The Loading Screens - Kept or Removed?

[shenmue852]

Fast loading for interiors like Shenmue 1 warehouses and for contextual/secret areas. Seamless for the rest with Free music system as well.

Although I already miss Shenmue 2 and its "each neighbourhood is an unique painting" philosophy.

weren't they kind of connected?

[Sonoshee]

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48006

[shenmue852]

there's an obvious reason to keep the loading screens- the change in music between different areas. it just won't work without the black screen that displays the name of the area you're in.

that being said, i think the environments should be seamlessly built anyway, just so you can see the rest of the environment from different parts of it (i.e see through doorways instead of just a texture there)

[Henry Spencer]

http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48006

Doh. Sorry. Never saw that. Just got lost in the wave of topics from back then, I guess.

[ShenGCH]

While loading screens are (mostly) a thing of the past nowadays, there's something very classic and special about Shenmue's that I would really miss them if they weren't in Shenmue III. Sure, I sincerely doubt the game would need actual ten second loading times between areas, but a quick 2-3 second fade-in-fade-out in-between certain areas would be very much appreciated, as would the option to be able to turn them off for those who don't want the slight interruption

[Three Blades]

They could still be there, but kinda transparent so that you can play seamlessly while looking at the info at the same time.

[AnimeGamer183]

they could easily just have that information be displayed on screen some where, or have it be a button to pull up the area and date and time, or they could just have it in the pause menu. There could be alot of ways to implement being able to see that information and not bog down the game with loading screens. I personally dont mind loading screens that much, but at this point in gaming I dont think loading screens should last more than 3 seconds or so... but there are still many that take forever to load sadly.

[Himuro]

Keep them but use them for specific moments.

Such as:

1. loading the game world like how GTA loads the entire game world before the game starts, and you have all those splash images. Do that but with Shenmue traditional loading screen.
2. going to a new town

Otherwise, loading should be minimal and non existent.

Music should be gradual in transition. In Shenmue II disc 4, while in the cave, when looking for kindle to burn, you'll notice that the music changes in the cave and at the fire where Shenhua rests. The music in that room seamlessly changes depending on where you are. Shenmue III should handle music in a similar manner. There should be no loading when you say, walk in Bailu, and go inside Shenhua's house. There's already no for going outside her house already in II, but in III the music should change depending on where you are: inside the house, and outside. I don't think many people would be down for loading screens like Shenmue's in today's gaming landscape. They were a product of their times and not necessary today.

[killthesagabeforeitkillsu]

Loading times would allow more detail in stores. Witcher 3 had a massive downgrade indoors due to this.

[shenmue852]

Keep them but use them for specific moments.

Such as:

1. loading the game world like how GTA loads the entire game world before the game starts, and you have all those splash images. Do that but with Shenmue traditional loading screen.
2. going to a new town

Otherwise, loading should be minimal and non existent.

Music should be gradual in transition. In Shenmue II disc 4, while in the cave, when looking for kindle to burn, you'll notice that the music changes in the cave and at the fire where Shenhua rests. The music in that room seamlessly changes depending on where you are. Shenmue III should handle music in a similar manner. There should be no loading when you say, walk in Bailu, and go inside Shenhua's house. There's already no for going outside her house already in II, but in III the music should change depending on where you are: inside the house, and outside. I don't think many people would be down for loading screens like Shenmue's in today's gaming landscape. They were a product of their times and not necessary today.

Not all the BGM tracks would transition as smoothly just by nature of their sounding very different. It would either be awkward transitions or constraints on each BGM track's composition to force it to transition well into others.

I have a feeling they're going to do it your way in the smaller villages, while Choubu will be like the old games but with a 1 second transition/load screen.

[BlueMue]

They should cut them down as much as possible, keep a very short transition of 2-3 seconds with the classic load screen to show the time and what area you've entered. Cutscenes should come and go without any loading pauses, not breaking to flow between gameplay and cutscene at all.

[Hyo Razuki]

I think a good way to do it would be to display date, time and area name for like 3 seconds, when you enter a new area, but while it shows, you would already be able to see the new area and move to it. You could have like the classic loading screen information in the bottom right corner of the screen for the first couple of seconds in a new area.

If actual loading screens are really necessary, they should keep em as short as possible (like 3 to 5 seconds max).

[reptile]

I want the classic loading screens to return but not have them load like a minute long if possible.

[Spaghetti]

If they can get away without loading, go for it. They could easily have an on-screen display similar to the old loading screens when you enter somewhere, and have classic looking load screens where needed.

Honestly it does seem like they're going for a minimal loading situation, at least in Bailu. The village hut video showed that there's no real boundary between the interior and exterior environments.

[The_Intruder]

I was playing Shenmue yesterday with my nephew watching me and he said he like everything about the game except the loading screens. They can be very annoying because they can last about 7-10 second.