Nearly 20 years ago I first played Shenmue on the Dreamcast and was completely blown away. I must have played through it 3-4 times. Shenmue 2 quickly followed and I couldn’t be happier. I snapped it up on the day of release. I was a bit confused why it wasn’t in English and was only in Japanese even though Ryo had ventured to China so shouldn’t it be in Chinese if anything?
Anyway way, no big deal, adds more to the authenticity, I guess. I later learned they rushed it out a bit due to the Dreamcast dying and they didn’t have time to translate it. Again, I finished it multiple times and was looking forward to Shenmue 3. But that’s where the problem started. The Dreamcast died and was discontinued. So, what happens to Shenmue now? Well, Shenmue 2 was also released on the original Xbox so Shenmue 3 should follow, right? Nope. The PS3 and Xbox 360 was released, still no sign of Shenmue 3 and nothing being planned. The 360 and PS3 have their time and now next-gen time once again. PS4 and Xbox One. Finally, we get some news on Shenmue 3, a huge kickstarted gets set up which attracts the most donations in the history of kickstarted campaigns. Sega wanted to raise 2 million and secured nearly 7.
First thing I thought was why did Sega need a Kickstarter? Don’t they have enough money to make their own games? They seem to churn out the Yakuza games enough, they were up to number 6 last I looked and that’s not including the prequels. Plus, Yakuza is quite similar to Shenmue in some sense.
Anyway, finally nearly 20 years after Shenmue 2 released we get Shenmue 3. I put off playing it until now because I’d heard numerous bad stories about it and didn’t want to destroy one of my favourite games of all time.
So now onto to Shenmue 3. For those that don’t know Shenmue tells the story of Ryo Hazuki, a young martial artist taught by his father in the art of Hazuki style Jujitsu. He comes home one day to discover a black car and men in suits at his house. He ventures to the dojo to find his father being confronted by someone called Lan Di. His father tries to fight him with all his martial arts skill but is no match for Lan Di who uses an unknown style. A little bit of trivia now. An unknown style of martial arts is supposed to represent the top tier in martial arts. In Game of Death when Bruce Lee finally reaches the top floor and faces Kareem Abdul, he uses an unknown style. Anyway, Ryo tries to interfere but also gets taken out. Lan Di wants something called the Dragon mirror. He acquires it and then promptly deals the final death blow to Ryo’s father. This sets Ryo out on a mission to find Lan Di and avenge his father.
Shenmue 3 picks up directly after Shenmue 2 which had Ryo finally meeting Shenhua. The mysterious teenage girl that features in both intros of Shenmue games telling a prophecy. They take shelter in a cave from a storm and discover giant carvings of the dragon and phoenix mirrors. Shenmue 3 picks up in that cave. Shenhua tells Ryo her father carved them so they go to her house to find him, only he’s not there. They visit the local village to find him only to discover thugs from a gang called the Red Snakes have been kidnapping stone masons including Shenhua father. This sets the main goal of the game, finding Shenhua father. What about Lan Di I hear you ask; I’ll get into that.
The crazy bald fighter Chai of the Chi You Men also makes an appearance again. He must be getting tired of getting his arse handed to him by Ryo.
One thing I loved about the Shenmue games was the interactivity. You could go in every room in the house, open every draw and cupboard, Shenmue 3 maintains this. As well as some of the badly acted disjointed conversations with locals. But hey that’s Shenmue, right?
Some positives considering the games had quite a low budget is the graphics. Some of the scenery looks breath-taking. The way the sunsets over Bailu village. Entering the stonemasons’ hut and seeing all the amazing carvings. Venturing into ancient temples only to be greeted with giant golden Buddha statues. Yu Suzuki and the team behind the game have outdone themselves. They have finally archived Suzuki vision who never gave up hope. Some of the music is authentic as well, each area, minigame, scene and house will have its own music and it all makes you feel like your part of the story.
Unfortunately, the rest of the game doesn’t follow suit with the awesome graphics. Much like the original, there’s a lot of walking about and talking to people. Eventually, you come across the right person, Ryo will jot it down in his notebook then move onto that clue. This wasn’t a problem in the originals as the maps weren’t that big, but Shenmue 3 has so much bigger and open-world maps. It can take you ages of talking to everyone before someone gives you a clue.
Some of the characters look equally as crazy as the original, like something out of a manga comic. The character interactions are just as bizarre and disjointed as the original. Being 2020 you’d think things would have improved. I heard Yu Suzuki originally didn’t speak a word of English and hired character actors based on how much they looked like the characters in the game, so that kind of makes sense as to why the original had such bad acting and bizarre conversations but there’s no excuse for it nowadays. A big part of what made the original games special is that they had things that hadn’t been done before. Opening every cupboard and draw in a house, going to work and driving a forklift, going to the arcade and playing classic arcade games for the time like Space Harrier, the quick time event action scenes. Things like that don’t seem so special anymore.
As Ryo goes about his day, his health or stamina starts falling. This is a new feature and you have to eat to recharge it. This also means you could enter into a fight with only half a health. What happens if it runs out? When it’s in the red Ryo will say he better eat before he falls down. If you still don’t eat or have no food, Ryo will start walking everywhere instead of running. So, keep it topped alright. That means buying food with money, so you got to earn money. Like the previous games, there are many ways to earn money from chopping wood, fishing and gambling. Non really earn you tons but there are some tricks to earn a lot of money with little effort. You can also find herbs and sell a herb set for a good pay-out. The trouble is once you’ve picked all the herbs, they don’t respawn so that’s that avenue exhausted. Back to chopping wood. You might think ahh not so bad. Well, fairly early in the story is you have to buy someone rare alcohol which cost 2000 dollars, for chopping wood you’d be lucky to get 60-70 dollars. That’s a lot of wood to chop. Some herb sets can fetch you 600 dollars but once they run out that’s it. Plus later on, if you want to buy moves scrolls instead of finding or winning the ridiculously hard to obtain items to trade for them, they can cost upwards of 2000 a pop sometimes 3000 and there’s a lot of moves scrolls to obtain.
The game seems to make you grind out mundane tasks you’d rather avoid, ok, they might be fun at first like the quirky little cutscene of Shenhua telling you to have a good day when you leave her house in the morning, but having the same conversation every single day every time. There’s really no need.
Now I’d like to talk about what was almost a deal-breaker for me and nearly turning the game off for good. The combat. What was a Virtual Fighter beat em up with expertly timed counters, movement and doing the right move at the right time has pretty much turned into a button masher. The throws have gone, the counters have gone, the parries have gone. In their place, kick and punch buttons. Remember when Ryo would venture into a parking lot and say “I think I can practice here” The you would spend your time remembering the button combinations for each move, getting to grips with what to use and when. Then you would see that little bar go up on that move, eventually, once it crosses a line, it says mastered. Sometimes this would give that move an extra attack. Well, that’s all gone, Ryo now just trains on wooden dummies doing one-inch punch, horse stance and rooster step through little mini-games. Through these mini-games, you increase Ryo stats. Stamina, attack and Kung fu. These levels will increase depending on the type of training. Horse stance will increase stamina and kung fu level. One-inch punch will increase attack and kung fu level. This all means that it’s all about levels to win the fights. You can pretty much spend hours right at the beginning of the game levelling up all your stats to max and beast any fight you come against with ease. This takes away any sign of accomplishment, now no skill is involved, just punching and kicking until the guys are beat. Of course, there’s special skills, moves and scrolls you can learn and level up but now you can assign up to five moves to one button. So, the Tornado Kick, for example, an old classic. You had to tap forward, forward, kick, kick to perform it. Not anymore, can just assign it to one button. So, you don’t need to learn any of the moves any more. And then scroll through the moves assigned to that button mid-battle.
Remember playing Tekken, Virtual Fighter or Street Fighter and practising moves so much you could perform them at will in the game but can also still mess them up sometimes. How satisfying was it when you pulled them off? Finishing your mate with Akumas raging demon you’d been practising that he could never perform. Imagine assigning that to one button so you and your mate can do it anytime.
Well, that basically what Shenmue 3’s combat has done. Took all the combat that made the original great and shot them into a volcano.
Some of my favourite moves from the other games are not even featured because they wouldn’t work with the new fighting system. Remember the Swallow Flip, that master Yaowen Chen teaches you near the end of the first game. You timed your counter perfectly, as the guy punches, you would grab his arm, sweep his leg so he flips over, then follow up with a downward punch to his chest as he lay on his back. This was a very hard move to pull off due to the timing but when you did, you were on cloud nine. The counter elbow assault that you learn and perform on the end boss of Shenmue 2 as it’s the only way to beat him. Timed correctly, as the enemy punches you grab his arm, pull it over your shoulder then step into a hard elbow to the ribs. Performed incorrectly you just to a stepping elbow. In Shenmue 2 these were classed as instant knockout moves if you timed and performed them correctly, they will instantly KO any normal opponent. Well, both these moves are gone because there no counter system in Shenmue 3. Oh, the counter elbow assault is still there but as a bog-standard elbow attack that knocks as an opponent over. This move you can just spam over and over knocking the guy over until he’s knocked out.
Even without counter-attack, there is now no parrying. In the original, you could knock your opponent’s attacks to the side leaving him open for whatever move you wanted to perform. No throws either, no more throwing you opponent or suplexing and unsuspecting opponent from behind.
Most of your opponents and yourself included don’t even react to getting hit, making it feel like you’re not even hitting them. They will just attack you through your attacks unless they get knocked over. So basically, you need to level up your stats so when you are both flailing your limbs in front of each other, your attacks are doing more damage.
For some reason, Yu Suzuki wanted the combat like this. Numerous times he said he’s not a gamer and just wanted to tell a story. He wants the game more available to less skilled players who just button mash. One positive of the combat I liked is the destructible environments. It’ can be quite satisfying performing a knockdown attack and see the guy crash throw a table or over some railings.
So now my rant over the combat system is done. Let us mention the story. Does it continue the story? Yes and No. Lan Di is hardly mentioned in the entire game, the main goal is to find Shenhua dad. Lot’s of the story doesn’t make sense. You start in Bailu village, considered a martial arts village, there are lots of practitioners, dojos and temples. The story eventually leads you to some of the red snake members that have occupied an entire subpart of the village with hostages. The lead guy and a stupidly muscular guy who uses the mystical martial art of brute force, Ryo cannot beat even with all the various grandmasters he’s encountered special training. Even if you level Ryo to the max, he still losses as a cut scene will play if Mr muscle health gets too low. He can’t beat Mr giant muscles. So, Ryo has to find a way to beat him because they have people hostages. So Ryo an outsider in a village full of martial artist, masters and armed guards has got to beat the thugs!! What’s wrong with the other martial artists? Something wrong with their legs and arms?
This leads you to seek a master who refuses as it will take too long to train Ryo. Why doesn’t this master go and beat the thugs himself? So, you seek another master you met during a different questline who’s a bit of a hermit. You got to leave wine and buns to talk to him then when he comes out you talk to him, ask him questions, ask him too many questions, he wants more wine and buns, so you get more, ask him more questions, he wants more wine and buns. Eventually, after numerous wine and buns, you have to track down the ultra-rare wine, I mentioned earlier which cost 2000 dollars. The only way to get that sort of money is gambling using the local fortune-telling to mostly win. Eventually, you get the money and wine and he agrees to teach you. But first, you got a mini-game of catching chickens. This goes on for a few days, eventually, you will learn a counter move called the body check that you can beat Mr muscle with who’s now been sat in that sub-part of the village for days. Is it a counter attack you ask? Why yes it is but there is no counter-attack system in Shenmue 3. So basically, during a fight, some button combination comes up for you to enter and a cut scene plays of you using the move.
The point I’m getting at is the whole thing takes hours and the story barely progressed. After this, you go to the port side city of Niaowu. Naturally, you will familiarise yourself with the city’s Kung Fu dojo to train your moves, fight and spar. There are street fights taking place in the rose garden. Numerous kung fu shops to buy moves scrolls. Also, Ren from Shenmue 2 makes an appearance.
Eventually, you cross swords with the red snakes again. You bump into Mr muscle from before who you beat with ease all of the sudden now even without using the special move. But now an even bigger Mr muscle who knows multiple kung fu styles turns up. Once again Ryo gets beat. You return with Ren and you both get beat. So, Ryo has got to learn another move to beat even bigger my muscle… sigh.
This leads to Ren and Ryo to talk about finding yet another master to teach Ryo. You find a master who you bumped into before but he won’t teach you as your kung fu is week apparently. So, Ryo and Ren wonder if there are any kung fu schools they can learn kung fu from!!!!!!
You’re kidding right! I’ve been going to one since I got here and now Ryo asking is there any kung fu schools. Then guess what, after this, they ask is there any places for street fights! Ehh the rose garden you’ve fought in many times. After this you learn of a rare scroll, so Ryo then wonders if there are any kung fu shops selling scrolls… I give up.
Eventually, it leads you to the scroll you have to find and guess what, the scroll cost 5000 dollars!!! So, more fortune teller, more gambling……… sigh. The guess what. The scroll has a page torn out with the move so you go back to the original master who said your kung fu was weak and he teaches you the move…..I mean it feels like I’m wasting my time then guess what… It’s the SAME DAM MOVE as the body check but called something else. It’s the same move, it looks exactly the same……… Goddammit.
Ok enough, some spoilers ahead. Does Ryo eventually catch up with Lan Di who’s barely been mentioned? Yes. You beat Mr bigger giant muscles with your special move scroll and see Lan Di sitting there. This moment gave me goosebumps. I’ve been waiting 20 years for this moment. You beat some of his cronies and finally get to take on LAN DI and guess what. Ryo gets his arse handed to him, you can even touch Lan Di.
Ren drags Ryo’s injured arse away, The game ends.
In conclusion, the entire game felt like a build-up to Shenmue 4. The game feels severely padded out with pointless tasks like the developers didn’t really know what direction to go. Did I enjoy it? Not at first, it took me a while to get into and once I accepted the combat for what it was, I could enjoy the game more. The quick-time events are back but they are a joke. They are way too fast giving barely any time to notice the button you got to press let alone pressing them. You will find yourself just doing the same quick time events over and over again until you’ve memories each one. But for all its flaws I still enjoyed Shenmue 3 and hope they continue the story with Shenmue 4. I heard through the grapevine Shenmue 3 was just a demo for Shenmue 4 which will be brought into modern glory. It’s not nearly as good as the Shenmue 1 and 2 and they still hold up even today as I played them recently. I also heard the are releasing a Shenmue anime which I can’t wait for. Shenmue 3 is only really for fans of the original, if you never played them or don’t intend too and go straight into playing Shenmue 3, you will think it’s a pile of shit or maybe not as you won’t know how good the previous ones were. Shenmue 3 is widely available on PS4 and Steam market place for PC.
Rating 2.5/5 belts
