Shenmue Dojo

Not trying to be negative here! This is fantastic news and I'm obviously not taking it for granted but when Shenmue III was announced at Sony's E3 conference, it's needless to say that I was excited, but to be fair, I always pictured myself being much more excited. I couldn't really figure out why I wasn't as excited as I thought I would be, but I think I know now and am interested in seeing if you guys are the same.

Now, I'm aware that the announcement and Kickstarter videos are place holders, but I feel that they really degrade the game's feel. I think it would have been better if we got some epic teaser trailer with text (and various artwork in the background) such as "The story goes on..." and "The continuation fans have been waiting for" etc. and then an epic logo reveal of Shenmue III (similar to that cherry blossom one after the countdown) - all to some dramatic Shenmue I and II music. Instead we get some rough footage and awful voicework that would look right at home on a subpar Steam Greenlight project

Pretty much, to sum it up:
I think that if they just told us it was happening and didn't try to impress us with pre-pre-pre-alpha footage, it would have been a lot more exciting and felt a lot more like Shenmue.

Thoughts?

Oh and just to clear things up, I AM excited and super happy and I DO think the project's going to do great! I'm just giving my view on how the announcement should have went.

It was good enough for me. We're FINALLY getting Shenmue 3 and that's all I really care about

Sonoshee wrote: It was good enough for me. We're FINALLY getting Shenmue 3 and that's all I really care about

Of course! This is fantastic news, and once we start seeing more interactions with the backers I will get VERY hyped indeed

I would be hyped even if the anouncement was a Yu Suzuki selfie with the caption "Shenmue III"

I think too many people took the mockup video too serious. It was meant to show the engine and was prolly done with zero budget - and personally i think the engine looks pretty nice. After funding is done i guess we'll soon see more serious tech demos.

shredingskin wrote: I would be hyped even if the anouncement was a Yu Suzuki selfie with the caption "Shenmue III"

I reckon I would have been even more hyped at that!

Master Kyodai wrote: I think too many people took the mockup video too serious. It was meant to show the engine and was prolly done with zero budget - and personally i think the engine looks pretty nice. After funding is done i guess we'll soon see more serious tech demos.

I think the engine does look good. But I don't think Yu should have shown any characters and maybe instead just showcased some landscapes (assuming Yu even made the demo video?)

No matter what kind of presentation Yu Suzki would have shown to us, some will still feel disappointed at the end product. The expectations are of a magnitude that is not realistic anymore. It has been long 14 years after all. But now Suzuki doesn't have $70 or $47 mil to burn.

Personally I take my hat off to the guy as he was upfront and unafraid to present his new art direction on the series, even though knowing he'd disappoint some.

The announcement was a bit of a let down, yeah, I think. It doesn't take away from the impact seeing this after waiting for 14 years, but in terms of mass market impact and marketing flash, I think they could've definitely done better (the pacing was all weird, etc.). That said, hard to say how long they've been doing this or how much resources they had for this announcement.

As far as the engine goes... it does, is and should look good, being UE4, but the promo video could've been better, especially considering what the game is or sort of represents.

Jibby wrote:

Master Kyodai wrote: I think too many people took the mockup video too serious. It was meant to show the engine and was prolly done with zero budget - and personally i think the engine looks pretty nice. After funding is done i guess we'll soon see more serious tech demos.

I think the engine does look good. But I don't think Yu should have shown any characters and maybe instead just showcased some landscapes (assuming Yu even made the demo video?)

Yu didn't make the video alone, but he sure expressed an opinion about what he wanted to show and what not. The engine looks nice. He wanted to have "something Shenmue" in it and Ryo and Shenhua were just something he really wanted to show to make sure people don't accidentially mix the video up with a presentation of "farming simulator 2016". For a mockup the figures at least "somehow" look like Ryo and Shenhua, I am very sure that Yu will make sure they have really nice models of the main characters AFTER development actually started.

Yeah, I think if they had just showed the logo, played the theme song and maybe showed some of the environment, or even included the shot of Ryo and Shenhua walking from behind then that would've left more of an impact. It's a little odd that they're willing to show off those character models so much, what with the E3 closeups and the fact that they're used for the main image on the Kickstarter page (Someone's also put it up on the game's wiki page).

But hey, who am I to speak? The Kickstarter's breaking records, so they were clearly doing a lot of stuff right!

Next E3 I will be expecting an epic trailer with some beautiful graphics and environments with the narrator saying "witness an adventure unlike any other. Real time weather, a living, breathing world full of characters. Shenmue." Just like the trailers in 1999/2000. ;P

Then have 5 more trailers that break down every component of the game like they did with Shenmue 1 (FREE, QTE, FREE Battles, Real time weather etc). Then you will get hyped. Don't worry man, the hype will come next year when they show Shenmue 3 again looking as it should be.

I am happy with the trailer actually. It looked so much like S2 and Ryo's voice is just as "woody" as it has always been. I love the water effects and I am just so looking forward to the game! By release time, my son can actually play Shenmue with me! How cool is that! (He'll be 8 then!)

^ Happy for you man!

Anyway, I have absolutely no worries about the graphics of the game. UNREAL 4 ENGINE helloooo.... Think of the next Street Fighter 5 and Gears of war.

Suzuki could of released Shenmue 3 as a PDF file and I would of done fucking backflips.