SEGAbits Shenmue III Hype Train! Update: Funded but lets go further!

[Trippled]

Can't find the Japanese interview anywhere anymore, but Yu Suzuki said he isn't aiming to push tgraphics like western games, and is purely aiming at a fun game.

[Tad]

Oh, I understand what you mean and I'm not critising you at all - think I wrote even instead of either..sorry.

There are some circles that would see the idea of TWD as an adventure game as a hanging offence, but I prefer to see them as adventure games still, but well...let's not open that tin. I do agree and see the compliants with these types of games, but at the same time, I do enjoy them for their writing. The characters and story are usually really good and all though you can't change the main story as such, you can influence people's opinion of your character which is nice. As for replaying, yeah these types of games aren't really for replaying unless you want to see different outcomes (which can be fun).

I do like the adventure games in the traditional sense (really looking forward to Anna's Quest out next week for example), but I'm always hit and miss with them. Usually, the stories are good, but the puzzles can be awful or illogical which throws me out of the game completely. Bit of a confession, but I'm not a fan of Tim Schafers work in this genre. I found Grim looked great, but the story just sort of fizzled out and I never got on with the puzzles in the Monkey island series.

As for Shenmue, Suzuki has already said he wants dialogue options (rapport system funded), so I think we will get some of that, but not to the scale of Telltale.

[Tad]

I was sort of hoping Telltale would move into the direction of Shenmue and have gameplay around their solid writing, but it seems as though they're happy just doing the same thing.

[MadeManG74]

Oh, I understand what you mean and I'm not critising you at all - think I wrote even instead of either..sorry.

Ahh, that one word makes so much difference. I think we are on the same page anyway.

I think they are absolutely adventure games, but they just aren't the kind that appeal to me.

I can understand the puzzles in Monkey Island being kind of obtuse, but I'm surprised at Grim Fandango, that's quite honestly one the most engaging world's I've seen in any piece of media. That might be a personal thing, but I though the story was fantastic the whole way through. I generally enjoy slow burn stories though.

PS: Monkey Island is more Ron Gilbert than Tim Schafer

[MadeManG74]

It's slowed down a lot guys.
Guys... I'm scared...

[Tad]

Grim Fandango's world was great, but I dunno. I think after you joined the resistance it just sort wrapped up quickly and we didn't really see much of the antagonist to care what he thought.

Out of interest, what do you think Shenmue is? I've always seen it as an adventure game with other elements build around it personally.

[MadeManG74]

Out of interest, what do you think Shenmue is? I've always seen it as an adventure game with other elements build around it personally.

That's probably the closest thing I can think of to describe it too. It's really a mix of adventure game, RPG and brawler I guess.
Very, very light RPG elements, but it's there in the ability to level up moves.

I remember showing it to a friend after struggling to explain it to him, and he said 'Oh, it's like a detective game, but you can do whatever you want. That's cool'. "Detective Game" just feels right.

[Tad]

That stats bar isn't great, but I'm not sure what else people can do. Even with better tiers, they're trying to bring back a nearly 15 year old series on the third game in without newer gamers seeing what the older ones are as they're not accessible.

[crackdude]

Out of interest, what do you think Shenmue is? I've always seen it as an adventure game with other elements build around it personally.

FREE

[pirovash88]

It's 6th gens LA Noir, just a lot more fun.

[Centrale]

On a slightly different tack, is anyone else inspired by the recent news to replay S1 and/or S2? I finally got my Dreamcast set up with VGA adapter, plus an additional adapter since my Samsung monitor is weird about VGA inputs, plus another adapter to send the audio into my good speakers... the wiring is incredibly messy and weird, but it looks and sounds fantastic.

[Barry the Nomad]

I had this debate with the Sonic Retro guys over what genre Shenmue is, and what should be listed on the wiki under genre. I said "F.R.E.E.", they said "RPG". Since then, I've learned that the Retro wikis do have a genre page that clarifies things, which would have greatly helped from the beginning rather than telling me that F.R.E.E. is simply a marketing term and can not apply to genre.

http://segaretro.org/Sega_Retro:Determining_Genre

In the case of Dreamcast games, Japanese titles have the genres listed on the back. Most titles are pretty simple, using stuff like "action" and "RPG". In the case of Shenmue, F.R.E.E. is listed on the back of both games in Japan. However, the wiki states: "Note once again that some categories are more complex and detailed than will be listed as genres--'Street Action,' in the case of Jet Set Radio, is simplified to Action."

The question is, does F.R.E.E. fall under this "more complex and detailed" category and if so, is RPG really the next closest genre? I argued no, if anything Shenmue is part action/adventure, part RPG.

Anyway, long post short, Shenmue and Shenmue 2's genre is, officially, "F.R.E.E.". In the case of the wiki entries, I was overruled and was told it is RPG. While I concede to the "more complex and detailed" rule, I disagree that Shenmue can be so easily listed as RPG and that it spans other genres. For example, Seventh Cross Evolution is listed as "Simulation RPG" - the game is neither just an RPG or a sim. SO I'd argue Shenmue is either a "Action RPG" or "Adventure RPG" but not simply an RPG when being classified under a simplified genre.

On a slightly different tack, is anyone else inspired by the recent news to replay S1 and/or S2? I finally got my Dreamcast set up with VGA adapter, plus an additional adapter since my Samsung monitor is weird about VGA inputs, plus another adapter to send the audio into my good speakers... the wiring is incredibly messy and weird, but it looks and sounds fantastic.

I've started up a game of Shenmue 2 on my 360. Only ever played through the game on my old Xbox, so I'm starting fresh.

[Centrale]

I've started up a game of Shenmue 2 on my 360. Only ever played through the game on my old Xbox, so I'm starting fresh.

It runs quite well on the 360. I just ran into a couple of situations where I was let down by the 360 d-pad (and possibly some lag from emulation). The first is Delin's box moving game. Delin got seriously pissed at me that we weren't working as a "team" and I kept dropping the boxes. I tried to tell him it was the damn d-pad! The second is in the [spoiler] hidden fight against Izumi from the Tomato convenience store. [/spoiler] It culminates with a very complex QTE and I could never pull that off on the 360 d-pad. When I finish playing S1 on the Dreamcast, I'll replay S2 on the OG Xbox.

[Pao]

It's slowed down a lot guys.
Guys... I'm scared...

THE DREAM IS DEAD
I'm bracing myself for Shenmue 3-lite with Telltale gameplay as we speak.

Seriously though, the situation is really, really bad.  Everyday is worse than the one before it, yesterday it did 31k, and today it's doing even worse. At this point we would be lucky to reach 5M.

This what they need to do:

- Using every means possible, deny the false narrative that the KS is used to gauge interest and Sony is funding the majority of the game (the Co-Producer said today that an official statement on the matter is on it's way, so let's see).

-Completely revamp the KS page, better looking aesthetics (banners, graphics, etc...) move the stretch goals to the top of the KS page, update the KS video that it doesn't show Ryo's ugly mug each time you visit the page... Hell, I'd say re-do the entire video because it's messy as hell...Also, write better description for the franchise, something to catch the interest of people who never played it... Not just "Shenmue 3 is the sequel to the groundbreaking franchise bla bla". Try to explain what makes Shenmue good, in both the KS page, and the KS video... Also, better describe what Suzuki is trying to accomplish with Shenmue 3, the more transparent he is on the matter, the better.

-Better reward tiers, a PS4 physical is a no-brainer and would definitely boost the KS pledges, there must be a reason for why they didn't include that? Also, more tiers between 500 and 3000... I liked the Mirrors replicas and Ryo's notebook rewards mentioned in the Poll, should entice more people to up their pledge.

-Better Stretch Goals, they should elaborate more on what each stretch goal means, plus the goals themselves should be better. "Additional Quest" or "Battle Event"... Why would anyone strive to reach those goals? Especially non-fans.

-Suzuki and Co. should get busy with interviews and social media interactions, everything is very quite so far... An official Shenmue 3 twitter account is a step in the right direction, but it's not exactly an active account... There is no energy in the Kickstarter so far.

[Tad]

On a slightly different tack, is anyone else inspired by the recent news to replay S1 and/or S2? I finally got my Dreamcast set up with VGA adapter, plus an additional adapter since my Samsung monitor is weird about VGA inputs, plus another adapter to send the audio into my good speakers... the wiring is incredibly messy and weird, but it looks and sounds fantastic.

Yup. I'm having to play with the voice actors off and subs on as I struggle to not cringe at it now.