This comes so close to capturing the magic of the original two games.
It was pretty jarring to go straight into this after playing I & II, as the controls have been given a more modern feel to them. Combat is much more fluid rather than cramming the Virtua Fighter system into it like the previous two. Modern players might find Shenmue III a struggle to get on with immediately, as it doesn’t have all of the same quality of life features that other action RPGs do. But I think if it did have these features, it would take away more of that Shenmue magic.
Combat is much more welcoming to newcomers in this entry. As mentioned, the control scheme has been drastically changed and, should you want to, you can just button mash your way through fights. However it’s strongly recommended you take the time to train, because if you don’t, all your button mashing will be for naught.
It also looks fantastic. Especially when you consider it's from last gen and was a Kickstarter project. Some of the choices on the character model designs are questionable to say the least, but when this game shines it really shines. There's a particular QTE where you chase someone across some tables that I failed because I was in awe of how good it looked.
As with the other Shenmue games, there’s plenty of things to do to pass the time. In Shenmue III however, I felt that the extra curricular activities all meant something and led somewhere. Take the herb collecting. A very mundane activity (that desperately needs some sort of interactive map so you know where you have already collected them from) that reaps massive benefits. Herbs can be exchanged for skill books to learn new moves and increase your kung fu levels and also be sold as sets for quite a nice chunk of change. While practising horse stance might feel like the dullest thing possible, it’s really worth your time as it will increase your endurance and health. It’s all these little activities that seem pointless on the surface but actually help you massively that make Shenmue what it is.
Obviously a massive gripe is that the story finishes on yet another cliffhanger (and at the time of writing, Shenmue IV doesn’t look like it’s happening) but another problem I had is that there isn’t enough threat from the big bads. The story is paced well and balances the low stakes of the moment to moment beats with the overall higher stakes nicely. It’s just that you always feel as though the bad guys aren’t bad enough. No spoilers, but two of the main bad guys that show up towards the end come across as a bit too little, too late. On the plus side, Shenmue III has leaned more into its ‘wackiness’ and embraced what was considered cheesy in the previous games. Failing some of the quick time events yields great slapstick moments and Ryo seems more aware of some of the more ridiculous NPCs and their dialogue, mirroring what we as the audience are probably thinking.
I’m so glad we got this game. The first two were so important to me, and still are. All these years later, and with the help of the fans, we finally got Shenmue III. I’ll still keep hoping for IV.
It was pretty jarring to go straight into this after playing I & II, as the controls have been given a more modern feel to them. Combat is much more fluid rather than cramming the Virtua Fighter system into it like the previous two. Modern players might find Shenmue III a struggle to get on with immediately, as it doesn’t have all of the same quality of life features that other action RPGs do. But I think if it did have these features, it would take away more of that Shenmue magic.
Combat is much more welcoming to newcomers in this entry. As mentioned, the control scheme has been drastically changed and, should you want to, you can just button mash your way through fights. However it’s strongly recommended you take the time to train, because if you don’t, all your button mashing will be for naught.
It also looks fantastic. Especially when you consider it's from last gen and was a Kickstarter project. Some of the choices on the character model designs are questionable to say the least, but when this game shines it really shines. There's a particular QTE where you chase someone across some tables that I failed because I was in awe of how good it looked.
As with the other Shenmue games, there’s plenty of things to do to pass the time. In Shenmue III however, I felt that the extra curricular activities all meant something and led somewhere. Take the herb collecting. A very mundane activity (that desperately needs some sort of interactive map so you know where you have already collected them from) that reaps massive benefits. Herbs can be exchanged for skill books to learn new moves and increase your kung fu levels and also be sold as sets for quite a nice chunk of change. While practising horse stance might feel like the dullest thing possible, it’s really worth your time as it will increase your endurance and health. It’s all these little activities that seem pointless on the surface but actually help you massively that make Shenmue what it is.
Obviously a massive gripe is that the story finishes on yet another cliffhanger (and at the time of writing, Shenmue IV doesn’t look like it’s happening) but another problem I had is that there isn’t enough threat from the big bads. The story is paced well and balances the low stakes of the moment to moment beats with the overall higher stakes nicely. It’s just that you always feel as though the bad guys aren’t bad enough. No spoilers, but two of the main bad guys that show up towards the end come across as a bit too little, too late. On the plus side, Shenmue III has leaned more into its ‘wackiness’ and embraced what was considered cheesy in the previous games. Failing some of the quick time events yields great slapstick moments and Ryo seems more aware of some of the more ridiculous NPCs and their dialogue, mirroring what we as the audience are probably thinking.
I’m so glad we got this game. The first two were so important to me, and still are. All these years later, and with the help of the fans, we finally got Shenmue III. I’ll still keep hoping for IV.