Shenmue III Release Topic

[Reprise]

One thing that I've found, that really puzzles me, is that they removed all the interaction points in the shop, and the houses in the village, etc, that were there in the demo. I don't really get why they would put all of those in to the demo, and then not have them in the full game. I mean there were at least 20 or 30 points of interaction in Tao's store alone, and now there don't appear to be any. What would be the harm in leaving at least one of two? I don't really get it, but oh well.

What are the two backer techniques looking like, if anyone has them? I'm wondering how upset I should be that I probably won't be able to use them. Also, there's a page of phone numbers for a bunch of the characters from the previous two games in the back of the notebook, but in my notebook the last two digits for all of them are just Xs. Are those filled in for all of you who have the international phone card?!

1. Yeah, that puzzled me too! I forgot about it now, but at first I thought it was a glitch or a mistake? Maybe it is.

2. What are the backer techniques again? I don't remember what is just stuff that was in the game, what was the 'day 1' DLC stuff I got for my retail copy and what was the backer stuff. If you know the names of the techniques I'll see if I have them (I'm a $250 tier I think)

3. Mine are Xs too. weird. I really need to find a phone box, I want to try my card!

BTW, this is a mild spoiler (I won't actually go into specifics though), but:

Oh my God, I just had my first 'flashback' scene and it was amazing. It's amazing how the Shenmue games, as goofy as they can be, really know how to tug at your heartstrings

[pierrot]

1. Yeah, that puzzled me too! I forgot about it now, but at first I thought it was a glitch or a mistake? Maybe it is.

I started thinking about it, and maybe a number of them were actually from other places in the game, and sort of compiled into the shop for the demo. I'm not sure. That part of the demo really made me think that they were trying to bridge some of the divide between people who really like the first game, and people who really like the second game (even though I'm convinced that the first game doesn't actually have much, if any more, interactive elements than the second, purely in terms of numbers, but I digress), but the way it looks in this first area, so far, it's really still pretty much like Shenmue II, with Shenhua's house having most of the tchotchke interaction. Actually that's pretty much like the first game, too, since outside of the Hadzuki dojo, there's basically just a handful of things around that can even be examined.


Semi-related, but I did notice that they retconned a couple things in Shenhua's house. The embroidery of the ancient city

(the one I assume Shenhua is in when she's under the Shenmue tree as a baby, with her parents)

is replaced with just a painting of Hakkason, and the scroll of the mountains that no one ever returned alive from (which I kind of assumed was foreshadowing for the end of the series) was replaced with just a scroll of a bird. The decorative stone on the shelf was also removed, but otherwise (aside from the addition of a room) the continuity with Shenhua's house is pretty solid.

2. What are the backer techniques again? I don't remember what is just stuff that was in the game, what was the 'day 1' DLC stuff I got for my retail copy and what was the backer stuff. If you know the names of the techniques I'll see if I have them (I'm a $250 tier I think)

Yeah, I don't actually know what they're called. I know that the scrolls for the preorder, and deluxe edition are called "Blazing Kick," and "Burning Sandstorm," respectively. All the other special techniques (with the gold dot in the corners) that I have are the famous ones from the other two games (Tornado Kick, etc).

[pook99]

I have always wanted to play the shenmue games but never got around to them, I still own the dreamcast originals and recently got the shenmue 1 and 2 pack in a bundle. I do want to play it eventually but can't see myself having the time anytime soon. I'm glad the game finally came out though, fans of the series definitely deserve it, and I would imagine the feeling you are all experiencing right now would be comprable to how I would feel if a new punch out game released on the switch.

[pierrot]

Neither of the first two games is all that long, if you just wanted to speed through them. I wouldn't say that's the best way to play them, but even though it's totally reasonable to spend 50 or 60 hours wandering around and stuff, they aren't exactly long games.


I come bearing screenies this time. (Mostly spoilered, because they're kinda big.)

So, I remember at one point, way way back, there was mention that Shenmue III was meant to be a really small scale world with really deep interpersonal interactions. That seemed fairly evident from Fanmei, and disc 4 in Shenmue II, when I was replaying it. I really enjoyed Shenhua as character when Shenmue II was originally released, and I kind of fell in love with that character when I went through disc 4 again yesterday. This Shenhua, in Shenmue III, feels like a very different character in some ways, but I think Yu made this game specifically to force people to fall in love with her all over again. I'd never heard of 'kao janken' before, but I played a few rounds of it with Shenhua, and even got a draw with "rock," but it didn't prompt the awkward bashfulness I had assumed it would. I do wonder how many people will complain that Yu weaseled a dating sim into this game. I'd feel a tad better about it if she could just stop mentioning that she's sixteen.

There was something that kind of bugged me while taking with Shenhua, though:

The guy who raised her is supposed to be her surrogate father. However, I had a conversation with her about her mother and Ryo's mother, where Ryo asked if that guy had ever told her about her mother, but the question and the way she responded kind of implied that he might be her biological father.

Having all those conversations from the end of Shenmue II so fresh in my mind is both a blessing and a curse. My ears kind of perk up whenever there's something that sounds inconsistent, like all the visitors in the village. In Shenmue II, Shenhua was talking about how everyone was going to be so surprised to see Ryo, because it's so rare for people to actually visit Hakkason. Except, now there's this martial arts training grounds that apparently brings in a bunch of outsiders, and all the gambling and games stalls set up in the area are also just passing through. I'm not really surprised that there's probably a number of revisions to some of the details when there's been almost two decades between releases, but it does make me pause for a moment.


Oh, also, what difficulty setting are people playing on? I went for Hardest because one of those pre-release promotional interviews with Yu had him saying that Shenmue fans should probably start on Hard, but that even it wouldn't be too hard. I also kind of wanted to see how brutal Lan Di might be on Hardest, if there is actually a fight against him in this game, but this difficulty seems like it's kind of not a joke. I might have to take it down to Hard at some point later on.

Oh yeah, and another thing: Has anyone gotten a white lure? I remember from the demo that there was one figure in each of the gacha machines that just doesn't seem to exist, and I can't even seem to save scum a white lure out of that thing.

[Segata]

A bunch of backer codes for people are not working. Ugh. Same with me. A lot of this KS could have been handled better.

[Reprise]

Neither of the first two games is all that long, if you just wanted to speed through them. I wouldn't say that's the best way to play them, but even though it's totally reasonable to spend 50 or 60 hours wandering around and stuff, they aren't exactly long games.


I come bearing screenies this time. (Mostly spoilered, because they're kinda big.)

So, I remember at one point, way way back, there was mention that Shenmue III was meant to be a really small scale world with really deep interpersonal interactions. That seemed fairly evident from Fanmei, and disc 4 in Shenmue II, when I was replaying it. I really enjoyed Shenhua as character when Shenmue II was originally released, and I kind of fell in love with that character when I went through disc 4 again yesterday. This Shenhua, in Shenmue III, feels like a very different character in some ways, but I think Yu made this game specifically to force people to fall in love with her all over again. I'd never heard of 'kao janken' before, but I played a few rounds of it with Shenhua, and even got a draw with "rock," but it didn't prompt the awkward bashfulness I had assumed it would. I do wonder how many people will complain that Yu weaseled a dating sim into this game. I'd feel a tad better about it if she could just stop mentioning that she's sixteen.

There was something that kind of bugged me while taking with Shenhua, though:

The guy who raised her is supposed to be her surrogate father. However, I had a conversation with her about her mother and Ryo's mother, where Ryo asked if that guy had ever told her about her mother, but the question and the way she responded kind of implied that he might be her biological father.

Having all those conversations from the end of Shenmue II so fresh in my mind is both a blessing and a curse. My ears kind of perk up whenever there's something that sounds inconsistent, like all the visitors in the village. In Shenmue II, Shenhua was talking about how everyone was going to be so surprised to see Ryo, because it's so rare for people to actually visit Hakkason. Except, now there's this martial arts training grounds that apparently brings in a bunch of outsiders, and all the gambling and games stalls set up in the area are also just passing through. I'm not really surprised that there's probably a number of revisions to some of the details when there's been almost two decades between releases, but it does make me pause for a moment.


Oh, also, what difficulty setting are people playing on? I went for Hardest because one of those pre-release promotional interviews with Yu had him saying that Shenmue fans should probably start on Hard, but that even it wouldn't be too hard. I also kind of wanted to see how brutal Lan Di might be on Hardest, if there is actually a fight against him in this game, but this difficulty seems like it's kind of not a joke. I might have to take it down to Hard at some point later on.

Oh yeah, and another thing: Has anyone gotten a white lure? I remember from the demo that there was one figure in each of the gacha machines that just doesn't seem to exist, and I can't even seem to save scum a white lure out of that thing.

Yu Suzuki retconned quite a lot of stuff. I'm kinda ok with it now, but yeah, it is a bit jarring at first. I think there were a few interviews where he explained some of the changes (although didn't go into specifics) and why he made them.

Yeah, I got a white lure. I wish I could share my tactic, but there wasn't one. It's the rarest item in that gatcha machine. I didn't save scum, I paid about 12 times or so, maybe a bit more, and I got one.

[Reprise]

This KS is a mess. The backer codes don't work for some but work for others. WOn't work for me. Deep Silver also published MN9 and that was a mess. For the love of god keep Deep Silver away from KS projects. Fangamer is screwing things up as well as people are not getting rewards they were promised.

Everything works fine for me and the vast majority over at the Shenmue Dojo and the various FB groups I'm in. I'd hardly describe it as a "mess". The people having issues probably accounts for like 0.01% of backers. Hopefully they sort everything out for those having issues.

I'm not sure if it's Deep Silver's fault or the developers or Fangamer? Deep Silver don't have much involvement with the KS side of things. At the end of the day, developers and small studios are not merchandise stores or large scale publishers, they are creators first and foremost, so Kickstarters will always have their issues for most projects. I'm still waiting for my copy of Xeno Crisis to even be dispatched and that game came out two weeks ago now. I ended up just buying the Switch version on the eShop whilst I wait for my Mega Drive cartridge (and to be fair, they did send me the rom to use on an emulator).

[Segata]

This KS is a mess. The backer codes don't work for some but work for others. WOn't work for me. Deep Silver also published MN9 and that was a mess. For the love of god keep Deep Silver away from KS projects. Fangamer is screwing things up as well as people are not getting rewards they were promised.

Everything works fine for me and the vast majority over at the Shenmue Dojo and the various FB groups I'm in. I'd hardly describe it as a "mess". The people having issues probably accounts for like 0.01% of backers. Hopefully they sort everything out for those having issues.

I'm not sure if it's Deep Silver's fault or the developers or Fangamer? Deep Silver don't have much involvement with the KS side of things. At the end of the day, developers and small studios are not merchandise stores or large scale publishers, they are creators first and foremost, so Kickstarters will always have their issues for most projects. I'm still waiting for my copy of Xeno Crisis to even be dispatched and that game came out two weeks ago now. I ended up just buying the Switch version on the eShop whilst I wait for my Mega Drive cartridge (and to be fair, they did send me the rom to use on an emulator).

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ys ... ts/2679961

All the comments are about backer codes not working. Topics on reddit of the same thing. You would probably get banned from SD if you said you had any issue with the game. It has been a mess. Backers treated like crap. Some people not even getting their paper sleeve. The fact it's only a paper sleeve and the reg cover is just the retail version. The Epic store issue. They had to issue refunds to people.

[Reprise]

This KS is a mess. The backer codes don't work for some but work for others. WOn't work for me. Deep Silver also published MN9 and that was a mess. For the love of god keep Deep Silver away from KS projects. Fangamer is screwing things up as well as people are not getting rewards they were promised.

Everything works fine for me and the vast majority over at the Shenmue Dojo and the various FB groups I'm in. I'd hardly describe it as a "mess". The people having issues probably accounts for like 0.01% of backers. Hopefully they sort everything out for those having issues.

I'm not sure if it's Deep Silver's fault or the developers or Fangamer? Deep Silver don't have much involvement with the KS side of things. At the end of the day, developers and small studios are not merchandise stores or large scale publishers, they are creators first and foremost, so Kickstarters will always have their issues for most projects. I'm still waiting for my copy of Xeno Crisis to even be dispatched and that game came out two weeks ago now. I ended up just buying the Switch version on the eShop whilst I wait for my Mega Drive cartridge (and to be fair, they did send me the rom to use on an emulator).

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ys ... ts/2679961

All the comments are about backer codes not working. Topics on reddit of the same thing. You would probably get banned from SD if you said you had any issue with the game. It has been a mess. Backers treated like crap. Some people not even getting their paper sleeve. The fact it's only a paper sleeve and the reg cover is just the retail version. The Epic store issue. They had to issue refunds to people.

Mate, the Kickstarter comments have been a cesspit full of whiny entitled babies since the Epic news broke. The same trolls posting the same crap over and over again really does not mean much. Of course those with issues speak the loudest (the vocal minority). The rest of us are too busy playing Shenmue 3 and loving every second of it to waste time commenting on Kickstarter updates pages. The same thing happens with Bloodstained, if you check their update pages, and I also happen to very much enjoy that game (even as a Switch backer).

Speak for yourself, but I'm more than happy with the way the KS has been handled. Some things could have been handled better, sure, but it goes with the territory. And claiming you get banned from SD if you have an issue is ridiculous, borderline offensive, and clearly not the case. I've been a member since 2010, was a lurker much further back than that, and I'm still active now. You certainly don't get banned for criticism. Unlike Resetera, which has the opposite problem, banning and warning anyone who dares praises Shenmue 3 or is even just ambivalent towards the huge 'controversy' of having to use a different launcher (oh no!).

Sorry, but we're going to have to agree to disagree and leave it, because I really don't have much tolerance to those people you cite.

[Blu]

Hey just an update because the question was asked: It seems the phone is something that's added as the story progresses. That seems to be how exploration works too. Some places are obviously gated but then become available after some progression. I'm really enjoying what I see so far. I do have a question of my own: for the sparring mini-game, the combos that flash up on the screen. Is there a certain timing mechanic that I'm not getting? I seem to get good or slow. Can anyone help me?

So far, I enjoy picking herbs, fishing, one-finger punch, and trying to win at the dojo. The last tiger is truly a challenge!

Hope everyone else is having fun!