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Shenmue III is almost Exactly what you would expect from a game called Shenmue III
Shenmue III is the sequel that Shenmue fans have been waiting for. Much of the soul that made the first Shenmue games what they were can be found here. If you are familiar with those gams, playing through the slow, leisurely pace of Shenmue III will feel right at home.
This is a game that is far behind the times however. I relic from the early 2000’s that will likely have trouble relating to gamers of today. For Shenmue fans this game provides a satisfying new chapter in the Shenmue story. For everyone else, this game outdates, poorly acted, and quite possibly tedious.
The Game That Never Was
For the last 18 years, Shenmue fans have been holding out hope for a continuation of the series, I count myself amongst those fans.Though over the years my attachment to the franchise has lessened, (18 years is a long time and a lot of amazing games have come out since then) during the time period in which Shenmue I and II were released the series was unquestionably, my favorite of all time.
When Shenmue first debuted on the Sega Dreamcast, there was simply nothing like it. For the first time in my life I experienced a realistically simulated open world game. A place that was rich with life and characters who seemed to have their own lives that they lived out in real time. Simply put, I was blown away. It was real life in a video game form.
After that opening scene with main protagonist Ryo’s father and Lan Di I was hooked. I was determined to make Lan Di pay the debt of murdering Ryo’s father no matter where the journey took me. Getting to that ultimate showdown became an obsession, not unlike Ryo’s in the game.
Alas, after Shenmue II word was quiet on the Shenmue III front. Sure, we felt like it would happen somehow, maybe through Xbox, but Microsoft failed to finances a third game after getting exclusive rights to port the second.
Sega seemed to move on to other series like Yakuza. Sega’s support behind the Yakuza series while leaving Shenmue in the dust was the major source for my initial distaste the Yakuza series. A foolish notion that I thankfully got over a couple years later when I decided to give Yakuza a shot.
As the years went by, that certain feeling that Shenmue III would eventually see the light of day began to fade. I moved on, got lost in other game franchises. It was fine. Shenmue was done, it was what it was, the series had a good run.
Then E3 2015 happened.
How is Shenmue III 18 Years After Shenmue II?
So here we are. Shenmue III is sitting on my PlayStation 4 hard drive right now. I have been played the game through to completion As a diehard old school Shenmue fan, what do I think of the game? Did it meet my expectations? Well, the best way I can sum up what define the feeling of Shenmue III is to say that it feels a lot like Shenmue III.
Although many of it’s fans have moved on, Shenmue III makes it apparent that Shenmue as a series has not. At least not in the many significant ways that gaming as a whole has evolved in the last 18 years. This is a game that feels like a Dreamcast game. It feels like a direct follow up to Shenmue II that could have been released in 2003.
Sure there are some big leaps when you compare both games side by side. The Graphics are much improved over the previous titles, that is a given however when you factor in the huge swath of time between games.
The visuals in Shenmue III won’t stun anyone who is used to playing games in this current generation. They aren’t bad, they pop and the aesthetic is quite nice but they aren’t anything to write home about. They are totally acceptable and get the job done but they also seem to capture some of that elusive ephemeral dreamcast feeling.
The day to day base gameplay of moving through the environment, talking to people, and interacting with the world are all very similar to how they played in the previous Shenmue games.
The biggest and most jarring change, at least in the early game, is the fighting engine. Unfortunately, Sega has had no hand in developing Shenmue III. That would mean that the Virtua Fighter engine that was behind the previous Shenmue games is absent in this one. A new engine has taken its place and it definitely feels different.
Gone are the complex button and directional combinations of previous games. There are also no more throws or parrys. All moves are now done through face button combinations and once you master a move through enough sparring, you can assign it to one of 5 slots which can be activated during a fight with just a single button press.
Early on I was quite disappointed with the change and did not like the new fighting system. After playing around with it a lot more throughout the duration of the game, I think it’s solid. In some ways it’s better than the old engine but I really miss the ability to parry. When your attacks do land however, they feel good.
Yu Suzuki, the creator of Shenmue has used his own studio, Y’s Net, to make this game. Most of the significant changes from the original games are in large part because this isn’t an official Sega game. There are still a few references here and there but not to the degree of the older titles.
The voice acting in this game is not on par with what gamers are accustomed to today. It’s not simply a matter of voice acting talent, it’s direction, it’s how lines are delivered. There are many awkward pauses and off key reactions.
Nearly every conversation has a strange cadence to it. The voice work comes across as low budget and flat out poorly executed. These impressions are not off. Shenmue III does have a stunningly low budget when compared to AAA games of this era.
Shenmue I and II had teams of around 300 people working on them. The games had cutting edge graphics, full voiceover (which was not commonplace in 1999), and a fully realized detailed world. The budget for Shenmue I was one of the biggest in gaming history at the time of the game’s creation.
There are intricate details built into the first Shenmue that even in today’s games would be difficult to recreate. Shenmue III’s development has not had nearly the same scale of resources as the early games.
With all of that said, it’s no wonder that Shenmue III feels like a low budget effort because in fact it is.
So we have established that the game’s graphics aren’t great.
The way the voice acting is implemented is sub par by today’s standards.
The gameplay for the most part is archaic.
Is Shenmue 3 a bad game?
Not at all, but a part of that depends on your perspective. Shenmue III feels like a direct, natural progression to the Shenmue series. It’s just that in 2019, gaming has made so many strides on the production front, this game is really outdated.
Shenmue III is essentially what the third Shenmue game would have been like had it released in say, 2003. Yu Suzuki ignores much of the last 20 years of video game conventions.
For hardcore Shenmue fans, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This game has the soul of Shenmue. Those poor graphics? For the most part come across as damn good Shenmue graphics.
That sub par acting? It’s almost exactly the same as it is in the previous games and Shenmue veteran’s such as myself feel instantly at home hearing it.
The music is the same ultra high quality of the old Shenmue games. Old themes return as well as some new pieces that fit right in.
This game is quite remarkable. Yu Suzuki has decided to make a direct continuation to a title he last seriously worked on almost two decades ago and somehow he and his team have managed to pick up right where they left off.
Known as the series that pioneered the quick time even in games, Shenmue III brings that back. I don’t know if it was just me getting older but I seemed to struggle with the QTE’s quite a bit in this game. It was not a big deal though as there is practically zero punishment for screwing a QTE up.
Your character will mess up and essential fail their goal but the game just starts the sequence over again with the same button inputs. I don’t think its possible to fail a QTE in this game and move on with the story which was not the case during some of the QTE’s of earlier games.
Most of the modern conventions of gaming we have gained in the last several years are ignored here. There has been a deliberate choice to do so. Fans have been clamoring for Shenmue III and this game is exactly that as we would have gotten it, all those years ago.
That’s admirable. Whether through necessity or conscious choice from the outset, the decision to stick to the series roots shines through.
I don’t know if most Shenmue fans were expecting or wanting something vastly updated. Y’s Net probably knew they couldn’t make that game anyway, not with this budget. 6 million dollars can’t buy you a AAA game but it can buy a AAA game that could have been made 20 years ago.
Though they have done a really great job of making this game feel like the old ones, they couldn’t capture all of the magic. As mentioned before, the fighting engine is different. It’s not much worse but I do think it could have been smoother. Defense in particular seems far too basic.
One of the best things about the first Shenmue game, the marvelously simulated lives of each individual NPC, are toned down in this game. For the first half or so of the game you are in a small village, here is a perfect example where that simulation engine could be put in place but it’s absent.
In Shenmue I, the NPC’s didn’t do the exact same thing every day, they were not simple window dressing. Great detail was put into them to make them feel like a simulated group of people with their own thing going on.
In Shenmue III I see the same characters in the same places every day, doing the same things. That deep layers of simulation and world building are absent this time around. The game does enough to produce a solid illusion that you are in a living world, character do mill about to some degree but there is little purpose behind it.
An understandable compromise. This is a low budget game after all and so many games have copied that ordingal magic trick that it wouldn’t be all that special to most players today. It’s a small concession but for a hardcore fan like myself, it’s an important detail that is missed.
I liked Shenmue III a lot and had a great time playing it
Do I recommend Shenmue III? I absolutely do but there is a caveat. Are you a Shenmue fan? Does the idea of playing a lower budget game not bother you? If you say yes to those questions then Shenmue is a game worth looking into.
If you are a person that really appreciates the modern conventions of gaming like great voice work, a super refined HUD, tight, crisp gameplay. Then Shenmue III may not be the title for you.
Like all the Shenmue games this one runs at a languid pace. There is a lot of walking, a lot of asking, and a lot of time spent doing mini games if you so desire. There are some features added that make things speed along faster than the older games but Shenmue III is still not great at respecting your time.
Shenmue veterans, you know what you are in for. If like me you enjoy the slow, laid back approach. You enjoy spending time playing mini games to make more money or increase certain skills, then you will probably find something to like here.
Everything about the game will be familiar to you. Animations may be a bit different, the environment will be new, but you will know that you are back in the Shenmue universe.
Shenmue III seems to have achieved its goal. It has given fans of the series what they have been asking for, another chapter in the saga of Ryo Hazuki and his world of 1980’s Asia. Many of the same voice actors have returned, the music is familiar, and most of the game flow feels just as it always had.
Shenmue III is the truest of sequels, it doesn’t flip anything on it’s head it doesn’t reinvent the wheel. If that’s a bad or good thing it’s up to the individual player to decide.
For me, this is the game I wanted when I was a teenager but never received. All those years ago I vowed to see this journey through no matter how long it took.
18 years later it’s apparent that I still had interest in honoring that vow and I am so happy I got to take the next step in fulfilling it. The story of Shenmue does not end here however. Who knows if and when we will get the next game but even if it takes another 18 years, like Ryo I’ll be there to uphold my commitment and see this thing through.
Are you a Shenmue fan? Have you played Shenmue III? What are you thoughts? Share em here or hit me up on twitter.
Shenmue III is currently available on the PlayStation 4 and PC. Shenmue I and II HD can be purchased on PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One. If you have Xbox Game Pass, you can play Shenmue I and II HD right now.
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