User Warned: lazy Dev rhetoric
Pokemon Sword and Shield comes to mind. I mean that game is incredibly dated (and lazy), yet IGN gives it a 9.3 and GameSpot gives it a 9. Give me a break.
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Shenmue III reviews
- Thread starter Deleted member 15428
- Start date
Pokemon Sword and Shield comes to mind. I mean that game is incredibly dated (and lazy), yet IGN gives it a 9.3 and GameSpot gives it a 9. Give me a break.
I can't believe he didn't just wrap up the story in this game. Like, what is the plan for financing sequels? Just keep doing kickstarters?
It's recommended because the writer, who's posted in this thread, enjoyed his time with it.
I mean, this was known from the very beginning to be fair. He seems to have gotten some interesting publishing deals with Deep Silver and some support, but yeah, perhaps he will do another kickstarter.
He said from the very beginning of the Kickstarter that this would not complete the story. If he was going to have to cut half the plot and end up with a dumpster fire Game of Thrones-caliber ending to wrap it up I would rather he not make a third game at all.
How many times do any of us have to keep repeating the same thing in response to this?
I can believe they didn't wrap up the story here because, just think about it. Think about one aspect alone: how expensive creation of locations for this game is. They would have to create ALL the locations up to and including Chapter 11. The budget would have to cover all of these locations, so that would mean that none of them would be worthy of exploring because.. well they'd be tiny and unsatisfactory due to being spread thin over all of these chapters. That is just locations. Think about pacing, think about NPCs, conversations, and wrapping all of that in a game that is cohesive and doesn't feel rushed.
Kickstarter is out of the question now. They have an engine, a team, a production pipeline, a very solid foundation upon which to build. They have proof of the size and scale of product Yu Suzuki and a core team of 75 people (w/ outsourcing) can produce with a AA budget. So now they can use what they have, and more easily create and iterate over something that they can pitch to publishers that looks better than what they had to pitch to Sony, Deep Silver or whomever else a few years ago.
Some years ago, people didn't believe Yu could produce a Shenmue-sized game that does the series justice because "omg, the originals cost so much", but they proved much of what we were saying in that: they had the middleware, engine support and much of what made Shenmue special back in 2000s is not as expensive to re-produce today. Modern open worlds are focusing on other things. I think he's earned the benefit of the doubt.
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I and many other fans would of been disappointed in this. I want to see Yu's vision the way he intended. If that takes longer so be it but one of the reasons i love shenmue is its slow pace and how the plot slowly unfolds. You would lose thaf if Ryo was jumping from location to location to finish everything up.
heck, even the previews back in the day talked about how this was a multichapter game series. So the news of 3 not being the last one isnt really new to fans either
The game is massive. I can easily see it having longevity and multiple playthroughs to see everything
It's incredibly massive. Will takes hundreds of hours to probably platinum
Strange that you like mundane and slow yet that sounds like a nightmare to you. It sounds great to me.
They've proven that they can make a mid-budget Shenmue sequel that many fans like, but that's far from the same thing as being able to convince a publisher to fund another one. There's a reason why multi-game ongoing story-focused games rarely get greenlit - generally with each new game, you get fewer and fewer purchases as all but the hardcore fans drop it before the end. All the reviews of Shenmue III being variants of "Strictly for the fans" highlight this - Shenmue III isn't going to be adding a lot of new players into the fold. And that's why series like Uncharted and Resident Evil are setup like they are with each episode being a standalone adventure that you can do in any order without missing much - a new player can see rave reviews of the latest installment and jump right in without having to start from the beginning.
Also a theoretical Shenmue IV isn't going to have all the hype and hype-related marketing from being a surprise revival that Shenmue III had so even if Shenmue III is profitable, a potential publisher might feel that a sequel wouldn't be. Now they could get around this if they marketed Shenmue IV as being the finale to the series, but it sounds like Suzuki doesn't want that.
Consensus so far seems to be:
if you're not a fan, it's weird and outdated, but oddly charming
if you're a fan, it's amazing and pushes the boundaries of what a Kickstarted game can be
pretty damn good outcome
if you're not a fan, it's weird and outdated, but oddly charming
if you're a fan, it's amazing and pushes the boundaries of what a Kickstarted game can be
pretty damn good outcome
There are plenty of games with modest budgets that receive stellar reviews.
The complaints seem rooted less in production values and more in the fact that this game - by design - feels archaic. Also, the combat looks absolutely awful, which is the primary reason I'm not nabbing this Day One despite being a fan of the series.
Five reviews on Metacritic. A 90, an 80, a 70, a 60 and a 50.
Now all we need is a 100, a 40, a 30, a 20 and a 10.
Now all we need is a 100, a 40, a 30, a 20 and a 10.
That's true, but Shenmue is something else man. The fanbase is ravenous and dedicated like no other. Due to Shenmue III being an indie title and not really some inaccessible AAA publisher gig, fans are able to signal boost a lot less hindered than they were attempting with Sega during the 2000s.
Suzuki wants 2 more games to ideally tell the rest of the story, but will settle for one. We don't know what Deep Silver put into Shenmue III but it's not like they funded the whole thing, it may end up being profitable for them based on what they did contribute, and also what they received from the EGS deal. We will have to wait and see how it performs. I've no idea what a game of this size needs to sell to break even.
This is awesome - it's the only review outlet I read anyway as I find them to be the most thoughtful and calibrated to the way i see games, so I'm extra stoked now.
Back up to a 72. That is where I predicted this would end up. Always listen to bell wood's jet cola! I can't believe they're still using the infamous trailer from 2+ years ago.
Oh wow, it keeps going up. Things are starting to turn around at the moment! The OP needs to be updated!
Looking through some of the reviews, I love the setup of having games with a lower numerical score still able to be presented as an editor's choice or recommended. That seems like a really useful way to present odd/niche/flawed games that reviewers still think have strong merit, without totally abandoning the numbering shorthand.
There was another guy who actually moved to Guilin and started a school there because of Shenmue 2.
Maybe this will sell the numbers required in order to not only justify a part 4 but also pay for it if not a large portion.
Your first option doesn't make sense. The game being reviewed on its own merits has nothing to do with Shenmue 1 or 2 holding up, wouldn't you agree? Regarding the first two games I don't think they hold up well. I played 1 a lot when it first came out but just couldn't hang when I tried to start a new game recently.
Personally I would've liked to see them modernize Shenmue 3 or at least not feel obligated to maintain the structure and design of the first two. I'll be surprised if most reviewers don't preface their thoughts with something about fans of the series probably being more forgiving of its esoteric gameplay.
Personally, as much as I love the Shenmue series, I'd appreciate it if Suzuki could figure out a way to wrap things up with a Shenmue 4 just so he can move on to something else. Who wouldn't love to see Virtua Fighter come back with Yu Suzuki in charge? The man's still relatively young--60 doesn't seem as old as it used to and the guy looks very healthy. He's got many other stories to tell.
....and?
You do realize that some (many) people might actually enjoy the game because, you know, it actually isn't bad?
Not many series get revived 20 years after the last game came out, could it be because Shenmue actually has many qualities, despite people that never even tried it saying otherwise ???
I haven't had hands on experience with it, but yes, it sounds nightmarish. It's witholding progress until you have fulfilled an arbitrary number of tasks, and said tasks not offering much in terms of narrative. Not how I would describe slow pacing, that's what would I use to describe padding. And padding is necessary to create the sense of slow build up, don't get me wrong, but it has to be in service of a certain objective, like building character, establish the setting, worldbuild... etc. This only serves to reinforce the mundanity of the plot/setting/character, which works, but up to a point. The example described sounds obscene in how much meandering it makes you do for seemingly no reason.
That excerpt I quoted doesn't seem to describe something that would resonate with me, although until I play it I wouldn't actually know if what I infer from it it's actually correct.
This is what I'm worried about. I'm looking forward to playing it but with those review scores, I doubt its going to push enough numbers for Sega to be interested in greenlighting and funding a sequel
Darksiders 3 (THQ which I believe owns Deep Silver) did well enough to get a sequel greenlit, and that was something like 70-100k sales. I think there might still be a decent size market for Shenmue on Switch as well.
Happy to see the scores of this sitting around what I expected.
After sitting with my impressions of the game for a day or so after completing it I'll say it's a great achievement, amazing atmosphere, world, and all the Shenmue vibes are there. It's honestly perfect in this regard. The budget does show through in some cases and I think certain story points and the ending can definitely be underwhelming for huge fans who wanted answers on specific things. The Bailu area gave some great story moments but Niaowu, even though it's an amazing area, the story kind of takes a back seat come the ending which is a shame. Possibly a budget issue, running out of time and I know DLC is planned so who knows. I need to sit with it for a little longer but overall it's an amazing game with a few questionable decisions for those who are invested in multiple aspects of the story of the game.
After sitting with my impressions of the game for a day or so after completing it I'll say it's a great achievement, amazing atmosphere, world, and all the Shenmue vibes are there. It's honestly perfect in this regard. The budget does show through in some cases and I think certain story points and the ending can definitely be underwhelming for huge fans who wanted answers on specific things. The Bailu area gave some great story moments but Niaowu, even though it's an amazing area, the story kind of takes a back seat come the ending which is a shame. Possibly a budget issue, running out of time and I know DLC is planned so who knows. I need to sit with it for a little longer but overall it's an amazing game with a few questionable decisions for those who are invested in multiple aspects of the story of the game.
Shenmue 3 has parts I understand people would find annoying, but the more I play it the more I like it. Withouut going into detail, the second town I just reached is awe inspiring and you want to check every corner. It's a testament to the skill put into the game, that despite the consistently cheesy conversations and budget visuals, the world feels very alive and is compelling.
Not even done with the first game yet but I think I'm just going to go ahead and buy the third game just to support the series. The first game is already charming and I'm expecting more of the same anyway once I get around to tackling the entire series.
One thing I noticed about playing Shenmue 3, despite some problem, is really brings home that Yakuza is not a replacement for Shenmue, as fun as Yakuza is, Shenmue often feels like a cheesy but really effective life sim and a much different type of game.
Can't wait to get my hands on it, loved the first two and imagine this one will be no different.