I love shenmue, I love the story but the real reason why it was so amazing was because it was pushing the envelope at the time. The game was truly immersive, the amount of detail from arcades to forklift jobs was simply amazing.
I really felt like I was living in 80's japan.
Shenmue 3 needs that, I know its hard because they arn't gonna have that $50-$70 million budget but they need to capture that immersion.
Don't get me wrong the Shenmue story is great but that feeling of immersion is much much better...Yu Suzuki can't forget the reason Shenmue 1 is considered the GOAT.
Shenmue 2 Hong Kong didn't feel much immersive either, there was something missing.
The way Shenmue 2 ended was very strange, it seemed to be leaving that realism 80's world which is extremely relatable to the modern gamer today to 80's China village, which doesn't sound much appealing.
I really hope that Shenmue 3 takes place in Japan for the most part...Chinese villagies just doesn't have that immersion 80's japan does.
As for the story, it's been getting more and more "mystical", not sure if this is a good thing but I hope the game for the most part feels like real modern life.
Some of the Realism Features I want is.
>Eating is required now, will make those tomato convenience store useful
>AI reacts to you doing weird stuff like running around,staring at them, looking at wall
If Shenmue made me feel like I was living in my japanese hometown. Shenmue II made me feel like an immigrant going abroad in an adventure. Never once I felt a lack of immersion on SHII.
Shenmue II ending wasn't strange if you have been following the story since the beginning, in fact you could even say the meat and bones of the saga only starts after that point. Since the prophesy can only begin after Shenhua and Ryo meet.
The game teases you with ancient Chinese culture since the very beginning. It was always the focus of the game narrative.