Shrine Maiden Cut Content

[ShenSun]

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

 

[code l name]

Interesting thread and certainly fun to think about the possibilities.

For some reason I always assumed the first screen shot with the Shrine Maiden was from her introductory scene. I understand in the final game Ryo blocks but never takes the broom and the staging is slightly different but I guessed it was from that. Interesting to think it was from a different quest potentially.

I honestly feel the character perspective system was meant to flesh out parts of Niaowu in particular as both Ren and especially Shenhua felt idle at times and I can only imagine they had quests that involved Shrine Maiden, Mr. Hsu and potentially Li Feng.

 

[Sonoshee]

Yep. I really feel like Yu and his team needed more time and more money, but that maybe Deep Silver wouldn't allow that anymore by November 2019. It's a shame, as there's a few places such as these that feel unfinished.
I'm convinced this is also why we didn't see Baisha.

 

[Guppy]

I agree that a lot of content was likely cut as the final act specially felt very abrupt and without Yu's wanted implementation of the siege mechanic. Instead we got forklift, arcade games and dual language dub. Unfortunate, but that's the nature of crowdfunding and the wants of fans vs developers.

 

[Demon's Triangle]

I wish they could have slightly rewritten her side quest and could have integrated it into the main story, it explains better then why she joins you, you've earned her trust and respect.

I would have preferred they scrapped the Longqi Ge character, and replaced his boss battle with two battles against Niao Sun in the red snake office. Then the twist is more shocking, that she is also the plain looking woman you meet on the boat, who asks you questions around Niouwu, I guess the twist is more effective that she's this really hard warrior, who has been beating the crap out of Ryo and hanging out with the red snakes, looking for her prey.

I think they could have done with turning Qiu Hsu and Zixiong Su, into the same character, (they used the same fighting moves anyway) and he was just visiting Bailu Village on a trip. If he's been sparring with Ryo and meeting with him in both towns, it creates a bigger bond between the characters, and makes the final battle, more emotional when he's with the player.

Just my opinion, I know they probably had struggles, and hard to rush the last act.

 

[Real1]

Wait, his name isn't Mr Muscles?

 

[Demon's Triangle]

Wait, his name isn't Mr Muscles?

He has no personality, that's all he is, the muscle guy. I honestly think he's a redundant character in 3, and they should have done boss battles with Sun instead. Maybe they would have if Baisha was included, and she was the ultimate boss instead.

 

[ShenSun]

Wait, his name isn't Mr Muscles?

On his passport, his first name is "Mr" and his second name is "Muscles"

 

[WuyingRen]

Good catch, but I wouldn’t read too much into it. A lot of games (earlier Shenmue titles included) have a lot of supplementary lore and background information that’s never actually touched upon in game and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that was the case here.

That said, you’d like to think that there were at some point plans to explore some of the game’s characters in a bit more detail.

 

[code l name]

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 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

One other thing regard Mr. Muscles was in the extended Magic 18 trailer he appeared in Bailu village along curiously with Datong Liu as a Redsnake member. Now it’s hard to know if this was simply a place holder or changed as they got additional funding but curious nonetheless.

 

[Eishen]

The second image is not when Ryo defends hinself in the first encounter with her?

 

[Lan Di-sama]

A few scenes totaling a few more minutes could have fleshed things out that much more. Or even a few in game conversations that delve into the lore a bit like the previous games could have added depth to Broom Girl and Fat Guy

 

[orient]

I don't know how much of that character description was going to be in the game, but I always got the feeling more was planned for the side characters. Cutscenes, even dialogue, has a cost, and they just went too big.

Instead we got forklift, arcade games and dual language dub. Unfortunate, but that's the nature of crowdfunding and the wants of fans vs developers.

I don't think we got those things "instead" of cut content such as Baisha. Yu didn't sit down and say, "Forklifts and arcades or the entire third location of the game?? Hmmm". They were just too ambitious in all aspects and didn't get the backing they needed to pull it all off.