We spent around 20 pages to discuss how they should make Ryo look as if they have no clue...



Well, to me, this Ryo looks almost perfect.

That's total nonsense. I'm all for legit criticism, but that shot of Ryo looks great.

The English voice acting is part of the experience for me. It's just slightly off and I love it.

With regards to the appearance of Shenmue 3, it is evident that the art direction is one aimed towards a continuance of the past games with a highly stylized aesthetic, as opposed to the more prevalent hyper-realism focus.

Hyper realism is well achievable within the budget and manpower resources of Shenmue 3, as Ninja Theory has demonstrated with their recent 'Budget AAA' game Hellblade.

Hell Blade
Team Size: 50 Members
Engine: Unreal 4
Budget: Estimated $9 Million USD

http://i.imgur.com/LKddM1g.jpg


This visual style however is not the intended aim for Shenmue 3 as Yu Suzuki has stated in recent interviews.


Gamespark Interview, August 23

HM: There are also things like tuning the game engine.

YS: Right. In order to use the game engine properly, it has to be maintained. In addition, to make it feel like Shenmue, we have to write a lot of shaders and so on.

Looks fine to me.

Someone on NeoGAF posted a head-to-head of New Ryo and the guy from Yakuza and I honestly think Ryo looks better & more detailed. People are just setting their expectations WAY too high. Animations, yeah, have work to be done, but let's stop being so dramatic that we're proclaiming we won't even PLAY the game if the game looks like it does in these screenshots.

[edit]

Looks like Peter posted the comparison here.


Here's the thing people, 0 is a 2015 game, developed in 2014.

To compare the two to that title, isn't quite apt, as it was still on the Yakuza 5 engine as well (whichever engine that was).

Compare it to RGG 6, THEN we'll see what's better, as that is the most recent game in the series; Hell, Kiwami is a 2016 game, developed in 2015, so even that is closer to where we're at.

That being said, I could care less; as many others have said, I'll take a walking pile of turd as the model and still be happy :D

That first pic is indeed gorgeous, I had a huge smile on my face when I saw it :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

ShenmueLegacy wrote:Would be neat if they open sourced it for feedback.

I can't imagine anything the devs want less than 200 bedroom coders telling them why their algorithms are poorly designed. They get it bad enough from self-assured photoshoppers.

Feedback, feedback, feedback. Opinion, opinion, opinion. It's a Kickstarter, my voice should be heard.

I get that. People are financially invested in this game. But you backed a project based on a person's ideas and vision. If so many people's opinions were taken on board during the making of Shenmue 1 and 2, then we wouldn't have had the great games we know and love today. Can we not just leave them in peace to make the game we have wanted for so long? It's getting tiring now with people thinking they have some sort of creative input into this games development.

Prefer the original, over any of the variations offered.

I'm not sure which part of "temporary" some of you just aren't understanding.

You're acting like these models are all final - they aren't, as Yu-san himself has already stated.

Steenkoud wrote: I prefer the old character models (1999) over the new ones. They are ruining it.

Yeah, 'cos nearly-twenty-year-old models wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb amongst the UE4 models and environments, not to mention the completely different art style.

I'm sorry but



looks significantly better than the model you posted.

Shenmue fans are such a cry babies nowadays. Defending their thoughts like they are absolute.
Like all fanbases. See gaming forums, politics, football, religions, choice of smartphone, ...

Why bother releasing something what isnt even relatively ready? "Well they had to show something". Well show something which looks good for god sake.
It's not that easy and they felt forced because of nagging backers. As far as I know, their development style doesn't easily allow them to show more polished things at this point either. There's a reason why most companies don't show much until the last few months. Most can't really afford to create a vertical slice earlier on.

Last time I was here I saw bunch of guys overexcited about how S1 and S2 will be announced next. Then Yu completely shits on the idea in the latest interview.
Which one? I saw some where he wanted Sega to release HD-ports.

There is fans who ... looks stuff more critically but somehow most of the shenmue fans get offended by it? :rotflmao:
Is it most? I haven't read the whole thread but saw criticism on here before. Your post got more thumbs up than a few positive ones actually.

Trust me, reading the story or getting it in some non-interactive form would be extremely underwhelming. The story is nice and all, but it's only great because of the whole package that it's included in.
I also think so. And I never liked the idea of removing a lot just to get an ending in Shenmue 3. Similar pacing is an integral part.

There is a reason why everyone is laughing at the trailer and a sense of confusion as to why exists on this forum.
Besides criticism, one reason is people want to be part of the internet mob mentality. Repeating "hilarious" jokes about PS2 gets more likes than repeating dry facts (work in progress etc.). Like Mass Effect, I saw the faces, thought it looked odd, moved on. But of course the "gaming community" started another hyperbolic round of immature nerd outrage, some harassed developers etc.

But I don't get why no one from the team realized that having a fullscreen disclaimer at the start of the trailer could avoid some of this. Just write that facial animations were removed etc. since many don't read descriptions or interviews.

Ironically, I very much doubt all the people complaining will head on over to the slacker backer page to donate some more money to the project so their complaints can be worked on and addressed more. Considering that's what it's all about at the end of the day. You want top of the range models, you pay for it. It's that simple.

Sorry thats not that simple. Even if I pay 2000$ there is zero guarantee for better models because the team can use the money for other things.


Anyone with 2 brain cells would have had the sense to not take that comment as personally, and what could MY extra $5 get ME out if MY new game.

The fact this is a crowd funded title amassing to what can be categorised as a very highly publicised indie title at best really has went out of people's minds. The expectations now are completely off the charts. So that prototype Ryo model (which was good awful in retrospect) made us all cry with tears of joy, but now we are on the right track with Ryo looking like Ryo after 2 years of "fans" (yea, I use that term loosely) whining about it, everyone is a Shenmue, Ryo, eyes, hairline, cheekbone, nose, 3D modeller, animator, physics engine expert.

This whole "I know better" attitude that some of you seem to have actually makes me sick. Id love it for someone to walk into your job that you have been doing, by someone with absolutely zero experience, and say no you are doing it wrong, do it this way instead. Then have another few hundred coming behind them to tell you how to do it a little differently again. Thank god backers are backers only.

But Peter, I have Photoshop and can squidge in one dimension a flat screenshot of a 3D model they're still working on. Surely you concede I can do a better job at making Shenmue 3?

Seriously, the types of Photoshop "improvements" being posted are so minute, subjective, and arbitrary. And some of them are presented with an almost comical air of certainty that their fan art is the superior, ideal visualization. Is this what this forum is going to be like for the next year? I guess it's fine as a hobby, but does anyone believe YsNet staffers are over there saying, "We haven't got it quite right... we'd better trawl the fan forums for guides." Maybe NoConKid getting hired has given people false expectations? But NoConKid has professional-level skill as a 3D artist. YsNet isn't hiring Photoshop hobbyists.

Meh, I had a response typed out but it's a worthless exercise. Have all the opinions you want, I'm just glad I've heard it in more than multiple occasions that Suzuki-san won't be deterred in his vision and level of quality of Shenmue 3 he wants, and that no one will make him change his mind. He won't be reading message boards or social media to see what every Joe nobody wants in this game or that they think is "good" or "bad" in their treasured opinion.

i don't remember the source now but in one of the earlier interview,suzuki said that they're listening to feedback but he want to make shenmue 3 with his own vision

Its good to have a vision and not listening to every person/fan otherwise you will get a clusterfuck like the new Ghostbuster The Movie but I see nothing wrong to listen to some of the die hard fans as on this forum.
i agree with that but i personally prefer that they don't change design and aestetic for the fans(UE4 is easy to mod so prepare to mod like "classic ryo"ecc).

Meh, I had a response typed out but it's a worthless exercise. Have all the opinions you want, I'm just glad I've heard it in more than multiple occasions that Suzuki-san won't be deterred in his vision and level of quality of Shenmue 3 he wants, and that no one will make him change his mind. He won't be reading message boards or social media to see what every Joe nobody wants in this game or that they think is "good" or "bad" in their treasured opinion. ´

Source? :) edit, just a quick google search.

YS: I think we have to make the game so that they can. I'd like to have someone who has never played them to try it and listen to their feedback. I think we will need to fix up any parts that have strong drawbacks.

http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2017/08/translation-interview-with-yu-suzuki.html

...and thats the right way do it imo.

You're quoting Suzuki on an entirely different subject. The question in that interview - as can be clearly surmised from the answer - is about new players being able to jump in without any experience of the first two games. Testing the game's accessibility on newcomers has no relevance to what Peter said in the context of this discussion.

I feel as though as great as this engine seems to be, it is not right for Shenmue...

When a star developer like Square Enix abandons its own internal game engine (after years of development and countless dollars invested) in favor of Unreal 4 to deliver two of its most highly prized franchises, you know that Suzuki-San chose well.

https://youtu.be/_Ix4muaZj1s?t=57s


The same could be said for other esteemed Japanese franchises which have all made the switch to Unreal 4.

Shin Megami Tensei, Tekken, Street Fighter, Dragon Quest, Monster Hunter, etc


Further to this point, Epic has recently announced the development of over 20 Japanese made games using Unreal 4 for Nintendo Switch.

https://www.vg247.com/2017/05/05/epic-games-japan-says-there-are-20-unreal-engine-4-games-currently-in-development-on-switch/

UE is a fantastic engine, if you just look at the amount of different games that have been built using it, it's just crazy.

Yu-san decided to use UE4 because he felt that it would give him the right atmosphere that he wants for Shenmue 3.

And he's already stated that the world of Shenmue would be much bigger than he originally anticipated just by using UE4.

He's very happy with it and that's all I needed to hear.

it is without question that the FPS genre triumphs with this sort of engine howver, take a look it is very well suited towards these games; Gears of War, Bioshock, Unreal Tournament 3. All perform very well as FPS games on this engine.

Just a little thing, but Gears of War is not a FPS, it's a third person shooter.

I've worked with UE4 a bit. I think most developers hate the engine when they first deal with it because it is pretty much a pain to do anything as a newbie. Variables don't really have intuitive names, so one really needs to know the engine to get what they want. The blueprint system they use is an absolute abomination for anyone who knows how to program (something that would take up about 10 lines of code takes up your entire screen in the blueprint), but the blueprints were designed for people who don't know how to program so no surprise there. Even then, programmers and artists will need to spend significant time to figure out how to do anything in the engine. There are a lot of inter-workign parts to allow for global ease of use that is hard to trace if you are trying to figure out how things work (it took me forever to figure out how AI and other entities used nav-meshes because the engine automatically associates existing nav-meshes and sorta hides how it does it from the user... unless you are willing to go into the UE4 source code). This initial difficulty is probably what Yu Suzuki was talking about when he said it was "difficult to use."

But, once you take the time to learn things, development is a breeze. The epic team pretty much thought of everything when it comes to game development, and any idea you have you can typically prototype within a day. It is also extremely easy to create gorgeous environments since they made so many complex shaders and post processing effects easily available to the developer. I can guarantee you that anything Shenmue I & II did, UE4 can do, and more. If Shenmue I was made in UE4, there wouldn't be any need for a loading screen when transitioning from an outdoor environment to an indoor one due to the level streaming feature.

UE4 was designed as a general purpose game engine from day 1, and to say that it is only suited for specific popular games that used it is unfair. Yes, the unreal engine got it's start in FPS games, but Epic Games had enough experience in licensing the different versions of their engines, that they have a very good idea on what tools game developers need to create whatever they want. This shows in the variety of games that use unreal's engines. FPS, MMOs, racers, platformers, VR... every type of game you can imagine probably exists as an unreal engine game. I don't think there will be any problem with Yu Suzuki and his team creating what they want in UE4.

You can go here if you want to see a list of games that currently use UE4.

Yu Suzuki interview by Eclypsia.com (French)

Original interview: http://www.eclypsia.com/fr/shenmue/actualites/shenmue-3-interview-de-yu-suzuki-a-la-gamescom-2017-23773

Shenmue 3: Interview with Yu Suzuki at Gamescom 2017

At Gamescom 2017, we were able to talk with Yu Suzuki about Shenmue III.
A few days ago, Yu Suzuki was present in Cologne for the Gamescom 2017. For a few minutes we were able to talk to him and ask him some questions about Shenmue III.

Here is the full report of this exchange.

Eclypsia: Before speaking about Shenmue III, is this your first time in Cologne and / or Europe?

Yu Suzuki: This is actually the second time I've been here in Cologne and as for Europe, I came here 5 to 10 times, I cannot remember exactly. As for the Gamescom itself, I do not have enough time to go for a walk in the public area, being caught by the interviews for the game. I should nevertheless be able to take a few hours to go see what it is, see what happens overall.

E: Let's get to the heart of the matter, are you satisfied so far with the direction of development of the game?

YS: Things are going very well. Recently, and thanks to the signing of our partnership with Deep Silver which will publish Shenmue III, I can devote myself fully to the development process.

E: What have been (and still are) the most complicated challenges in the development of this sequel, so long after the previous episode? Has your vision of the game (Shenmue III) changed during this time or are we going to be entitled to what you had initially in mind?

YS: As for the general concept of the game, it has never changed in my mind and I have kept the same line in mind from the beginning. At the same time, everything related to technology, gameplay as a whole and even my development team has changed. My real challenge has therefore been to adapt myself as much as possible to what had evolved drastically during all those years that separate Shenmue II from Shenmue III.

E: At the level of history itself, you have kept the original idea?

YS: Exactly. With regards to Shenmue, everything works through chapters and from the beginning, I imagined the sequel from a certain angle, which I could not change.

E: Many fans of the Shenmue franchise have been waiting for this game for many years and are probably having high expectations, are you afraid to disappoint this specific part of hardcore fans?

YS: Totally. I really have a lot of pressure, but at the same time, I attach great importance to it. I can’t necessarily do according to the desires of the players, but my goal is obviously to satisfy everyone, especially the fans of the first hour.

E: Shenmue in his time revolutionized the genre with an utterly realistic and coherent universe. Virtually 20 years later, how have you gone about offering a game of the same caliber again?

YS: I sincerely believe that the work I do is unique. My goal is not necessarily to create something fundamentally new or which is considered new, but I think that by simply following my instinct, I can create something meaningful. Generally speaking, when I share ideas with my development team, we often have big debates about how to approach things, and they sometimes have a hard time understanding my point of view. By continually exchanging our views, we come to find the perfect balance between my way of seeing things and the way they have to apply it. It is surely this complete alchemy that allows us to propose things of this sort.

E: For a few years now, Open-World games have swarmed from everywhere, even being for some, real gold mines at the level of the present characters, possible interactions and global coherence of the game. Did this force you to revise upwards the third episode realization?

YS: In reality, I do not pay much attention to it and hasn’t a lot of impact, simply because I don’t really play a lot of games myself. As you know, Shenmue III is developed on Unreal Engine 4 and if I had to do a research work, the focus was more on that side. Indeed, I gave priority to the technical aspect in order to avoid any weakness from this point of view, rather than watching what was done from the competitors to find where to position myself.

E: Have you planned some kind of system that would allow players who have never played Shenmue I and II to still enjoy the III as it should?

YS: Let's make a quick parallel by using a film saga like Spider Man. If you start watching the saga with the third episode, you will understand the movie, even if you have not watched the previous episodes before. But at the same time, you will appreciate it even more if you have followed the adventure since the beginning of the saga. It was necessary to make sure that the people who would start playing Shenmue with number III would still be able to enjoy the experience at its best. However, you will really enjoy the game to the fullest if you have played previous episodes. Because of that we have incorporated a lot of features that will link to the previous opuses, such as the ability to pass a phone call to Shenmue characters or Shenmue II.

E: Last question about music. How important is this aspect to you in developing the game?

YS: I'm really convinced that the music and the sound atmosphere have an essential role in the development of a game and this is one of my priorities. For me there are three highly important aspects to abide by: Everything that concerns the interactivity within the game, then the graphics and finally the music. These three things are an indissociable whole for me to really make a special universe.

________________________________________
Shenmue III is planned on Playstation 4 and PC at the end of 2018



Note: I've first google translated the French interview and then proof read the result and made some adjustments to ensure that no questions or answers were distorted.
Please, keep in mind that English isn't my first language and therefore, I cannot guarantee my translation is 100% accurate.
If something sounds odd in the interview, just ask and I'll double check.

As with all worries, it all goes back to having faith in Ys Net.

Many in the development team made Shenmue what it was.

And they can make Shenmue III what it needs to be now.

We can give our outside opinions, but they call the final shots.

The faith we had in saving Shenmue III is the same faith we'll need now seeing it made.

well,old shenmue combat system isn't aged well,strange collision,fucked camera,fight in first person(during shenmue2)and problem with multiple enemy at time.That combat can appeal only diehard fan,for today standard is shit,but shenmue 3 must use the batman system?no thanks

Sounds like you just sucked at it. Anyway, what do you mean by "today's standards"? If we're talking about quality, then today's games aren't anything amazing. There aren't any action-adventure type games that have better combat than the Shenmue series and even if there are, Shenmue is certainly one of the best in this aspect. So yeah, I don't get the "isn't aged well" thing you said. It couldn't be further from the truth!

i don't want to offend anyone,i like the shenmue combat system,i like complex fightning game(always preferred street fighter rather than virtua fighte).In my opinion is a little weird for today,it needs a little tweak to collision,camera and group fight,not simplified but sharpened

This thread didn't piss me off. The premise doesn't even make sense: UE4 is used for all types of games, as evidenced by the Wikipedia entry posted above. Sounds like you're hung up on the fact the engine is called "Unreal."

This thread didn't piss me off. The premise doesn't even make sense: UE4 is used for all types of games, as evidenced by the Wikipedia entry posted above. Sounds like you're hung up on the fact the engine is called "Unreal."

lol I agree. Started to write out a response to the thread yesterday and realised that the post itself is just pointless...
Yet again, I'm pretty sure that Yu and his team know much more than we could ever hope to know.

For the last time (even though I know it won't be the last time I say it), Shenmue 3 is in good hands!! It's in the fucking best hands, the guy who created it from the start. Remember those 2 games that you love from 16 years ago? Yeh? That guy, the genius who made them, he is making this game lol! His track record is insane, if the guy wants to choose Unreal 4, then he can choose Unreal 4! He has his reasons and so far, the game looks incredible, so he knows what he is doing!

The solution certainly isn't resurrecting an engine from 1999 and trying to make it work in 2018/2019. That's where the post really goes off the rails. You won't hear me say a bad thing about Shenmue II, but I've got to be honest: the game was starting to look dated when it came out in the States on the Xbox. I say that as someone who considers it the greatest video game OF ALL TIME.

Sure, nostalgia/vintage stuff is charming, but it's time to move on. What you want would seal the game's fate as an obscure novelty before it even comes out.

As a game developer with experience with UE4 your post makes absolutely no sense to me.
It's nothing more than a pointless ramble in an attempt to sound as if you have some sort of experience or knowledge of the game development process.

What a fucking pointless post. The game is in great hands. Unreal is a fantastic engine. Just look at that list of games, man. You're not making any sense. Shenmue 3 will more than likely end up being the most beautiful experience yet. Have more faith in Yu and his team.

It's a no-brainer, they would have to rewrite everything, basically do a whole new engine. In benefit of what ??
The lighting solution of UE is solid as fuck, the workflow is great and very artist oriented, blueprints can get quite messy but it's still a nice system, matinee is great for making cutscenes.

Also if they really want to make a similar combat style they can look in the source of the real engine and translate the algorithms, but it's not what YS wants, and the comments he made is more akin to "we were used to have our hands in the dough", for the creative type is kinda a deal of authorship.

UE is as a solid engine as they come (and I'm not a fanboy of the engine).

Also, Shenmue aesthetic was ps2 type of deal, it will take a while to look at it with strong nostalgia or a style into itself, so it'll just look like a lowtech game, unlike a lot of indie games that are consciously looking back to create a retro aesthetic. Take for example that now we are just starting to look the vertex snapping and lowres textures of the psx era with some nostalgia and judging it apart from the technical aspect. We could say that Shenmue (and the whole ps2/xbox era) still in the same "trying to get realism" aesthetic that we are in, and now we start to look other ways to make games visually appealing.

Yep. Lake of the Lantern Bugs is a great example of how it doesn't matter how clearly YSnet mark materials as subject to change.

The only other option was not releasing any footage, and risking angering nutcases like Waves & co over in the KS comments, or inciting clickbait "OMG IS SHENMUE 3 DEAD/CANCELLED/IN TROUBLE?!" due to perceived silence (already started appearing post-E3 this year, and some last year too, for an extra dose of stupidity).

It was a rock and a hard place. YSnet got extra fucked by development issues meaning the facial animations had to be disabled for whatever build(s) the Gamescom footage was taken from.

But I've said it before and I'll say it again, at least YSnet were honest with us.

It's a very rare thing for a developer with a high-ish profile game to do, which leads to instances of pre-release footage looking better than the game does when it comes out. At least we can reasonably expect Shenmue III's visuals and presentation to improve, rather than worry about an all-too-perfect showing getting downgraded.

And so what the fuck if it is a trailer or whatever. Never seen a bunch of moany cunts in my life. Games over a year from release, development is picking up big time, more cash and staff has came in the form of a new publisher, and the games looking pretty sweet for one which didn't exist for 15 years.

So hey, 2010 called. It said shut the fuck up and stop moaning.

Shenmue 3 will never get on such a hype level as ... i don't know ... the new Battlefield,
or the next Kojima game or Uncharted, Last Of Us, whatever.

The newer generations who were born at the year 2000+ have probably no idea what Shenmue is.
I don't think that you can hype these people with footage of some random japanese guy who is in some asian region.
And it doesn't help that they will find things like "carrying crates" or "driving the forklift" on Youtube
if they look up Shenmue.

Shenmues subjects and themes are not something that you can sell so easily.
I'm pretty sure that the view number on the first teaser would be pretty much the same
if they had better/finished facial expressions in the video.
There would be less dislikes, yes, but thats not enough to push the views magically into the sky.
It would still be the japanese guy who walks around.

If Shenmue 3 turns out great, then it will get its own hype from the people after the release.
If there is a great story, gameplay and so on, it will reach a hype level on its own because of the quality.

But you can't promote Shenmue 3 like some triple A Call of Duty or GTA.
Shenmue is probably on the same level as the Yakuza games or Persona,
those games are for a specific group of gamers.
I don't see how you could push the hype for these kind of games with better trailers or reports
because the setting and themes are just too peculiar / particular. (is this correct english, i don't know)

Shenmue is a admired franchise for a specific group of gamers,
but Shenmue is very very small if you compare it with current hype games.

A better looking Ryo or Shenhua is not enough to hype more people.

Really, you shouldn't need a "work in progress" plastered on it to realise that the teaser showed the game in a no-where near finished state.

Because I want the game and series to be a success so we can get Shenmue IV. The argument is that it's not a good trailer that sells the game to the masses who they need to sell it to for this game to be a success story. Sure the 70k hardcore who contributed to Kickstarter understand it's in development and a work in progress but most people don't look into this stuff or care. But so far the game has sold only 70k copies but they still need to make back Sega, Sony, Shibuya and Deep Silvers investments to be a success. People think the game is already a success story because of Kickstarter but 70k copies sold would make it one of the biggest flops ever so you can't stop there, that's why you need to focus on non Shenmue fans.

It's not that the game is going on sale tomorrow. There is at least 12 Month ahead, probably more.

Before Gamescom there was people genuinely asking on social medias if Shenmue 3 was still a thing or if it was dead.

Beside, the teaser showed very good things too and the whole project is in a far better place now with the Deep Silver deal. We can argue for days over the teaser. There are going to be other teasers/trailers, other deals and announcements hopefully positive for the whole franchise. It's a little early to go in total panic mode.

Just relax.

https://i.makeagif.com/media/8-12-2015/5ywbmV.gif

Technophilz wrote:it's really painful to say I didn't like it at all

Oh there's a fucking surprise. Also a WIP of one of 400 NPCs isn't as good as the main characters of a Naughty Dog game? No shit.

It's a progress update, should be for fucking fans, and take into account that it's mostly showing the range of "emotions" they are working, the model is even in a t pose making it even more surreal.

I would say that the gamescom trailer was a weird marketing move, but this is a backer update to show PROGRESS, people fucking on this are just being assholes.

It looks a little dated, ok, but bad ? For what it's pretty much an indie game with tons of characters ? Really ?

Now YS should keep the fans without updates because some people are going to be shitty ??

I appreciate them showing something. We are still a LONG way off from final release, folks. I don't know why people perpetually have their pitchforks out. Clickbaity articles from Pushsquare do not help. They don't look at the bigger time frame, just immediately nitpick.

It didn't matter to them that the models were still motionless, unanimated. It didn't matter that this video was simply proof they have it and will be beginning soon(we still have 12-18 months, guys). It was "Welp, garbage. 5 out of 10s confirmed, jank confirmed."

In regards to Technophilz, I respect his opinion, the worry is understandable, but I must disagree with the comparison.

The comparison CAN be made, but it doesn't hold potency. You cannot compare an indie developer to someone like Naughty Dog.

Naughty Dog is a veteran company for a singular platform with technology and budget far, FAR in excess of what Shenmue III has, regardless of Deep Silver's involvement. They have their own revenue stream, plus being owned by Sony themselves.

This holds true for many, MANY developers. Quantic Dream and Naughty Dog are pioneers in that field of facial animation and motion capture, unmatched by probably any other developer in the world. It is unrealistic to expect ANYTHING of that calibur, I'm afraid.

I read the NeoGAF thread before seeing the video and was prepared to react like Technophilz, but I'm not seeing the issue. It's not amazing, but it's not a disaster. It's a tech demo. What's the big deal?

I get it too. Blind fanboy-faith won't get anyone anywhere.

I may end lynched for what I'm going to say, but I don't agree on that. Not fully at least.

I personally think that, as the Shenmue fanbase, we should be a little bit fanboys.

There is more than enough people jumping on every single occasion to bash Shenmue or Yu Suzuki for many various reasons. There is more than enough people wanting Shenmue to fail for many various reasons.

I don't say we need to be blinded by our passion for the Shenmue Series but we need to be united and put things in perspective when a mere 53 seconds video update for Kickstarter backers is enough to see wagons of people use it to bash Shenmue 3 or insult Yu Suzuki's talent.

it's a crowdfunded project, we get to see steps of the development we usually never see. I can agree that the communication around the project is not good, but that doesn't mean that the game won't be good in the end.

What good can come out from joining the chorus of critics? What good can come out from telling to YsNet and Yu Suzuki that they are bad at making a game? That the artistic direction is wrong, the Ryo model is off, etc...?
They know what they are doing and are doing the best they can anyway.
Just think of the Deep Silver partnership: Suzuki San always knew he would need more budget to achieve what he has in mind for Shenmue 3 so he managed to increase the budget. For a man who never gave up on his dream to continue the Shenmue story, the least we can do is to keep our faith in him.

Until Shenmue 3 is released, the best attitude the Shenmue fan base can adopt is to be supportive of the development team efforts.

Now, let the lynching begin.

No, no. You're exactly right about that. By blind fanboy faith, I meant when your faith leads you to thinking irrationally and ignoring things that are painfully obvious. Nothing wrong with a little faith as long as it's informed.

Even if you hate everything they showed, and the end result ends up being a mess, it's just better to have faith than live 1 year sour.

The wheels are already in motion, it's not like people are gonna go "X guys doesn't like it, let's throw away everything and accomodate their tastes".

At most the moment of being critical will be in the closed beta, and at that moment most of the job will just be performance, polishing and some mechanic tweaks (if they actually care about feedback).

I have never been more serious about anything in my life.

I think it's ok to be critical and that it's also ok to be extremely optimistic at this stage. Technophilz was just unintelligently attacking everything and acting like there was no way in hell the game would turn out ok.