I’m not suggesting that the fan base dropped the ball in any way (although I do wonder whether perhaps some had set their expectations a little too highly) and agree entirely that mistakes were made by both the developer and the publisher (although without knowing everything that went on behind the scenes, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what all of these mistakes were with any level of surety). Ultimately though, for whatever reason, these mistakes were made and no amount of discussion or criticism can change them.
In an ideal world the game would have been a critical hit and we wouldn’t be once again left wondering whether or not we’d ever see the conclusion of the series, but that’s where we are and pointing out that mistakes were made isn’t going to change that.
With this in mind, I think that maintaining a positive outlook and acknowledging the things that the game did right whilst offering suggestions on how the things that it got wrong could be improved moving forwards could help in some small way. I’m aware that in all likelihood it won’t make a difference, but I would rather do something than nothing.
Anyway. I think we’re starting to pull this thread a little off topic, so if you’d like to continue this line of discussion feel free to PM me or start a new topic. I do feel like the conversation is heading towards ground that’s been covered many times before though.
This is the point that many are missing, it's not like the more you trash the game, the more a masterpiece the next game will be.
They are just beating the dead horse with the excuse of constructive criticism (that is just a mask for some people's impossible expectations built in nearly 20 years).
After 8 months I think the message was delivered to Yu Suzuki (if he ever need it, he know pro and cons of S3 betten than all of us), now that "feedback" is starting to become a kind of spam.
It's not like we're trying to censor complains, it's just that such feedback is not needed now, as it's doing more harm than good.
From the point of view of a normal gamer, when you approach the Shenmue franchise you'll only encounter a lot of negativity (with some very vocal people stating that S3 is a terrible game), with other more reasonable and honest fans that still admits that the games has its flaws.
But in the end the message that a potential new gamer get is "a terrible game that even fanboys struggle to defend".
That needs to change if we want Shenmue 4 and 5.
Look at Nintendo fans for example, they literally send death treats to reviewers who dare to give 9/10 to Zelda instead of 10/10.
Of course we don't have to transform in such deviated fanbase, but we cannot even continue to condone the self-damage that this same fanbase is doing since 2015.
At one point we should start to defend our favourite franchise.