This final episode was one of contrasts to me.
On one side, I felt the rooftop scene, and the farewell to Hong Kong, was truly great. Not only I didn't mind the changes, but I think they probably are better than the game version of the events. While having Lan Di/Ryo only exchanging glances in the game was badass (and a perfect fit to the deliberate slow buildup structure of the games), the kind of short and unballanced fight they have makes much more sense at this point in the story than at Shenmue 3 ending (which is supposed to be more than halfway into the overall plot).
On the other side, though, I'm a bit devastated about what they did to the Shenhua meeting and the journey to Bailu. I fully understand they probably ran out of screen time, and I didn't expect to get that journey in this episode. However, I would have hoped they hadn't closed the possibility of showing it in the first episode of a new season, when I think it could have been fit very well (there would be plenty of screentime available, and the need for a big event to kickstart the season). They could have played with the flashback/flashforward structure, as they have done during the whole season. But they chose to "eliminate" all that physical space in anime Guilin.
There are too many important and iconic moments during that story segment, like the butterflies as "flying flowers", the jog to escape dusk, the firework conversation, Shenhua singing at night, Ryo practising Taichi, the lullaby pond, the flying dandelions scene, etc. I'm not sure how could they compensate for all these losses in a future season, once Ryo and Shenhua already know each other and have been in the cave already.
Anyway, overall I really enjoyed the anime. This has been an exception because I think I agree and I enjoyed all the other changes they did during the series.
Overall really enjoyed the Anime, as a fan this has been a real treat. Objectively however, it's an ok anime at best, the pacing is what kills it.
While I absolutely loved the new character development that we never see in the games, overall there is still a lack of character development.
I often was wondering that while seeing the anime. That if I was a new viewer I would probably be complaining about having so many characters in such a short time. I'm not a frequent anime watcher, but is that a thing in other shows?