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[MALpractice311]

Speaking as a mild fan of Shenmue 1 and 2, the people at Shenmue Dojo are and have always been fucking nuts and completely delusional.

I used to visit the Dojo periodically and was always stunned as to how out of touch with reality they were. They refused to believe that it was a niche title and somehow it was always someone else's fault that the games never sold well.

The last time I visited the site, I saw a forum post complaining about how stupid mainstream gaming audiences were for not liking Shenmue, a "real open world game," and instead being in love GTA, which was just a "nigger game."

Edit: Yup. The post is still technically up.

https://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=32193&p=731993&hilit=nigger#p731993

 

[Pejo]

i never get the appeal for shenmue. Yakuza series is better in pretty much every way.

The first two were trendsetters and did a lot of things that no game had ever done before. In retrospect they're objectively bad games, but it changed how people thought about persistent worlds, semi-open worlds, levels of detail, etc.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

I wonder how much it costs to get a 15 second ad on a billboard in Times Square? It must be a lot, the fact that IGN are reporting this means it must be noteworthy...

$40 for 15 Seconds: Times Square Billboard Attracts Chinese Attention Seekers

A new ad space in New York has turned into a new social media trend in China.

www.sixthtone.com

Oh. About $40 (article from last year).

I guess if you're near Times Square and want IGN to discuss your burning need for a sequel to your favorite game $40 seems very cheap - get it on the billboard, make sure You're there at the exact time, take a photograph and send it to IGN and you too could... Have a thread on Neogaf.

Edit:
As an aside $40 seems crazy cheap. But, if they can sell all the time available, that's $160 a minute, $9600 an hour $230400 per day. Wow.

 

[Esppiral]

The worst and most disappointing thing about Shenmue 3 is that the story does not advance, it is like those anime fill episodes, what a wasted opportunity to finish the story....

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Shenmue 3 is an awfully designed game. Apart from a few tracks and the setting itself (rural China) and art direction, there was little of merit in the experience sadly.

But I only very recently played Shenmue 1 and 2 for the first time in 2022 and have to say I was blown away. You can poke fun at some of the NPCs and dialogue or whatever, but to me they're both a masterpieces for their time and offer an experiece that's more memorable and beautiful that 99% of modern games designed in the boardroom.

The music is spectacular, the vibe, the scale of the games, the journey of Ryo and everything else comes together to make an experience that has clearly stuck with a lot of fans, hence why even after 3 they want a real conclusion to the story. At this point it looks impossible sadly as they blew the opportunity with 3.

I've played most Yakuza games and ultimately they're very different experiences and Yakuza ain't Shenmue.

I think the best bet is a new IP from SEGA that can borrow a lot of assets from Yakuza like Judgement did, but is some kind of spiritual successor to Shenmue. I think it would do well.

 

[Majukun]

the saga lost any chance when the director got the perfect storm to finally be able to release the third chapter ....and he didn't finish the story with it.

 

[nush]

No thanks, 3 killed my interest.

 

[VolticArchangel]

Don't understand all the posts asking to have completed the game with 3. The original script of the complete story featured 16 chapters, which was revised to 11 by Suzuki, later.

The first game covered chapter 1. The travel on the boat to hong kong was chapter 2. Shenmue 2 (Hong Kong, Kowloon and Guilin) was chapters 3-5. Shenmue 3 was chapter 6-???. Suzuki always said the game would expand to 4 or games.

I understand that you might not like 3 due to the filler content, among many other reasons like outdated gameplay mechanics, but it was always the case. The fans knew this from the start, even before the kickstarter in 2015.

 

[Gamezone]

I loved the first games, but Shenmue 3 was garbage. Their clearly didn't recieve enough money.

 

[MALpractice311]

Don't understand all the posts asking to have completed the game with 3. The original script of the complete story featured 16 chapters, which was revised to 11 by Suzuki, later.

The first game covered chapter 1. The travel on the boat to hong kong was chapter 2. Shenmue 2 (Hong Kong, Kowloon and Guilin) was chapters 3-5. Shenmue 3 was chapter 6-???. Suzuki always said the game would expand to 4 or games.

I understand that you might not like 3 due to the filler content, among many other reasons like outdated gameplay mechanics, but it was always the case. The fans knew this from the start, even before the kickstarter in 2015.

While that's all true, there's also a thing called adapting to changing circumstances. Shenmue 1 and 2 did not sell well and they cost a ton to make, so much so that the series was shelved for, what, 20 years.

If I were Yu Suzuki at about 60 years old, I would probably say to myself, "you know, given my age and the relative lack of interest in Shenmue as a series, Part 3 is probably going to be my last chance at finishing my passion project. I should probably take another pass at my script and see what I can safely cut out."

 

[VolticArchangel]

If I were Yu Suzuki at about 60 years old, I would probably say to myself, "you know, given my age and the relative lack of interest in Shenmue as a series, Part 3 is probably going to be my last chance at finishing my passion project. I should probably take another pass at my script and see what I can safely cut out."

The point is the filler content can't be avoided being told in the games (notice the hong kong boat trip being cut, among many others that were from the 16 chapters to 11 already), and the remaining have to be told in the games.

It would take 2 more games to complete the saga.

The culprit here is the budget, and you can't expect something more than 6 - 10 million from a niche fanbase like Shenmue through crowdfunding, and Sega would not fund the game due to prior overblown budget of the prequels and it's ROI.

With that paltry budget, and some help from Sony for exclusivity, you end up outsourcing most of the asset creation work to studios that work for peanuts in countries like India, like Shenmue 3 did with Lakshya Digital in Pune. The end result, with no surprise, ends up being laughable bad for 2019 standards.

 

[M0G]

Oh that's what all the emails I was getting from Shenmue Dogo was about. I just can't get behind this unless something drastic changes.

I backed the kickstarter for 3, got hyped, played the first two again and then... learnt to hate the originals for the archaic gameplay, QTEs, sluggish controls etc. When my copy of 3 arrived and they intentionally cloned all of these faults I just gave up and never played it. If Shenmue 4 is far removed from 1999, I might play 3 just so I can play 4. If they just got it up to PS3 standards it would be like night and day.

 

[SpiceRacz]

The first game is probably in my top 5 all time. I beat 1 & 2 again recently (haven't played them since release) and was surprised how well they held up. I'm nervous to pick up 3, but I'll do it eventually. I read somewhere it's a 25+ hour game, which is crazy considering the main criticism is there's very little story progression.

I don't see Shenmue 4 ever being made. Ideally, the series would have kept going on Xbox and the story would be wrapped up by now. Or the story would have continued through the cancelled animated series. Instead we got a sequel almost 20 years later that even fans of the originals are divided on.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

The first game is probably in my top 5 all time. I beat 1 & 2 again recently (haven't played them since release) and was surprised how well they held up. I'm nervous to pick up 3, but I'll do it eventually. I read somewhere it's a 25+ hour game, which is crazy considering the main criticism is there's very little story progression.

I don't see Shenmue 4 ever being made. Ideally, the series would have kept going on Xbox and the story would be wrapped up by now. Or the story would have continued through the cancelled animated series. Instead we got a sequel almost 20 years later that even fans of the originals are divided on.

Yup, like I said I only played the games for the first time 2 years ago and thought they were incredible and are now amongst my favourite games. The scale of 2 especially blew me away.

 

[Valonquar]

 

[genesisblock]

Just play Yakuza

Seriously, I absolutely hate this response. Those games are nothing alike. That's like saying play Resident Evil if you want a Silent Hill sequel.

 

[MALpractice311]

The point is the filler content can't be avoided being told in the games (notice the hong kong boat trip being cut, among many others that were from the 16 chapters to 11 already), and the remaining have to be told in the games.

It would take 2 more games to complete the saga.

The culprit here is the budget, and you can't expect something more than 6 - 10 million from a niche fanbase like Shenmue through crowdfunding, and Sega would not fund the game due to prior overblown budget of the prequels and it's ROI.

With that paltry budget, and some help from Sony for exclusivity, you end up outsourcing most of the asset creation work to studios that work for peanuts in countries like India, like Shenmue 3 did with Lakshya Digital in Pune. The end result, with no surprise, ends up being laughable bad for 2019 standards.

If anything, your discussion of budgetary limitations actually supports my position. Given Yu's age, the lack of success of the prior Shenmue games, and the low budget, it really seems like Yu should have really taken his time to re-edit the remaining chapters to finish the game.

 

[keefged4]

I absolutely love the first two games and play them annually. The third one is nowhere near as good. Saying that I hope Yu does at least manage to finish the story, whether it be games or a continuation of the anime.

 

[Griffon]

Shenmue is like the retarded older brother of Yakuza.

 

[DeVeAn]

While 3 wasn't as good as the first two I enjoyed it. I hope we get a part 4. Also Yakuza is not a substitute for Shenmue, different beast.

 

[Portugeezer]

Some franchises are best left in the past.

 

[U n i o n 0015]

I'm still annoyed that Yu didn't finish the story in the third game. I could probably dig up an old GAF post where I'm super hyped about the announcement. I just feel burned now.

There won't be a 4th. I don't think there's any financiers that are willing to fund this game.

 

[ShadowNate]

I enjoyed Shenmue 3, although it became apparent midway that they did not have enough content to fill the length of the game they wanted to make. The second half drags a quite a bit and suffers from pointless repetition, and then the final segment feels rushed and barebones.

They also missed the mark with Shenhua's character. In the second half especially she might as well be replaced by a stone.

Still, I did like the relaxed pacing, the nice environments, the return of the oddly delivered lines (by the voice actors who reprised their roles after all these years!).

It must have been a budget issue. They wanted to replicate almost everything the previous Shenmue titles did (fight engine aside), including the redundant voiced lines, and then build open worlds in a new engine, and a changed fight engine on top of it.

And yeah, it was a bad decision to not advance the main story much, when they struggled so to gather the funds to make this one.

 

[Lambogenie]

Yakuza team should just take a break from RGG, make Shenmue 4 and a Kiwami of 1 and 2.

Ditch the QTE they were always shit, use same fighting system from Yakuza 0/6, use same workflow for building new location and characters for this.

Other than being risk averse plenty is existing stuff they keep iterating on anyway.

Suzuki can consult on story and what not.

 

[N30RYU]

#ShenmueReboot

 

[NT80]

i never get the appeal for shenmue. Yakuza series is better in pretty much every way.

Yakuza has far less interaction with the world and people, neither does it have the day/night cycle and atmosphere.

 

[nush]

Kiwami of 1 and 2.

I’d buy the shit out of that.

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Yakuza has far less interaction with the world and people, neither does it have the day/night cycle and atmosphere.

Played pretty much every Yakuza but the game design is somewhat of a an in your face theme park ride, whilst Shenmue is a slower paced adventure game.

Outside of assets (given it's Japan/Asia), the comparisons are pointless.

As much as I love Yakuza, it would be cool if SEGA tried to revive the Shenmue design and spirit but in a new IP. I'd prefer that as a secondary pillar IP to stuff like Lost Judgement.

 

[simpatico]

Seriously, I absolutely hate this response. Those games are nothing alike. That's like saying play Resident Evil if you want a Silent Hill sequel.

Yeah I guess you're right. Yakuza is an open-city RPG brawler with tons of mini games and fun distractions. Shenmue is an open-city RPG with tons of mini games and tedium.

 

[Audiophile]

Shenmue 1 & 2 were great for their time but unless a fourth entry was a ground up reworking with some major technological leaps and a sizeable budget I just don't see how it could stand out amongst all the noise. The third game was underwhelming and it doesn't seem to have enough mass-market appeal to warrant the investment.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

Seriously, I absolutely hate this response. Those games are nothing alike.

they are totally similar

 

[lachesis]

I backed the project, ($300 tier), even platinumed the game, including all the DLC. and while it's very true that it fell way shorter than our expectations - I am glad it happened for what it is. It felt like revisiting old days, but it just felt so old and outdated in every aspect compared to what most modern games offer. Horrible, loose battle system was the biggest let down for me, that you can't even grab and throw someone properly.

I mean, at this point - if 4 happens, happens. If not, I will move along just fine. Yu "was" great developer back in the day, but not sure if he, at his late age have what it takes to finish the series as it was meant to - even if he gets a big budget and all.
Too much time has passed, and the games these days... just leap-frogged what little DC offered in terms of technical terms, scale, and more finessed storytelling and cinematography - that it'd be better off to let others to take charge.

 

[genesisblock]

they are totally similar

Sure, and Uncharted is similar to Gears of War.

 

[Von Hugh]

Shenmue 3 was so bad that I didn't even redeem the code for it on PS4 even though I backed it on Kickstarter.

Zero hope for Shenmue 4.

 

[Alan Wake]

Yu Suzuki killed Shenmue by making 3 a piece of shit that doesn't even move the story forward an inch but rather worsens the mythical aspects of it.

Shenmue 3 is a dumpster fire and the one positive thing I can think of is that I stopped caring about Shenmue 4.

Yeah, while I'm stil interested in another Shenmue game I agree that Yu Suzuki blew it with Shenmue III. I was not expecting him to finish the story but I was expecting him to take the chance and move the story forward big time. He decided to focus on meaningless mini games instead.