothing else we can do.

 

[SMDzero]

Here’s how the conversation would go.

Yu: I’d like to borrow $25m. Here is a purchase order from Sega.
Bank: Why didn’t SEGA just give you the money? Isn’t developing video games kind of what they do?
Yu: Well they sort of weren’t confident that I’d make a good enough game and didn’t want to take the risk.
Bank: So why should we take the risk? Do you have anything you could use as collateral?
Yu: Not really.
Bank: I see. Well this is the fourth game in the series. The previous three must have made quite a lot of profit for you to be asking for $25m?
Yu: Not really. Not one of the games has ever generated $25m after retailer and manufacturing costs are taken into account. The first two games lost Sega around $40m. The publisher for the 3rd game was able to break even thanks to an exclusivity deal and their investment being relatively small, but YSNet lost about $5m on the project. That’s okay though, because it wasn’t really our money.
Bank: Get out.

And then Yu Suzuki fights a bunch of bankers FREE battle style. My main point is that Sega may be willing to pay 25M to purchase a quality Shenmue 4 but don’t wish to invest 25M into development. They may think that if they give 25M to Ys for development it will be insufficient to complete the game at a quality level forcing them to cancel the project (losing all their money) or investing even more than they can afford to ensure its completion. I’m sure the bank would loan Yu 20M if he guarantees that the Segas purchase agreement of 25M would be given directly to the bank.

 

[Suzaku]

In my opinion all the extreme hate comes from exaggerated expectations that people created during the 18 years.
It's fine to have high expectations, but they should always remain realistic, otherwise you're simply naive and delusional.

Things were pretty clear since the beginning of the kickstarter, still people didn't want to understand that a crowdfunded game can't have the same production values of a AAA or AA game from a big publisher.

Especially in this case, the first two Shenmue weren't simple games, they were two of the most beautiful game of all time, made by one of the best team ever, and basically they created a new genre and models for game design that are still followed and used 20 years later...
Probably no current software house could replicate the same earthquake that was Shenmue in 1999 (even Zelda or RDR2 are no match), and surely you can't do it with spare changes from a crowdfunding campaign...

We are extremely lucky that Shenmue 3 was a real Shenmue game, because we really risked to have a mobile game.

If more people understood this back then, we would not have other "shenmue fans" who spent lots of money without understanding what they were backing, and now wishing for the death of the franchise on basically every forum on the net, hindering our already small chances to see Shenmue 4.

 

[GhostTrick]

In my opinion all the extreme hate comes from exaggerated expectations that people created during the 18 years.
It's fine to have high expectations, but they should always remain realistic, otherwise you're simply naive and delusional.

Things were pretty clear since the beginning of the kickstarter, still people didn't want to understand that a crowdfunded game can't have the same production values of a AAA or AA game from a big publisher.

Especially in this case, the first two Shenmue weren't simple games, they were two of the most beautiful game of all time, made by one of the best team ever, and basically they created a new genre and models for game design that are still followed and used 20 years later...
Probably no current software house could replicate the same earthquake that was Shenmue in 1999 (even Zelda or RDR2 are no match), and surely you can't do it with spare changes from a crowdfunding campaign...

We are extremely lucky that Shenmue 3 was a real Shenmue game, because we really risked to have a mobile game.

If more people understood this back then, we would not have other "shenmue fans" who spent lots of money without understanding what they were backing, and now wishing for the death of the franchise on basically every forum on the net, hindering our already small chances to see Shenmue 4.

There are developpers who have been able to tell meaningful story with a nice world building and chara dev on a tight budget.

Budget explains a lot of things. But not everything. And if people can do meaningful stories with less budgets while you cant, it might be a good moment to think about your priorities and how you spend your budget.

This has nothing to do with crazy expectations. In fact, I think a lot of people here had humble expectations. People didn't ask for a conclusion here or 50 hours of deep story telling. But they didn't ask either for no character developpement, no meaningful new characters and such.

I mean, ffs, Niao Sun's introduction is just bad. She's not even named.

 

[Sonoshee]

I mean, ffs, Niao Sun's introduction is just bad. She's not even named.

We know her name.

Besides, I find her far more intriguing not knowing much about her at this time. It makes what lies ahead for Shenmue 4 far more exciting.

 

[SMDzero]

We know her name.

Besides, I find her far more intriguing not knowing much about her at this time. It makes what lies ahead for Shenmue 4 far more exciting.

Maybe they should have had her name at least subtitled when she first appears MGS style?

 

[TwiceFriedRice]

In my opinion all the extreme hate comes from exaggerated expectations that people created during the 18 years.
It's fine to have high expectations, but they should always remain realistic, otherwise you're simply naive and delusional.

Things were pretty clear since the beginning of the kickstarter, still people didn't want to understand that a crowdfunded game can't have the same production values of a AAA or AA game from a big publisher.

Especially in this case, the first two Shenmue weren't simple games, they were two of the most beautiful game of all time, made by one of the best team ever, and basically they created a new genre and models for game design that are still followed and used 20 years later...
Probably no current software house could replicate the same earthquake that was Shenmue in 1999 (even Zelda or RDR2 are no match), and surely you can't do it with spare changes from a crowdfunding campaign...

We are extremely lucky that Shenmue 3 was a real Shenmue game, because we really risked to have a mobile game.

If more people understood this back then, we would not have other "shenmue fans" who spent lots of money without understanding what they were backing, and now wishing for the death of the franchise on basically every forum on the net, hindering our already small chances to see Shenmue 4.

So wrong and presumptive on so many levels.

 

[Tsukuyomimagi99]

Those posts have to be trolling attempts, i refuse to believe that anyone can be delusional enough to write them with a straight face.

I am dead serious. If that makes me delusional, then so be it. I could care less what you believe.

 

[hyo_razuki]

The only thing we can do is wait for Suzuki's next move. There is nothing else we can do.

That is assuming Yu is in a position to call the shots. According to Cedric, YS Net didn't see any money from the Epic deal. That went to Deep Silver.

It boils down to the profit made by S3 for YS Net. Yu may not have a lot of options as to which "move to make" next. Fingers crossed!

 

[spud1897]

There are developpers who have been able to tell meaningful story with a nice world building and chara dev on a tight budget.

Budget explains a lot of things. But not everything. And if people can do meaningful stories with less budgets while you cant, it might be a good moment to think about your priorities and how you spend your budget.

This has nothing to do with crazy expectations. In fact, I think a lot of people here had humble expectations. People didn't ask for a conclusion here or 50 hours of deep story telling. But they didn't ask either for no character developpement, no meaningful new characters and such.

I mean, ffs, Niao Sun's introduction is just bad. She's not even named.

I'm sorry expectations did come into this. Maybe not the main driver but certainly around here it's been discussed for years around what may/may not happen in Shenmue III thus creating an expectation once the game was announced. To a point it was never going to reach those.

That said it's not the sole reason for the dissatisfaction of some and let's be honest here its the same people who are repeating the same things to death and not the majority of the wider community who actually were receptive to Shenmue III.

We know the story and character development is thin and there should have been more. But we also know that there were some pie in sky expectations from some, who thought they were going to get an epic like Shenmue II for the budget and that's plain unrealistic.

You can definitely tell a good story on a budget games have but none are the scope and size of Shenmue and who are we to tell Yu Suzuki what to do? He's wanted to give us a Shenmue experience that he felt balanced with the first 2. Now he's gone too much down the side stuff route and I think knows this from the fair criticism given.

This is why Shenmue 4 needs to be made in only Yu Suzuki's vision, without us bitching at him it's this or that. Shenmue is an experience thats different for each, that's a given, but personally while I do play for story and wanted more, I also played for the world and sense of escapism the game provides and I got that.

In my opinion all the extreme hate comes from exaggerated expectations that people created during the 18 years.
It's fine to have high expectations, but they should always remain realistic, otherwise you're simply naive and delusional.

Things were pretty clear since the beginning of the kickstarter, still people didn't want to understand that a crowdfunded game can't have the same production values of a AAA or AA game from a big publisher.

Especially in this case, the first two Shenmue weren't simple games, they were two of the most beautiful game of all time, made by one of the best team ever, and basically they created a new genre and models for game design that are still followed and used 20 years later...
Probably no current software house could replicate the same earthquake that was Shenmue in 1999 (even Zelda or RDR2 are no match), and surely you can't do it with spare changes from a crowdfunding campaign...

We are extremely lucky that Shenmue 3 was a real Shenmue game, because we really risked to have a mobile game.

If more people understood this back then, we would not have other "shenmue fans" who spent lots of money without understanding what they were backing, and now wishing for the death of the franchise on basically every forum on the net, hindering our already small chances to see Shenmue 4.

See my reply above.

So wrong and presumptive on so many levels.

If you're going to say someones view is "wrong" at least have the decency to explain your counter arguement.