What is your least favourite part in both games?

[WuyingRen]

My guess is that the whole black car->Chinese people-> 3 blades-> sailors-> Charlie bit was sorta padding to help fill out S1 as a stand alone game.

The whole sequence is just a time waster from Ryos POV and the real story doesn’t start until you get Zhus letter.

The story padding I can tolerate. It’s the way that players are forced to wait until certain in-game times to further advance the story that really grinds my gears.

When I first played the game all those years ago this wasn’t really an issue, as there was plenty of exciting stuff to see and do around Yokosuka. Now, though, I find myself putting the controller down and doing something else to pass the time whenever I reach that section, which strikes me as god-awful game design.

I understand wanting players to spend time exploring your creation, but think that the best way to do this is to create a compelling world that players want to explore because they’re curious or excited rather than forcing them to engage with it due to bullshit design choices. Shenmue was able to get away with this in the nineties because it was groundbreaking and new, but that’s not really the case anymore. Certainly, this was an area where Shenmue 3 fell a little flat.

 

[vfXander]

The story padding I can tolerate. It’s the way that players are forced to wait until certain in-game times to further advance the story that really grinds my gears.

When I first played the game all those years ago this wasn’t really an issue, as there was plenty of exciting stuff to see and do around Yokosuka. Now, though, I find myself putting the controller down and doing something else to pass the time whenever I reach that section, which strikes me as god-awful game design.

I understand wanting players to spend time exploring your creation, but think that the best way to do this is to create a compelling world that players want to explore because they’re curious or excited rather than forcing them to engage with it due to bullshit design choices. Shenmue was able to get away with this in the nineties because it was groundbreaking and new, but that’s not really the case anymore. Certainly, this was an area where Shenmue 3 fell a little flat.

I agree. D3T should have added a time skip option instead of fast traveling.

 

[SMDzero]

The story padding I can tolerate. It’s the way that players are forced to wait until certain in-game times to further advance the story that really grinds my gears.

When I first played the game all those years ago this wasn’t really an issue, as there was plenty of exciting stuff to see and do around Yokosuka. Now, though, I find myself putting the controller down and doing something else to pass the time whenever I reach that section, which strikes me as god-awful game design.

I understand wanting players to spend time exploring your creation, but think that the best way to do this is to create a compelling world that players want to explore because they’re curious or excited rather than forcing them to engage with it due to bullshit design choices. Shenmue was able to get away with this in the nineties because it was groundbreaking and new, but that’s not really the case anymore. Certainly, this was an area where Shenmue 3 fell a little flat.

I sorta disagree.

I was never bored playing Shenmue 3. Even when I was picking weeds and hitting paywalls Id constantly pinch myself and say “I’m actually playing Shenmue Fucking 3!”

 

[VagrantDuck]

It's been too long since a Shenmue 2 replay so I'll have to come back to that. Possibly the Command QTEs? Regular QTEs are good for letting the cutscenes flow while feeling like you're participating, but Command QTEs just break a cutscene in its tracks and takes you out of the moment.

But in Shenmue 1 as a first time player it's probably the looking for the tattoo parlour. In replays it's painless but I have visceral memories of playing it for the first time and just having days and days go by being unable to find the place. It's tucked away up on 2F so unlikely to be seen from ground level.

These days... it's probably that getting a close to complete notebook requires you to waste ~8,000円 on fortune teller clues. I made the mistake of trying to max the notebook in a recent "near 100%" run of Shenmue and had to call it off as I was approaching Christmas and had nowhere near enough funds to tackle the lucky dip. It's also extra insulting that half of the clues aren't really clues at all, sometimes summarising info you already know or being so vague that I only know what they're referring to because I've replayed the game so many times. Bit of a rubbish system/mechanic all-round.

My guess is that the whole black car->Chinese people-> 3 blades-> sailors-> Charlie bit was sorta padding to help fill out S1 as a stand alone game.

The whole sequence is just a time waster from Ryos POV and the real story doesn’t start until you get Zhus letter.

The 3 blades part though I really like as it's actually historically true and really interesting to learn about, and in a way a sort-of preview of the culture you'll be experiencing in Hong Kong. Yokosuka as a very international town in Japan is nice to hear about (v.s. the Westerners who are mostly just seen as drunk thugs lol)

It's also good early "training" for how open-ended the information gathering can be, with multiple possible routes and relying on you learning how to navigate the world, something that felt genuinely new and disorientating upon Shenmue's release.

 

[DreamcastInSpirit]

It's been too long since a Shenmue 2 replay so I'll have to come back to that. Possibly the Command QTEs? Regular QTEs are good for letting the cutscenes flow while feeling like you're participating, but Command QTEs just break a cutscene in its tracks and takes you out of the moment.

But in Shenmue 1 as a first time player it's probably the looking for the tattoo parlour. In replays it's painless but I have visceral memories of playing it for the first time and just having days and days go by being unable to find the place. It's tucked away up on 2F so unlikely to be seen from ground level.

These days... it's probably that getting a close to complete notebook requires you to waste ~8,000円 on fortune teller clues. I made the mistake of trying to max the notebook in a recent "near 100%" run of Shenmue and had to call it off as I was approaching Christmas and had nowhere near enough funds to tackle the lucky dip. It's also extra insulting that half of the clues aren't really clues at all, sometimes summarising info you already know or being so vague that I only know what they're referring to because I've replayed the game so many times. Bit of a rubbish system/mechanic all-round.


The 3 blades part though I really like as it's actually historically true and really interesting to learn about, and in a way a sort-of preview of the culture you'll be experiencing in Hong Kong. Yokosuka as a very international town in Japan is nice to hear about (v.s. the Westerners who are mostly just seen as drunk thugs lol)

It's also good early "training" for how open-ended the information gathering can be, with multiple possible routes and relying on you learning how to navigate the world, something that felt genuinely new and disorientating upon Shenmue's release.

anytime any other movie made a reference to the three blades i was a total captain america about it lol