reminisce
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- Joined
- Jul 27, 2018
So I thought at this juncture, whilst we wait on MAGIC, this could be an interesting discussion to have.
In short: why all the Shenmue 3 hate outside of the Dojo? Surely many here must have seen it. News comes in about Shenmue 3 and however good it is when it's posted elsewhere there's a tide of negative sentiment from a large swath of people needlessly being negative about the game - for honestly a reason I can't define. Why? Shenmue 3 is the highest crowd funded game of all-time. It's a sequel that people rallied and adamantly asked for for 20 years. It crashed Kickstarter when it was announced - to initially - cries of love and adoration. And yet even in those early days back in 2015 - it felt there was this tide of negative opinion in the press and elsewhere surrounding the game that has been prevalent ever since.
Everything we've seen of the game - at least if we go with recent media - looks extremely promising. Yu Suzuki is an industry legend, has produced some of the best games of all-time, including Shenmue 1 and 2 and he's a master of the craft and has never, in his entire history as a game developer shipped a game anything less than excellent. He will have had 4 years of development time, millions in funding and all the money that he needed to produce his dream Shenmue 3 game, and all forecasts indicate even at this stage, that Shenmue 3 will be a great game and the sequel we've waited for. And yet whenever I see Shenmue 3 news posted elsewhere, external to the positivity, love and optimism seen here at the Dojo, there's just so much unwarranted negative sentiment?
And honestly I can't fathom why, for the life of me. So that's the purpose of this thread. To discuss the potential reasons addressing this.
One theory I had recently is this does seem like it's something symptomatic of Sega's IPs. Sonic has suffered this same tornado of negative opinion, and still does whenever a game or something new is announced. Even with decent Sonic games like Colors, Generations and Mania every new Sonic game is met with a similar negative sentiment that echoes that of Shenmue 3. Just look at what everyone is saying about the upcoming film for example. Dismissing it immediately. Same goes for Streets of Rage 4. There's love here for the game, but elsewhere in the wider gaming sphere there is a lot of "this game doesn't look good enough" to say the least of some of the negative opinions. Could it be that Sega's sequels have this attributed to them automatically due to Sega exiting the hardware business? Just a thought, but Sega IPs are the only avenue where I've seen this replicated across multiple series, and of course Shenmue is a Sega legacy IP.
But there must be more to this. Why do we have so much ardent love here, and yet popular opinion elsewhere, before the game has even been released, is negative?
To be sincere, I'd be more surprised if Shenmue wasn't hated in today's world. Shenmue is the antithesis of gaming culture in many respects. Want instant gratification? Sorry, not in Shenmue. Want to shoot folks? Sorry, not in Shenmue. Want multiplayer online? Sorry. And that's besides all the Yakuza fanboys, Anti-Crowdfund crowd, Anti-Asian authority, Maim Stream Media, and god knows who else...
At the end of the day, Shenmue survived. And if it means being ostracized, demeaned, and hated for believing in this work of art...it is what it is.