But the story was good. I mean it was nice to finally play a game where you don’t have to learn menus and skill trees and various types of experience points.
Should have invested in YS Net instead of Ninja Theory
- Thread starter SMDzero
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Hey! Are you calling me a Sharon?!
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I liked it enough to finish it, just doesn’t come to mind when I think of Shenmue.
Yeah it just pisses me off that Hellblade gets a sequel with a bigger budget and here we are hoping and praying that it’s a miracle if Shenmue 3 gets a lower budget sequel.
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Well, Hellblade has a few things Shenmue III doesn't have:
- Over a million units sold.
- It was (mostly) well-received critically.
- Ninja Theory has Microsoft behind it, which is literally the biggest company in the world.
But, again, it's kind of a useless conversation and comparison.
- Over a million units sold.
- It was (mostly) well-received critically.
- Ninja Theory has Microsoft behind it, which is literally the biggest company in the world.
But, again, it's kind of a useless conversation and comparison.
Well shit I’ve been saying that Microsoft should buy Sega and everyone fights me at every turn!
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Your whole thing seems to be spouting a bunch of nonsense, honestly. You doing ok?
Well considering I'v been waiting for Shenmue to continue for nearly 1/2 my lifetime I'd say I'm doing as well as can be expected.
I'm seeing sequels to everything under the sun.....Spiderman, GOW, and now even Hellblade and the question (as always) is "where's Shenmue?"
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Spider-Man and GOW are huge hitters with massive appeal and always guarantee to sell well and get more sequels. Shenmue is a much more niche series, so will struggle a lot more to get more games.
As for the points you make about Hellblade, it’s been a few years since I played it, but I remember it being very linear with very few characters, and so it can afford to look better at a smaller budget. Designing and creating a few hundred npcs, plus getting them voice acted and giving them full schedules is going to cost a lot more and take a lot more time, not to mention the semi open world that Shenmue has.
Why can’t Shenmue be a huge hitter too?
A martial arts epic? A classic revenge story? Legends? Prophecies? Niao Sun being the hottest woman in videogames? What the hell makes this niche??
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Shenmue is a slowly paced game where you have to wait for shops to open/events to occur (at least in the first game), drive a forklight, carry books, catch leaves and you can't button mash in fights if you want to be good at combat.
I've always considered Shenmue a marmite game - you either love these things (like all of us) or you just can't get into it. Even when the game was released, I remember reviews being very divisive with people either giving it 10/10 or just 6/10, praising the technological advancements but hating the gameplay. I'd say that's pretty niche.
Action orientated blockbusters based on very well established game franchises are going to appeal a lot more to people.
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I'd say the lack of both commercial success and critical acclaim are what make Shenmue niche.
I may not agree with it, but I certainly agree with the logic of it.
We can speculate about what we believe contributed to the franchise not being embraced by the masses (slow pacing, certain gameplay elements, the fact the first games originally released on a dying console), but we do have to accept the reality that - for a number of reasons - Shenmue currently isn't in the best of health.
Now, winning cures everything and one successful entry could change the whole situation, but we do need a little bit of luck getting that next installment first.
I may not agree with it, but I certainly agree with the logic of it.
We can speculate about what we believe contributed to the franchise not being embraced by the masses (slow pacing, certain gameplay elements, the fact the first games originally released on a dying console), but we do have to accept the reality that - for a number of reasons - Shenmue currently isn't in the best of health.
Now, winning cures everything and one successful entry could change the whole situation, but we do need a little bit of luck getting that next installment first.
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Well Shenmue 3 bombed and the questionable character models, poor animations and general jank turned the series into a meme, so no one wants to touch it, basically.
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I really think the main problem with Shenmue 3 is that people are afraid to touch it. Even some of the old fans who bought it. People nowadays are so influenced by other people's opinion that they are afraid to create their own. Tubers like the one-eyed wolf, epic store scandals fueled by Yong Yeah and others, tarnished the name of the game/series.
How can we turn this public opinion around? Tubers and media don't talk about the game anymore, they only do it when the information is current. We are in a position to change all that.
It might be a good idea for all of us who haven't written positive reviews for the game on Metacritic, Steam, etc. to do so. Also rate and like the game on Playstation Network, GOG, etc. When a game has good ratings despite the mainstream media, gamers take notice. It's all about getting people to try. From there, the game will hook them. :)
Shenmue 3 is not a bad game at all, and even if there is room for improvement, I think it has the potential to appeal to more people. There are many gamers who are looking for this type of experience. Immersion and atmosphere in the game are unique. The point is to continue to support the game and increase its ratings. People will notice and try.
How can we turn this public opinion around? Tubers and media don't talk about the game anymore, they only do it when the information is current. We are in a position to change all that.
It might be a good idea for all of us who haven't written positive reviews for the game on Metacritic, Steam, etc. to do so. Also rate and like the game on Playstation Network, GOG, etc. When a game has good ratings despite the mainstream media, gamers take notice. It's all about getting people to try. From there, the game will hook them. :)
Shenmue 3 is not a bad game at all, and even if there is room for improvement, I think it has the potential to appeal to more people. There are many gamers who are looking for this type of experience. Immersion and atmosphere in the game are unique. The point is to continue to support the game and increase its ratings. People will notice and try.
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it is impossible to turn the public opinion around. The public likes different things. Things are not part of the Shenmue experience. Shenmue is a slow-paced game that requires the player to think to progress. You need to immerse completely into the game to progress.
Modern gaming is about fetching quests and checklists. It is hard to tell good stories with the open-world approach.
To make Shenmue likable by the mainstream you would have to turn it into another average Ubisoft game.
Modern gaming is about fetching quests and checklists. It is hard to tell good stories with the open-world approach.
To make Shenmue likable by the mainstream you would have to turn it into another average Ubisoft game.
spud1897
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It didn't 'bomb' it did financially fine. Did it meet their sales predictions? Probably not but lets not pretend it didn't make some money - it did and that's from the publishers mouth.
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Sounds like spin to me. We can just look at the charting information to see it didn't do well. Publishers don't typically jump and down to announce games they released did badly. Their weak response "it did ok" or whatever the exact words were and the fact they didn't immediately get Ys Net on board to make Shenmue 4 tells us all we need to know.
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If we say that Shenmue 3 sold around 300,000, I think it has the potential to reach at least 1 million. At least 1 million gamers like the slower stories where the player has to think and immerse himself in the game world. There are many similar Shenmue games that sell a million. For example, Life is strange True Colors is a game that takes place in a small town, all NPCs are unique, everyone talks... Locations and shops are full of details. Of course, Shenmue is a much more epic game, but I gave the example above with the idea that there is an audience that enjoys such games.
I think the audience that would love Shenmue either doesn't know about the game yet or is afraid to try it. :)
spud1897
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That's your assumption.
My take is that they know what the market is for Shenmue (average sales per mainline entry of around 500k sales judging by the research and info I could get when doing Shenmue v Yakuza) and that maybe the budget potential for that sort of market isn't quite what YSNET want to realise their creative vision. Keep in mind they have pitched already so who says they didn't get offers? Were those offers what they wanted?
Now there's a question around being realistic here and also getting things done for the community so they have to strike a balance, one I think that can be found.
There's always more than meets the eye with these sorts of things.
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You have a point but I still think that things are not that easy. Games like Life is Strange are new franchises and it is always easier to sell a new franchise to the public compared to an older one.
Most of the younger gamers (the core audience) have never heard about Shenmue. But they grew up with titles like Yakuza and GTA 3.
For most people, GTA 3 was the first truly open-world game and many new gamers see Shenmue just as a cheap copy of Yakuza.
It is really hard to fight a preconceived notion. Shenmue is seen as a big meme for the younger mainstream and for the older mainstream is one of the reasons Sega quit the console business because it was too expensive to make. To make Shenmue work for the mainstream you have to put things into it that the mainstream adores. and as of now, I cannot think of any features that are loved by the mainstream that would not kill off the "Shenmueness" of Shenmue.
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