Until they are officially forgotten or contradicted then I'm not ruling anything out at this point. Otherwise it's all just speculation.Besides the Sword of Seven Stars... I'm not sure all of these are retcons?
Same. Think what we have to remember is that some inconsistency is on purpose because we're dealing with an incomplete mystery.Until they are officially forgotten or contradicted then I'm not ruling anything out at this point. Otherwise it's all just speculation.
Roughly along similar lines is Shenhua's motivation for remaining with Ryo at the end. She's found her missing father, so her personal reasons for following Ryo to Niaowu have become a closed loop. The prophecy stuff isn't a realistic enough motivator when she would understandably want to return to Bailu with her sick and recently kidnapped father.To me, the biggest narrative disappointment in S3 was not getting more info from Yuan at the very end of the game. I can forgive most of the story/character shortcomings because they were attempting a lot, but I really wish they could've added one more scene to the revised ending we got because, once they're safe, there's absolutely no way in heck Shenhua wouldn't be like "...sooo, what's with that secret cave and the letter you wrote then, ay??" Not covering that feels like a huge missing piece, on the level of the Niao Sun/Lan Di stuff escalating out of nowhere.
Even then, the magic is still there to a degree...well, sort of. It's been toned down a lot for sure, but we still catch a quick glimpse of the Phoenix Mirror gathering its mystical energy and shooting out a beam towards what we presume to be the Sword (which is currently offscreen). Shenmue 3 then skips the scene where the beam is reflected from the Sword to the torches and instead just cuts straight to the torches being lit.I think there's only one conclusive retcon here and it's the magic in the cave. To me, the magic at the end of S2 felt like fireworks. It was there to generate ooohs and aaahhhs after 3 hours of walking and talking. They were sending the series and the Dreamcast off with a bang. That said, I don't think it's removal means anything narratively. I don't think a theoretical S3 on Dreamcast would've had more magic.
Hmm, I don't think anyone would presume it's shooting towards anything off-screen. There's zero indication of the beam taking a detour. The camera cut from the beam to the torches is instantaneous. Without prior knowledge, the floating sword does not exist in S3's version. I don't think this has any narrative impact though, to be honest.Even then, the magic is still there to a degree...well, sort of. It's been toned down a lot for sure, but we still catch a quick glimpse of the Phoenix Mirror gathering its mystical energy and shooting out a beam towards what we presume to be the Sword (which is currently offscreen)
Yeah, the Sword being 'there' but offscreen is purely my headcanon at work. Someone who played S2's ending could maybe interpret Shenmue 3's intro as an abridged version of the same scene with some bits not recapped.Hmm, I don't think anyone would presume it's shooting towards anything off-screen. There's zero indication of the beam taking a detour. The camera cut from the beam to the torches is instantaneous. Without prior knowledge, the floating sword does not exist in S3's version. I don't think this has any narrative impact though, to be honest.
I suspect that the size of the sword presented a bit of a challenge going forward. Ryo unsheaths his sword in the cave and it's huge (gigidy). Yuan tells Shenhua to "keep it with you" and I was left wondering 'How the heck is Ryo going to walk around with that thing?' I think they wrote themselves into a corner with that one.Same with the sword being shrunk and Shenhua being redesigned. These are admittedly not a huge deal to me, but I still think Yu should have been consistent.
I had considered that, but to be honest I just imagined they could just go with it and expect players to suspend their belief. I mean, how does Ryo fit hundreds of gatcha toys in his bag whilst we're on this train of thought?I suspect that the size of the sword presented a bit of a challenge going forward. Ryo unsheaths his sword in the cave and it's huge (gigidy). Yuan tells Shenhua to "keep it with you" and I was left wondering 'How the heck is Ryo going to walk around with that thing?' I think they wrote themselves into a corner with that one.
Yeah, it was some number of years ago, in an official Sega interview. They interviewed the 3D model artist who made it, and he recounted that he had misinterpreted the direction from Suzuki; Making it too large. When Suzuki saw it he supposedly said, something like, 'It was supposed to be the size of a dagger, though! --Oh well.'I'm sure in an interview I read a while back that the sword was originally supposed to be a small dagger, but the guy designing it made it too big and they were out of time so they were like "I guess it's a sword now".
That's interesting, I haven't seen that intervew. But that would tie in quite nicely with the multiple unused sword models in the game files!Something that always intrigues me about that story is that I also recall an interview discussing Shenmue and Yu Suzuki's influence on the actual hardware design of the Dreamcast. Supposedly one of the reasons development shifted away from the Saturn in the first place was because the team wanted to have a sword fight at one point in the game, and the Saturn couldn't handle it. So there was a specific effort made to ensure that the Dreamcast hardware could allow for this sword fight. This seems to suggest that there may be other swords intended to be introduced in the story.
Personally, I don't expect anything from or out of Yu Suzuki. He's given us all more than enough. I don't think he owes me an interview. I'd just really like to hear more from him. That's all I'm looking for when I cry about interviews. I want to know what he thinks of Shenmue 3 and about the development process. I think the doc. will give me what I'm looking for.