[English Version] Dissecting Shenmue III in 61000 Words:The Anatomy of Kinetic Expansion, Financial Misdirection, and the Cultural Ghost of the Dreamcast Era

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Special thanks to Shenmue Dojo for the inspiration!

This article is an English translation of the Japanese version below.

I would like to share my detailed thoughts and review of Shenmue 3, as well as my hopes for the future of the franchise.

シェンムー最大の問題は、「プロデューサーが監督を兼任した」所にある。

Playing Shenmue III on its 3rd, 4th, and 5th anniversaries, my frustration grew each and every time I played it. I am not going to play it this year. I've had enough.

The four years leading up to the release of Shenmue III felt incredibly long, but the six years since then have gone by in a real flash. It has been six years since Shenmue III was released. Originally, Shenmue IV and Shenmue V should have been released by now.

On my 5th anniversary playthrough, I cleared the game in Easy Mode without applying the patch (23 GB), and without doing any sub-quests, capsule toys, mini-games, arcades, gambling, Chobu Chan, or any part-time jobs other than chopping wood. Even so, isn't this way of playing perfectly fine?

The biggest problem with Shenmue lies in the fact that "the producer also served as the director." Yet, they repeated the exact same mistake in Shenmue III.

Studio Ghibli succeeded because Producer Suzuki rejected certain ideas to maintain balance; if Director Miyazaki had just made whatever he liked, his films would not have been as popular (especially among female audiences). Shenmue also needed someone who could say, "Turtle racing is fine, but we don't need physical rendering," "Nobody cares about the gloss of Ryo's skin or the tiny pores on his face," or "We don't need the Mokusho Cafe." A producer was needed to push things forward and rein in Director Yu Suzuki. (Though, granted, there are directors like Isao Takahata whom no one can rein in).

Director Yu Suzuki said, "I decided to put all my effort into making the worldview stand out," but what was truly needed was a producer who would say, "You should put all your effort into bringing this to an end." Even my mother said, "He should have just gone to Hong Kong already," yet they prioritized the Yokosuka-style gameplay, and Choubu looked way too similar to Hong Kong.

Why did they make the city so extravagant and prepare dialogue just to ask for directions from NPCs who have nothing to do with the story progression? There is "no need to change the NPCs' dialogue" every single time the story advances. They didn't even need to create new NPCs; they could have just reused old assets from Yakuza (Ryu ga Gotoku). Advancing the story should have been a much higher priority than doing that.

Leaving Bailu Village aside, Choubu offered "terrible story progression and gameplay." The part-time jobs, mini-games, and just swapping chickens out for ducks—everything was exactly the same as in Bailu Village. Choubu had nothing but the same mini-games as Bailu Village. If they had made Bailu Village a true countryside, kept herb-gathering exclusive to Bailu Village, removed all the capsule toys, arcades, fishing spots, and Lucky Hit from there, and concentrated all of them in Choubu instead, it would have been much better.

The thugs just changed into the Red Snakes; they repeated the exact same thing in Bailu Village and Choubu. This might have been a padding tactic or a way to cut production costs, but it did not work out well.

The thugs, the Red Snakes... the story progression and gameplay changed absolutely zero between Bailu Village and Choubu.

I understand full well that Shenmue is fundamentally an "incremental expansion game" (a game built by adding extensions), unlike general titles. However, since they lacked the budget, time, and production leeway, they should have developed it like this:

First, write a proper script, Create a linear story progression, Build the locations, Determine the gameplay, And then, only if there is room to spare, expand it horizontally.

If they had decided on the scenario properly at the very beginning, it would never have resulted in such an bizarre progression, where the story doesn't advance at all, you just lose to thugs twice, and the final sequence has you bringing companions along to cross over to the Old Castle.

Hanasaki Path clearly feels like it was tacked on later: deserted, an excessively wide street, and events where nothing happens.

Rokkaku Street also clearly feels like it was expanded after the fact. The 5,000-yuan skill book and the Shilin event amount to nothing more than "Those damn thugs!" Rather than the Asian-style makeup version, she was cuter in the initial version; if they were going to remake assets, they should have focused on creating what comes next.

If that was the case, I believe they should have "completely cut Choubu" and gone straight to the Great Wall of China and the Fujian Tulou. Sleeping in a luxury hotel in Choubu is just not like Ryo. Having to craft a luxurious hotel for him to sleep in every night, only for the story not to progress—if it doesn't reach a conclusion, it's all meaningless. It leaves me with an indescribable feeling to think that "the game didn't reach its conclusion because Ryo stayed at a luxury hotel." A luxury hotel.

It was so luxurious that it was disappointing.

If they were going to redesign the character models and motions from scratch compared to the very first trailer, they should have just used that time to create what comes next instead. The initial character models and motions—those were more than enough.

This scene that ended up not being adopted; they shouldn't have thrown it away, but used it to produce what comes next.

They created a massive number of shops and NPCs in Choubu that had absolutely no Chinese feel to them. Just to visit Kyo three times you had to keep walking back and forth from the inn at the very bottom to the dojo at the very top. The game content was nothing more than repeating the exact same thing as Bailu Village twice. Finding Chobu-chan is fun, but Ryo didn't come all the way to China to look for Chobu-chan, and surely that isn't what we waited four years for, is it? Finding Chobu-chan is fun, but... Chobu-chan is not a treasure chest; it's just a campaign run by Choubu Tourism. It serves as a natural justification to visit the shops, turning the facade-like backgrounds into actual gameplay where the rewards are skill books and leveling up, which connects back to the story progression. I think it is a highly excellent piece of gameplay that has likely never been done before. However, Ryo's purpose for coming to China was definitely not to look for Chobu-chan.

Even down to the dojo, it was just a repetition of the same thing. It would have been better if it hadn't already existed in Bailu Village.

During the Kickstarter, the promise made to backers that "we want to prioritize the Fujian Tulou" was also never fulfilled.

Referencing Denfaminicogamer, the unincluded planning documents. The plot being constantly plagued by encounters with thugs resembles the weak points of the manga Kenji. They really should have thought about how not to make the story progression as boring as Kenji.

シェンムー3の納得行かない所。

What I cannot accept about Shenmue III.

I especially cannot accept the fact that the story does not connect properly with the previous game. If they claim it was made for the fans, the fans were looking forward to the "continuation," so I believe they should have prioritized not changing the established settings during production. Ryo forgetting techniques like the Enou Santenshu (Reverse Body Check), Shenhua’s clothes being changed, the layout of Shenhua's house being different, the Seven Stars Sword becoming smaller, and the presence of fishing spots, capsule toys, and arcades—even though Shenhua's stories made Bailu Village sound like it was in the middle of nowhere—and the chocolate in the house; all of this was disappointing. I cannot accept this. If the discrepancies made production difficult, they should have just made it with low-poly models and low-resolution textures, and it would have been perfectly fine if all the villagers in Bailu Village wore the same type of clothes as Shenhua. With low-poly, it wouldn't have felt so out of place.

Originally it was planned to be a short dagger, but apparently, the designer enlarged it on their own whim.

Since fans had been looking at the old appearance of Niao Sun for many years, they should have kept Niao Sun's appearance the same. I cannot accept the change in Niao Sun either.

The basic gameplay in Bailu Village—such as chopping wood, tracing Ryo's father's footsteps, being taught the Tetsuzankou (Body Check), and the conversations with characters involved in the story—was good, but...

The first part-time job in Shenmue history that wasn't painful. The satisfying sound and tempo made it very well done. I was surprised the first time I heard that the music was from After Burner.

If it means being taught the Tetsuzankou, I would catch as many chickens as it takes.

Even though it is supposed to be spring, cherry blossoms and sunflowers are blooming, while pumpkins and wheat are bearing fruit—the sense of season is completely messed up, and I cannot accept it. Also: Herb alchemy Gambling dens Lucky Hit Pawnshops Prize exchange centers Markets Fishing spots Vegetable stalls Capsule toys Shops Arcades Dojos Sub-quests The flower fields around Flower Bridge Being able to walk on top of the bushes Losing to thugs twice Rescuing generic mob characters ...none of these were necessary for Bailu Village at all.

I was disappointed by Bailu Village because it felt too urbanized. Capsule toys and arcade machines were completely unnecessary for Bailu Village. Rather than producing such cliché elements, they should have focused on moving the story forward and keeping the established settings intact. Instead of the mindset of driving the in-game economy through things like pumpkin harvesting, rice farming assistance, pig feeding, or cow milking to interact with Shenhua and the locals, I wanted them to depict a rustic country life based on "labor without currency, and bartering."

Even though collecting materials through smartball in Choubu might be rare, in the end, it amounts to nothing more than collecting materials for alchemy—a mechanic that I am already completely sick and tired of in other titles.

「僕の考えたシェンムー3」

My Ideal Shenmue III

If I were to design it: First, completely cut the entire Choubu chapter. Since the battles alone were way too pathetic, Sega should create proper ones. While Yokosuka was great because it was a real Japan created by Japanese people, the streetscapes and architecture in Shenmue II were overly stylized. Therefore, we should outsource the maps to a Chinese studio, so that Chinese people can create a genuine China. (Though I hear labor costs in China are higher nowadays).

Bailu Village

• "Deep conversations with Shenhua"

• "Tracing Ryo's father's footsteps"

• "Searching inside rooms"

• "Part-time jobs: farming and chopping wood"

• "A battle against the Red Snakes, defeating them with the Enou Santenshu (Reverse Body Check) to satisfy fans of the previous games"

• "Solving a bit of the mystery, allowing the story to progress"

Onboard the Ship

• "Exploration and battles within the dark ship after lights out"

• "An electromechanical game and capsule toys in a small amusement area"

• "A part-time job stoking the ship's boiler"

• "Events to break the ice and become friends with the children among the passengers"

• "Defeating Chai"

The Great Wall, and the Hanging Temple (The Cliffside Temple)

• "Walking endlessly along a narrow path while listening to Ren complain"

• "Shenhua gets kidnapped"

• "Kung Fu training"

• "Being taught the Tetsuzankou (Body Check) by a grandmaster"

• "Defeating Niao Sun with the newly learned Tetsuzankou and rescuing Shenhua, though the mirror gets stolen"

• "Saving Shenhua's father"

• "Being told the story of Lan Di's father"

• "Unraveling a bit of the mirror's mystery, allowing the story to progress"

Fujian Tulou

• "A large-scale siege and infiltration event"

• "Exploration inside the Fujian Tulou"

• "Continuous battles and QTEs"

• "The third Chiyoumen boss appears, and Ryo loses"

• "Being rescued by Xiuying"

• "Unraveling a significant part of the mirror's mystery, allowing the story to progress significantly"

To be continued in Shenmue IV. The story needs to progress at least this much, otherwise it will never end. I think it would be perfectly fine even if the playtime for a first playthrough was just "10 hours." As for the night views of Choubu or the Fenghuang Ancient Town, they could just incorporate famous spots from various parts of China when producing Luoyang.

Everyone wants to play while running, but for the Great Wall of China, they should make it impossible to run:

1. Ren alone runs ahead first,

2. Have Ryo say, "If you run, you won't last,"

3. Ryo, who is walking, overtakes Ren,

4. Ren says, "How long are we going to walk?" speaking for the player's feelings.

5. A Shenmue-esque gameplay sequence that consists of just walking for about 30 minutes. (If making it for fans, 2 hours would be fine). With something like this, they could make great use of the Great Wall's location. Furthermore, because there is no need to produce shops or pedestrian traffic, costs would go down, and the walk-only gameplay would have its own persuasion. Shenmue is a "madness," not a "style." Therefore, there was no need to place so much importance on the Yokosuka-style gameplay in Shenmue III. I think the massive problem with Choubu was the fact that "Choubu looked way too similar to Hong Kong." When locations are similar, the "play," the "gameplay," and the "genre" become identical.

シェンムー以前のゲームは、シナリオ、企画に合わせてマップを制作していたが、シェンムーは町を先につくり、後からイベントを考えるという制作手法が、斬新だった。

Games before Shenmue produced maps to fit the scenario and planning, but Shenmue's production method of building the town first and thinking up events afterward was revolutionary.

Creating the gameplay to match the location "after the fact" is what makes Shenmue so unique. Shenmue III fails to leverage its attractive locations. If there are terraced rice fields, I want to plant rice rather than pick herbs, and if there is a rock resembling an elephant, I want to fall from the top or slide underneath it, yet you couldn't do anything. They are extremely beautiful terraced rice fields, but the only gameplay available is herb gathering. If that was the case, keeping it low-poly and allowing rice planting would have made for much better gameplay.

In order to prevent the backgrounds from becoming mere hollow facades, it was necessary to keep them low-poly. With cheap graphics—to talk in extremes, if they had kept the outward appearance at the Sega Saturn version level—not only would there be no awkwardness in the motions, but they could have produced any kind of dynamic scene, such as Ryo "hanging onto a train" from Project Berkley, or the "scene escaping from falling rocks" which was shown during development but cut from the final game. However, when you make the graphics halfway decent like in Shenmue III, it creates a sense of awkwardness, making it impossible to introduce dynamic events. Project Berkley. Producing this level of event with Shenmue III's level of graphics would likely be difficult, but it would be possible with low-poly. There is an old illustration showing "Shenhua riding a horse," but with an outward appearance like Shenmue III, riding a horse through the vast lands of China is something they cannot do because it costs too much money, right? Since Shenmue is all about how you incrementally expand it, they should not have been spending the budget on graphics and motions. Recently, Final Fantasy VII has been drawing criticism for being full of mini-games, but the "forklift in Shenmue Yokosuka is not a mini-game." That is done to earn travel expenses for the sake of story progression; in other words, it is the same as a battle in an RPG. It must be considered separately from the forklift races, darts, and Lucky Hit that you are forced to do every day. That is the rare part about Shenmue: when you want money, "you cannot earn it through battle." In Shenmue, the game genre changes depending on the method used to earn travel expenses. In Shenmue's case, there is a necessity to create the forklift segment (though five days was overdoing it). The airing out of books in Shenmue II was good, and as for Shenmue III:

Chopping wood, Catching chickens, Maho (Horse Stance), Keiho (Chicken Stance), Rinzo (Revolving Lantern), Kacho Fugetsu (Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon) ...such things are not mini-games but are necessary, and they were well-done. On the other hand:

Fishing, Games inside the arcade, Smartball, Capsule toys, Lucky Hit, Rock throwing, The forklift, Frog races, Turtle races, Sub-quests, Catching ducks, Battle Rally, Finding Hakka-chan ...these are mini-games and could have been omitted.

Earning through labor rather than combat is the interesting part of Shenmue, but they should have abolished the concept of an in-game economy (Ryo didn't come to China to go shopping). There only needed to be the bare minimum part-time work that yields funds for the journey. Wasn't the most criticized aspect of Shenmue back then that while the graphics were amazing, the "gameplay was hollow"? Yet, in Shenmue III, it was once again "only the graphics that were grand," with almost no story progression, events, QTEs, or battles. The public criticized Shenmue III's graphics and motions as being bad, but I think the opposite: Shenmue III is a game that is grand only in its outward appearance.

Graphics that are more than sufficient, to a level I didn't even request. Are these graphics really bad? If so, what about Breath of the Wild or Pokémon? I have played Horizon Zero Dawn, Red Dead Redemption 2, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Shenmue III's colorful textures are sufficiently beautiful, and I don't think the motions are bad at all, leaving the combat aside. Once you make it luxurious, you end up having to maintain that quality to produce Shenmue IV and V, raising the hurdle for sequel production as well. The reason people said the motions in Shenmue III were bad is because they made the character models halfway decent. Games like Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin or Ys IX are cheaper than Shenmue III, yet no one called them shoddy, right?

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. No matter how you look at it, Shenmue III's graphics are grander, yet nobody said Sakuna's graphics were bad. Since there were terraced rice fields even in Shenmue III, and there is no way an economy could circulate in a countryside like Bailu Village, I wanted them to depict a rustic society and helping out in the fields—"labor and bartering"—rather than a concept like an in-game economy.

Normally, gathering materials is painful, but the herb gathering in Shenmue III wasn't so bad. It is also good that you can memorize the names of crude drugs. If they had restricted it to Bailu Village only, as gameplay that leverages the countryside, it would have made for great gameplay if you bartered with them instead of selling them. It was not needed in Choubu.

Even in recent AAA titles, backgrounds are frequently criticized as "hollow facades," and everyone is sick and tired of gameplay involving open-world fatigue, dressing up, leveling up, money farming, material gathering, and monotonous quests. Therefore, the fact that Shenmue doesn't need to produce any of those things is actually a convenient situation for it. Gameplay you don't see in other games, like Maho and Keiho, is interesting, so Shenmue has no need for "alchemy" using capsule toys and herbs. It is perfectly fine if it is meant for people who are bored of conventional video games. For me, Guilin in Shenmue II (Disc 4) is precisely a direction unique to video games that would be impossible in movies or manga, and I think it is uniquely Shenmue. Yet, Disc 4 is a rail-type experience; there is no exploration, battle, gambling, part-time work, capsule toys, quests, shopping, or training whatsoever. Shenmue II, Guilin: Gameplay that remains in video game history. In Shenmue III, "catching chickens" and "the part where you look for wooden tags in the dirt floor room, climb the bell tower, and turn the Rinzo together" were good, and Shenmue's unique character shone through. Therefore, the game can easily remain interesting even if you push the story forward rapidly.

Final Fantasy VII Remake, which was announced at the exact same E3, released two titles in eight years, whereas Shenmue only released one title in eight years. If they had eight years, they should have been able to put out three titles. In the first place, spending the same amount of development time on Shenmue III as a project with a budget scale like FF7 was a mistake; they worked way too hard on the outward appearance and producing the "Shenmue style.

ファン以外の層、新規勢を獲得考えている余裕は絶対にない。状況はそんなに甘くはない。

There is absolutely no room to be thinking about acquiring non-fans or a new player base. The situation is not that naive.

There is absolutely no need to try and appeal to non-fans. The situation is not that naive. In the article from jp.ign.com titled "The Legendary Creator Who Has Changed the Way We Play Games for 40 Years! A Long Interview with Yu Suzuki—What Is Yu Suzuki's Unique 'Foresight'?":

For a game with gameplay as kind and helpful as Shenmue, there is no need to cater to "players who wouldn't even know where to go next" anymore. A thoroughly detailed notebook is more than enough. Games like Breath of the Wild completely leave players to fend for themselves to a degree that cannot even be compared to Shenmue Yokosuka, yet it is a massive hit. This notebook alone is perfectly sufficient for guiding the player.

Director Yu Suzuki said: "Next time, I want to make it so that new users can enjoy the game even more. What's particularly important is making it enjoyable even if you don't know the past story. In Shenmue IV, I want players to naturally understand the past story through the main game itself. Rather than showing it through movies, I think it would be best if it could be understood naturally just by playing the game, such as making them into playable flashback scenes."

While fans who already know the story would also want to play through playable flashback scenes, we are simply not in a situation to be making such extravagant demands. Rather than spending time creating flashback scenes, they should prioritize creating what comes next and bringing the series to an end; new players should just play the PS4 version starting from Yokosuka.

シェンムー3をバッカー以外の売り上げを見込んで制作したから、シェンムー4も発売されず、くだらない動画が作られる。

Because they produced Shenmue III anticipating sales from non-backers, Shenmue IV is not being released, and garbage videos are being made.

It makes me feel utterly dynamic and exhausted just looking at the thumbnails of those trash YouTube videos created solely for views, lacking any proper understanding.

They say Shenmue suffered a "downfall," completely ignoring the fact that it "didn't sell well from the very beginning." They call Shenmue's system "outdated," even though it was a highly exceptional case that was "not accepted by the mainstream even back then." They dismiss Shenmue as simply being old, yet for some reason, they fail to talk about its "full-scale 3D space" (actual size) and its "time-axis system." Since Yakuza 6 (Ryu ga Gotoku 6) and onward, that series has basically converted into Shenmue, meaning Yakuza is the one that is truly old—yet they only label Shenmue as old.

Shenmue II was not a failure in terms of its execution as a game. The proof is that today's games are doing nothing but producing later-generation titles modeled after Shenmue II, aren't they? Why does nobody touch upon this fact?

These people, who lack the guts to call Pokémon old or unprogressive, produce garbage videos without understanding what the core essence is. And tens of thousands of people watch them without questioning the content, completely ignorant of what Shenmue II accomplished in video game history.

Even though Shenmue III is doing rare and unique things like Chobu-chan, Face Janken (Rock-Paper-Scissors), and Keiho (Chicken Stance), when the original Shenmue does it, it's called "old." On the other hand, titles like FF7, Yakuza, and Pokémon are said to have progressed even though they are merely throwing in past template elements. A complete "reversal phenomenon" is taking place.

I felt far more enthusiasm and love from the Shenmue IV fake trailer videos. Normally, fans take a harsh stance against fakes, but I couldn't bring myself to get angry at those. I understand the feeling all too painfully well.

一般的でありきたりなRPGのプレイはシェンムーに必要なく、プレイ時間は短くても良い。

There is no need for conventional, cliché RPG gameplay in Shenmue, and it would be perfectly fine even if the playtime were short.

Here is a bulleted list of the unnecessary elements in Shenmue III:

1. I don’t want to do "item collection" anymore, regardless of the video game. Capsule toys, pawnshops, and alchemy are not necessary either. I am already sick of them from other games; they are just a hassle. Nowadays, "playing a video game" has basically become synonymous with "gathering materials." Unnecessary materials and items. Ryo did not come all the way to China to go shopping.

2. I don’t want to do "level grinding" anymore. Gameplay like Shenmue II allows for better replayability. Gameplay where you cannot progress without leveling up becomes tedious when you replay the game. (Even though a "New Game Plus" exists, that is not the primary way to experience it). Just like in Shenmue II, it should have been designed so that you could progress without grinding for levels. In Shenmue III, skill books are required just to raise your level, making it necessary to engage in tedious material gathering and dull, luck-dependent mini-games; it could hardly be called interesting gameplay. It is also bizarre how enemies just wait in the same spot for days, and game-like constraints such as "go defeat a fourth-dan martial artist" were entirely unnecessary.

3. Gambling is unnecessary. You just wait until you win and reset if you don't. It's boring. The house always wins, and I play video games precisely because I hate gambling where you just sit and wait. Having to get a fortune-telling session just to gamble was nothing but a hassle and wasn't needed. If they were going to include it, they should have adjusted the odds so that you win as much as you do on the "Suzaku (Vermilion Bird) table." Otherwise, no one will bother playing it.

4. Cliché food systems and eating to restore stamina were unnecessary. This causes trouble when securing food at enemy hideouts or during boss fight retries. If you don't eat, you can no longer run; while Shenmue fans are already accustomed to a playstyle where they don't run, this is not suited for the general public. It would have been better if eating three steamed buns a day let you keep running all day long. Even if they increase the variety of food, from a gameplay standpoint, having just one type like steamed buns causes no issues. This is simply not a situation where they should be spending the budget on such features.

5. They have not learned from the "forklift reflection." Unlike other games, earning travel and food expenses through "labor" is an interesting part of Shenmue, but doing the forklift for five days was overdoing it (it should have been shortened to two days), which connects to recent issues surrounding mini-games. In Shenmue's case, changing the game genre depending on the method of money-making and the location is its key characteristic. While elements like Maho (Horse Stance), Keiho (Chicken Stance), Sunken (One-Inch Punch), catching chickens, and Kacho Fugetsu (Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon) are interesting when tied into events, repeating them too many times results in a boring gaming experience.

6. The part-time job wages are far too low. Chopping wood is interesting, but doing it too many times becomes painful. Doing it once a day should be enough to get by without struggling to live. How many fish do you need to catch just to complete a capsule toy set? Even with fishing, they should have improved the tempo so that if you fish for just five minutes, you can earn enough to fully complete one capsule toy machine; otherwise, there's no motivation to fish at all.

7. There are uselessly too many skill books. When there are barely any battles, there is no point in just flooding the game with techniques. They claim it is designed to lead you toward skill books, but isn't the ultimate destination supposed to be combat? Exchanging through alchemy or buying them at shops is unnecessary. Wouldn't it be better if the only techniques were the ones taught to you through story events? By the stage of Yokosuka, there were already more techniques than one could ever fully utilize; even if you increase them that much, there is no place to use them. Furthermore, the means to obtain powerful skill books was painful.

8. I was deeply disappointed because Bailu Village and Choubu felt too urbanized. The chocolate inside Shenhua's house, the arcade in Bailu Village, and a Choubu that felt far too modern—surely the backers were not wishing for such things? For all their talk about making it "for the backers," they ended up producing a flashy game. The fans must have imagined a much more austere, simple China over those 14 years. I wish they had outsourced the town production to a Chinese studio and created a slightly more realistic China, even if it meant using low-poly models at a Sega Saturn level. An arcade was completely unnecessary in Bailu Village.

9. They failed to utilize China’s attractive locations for events. You cannot enter the Fenghuang Ancient Town, and even though there is a compelling rock resembling an elephant, it is nothing more than a background, a mere hollow facade. One could easily imagine dynamic scenarios—such as being thrown from the top of the elephant rock by Niao Sun and falling all the way down to the Lijiang River, or crouching underneath it to meet an old master of cormorant fishing—yet it was not utilized at all. If there are terraced rice fields, I want to plant rice. If there are cows, I want to tend to them. I believe they should have produced events rather than focusing on improving the graphics and motions. Beautiful, but a mere hollow facade. I want to go inside.

10、The combat is truly boring. There are no highlights at all. A combat system where no matter how much you dive into it, no enjoyment could be found.

11、Capsule toys were unnecessary. The reason Shenmue's capsule toys were interesting was because "they were packed with Sega's history." Capsule toys that are nothing more than shrunken-down versions of background objects are unnecessary. Sega's history is the very raison d'être for the existence of Shenmue's capsule toys.

12、The recycling of BGM. These tracks were tied to memories of walking through Guilin or served as character theme songs. I want them to stop using Joy's theme song for a musical instrument shop, or Fangmei's theme song for a pawnshop.

13、In Shenmue III, when you move, the camera automatically snaps back to the center on its own. I want to keep walking while maintaining a diagonal angle. I want to walk with the camera fixed diagonally upward. In Shenmue Yokosuka and Shenmue 2, you could walk diagonally upward if you manually maintained the analog stick, but you cannot do that here. Recent games are designed so that you can toggle this setting on or off, though.

14、The TPS (Third-Person Shooter) perspective during movement. Shenmue is not Resident Evil 4 (Biohazard 4), so I want Ryo Hazuki to be displayed right in the middle of the screen, full-body, down to his feet. (Apparently, this becomes possible in a new version. Too late). After all, this is what Shenmue is supposed to look like.

15、Some of the dialogue is unpleasant. They might have wanted to express the innocence of a child, but it was redundant and unnecessary.

16、The sense of season is completely messed up. Cherry blossoms blooming while pumpkins are bearing fruit is something that cannot be accepted in Shenmue, a series that used to pursue reality. Is it spring? Or is it autumn?

17、The footstep sounds are bad, and the volume is too low. A stronger sound—like a sharp clacking or crunching—was needed. If you were to ask if Shenmue III possessed the joy of just walking, the camera snaps back on its own, so it really didn't.

18、The fishing is terrible. Was there really no one on staff who knew anything about fishing? They are using a casting reel upside down, and even with the spinning reel, the line doesn't pass through the bail. Doing lure fishing in the countryside of the old days is also bizarre in various ways. Reeling makes you tired, and I believe they should have stuck to bait fishing instead of lures. An unrealistic, far too careless fishing rod and reel. In terms of sound, tempo, and the overall feel of fishing, it has absolutely no appeal—even worse than the combat. Actual fishing is not such a peaceful, tranquil thing; it isn't fun to play unless it has the kind of tempo and flashiness found in chopping wood.

In China, there is an old saying: "If you want to be happy for an hour, get drunk. If you want to be happy for three days, get married. If you want to be happy for a lifetime, go fishing." When you actually catch a massive fish, the adrenaline pumps, you feel a release from tension, and you get so excited that your hands shake. When hooking a big prize, instead of tranquil music, they should have made it flashy—like Joy's entrance theme—and I wanted Ryo to express his absolute maximum level of emotion and rejoice when landing it.

Since it's set in China, I wanted to catch grass carp, silver carp, and black carp, rather than trout species.

This careless, haphazard fishing gear is simply too atrocious.

19、Difficulty selection is unnecessary. In the end, it just adds the extra hassle of having to obtain skill books just to raise your level, and they should not have spent adjustment time or budget on such things. Since it is not an action game, it would have been fine from the start to just make the QTE inputs longer and keep the enemies weak.

20、The places where the story does not connect. Shenhua's attire. The small Seven Stars Sword. The changing floor plan of Shenhua's house. A Bailu Village that is far too urbanized—the parts that are especially unacceptable, considering Shenmue fans were looking forward to the continuation. This is simply unacceptable.

21、Unnecessary easter eggs. The Sega Saturn in the temple, the rough sketch of Shenhua in the painting shop, the wall hanging of the Yokosuka sailor, the photo of Chai and his mother—since the backers are hardcore Shenmue fans, they surely wouldn't want such cheap, easy fan service. Although, Brawling Uppercut 2 (Kenka Upper 2), maybe that one is acceptable.

22、The forklift is unnecessary. Not doing a dish twice that you've already cooked once—isn't that what Shenmue is all about? Instead of fan service, they should create something different.

23、The graphics and motions were way too good. Since this is aimed at existing fans, increasing the quality of the outward appearance is not going to increase sales. Three-dimensional textures are not necessary. When I saw the "video before the facial expressions were implemented," I thought, "Oh no, the graphics are too good; there is absolutely no need to make the background objects like bowls, masks, and the ground look this good." A background that is far too beautiful. In the first reveal trailer, even though the facial expressions weren't put in yet, the graphics were too good. Please look at Ys VIII. This is what it means to achieve sustainability. If you improve the graphics and character models, you then have to improve the motions as well, which increases development costs and makes it impossible to produce new titles—a vicious cycle. If you stick to low-poly, you can produce anything, but when you go with realistic graphics, dynamic events can no longer be created because the sense of incongruity becomes too massive—just like the scene where you escape from a giant boulder falling from above, which was shown during development (I really wanted them to include that). Ryo-san's skin could have just been kept completely smooth. Nowadays, people are spending massive development costs and buying 120,000 yen gaming consoles just to look at worthless things like pores, wrinkles, and blemishes on a face. "Photorealism is not needed in video games." Something on the level of Devil May Cry 4 is perfectly fine. I cannot believe there is anything to be gained as a video game by spending astronomical costs just to cross the uncanny valley. Ryo-san's skin that left me disappointed. This is absolutely not a situation where they should be wasting development costs on such things. For a video game character model, the 2008 Xbox 360 generation's Devil May Cry 4 is more than enough. This level looks far cooler than Monster Hunter Wilds, which is obsessing over three-dimensional, deeply pitted pores, wrinkles, and blemishes.

The masterpiece Ys VIII—please look at these low-poly, smooth-textured character models and backgrounds. Shenmue III should have aimed for this.

If they kept it around the level of Dragon Quest X, it would run on any PC. That is more than enough, so they should aim for the conclusion of Shenmue.

24、Subquests were completely unnecessary. If they had the leeway to produce subquests, they should have channeled those resources into main story events.

25、The DLC content is atrocious. Finding the children is in poor taste, the Chawan阵 (Chawan-jin) is just repetitive, Hakka-chan makes you motion-sick, and the Battle Rally is utterly boring. IGNJapan.Kurabe-san gave it a 60 out of 100, but I give it a 20.

26、It was not a realistic China; it was far too romanticized. This is also because Yokosuka was a flawless Japan created by Japanese people who lived the reality; if possible, I want the stages to be produced by Chinese people. (Though I hear labor costs are higher in China these days).

27、When crossing over to the ancient castle, it would have been better if it were just the boatman and Ren, the two of them. A development like a JRPG where your companions suddenly multiply was completely unnecessary. As expected, this kind of development is not needed.

28、The ancient castle's pawnshop was unnecessary. Wouldn't it have been enough to just display a warning note before crossing over, saying "Stock up on items"? No matter how you look at it, it was an entirely unnecessary event.

29、Luxuries like full voice acting were not needed. Dragon Quest XI is compromising with this, so Shenmue is in a situation where it should stop asking for luxuries and compromise with text speech bubbles.

30、he biggest mistake in Shenmue 3's story was making the search for Shenhua's father the main focus.At the end of Shenmue 2, it felt as though her father wouldn't even be appearing anymore. If they rescue her father, Shenhua has no reason to accompany Ryo. Shouldn't they have saved the rescue of Shenhua's father for much further down the line?

シェンムー3の不満は「鳥舞に集中」する。白鹿村と同じ事を二回繰り返しただけのゲーム内容。

The dissatisfaction with Shenmue III is "concentrated on Choubu." The game content was nothing more than repeating the exact same thing as Bailu

Village twice. At the risk of sounding persistent, since they explicitly said "Baisha is the priority" when the Kickstarter was announced, I believe that with the increased budget, they should have scaled down Bailu Village, "skipped Choubu completely," and absolutely gone to the Great Wall of China and the Fujian Mud Prison. When locations are too similar, the "play," "gameplay," and "genre" become identical. Choubu is a location that is not all that different from Wan Chai in Shenmue II. Bailu Village was still acceptable, but Choubu and Hong Kong are "this similar" to each other:

1、"There is a harbor."
2、"Stalls line up next to the waterfront."
3、"You get targeted by touts."
4、"Shops like fortune-tellers, pawnshops, diners, and Buddhist statue shops line up."
5、"The terrain goes upward as you climb."
6、"When you climb up, there are shrines and temples."
7、"You stay at a guest house."
8、"The Poison Snake brothers and two thugs are drinking."
9、"An arcade."
10、"Catching ducks."
11、"The Red Snakes' hideout looks similar to Ren's hideout."
12、"The fishing port looks similar to Wong's place."
13、"The DLC is also Chawan陣 (Chawan-jin)."
14、"You intensely want to cross over to the opposite bank to 'Fenghuang Ancient Town,' but even if you could, it would just look similar to 'Kowloon Walled City.'"
15、"We already played the forklift in Yokosuka."

When it is "this similar to Hong Kong," it doesn't feel like playing a brand-new game. The thugs in Shenmue II.

The thugs in Shenmue III. "The movie scene upon arriving in Choubu," "the beautiful night view," "Ryo-san being made to drink tea three times," "the view from the balcony of a hotel that is far too luxurious"—that "exhilaration immediately upon arrival" when visiting a new place is something no other video game has. From the arrival up to the point of searching for the photo at the passenger boat terminal, the presentation was genuinely excellent. However, my expectation was that they would "satisfy us with the Shenmue-like play and interaction with residents in Bailu Village," and then pivot into a development that would make some people say, "This isn't Shenmue anymore." They don't need to produce any more Buddhist statue shops.

In both Bailu Village and Choubu, the development consists of losing to thugs twice, learning a technique, and then winning; the play and gameplay do not change. The play in a beautiful, nocturnal new frontier amounted to nothing but dice, Otoshidama (Drop of Precious Stones), turtle races, and Maho (Horse Stance)—gameplay that was no different from Bailu Village. Originally, Shenmue's theme spans multiple concepts: "searching through your own house," "playing Space Harrier on the way home from a job riding a forklift," "raising the intimacy level with Pikachu," "exploring Kowloon Walled City," and "the two of them walking through Guilin." It is a title where going to a new place gives birth to completely different gameplay. (Translator's Note: The reference to "raising the intimacy level with Pikachu" is a meta-joke by the author, highlighting the game's core nature of nurturing relationships. In the Japanese version of Shenmue II, the character Fangmei is voiced by Ikue Otani, the legendary voice actress for Pikachu, connecting the two franchises through this shared voice identity).

Since I didn't particularly want to play by doing the exact same things as Yokosuka and Shenmue II, I wanted to experience some kind of new play. "It's perfectly fine if there is a place that doesn't have capsule toys"—that, too, is what Shenmue should be.

シェンムーらしさを感じる、本筋のゲームプレイは良い所も多かった。

The core gameplay that made you feel the essence of Shenmue actually had many good aspects.

Compared to New Sakura Wars or Final Fantasy VII Remake, which feature characters that pander way too much and truly generic gameplay, Shenmue III offered a much more fresh gameplay experience. The exhilaration of the cutscene when leaving Bailu Village and upon arriving in Choubu. The concept of Sanda (sparring), rather than just beating enemies down to level up, is interesting. The superb character models and graphics during the opening, and when finally confronting Lan Di. (It goes without saying that good graphics are always preferable). Given that games like Breath of the Wild or Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin were never criticized for having bad graphics, I cannot understand why Shenmue III alone was singled out and called bad. Breath of the Wild was never blamed for anything, even with its flat, copy-and-pasted textures that look like a PC game from a generation ago. Why? Locations such as Fenghuang Ancient Town, Xiangyan (Elephant Rock), and Guilin. Sound effects like the striking sounds during wood

chopping and Rimon Chouchou (Reverse Arm Strike), the whirling sound of Keipo (Chicken Walk), Sunken (One-Inch Punch), and the gong sound upon leveling up. It possesses a unique appeal that Western games simply do not have. Vibrant graphics. Nowadays, everything is either black or light brown. Vibrant and beautiful color tones. Why did Shenmue III alone have to be told its graphics were bad? The part where you report everything that happened that day to Shenhua every single night. This is really good. It feels like coming home every day and reporting to your mother. Traces of tracking his father’s footsteps—votive tablets (Ema), and the marks left by straight punches on the cherry blossom tree. This is a great scene. If Ryo-san could have practiced his punches in that exact same spot, it would have made for even better gameplay. The presentation and gameplay when climbing the bell tower, inserting the wooden tags, and turning the Linzhou (cylinder). This scene and

this gameplay were excellent. Keipo (Chicken Walk), Maho (Horse Stance), and Sunken (One-Inch Punch). Extremely rare gameplay that is fun—Maho and Keipo. They produce flashy, high-quality sounds that are rare in modern video games.

The training arc and the segment where you search for 50-year-old wine to be taught the Tetsuzankou (Iron Shield / Body Check). If it means getting taught the Tetsuzankou, this level of effort is appropriate. The part upon arriving in Choubu where you are made to drink tea at the stalls, and the photo searching. This is an interesting scene. Is it drawn from Director Yu Suzuki’s actual experiences? Leveling up through QTEs during Sanda is more interesting than actual combat.

Nobody ever talks about it, but the sound effects in Shenmue III were extremely good. Why were chopping wood, sparring, Maho (Horse Stance), Keiho (Chicken Stance), and the Sunken (One-Inch Punch) so interesting? It is because the chime of the gong, the QTE sounds, and the sound effects when you leveled up—concepts that don't even exist in the mindset of Western games—were excellent, and the presentation was flashy. Games like Dragon Quest II and Super Mario Bros. remain fun even today because their sound effects are so good. Even if the graphics and motions are shoddy, a game becomes fun if the sound effects are good. I believe it is better to make a game interesting through flashy presentation and sound effects, rather than through its outward appearance. If the footsteps sound good, just walking around becomes fun. (The footstep sounds in Shenmue III were bad, though).

The Choubu-chan search itself is interesting. Although I do catch myself thinking, "Don't waste time producing things like this; move the story forward." The way he walks up and down stairs isn't bad either (it's Kiryu-chan's leftover asset, isn't it?). The female characters do not pander to the audience. FF7R—what are they, hostesses? Face Rock-Paper-Scissors, Choubu-chan searching—idiosyncratic and original gameplay. I think this is a first in video game history (probably).

A flashiness in presentation that Western games lack. It has the distinct merits of a Japanese game. (The Yakuza / Like a Dragon series has this too). Flashy presentation that cannot be found in Western games. And so on, "Shenmue itself is Kowloon Walled City." Asiatic architecture, distorted, possessing the unique fascination of having no blueprint.

ローポリにしておけば、シェンムー3でも、以下のような、多くのイベントが制作出来たはず

If they had just stuck to low-poly, they should have been able to produce numerous events in Shenmue III, such as the following:

0、Swiftly defeating Yanlang with "Enou Santenshu" (Yingwu Santianzhou).

1、Jumping across rafts while passing under Elephant Rock, being taught a technique on top of a raft just like in Virtua Fighter 2 right next to Elephant Rock, and then enemies crashing their boat into it, leading to QTEs and Free Battles where you throw enemies into the river one after another.

2、Ryo-san practicing the Suigetsu-zuki (Water Moon Thrust) at the cherry blossom tree where his father used to practice his Seiken-zuki (Straight Punch).

3、Saving Lin-chan from drowning in the river.

4、Lin-chan, Shenhua, and Ryo-san playing together by drawing pictures on the ground.

5、A part-time job boiling the cauldron together with Shenhua.

6、A part-time job tilling the fields together with Shenhua.

7、A part-time job harvesting pumpkins together with Shenhua.

8、A cow-milking showdown against Shenhua.

9、A cooperative QTE with Shenhua against thugs.

10、Ryo-san also training on top of high scaffolding.

11、The cut shipboard event with Chai that was supposed to happen between Bailu Village and Choubu.

12、When you run out of money, you get kicked out of the Choubu Guest House and have to sleep at the passenger boat terminal, making it impossible to get closer to Shenhua.

13、At the casino in the new frontier, earning travel expenses by making a sucker out of Ren through brand-new mini-games not found in Bailu Village, such as Mahjong and Billiards.

14、At a hostess club in the new frontier, enemies attacking you using pots, wine bottles, and tables as weapons, with Ren barging into the fray, leading to a flashy QTE and Free Battle. (Ryo-san essentially turning into Kiryu-chan).

15、Having your VIP card stolen by Ren, who then completely park themselves at the hostess club.

16、When visiting Hanasaka Temple, thugs are running amok, and Ryo-san ends up escalating the property damage during the Free Battle.

17、Treating Shenhua to a meal at the Choubu Guest House as a token of appreciation for letting him stay at her place in Bailu Village.

18、A massive brawl alongside Ren in the middle of the wide Hexagon Street, while a gallery of onlookers watches over you.

19、Acting together with Shenhua much more, leading to numerous Shrine Maiden events while she glares at you from behind.

20、A dynamic QTE event, such as falling flashily from the second floor of a Peking duck restaurant.

21、A battle at the fishing port where cormorant fishermen are present, throwing enemies into the river one after another.

22、A Free Battle and a Shenmue II-style QTE at the food stall district. 23、Engaging in voluntary cleaning service after a battle at the Hexagon Hall (Rokkakudo).

23、When Shenhua gets kidnapped, the playable character switches to Shenhua.

24、Being thrown by Chazhun (Niaozhun), falling from the top of Elephant Rock into the river below, and being saved by the Grandmaster.

25、Because you intensely want to go to the opposite bank to "Fenghuang Ancient Town," you explore the dark, maze-like inside of Fenghuang Ancient Town like Kowloon Walled City, moving sideways and sideways, culminating in a battle against Chazhun.

26、Planting rice in the terraced paddy fields.

One can imagine endless possibilities like these, but they spent far too much budget on the outward appearance, making it impossible to implement them. Elephant Rock in Shenmue III. I wanted to fall from the top of it, or dive underneath its trunk.

先取するのが、シェンムーの面白い所であったが、シェンムーが休んでいる間に、「他のタイトルがほとんど先にやってしまい、ビデオゲームは完全なネタ切れ状態」で、現在シェンムーができる独自性は何が有るのか？

While being ahead of its time was what made Shenmue so fascinating, other titles ended up doing almost everything first while the series was on hiatus. Video games have now completely run out of fresh ideas. Under these circumstances, what kind of uniqueness can Shenmue still offer today?

erence: Denfaminicogamer — "Developing Virtua Fighter by having a cleaning lady play it. The time-pioneering game development philosophy of Yu Suzuki [Yu Suzuki × Tekken's Katsuhiro Harada]." Yu Suzuki, known for milestones like Virtua Fighter and the Shenmue series, is rarely talked about nowadays relative to his colossal achievements). The Fujian Mud Prison, which was planned but never included in Shenmue III.

Fujian Mud Prison

Fujian Mud Prison

Xuankong Temple (Hanging Temple)

Zhangjiajie

Suzhou I want to visit these places as Ryo Hazuki by all means. What makes Shenmue exceptionally unique is the method of "crafting the gameplay afterward" to perfectly fit those specific locations. Yakuza is set in the exact same location every time, and in open-world games like Red Dead Redemption 2, you can instantly sprint or ride back, which strips away the authentic sense of traveling. Therefore, Shenmue should bet absolutely everything on how to translate this "sense of traveling" and these breathtaking, charming Chinese locations into the actual gameplay.

シェムー3は失敗作だった。なぜか？　シェムー4が出ていないから。

Shenmue III was a failure. Why? Because Shenmue IV has never been released.

The Painful Reality of Shenmue III and the Path to Completion

"I must speak a harsh truth: the development methodology of Shenmue III was, in essence, a betrayal of the backers.

Yu Suzuki claims he prioritized the fans who made Shenmue III possible. Yet, he now says that for Shenmue IV, he wants to pivot toward a style that appeals to new players. I find this deeply contradictory. If he truly prioritized the fans during the development of the third game, then why, four years later, is there still no sign of Shenmue IV?

When we supported the Kickstarter, we did so because we believed that even if the game couldn't be 'perfect' in the modern sense, it was better for the story to continue. However, the failure to design Shenmue III in a way that ensured the series could continue was a betrayal. We never even reached the Fujian Tulou. Suzuki-san prioritized high-end graphics, full voice acting, and complex motions—elements that made the game unsustainable—rather than creating a sustainable framework that only the backers could support. To fail the continuation of the series because of superficial luxury is a complete reversal of priorities.

Since it is primarily the backers who buy these games anyway, why was the production scaled beyond the budget we provided? I cannot comprehend this decision. Now, Suzuki-san talks about appealing to 'new players,' but we are far past the point where such idealism is helpful. The biggest flaw of the original series was having the same person serve as both Producer and Director, yet this flawed structure was repeated for Shenmue III. He should have focused solely on the backers and on reaching the conclusion of the story. If new players want to join, they can start from Yokosuka.

I used to try and be positive, thinking 'something is better than nothing.' But now, a darker feeling is rising within me: 'Perhaps it would have been better if Shenmue III never existed at all.' The half-baked nature of the third game has cooled the passion of the community. To prevent Shenmue III from becoming a total waste, we must have Shenmue IV.

I don't need cutting-edge technology. For Shenmue IV, please use low-poly models. Scale the graphics, motion, and dialogue volume down to a level similar to Pokémon. If we simplify the technical overhead, Shenmue could be produced consistently. We are willing to endure lower graphical fidelity if it means finally reaching the end of the journey.

If we stay on this current path, the story will die unfinished. Please, I beg you—let us see the conclusion."

シェンムー4のパブリッシャーを探すな！ファンが直接200ドル振り込む。

Do not look for a publisher for Shenmue 4! Fans will transfer 200 dollars directly

We will not make the same mistake as Shenmue 3, where we got carried away and spent a budget that exceeded what we had raised, even though no one but the backers would buy it. This time, we will produce Shenmue 4 strictly within the raised budget, ensuring absolutely no budget overruns. Please transfer 200 dollars directly to us.

This is not Kickstarter, nor is it an investment. In terms of expression, it is a 'made-to-order' production.

The Falcom method was the one and only path for Shenmue to survive.

No matter how harshly the game might be criticized by outsiders, the strategy should have been to mass-produce entries tailored exclusively for the hardcore fanbase. If the Ys series—which, let’s be honest, doesn't exactly boast mainstream blockbuster sales—can be consistently churned out, then Shenmue could have easily sustained itself under the exact same design philosophy.

The fatal flaw of Shenmue III was the complete absence of incremental accumulation. Just like in Formula 1, once you step away from the grid, it takes a decade just to catch back up. The reason the Like a Dragon (Yakuza) series can maintain such high quality today is simple: RGG Studio has delivered a new title year after year. The critical misstep with Shenmue III was that the development team jumped blindly into Unreal Engine 4 from a standing start.

Consider Falcom's trajectory:

Ys SEVEN (PSP)
Ys VIII (Vita)
Ys IX (PS4)
Ys X (PS5)

They "evolved naturally because they never stopped building." Shenmue shouldn't have just aimed for this; from the very beginning, this was the only viable survival strategy available to it.

Imagine if it had been structured like this:

Shenmue III: 10 hours
Shenmue IV: 10 hours
Shenmue V: 10 hours
Shenmue VI: 10 hours (Conclusion)

Once the story was safely concluded, they could have gone back and remade Shenmue III. By the time they finished remaking Shenmue VI, the series would have naturally matured into something magnificent.

This leads to the only realistic blueprint for how Shenmue IV can exist today:

1、The creators must officially acknowledge the structural failures of Shenmue III.

2、SEGA must step in to act as the official publisher.

3、The funding must come entirely from the fans via a made-to-order system, priced at $200 per entry—totaling $600 for the remainder of the journey.

4、The game must be developed using low-polygon models at a native Dreamcast resolution, operating under the aesthetic premise that it was released in the late 90s.

5、The runtime must be strictly capped at 10 hours per game.

6、The development must strictly adhere to the Falcom method of iterative asset reuse.

7、The saga must decisively conclude with Shenmue VI.

The 70,000 core fans willing to drop $200 do not care about seeing the hollow luxury of high-end graphics like those in Shenmue III. We don't need a visual spectacle; we just want to witness the conclusion.

「豪華な停滞より、質素な進行」

Rather than luxurious stagnation, humble progress.　

Out of the 50-year history of video games, for about 15 of those years, "high-end gaming" was synonymous with "Yu Suzuki" titles, which were overwhelmingly and incomparably the best in the world. Because of this, it feels intensely lonely and regrettable, but for the sake of continuity, compromises must be made.

Until Shenmue III's Kickstarter was announced, I actually thought it wouldn’t matter if the series never concluded. Shenmue was only able to achieve that legendary level of quality because Sega and Director Yu Suzuki genuinely put their own flesh and blood into it. I knew all too well that the unique charm would absolutely never come through if they just relied on an outsourced development company to simply patch it together, or if they produced it using the development methods of titles like Judge Eyes (Judgment). However, once the production of Shenmue III was announced, my perspective changed: even if the continuation of Shenmue turned out to be flawed, "it is far better to have it than to not have it at all."

They failed to convert the massive hype generated during the E3 announcement into actual sales. I truly believe that Shenmue III completely botched its "marketing strategy." If they had gone with a strategy like "Available right now, simultaneously with the E3 announcement," it would have sold much better, wouldn’t it? Four years later, everyone had forgotten about it. The silence was deafening, making the frantic enthusiasm at the time of the announcement feel like a lie. Sega spent 100 billion yen to acquire and then sell Rovio. If they had the money to buy and sell things like that, and if they were capable of producing games like Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise (Hokuto ga Gotoku) and Judge Eyes, then from both a budget and a marketing perspective, producing Shenmue should have been entirely feasible.

Lately, people judge things with a point-deduction system that is strictly 0 or 100, claiming that anything scoring a 60 is a piece of trash. But unlike when I was younger, I have come to feel that a score of 60 is decent enough and not really that bad. I became a backer on the very first day the Kickstarter was announced, and when I think that my 100 dollars went toward the cost of the "ink and paper" used to draw the new Shenmue logo, my level of satisfaction is incredibly high.

There is no need to entirely reject Shenmue III. A score of 60 is more than enough, so I just want them to hurry up and produce Shenmue IV. I always felt like people like Ryuichi Sakamoto and Akira Toriyama would just exist forever. The fact that Shenmue IV is not being released is truly painful. There is simply no more time to waste.

Thank you deeply for listening to these thoughts, and for walking alongside me through this long, nostalgic journey.

I would also be deeply grateful if you could take a look at the following article as well.