Shenmue III Release Topic

[pierrot]

The time is nearly upon us, gentlefolk! Have you finished screaming your head off in anticipation yet?

It's no longer a dream. It is real. So let's get all up in that Shenmue III game playing talk!


---

I'm unfortunately still in the third disc of my replay of Shenmue II. I'm hoping to finish it up between today and tomorrow, so that I can technically start Shenmue III on the release day, but it's kind of tough, because I love the Kowloon setting so much, and keep getting distracted by street fights, the pachinko museum, and just the incredible scenery. I really have to finish it first, though, because I realized there's way too much I forgot about this game. This is not even remotely a series about a teenager getting revenge for his father's death. That's just a really lazy description from someone who only remembers the first five minutes of the first game. I'm way more excited about Shenmue III now that I'm getting reacclimated to all the intrigue with the Shiyuumon (I don't remember what that group is called in the English version). That final trailer kind of brought back memories of the trailer for Shenmue Online, as well. There's so much going on here! I'm still feeling pretty optimistic that it won't be a let down once more of the answers to the mysteries are revealed.

I'm also still in the process of figuring out if I'll be able to get my PS4 vouchers switched out for EGS vouchers, for the in-game rewards. I'm crossing my fingers for good news on that front.

[Sload Soap]

I've not been very impressed with any of the footage so far of Shenmue III so am reserving judgement until a few reviews come in. I don't wish the game or its backers any particular malice but since its inception there have been red flags that have had me worried, which is a shame as I am a fan of the previous two games.

[pierrot]

Wait, what? Really? What don't you like the look of? What red flags? I thought there were already some reviews of it up. I haven't wanted to look into any, because I really don't want any of my impressions tainted by media. I've also "spoiled" more than enough of it for myself with all the lead-up promotional materials.

[Segata]

I have been playing it today on PS4. I got it early. It's very much a game from 1999 with modern graphics. It's a nice looking game. I don't like that Ryo has a hunger meter . His HP naturally goes down unless you feed him. Kinda like Super Hydlide. The VA is what you expect from Shenmue. So I switched it to Japanese VA. These are a couple of screens I took on PS4.

[Reprise]

I've not been very impressed with any of the footage so far of Shenmue III so am reserving judgement until a few reviews come in. I don't wish the game or its backers any particular malice but since its inception there have been red flags that have had me worried, which is a shame as I am a fan of the previous two games.

Sounds like you might have bought into the obvious smear campaigns led by the clickbait media that have obviously had it in for Shenmue 3 since day 1.

Anyways, I got it yesterday (a day early), have put about 6 hours into the game so far and for the moment I LOVE it. It's everything I hoped and dreamed Shenmue 3 would be and more. I get it won't be a game for everyone, but as a Shenmue game, it is a fantastic addition to the series and feels every bit as good as the originals. There is no other game out there like Shenmue. Maybe there's a reason for that... but I love it regardless.

I'll post more of my thoughts once I get further into the story (yes, I'm getting distracted by side quests and side activities).

[MrPopo]

I've not been very impressed with any of the footage so far of Shenmue III so am reserving judgement until a few reviews come in. I don't wish the game or its backers any particular malice but since its inception there have been red flags that have had me worried, which is a shame as I am a fan of the previous two games.

Sounds like you might have bought into the obvious smear campaigns led by the clickbait media that have obviously had it in for Shenmue 3 since day 1.

Holy shit, paranoid much?

[pierrot]

Holy shit, paranoid much?

No, not really. I don’t know if it was actually a coordinated effort, or just your garden variety herd mentality, but following the development of the game, it was pretty clear that there was a contingent of people working pretty tirelessly to take any little thing they could find, that could even remotely be interpreted as a gaffe, and blow it wildly out of proportion.

I have no idea If Sload was influenced by any of that, but I am really curious about his specifics. I’m not here to judge, but I don’t really see how this could have turned away fans of the series.

To kind of preempt the argument about the story not being finished with this game: It’s about the journey, not the destination. I know a lot of fans never gave up, and that’s mainly the reason we even have Shenmue III now, but after about ten years, I had come to terms with the story potentially never being finished. It wouldn’t have changed, in my estimation, that the Shenmue series was, and still would be, better than just about any other games out there.


Glad to see you’re enjoying it so far, Reprise. At some point I imagine it will turn Segata’s, and Sload’s frowns upside down.

[Segata]

I'm getting used to the HP dropping. Maybe when the game gets more intense will it be an issue but as for now. ROaming the quaint village it's not a big deal. The chopping wood mini game is really fun. Best job mini game in the series.

[Reprise]

I've not been very impressed with any of the footage so far of Shenmue III so am reserving judgement until a few reviews come in. I don't wish the game or its backers any particular malice but since its inception there have been red flags that have had me worried, which is a shame as I am a fan of the previous two games.

Sounds like you might have bought into the obvious smear campaigns led by the clickbait media that have obviously had it in for Shenmue 3 since day 1.

Holy shit, paranoid much?

I can't even be arsed with listing every single example of inaccurate and misleading information that has been regurgitated and spread in the gaming media over the past 4 years. I'll quote some examples presented by some of the members of Shenmue Dojo though, so hope that's ok.

Come on, the media (all outlets) publish shit all the time. Some are better than others, some are a cesspit. You think it's not the same in gaming media?

That's fine.

I couldn't really think of a better way to describe it tbh. Those early days of "OMG SONY FUNDING THE GAME" stuff really just soured me on the quality of reporting being done, because half the time journos were just citing each other from different sources, until it finally came down to a writer's conjecture based on vague comments from Sony.

Like this stuff was categorically disproven multiple times, especially once the fans got involved asking questions to Cedric; who often gave very blunt and definitive answers about what was correct and what was not.

Initial questions are why the budget statement was produced early in the Kickstarter. Didn't really stop the press just running with whatever they felt like before and after though. Patrick Klepek at Kotaku pretty flatly came to the conclusion that Sony were providing all the funding outside of Kickstarter thanks to some incredibly vague comments from Sony. This sort of reporting went on for a long time without anybody really bothering to probe into the specifics.

A lot of the press simply just regurgitated that article and the Polygon one floating around at the time, without them actually proving, well, anything. It's unfortunately why, despite multiple instances of it being disproven, the myth that Sony partly funded the game continues. The press said what they wanted to, didn't follow up, and just cited inaccurate articles from each other over and over.

Pretty sure a journo from a semi-major publication plucked a figure out of the air that Sony were providing and just ran with it like fact. No source, just conjecture. They later strutted around in 2017 with the "I WAS RIGHT" stuff once Deep Silver joined the project... despite this actually disproving that Sony's money was backing the project up all along, and completely ignoring that this additional investor was only found two years after the Kickstarter completed and not waiting in the shadows this whole time.

The "SLACKER BACKERS WON'T GET THEIR REWARDS" reporting that's already been mentioned was kind of the final nail in the coffin for expecting fairness from the games press. Some major publications ran with that story, which hinged entirely on misrepresenting the truth and not literally spending a minute reading a previous KS update to understand the context. It was beyond shameful work from publications you would expect better of.

That's not even to mention Eurogamer's (who have had generally great coverage of S3 since) awful "I could do with a bit more money!" headline in a late 2015 interview with Yu Suzuki. The interview itself was great and revealed the personal lengths Yu was pushing himself to with an intense work schedule, but the headline was awful exploitation of the hubbub that came around months before that, and made the discourse around the content beyond toxic and just another stick to beat the project and its creator with.

And like... it's not as if these things have only been proved untrue with time. They were bullshit when they were written. Fans knew it, and we had sources to back it up, but any attempts to speak about it were basically met with ridicule from journos on Twitter doing "lol, fanboys, you don't know anything, *I* understand the industry much better than you" mockery instead of even considering for a second they might have been wrong.

I was there, I saw that shit happening in 2015, and I largely got involved in the community because of it. I'm glad you have a more positive experience knowing games media people personally, but for many of us our opinions were soured by the shockingly bad standard of reporting in the early days; some of which has continued to follow the game ever since.

I agree with the YouTube bit.

The rest well it's been going on for 4 years. First media spreading inaccurate information about who was funding what.

Secondly how many of these negative articles even use current screens? Come on. Some are stuck on 2017 pictures.

Thirdly the breaking of the "Shenmue III wont conclude the series" no shit sherlock. Acting like it's a shock when it isn't. I appreciate that for new fans it's good to know but the tone of this articles is consistently derogatory.

The epic controversy, how many articles said Steam was promised during the kickstarter when it wasnt, people assumed steam at the time. The surveys etc fair enough.

The USGamer preview where she took a massive shit on the game, was then challenged and then admitted she hated the first games anyway & then deleted said comment.

Not all journalists are like of course not but we've seen our fair share of ones who have simply written things for a reaction and Shenmue has, for years, been a go to for that in the gaming media.

Edit: Also this article, that actually provided context and balance when covering the Epic "controversy": https://www.megavisionsmag.com/fact-che ... ii-bedlam/

[Reprise]

Sorry, I am aware I look insane. It's what Shenmue does to you.