Who needs Shenmue 3?

[Let's Get Sweaty]

Explore realistic Japanese town, engage in fenced-in fisticuffs against single or multiple enemies, learn new moves, enter shops to buy items, play games in arcades, engage in a range of tasks for the locals, seek out the truth behind a violent, sinister plot that's dragged you in against your will and threatens to hurt more of the people you care about.

TBH a lot in that description fits a lot of games I'm aware of, like Persona 5 and The World Ends With You.
If you replaced Japanese town with Hong Kong, Shenmue 2 and Sleeping Dogs would be interchangeable games in the eyes of many then.

Where are you getting interchangeable from?

Shenmue and Yakuza have many differences that make any talk of succession redundant.

[darksniper]

Yakuza is my favorite series since Shenmue. All of the Yakuza games I've played have been phenomenal experiences for me. Like most said both games are completely different experiences and play different, but there's no denying that Nagoshi got some of his influence and used his experience on working on Shenmue for the RGG games.

What I like about the two games is the parallel, subtle familiarity between both games.

Kiryu beats up some bad guys, goes to the arcade and plays some Space Harrier

Ryo beats up some bad guys, goes to the arcade and plays some Space Harrier.

I'd mark tf out if one day Sega announces a Yakuza side game where a 40 year old Ryo shows up in Kamurocho to help Kiryu on a mission. They're almost liked kindered spirits.

In all honesty, Shenmue should get more credit for bringing arcade emulation inside of a video game. Going to be weird playing VF 5 on Yakuza 6 without no standalone port for the PS4. But that's neither here nor there.

[Rikitatsu]

Don't you think it's a superficial comparison?

No.

Explore realistic Japanese town, engage in fenced-in fisticuffs against single or multiple enemies, learn new moves, enter shops to buy items, play games in arcades, engage in a range of tasks for the locals, seek out the truth behind a violent, sinister plot that's dragged you in against your will and threatens to hurt more of the people you care about.

Change "Japanese Town" with "Chinese Town" and you just described Sleeping Dogs.
Like I said, it is superficial, once you actually put those games side to side, the comparison falls apart. I just wanna comment on a few parts:

Explore realistic Japanese town

Yokosuka is no where near close to Kamurocho in tone, feel, and aesthetics. One is a pleasure/night life quarter and the other is a quiet and homely town.

The exploration of said towns/districts is vastly different between the two games. In Shenmue, NPC's can all be interacted with, a lot of them have vital information necessary to proceed through the game, some just assist you with the current objective, most of them are useful and not just randomly spawned nobodies. Oh, fully voiced too.

Kamurocho's inhabitants are just crowds... There to fill the streets.

Kamurocho also doesn't sleep, the shops never close, that NPC quest giver will stand there, day and night, waiting for you... The realism aspect in Yakuza is weak in comparison. It's Game-y, Arcade-y, which is TOTALLY fine. But dramatically different than Shenmue.

engage in fenced-in fisticuffs against single or multiple enemies

I could count the FREE battles in Shenmue 1 on my toes and fingers... Yakuza is pretty much 90% battles... Walking the streets for 20 seconds prompt a battle. It's a brawler/ARPG. Shenmue is an adventure game. Where battles count, and actually story related. Just because you punch people in the face doesn't make it comparable... (Again, that applies to Sleeping Dogs).

enter shops to buy items

Like most open world/semi-open world games these days?... Anyway:

Shenmue allows you to meticulously explore even the tiniest details in every store, even if it doesn't sell anything... A lot of the stores in the game are open for you. Yakuza just allow you to walk in a portion of a store, with a fixed camera, and the option to talk to the shopkeeper to refill your health/heat.

[sand4fish]

Where are you getting interchangeable from?

Shenmue and Yakuza have many differences that make any talk of succession redundant.

I was just emphasizing that the description elements you gave out sounded vaguely like a lot of "open world" games out there. Didn't mean at saying that you agree Yakuza can replace Shenmue.

[ShenmueTree]

Yakuza is a half serious, half zany mafia crime drama JRPG with an over the top zany battle system where as Shenmue is an open world adventure game with a realistic fighting style battle system with slight supernatural/religious overtones.

I don't really find the two games comparable.

[KidMarine]

Me. I need Shenmue 3.

[ShenmueTree]

Yakuza as far as I know doesn't even have a dynamic day/night cycle in any game, or a truly dynamic weather system, much less as depth as interactivity as Shenmue has with mundane everyday objects. The more I think about it the less like Shenmue Yakuza becomes.

[Let's Get Sweaty]

And Kazuma's jacket isn't even brown FFS. Don't know how people can say these games have similarities.