Yu has mentioned on numerous occasions that he plans to institute branching aspects to Shenmue 3's character development. This will be driven by player choice in terms of dialogue selection, etc. It's been said that the manner in which some NPCs will react to Ryo (Shenhua, for example) will be heavily dependent on this system.
How do you guys feel about this supposed aspect of the game?
I'm not sure I like it, though as with most changes, I am more than willing to give Yu the benefit of doubt until I play the finished game.
My problems with it, however, are that I have always viewed shenmue as a story. Because it is a story, it has a premeditated path, a premeditated set of emotions which is it supposed to elicit, and a premeditated conclusion. This is not Mass Effect, where you ARE the character. Shenmue is more like metal gear, where you partake in Snake's story and are not necessarily an active participant in the moral and ethical questions that are raised. It's never you making a decision, it's Snake. That's how it should be for games like this. In other games, like skyrim, where you project your sense of identity onto the character, then yea. That's your call. This is different.
I sincerely hope that these options are left primarily to very superficial aspects of the story. I want to see Ryo continue top grow as the established character that he already represents. I do not want to play "wonder what I should say here? Should I be 'mean' or 'nice?'".
And before you say that Shenmue 2 had multiple endings, it didn't. It had a "failure" ending that was based off of you taking too long to progress, not because of in-game selections that guided the story to that specific conclusion.