Review
Played on: PC
Released: 2019
What seemed like an impossible dream, the Shenmue saga finally got a sequel in 2019. The 18 year wait for the fans was brutal, even Sega had left the idea long ago. Luckily, Yu Suzuki managed to pull through a KickStarter campaign and, including a backing from Sony, finally made Shenmue 3 happen.
Sega jumped on the hype of the announcement too, re-releasing Shenmue I & II in a remaster collection. You can read my thoughts on the first and second game in that collection. Shenmue III is built on the Unreal Engine 4, an engine I’ve seen is accessible but difficult to optimise for smaller teams, was set to bring modern visuals to a popular cult franchise.
What seemed like an impossible dream, the Shenmue saga finally got a sequel in 2019. The 18 year wait for the fans was brutal, even Sega had left the idea long ago. Luckily, Yu Suzuki managed to pull through a KickStarter campaign and, including a backing from Sony, finally made Shenmue 3 happen.
Sega jumped on the hype of the announcement too, re-releasing Shenmue I & II in a remaster collection. You can read my thoughts on the first and second game in that collection. Shenmue III is built on the Unreal Engine 4, an engine I’ve seen is accessible but difficult to optimise for smaller teams, was set to bring modern visuals to a popular cult franchise.
I initially had no other choice than play the PS4 version, I purchased it alongside the Xbox remaster collection. However, at a later point I got a gaming PC. One Steam sale later, and I was set to play it at a better framerate and resolution!
Let’s take Ryo for a third tour!
Shenmue III kicks off right where II left us with a recap of the ending; where Ryo and Shenhua find two, massive, dragon mirrors in a cave which Shenhua's dad discovered near Bailu village. In classic Shenmue fashion, we settle into daily life in this charming, traditional Japanese, village. Ryo needs to find out where Shenua's dad has gone missing, hoping he has answers regarding the dragon mirrors. He begins by asking people in the village area.
Here we settle into the most rural Shenmue yet, sporting a remote village with massive fields, woodlands and rivers flowing into the pretty scenery. First impressions visually are solid, with much larger areas to walk freely about than in earlier Shenmue titles. Depicting scale better than previously, making you walk larger distances to reach places of interest.
Outside of exploring the main story, we befriend villagers, find work to earn money, take on side missions, keep a daily routine and return to some incredibly cosy evening meals together with Shenhua, at her remote house in the hills. It's all familiar, but prettier than ever.
On the flip side of fully enjoying this new landscape, is the energy meter. In Shenmue III running takes energy and thus you need to eat. Eating requires money, money requires work and so on. Slow earning work at that, and money is scarce, and it’s mandatory in large sums at certain story events.
This combination of stamina, which at least accomplishes at making food a meaningful item, compared to the previous entries, and tedious jobs to earn money, makes Shenmue III more of a grind than preferred. I could've done without those parts, to be honest. Yet, I guess they give some realism to the many detailed aspects of daily life Shenmue always has depicted.
Even more challenging, is the steep battle difficulty on normal. Requiring the player to level up Ryo, at a local Dojo, to even have chance at beating bullies and bad guys. Leveling isn’t just about fighting people either, you need to train on fighting dummies to level up endurance too.
Thankfully, the actual fighting is much closer to a proper fighter this time, bringing a clear Virtua Fighter vibe to the table. The fights are tough though, especially when fighting more than one enemy. Often the will occur without warming, when your stamina is low after running about, thus giving you a disadvantage before even beginning the fight.
I ended up dropping the difficulty to easy in order to progress. I found easy to be closer to how Shenmue I & II were on normal anyhow. In order to win battles, you need to fight cautiously, finding openings where you can attack. An overly aggressive fighting style leads nowhere. I liked the focus on leveling up new moves though, and learning them from certain key people in the story through training, it felt rewarding.
As the story unfolds, Ryo uncovers an organised gang of thugs in Bailu village, equally interested in the dragon mirror discovery. Soon, Ryo needs to move location from remote Bailu, to continue his trail to find Lan Di. If the village wasn’t a charming enough location, Niaowu is even more so. This lovely, riverside town brings out the best designed area in Shenmue III. It reminds me of how Hong Kong was in Shenmue 2; not overwhelmingly huge, but with large and diverse places to explore.
In Niaowu, Ryo and Shenhua book into a hotel and go separate ways each day to find clues about Shenhua’s dad. Exploring the city, shows areas like the stalls at the riverside, a typical Asian styled shopping district, massive arcades, beautiful temples, high-end restaurants and even some countryside.
As the story unfolds, Ryo uncovers an organised gang of thugs in Bailu village, equally interested in the dragon mirror discovery. Soon, Ryo needs to move location from remote Bailu, to continue his trail to find Lan Di. If the village wasn’t a charming enough location, Niaowu is even more so. This lovely, riverside town brings out the best designed area in Shenmue III. It reminds me of how Hong Kong was in Shenmue 2; not overwhelmingly huge, but with large and diverse places to explore.
In Niaowu, Ryo and Shenhua book into a hotel and go separate ways each day to find clues about Shenhua’s dad. Exploring the city, shows areas like the stalls at the riverside, a typical Asian styled shopping district, massive arcades, beautiful temples, high-end restaurants and even some countryside.
All charmingly modelled, atmospheric and with a busy feel to town life. There’s a lot of underlying detail too, allowing players to waste hours just exploring and doing small tasks as a sidestep away from progressing the main story.
Niaowu is like settling into an old pair of shoes; bringing out the reason I enjoy Shenmue so much. In-game days go by, wandering about the town, discovering along the way, and each one is ended by a lovely, evening, balcony chat outside my hotel room with Shenhua. It builds a familiarisation, through routine, friendships and exploring.
Gameplay is surprisingly like the old titles, it’s easy to transition from the Shenmue I & II to this. Then again, there’s a robotic appearance to the gameplay animation that stands out more with the modern visuals. Perhaps, the gameplay should've been massively updated, with a less cumbersome button layout and more intuitive ways of interacting with people and objects?
Niaowu is like settling into an old pair of shoes; bringing out the reason I enjoy Shenmue so much. In-game days go by, wandering about the town, discovering along the way, and each one is ended by a lovely, evening, balcony chat outside my hotel room with Shenhua. It builds a familiarisation, through routine, friendships and exploring.
Gameplay is surprisingly like the old titles, it’s easy to transition from the Shenmue I & II to this. Then again, there’s a robotic appearance to the gameplay animation that stands out more with the modern visuals. Perhaps, the gameplay should've been massively updated, with a less cumbersome button layout and more intuitive ways of interacting with people and objects?
These old gameplay elements keep Shenmue III cohesive with I & II, but will likely alienate newcomers. I personally didn’t mind, but there’s no denying there’s a cumbersome and sluggish feel to moving Ryo. Luckily, my PC ran it at 60fps, which helped the responsiveness at least.
Visually, Shenmue III has attractive locations, pretty nature and a well implemented day and night cycle, bringing out the best of Unreal Engine lighting. On the other hand, it has the appearance of a lower end UE4 title. There’s this UE4 stock asset feel to it, clearly made by a small team. It’s a mile behind how big budget titles, like Gears of War 4, utilises this engine.
Visually, Shenmue III has attractive locations, pretty nature and a well implemented day and night cycle, bringing out the best of Unreal Engine lighting. On the other hand, it has the appearance of a lower end UE4 title. There’s this UE4 stock asset feel to it, clearly made by a small team. It’s a mile behind how big budget titles, like Gears of War 4, utilises this engine.
Overall though, it’s generally attractive and with the higher resolution on PC the visuals get the sharper image quality they deserve. There's a warmth to the evenings I truly love in Niaowu, combined with all the Asian architecture and pretty lighting, makes it attractive. Likewise are charming sunsets. It will please many a Shenmue fan to see it's beloved series updated to modern visuals like these!
I’m happy with the end result as a whole, it feels like a close sequel to the old titles, both in gameplay, style and presentation. There's no denying this has classic Shenmue written all over it. Although the gameplay hardly renews itself, for good or worse, I could've done without the added running stamina, the harsh fighting difficulty and the grinding progress of leveling and money.
I’m happy with the end result as a whole, it feels like a close sequel to the old titles, both in gameplay, style and presentation. There's no denying this has classic Shenmue written all over it. Although the gameplay hardly renews itself, for good or worse, I could've done without the added running stamina, the harsh fighting difficulty and the grinding progress of leveling and money.
The ending is exciting, but covers a lot of ground too quickly. At the end of the day, I hadn't really come any closer to the end to the saga. They should've utilised the 20-25 hour lifespan to progress further into the main story, rather than keep it all to the last hour.
Shenmue III is definitely a worthy sequel, proving this series is something uniquely different from most other titles, even today. I really enjoyed the exploring its locations, the talks and friendship with Shenhua, and the general feeling of a traditional Shenmue with modern visuals.
Shenmue III is definitely a worthy sequel, proving this series is something uniquely different from most other titles, even today. I really enjoyed the exploring its locations, the talks and friendship with Shenhua, and the general feeling of a traditional Shenmue with modern visuals.
For a higher score, I felt they should've modernised the gameplay, progressed the story further and upped the production value a notch.
