The Shenmue 3 Review Thread

Kdog4sado said:
Does anyone know how Japan is receiving the game?
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I'm actually curious about that, I vaguely recall reading from people here that japan just outright doesn't care about Shenmue and there isn't much interest in it, but I dont know how true that is.

Riku Rose said:
This game is not going to sell bad because of the scores, the thing that hurt this game most was the first teaser/trailer with the weird faces.
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I'd say its less that first teaser, and its more this game's trailers in general sucked ass, the only decent one, and only decent, was the launch trailer.
 
It’s clear Shenmue 3 really needed that extra time for polishing. The early trailers should have focused on the environments because they’ve been consistently impressive.
 
spud1897 said:
The impact of that trailer didnt help but, that said, people saying this was the finished product and it wouldn't improve and press running with that lie didnt help.
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Sorry but the blame lands not at the press but at the door of the people who put that trailer out. Most games look worse when they come out compared to their trailers so it’s ridiculous to expect people to think it’ll work the other way around in this one case. The saying first impressions matter really does apply. When you meet your future father in law for the first time you make yourself look presentable, you don’t turn up in shit clothes with messy hair and promise him it’ll look better for the wedding.

Your trailer is an ad at the end of the day and should be there to sell the game which it never did, it was there to please fans who had already paid for the game 2 years before. People who watched that with no idea what Shenmue was had nothing to grab them so they aren’t going to keep watching everything about it in hopes it finally does or starts to look interesting. Can anyone show me any promotional material for this game that would make your average person interested in possibly buying it?

I worked on advertising campaigns for an insurance company worth billions of pounds and your aim with any advertising is to convince people to buy your product. The campaign from the start was a mess, the trailers were a mess and the PR around this game has been a mess.
 
Like already mentioned, I don't think anyone here really cares about the score other than "oh cool, it got a nice score" or "aww, it got a shitty score. Weirdo reviewers" .. But now, because we're all hardcore fans, want the franchise to have a future. A good Metacritic is important for curious buyers, publishers and investors. That's why we get upset when it gets a totally unfair review like the one from Polygon, IGN and Jokevideo.

If we were actually upset that not everyone likes Shenmue, like @Riku Rose is insinuating, then we would be mad at the 7/10 it gets. But we aren't.
 
Yu Suzuki def needs a bigger budget and more veteran talents. I hope Sega will let him re-unite with AM2 for S4 and who ever he head-hunted/ex-am2 almuni for S3 as contract workers. I have complete faith it can be revolutionary if YS isn't so handicapped.

ps. Am2 stuck making Miku games/rando arcade ips is a waste of talent. Let these old dogs retire from their career on a high note Sega. Outrun 3, VF6, New Daytona, Shenmue 4+5, Space Harrier 3, and a brand new IP to boot. They should have about a decade or two of juice left if everyone is around YS's age.

ps#2. Miku/border break can be handed off to a diff division. Since they're just cash grabs, I'm sure another up and coming fresh blood can easily carry these Ips while the big boys work on the heavy hitters.
 
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The IGN Japan review is the only one I’ve seen so far that was actually thoughtful about the game. Granted, I know the reviewer is a fan...but yeah, his review is the only one that has actually gave it a thought outside of “it looks like a Dreamcast game” or "it's dated and janky" or (in Giant Bomb's case) "LoL wUtS tHiS sHiT!?"

still waiting for Huber’s thoughts. The only opinion I give a damn about in the mainstream US media when it comes to this game, because everyone else is just repeating the same tired talking points without giving it a singular thought.
 
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One point to keep in mind is that when Yu Suzuki was posed with the question as to what he’d score Shenmue 3 in one of the recent video interviews, his response was 7/10. He's fully aware of the imposed limitations in which he had to work.

As long as the game can sell decently, I fully expect Deep Silver to invest a great deal of money and resources into the franchise. Look at the difference in production values between Metro 2033 and Metro Exodus. The greatest shortfall for the YSNet team was the lack of a technology director, but I expect this position to be filled (along with many others) if we are fortunate enough to see a Shenmue 4.
 
WildManofBorneo said:
One point to keep in mind is that when Yu Suzuki was posed with the question as to what he’d score Shenmue 3 in one of the recent video interviews, his response was 7/10. He's fully aware of the imposed limitations in which he had to work.

As long as the game can sell decently, I fully expect Deep Silver to invest a great deal of money and resources into the franchise. Look at the difference in production values between Metro 2033 and Metro Exodus. The greatest shortfall for the YSNet team was the lack of a technology director, but I expect this position to be filled (along with many others) if we are fortunate enough to see a Shenmue 4.
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Can I get a link to that interview??
 
Riku Rose said:
Sorry but the blame lands not at the press but at the door of the people who put that trailer out. Most games look worse when they come out compared to their trailers so it’s ridiculous to expect people to think it’ll work the other way around in this one case. The saying first impressions matter really does apply. When you meet your future father in law for the first time you make yourself look presentable, you don’t turn up in shit clothes with messy hair and promise him it’ll look better for the wedding.

Your trailer is an ad at the end of the day and should be there to sell the game which it never did, it was there to please fans who had already paid for the game 2 years before. People who watched that with no idea what Shenmue was had nothing to grab them so they aren’t going to keep watching everything about it in hopes it finally does or starts to look interesting. Can anyone show me any promotional material for this game that would make your average person interested in possibly buying it?

I worked on advertising campaigns for an insurance company worth billions of pounds and your aim with any advertising is to convince people to buy your product. The campaign from the start was a mess, the trailers were a mess and the PR around this game has been a mess.
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I'm not saying they should have done it, they shouldn't have done but you're also missing the reasons behind it.

They'd come under increasing pressure to show something from backers and made a badly advised decision in good faith. It wasnt even a considered marketing decision from their view.

It didnt paint the game in the best light but you cannot say the media did not exaggerate the issue. They clearly did.

We all know what advertising is supposed to do so I'm not sure how that helps your point.
 
WildManofBorneo said:
One point to keep in mind is that when Yu Suzuki was posed with the question as to what he’d score Shenmue 3 in one of the recent video interviews, his response was 7/10. He's fully aware of the imposed limitations in which he had to work.

As long as the game can sell decently, I fully expect Deep Silver to invest a great deal of money and resources into the franchise. Look at the difference in production values between Metro 2033 and Metro Exodus. The greatest shortfall for the YSNet team was the lack of a technology director, but I expect this position to be filled (along with many others) if we are fortunate enough to see a Shenmue 4.
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Great point and very true. He was forthcoming about it. (It was the “rapid fire” interview for people that are curious)
 
WildManofBorneo said:
One point to keep in mind is that when Yu Suzuki was posed with the question as to what he’d score Shenmue 3 in one of the recent video interviews, his response was 7/10. He's fully aware of the imposed limitations in which he had to work.

As long as the game can sell decently, I fully expect Deep Silver to invest a great deal of money and resources into the franchise. Look at the difference in production values between Metro 2033 and Metro Exodus. The greatest shortfall for the YSNet team was the lack of a technology director, but I expect this position to be filled (along with many others) if we are fortunate enough to see a Shenmue 4.
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There's major differenced between Metro and Shenmue:
- Metro 2033 reviewed well.
- Deep Silver has more stakes in the franchise.


As for Shenmue III itself... I have yet to finish the game. But reading some impressions there... Eh some reviews aren't surprising me that much. It's true that there are budget shortcomings. But not every issues with the game is about budget issues. Some are direction issues. Some are talent issues. It's obvious a lot of the team is new and Shenmue III might have been their first project. There's a lot of uneven things. And as a whole, it really feels like Yu Suzuki took the opposite direction of what he planned when making Shenmue III.

Baisha was supposed to be where Shenmue III takes place the most and was supposed to push new idea forward. Instead, it's the area that has been scrapped. It basically feels like everything has been put into Niaowu to make it like a "Shenmue" experience as "mini games, shops, bets". But it feels like it was at the expense of the story and character developpement. A lot of things feel wrong so far. And I feel like midway, priority was given to make it a """shenmue""" game, understand it as a "mini game/sim life game" and less about Shenmue at its core: The story, world and character developpement.
 
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