Well, unlike most, I honestly expected worse and more compromised - but was pleasantly surprised the outcome. General Shenmue gameplay and feel is definitely there - but not in the battles. Also, the story didn't feel like it moved any meaningful way, nor Ryo didn't feel like he grew up much either, even after all that he went thru since S1, and S2.
A couple of weeks ago, I did receive the Gatcha (random) prize from FanGamer. I think I'm still waiting for something else (not really sure - I received a T shirt, signed art, digital soundtrack etc, as I backed $300 tier). Pretty neat. I got Chai - was hoping for the forklift if I had a choice - but oh well!
Yes, I find S3 is definitely the worst of the 3. It has evolved in some places, but the battle part was pretty bad and not deep nor tactile/satisfying enough. I did finish the DLC the 1st one, but 2nd and 3rd one is to do. Perhaps I will tackle it over the weekend before I receive PS5 and XSX next week.
I am looking forward the Anime implementation of it and want to find out how good a real director can manage to tell a story. Yu Suzuki, to be honest, isn't the best storyteller in my opinion - even though I am a big fan of his works - and a big fan of Shenmue series. Perhaps it's one of the amateurish charm of Shenmue's story - but with a proper storyteller involved, things can be told much more interesting ways.
And Shenmue 3 - if you liked Shenmue 1 and 2, I'd say play the game, but with way low expectation. I wasn't expecting the game to come out at all, so my expectation was practically zero - even though I backed the S3. I was thinking what can they do with just measly 2-3M dollars, when the original cost like 20-30 times more than that, with only 30 or some people? I am just glad that the series managed to move one step further... and I do wish for a much much improved Shenmue 4 in the future.