What did you miss when playing Shenmue 3?

Niaxi

Niaxi

Joined
Nov 23, 2019
Location
Scotland
Favourite title
Shenmue II
Currently playing
Shenmue III
PSN
Niaxi
Steam
Niaxi
Ok, so any and all issues with the story aside, what did you guys miss in Shenmue 3 that was present in the previous games? For me it was definitely darts 7 and the slot house. I spent hours upon hours in the slot house on the original Shenmue and played so much darts 7 in Shenmue 2. In fact, I often put Shenmue 2 on just so I could play it. I had so many fantastic games against the snob (can't recall his name). I have my fingers and toes crossed that darts 7 will be part of the dlc.
 
Darts. The old Virtua Fighter system. Emotional connections to characters (you don’t have a single heartfelt goodbye in Bailu from not a single person. You never make any real connection with anyone). Characters with original design and unique personalities (Broom girl and generic steroid boss and Fat guy; really?)
 
  • The ability to fail QTEs (without the possibility of getting a retry).
  • Command QTEs
  • Optional cut scenes/events. I'd much rather stumble across a unique cut scene while exploring than a random npc with a yellow exclamation point beeping next to them who's only purpose is to send me on some fetch and carry mission.
  • A dedicated dodge/parry button during fights, throw moves, the slower pace to the Shenmue 1 and 2 fights and the better enemy AI.
  • Being able to skip NPC dialogue. The joy of playing Shenmue is that you can talk to pretty much everyone but some NPC's say really generic things so you need to ability to cycle through conversations quickly. The lack of a skip button actually made me apprehensive about talking to NPCs because I didn't want to hear them talk about their store for the 100th time for 15 seconds before I could ask a question.
  • The lack of a relationship with anyone not named Shenhua (and honestly, this kind of dies in Niaowu where she just fades into the background). I was at least expecting Ryo and Ren to have a conversation about why Ren is in Niaowu and maybe some unique conversations on what happened to the yellow heads and Yuanda Zhu or the heavens.
  • An enemy that made you fear for Ryo's safety. Ryo meddles with gangs in this game and they politely let him walk away after a beatdown to come back and try again in the future. 3's final boss area pales in comparison to the first two games.
  • The story.
 
Vf engine darts sega brand arcades sega brand toys Timex watch lol yes the horn on the forklift

did anyone else find the cap toys comical keys tables and chairs and shoes lol could you imagine seeing such toys in real life

Mommy mommy look I got er a chair yayyyy
 
chaikilla said:
  • Being able to skip NPC dialogue. The joy of playing Shenmue is that you can talk to pretty much everyone but some NPC's say really generic things so you need to ability to cycle through conversations quickly. The lack of a skip button actually made me apprehensive about talking to NPCs because I didn't want to hear them talk about their store for the 100th time for 15 seconds before I could ask a question.
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You guys know that square is the skip button now, right? I've been skipping NPC conversations no problem, yet I've seen loads of people think you can't skip dialogue for some reason.
 
Most of the obvious examples have been mentioned. For a game that had a lot of focus on training and improving martial arts skills I missed seeing more mandatory and optional scenes where you are given instruction and taught a move by someone. Then asked to pull of said move.

Think of scenes with Shozo in harbour or Hind Blow in Shenmue 2. The move scrolls being automatically granted and learnt take away from that.
 
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DarksideHazuki said:
You guys know that square is the skip button now, right? I've been skipping NPC conversations no problem, yet I've seen loads of people think you can't skip dialogue for some reason.
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In my experience, skipping dialogue is very hit or miss. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I can be playing lucky hit and skip the dialogue no problem. I can then come out of the conversation, save the game and start playing again, only for the dialogue to longer be skipable. I think this is something they could easily patch tbh.

I miss the ability to fail a qte too, especially the way Shenmue 2 handled it. The Wong quest being a perfect example. You could outright fail it and have to find him all over again and then fail that time too. Took me ages to catch the little sod the very first time I played Shenmue 2. I guess the budget did not allow for such freedom.
 
Niaxi said:
In my experience, skipping dialogue is very hit or miss. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I can be playing lucky hit and skip the dialogue no problem. I can then come out of the conversation, save the game and start playing again, only for the dialogue to longer be skipable. I think this is something they could easily patch tbh.
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I believe skipping only works if you've already heard the conversation, and then it gets reset the next game day (and it seems when you reload a game, too). Agree on wanting dialog skip available 100% of the time.

My list:
  • Darts
  • VF Engine (probably not a realistic request, but missed nonetheless)
  • All the Sega branded stuff (arcade games, capsule toys, etc)

Lack of QTEs, teaching moments, branching QTEs, etc are valid but I think related to a lot of my thoughts of why it felt like a lot of story moments were cut, so I won't belabor that point again, haha.
 
All you guys wanna know why Shen2 is a masterpiece and and Shen3 is flat and bad? I'm Shenmue 2, one of the coolest scenes is Ryo doing the tai chi movements at the cliff, while we have an eagle flying at the night sky with an epic music set. Where he learned that? From Jiamim. Probably the best cinematic scenes in Shenmue 3, aside some of the engage fight ones, was the end chapter scene of Bailu. He's practicing a kata, the reminds me a lot the one Xuiying did at the end scene of the Hong Kong chapter. Buts, what in hell, did he learned in Shenmue 3? Where the lessons? There's nothing. That why.
Rei_RICE said:
This...

I didn't like S3 to be honest... I'm still behind Yu Suzuki and the Shenmue series and I would also pledge again a lot of money to see Shenmue 4. The most people don't complain about the gameplay, the mechanics or graphics.. Its the storytelling..

The whole environment is so boring... The bad guys "Thugs" are boring. All the other characters in the game are boring. I can't even remember a single name of someone... No new friendships, no interesting relationships. Compared to the old games where I still know so many characters, their stories even their names.

Those story relevant critics have nothing to do with the budget. The most interesting parts of the game were the conversations with Shenhua... I'm okay with bad graphics, I'm okay with a smaller environment, im okay with so many things where they can reduce costs. Everything is fine for me but don't destroy the beautiful story :(. Don't!

I also don't need 20 Arcades, 320393203920329ß313293ß39 Capsule Toys etc. tbh.

Anyways I hope there will be Shenmue 4 and I'm still a fan. Just a bit dissapointed.
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Did you happen to realize, that there isn't a single side quest with the two? God damn!!! SO MUCH OF POTENTIAL!!! We had lots of conversations with Shenhua in Shenmue 2. Even a quest. Getting those wood sticks. The one event that is slightly similar, is the bell tower puzzle. Is nothing compared to what was done in Shenmue 2. The best interaction we have with the two is the "face-off". That made me cringe in agony.
sheeponfire said:
What is certainly dead is any hope of getting Shenmue back into the mainstream. The gameplay is not unique and the complete lack of plot/narrative killed any chance of charming the mainstream into the story, as the first two games did for many of us.

It's been a few days since I've beat the game and as the disappointment of the ending wears off I'm beginning to appreciate more what the team may have been trying to do. If 3 was released say in 2004/5 it wouldn't have been so bad, it would have been criticised for the lack of story but overall we'd be thinking "well 4 should maybe explain stuff and be better". Problem is the wait was 18 years and we were desperate for answers.

I feel that 4 is up in the air. It's clear Shenmue is not going to be commercially successful, so the question now for Yu and potential partners is would they be happy diverting time, money and resources to continue a series largely dedicated to an aging (sorry, I'm 30!), niche fanbase. If they do, then 4 truly will be the last roll of the dice.

3 clearly demonstrates that the strength of Shenmue is in its story, so even if it means reducing the quality of content and gameplay, it's something they will simply have to do to keep us going to the end.
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The lack of answers, is not the main problem in this game. If they had taken this same shity plot, but with a meaningful "learning to be a better fighter arch" and a better interactions with Shenhua, would be a great game. 3 to 5 unique scenes between the two. 2 to 3 side quests with them. And the fighter arch. Would result in a better game for sure.
 
Licensed Sega franchises in mini games and capsule toys, story development from secondary characters, and more story progression as a whole.
 
Actual voice actors in the phone calls, both in Japanese and in English

I miss how NPCs teach Ryo a move and you have to “translate” it into your controls

Suzuki’s arcade classics

looking at objects you want to buy at a store

The way QTEs were executed in the original game
 
I miss the rich, robust, and intriguing story full of detail and mystery. Instead, we get “thugs” followed by more “thugs”, followed by grinding for butt bump 1 and butt bump 2, followed by a lackluster ending with misplaced comedy.
 
code l name said:
Most of the obvious examples have been mentioned. For a game that had a lot of focus on training and improving martial arts skills I missed seeing more mandatory and optional scenes where you are given instruction and taught a move by someone. Then asked to pull of said move.

Think of scenes with Shozo in harbour or Hind Blow in Shenmue 2. The move scrolls being automatically granted and learnt take away from that.
Click to expand...

Yeah I kind of missed that too. The tutelage was one of my favorite things about the first two games...getting tutored by S(h)un was fantastic..wish there had been more like it. Like why not learn something from Master Feng? Or learn more from Master Bei...I agree, I did miss that aspect too.
 
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