What a disappointment

[Budgiecat]

Sleeping Dogs did this well:

Yeah

this the definitive version. Sound effects were added I think:

I had the PS3 version. Played the heck out of that game too

I actually tried to get the Definitive Version the other day on PS4 when it was on sale for $5 but I found out about it too late on the day it was to expire, and when I went to the store last minute to get a PSN card for it, there was literally no one in the store and a fat guy walked in the same time I did and ran to the counter lol which cost me about 30 seconds delayed time to activate the card on the PSN website on my phone lol so pissed


I suppose in Shenmue, someone would have to actually teach Ryo the Wing Chun hand movements first but still....yeah...

Something like this woulda been nice:

But yeah....these things cost money and more time which this game didnt have the luxury of due to small budget

 

[Budgiecat]

I agree, you can actually go back to Grandmaster Feng's house and spar, but nothing comes from it.

Well in terms of Grandmaster Feng, his purpose in this story for this game was to enlighten you more about Iwao's past as he used to train there, the involvement with royalty and the Verdant Bridge with the symbolism of the Phoenix and Dragon (which was elaborated further through Elder Yeh and Master Sun), and him telling you how to contact Master Sun.

 

[Shenkuza]

I'll give you twenty how's that? :

1) the character models for the foreigners; particularly the Naiowu loading dock crate workers as well as that one big Red Snake guy later on that was shown in the trailers. They take me out of the game with their cartoony look. Especially when the other character modes are done so much better

2)No throws

3)no river step block crossway between the Naiowu river and water wheel, plus the roads should have been narrower. Minor complaints but after seeing Phoenix Ancient City vids, I wish they'd have been more accurate to its design.


4)NPC character pop in. Cant tell you how many times I thought the character simply wasnt there then all of a sudden they pop in lol

5)Kenpogi outfit. It costs too damn much! lol. Also it makes Ryo look fat. It could have been designed better

6)Why is One Inch Punch not an actual move that you can use in battle? Same with Bajiquan Body Check. I understand Master Sun said "just because you pulled it off one or two times doesn't make you an expert on it" which makes sense, but then the game doesnt allow you to practice it like the other moves.

7) Doing Horse Stance in front of a Mook Jong dummy instead of doing actual Wing Chun hand positions on it which is what its for was a let down.

8) Why is the curfew for Niaowu still at 9pm? That makes no sense. For Bailu, a small rural village with hardly any electricity that made more sense but Niaowu is based on Phoenix Town which is more lively at night

9) Shenhua and Ryo seem more distant after reaching Niaowu. Ren is underutilized as well. Why isn't Xiuying in the telephone book?

10) lack of Earth and Sky battle theme

this


is better than this
(not that this is bad per say, just that....you cant beat Earth & Sky)

this isnt bad though:
(but still isnt as good as Earth & Sky)

11) Save Shenmue building (not needed and pulls you out of the game immersion in a way.) In fact, outside that one cool black Shenmue III t shirt with the green mirror logo, pretty much anything 4th wall breaking is a no no for me. The hotel book and front door hotel registry as well as the names in the temples should have been good enough. Also speaking of Hotel; needs more people in it than just that one rich couple. Feels weird.

12) Broken capsule toy system. This is just a paaaaaain.

13)Log cutting doesn't pay enough. I know they say it doesnt pay enough in the game but still lol

14) Forklift is still fun but feels diminished. No races and the track is too short

15) Ryo could use some fake Air Jordans. Its 1987 after all. Those sneakers were huge then. Cmon man, they knew enough to put in acid wash jeans which were huge then too!

16) Shenhua needs more than one outfit. Cmon, any girl visiting a city for the first time would have bought some clothes. Hopefully this is fixed in DLC. Also Ryo should have given her that pendant he got in Bailu

17) Nozomi's English actress. Doesnt sound like her. I know its a new actress but still

18) Why is slow down Matrix like effect limited to only yellow circles in your health bar in combat? That mechanic looks so cool I didnt even know it existed until someone posted a gameplay vid

19)Why is Shenhua wearing a different outfit from out of that cave. Feels like a continuity error

20) "Rooster Walk" is the incorrect name for that move. Its Circle Walk from Baqua. "Rooster Walk" is from Xingyi where you walk in a straight line not a circle.

Im impressed. You have proved me wrong my good sir! I thought you were in denial and couldn't say anything bad but now I see I was wrong about that. Even though the original shenmue is my favorite game of all time I could probably still list 20 reasons also

 

[Budgiecat]

Im impressed. You have proved me wrong my good sir! I thought you were in denial and couldn't say anything bad but now I see I was wrong about that. Even though the original shenmue is my favorite game of all time I could probably still list 20 reasons also

I'll add 4 more:

21) Basketball minigame: who lobs a basketball underhand? Thats against humanity! Shoot like a normal person Ryo!

22) That one shop stand where the lady is running the shooting range. Woulda been cool to have that playable

23) No night clubs or restaurants with music performers? This is actually a thing there in real life. Stores hire performers to sing and play guitar at night even if there's hardly anyone in said stores lol.

24) Where's the wet clothes effect when it rains? I know Unreal Engine 4 can do this. The indie fighter by Arika: Fighting EX Layer for PS4/PC, which started out as an April Fool's joke, then became an actual game, has one stage where sometimes it'll be raining and sometimes it won't. Anyways, when its raining, the characters clothes look wet which looks pretty cool. So if a small budget fighter like that can do it so can Shenmue 3. Its probably a basic function of UE4 that the team didnt realize and didnt look into.

 

[iknifaugood]

Where's the wet clothes effect when it rains? I know Unreal Engine 4 can do this. The indie fighter by Arika: Fighting EX Layer for PS4/PC, which started out as an April Fool's joke, then became an actual game, has one stage where sometimes it'll be raining and sometimes it won't. Anyways, when its raining, the characters clothes look wet which looks pretty cool. So if a small budget fighter like that can do it so can Shenmue 3. Its probably a basic function of UE4 that the team didnt realize and didnt look into.

Unreal Dev here, this is definitely not something the DS team were unaware of, in fact you can see it in the environment-- the rocks get wet when it rains. There are several reasons to not do it for character models (it could be the way their materials are set up, it could be a performance issue, it could be an artistic choice that they didn't like the way it looked etc.). The easiest way to do it is by increasing the metallic and decreasing the roughness and panning a noise texture, it's not difficult at all so they definitely knew how to do it. I agree that it's a bit of a letdown though in a game that otherwise puts a huge emphasis on detail.

 

[Budgiecat]

Unreal Dev here, this is definitely not something the DS team were unaware of, in fact you can see it in the environment-- the rocks get wet when it rains. There are several reasons to not do it for character models (it could be the way their materials are set up, it could be a performance issue, it could be an artistic choice that they didn't like the way it looked etc.). The easiest way to do it is by increasing the metallic and decreasing the roughness and panning a noise texture, it's not difficult at all so they definitely knew how to do it. I agree that it's a bit of a letdown though in a game that otherwise puts a huge emphasis on detail.

Another thing I noticed is no water or mirror reflections. When you go into the Naiowu hotel bathroom for example, the bathroom mirror cabinet door is purposely left open so the mirror is blocked. There's also no mirrors in Shenhua's house.
However, in the Rose Garden, behind the arena where you can train on the wooden dummies, there's a giant silver Buddha statue there and if you get close to it, your reflection will show albeit it obviously deformed due to the three dimensional roundness shape of the statue. So its odd to me how they took the time to do that but not basic mirror reflection by having mirrors and no water reflection.


I wonder if these are things gamers will/can mod in later on the PC version

 

[iknifaugood]

Another thing I noticed is no water or mirror reflections. When you go into the Naiowu hotel bathroom for example, the bathroom mirror cabinet door is purposely left open so the mirror is blocked. There's also no mirrors in Shenhua's house.
However, in the Rose Garden, behind the arena where you can train on the wooden dummies, there's a giant silver Buddha statue there and if you get close to it, your reflection will show albeit it obviously deformed due to the three dimensional roundness shape of the statue. So its odd to me how they took the time to do that but not basic mirror reflection by having mirrors and no water reflection.


I wonder if these are things gamers will/can mod in later on the PC version

Shenmue 3 uses screen space reflections and cube maps, a lot of UE4 games do (even something as gorgeous as Kingdom Hearts 3). Reflections are super expensive and there are only a few ways to do them where it's true 1:1. It's one of the main reasons that so many mirrors in games are either in highly controlled environments or broken/obscured in some way. Real time ray tracing will eventually make this possible (you can see early versions of it if you have an RTX card), though we're probably still at least another console generation away from standard implementation.

 

[Budgiecat]

Shenmue 3 uses screen space reflections and cube maps, a lot of UE4 games do (even something as gorgeous as Kingdom Hearts 3). Reflections are super expensive and there are only a few ways to do them where it's true 1:1. It's one of the main reasons that so many mirrors in games are either in highly controlled environments or broken/obscured in some way. Real time ray tracing will eventually make this possible (you can see early versions of it if you have an RTX card), though we're probably still at least another console generation away from standard implementation.

I just discovered something else:


You were onto something about that 'metallic' comment because I unlocked the 'Traditional Gold Satin Yokosuka Jacket' from New Paradise prize exchange, which is a pretty shiny jacket with a gold metallic tint to its sleeves, and I was walking around and it started to pour and at first I didnt notice it, but when I went into a pawn shop, after I exchanged some items, I noticed the jacket looked different than it did when I was outside in the rain.
The jacket had dried up in the pawn shop. When I went back outside....it got wet. And then when I went back into the pawn shop and looked at the menu to sell something and exited the menu, the jacket had dried.

So yeah, this jacket, and the silver version of it as well, along with the blue and silver jacket, can get wet in the rain.
Then to make sure again I switched to Ryo's default leather jacket, and went into the rain and you know what, his jacket also gets wet; its just not as distinct as the other jackets because of their metallic nature.
Then I even noticed the shirt you wear underneath said jackets: if its a light colored shirt, will also display some wet stains but its very very slight. And of course his hair and pants and shoes do not get wet, neither do the NPCs which is what I first noticed.

Also thats weird how its supposedly so expensive.

I mean in older games like even Duke Nukem Forever, you had mirror reflections lol

 

[iknifaugood]

You were onto something about that 'metallic' comment because I unlocked the 'Traditional Gold Satin Yokosuka Jacket' from New Paradise prize exchange, which is a pretty shiny jacket with a gold metallic tint to its sleeves, and I was walking around and it started to pour and at first I didnt notice it, but when I went into a pawn shop, after I exchanged some items, I noticed the jacket looked different than it did when I was outside in the rain.
The jacket had dried up in the pawn shop. When I went back outside....it got wet. And then when I went back into the pawn shop and looked at the menu to sell something and exited the menu, the jacket had dried.

That's interesting, it's possible they're not using the metallic channel at all for most character models and it's automatically affecting anything with metallic info in the rain. Good catch.

Also thats weird how its supposedly so expensive.

I mean in older games like even Duke Nukem Forever, you had mirror reflections lol

The way they did it in old games (shiny floors in Deus Ex for instance) is to straight up render the scene twice, which is extremely expensive in new games and usually doesn't work with the way culling works in games now. Duke Nukem Forever likely used planar mapping, which projects an image from a separate camera onto the mirror, usually at a much lower resolution. It's still expensive and is likely only used in scenes where the player is alone.

(EDIT) Just to clarify, expensive meaning performance-expensive, not budget-expensive.

 

[Budgiecat]

That's interesting, it's possible they're not using the metallic channel at all for most character models and it's automatically affecting anything with metallic info in the rain. Good catch.


(EDIT) Just to clarify, expensive meaning performance-expensive, not budget-expensive.

okay so performance-expensive as in taxing on the hardware?


Also about the rain; yeah but as I mentioned; the t-shirt gets wet too, both with and without the jacket on (but you really REALLY have to squint your eyes to notice it.)

 

[danielmann861]

Ryo's jacket does get wet. Not sure about his shirt...but I know his jacket gets wet in the rain.

 

[Budgiecat]

Ryo's jacket does get wet. Not sure about his shirt...but I know his jacket gets wet in the rain.

yeah I mentioned that along with the shirt which gets wet too. they're both rather faint (the shirt even more so) in comparison to FEXL and to Ryo's other jackets. face and hair and pants do not though

 

[darksniper]

I just discovered something else:


You were onto something about that 'metallic' comment because I unlocked the 'Traditional Gold Satin Yokosuka Jacket' from New Paradise prize exchange, which is a pretty shiny jacket with a gold metallic tint to its sleeves, and I was walking around and it started to pour and at first I didnt notice it, but when I went into a pawn shop, after I exchanged some items, I noticed the jacket looked different than it did when I was outside in the rain.
The jacket had dried up in the pawn shop. When I went back outside....it got wet. And then when I went back into the pawn shop and looked at the menu to sell something and exited the menu, the jacket had dried.

So yeah, this jacket, and the silver version of it as well, along with the blue and silver jacket, can get wet in the rain.
Then to make sure again I switched to Ryo's default leather jacket, and went into the rain and you know what, his jacket also gets wet; its just not as distinct as the other jackets because of their metallic nature.
Then I even noticed the shirt you wear underneath said jackets: if its a light colored shirt, will also display some wet stains but its very very slight. And of course his hair and pants and shoes do not get wet, neither do the NPCs which is what I first noticed.

Also thats weird how its supposedly so expensive.

I mean in older games like even Duke Nukem Forever, you had mirror reflections lol

I legit enjoyed Duke Nukem Forever. It was exactly what I wanted in a new Duke Nukem game and it was a modern FPS instead of the 90's style of searching for keycards etc. It deserved better review scores than it got. I thought it was a decent game.

 

[danielmann861]

I legit enjoyed Duke Nukem Forever. It was exactly what I wanted in a new Duke Nukem game and it was a modern FPS instead of the 90's style of searching for keycards etc. It deserved better review scores than it got. I thought it was a decent game.

See I thought it was a complete mess of ideas that didn't know what it wanted to be. It felt like it was just aping ideas from every popular modern shooter and in the process lost any sort of its own identitiy in the process.

 

[iknifaugood]

okay so performance-expensive as in taxing on the hardware?

Yea, basically every graphics effect in a game costs something and you adjust based on the needs of the game; do you want a lot of characters on screen at once, huge environments, detailed characters, lots of particles etc.? It also depends on the setting of your game, Shenmue doesn't really have a ton of water which is why it doesn't look super great in S3. Obviously UE4 can render excellent looking water. UE4 also has certain built in limitations like only allowing 4 overlapping real-time lights, which can affect an open world game like S3 where they can't bake the lighting.

(EDIT) S3 is open world with a real time weather/day/night cycle, so the lighting is all real time; other open world games like Spider-Man PS4 bake their lighting (that's why it looks orders of magnitude better than similar games) which is why it needs to load whenever the time of day or weather changes.

 

[sheeponfire]

Literally just finished the game and having read the first two pages I pretty much share general disappointment with the story - but a huge well done is in order to Yu and his team for S3.

Overall, there's no doubt a lot of love went into S3. It took me just over a week to finish playing at a slow, laid back pace to take in everything it had to offer. I also found combat much more engaging rather than the first two games where 11/12 year old me could play through it all by just button mashing/spamming kicks. The areas were both absolutely gorgeous as well, with new, interesting characters.

Gripes though as already mentioned are the following:

1) Two locations, same mission.

It becomes apparent as you fight the Red Snakes that you literally do the same thing in Niaowu as you did in Bailu. Fight enemies, get beat, go to a wise master to learn a special move, buy an item for X yuan, fight the mob boss, done.

2) The lack of a strong villain.

I still think the most memorable villains for me are Do Niu and Yuan from S2. You met them relatively early in Kowloon and have run-ins that allows their characters to grow, making them and the Yellowheads feel like a serious bunch of bad dudes. Throughout S3 I was waiting for Niao Sun to appear along a similar vein, but it never happened. I can't identify a significant villain with S3 like I can with Chai in S1 or Do Niu/Yuan in S2.

3) The story simply runs out of steam.

Tonight I raised the 5k yuan for the move, got the boat trip and headed over to the palace. Not long later I've beaten the game. Niao Sun feels like she is shoe-horned in and I didn't really feel like Mr Yuan adds anything substantial to the plot like Yuanda Zhu did. I don't feel like any questions I had were answered and the story just... stalled.

4) The forklift didn't have a honky horn.

If a S4 is to happen I hope there is more substance to the story more than anything, because that's the strength of the original two that kept me hoping for the third.

 

[darksniper]

See I thought it was a complete mess of ideas that didn't know what it wanted to be. It felt like it was just aping ideas from every popular modern shooter and in the process lost any sort of its own identitiy in the process.

For me my standards was real simple. Was Duke as edgy as he was in 3D? Yes. Is the gameplay loop passable from start to finish? Yes. If I tried to look deep into it, yeah there's a million things I didn't like but I didn't wanna think that hard. lol.

It's kinda like The Expendables, you don't watch the movie for the plot. You just wanna see guns and explosions. DNF met on all fronts lol. 8.5/10

 

[Budgiecat]

Yea, basically every graphics effect in a game costs something and you adjust based on the needs of the game; do you want a lot of characters on screen at once, huge environments, detailed characters, lots of particles etc.? It also depends on the setting of your game, Shenmue doesn't really have a ton of water which is why it doesn't look super great in S3. Obviously UE4 can render excellent looking water. UE4 also has certain built in limitations like only allowing 4 overlapping real-time lights, which can affect an open world game like S3 where they can't bake the lighting.

(EDIT) S3 is open world with a real time weather/day/night cycle, so the lighting is all real time; other open world games like Spider-Man PS4 bake their lighting (that's why it looks orders of magnitude better than similar games) which is why it needs to load whenever the time of day or weather changes.

Hey

I found something again:

In the Golden Goose off New Paradise, in their VIP room downstairs, if you head back behind the stairs, there's a golden mirror table in the corner. It not only reflects the brick wall next to it as well as the wooden wall on its other side, but will also reflect Ryo's image if you position him close enough to it. It does not reflect the ceiling however.

The other tables in the VIP room in its main area are of a pink translucent color but also reflective, just not nearly as much because they are see through.

So then this shows that there is flat surface reflection in this game, not just the Rose Garden Buddha. Which means they could and did do it, just not in more obvious areas like bathroom mirrors or hotel room mirrors (which were non existent), or water reflection.

 

[den]

I just finish the game but guys where's Baisha ?

 

[stillsense]

I just finish the game but guys where's Baisha ?

It was completely scrapped. They didn't put it into the game.