The Shenmue 3 Review Thread

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SCQ said:
You don't really have much choice around these parts, tbh.
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I'm sorry but that's completely rubbish.

If there's something someone doesn't like about the games then that's cool. All we ask is that its constructive on all sides. Also avoid bashing other series in comparison as theres no need for it.
 
spud1897 said:
I'm sorry but that's completely rubbish.

If there's something someone doesn't like about the games then that's cool. All we ask is that its constructive on all sides. Also avoid bashing other series in comparison as theres no need for it.
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lol sure thing my dude
 
Forklift No. 4 said:
I have no way of proving this, but my Metacritic predictions are usually spot on. Calling a 68 MC score for this one.
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I'm still thinking somewhere around 70 - 75...60-65 being the lowest.

I really thought Shenmue 1 and 2 HD were going to be around 50 on MC but I was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong by the actual score it got (75)...so around 70 would please me for III.

I don't expect it to be setting the world alight, but 7 is a totally respectable score. Hell, one of my favorite games of the generation got a 7 from most outlets (The Last Guardian.)

I think the things that will hurt it most in the eyes of most reviewers will be character models (although I maintain they really don't look that bad), quality of animation, quality of lip sync and quality of voice acting. And maybe quality of writing (I could see some reviewers being a bit piffy about this.) And maybe the fighting will get criticised. The fighting isn't terrible, but I do think it will get criticised none the less.

But I could see other things maybe being a virtue for it. The scope given the budget. The general tone of the game. A certain nostalgic factor. A certain amount of charm it has and so on. Or maybe some will be light on some of the things I said above. Yeah, I'm still predicting around 6 to 7. Hoping moreso for the 7 range.

But I am definitely prepared for some outlets to completely trash it without rhyme or reason as well.

It's the User Score that I expect to be low...if the anger is still there for trolls to review bomb it.
 
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I expect IGN and Gamespot will give it around a 6 out of 10. They will be open to the game's charm, but will bring up "archaic design choices", "outdated animations", "mediocre combat" and "odd voice acting". They will praise some aspects, although what they will commend is a little more difficult to predict.

Knowing Eurogamer, which I read a lot, it will be one of their standard reviews that does not have an award (Eurogamer stopped rating games a year or two back, but does award titles such as "Recommended", "Essential" and "Avoid" to some games), although there's a small chance they might give it a Recommended. They will be far more positive.

I feel PC Gamer and the various RPG oriented sites will be the most positive.

Overall I'm expecting mostly 7 out of 10s. From what we have seen, there are very few genuine criticisms critics can pick up on in my opinion and how big of an issue some of them are is subjective to the individual playing the game. I know some people believe the media has its knives out ready for this game, but I believe a good chunk of it will give Shenmue 3 a fair chance.
 
We should play Shenmue III Review Bingo :D

Let’s see

— “Animations”
— “Lip Sync”
— “Dated”
— “Nostalgic Charm”
— “Looks like a Dreamcast Game”
— “Yakuza did it better”
— ”No throws”

What else? Positive and negative :)
 
Reprise said:
Overall I'm expecting mostly 7 out of 10s. From what we have seen, there are very few genuine criticisms critics can pick up on in my opinion and how big of an issue some of them are is subjective to the individual playing the game. I know some people believe the media has its knives out ready for this game, but I believe a good chunk of it will give Shenmue 3 a fair chance.
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It depends on the outlets. I imagine major outlets will be as you said. They’ll give it a fair shake but probably land somewhere around average in their final thoughts. But then you have outlets like Giant Bomb. I‘m almost expecting to hear Yakuza comparisons during the quick look: “I don’t know why we need this when we have Yakuza” from someone like Alex.

Game Informer I imagine might be kind to it.

IGN might be indifferent to it.

Gamespot could be either kind or indifferent depending on who reviews it.

Giant Bomb will largely dismiss it because Jeff has a hate boner for it. Although Dan may be kind to it. I still kind of want to see them do an Endurance Run for Shenmue II btw. I think if they gave Shenmue II a chance then they’d be surprised to see how much of a leap forward it is from the first game in terms of pacing and story. They may still not like it, but they may gain a better appreciation for what the first game was setting up.

Easy Allies will either be glowing with praise or they’ll surprise us and be fairly down the middle. The real question is does Huber review it or does someone else do the job to insure a fair score? If Huber does review it then I don’t think he’ll go too fanboyish with it. I think he will call it down the middle for the review...but I can’t imagine who else on that team would review it?

Smaller outlets will be a mixed bag. Some may be into it. Others may not.

It’ll be interesting none the less.
 
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PC Gamer review will be solid. Fairly sure the editor loves Shenmue.

GiantBomb will savage it because of Gerstmann, who loathes the series.

wonderif reviews will be embargoed until release
 
What I'm really interested in is what the fans will think of it. There seems to be this fallacy that gets thrown about a lot that fan bases are incapable of objectivity and honest criticism. I don't believe that's the case. Yeah, we might have our blind spots or over look certain aspects that aren't as important to us as someone who isn't a huge fan, but the idea that fans will accept any shit as long as it has the right brand across it seems ridiculous to me. There's just so much we still don't know about the game and I'm really curious to play it and see how it compares to I and II, as well as what others here think of it.
 
What's often forgotten is that fans can be the most critical of all. Who else is going to care if Ryo's eyebrows aren't the right thickness, or if Nozomi's voice isn't pitch perfect? No fly-by-night dudebro reviewer could ever be as savage as a fanboy with opinions on the correct weight of ball to use in Lucky Hit.

My point is that while some will turn a blind eye, ultimately, nothing gets past the fans. So our happiness shouldn't be automatically dismissed as somehow irrelevant or insincere. You'll never see more brutal honesty - to the occasional point of embarrassment - than on the pages of these forums.
 
Let's Get Sweaty said:
What's often forgotten is that fans can be the most critical of all. Who else is going to care if Ryo's eyebrows aren't the right thickness, or if Nozomi's voice isn't pitch perfect? No fly-by-night dudebro reviewer could ever be as savage as a fanboy with opinions on the correct weight of ball to use in Lucky Hit.

My point is that while some will turn a blind eye, ultimately, nothing gets past the fans. So our happiness shouldn't be automatically dismissed as somehow irrelevant or insincere. You'll never see more brutal honesty - to the occasional point of embarrassment - than on the pages of these forums.
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Oh absolutely. You only have to look at the response to the HD ports of the first two games from some parts of the fanbase, or how much some of us have dissected and criticised minute little details of Shenmue 3 so far. Hell, I guarantee the average joe cannot tell the difference between the various different models of Ryo and Shenhua people like to argue over whether they're "older" models or the new models (excluding the 2017 models that keep showing up for some bizarre reason).
 
Reprise said:
Oh absolutely. You only have to look at the response to the HD ports of the first two games from some parts of the fanbase, or how much some of us have dissected and criticised minute little details of Shenmue 3 so far. Hell, I guarantee the average joe cannot tell the difference between the various different models of Ryo and Shenhua people like to argue over whether they're "older" models or the new models (excluding the 2017 models that keep showing up for some bizarre reason).
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Would argue they don't even know the difference between the 2017 models, which is why they're continually used. Still shots look much better than in motion as in the prototype trailer--hence not being too big of a deal. Honestly, although they're still slightly doll-esque, I'd argue they aren't techhnically 2017 models; slightly revise, upgraded modeling like the EDGE cover Ryo model.
 
My issue with with the "Yakuza/RDR2 did it better" remarks is that there is no elaboration there, they just say it nonchalantly but never explain "how". I would honestly love to see how they reached these conclusions, in order to better understand the criticism that is usually levelled against this series.

But not a single one who uttered these remarks has been able to elaborate on them.

Like I understand if you enjoy Yakuza's combat/controls/story/world more, but saying Shenmue is 'proto-Yakuza' when Yakuza's "Shenmue-like" features are factually, objectively still less developed and nuanced than Shenmue is just a bold faced lie, and more Shenmue fans should be calling this lie out because it has become the truth amongst people who never experienced Shenmue
 
Rikitatsu said:
My issue with with the "Yakuza/RDR2 did it better" remarks is that there is no elaboration there, they just say it nonchalantly but never explain "how". I would honestly love to see how they reached these conclusions, in order to better understand the criticism that is usually levelled against this series.

But not a single one who uttered these remarks has been able to elaborate on them.
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I assume the more informed ones don't elaborate because they know their points would easily be countered and exposed as false, while the less informed ones literally can't because they've never played Shenmue.
 
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