Shenmue 3 Kickstarter

[Reprise]

I have a radical idea. What if the naysayers chill the fuck out and let those of us who are hella excited be hella excited?

Yes, I completely agree! I'm hyped as hell by that trailer. I just got nostalgia from the deadpan facial expressions and anime look. It doesn't bother me in the slightest. I'm also looking forward to the terrible voice acting. Bring it on!

Btw, my response in the last page was to Segata. Sorry, my phone's internet is so slow at my work due to low signal, my post went through after all of you guys' posts.

Also, this is so true and says what I was trying to say much better than I did.

Shenmue always had a cartoony style between real-life and anime, it's just in the Dreamcast days graphics were still so crude that what we got looked hyper-realistic to us at the time.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I don't understand why people work themselves into such a frenzy over games. No Mans Sky is a prime example. I never jumped on the hype train and enjoyed the game just fine for what it was. I got plenty of enjoyment out of it, without stressing about all the politics over what was allegedly "promised" or worrying whether it lived up to the "hype" (a competely self-created construct).

I can see people getting worked up over being dissapointed with a game. Some people put too much hype in, and then feel betrayed when it doesn't live up to their expectations. It's not the most mature thing in the world, but I get why it happens.

Now what I can't understand is people getting super worked up over a game that isn't even out. Being healthily skeptical is one thing (as with NMS, when I didn't really get all the hype since I never understood where the "game" or "fun" parts of it were supposed to be), but outright condemning a whole game based on one teaser trailer seems a bit extreme. For Shenmue, we know absolutely nothing about the actual gameplay so far, and only have what might not even be final product-level visuals. Temper expectations, perhaps, but there's no reason to rip up your pre-orders quite yet.

At least with No Man's Sky the backlash has resulted in a better game. A year later I'd argue it's everything they promised and lots of things they didn't. That wasn't Kickstarter though, that was Sony marketing making pumping up an interesting indie experiment with AAA expectations (and Sean Murray being a little too ambitious for his own good).

I'll admit, I'd actually fogotten NMS wasn't crowdfunded as well! I nearly put it into the "failures" list up above even after some quick research said it wasn't on Kickstarter Xp

[BogusMeatFactory]

Hello everyone... gather around the fire. Let's have a chat. I watched the trailer. I've heard the comments. Let's set those torches down and make kindling for a cozy experience here. Did you feel that the faces were weird? They were, but not because they are bad faces, but because those are clearly placeholders. Don't believe me? They are not rigged for animation at all. I want you to take a good hard look at the fisherman fight scene. Do you see something there? Was it an animated face on the fisherman? Did it look like garbage? No? That is because that was a finished face.

Vocal work is not the first thing done in a game and you shouldn't do a lot of facial animations until that vocal work is finished. The game is still insanely early and I believe the 2018 release date to still be a high bar to finish. When a main character is predominantly featured for 100% of the game, you should not be expecting a finished product when you have theoretically a year and a half to continue working on it. What we saw was a teaser; a progress update and nothing more. You act like what you saw was the game that is coming out in December, which it is not.

The positives are thusly, the environments look spectacular and it looks like the level of detail is there. My largest concern was that the environments would be smaller in scale, but it appears that we will have a nicely sized world to explore. We aren't talking Shenmue 2 in size, but that is okay... the details are there and that is what makes Shenmue so special. We are getting a continuation of the story. I at no point expected an epic AAA visual product; I expected a continuation of the story, with characters that I enjoyed interacting with and a world I enjoyed exploring.

We do live in an age of outrage in video games. Gamers feel entitled when any game doesn't meet their specific requirements. No game can be for everyone, nor should they try to be. Vision and execution of said vision are important. We should always be looking at creator's intent and you can't do that until you experience the game.

Gut reactions do nothing but open yourself up to the petty nature of your person.

Like with the game itself, patience is a virtue and you should let the story of this game's development unfold naturally and just relax. Time will tell.

[Reprise]

Bogus, I think I actually love you

[BogusMeatFactory]

Bogus, I think I actually love you

It is quite alright! I love you too!

[pierrot]

I had a little bit of a sinking feeling in my stomach, yesterday, seeing Mr. Popo as the last poster on both this thread, and the Mighty no. 9 kickstarter thread. I was pleasantly surprised to see a teaser trailer for the game, though. My initial thoughts were that it looks a little rough. That should be somewhat expected at this point, I feel. I was happy to see it now, because it helps to keep my expectations in check. Also, it's nice to see that there is some appreciable progress on the project, even if most of it is probably still in story-boarding, and characters.

I watched the teaser again, a few times, today. It's a little difficult to ignore the faces--I just really want someone to sit down with the Shenmue Passport models, and use them as a guide for modeling the main characters. Ideally, for me, Shenmue III would have been made to run on the Dreamcast, but that's obviously a pretty impractical wish. I'm excited about the world, and environments; Both look quite good at this point. While textures don't really seem to be the issues, I'm a little put off by the 'play-doh clothes.' Ultimately, those are superficial things, though. I'll be happy to see the game release, but I really hope the team is afforded the time needed to actually finish the game. (ie. Not hampered by budgetary constraints, and not capitulating to any outside pressures to release.) I would rather wait ten years for something that at least emulates the look and feel of Shenmue, than get an unceremoniously unfinished game in a year or so.

This is all part of the exciting venture of risk taking, everyone. Enjoy it while you can.

[MrPopo]

I had a little bit of a sinking feeling in my stomach, yesterday, seeing Mr. Popo as the last poster on both this thread, and the Mighty no. 9 kickstarter thread.

Huh? What have I done to incite such dread?

[Segata]

It's one thing to complain about a game you have nothing to do with. It's another when you are deeply financially invested in it by helping it exist.So yeah I have some concern about my investment. I don't make much money. I heavily believed this was worth it because of Shenmue. It's not just this trailer either. Watching the whole KS unfold showed signs of concern. I remember a game dev explaining in a forum somewhere about why fans should be worried when for a period of time they refused to show the models faces. Now they have and probably should have waited several months to show this trailer and done more of a teaser for the environments. Shenmue fans always divide up in the either I love it no matter what they do because it's Shenmue (even back to the Half man half spider with Shenmue online) and those who are labeled as "haters" because they don't worship the ground Yu walks on. Now I put up the same argument when that weird looking muscle bound dude was shown off Shenmue had exaggerated faces before. I was never critical of the style. But the painted on looking eyes. Worse facial animations than Andromeda. Scratch that even ME: A had animations. This has none. Indie game and a year to go or not. They should not have shown them at this stage. Then move past the faces and the animations are really bad. Sure it can be improved on. Still as a whole something in my gut has felt off about this project. Last time I had this gut feeling wasn't wrong. Of course, it can be. At the same time, I have the question, maybe just maybe there is a reason Yu hasn't released a game since the original Shenmue and he's just not able to put a modern game together.

[pierrot]

I had a little bit of a sinking feeling in my stomach, yesterday, seeing Mr. Popo as the last poster on both this thread, and the Mighty no. 9 kickstarter thread.

Huh? What have I done to incite such dread?

You're just a casualty of circumstance, my man. Really, it could have been anyone. You just happened to be the person making those two posts, and I (naturally?) associated you with being a harbinger of doom. That's my bad.

It's another when you are deeply financially invested in it by helping it exist.

You can feel any way you want about it, but I don't think chipping in the same amount as thousands of other people really gives you license to demand a producer's role.

So yeah I have some concern about my investment. I don't make much money. I heavily believed this was worth it because of Shenmue. It's not just this trailer either. Watching the whole KS unfold showed signs of concern. I remember a game dev explaining in a forum somewhere about why fans should be worried when for a period of time they refused to show the models faces. Now they have and probably should have waited several months to show this trailer and done more of a teaser for the environments. Shenmue fans always divide up in the either I love it no matter what they do because it's Shenmue (even back to the Half man half spider with Shenmue online) and those who are labeled as "haters" because they don't worship the ground Yu walks on. Now I put up the same argument when that weird looking muscle bound dude was shown off Shenmue had exaggerated faces before. I was never critical of the style. But the painted on looking eyes. Worse facial animations than Andromeda. Scratch that even ME: A had animations. This has none. Indie game and a year to go or not. They should not have shown them at this stage. Then move past the faces and the animations are really bad. Sure it can be improved on. Still as a whole something in my gut has felt off about this project. Last time I had this gut feeling wasn't wrong. Of course, it can be. At the same time, I have the question, maybe just maybe there is a reason Yu hasn't released a game since the original Shenmue and he's just not able to put a modern game together.

These diatribes all seem a little premature to me. You even seem to be acknowledging that at the same time. I don't disagree that this might not have been the best time to release a teaser trailer, but the development team has been under a fair amount of pressure from backers and fans to show more about their progress. It's probably being interpreted in the wrong light, because of that. Watching it again, it does seem pretty clear that the main characters' faces are just slapped on to have something functional there for the "trailer." I think you're allowing the recency effect to color your feelings on way more than even just this game.

[Betagam7]

At the same time, I have the question, maybe just maybe there is a reason Yu hasn't released a game since the original Shenmue and he's just not able to put a modern game together.

Is Yu Suzuki in charge of the character design? Does he sit down at a computer and personally design the faces of characters? Did he ever? I'd be surprised to read that he did for either of the Shenmue games. Surely that task is assigned to the relevant staff.

Can he make a modern game? A better question would be, "was he tasked with doing so?".

I put my money down for a continuation of a Dreamcast game that I'd almost given up hope of ever seeing a continuation of. I expect it to look slightly prettier than the Dreamcast games that preceded it only because of the technology it is coming out on, which this does. I don't know if it is supposed to look like a 2017 PS4 production or not because I don't own any modern consoles and I don't really care to be honest. I just want to play the next chapter of Shenmue. I'd have paid the same amount for a new Dreamcast game, quite frankly. I'd probably have preferred that to be honest!

Shenmue was once groundbreaking in the graphical department but did people really pay money because they expected it to do the same in 2017? I just want to get on with the damn story.