Shenmue III

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
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Blinge
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Shenmue III

Post by Blinge »

Has anyone played it yet?
Thoughts? I trust you crusty old bastards more than pretty much anyone else on the internet.

I was going to read a review but then I saw it was by laura kate dale so I didn't.
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Re: Shenmue III

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It's Shenmue.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by GaijinPunch »

This seems to be the theme on the internet. I don't have the time (or hardware) to try it unfortunately. Would probably just depress me to be honest.
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Re: Shenmue III

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I'm definitely going to play it but I'm waiting for it to be cheap.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by Specineff »

I wonder if anyone is going to care about it at this point. I want to see the tale come to a close, but it's just been so long already.
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Re: Shenmue III

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Specineff wrote:I wonder if anyone is going to care about it at this point. I want to see the tale come to a close, but it's just been so long already.
I'm kind of annoyed that Shenmue 4 is planned tbh. I was hoping this would be it.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by Immryr »

i was watching someone play it yesterday and it looked pretty terrible. then again, i don't like the first two games, so my opinion is probably pretty pointless.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by scrilla4rella »

I think it's neat that this game exits. I also don't have the time to play it and still need to finish Shenmue II which I was playing on Dreamcast the other day. II actually has some decent quality of life adjustments over 1 (like how npcs automatically walk you to where you need to go next to advance the game. I'm fine with the dated controls and stilted game progression, but-damn those loadtimes are mind killers. I could play on PS4 but it just looks sooo much better on a 31 khz CRT.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by MJR »

I backed it and tried it as I loved both Shenmue games a lot back in the day, still got them.

With the 7 million budget, you just cannot expect a modern AAA game and anyone who was delusional enough to expect that is going to get disappointed. But if you can get past that, it feels like genuine Shenmue sequel, both in good and bad, and what more you could possibly want?

As for graphics, I know by my own profession how much more time, manhours and money it takes to do today's game characters compared to what it was 20 years ago, and when viewed in comparison to the budget and development time, I think the graphics update is decent. They did the best they could with the resources they had.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by TransatlanticFoe »

While I can't play it because I don't have a PS4 or PC, I'm pleased it's Shenmue. Between modern open worlds and Death Stranding, I don't think anyone can rightly complain about Shenmue being dull without criticisng some acclaimed titles - where it's been reviewed, a few people who enjoy Shenmue have been let at it. But no-one has slipped IGN/Gamespot any brown paper bags to even get off their arse and half-arsedly review it.

The original game was unlike anything else at the time. It wasn't entirely relaxed because ultimately you had to press on - take forever and Lan Di eventually shows up to murder you! But it was a nice balance between exploring a town and having a semblance of life - time passed, you need to go to bed, weather changes. Winning the Sega Saturn versions of Hang On and Space Harrier was brilliant!

The second though, I played by continuing from my save file. Oh someone's stolen all my money so now I have to play/run fucking lucky hit. Would you like to try a game of lucky hit? No. No I bloody well wouldn't. Turns out if you started a new save file the game gives you a bunch of figurines you can sell for money but I didn't know at the time and I didn't have anything worth pawning. Using the save from the previous game was new and exciting and I was so let down. Going from that to carrying books and catching leaves... my calm was spent. I eventually got stuck - it wouldn't let me leave a small area but I messed something up and had to come back the next day to meet someone... but it was about 2 in the afternoon. With nothing to do. I gave up. Just awful awful pacing at the opening. Maybe I should go back to it someday because I loved the original.

Shame this one doesn't have any classic arcade titles, I think I must have spent as much time playing Space Harrier as I did in the rest of the game! Sure I could find those sailors or I could chuck a couple of coins in Space Harrier...
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Re: Shenmue III

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TransatlanticFoe wrote:While I can't play it because I don't have a PS4 or PC, I'm pleased it's Shenmue. Between modern open worlds and Death Stranding, I don't think anyone can rightly complain about Shenmue being dull without criticisng some acclaimed titles - where it's been reviewed, a few people who enjoy Shenmue have been let at it. But no-one has slipped IGN/Gamespot any brown paper bags to even get off their arse and half-arsedly review it.
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Re: Shenmue III

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TransatlanticFoe wrote: The second though, I played by continuing from my save file. Oh someone's stolen all my money so now I have to play/run fucking lucky hit. Would you like to try a game of lucky hit? No. No I bloody well wouldn't. Turns out if you started a new save file the game gives you a bunch of figurines you can sell for money but I didn't know at the time and I didn't have anything worth pawning. Using the save from the previous game was new and exciting and I was so let down. Going from that to carrying books and catching leaves... my calm was spent. I eventually got stuck - it wouldn't let me leave a small area but I messed something up and had to come back the next day to meet someone... but it was about 2 in the afternoon. With nothing to do. I gave up. Just awful awful pacing at the opening. Maybe I should go back to it someday because I loved the original.
I get where you're coming from with this, but once you get into the meat of the game's story it really picks up and unfolds in a far more dramatic and compelling way than Shenmue I ever did. It really feels like a martial arts epic whereas the first game is just a prelude.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by Skykid »

Unless you just hate Shenmue generally I can't understand anyone on this forum criticising Shemue III for being "outdated", it's just a more modern form of retro game in that it's replicating a Dreamcast experience. And nobody here seems to mind retro games.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by BrianC »

Is it true that Shenmue III doesn't have any Sega arcade games in it?
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by Jonny2x4 »

Yep. Shenmue III isn't even a Sega game at all. Yu Suzuki bought the IP from them and had his own company develop it. They were involved with the recent remastered collection though. I haven't played it yet, but it has its dated charm to it based on the few videos I've seen of it. It feels like a sixth gen game made with eighth gen technology, like they just took the source code from the canned Dreamcast version and updated it to PS4 standards. I made it played it eventually, but I hope they don't take another 19 years to make a Part 4.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by Shelcoof »

As huge as a Shenmue fan I am I've held back on buying this. Wasn't sure if it was going to be a cash grab or an actual good game.

Waiting and seeing as well.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by it290 »

Eek, I'm worried about this game's sales. I'm sure they're fine with the Kickstarter and all, but every fan I know is like 'ehhh, I'll wait 'til the price drops.' Can't be a good thing for the game's bottom line.
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Re: Shenmue III

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it290 wrote:Eek, I'm worried about this game's sales. I'm sure they're fine with the Kickstarter and all, but every fan I know is like 'ehhh, I'll wait 'til the price drops.' Can't be a good thing for the game's bottom line.
I'm more worried about the game itself. The bottom line isn't really a concern for me. We've heard all about the controversy with the publisher going against kick starter promises so they can focus on their bottom line.

Not cool in my books and one big reason why I held off
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by cj iwakura »

Steamflogger Boss wrote:It's Shenmue.
The best review you could ever hope for, and mirrors exactly what I've heard. It's a Dreamcast game in 2019, which is one hell of an achievement.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by Strider77 »

Can I have Outrun 3 instead?
Damn Tim, you know there are quite a few Americans out there who still lives in tents due to this shitty economy, and you're dropping loads on a single game which only last 20 min. Do you think it's fair? How much did you spend this time?
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Re: Shenmue III

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Strider77 wrote:Can I have Outrun 3 instead?
Would kill for this.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by Cannonballs »

Strider77 wrote:Can I have Outrun 3 instead?
Yes please. Wish I could still play 2 online.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by Blinge »

I had a little look.
So Ryo still talks like a weirdo and animates like one too!? why!
I can understand the gameplay being retro styled or akin to the previous two games, but.. surely this is an area that could've used some modern polish especially at that budget!
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Re: Shenmue III

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Anyone else gone back and played more of this? I'm in for the Shenmue experience and this seems like a great way to ring in the new year, but as it still seems to be trafficking at full price I'm curious to hear from anyone who's been through it if I'll feel like I get a 'complete' game for that. Is it comparable in length and scope to Shenmue II? More/less? I would gladly pay $60 for II if it were released as a new thing today, so I'd like to know if III meets that mark or falls short.
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Re: Shenmue III

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The best thing about the Shenmue games, even back in (gulp) 2000, you could wander aimlessly for days and still have a great time.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by Aquas »

Yeah I played through it. It's enjoyable if you're a Shenmue fan. There are these hidden little chickadees in the shops that you can search out in the latter half of the game. That helps you appreciate the world they built, and the various shop musics and such. As has been sounded in this thread, it has its goods and bads. It has humor and a genuine care put into it so try to appreciate it for what it is. It also has a lot of pretty ladies. :)

Also, just buy it if you're on the fence. Buy it so we can continue the saga. They already have the resources for the game, would be a waste to see it go into hibernation again.
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Re: Shenmue III

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GaijinPunch wrote:The best thing about the Shenmue games, even back in (gulp) 2000, you could wander aimlessly for days and still have a great time.
This has been my experience of Red Dead 2 tho.
and for that matter, Yakuza.
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Re: Shenmue III

Post by Sengoku Strider »

My internet went out, which had the welcome side-effect of prying me from icy clutches of Destiny 2's mind control for a bit. I decided to get back into Shenmue III, the disc of which I've had on the shelf since it came out, but I'd never gotten past the first half of the game. It took a bit to get over the clunky 2002 design sensibilities of a lot of its interface, but I ended up really warming up to it.

I'll start with this: the general take on the internet, that this feels like Shenmue 2.5, is 100% completely on-point. This game feels like it's from an alternate timeline where Uncharted and Assassin's Creed and Grand Theft Auto and Yakuza and Quantic Dream games never mined all Shenmue's best ideas then spent 20 years refining and iterating on them. Like Suzuki had the design document all written up in a dusty binder labelled "Dreamcast 2" in his giant Ferrari-shaped home office and was damned if he was gonna do all that work over again. The characters are weirdly repetitive and robotic. The game aggressively denies the player much in the way of instant gratification. The plot begins incredibly slowly. The dilly-dallying systems and mini-games which make up the bulk of what the game has to offer are still completely at odd with the "OMG WE HAVE TO HURRY AGGH" thrust of the main story. You will see the same cutscenes of Ryo going to bed and waking up or being harassed for hotel fees every morning literally a few hundred times.

But if you're willing and able to get past all that, at the core of this game is still all the heart that made Shenmue special; the wholesome everydayness of its world and characters remain enthusiastically orthogonal to every shitty instinct the gaming industry has. The reverence for kung fu movie tropes and the minutiae of Sinosphere cultural esoterica feel more earnest and guileless than something like Sifu. Yeah, the project is also clearly led by a boomer who grew up in an insular Japanese world, and a lot of 'China' here is like an ersatz Tokyo Disneyland recreation. A lot of it won't come through in the translation, but there are all sorts of Japanese-referent puns hidden throughout (for instance, a shop called 'Princess Kaguya' references the old Japanese fairytale Momotaro while punning on the Japanese word for furniture store, the game is full of stuff like that), but it's so sincerely apolitical and admiring in its rendition of interior China that it's hard not to see its ignorance as well-intentioned.

All of which is to say, if you never liked Shenmue in the first place, there's not much here that'll change that opinion. But Shenmue II was a very important game to me. It hit at a time when I was lost and going through a very rough patch in life, and the escape of its wholesome travellogue-like hyper detailed East Asia was like a hand reaching down from the heavens to lift me out of the muck. But I was never blind to its clunkiness, and as a result I never wanted to go back to it and ruin the memories with inevitable comparisons to later, more polished cinematic or open world adventure games. Which is why I was very pleasantly surprised when I passed the mid-point of Shenmue III and all the old feelings started coming back. And I realized there really was something special at the heart of this series, that nobody else was quite doing. Certain characters from previous instalments reappear, and when they did I was genuinely happy to see them again; I felt like cheering at the introduction of a certain badass to the main plot, and those international phone cards that let you call home to Japan to speak to all your old friends and acquaintances got plenty of use. Shenmue is Virtua Fighter crossed with Ocarina of Time crossed with Animal Crossing crossed with Elder Scrolls crossed with Dragon's Lair crossed with one of those 70s Run Run Shaw kung fu movies where the star's name is Bruce Li or something. It's clunky, flawed in execution, almost violently repetitive at times, and is clearly a $60 million dollar game made on a budget of $18 million for an audience of dozens.

But for all that, I still come away from these games feeling more attached to them than any Zelda or GTA or God of War. I haven't finished it yet (going for the platinum, which is so absurdly grindy anyone going for it without a guide will need new game + to get it) but my general feeling at this point is it's a unicorn, a classic Sega 7.5/10 midsterpiece that somehow outdoes more smoothly-built games.
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