http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/17/879501 ... n-a-budget

A tiny bit more clarity on Shenmue III's support.

I was thinking about this recently, and back in the day a lot of us were quite forgiving about this, but as much as I love the series, that kind of localization inconsistency is ridiculous - almost unacceptable. I honestly think that the localization team for Shenmue II didn't even look at the original game to see what decisions had been made to keep it consistent.

The worst aspect about this, is Shenhua's (sorry, SHA Hua in the first game) prophecy/poem. In the Japanese version, the poem remains the same in both games, but in the English translation, S1's poem is completely different to S2's. Yes, the sentiments are the same, but I think it loses a part of its clearly intended iconic appeal when one poem becomes a totally different poem between games.

Hopefully Shenmue III's localization will make a choice and stick with it! :)

I think it's just the nature of developing an indie game that was announced before development had begun. We shouldn't expect Shenmue III to be on the same level as AAA games today the way the original two were, and I think the way it's marketed (at least at this stage) will reflect that too. Maybe Cedric thought that something could've been cobbled together to appease those of us banging our hands on the table and saying "Now, now, now, now!", and perhaps an earnest attempt was made, before it fell through.

Most games aren't announced until they are well into the production process, and so they can maintain a relatively steady stream of marketing and promotion with the game looking close to the way it will at release (or worse at release!), whereas Shenmue III was announced before development had begun. I believe the game will almost certainly be delayed into 2018 or 2019, and that's fine with me. There'll be plenty of time to market the game the closer it gets to release, but I reckon it's still in the early stages of production, way before anything trailer-appropriate has been achieved.

This post is overly long and not really a big deal, but I believe it's possible that there was a section of FREE exploration cut (or at least significantly reduced) towards the end of the game. So when Ryo gets fired from his job, it's around 10.45am and from the Alpha Trading Office you can either choose to wander around for a very short time, or go directly to meet Tom, before auto-jumping to meeting the Mad Angels at 10pm that night. Meeting Tom will trigger the point of no return, in the sense that you're on a linear path of move instructions, battles and cutscenes to the end credits. If you choose not to walk towards Tom, Ryo's watch will sound at around 12.30pm or 1pm, and you'll go there automatically. So that gives you barely 10 real-time minutes of final FREE gameplay.

I do find it strange that there's no kind of menu prompt informing you of this, the way there was in Shenmue II (At the end of Disc 2, you're informed that saying goodbye to Xiuying will trigger Ryo's departure for Kowloon, as well as the option to have one final day of free time before infiltrating the Yellow Head Building.) But what's also strange is that during that short window between getting fired and meeting Tom, you can have a significant amount of unique conversations with NPCs relevant only to that point in the game, with it even being possible to travel back to Dobuita and do the same. Even the fortune teller has a unique reading for Ryo, foreseeing his eventual meeting with Shenhua. You can have a specific conversation with Ine-san at that point too, but have to make a bit of a speedy dash to the Hazuki Residence in time to get it. In a moment uncharacteristic of Shenmue, you have so little time that you have to pick and choose where you're going to go/who you're going to speak with.

I think it's possible that after learning the Tornado Kick/saying goodbye to Tom, FREE gameplay was intended at one point to resume until 10pm that night, giving you a more natural and relaxed pace to explore/train/speak with people one last time, as opposed to jumping straight to the Mad Angels meeting. Perhaps the team felt that the slower pace would've killed the building momentum of the story at that stage, or they wanted to include the scene of Ryo watching the airplane from the harbour in a more essential way. I dunno. But it's interesting that after being fired, Ryo's notes inform us that he "should check with everybody", yet the game barely gives us ten minutes to do so.

It is the elegantly titled "Total Network Ranking". ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPVGSz1ThcE&index=77&list=PLC774B2F232D2DD98

Different arrangements of that tune can be heard a few times in Shenmue I as well. There's a traditional Japanese version of it in one of the sushi places, and you hear it a wee bit towards the end of the cutscene where the old woman asks Ryo to find the Yamamoto house.

Shenmue I’s skybox is mentioned in this topic as a hypothetical change they could make to the original game, but I strangely prefer the first game’s sky to the second’s. I completely agree that Shenmue II’s skies are much more colourful and dynamic than the original’s, but there was something about the real life sky images (albeit static), that I preferred over the sequel. I’m an oddball.

Although not entirely sure where this “wrong eye movement” thing is coming from? I don't notice anything different in the trailer.