Was Shenmue 3 comical compared to 1&2?

I

Irishryo

Joined
Nov 24, 2019
Hi All,

Just a random thought today and I'm not into shenmhe bashing just an open discussion... but I was thinking playing shenmue 3 some parts just felt kinda cheesy/comical. Some moments in 3 that vaguely come to mind are Ryos punches outside the hideout with Mr Muscles and especially the lady knocking the guys out with the broom... I'm sure there were more...

Comparing back to shenmue 1, I don't really recall this kinda comical side of the game... I guess chai was a little weird but the game as a whole was fairly serious and about revenge...

Shenmue 2 I suppose things kinda felt a bit weird with the huge fat dude and the crazy man/woman but it still felt serious ya know?

I suppose a bit of humour now and then is ok I just think the timing was a bit off in 3 maybe and whole it joined up as a whole...

Thoughts?
 
Yeah there was a bit too much comedy for me, especially at the old castle. Some bits were genuinely very funny though, like Ryo's comment when you look at the cat at the temple in Bailu.
 
I agree, especially during the QTE segments. I was horrible at the QTEs in 3, so most of the time I’d fail them. Although I did enjoy seeing Ryo get hit in the face with a fire extinguisher, or falling into the harbour. I think that QTE fail states are a good place to put some comedic moments.

When it came to actual cutscenes, the comedy it was trying to go for felt a little bit off to me. In the other two games, most cutscenes were serious, especially during climactic moments. The castle segment with the side characters in 3 felt very strange, especially since it’s supposed to build up to this dramatic showdown.
 
Last edited:
Good points.... The fire extinguisher and boat/seagull scenes are two good examples.... There's a balance that has to be struck and I think they went a bit... Pardon the pun overboard with the humour... Personally my preference would be even to make the QTE fail scenes to be serious and I'd they kind of "hid" the more funny stuff or made it off the beaten track in side quests and stuff like the duck racing in Shenmue 2 which I never knew existed but thought it was a really cool addition to the game... Speaking of ducks even catching the ducks was pretty comedic in nature and that was one of the main missions...
 
It's by far the funniest Shenmue I think. Hsu and Shiling taking out the Chi You Men like they were on a conveyer belt felt a bit dragged out and too slapstick for me, but other than that I found the rest of the comedic stuff OK, especially the QTE failures which are amazing.

Since martial arts films - which have inspired Shenmue - tend to blend a certain amount of comedy with action, I think some levity is also required to retain Shenmue's charm. So a balance definitely needs to be struck as you say: keep the serious moments but also ensure you don't turn Shenmue into Batman Begins or crank up the silliness to where it's almost like Laurel and Hardy either.

Side note: When Ren knocks out Lan Di's bodyguard, I took that as basically this franchise's version of the famous gunshot gag in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
 
As others have already pointed out, the first two games featured just as many comedic moments as Shenmue 3 did, but the latter opting to place them during its closing moments perhaps made them stand out quite a bit more.

While I did find the fat man and broom girl scenes at the old castle kind of funny (at least the first time they’re shown, anyway), I do think that they were very much at odds with the serious tone that the devs were trying to set for that section of the game and, as a result, felt very out of place.

That said, the first two games also had their fair share of funny moments during high stakes moments (particularly the second), so I guess it’s kind of in keeping with the series norm to some degree. Even so, broom girl bonking CYM grunts over the head did kind of feel like the narrative equivalent of Shenhua letting a loud and lengthy fart rip as the flames were illuminating the two giant mirrors.
 
I'd argue Shiling's broom head-whacking scene wasn't let down by the comedy itself (the first whack was entertaining and befitting of her character), but by a lack of editing. They repeated almost the exact same sequence multiple times...that's just sloppy scene direction. That's in contrast to the vast majority of cinematics in the game, which I thought were very well done. I guess someone at YS Net thought it was hilarious so it all stayed in.

I think the general tone of the game is a bit more vibrant than in previous entries, which could be dry to a fault when talking to NPCs (besides a few exceptions...love me some Goro). I had no problem with more jokey lines of dialogue appearing every now and again. It simply made talking to people more entertaining for me and allowed Ryo to have more of a personality.

Honestly, I think this shift to a lighter tone reflects a change in Yu Suzuki over the years. He's more relaxed. He seemed very jovial throughout the creation of S3, despite the pressure. I think he wanted his team to have fun while making it, too.
 
Also, if Shenmue is a story about how a youth rediscovers their life's purpose after the death of a loved one, it makes sense that later entries would be slightly more colourful. Especially when compared with Shenmue 1 which felt more melancholy at times with the emphasis on winter and the comparatively fewer lighthearted scenes to reflect Ryo's sadness because of Iwao's death.
 
Irishryo said:
Hi All,

Comparing back to shenmue 1, I don't really recall this kinda comical side of the game... I guess chai was a little weird but the game as a whole was fairly serious and about revenge...

Shenmue 2 I suppose things kinda felt a bit weird with the huge fat dude and the crazy man/woman but it still felt serious ya know?

I suppose a bit of humour now and then is ok I just think the timing was a bit off in 3 maybe and whole it joined up as a whole...

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I'm not actually, "mad," lol but come on; how does a 'mue fan not know the names of Dou Niu and Yuan?
 
3 is to 1/2 as Josstice League is to Snyder Cut or as Saints Row is to GTA
Meaning that 3 is VERY COMICALLY driven.
The first two games had a mix between being level-headed with humor and being unintentionally funny.
 
Last edited:
I feel like if there was a third act set in Baisha, Chi You territory, things would have got darker. 3 felt to me like if 2 ended in 1 small dungeon instead of all kowloon. Shenmue 2 would have been a good game even then, but still..
 
While both the original games contained a certain amount of intentional humour, I think what exacerbates it in Shenmue 3 was the decline in stakes and danger. The trope of being beaten up and essentially told your skills aren't up to par is common in the genre. Yet in previous games although it's not shown, death is insinuated in the case of Mark's brother and the Yellowheads certainly were out to kill you. Yet here as it happens twice in Bailu and then Niaowu you are soundly beaten and essentially are allowed to survive and leave. It kind of took away any dramatic tension there could be interspersed with the humorous scenes.
 
Not really. At least not from a modern perspective. As I have mentioned a few times already I knew about Shenmue back then and even had a Dreamcast so I could play it theoretically. But I was young and dumb back then and fell for the ps2 hype from Sony which made me ignore to Dreamcast and everything related to it. So I did not insert Shenmue into my Dreamcast before the year 2018. And from a modern standpoint the first game in it's English version is comedy pure. The dub and how the lines are delivered are just hilarious. It feels like a martial arts movie parody. It does make the game bad it makes it charming in a very positive way.

Part 2 has a more serious tone and due to the fact that Sega decided to release DC Version of SH2 in Japanese this time also made the whole presentation way better and more serious.

I would say that Sh3 is not more comical then SH1 in the English dub but it is way less serious and gritty then Part 2.

Part 2 has the perfect balance so far.

But if you put the Japanese version of SH1 in the equation as well it might not be wrong to consider S3 the most comical game...
 
9dragons said:
Part 2 has a more serious tone and due to the fact that Sega decided to release DC Version of SH2 in Japanese this time also made the whole presentation way better and more serious.
Click to expand...
If you'd played the Xbox version your opinion may have been very different :p I've always said that, while Ryo's English VO improved from I to II, and Ren's English voice has kinda grown on me over the years, the rest of the cast ranges from annoying-but-tolerable, to completely flat, to hilariously terrible. The worst NPCs in II are also unintentional comedy gold.
 
"Go Home."
"Pleeeeease! Get out!"
"I don't know much about Kowloon... but I do know about Birds! My sweet, precious little babies!"
(sounding like Kermit) "What? How do you know my name?"
"Wwwwwhat isssss it youngggg man? Shall we tttalk about something? Oooook. Let me tttell you about when I was young then..."
(sounding like someone stoned) "I'm so happy! You could have picked any restaurant, but you picked mine!"
 
I didn’t necessarily feel like Shenmue III was more comical, per se. I thought the NPC dialogue was often more amusing, intentionally, and that the tone was a little lighter overall. I felt like it was made this way in sort of a self referential nod to people who enjoy Shenmue as a sort of cheesy, kung fu B-movie.

As far as main scenario cutscenes and story goes, though, I felt like those were pretty tonally consistent with the previous games.
 
orient said:
If you'd played the Xbox version your opinion may have been very different :p I've always said that, while Ryo's English VO improved from I to II, and Ren's English voice has kinda grown on me over the years, the rest of the cast ranges from annoying-but-tolerable, to completely flat, to hilariously terrible. The worst NPCs in II are also unintentional comedy gold.
Click to expand...
That is true. With the English dub I would have taken 2 not serious at all. Just like one. Although I was impressed with the gameplay of Shenmue and the many things to do I was not so certain about the story. I did not start liking the story since I finished 2. I think I will use the English dub on my next run for the ps4 version of s2 just out of curiosity.
 
I cannot remove the horrors of the rock paper scissors game in Shenhua's house from my memory.

That was one of the moments the game became a joke to me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top