What a disappointment

BalHan said:
I thought something didn’t add up about the writing. How could Yoshimoto write great scripts for Shenmue 1 and 2 and such a poor script for Shenmue 3?

I was happy to know that Yoshimoto will be writing the script for Shenmue 3 but to come to know that he wasn’t the lead writer is bitterly disappointing.
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Indeed, also IMBD listed Yoshimoto as a story writer as well, presumably beeing Yu's major advisor for it due to his experience.
Yu is an amazing game designer, but technically we have no idea how good of a story writer he is all by himself.
He never wrote anything, except one story that we only know ~20% of and that was heavily influenced by many writers:

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Now in S3 we only got 3 completly new writers.
 
BalHan said:
I thought something didn’t add up about the writing. How could Yoshimoto write great scripts for Shenmue 1 and 2 and such a poor script for Shenmue 3?

I was happy to know that Yoshimoto will be writing the script for Shenmue 3 but to come to know that he wasn’t the lead writer is bitterly disappointing.
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I think the script in this game is quite good though. For once, Ryo actually seems more human than a stoic robot. Many of his lines now actually sound believable like a young adult would say. He emotes more now even if still somewhat stilted like before.
I like this one simple line he said at the hotel to Shenhua: "what choice do we have? Time to put on our detective hats"
Before, he would have said "okay....yeah" and thats it lol. Now he exhibits a bit more personality and that makes his interactions with Shenhua that much more memorable.
Seriously: go back and watch the convos he had with Shenhua at the end of Shenmue 2. They both act stiff as hell and no its not 'the English dub's fault'. I played the game in Japanese.
Also the telephone convos were great.
 
Budgiecat said:
at the end of the day these are video games not paperback novels.
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Let's not go there. Shenmue aside, video games can have legitimately good stories, there is no reason to think that one medium is better than another.

Budgiecat said:
I like the gameplay loop.
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I appreciate what he was trying to do with it, but it doesn't work for me. The way it was implemented required grinding for money and moves in a way that wastes time and was less organic than the previous games. I'm fine with the horse/rooster/one inch punch mini games, but the way you need to level moves doesn't really work.

Budgiecat said:
If I see Virtua Fighter ever makes a comeback and then people start complaining how the new story of it doesnt live up to the instruction manual backstory lore then I dunno what I'll do lol
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I have no idea what your argument is here. How does this pertain to Shenmue?
 
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Budgiecat said:
Where did I say that? Point to where I said that.
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Well silly, I cant point to where you interpreted it that way in your brain. I can only point to where you presented evidence of you interpreting it that way with your question of why do you even like this series?
 
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BalHan said:
I’m almost certain a Shenmue 3 released in 2003-2004 made by the same team that made 1 and 2, with the same engine on the Dreamcast would have been amazing.
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Yeah a game with the full AM2 team, original writing staff and SEGA's AAA financial backing which no doubt would have been double or triple of this game's budget (in addition to superior marketing budget) would have been great.

And water is wet.

Also if 2003/2004 of course it wouldnt be on Dreamcast and I doubt they'd have kept the VF3 engine. They woulda moved onto VF4 engine which had less emphasis on strafing than VF3 did.
 
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Budgiecat said:
Not even an issue once you're in Naiowu and you've reached ample endurance/attack/kung fu

I'm maxed out btw and not even reached Red Snakes hideout
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Disagree its not an issue. I also maxed it out, but maxing it out doesn't reduce the rate in which it goes down. It's also always going down so its not like you can minimize it much.

Since increasing it only increases your HP you need to constantly eat, and eat more. This feeds into money grinding which takes away from the game pacing. Not mention the existence of a stamina meter is antithetical to a game with exploration.
 
hmjohnny said:
Disagree its not an issue. I also maxed it out, but maxing it out doesn't reduce the rate in which it goes down. It's also always going down so its not like you can minimize it much.

Since increasing it only increases your HP you need to constantly eat, and eat more. This feeds into money grinding which takes away from the game pacing. Not mention the existence of a stamina meter is antithetical to a game with exploration.
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Even though i grew to like it i will still admit you are correct
 
hmjohnny said:
Disagree its not an issue. I also maxed it out, but maxing it out doesn't reduce the rate in which it goes down. It's also always going down so its not like you can minimize it much.

Since increasing it only increases your HP you need to constantly eat, and eat more. This feeds into money grinding which takes away from the game pacing. Not mention the existence of a stamina meter is antithetical to a game with exploration.
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How is that still even a problem for you though. It never hinders me whatsoever. I have way more than enough items usually on my self and its never an issue for me. I dont need to money grind after a certain point. Right now Im having too much fun fighting actually to care.

I notice nowadays people just wanna railroad through games as fast as they can so they can move onto the next one. This isnt the game to do that. And then they get mad when they cant. ADHD maybe? This also happened with the first two games which is one of the reasons the series was so divisive. Another reason why you see Yakuza fans trash this series (when people like me can see the value in both).
 
Watch a Super Sentai/Power Rangers episode. Heroes face the monster of the week, they get beat up because they either don't utilize their skills properly or understand the opponents skills. they do some training/friendship building exercises, They rematch the villain with new understanding/move, they win. This was shenmue 3's plot progression all throughout. As someone else said, it just wasn't organic in the ways that the other games were. The conflicts here were all very villain of the week like. Most of the lore we get is a retread of what Zhu told us minus Lan-Di being raised by the Chi You Men and the Royal family bits. And for the life of me I can't fathom why we have a literal treasure map all of a sudden when the mirrors are supposed to be that. But whatever. I can only hope that Shenmue 4 puts us back on track. Without proper story telling, build-up and intrigue, Shenmue loses what I love the most about it.

As I said elsewhere. Shenmue 3 had everything it needed to tell a story as strong as the first two games. Even with the botched ending segment. But it just didnt utilize its set-up that well imo. Again I like the game and if you asked me if I'd rather play through this 10 more times or Shenmue 1 I would actually pick this. It's a more "fun" game to me but it lacks what makes Shenmue so memorable to begin with IMO.
 
Budgiecat said:
How is that still even a problem for you though. It never hinders me whatsoever. I have way more than enough items usually on my self and its never an issue for me. I dont need to money grind after a certain point. Right now Im having too much fun fighting actually to care.
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I mean its not a big problem, you're right. By that point in the game you should be fine, I just didnt like grinding for hours to get there and having to constantly worry about eating when I just want to run around and explore the world.
 
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