Magic Monaco Press Conference March 9th 2019 Part 2 Discussion and Reaction

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mjqjazzbar said:
Obviously not liking how things look doesn’t make anyone a narcissist. We all have opinions. That’s not narcissism.
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No, but question the whole project just because they don't like the way some characters look is.
this game will never have "realistic" artstyle and graphics we knew it all along.
Can't see why the big fuss.
 
The game would’ve been bashed and been called lazy if it looked and played like a Dreamcast game.

They really had no way out of this without upsetting somebody or some people.

Hoping this would ever appeal to millions of people and ensure Shenmue IV would achieve a AAA budget was unrealistic no matter what approach they took.

I’m still waiting for the actual game.

Obviously not liking how things look doesn’t make anyone a narcissist. We all have opinions. That’s not narcissism.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
The game would’ve been bashed and been called lazy if it looked and played like a Dreamcast game.

They really had no way out of this without upsetting somebody or some people.
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You're right, the only two options were "Dreamcast graphics" and "cartoon characters". There was definitely no third option, like keeping the same artstyle as Ryo, Shenhua, and Lan Di have. That'd be silly.
 
mjqjazzbar said:
The game would’ve been bashed and been called lazy if it looked and played like a Dreamcast game.
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Yep. The game gets lazy "lol looks like a Dreamcast game/PS2 game" now already, which is obviously an argument based on hyperbole, but imagine if it actually did.

Low poly artstyles are getting *some* kind of positive recognition as a throwback, but I'm not sure it's at the point where something that looked like Shenmue could come out and be appreciated for it.
 
I’ve not had the blind belief in Yu Suzuki most people have had during development, the guy hasn’t made a game that anyone’s played in over 15 years apart from some stuff like mobile games.

I played Shenmue I back in August and I’m currently slowly playing through Shenmue II again in anticipation of III.

I have to say that after watching this trailer I have no worries right now that this will be a worthy sequel to Shenmue II as it seems to be hitting the right notes for me and I’m sure come August I’ll be sitting with a big grin on my face playing this. The one thing I’d still like to see is some footage of Ryo just walking about to see what that now looks like. Other then that I’m happy to see nothing else until release.

My main complaint is the dialogue seems about two console generations behind. Playing Kingdom Hearts 3 straight after Red Dead 2 and Spiderman it felt like that series was still stuck in the PS2 days when it came to writing and performance which I worry this will also feel like where the words being said don’t come across as natural, but more line after line being said with awkward pauses between.

I also still don’t understand the marketing of this game and haven’t from the start of the Kickstarter. People can say this trailer is for the fans but people who have already paid for the game don’t need a trailer. A trailer is something to sell the game and everytime you release a trailer which doesn’t sell the game to newbies of the series the less of them who will look at the next trailer and possibly buy the game. They can keep saying marketing will go full throttle soon but less and less people will pay attention when you go full throttle if you keep releasing stuff that they aren’t interested or hooked by it. First impressions matter.

My main worry isn’t whether Shenmue III will be good as after this trailer I’m sure I’ll love it, I just worry the game won’t sell great with the terrible marketing and this will be it for the series.
 
I believe once the game is out and people play it they will get used to its artstyle. After some hours they will probably get used to it and maybe love it.
It's all new and different now.
I think people create images in their heads of how they think things should look (expectations) and then, confronted with the reality yhey become disapointed and start to criticize.
Keep expectations in check. Thats what I do. I don't imagine things. I wait and see what they are doing once they shhow it. And it happens that so far I love it all.
Shenmue 3 will no be the based on your imeginations nor expectatiuons. Shenmue 3 will be the result of thousands and thousands of hours of many people working on it. So in one way or another, will never fit in your preconcieved ideias.
 
Personally, I agree that the game is continuing with its original art direction and the main difference now is that the 3D artists now have the increased poly count in order to craft character models with higher fidelity to the original, hand-drawn designs. I also agree that this diversity of character design, from semi-realistic to more exaggerated and stylized, is an established style of manga and anime. I remember the first time I noticed it and was intrigued by it, when watching Star Blazers (Space Battleship Yamato) and then subsequently through the years with various Studio Ghibli films.

But even if you feel that something has changed, what else can be said other than... you're not an art director on Shenmue III. YsNet is designing the game and I think they should follow through with their vision.

I like the idea that a crew of modders will be springing into action later this year to reduce the nose size of certain characters. Put your money where these characters' broad, stylized mouths are - and change them to your personal tastes! Everyone wins.
 
i cant really tell yet if i like the new characters / the model style or not.
i mean there are only about five (!) new characters in the trailer. i have no idea what the other 500 or whatever look like.
and i need to see third person gameplay. how Ryos walking animation looks like, how the other people are walking around,
hows the lighting in different times of day, can you talk to everyone, can you walk into every building,
whats the feeling of this game world.

Shenmue is 99% walking around and talking to a lot of people.
talking to a lot of people, not only five.

i havent seen any of the actual typical Shenmue gameplay for Shenmue 3 besides 5 seconds of fighting.
for me there is not enough footage for a final oppinion. i need to see the game,
not some small snippets of random dialogues.
 
First impression: I must say considering the "Magic will be EPIC for Shenmue 3!"/"So much more to come!" promises by Cedric, I found the conference underwhelming. 1 screenshot and 3 semi-newish details: fishing, bigger scale and old moves. Then suddenly: "Conference over! Wait until the end for the trailer!" Very weak if I'm being honest. Also, despite Cedric tweeting images of the glorious current build to drum up anticipation, the trailer was of an older build. Why???

Putting all that aside, I did really enjoy the trailer. I'm satisfied with the art style and how everything looks so much like Shenmue (I'm trying to remember there's a more improved version out there), the new fighting system looks really cool, hearing Ryo's Japanese voice actor speak again was a treat and I know I'm in love with this game already despite having not even picked up a controller yet.

Now I'm wondering...what do we wait for next? E3?
 
I don’t get how people aren’t freaking out over how good this looks, though.

giphy.gif
 
Agree above the trailer was an old build and a fan service and likely a contractual obligation to Magic. Now that's done Deep Silver will run the show.

Lack of extended gameplay doesn't fuss me. Plenty of gaming journalists have played a build of it at Monaco and have tweeted publically there's much more to come. There were viewings of 10-20minutes of actual gameplay.

Also for example we saw bugger all of Red Dead 2 before release and that turned out fine. If it's delayed fine, but until that's confirmed it's purely speculation.

Personally I'm getting off the plane and onto the hype train!
 
Revan said:
First impression: I must say considering the "Magic will be EPIC for Shenmue 3!"/"So much more to come!" promises by Cedric, I found the conference underwhelming. 1 screenshot and 3 semi-newish details: fishing, bigger scale and old moves. Then suddenly: "Conference over! Wait until the end for the trailer!" Very weak if I'm being honest. Also, despite Cedric tweeting images of the glorious current build to drum up anticipation, the trailer was of an older build. Why???

Putting all that aside, I did really enjoy the trailer. I'm satisfied with the art style and how everything looks so much like Shenmue (I'm trying to remember there's a more improved version out there), the new fighting system looks really cool, hearing Ryo's Japanese voice actor speak again was a treat and I know I'm in love with this game already despite having not even picked up a controller yet.

Now I'm wondering...what do we wait for next? E3?
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Exactly what I think.
WildManofBorneo said:
I posted this in the other thread but you can see just how little the art style has changed. The fidelity of the Shenmue universe is clearly intact.View attachment 2298
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Yes!! Tho, now looks much better ;)
 
Finally the forum is working and I have time to reply...

About the trailer, I have been a little bit disappointed but I think the trailer is fine. Here are my Pros and Cons:

Pros:

- The game will really feel like Shenmue.
- The story seems to keep it up well with where it ends. Still intriguing.
- Landi look awesome!
- The landscape are magnificent.
- Ryo and Shenhua needs a bit of improvement but if it remains the same I would still be happy.

Cons:

- No real gameplay in this trailer.
- This trailer seems to be a part of another trailer (I think I also read this in someone's post).
- Characters seems to be a little stiff sometimes.

Considering this is a kickstarter game, I am happy with the development. Yes, it's not perfect and it won't be. But I remember when I gave a lot of money to the kickstarter: All I wanted is a game, to know what would happen in the third game. No matter what was the quality.

To finish this post, I would like to attract your attention on something. In the trailer, the events seems to be in a chronological order.

At a certain moment, we see this conversation:

shenmue.jpg

An old person (probably a lady because of her voice) says to Ryo that "it's ancient history". For now, this kind of answer can lead to a lot of speculations.

This lady is old and we know that Ryo's dad had been there before. Is it possible she knows Iwao? Also, so far, we don't really know about Iwao whereabouts in China. Is it possible that Iwao had a relationship with this lady? What about Ryo's mom? If I remember the story properly we don't know much about her...

So many questions who needs to be answered!!!!
 
WildManofBorneo said:
I posted this in the other thread but you can see just how little the art style has changed. The fidelity of the Shenmue universe is clearly intact.View attachment 2298
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I don't think anyone is complaining about the way Lan Di looks (at least I hope not, he looks perfect imo) but the way some of the other NPCs do, they do look like they're from a different game than Lan Di, Ryo and Shenhua's models.
 
There was a small part in the trailer where Ryo mentions that Iwao was killed and Shenhua does a small gasp. It was a very small detail, and the fact that tiny things like that will be in the game makes me pretty confident that it'll be polished by release.
 
Willom said:
I thought this was the best part of the trailer. It looks so fluid.
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As it should. Yu Suzuki only invented the 3D Fighter.

I still remember the first time I saw Virtua Fighter at the arcades, my mind was blown. I can recall it like it were yesterday. And come to think of it, the colors of that game feature the same tone as Shenmue 3 does. Not realistic, but so vivid and cheerful! I'll never forget it.
 
When it comes to the artstyle of NPCs, I'm a bit torn because I do feel like although slightly caricaturized Shenmue 1 and 2 leaned a bit more towards realism in this respect than what we've been seeing for Shenmue 3, and I feel like those designs matched the slightly more colorful ideal beauty of the environments better. Buuuut from what Yu has said about Shenmue 3 he wants each NPC to have more character, personality, and presence. One way to help emphasize this is with each character's appearance standing out more. Otherwise you run the risk of NPCs just kind of blending on with each other more and each becoming more of an object, less of a individual.

I think the slightly more exaggerated features of NPCs was a conscience decision by Yu that helps tie into the rapport systems and mechanics we know will be present in the game through interacting with NPCs. If it was me and from the little we've seen I think I'd rather the NPCs were slightly less caricaturized to match the general artstyle better, but I feel like I can understand why this approach was taken.
 
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