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In reaction to the affinity system, I view it as an interesting attempt to transition characters behavior towards Ryo from shenmue 2 to shenmue 1, where Ryo initially is a fish out of water in guilin and other locales, and eventually becomes a common facet of the community. I am guessing you will do more missions like the Mai intervention in shenmue 1, buying sodas for folks and making good decisions when being asked questions and just overall helping people out, just like before, but now it has more of a quantifiable impact on gameplay if wanted. I don't think this will cause roadblocks, but will offer alternative ways to progress through the story similar to ways in previous games.

A beta demo was offered in every reward tier that was $100 and above, if I remember correctly. I bet they regret that now haha. Shenmue doesn't exactly lend itself well to a demo and it's additional work they have to put in to get that out to backers prior to release (and 6 month before release, it feels a bit pointless now).

Re: Affinity and training, I agree with Bogus. It sounds more like a natural evolution of some of the ideas they started exploring in the first two games. Bogus provides good examples and I would also add stuff like the Fangmei birthday quest, as well as it being optional to get to know Izumi and Eileen.

Reprise wrote:A beta demo was offered in every reward tier that was $100 and above, if I remember correctly. I bet they regret that now haha. Shenmue doesn't exactly lend itself well to a demo and it's additional work they have to put in to get that out to backers prior to release (and 6 month before release, it feels a bit pointless now).

Re: Affinity and training, I agree with Bogus. It sounds more like a natural evolution of some of the ideas they started exploring in the first two games. Bogus provides good examples and I would also add stuff like the Fangmei birthday quest, as well as it being optional to get to know Izumi and Eileen.

Indeed! As for the beta, I bet you they are going to do what everyone does now, give it to us a week ahead of time complete and clal it beta access. I am not going to complain, my $100 backing was specifically so I could have my name in the credits. If I get it early awesome, if not, ahhh well. All I know is that the new screenshots and preview piece has me frothing. My trepidation about it not having the look and feel of the original series is almost completely alleviated. Now all I need is to see some actual gameplay which I am sure we will get at their big show they are doing in a couple weeks.

That would be cool actually, although I'd probably prefer a What's Shenmue style demo a month or two before release.

I am fully in hype mode man! I just booked the week of 26th August off work today

Reprise wrote:That would be cool actually, although I'd probably prefer a What's Shenmue style demo a month or two before release.

I am fully in hype mode man! I just booked the week of 26th August off work today

I made sure my wife took the week off! Never been happier to be a stay at home fsr than for this moment. My first daughter was born and was just 2 months old when the game was announced. My wife was like, "Back it at the $100 mark. Happy Father's Day." Because I was jumping and hooting and hollering and beyond excited. I still am. I still can't believe it's happening... But it is happening!!!

BogusMeatFactory wrote:

Reprise wrote:That would be cool actually, although I'd probably prefer a What's Shenmue style demo a month or two before release.

I am fully in hype mode man! I just booked the week of 26th August off work today

I made sure my wife took the week off! Never been happier to be a stay at home fsr than for this moment. My first daughter was born and was just 2 months old when the game was announced. My wife was like, "Back it at the $100 mark. Happy Father's Day." Because I was jumping and hooting and hollering and beyond excited. I still am. I still can't believe it's happening... But it is happening!!!

I remember the day like it was yesterday. It's crazy how quickly the time has passed and yet it feels so long ago when I really think about it.

When it was announced, I was in the second week of a new job. I had been off work for a few months suffering with depression and stress and ultimately I made the decision that I could not return to that line of work and needed a new job and a new start. I got a new part time job, as I couldn't face going back to work fulltime straight away. Second week of that new job, Shenmue 3 was announced. I almost couldn't believe it! It was the first time in months I had felt so much happiness. My wife let me pledge $250 to celebrate my new job. She knows how much the series means to me, in fact, because she was the person who bought me Shenmue 2 for the Dreamcast as a birthday present like 15 years ago the first time we were dating when we were kids. And here we are, all these years later, married with a two year old boy and Shenmue 3 is coming out in just 6 months

I think you guys are too esoteric with your view of the Affinity System. You are looking to what the original games were, and not what games at large have become in the 18 years since those games were released.

But I don't know, maybe you're right, I definitely hope you are. I just don't want to find myself grinding menial tasks for rep, so I can advance the story.

I guess I qualify for the beta (demo really) I assume they will send me an email when they are ready to roll it out.

And you should temper your excitement for the game. I've seen people being very disappointed, almost devastated really, by Kickstarter projects that didn't live up to expectations, and people deluding themselves that the game was the greatest thing ever because they couldn't accept it didn't live up to the hype.

We are lucky we are getting Shenmue III at all, I hope we finally get to see the end, or at last an official continuation of the story in a game form.

But I don't think I will get to enjoy the game, no matter what, even a smidgen on how much I enjoyed the first two games. I'm not the same person anymore, I don't enjoy anything that much anymore, too much experience, too many games played, too much life happened in between.

But I'm glad I got to see the sequel finally come out in my lifetime and I do hope is a competent continuation of the previous games, hopefully it will live up to my tempered expectations, but it ends up surprising me to the positive, all the better.

I think that yu Suzuki has a vision that he is sticking to. Was shenmue 1 and 2 based off of the current market of games? Shenmue 3 looks to be continuing the same trend and feel of the originals with tweeks. I'm fine with that. I freaked out for the announcement and am very excited for the game but make no mistake, my expectations are in check. I want a continuation of the story and nothing more.

New Trailer released from Magic 2019.

I think Ryo's and Lan Di's models are in acceptable standards given what they previously shown off, Shenhua is basically a different person but I'll get used to her I suppose.

What I don't like is the secondary NPC's, not their detail or lack thereof, this was a low budget game after all, but they look a bit 'cartoony' compared to the very realistic (for the time) look of the original, though this might also have been a result of the low budget.

By the way, what you see is what you get. The game is too close to release for any significant changes to be done to the models, they are probably already in Alpha.

I just hope I'm done with my current Shenmue playthroughs by the 27th of August.

Eh, people keep saying the character models were hyper realistic (they were always hyper stylized) , but they really weren't. The art style is sticking rigidly and authentically to the originals... That is the reason it looks the way it does and although it does look low budget, I have to say I love the look of it.