Thoughts On Shenmue 3 Antagonists?

ShenSun

ShenSun

Site Staff
Joined
Jul 24, 2018
The two main antagonists in Shenmue 3 are

Blue Spider Boss

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Red Snakes Boss (Mr Muscles)

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What are your thoughts on these two after playing Shenmue 3?
 
Don't really have any. They're completely 2 dimensional, unfortunately. Do they even have names? Don Niu > either of them. Dude scared the shit out of me when I first played Shenmue 2. Mr. Muscles is one of the ugliest 'human' characters I've seen in a video game, so he's memorable in that sense.
 
First, @ShenSun, I appreciate your making more dedicated threads for these topics, vs. our repeating them in little spurts in every other topic.

I like Yanlang. Given the "smallness" of Bailu and the purpose of his mission (being sent, vs. Bailu being his base), it made sense for merely a particularly tough guy and a few cronies being sent to snag a mirror from a town mostly populated by women, children, and old men. It's also good to have an antagonist who's a bit dumb, vs. the calculation of Chai and Don Niu. (One could also argue that Don Niu is more of an oaf, but he's seems more orderly than Yanlang).

Ge underwhelmed me, but that may more so be a) my general disappointment with the paucity of the Red Snake influence and b) his similarities to Yanlang (physically). The confusing fighting style is a nice touch (the shop minigame less so), and I like that he seems a little more confident/calculated, esp. as he works more closely with the Chi You. He's like a Terry who can actually fight.

My chief complaint, one others seem to share: after Kowloon and the serious threat of death, these bosses seem much less intimidating, if not underwhelming. That said, I'm glad we didn't have a big Don Niu style situation in 3; I wouldn't be surprised if people complained that that was a "rehash" of 2. The antagonists in 3 feel more like those of 1: strong guys with connections, but Lan Di is the intended target. They're less of a threat, but I still think them suited for 3's plot.
 
I guess they do have names!

How did you figure their names out? Serious question.

The three guys you take out before fighting Lan Di seemed much more interesting from an aesthetic standpoint. Shame they were QTE fodder.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
How did you figure their names out? Serious question.
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Yanlang admits his name during the interrogation scene. As to Ge, it's perhaps my chief nitpick of the game: his name is never mentioned in dialogue, yet Ryo writes "defeated Ge" in his notebook during the castle run (seems a good time to be taking notes, too...)
 
The Blue Spider guy's name is
Yanlang
if memory serves me right. Don't even know his family name. Looks like your average 90s martial arts movie bad guy.

I bet you 75% of the Dojoers don't even know Mr Muscles' real name. It is
Longqi Ge
, which we learned about in the S3 credits. Looks like your average 90s Martial Arts movie bad guy, or maybe he also looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger banged Bolo Yeung and got him pregnant with their love child. Kind of like a Uyghur version of Arnie mixed with Bolo.

But to sum both of those characters up in one word : forgetable.

I'll probably forget their names within a year or two, after some more time will have passed since I finished S3.
 
Yanglang was alright. The interrogation part of the game was cool, we found out about Chai's role from him and I think that we learned a little bit about the chiyoumen too (the people who ordered his gang to kidnap the stonemasons).

Muscles, I didn't care for. I will say that in terms of power levels, these guys are a step up from Do Niu, so at least Ryo is making progress as a martial artist. Do Niu wasn't even a martial artist iirc, he was just fat and that alone was enough to overwhelm Ryo. The two bosses in 3 have comparable builds to Do Niu but they are real martial artists to boot.

I'm hoping that from 4 onward, the bosses are chiyoumen members. We've fought thug affiliates of the chiyoumen for three games now, let's see something else.
 
Throwaway, generic, uninteresting and didn't really present themselves as very threatening. Their wacky designs didn't help at all.

Even though Terry turned out to be a complete pussy, he was still intimidating in his own right as the leader of the mad angels. His low growling voice and lack of emotion made me really feel like he and his gang would send me to the bottom of the sea. These two look like they would beat you up, take your money and throw you out of whatever building you were im like uncle Phil. Add to the fact that the locals characterize them and their men as drunks who harass waitresses, dine and dash and sometimes extort small stands
 
I found both to be incredibly one-dimensional, especially given their obvious similarities in both physique and demeanor.

My biggest complaint though, aside from them both being very underdeveloped as villains, was their total lack of malice. Sure, on the surface, they’re more than happy to give Ryo a beat down or two, but that they repeatedly allow Ryo to walk away from their encounters didn’t seem very believable to me and as a result, completely destroyed the immersion.

I can perhaps excuse the first encounter with each of them as the beat down could be seen as a warning for Ryo to back off, but that he is able to continue to come and go as he pleases with no major consequences was a little bewildering given the circumstances.

At this point in the story, I expected there to be real stakes, but the complete lack of any meaningful consequences really sapped the suspense out of the story.
 
They don't really have any personality to speak of but I liked the idea behind Mr. Muscles having a mysterious style that Ryo has to figure out (even though the execution left a lot to be desired). I also didn't really have a problem with their designs, even if they're a bit Street Fighter ish. My main problem is that this is Shenmue 3 and the villain from the previous game is far more threatening--I felt the stakes should have been much higher. Failure in S2 often resulted in death; even Terry in S1 comes at you with a pipe with the obvious intent to kill.

If anything, S3 could have worked if it was structured the opposite way; Ryo thinking he's king shit, winning fights no problem until he faces Lan Di and can't even land a hit. Instead he couldn't defeat these two nobodies who lead tiny gangs in rural China, so what chance could he possibly have against Lan Di? I honestly thought that fighting Lan Di was going to be closer to the halfway point, especially when I saw it in the trailer.
 
iknifaugood said:
They don't really have any personality to speak of but I liked the idea behind Mr. Muscles having a mysterious style that Ryo has to figure out (even though the execution left a lot to be desired). I also didn't really have a problem with their designs, even if they're a bit Street Fighter ish. My main problem is that this is Shenmue 3 and the villain from the previous game is far more threatening--I felt the stakes should have been much higher. Failure in S2 often resulted in death; even Terry in S1 comes at you with a pipe with the obvious intent to kill.

If anything, S3 could have worked if it was structured the opposite way; Ryo thinking he's king shit, winning fights no problem until he faces Lan Di and can't even land a hit. Instead he couldn't defeat these two nobodies who lead tiny gangs in rural China, so what chance could he possibly have against Lan Di? I honestly thought that fighting Lan Di was going to be closer to the halfway point, especially when I saw it in the trailer.
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I think everyone did, I'm still shocked that was the end. Shenmue III was basically like disc 1 & 2 of Shenmue 2, it's missing disc 3.
 
DoubleO_Ren said:
Yes I know it has 4 discs, didn't think the 4th one needed mentioning. SIII needed at least disc 3vid
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I figured but I wasn't sure if that's what you meant. Totally agree. When I got to the castle section and saw how short it was it felt like if we immediately went from Wan Chai to the Yellowhead Building only it was 2 floors and then it ended. It made me wonder what point was being made; like in S2 it's all about Ryo learning patience and figuring out that there's more at stake than his selfish quest for revenge but S3 is about...what? How Ryo isn't strong enough to beat Lan Di?
 
iknifaugood said:
Shenmue 2 is 4 discs ;). Though I would agree that it's similar in terms of content to disc 1 and 2, missing 3 and 4.
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Now that I think about it, when I try to think of Shenmue 3 like it's the equivalent of just the first 2 discs of Shenmue 1 & 2, it's not that bad an entry to the saga. I mean Mr Muscles and Fist of the North Star reject are still very lame and the way the narrative plays out completely undermines Ryo and every villain in Shenmue 1 & 2 bar Lan Di and the fact they let Ryo go when he canonically loses makes no sense and takes all stakes away. If you ignore all that, it's a decent entry, it's a good half of a Shenmue game narratively possibly better than disc 1 & 2 of Shenmue 1 maybe (not sure, probably not LOL).
 
tomboz said:
My biggest complaint though, aside from them both being very underdeveloped as villains, was their total lack of malice. Sure, on the surface, they’re more than happy to give Ryo a beat down or two, but that they repeatedly allow Ryo to walk away from their encounters didn’t seem very believable to me and as a result, completely destroyed the immersion.
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At this point in the story, I expected there to be real stakes, but the complete lack of any meaningful consequences really sapped the suspense out of the story.
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You took the words out of my mouth. This was one of my biggest criticisms of the story of Shenmue 3, that there was a lack of stakes or sense of jeopardy during the entire story. This was best exemplified during your encounters with Yanlang but particularly with Ge.
 
Meh. The antagonists are whatever. I didn't mind Yanglang or whatever. Absolutely didn't care about Mr Muscles by sheer fact I had to annoyingly guess his stances.

Dehone said:
Throwaway, generic, uninteresting and didn't really present themselves as very threatening. Their wacky designs didn't help at all.

Even though Terry turned out to be a complete pussy, he was still intimidating in his own right as the leader of the mad angels. His low growling voice and lack of emotion made me really feel like he and his gang would send me to the bottom of the sea. These two look like they would beat you up, take your money and throw you out of whatever building you were im like uncle Phil. Add to the fact that the locals characterize them and their men as drunks who harass waitresses, dine and dash and sometimes extort small stands
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Yeah no Terry still sucks. And he's barely better than either Yanglang or Mr Muscles.

Now Dou Niu and Yuan are a different story. Really good fodder.
 
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