Shenmue III is out

[popcorn]

All the reviews - both positive and negative - have praised or damned this game for its faithfulness to the originals. I think they've all missed the point. It's definitely faithful in some important and surprising ways - it does, superficially, feel a lot like Shenmue, to an extent that's quite impressive. It has the endearingly crap dialogue, the glacial pace, the chunky controls, the pointless minigames, and the same basic gameplay loop of talking to people to find the next clue.

But that's all it bloody has! Those were only the top layer of the original Shenmue cake. Everything beneath is missing. I'm about 15 hours in, and the gameplay is still just talking people to find the next clue, punctuated with the occasional fight.

There's no plot development; everything that has advanced the story since Shenmue 2 could be covered in a 30-second cutscene.

There are no set pieces. Remember in Shenmue 1 when Nozomi gets kidnapped and you have to run around Dobuita in the middle of the night, when no one's around? And the world's worst J-pop song plays? There's nothing like that. Remember the assault on the Yellowhead building? Nothing like that. Remember when you and Ren get handcuffed together? Remember when you discover the hidden basement in the dojo? Remember when Chai eats your plane ticket? There's nothing like any of that.

The Shenmue slow burn is great, but it has to escalate. It really does seem like they only had the budget for a skeleton of a Shenmue instalment here, nothing more. It's like an entire game of "Did you see a black car?" And I guess they know that, because it's padded with the most agonisingly monotonous filler of any game I've ever played, and this is coming from a Shenmue fan.

In Shenmue 1 and 2 you'd do boring stuff like drive the fork lift or stack books, and I enjoyed it in a strange way - it had a sort of meditative, self-denying feeling, sort of appropriate for the Buddhist shit. But Shenmue 3 is something else. This is punishing. In the old games you could button-mash your way through fights, and maybe sometimes it'd take a couple of goes, but you never had to grind before.

You now have a stamina bar that slowly depletes while you explore, especially if you run. You have to constantly buy food to keep it topped up, or risk going into an unexpected battle with a reduced health bar. If it gets too low, you can't run any more. It's a pointless and constantly irritating addition. And it has the knock-on effect of making you end days as early as possible, as sleeping recharges the stamina bar. Remember how cool it was soaking up the nightlife in Shenmue 1 and 2? Seeing how the environments and the NPC routines changed? In Shenmue 3, my Ryo turns in for the night around 6pm. It's either that or spend a fucking fortune on garlic bulbs and carrots.

Maybe worst of all, for me: the environments have none of the appeal of those in Shenmue 1 and 2. The damp car parks, the haunted Kowloon buildings, the strange little shops, the back alleys. That sense of place was the whole appeal for me. But every area in Shenmue 3 is bright and clean and vaguely cartoonish. It's something to do with the engine, I suppose. But the melancholy is missing.

You fucked up, Suzuki!

[idunnosomename]

I remember when I spent Christmas 1999 working as a fucking forklift driver. What were THAT all about eh

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

It sounds inordinately disappointing. It's available on PC as well, so there'll be mods. Has anyone modded out that stamina system yet, at least so you don't lose stamina by the simple act of walking or running around? Seems totally against the whole idea of exploration in the game when you're punished for doing so. What the fuck is wrong with Suzuki-san anyway? He's had nearly 20 years to make this, and it sounds rubbish. I'll still pick it up when it's less than a tenner next year though.

Yu ---------------------> Grave

[popcorn]

Modding out that fucking stamina system would be a major improvement. It's maddening to think development time and money was spent actually making the game worse.

[popcorn]

Apparently there's a big patch coming for PS4 in January. So anyone planning to give this a try might do well to wait for that and see if it makes it slightly less punishing.

[peanutbutter]

was shenmue iii released in stores? absolutely reeks of being one of those games that'll be selling for 25% of it's original price from Boxing Day

[popcorn]

was shenmue iii released in stores?

Yep - to predictably dreadful sales.

[bgmnts]

I am amazed they deliberately went for shit graphics, voice acting and just overall shit production values. They had millions in crowdsourced funds, publisher backing and had about 20 years to make the cunt.

Abysmal.

[popcorn]

I am amazed they deliberately went for shit graphics, voice acting and just overall shit production values. They had millions in crowdsourced funds, publisher backing and had about 20 years to make the cunt.

Abysmal.

Errrrrm is this a joke post?

They had a very small budget for a game of this scope, especially compared to the original games, and they obviously haven't been making it since 2000.

I think they definitely prioritised badly - it should have been about half the length. But the graphics and voice acting are fine, I think, in the sense that they didn't have to be better than the originals, imo.

[popcorn]

Right, finally finished this. The last hour is an improvement in that it contains basically 90% of the action and plot of the entire game, but that isn't saying much. If they'd made this game on Dreamcast with a full budget, the ending we got would have been the end of disc 1, with most of the crap before it cut.

**SPONGLERS**

Shenmua 3 should really have been about Ryo and Shenhua, but Shenhua's only role is to worry at you and stay at home chopping a cucumber while you're out looking for her missing dad. Her only plot purpose is to get kidnapped at the end, which is Problematic (especially since it also happens to Nozomi in Shenmue 1 and Joy in Shenmue 2) but more importantly Boring. We didn't need another Ryo and Ren tag team mission. Now I'm fantasising about Shenua and Ryo taking on the castle together, with Shenhua using magic and fireballs and shit. Like in the old concept trailer. They seemed to set up magic at the end of Shenmue 2 - Shenhua levitating flowers and that - which I was cool with. What happened to that?

BORING GAME

[Bazooka]

Finally picked it up, I haven't carried on living the last 17 years or whatever for nothing,I've avoided all reviews and comments,here we go.

[popcorn]

Just rereading this thread for some reason. Bazooka did you ever play it? Goro is in your avatar so I value your opinion.

[Bazooka]

Just rereading this thread for some reason. Bazooka did you ever play it? Goro is in your avatar so I value your opinion.

Indeed I did, I loved it for what it was, it was a blast of nostalgia, but it definitely felt within its budget. There were not enough action set pieces, and too much time back and forth down the same paths in the village, but all the padding with typical Shenmue side parts made up for it.  I loved the little details, and I really hope for part 4.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Finally bought this for 13 quid brand new off Amazon, which is possibly what it's worth. Not really looking forward to playing it tbh, after all I've heard.

[Bazooka]

Finally bought this for 13 quid brand new off Amazon, which is possibly what it's worth. Not really looking forward to playing it tbh, after all I've heard.

Your choice to listen to scumbags.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Are you calling popcorn a scumbag? I've taken his points in this thread into consideration.

[popcorn]

I am a scumbag who speaks the honest truth. I am a bag of truthful scum.