Shenmue III |OT| The Dream is Real

I'm happy we made it possible but am a bit underwhelmed by the slip cover. The reward section of Kickstarter has an actual case you can put the game into and not some cover. It doesn't even say Shenmue 3 on the sides. Oh well, at least the game is out now.

BTW, here is the official Kickstarter backers credits video in the game:

 
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Azelover said:
I didn't find it a flawed experience.. what are you talking about? The characters are a little weird(though charming), the animations are off. But the environments are beautiful, and the gameplay is quite good. For the most part, it's the best Shenmue game yet. There's only one major problem....

the story sucks and the ending is a non-ending worse than 2's
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You dont class it as flawed yet you say the story sucks, which is a massive part of the whole draw of these games. You dont make any sense.

Back on topic, I loved the first 2 games, they are among my fondest memories along with PSO, what an era DC was. I am pissed a bit that Yu didnt condense this down a bit, we waited 18 years and just about got a third game, and its still not a complete story. If it doesnt sell well (which it may well not) maybe they can finish the story with DLC episodes? (They may already have plans, dont know what the season pass includes?)
 
Freeman76 said:
You dont class it as flawed yet you say the story sucks, which is a massive part of the whole draw of these games. You dont make any sense.

Back on topic, I loved the first 2 games, they are among my fondest memories along with PSO, what an era DC was. I am pissed a bit that Yu didnt condense this down a bit, we waited 18 years and just about got a third game, and its still not a complete story. If it doesnt sell well (which it may well not) maybe they can finish the story with DLC episodes? (They may already have plans, dont know what the season pass includes?)
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That's my opinion. The story is mostly based around Ryo's kung fu. And the ending is underwhelming to me. Maybe you'll disagree. It's not horrible, but I expected more information. A lot of mysteries are not solved. And there are even more questions now. That was a little frustrating for me. Especially because we're not getting a fourth game, probably in quite a while. But enjoy the game friend. I actually liked it, and didn't thnk it was flawed. There's more to a game like this than the story.
 
It's real and it's beautiful.

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My day has been terrible so I'm looking to forward to finally starting it tonight and getting a bit of a reprieve. I just hope the patch finishes downloading soon.
 
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urmie said:
I'm happy we made it possible but am a bit underwhelmed by the slip cover. The reward section of Kickstarter has an actual case you can put the game into and not some cover. It doesn't even say Shenmue 3 on the sides. Oh well, at least the game is out now.

BTW, here is the official Kickstarter backers credits video in the game:
Click to expand...

I got mine today. It came just like my Bloodstained copy did. It was like I walked into Target or Walmart and bought a copy. I was kinda hoping for a steelbook or a holographic case. I don't want to sound too down about it. I remember when the first game came in the mail from GameCave way back when.

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Got mine as well! To be perfectly honest, the slip cover seem a bit cheap side - and the backside of the cover printing quality is also a bit questionable too. Not sure how this PS4 one would perform on my Pro. Trying out later tonight (but I'm just soooo tired....)

Azelover said:
That's my opinion. The story is mostly based around Ryo's kung fu. And the ending is underwhelming to me. Maybe you'll disagree. It's not horrible, but I expected more information. A lot of mysteries are not solved. And there are even more questions now. That was a little frustrating for me. Especially because we're not getting a fourth game, probably in quite a while. But enjoy the game friend. I actually liked it, and didn't thnk it was flawed. There's more to a game like this than the story.
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I think that's pretty much what I expected on this game. From the entire storytelling perspective - this should be around early mid - to halfway point. I know Yu's put some elements from later parts in the whole story, but it still should be in the part of where things are still going tough for Ryo and deepen the mystery - not to resolve them. Maybe, some of the story unfolds new characters, friendships, acquaintances - that evolves Ryo a bit.

If Shenmue 4 and more are made - I think next game would be the most exciting one, going towards the climax with cliff-hanger, with many things explained, or at least possible for us to predict, perhaps... and 5th one being the climax, or anti-climax ending. (I wish for 6th one, but then again... realistically if we don't see the ending of the game within 10 years - I think it's pretty much game over - so I think if Yu should pursue Shenmue's ending - it should be done before then.)
 
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Its been a while since I've visited GAF but I wanted to join in the Shenmue III launch celebration.

I'm a PC version backer and won't have a code till tomorrow according to the last Kickstarter email update. I'm a little bummed to not have my physical copy delivered like the PS4 version backers but I'll be just fine once I can finally install it after work tomorrow hopefully. I'm so stoked!
 
Upsidedown Fuji said:
Its been a while since I've visited GAF but I wanted to join in the Shenmue III launch celebration.

I'm a PC version backer and won't have a code till tomorrow according to the last Kickstarter email update. I'm a little bummed to not have my physical copy delivered like the PS4 version backers but I'll be just fine once I can finally install it after work tomorrow hopefully. I'm so stoked!
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What a day this is! I remember picking up shenmue 2 in GAME for the dreamcast 18 years, which is just crazy! We knew at the time that the dreamcasts time was soon to end, but the future of shenmue was also in massive doubt. How we got this game to exist is almost a miracle. I have still to replay shenmue 2, so will have to wait a while until starting shenmue 3, but what a moment it will be. I just hope the series gets completed within the next 10 years. This needs to sell well.
 
I gotta say, while I know some aren't happy with some of the kickstarter's issues, the Shenmue team has at least in my case gone above and beyond to make sure I and others got our copies on day 1, or in my case day -2! Compared to Bloodstained which was and still is for Japanese backers a disaster in how to treat their customers, this has been a million times better.

And playing through things some more, I'm loving every bit of it. Something gotta get used to like the eating aspects of the game, but it's all still Shenmue through and through!
 
Yeah, I played a few hours yesterday and all I can say is that this definitely feels like Shenmue. Maybe a few times the dialog has felt a bit self aware and too on the nose, but overall it feels genuine. There are some odd mechanics (eating must only exist to drain money so you have to continually work/play games), but so far it is exactly what I could have hoped for.
 
Still waiting for my copy and my guess is, it won't arrive today, they even send it without tracking. I'm quite annoyed.
 
I don't understand uncapped framerates. If the game has no intentions of hitting 60, why uncap it? It just makes it look bad in my opinion with the framrate widely fluctuating. Like in Kingdom Hearts 3.

It should be 30fps.
 
Ready to go!! Gonna enjoy this, even though I'm pretty vexed that it still doesnt wrap things up and after this its back to waiting again.
 
My Steelbook came today, sadly I'm in work till 8pm
 
PC backers. As you know the physical copies will be delayed in shipping but fangamer are providing the codes for redeeming it on the epic games store. I didn't get a new email from fangamer yet so I accessed the survey site from the last email I got (the address confirmation one). Through that I was able to access my survey page and get my code which went active at 13:00 UTC. Currently downloading :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 
So I'm having a weird problem and was hoping someone else here with a Japanese copy can confirm if this is happening to them as well. The game simply has no trophy list. It's all updated and online but no trophy list at all. I know there is one up for some but nothing working on my copy. Any ideas?
 
ranmafan said:
So I'm having a weird problem and was hoping someone else here with a Japanese copy can confirm if this is happening to them as well. The game simply has no trophy list. It's all updated and online but no trophy list at all. I know there is one up for some but nothing working on my copy. Any ideas?
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Same here, no trophy list in my games for this at all. Maybe it doesnt have any?
 
Freeman76 said:
Same here, no trophy list in my games for this at all. Maybe it doesnt have any?
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Ok I just figured it out. For some reason, maybe cause I started playing it before the trophies were posted online, the list just never synced with my playstation. However once I earned a trophy in the game, it synced up. Try earning a trophy and then check your list and it should sync.
 
urmie said:
I'm happy we made it possible but am a bit underwhelmed by the slip cover. The reward section of Kickstarter has an actual case you can put the game into and not some cover. It doesn't even say Shenmue 3 on the sides. Oh well, at least the game is out now.

BTW, here is the official Kickstarter backers credits video in the game:

Click to expand...

It didn't come in a case?
 
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Enjay said:
It didn't come in a case?
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Scroll up to post #58, that's exactly what came to every KS backer, basically a standard retail version of the game and a slip cover. You can see the slip cover on the upper left. Could've been better but at least the game is out now.
 
Freeman76 said:
You dont class it as flawed yet you say the story sucks, which is a massive part of the whole draw of these games. You dont make any sense.

Back on topic, I loved the first 2 games, they are among my fondest memories along with PSO, what an era DC was. I am pissed a bit that Yu didnt condense this down a bit, we waited 18 years and just about got a third game, and its still not a complete story. If it doesnt sell well (which it may well not) maybe they can finish the story with DLC episodes? (They may already have plans, dont know what the season pass includes?)
Click to expand...
You play these games for story?

For me it's a vacation sim/time travel game. I get to just exist somewhere, doing seemingly innocuous shit that strikes my fancy, like buying toys and playing arcade games.

In fact, I dont know if I've ever heard someone praise shenmue for its storytelling....ever. it's a weird life sim. Ryu has a story but I'm really just me in his body while playing, if that makes sense.
 
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Shenmue 3 is pretty cool so far! Watched the catchup movie as I only played a bit of 1 and that's it, but it caught me up pretty well with what's going on! Even though it's the latest sequel, it feels nice and old fashioned while having certain modern touches here and there. I love it when game sequels successfully feel like follow ups to the previous games they're sequels for. This is one of them.
 
TylersProphecy4.0 said:
You play these games for story?

For me it's a vacation sim/time travel game. I get to just exist somewhere, doing seemingly innocuous shit that strikes my fancy, like buying toys and playing arcade games.

In fact, I dont know if I've ever heard someone praise shenmue for its storytelling....ever. it's a weird life sim. Ryu has a story but I'm really just me in his body while playing, if that makes sense.
Click to expand...

I admire this view but don't quite understand... although flawed, Shenmue is very story-driven and seemingly intended that way.

Stardew Valley sounds more like what you've described.
 
urmie said:
Scroll up to post #58, that's exactly what came to every KS backer, basically a standard retail version of the game and a slip cover. You can see the slip cover on the upper left. Could've been better but at least the game is out now.
Click to expand...

Mine didn't even come with the slip cover. Just a Ps4 game lol
 
Azelover said:
That's my opinion. The story is mostly based around Ryo's kung fu. And the ending is underwhelming to me. Maybe you'll disagree. It's not horrible, but I expected more information. A lot of mysteries are not solved. And there are even more questions now. That was a little frustrating for me. Especially because we're not getting a fourth game, probably in quite a while. But enjoy the game friend. I actually liked it, and didn't thnk it was flawed. There's more to a game like this than the story.
Click to expand...
Wow seriously. A decade plus wait and all we get storyline wise is more questions. yu suzuki has pulled off video gaming's biggest heist yet.
 
Enjay said:
Wow seriously. A decade plus wait and all we get storyline wise is more questions. yu suzuki has pulled off video gaming's biggest heist yet.
Click to expand...

In fairness, Shenmue was intended as something like a six-part game or something. I don't think conclusion is Yu's strong point.
 
Enjay said:
Wow seriously. A decade plus wait and all we get storyline wise is more questions. yu suzuki has pulled off video gaming's biggest heist yet.
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My thoughts too. The story of revenge on Lan Di is still no closer to being resolved, this game might get slammed in reviews and underperform enough to not get any further entries and we could be back where we were 18 years ago. I just hope they can finish the story somehow with DLC if no further entries are supported. Cant see another one getting kickstarted.
 
ROMhack said:
I admire this view but don't quite understand... although flawed, Shenmue is very story-driven and seemingly intended that way.

Stardew Valley sounds more like what you've described.
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I very much look at at least shenmue 1 as in the same exact vein as stardew, actually. Yeah, there is a story, but is the story why I or others have kept playing past that first run through? I very much doubt it. It's the living world that shenmue is famous and loved for, not the story.

Shit, I'd even cite the shitty nostalgic voice acting as a higher selling point than the story.
 
Freeman76 said:
My thoughts too. The story of revenge on Lan Di is still no closer to being resolved, this game might get slammed in reviews and underperform enough to not get any further entries and we could be back where we were 18 years ago. I just hope they can finish the story somehow with DLC if no further entries are supported. Cant see another one getting kickstarted.
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I really don't think he's gonna solve the story via DLC.

People need to buy the game, that's the closest solution we have now. I doubt people will kickstart another one, and Shenmue III was made with a lot more money than what they got through kickstarter. The story may not go very far, but the content of the game is very big, The second town is huge. The game wasn't totally inexpensive, that's very clear.

This game needs to sell decently. It's not gonna sell 5 million copies, but the first Shenmue sold over a million on Dreamcast alone. If this game can achieve that, we might be able to get number IV. We might. I'm trying to be optimistic, but the way things are looking now, it's not encouraging.
 
Only a handful of reviews so far.

Getting crushed on metacritic.

Like Shenmue 1 and 2, I'll wait for it on Game Pass...... I'd say in about 6 months.
 
Delrith (TheAngryJoeShow) is crushing the game on Twitch, 'So bad its good'.
It does seem very similar to the first 2 games, and i guess thats the problem.
 
ROMhack said:
In fairness, Shenmue was intended as something like a six-part game or something. I don't think conclusion is Yu's strong point.
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Yes, a total of 11 chapters spanning no more than five games. If I'm not mistaken, the entire story for the series was originally 16 chapters with Shenmue III beginning on Chapter 7.
 
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Stuart360 said:
Delrith (TheAngryJoeShow) is crushing the game on Twitch, 'So bad its good'.
It does seem very similar to the first 2 games, and i guess thats the problem.
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You know. I think there is a negative bias. The game is not that similar to the originals, actually. The direction is the same, but it evolved a lot. They improved the gameplay a lot, in my opinion. Now, it has true RPG elements. In the originals you simply learned new moves, that you may or may not use. Now, anything new that you learn is essential. And, you evolve your kung fu by training. You level up, literally.

Besides, everything is more connected now. In the originals, you explored the world for the fun of it, but the things you were doing in a lot of cases hardly helped you along the way. In Shenmue 3 a lot more of the things you do actually translate to something helpfull. I dont know if what I'm saying makes sense. But to me, it's ludacris to rip on this game because it might be similar to the older ones.

The graphics alone were improved ten fold. So, I pretty much consider that criticism over the graphics as pure trolling. It just isn't true. The characters are mostly caricatures, but environments are gorgeous.
 
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Yu has been up front about this not ending the saga for years, if not from the very beginning of the KSer. I know I heard him say so years ago, so I never expected this to be the finale.
 
First impressions: It definitely is Shenmue. Environments are gorgeous. Animations are basic and stiff but that was to be expected but controls improve with the twin stick setup of modern controllers. Missing the throws in fighting but as Azelover Azelover said fighting and training is quite substantial which is a major improvement over the previous two games. I am playing with Japanese voices as I have for my recent shenmue 1&2 playthroughs so bad acting is not as noticeable. The game starts slow which makes the whole cliffhanger of 2 look ridiculous at first but then again Bailu village was intended for 2 originally. I wonder what the original ending was going to be? (No spoilers please I've only played 4 hours).

The whole stamina/food consumption is annoying so a constant regime of earning money, spendingit on food and eating it every few minutes is going to get tedious.
PC version gets no custom settings really apart from resolution and changing graphics from low to very high. The game runs well most of the time but I wouldn't mind being able to turn off that bloom. Hoping for mods in the future to override these.

And i don't like Shenua's character model or costume. It feels like a different person.

Overall though. I'm happy how it has turned out so far but I am a fan since the dreamcast days and I'm just happy that it exists at all. Good things come to those who wait. 😅
 
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