ShenSun
Site Staff
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2018
A lot of people believe that the Shenmue 3 Shrine Maiden was not established enough to help Ryo at the end of Shenmue 3, and thus she felt out of place.
While this is true, It turns out there may have been more content planned for her that didn't make it into the final game
If you visit the Japanese Shenmue 3 site, http://third.shenmue.com/
You'll be greeted by a small number of character profiles. When you look at the Shrine Maiden and translate her bio, it reads as follows
"A maiden serving at a beautiful and historic hexagonal temple facing the Li River, on the outskirts of the town of Niaowu. One day, the temple was attacked by a group of thugs calling themselves the Red Snakes, and valuable treasures were stolen. Ever since, she has been vigilantly keeping a watchful eye for ruffians who get close. An only daughter of a family who have served at the temple across generations, her parents are busily looking for a suitable husband for her, but she is not enthusiastic about this as she is still young. Recently she has started to think about leaving Niaowu town, and increasingly gazes dreamily at the boats going to-and-fro on the Li River."
The key takeaways from this description is that her parents want to marry her off, but she isn't ready just yet. And she wants to leave Niaowu
There was also a screen released early on in development that showed Ryo helping the Shrine maiden at the temple with some work. The shrine maiden appears distressed and looks as if she is confiding in Ryo about these issues (Marriage, Leaving Niaowu etc)
She also appeared very grateful and warm towards Ryo throughout his time in Niaowu, More so than was necessary. I'm assuming this may have been due to Ryo helping her in the cut content.
Had this made it to the final game, her inclusion at the end would have been much more impactful.
The Shrine Maiden isn't the only one to have her story cut short. The hotel lady who Yu Suzuki stated was one of the best new characters in Shenmue 3 and one of the 3 wonders of Niaowu (Something along those lines), also didn't see any character development.
Mr Muscles also suffered a similar fate as he was supposed to fight Ryo again on the great wall of China. Ryo also knows his name at the end of Shenmue 3 even though it was never mentioned in the actual game, suggesting more was planned for our brute friend
What do you guys think? It's a shame a lot of Shenmue 3 was cut, including the Baisha area. However, given the circumstances, it doesn't seem like the team had much choice. Still, it's nice to speculate on what could have been
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