Thoughts on the story DLC

Joined
Aug 22, 2018
So that was... something. It took me 90 minutes to complete blind. The story is 100% self contained and offers no new insight into the larger Shenmue story. I’d love to say that I enjoyed it, but it felt like a bit of a chore.

If you haven’t already paid for it, I’d recommend saving your money and reading the below spoiler tag...

Zang shows up and tells you that he’s been sent to keep an eye on the Chi Yu Men. Shortly afterwards, he goes missing and another guy shows up and acts as your point of contact. After learning that a gang called the ‘Blue Spiders’ have come over from Hong Kong and are causing trouble, you have to put up different Cha wan signs in different areas of Niaowu. After a few notes, you learn that the Blue Spiders are none other than the gang of thugs from Bailu. After beating up a few of them, your new contact takes over the interrogation but later goes missing. You’re given yet another random new contact and must go back to randomly posting Cha wan signs around Niaowu. After a few more notes and pointless bits of information, you’re told to go to the upstairs of one of the restaurants but need a date and formal clothing to gain entry. After running all the way back across Niaowu, your contact happens to have a formal dress and training suit to hand and you take Shenhua to the restaurant. Here the game glitches out and you get another note. Now it’s time to go to the hideout (it’s been accessible the whole time but nothing happens when entering until you’ve progressed the story). You find Zang tied up and learn that your second contact (his name might have been Wei, but I forget as there’s no real character building) was actually a mole and is the leader of the Blue Spiders. Beat up the thugs and then defeat Mr Muscles MK1 again. Zang thanks you, gives you a phone card and tells you that you can keep the formal clothes. Then he leaves, giving no new information.

My issues with this DLC...
As the script for this was written and recorded in 2018, there are several parts where the dialogue no longer matches up with the task you have to do. You’re told that if you see Zang you should tell him to go back to the hotel, but after searching around Niaowu for about 20-30 minutes, I checked the notebook and found that I should actually have gone back to the hotel. I was told to ask people on Vender Avenue for information. Again, after speaking to loads of random people on Vender Avenue, I checked the notebook to see that I was actually supposed to be asking people on the promenade. After being told that Zang has been taken by the Blue Spiders, I go back to the contact to give him the information only to be told that Ryo hasn’t learned anything yet. After speaking to two more people who give me the same or less informative information, I finally get a prompt to go back the contact. There are bonus items that can be picked up by performing Cha wan signs at certain times/locations, but I didn’t pick up any of them on my playthrough despite often having to sign at 4-5 locations at each stage. I found myself asking what the point of the Cha wan signs was when there is constantly a guy sitting at a table that you or anyone else from Zhou’s organization can pass information to. I had no idea why you’re able to access the Blue Snakes HQ so early on and why Ryo doesn’t acknowledge the giant blue spider painted on the side of the building until the point in the story when you need to find the hideout (even though you know that they have Zang from a very early point in the story). I found myself wondering why on earth random contact #3 just happens to have formal clothing for a male and female to hand and why they didn’t use one of the many pointless shops for this story beat instead. I’m not sure if it was just my playthrough, but when exploring the Dim Sum restaurant, my notebook opened and told me that I’d got a note and should go back to contact #3 before I’d even sat down and received the note. I was also a little disappointed to see that after the quest is complete, you can no longer use the cups to sign and so I’ll have to replay the story on a different save to pick up the items/trophies that I missed.
If you thought the story in the main game was bad, just wait until you play this.
 
I have yet to play, just boot it last night to see if it was working. My main question here is: Does it feel like a build from scratch content or a cut it from something that was going to be integrated in the main game?
 
I have yet to play, just boot it last night to see if it was working. My main question here is: Does it feel like a build from scratch content or a cut it from something that was going to be integrated in the main game?
Hard to say. It wouldn’t have added anything to the main game, so it may well have been built ‘from scratch’. It was in development alongside the main game though and dialogue was recorded in tandem with it (this has actually lead to quite a few issues with the DLC as plans have seemingly been changed since the end of 2018), so the argument could certainly be made that it was ‘cut’ for extra profit. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. It’s mediocre at absolute best.
 
Hard to say. It wouldn’t have added anything to the main game, so it may well have been built ‘from scratch’. It was in development alongside the main game though and dialogue was recorded in tandem with it (this has actually lead to quite a few issues with the DLC as plans have seemingly been changed since the end of 2018), so the argument could certainly be made that it was ‘cut’ for extra profit. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. It’s mediocre at absolute best.
Knowing that I will probably just play it and unlock the Trophies and move on to next game. I was not expecting that the Story one was going to be the weaker one :(
 
Knowing that I will probably just play it and unlock the Trophies and move on to next game. I was not expecting that the Story one was going to be the weaker one :(
Me neither. I wasn’t expecting it to be amazing, but I did think it would expand on the lore of the series somewhat. To be fair, the title is accurate in that it is a ‘story’, but aside from that, it adds nothing to the larger Shenmue story. Battle Rally was a lot more enjoyable.

Zang does say that Zhu will provide Ryo with a greater reward when Ryo returns to Hong Kong. Whether this is a hint that the story may take us back to Hong Kong or a throwaway remark remains to be seen.
 
So basically it's just another side mission they turned into DLC for some reason. Well, happy to support the team regardless. Do you get any useful items out of it?
It’s considerably more fleshed out than a standard side mission in that there is more to do, but in terms of ‘story’, it could be likened as it adds about as much to the story (nothing).

In order to get the items (and trophies), you need to use particular Cha wan signs at particular locations at particular points in the story and in my playthrough, I apparently somehow missed all of these. You do get some new clothes for Ryo and Shenhua. You can continue to wear Ryo’s post completion if you wish and as there’s an option to change Shenhua’s outfit to her new one if you wish (although she defaults back to the banana suit after you finish the story and I didn’t actually confirm that it could be changed).
 
Its a bummer that the dlc doesn't add anything to the lore of Shenmue....
I will still cling off a ledge in hope that Shenmue 4 will fill in the gaps and BE the grand adventure that it always was and is.

I loved S3 and am sure I will love the dlc. but I was really hoping for more of a main story addition.

Thanks for your thoughts Tomboz
 
I'm a little disappointed this sounds like a "tacked on" mission and Zhang's presence is merely fanservice. That being said I really should purchase the season pass and give the team support even if I'm not in a huge rush to play the DLCs. I should have a few save files in Niaowu at least.
 
So that was... something. It took me 90 minutes to complete blind. The story is 100% self contained and offers no new insight into the larger Shenmue story. I’d love to say that I enjoyed it, but it felt like a bit of a chore.

If you haven’t already paid for it, I’d recommend saving your money and reading the below spoiler tag...

Zang shows up and tells you that he’s been sent to keep an eye on the Chi Yu Men. Shortly afterwards, he goes missing and another guy shows up and acts as your point of contact. After learning that a gang called the ‘Blue Spiders’ have come over from Hong Kong and are causing trouble, you have to put up different Cha wan signs in different areas of Niaowu. After a few notes, you learn that the Blue Spiders are none other than the gang of thugs from Bailu. After beating up a few of them, your new contact takes over the interrogation but later goes missing. You’re given yet another random new contact and must go back to randomly posting Cha wan signs around Niaowu. After a few more notes and pointless bits of information, you’re told to go to the upstairs of one of the restaurants but need a date and formal clothing to gain entry. After running all the way back across Niaowu, your contact happens to have a formal dress and training suit to hand and you take Shenhua to the restaurant. Here the game glitches out and you get another note. Now it’s time to go to the hideout (it’s been accessible the whole time but nothing happens when entering until you’ve progressed the story). You find Zang tied up and learn that your second contact (his name might have been Wei, but I forget as there’s no real character building) was actually a mole and is the leader of the Blue Spiders. Beat up the thugs and then defeat Mr Muscles MK1 again. Zang thanks you, gives you a phone card and tells you that you can keep the formal clothes. Then he leaves, giving no new information.

My issues with this DLC...
As the script for this was written and recorded in 2018, there are several parts where the dialogue no longer matches up with the task you have to do. You’re told that if you see Zang you should tell him to go back to the hotel, but after searching around Niaowu for about 20-30 minutes, I checked the notebook and found that I should actually have gone back to the hotel. I was told to ask people on Vender Avenue for information. Again, after speaking to loads of random people on Vender Avenue, I checked the notebook to see that I was actually supposed to be asking people on the promenade. After being told that Zang has been taken by the Blue Spiders, I go back to the contact to give him the information only to be told that Ryo hasn’t learned anything yet. After speaking to two more people who give me the same or less informative information, I finally get a prompt to go back the contact. There are bonus items that can be picked up by performing Cha wan signs at certain times/locations, but I didn’t pick up any of them on my playthrough despite often having to sign at 4-5 locations at each stage. I found myself asking what the point of the Cha wan signs was when there is constantly a guy sitting at a table that you or anyone else from Zhou’s organization can pass information to. I had no idea why you’re able to access the Blue Snakes HQ so early on and why Ryo doesn’t acknowledge the giant blue spider painted on the side of the building until the point in the story when you need to find the hideout (even though you know that they have Zang from a very early point in the story). I found myself wondering why on earth random contact #3 just happens to have formal clothing for a male and female to hand and why they didn’t use one of the many pointless shops for this story beat instead. I’m not sure if it was just my playthrough, but when exploring the Dim Sum restaurant, my notebook opened and told me that I’d got a note and should go back to contact #3 before I’d even sat down and received the note. I was also a little disappointed to see that after the quest is complete, you can no longer use the cups to sign and so I’ll have to replay the story on a different save to pick up the items/trophies that I missed.
If you thought the story in the main game was bad, just wait until you play this.
I got the exact same issue as you so in the dim sun restaurant it's not your playthrough I have a question when you finish everything you get a telephone card but you cant call or sell it what's the purpose of the card
 
Stupid question but I got first note and can’t seem to find store.

“Use the note to find the shop”. I haven’t played Shenmue 3 in while but can’t seem to figure out where this shop is in relation to the promenade.

Thanks
 
Without knowledge of what was actually going to be in the DLCs, I had the highest hopes for this one for sure.
It felt pretty disappointing to be honest.

It's kinda nice that it is integrated into the story and not just in an extra menu like the Battle Rally, so it can be along for the ride in subsequent story playthroughs. The obvious catch is that it degraded this to a side mission. That is not without its issues, starting with easy accessiblitly of the thing of course.

Going around town and looking for spots to do the sign at was okay enough. Going around, looking for that one random NPC that advances the quest was not so hot. It kinda helped that this is a sidequest because you see what the right NPC without the need to talk to them but this is also problematic. Since this is a sidequest, there is no way to ask around normally for anything related to it and I often felt helpless while I ran around mindless, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth...

The story was very basic and it's sad that it has no bearing on the main one at all. Zhang appears out of nowhere, doesn't ask or gets asked anything relevant about anything from the saga, stuff gets recycled and before I knew it, it was already over.

For some reason the hand animations of moving the cups doesn't look up to Shenmue II standards and is pretty abrupt and stiff. Also, I get that those rings make it easier to see if they are above or below the middle line but II never had this and that shows that it's still not necessary. Also, they missed the mark for not using the chawan sign music while you do them.

Well, at least the house and extra outfit finally got their use. I did like some of the throwbacks and how this went further with the chawan system that Shenmue II, using different signs and all. Also how there are a whole bunch of different kinds of cups, mugs, glasses and whatnot. Apparently there is even actual stuff now for doing the wrong signs but this is so mysterious from within the game that I am currently clueless how to do it. Only know it from the trophies, wich are normally hidden and have no idea what sign to do where or where there are hints as to how they should look, if there are any at all.
 
I am having real issues with DLC. I finally located Zhang’s associate at Chicken Emperor store. I’m told next contact will be near hotel Niaowu again and should pass time.

I did part time job, fought in martial hall went to sleep and next day still nothing. I broke down and looked at playthrough and Wei appears right next to hotel in same place Zhang first appeared be he isn’t appearing. Any ideas?

Frustrating to say the least.

Edit: completed some main story stuff and Wei appeared by hotel. Seems inconsistent to say the least!
 
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I know it's a bit early for trophy hunting, but I'm trying to get all the Chawan Sign locations. Looks like there's a space in my diary for another one at the Vendor Avenue but I can't seem to find it. I don't suppose anyone could provide the full list from Ryo's notebook?
 
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