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Shenmue III reviews
- Thread starter Deleted member 15428
- Start date
I don't think the voice acting helps, and everyone has a really stiff neck, which gives me a dummy vibe.
Wrapping up Shenmue 2 today. I apparently had previously gotten much further than I initially remembered as I remembered all of the bird stuff that's fairly late-ish in the game. It'll be nice to finally wrap that game up and start the game that I never thought would happen. Considering how hard I kind of bounced off of Shenmue 2 back in the day despite loving the first game I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying Shenmue 2 now. I still think some of the QTEs are BS and the dialogue is rough by modern standards (switching to Japanese VO mitagated some of this for me as I don't know what bad Japanese VO sounds like! lol) but it's been a lot of fun going back through these games.
Really looking forward to playing Shenmue 3.
Really looking forward to playing Shenmue 3.
If a reviewer is judging the game for not concluding the story, then they are not reviewing it fairly. I knew from the second I Kickstarted the game it would not be the conclusion. It was not designed to be. Why would you judge something by a metric it wasn't going to fulfill? That's the worst possible way to approach art.
Knew some reviewers could not be trusted to represent Shenmue III fairly. Knew it.
Do they? That's news to me. Sounds like a Shenmue III thing.
Enh, I totally get someone being unhappy with a once-in-a-lifetime sequel like Shenmue III not concluding the story and any meaningful way. Because the time between Shenmue 2 & 3 was so massive there's a lot of reason to be skeptical that Shenmue 4 (or 5, 6, etc) will ever happen.
Regardless of creative liberties, I 100% understand being disappointed with that.
If it takes them this long to make 3 parts, we will never get that many.
From everything I've played so far, it feels like a game that was secretly made in 2002, never released, and then remade by fans online in 2019. It's Shenmue through and through.
Honestly if they had kept the original's graphics I feel like people would would have less issues.
Honestly if they had kept the original's graphics I feel like people would would have less issues.
Well, if it's made for the fans, it shouldn't matter to you.
The reviewer that reviewed probably isn't a hardcore fan of the series, so he reviewed it like he would any other game.
U mean because the studio to make 3 was disbanded and the Yu hasn't made a game since. But now we kickstarted him into making a game now that has a full team of developers. So no it won't take that long again now, it baffles me how so many of y'all are ignorant to the history of this game or how once dead franchise are reborn again
No, sorry. It was never promised. This is a problem that falls on the reviewer. There job as a professional critic is to be be fair in their review. Judging something for not fulfilling a metric it never intended to fill is unfair.
Just as you can't fault a painting for not being a sculpture, or a fighting game for not being an adventure platformer, or a comedy for not being scary enough, you can't fault a game for not delivering a conclusion it never promised. It doesn't belong in the review. You want to be disappointed in the story this specific game intended to tell, good, that will be helpful criticism. But the minute you add something the art cannot fulfill you lose your credit as a critic.
If I remember correctly, back when Shenmue 1 and then 2 came out Yu had stated how many chapters of the story each one contained. So even though it is supposed to be 15 chapters total or whatever an entire game consists of more than 1 chapter, like Shenmue 2 was not chapter 2 but a handful of chapters together.
I do expect revolutionary ideas from Yu Suzuki. This is a man who for years was held up as a peer of Miyamoto, and this is the game he's been sitting on for nearly 20 years. I'd have hoped he'd had thoughts about game design since then, or that he'd implement a truly hardcore fighting system. Shenmue has always held out the promise of being a Virtua Fighter rpg, and something that successfully melds fighting game and rpg mechanics + world design without compromise is still something that's still never fully been achieved.
I'm that guy described in the Japanpop review who was completely swept up in the world of the first two games, and always thought if I were to quit gaming that a Shenmue III would be the one last game that I would have to play.
Hopefully, having played the first two when they were new I'll be able to put myself back in that place and fully appreciate this one. But it is disappointing if Suzuki isn't delivering on his own potential as a designer.
It absolutely does. "Not moving the story forward" is a valid criticism when the story is one of the biggest tent pole features of the series. In the view of a lot of people, the only thing that Shenmue has to offer as an IP in 2019 is an ending and it appears that Shenmue 3 squandered that opportunity so that the series can forever live in narrative purgatory. A shame.
When you're working within the confines of this kind of budget to deliver a continuation of a story and have to deliver a Shenmue-sized game, I doubt being "revolutionary" is the top of your list of things to do. Shenmue III is a distillation of how Yu Suzuki imagined the series would evolve whilst still remaining true. The man doesn't play games, he doesn't look at trends. So it's quite likely that he's not looking to 1up the innovation that we've had in open worlds since 2002. Like I said, the budget probably couldn't even allow for it. His job has been to deliver a worthy Shenmue sequel and he seems to have accomplished that with apolomb.
First of all, it DOES move the story forward. The reviewer is lying.
Secondly, I will accept an uncertain future where a publisher may or may not accept Ys Net's pitch for Shenmue IV, over an absolute forced/abomination of a game that forever tarnishes what makes Shenmue appealing because it spread itself too thin.
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It does move the story forward, though. I haven't even left the first village yet and there's already new plot information. "A lot of the people" seemingly were not following this game's development at all since Suzuki said from the start that Shenmue III would not complete the game's story. If anyone expected otherwise it's 100% their fault.
Just got my key, can't wait to try the game. It's a been surreal, after such a long time, to be able to play Shenmue III.
For those interested by a translation, they basically say that rushing through the game takes something like 20 hours and that the game doesn't really add anything substantial to a story that has been on hold for almost 20 years.
For those interested by a translation, they basically say that rushing through the game takes something like 20 hours and that the game doesn't really add anything substantial to a story that has been on hold for almost 20 years.
Yu is a control freak.
He's probably gaming's equivalent to George Lucas.
Yu has hinted a Shenmue 5 in interviews. Which is ridiculous. At most we need a 4. And it turns out III doesn't even move the story forward much anyways.
The beginning of Shenmue III is so glacial that any complaint of "rushing" the story is hilarious.
I was a fan of both of the original titles, but I didn't back the Kickstarter so I didn't follow much of the development behind 3. However, as a lapsed fan, I was very curious to see if 3 offered a conclusion to the story and read reviews specifically looking for that info. To say this topic has no place in a review, nearly two decades after the release of the last title with vague details surrounding the rest of the series (to the best of my knowledge), is being purposely obtuse. This is a reasonable thing to comment on and offer critiques around.
"Buy, don't complain, and get excited for the next product."
If this is your definition of fan, I strongly disagree.
The campaign description was vague, so they can get away with this.
"The story continues as Ryo and Shenhua start off on a new journey that will take them farther into enemy territory, deeper into mystery, and ever closer to their destiny.
Will the mystery of the mirrors be revealed? How is Ryo's father connected to all of this? Will Ryo track down the Chi You Men cartel and face Lan Di in a final showdown?"
But as a fan, I funded this campaign with an expectation of at least finishing an arc. Reviews point it is not what happened (review quote: "it barely drives the story forward at all").
You know what comes next? Nothing. Shenmue didn't drive sales even at its brightest moment, so the target audience is objectively very limited. I doubt a publisher will fund more chapters. This was a once in a lifetime chance to have a beautiful conclusion of this arc.
I wouldn't buy this if it I didn't fund the campaign already.
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Very tough to review this one. Should a shenmue fan review this or someone who has never played the series? Should it be reviewed based on the fact that it was crowdfunded or objectively based on the fact that it is a full priced game? It was never going to have the budget of a big game, and it looks like they have done a good job. I would be very disappointed if this was it for the series even though this release is a minor miracle. It's almost as if I do not want to play this, as it's like 2001 again!
i mean did you play 1 though
it's not a story known for moving at breakneck speed, is the thing
Man, the balls to barely get a sequel 15+ years since the last and barely move the story forward...
Most Shenmue fans online treat the series like cultists, so it reflects past behavior.
I did play through 1.
But I have also played through 2.
Which advanced the story very much.
Given this is a sequel to 2, not 1, and given 2 is BETTER then 1, it's a reasonable expectation to advance the story very much.
Instead, they regressed
It is kinda weird how everyone who had a problem with the story not concluding is labeled as "wrong" or "not getting it".
Like, deliberate or not, if a reviewer played the game and didn't feel satisfied, why wouldn't they share their impressions?
how far are you into 3? im admittedly pretty early in myself
It's fair to have a problem with it not concluding the story, but you should not have been expecting it to since it was said from the start of the campaign that it was not going to. This should not have come as a surprise to anyone who was following the game.
Because they treat the game like a cult.
You know how no one can say no to Lucas and Lucas is always right about the prequels with some diehard Star Wars fans and creators? Like that.
The game is great but the story is soooo slowwwwwww.
The beginning is so padded.
I'm a few days in.
Few days? And you're going on about the story like you're halfway through the game.
That would be them reviewing a game with baggage attached. It would be - as the phrase goes - a you problem (not a Yu problem). I don't think it's a big ask for a professional journo to know about the basics of a game they are reviewing and yes, knowing that it's not the final game in the series is basic info.
People said the story doesn't advance much. After the opening I'm inclined to believe them.
It's absolutely fine to be disappointed with the story, but the fact that it doesn't end it shouldn't be one of them, IMO. I can understand criticisms for Yu deciding not to end it here, it's definitely a risky move, but that has been clear for a long time.
Opening is the slowest. Story definitely moves forward especially where I'm at. I'm still in Bailu but 10+ hours ahead.
OP
OP
Knowing doesn't mean liking or approving. Since when is pure intent a good enough excuse if someone still finds it unenjoyable?
I think that there's nothing unfair about using that dissatisfaction in the review. If you already know and don't mind, then you don't mind. But if it bothers people... Let people be bothered?
Why though? Why does intentionally not having an ending make it so people can't be annoyed? I just don't get the mentality