Shenmue III flashbacks for a more compelling experience

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Shenmue III flashbacks for a more compelling experience

Postby shredingskin » Sun Oct 15, 2017 12:22 am

At first I thought that the game may be challenging to get into for newcomers, but if the flashbacks are done in the right way, it could add a level of intrigue/mystery for new players that may even surpass the original linear story.

I think building some intrigue over how/where the mirror's were found out, the scrolls/leaf, even major characters like ren, guizang or Xiuying being mentioned but not built into an overexplanation of the characters till their reveal would create a new layer of intrigue.

This may be an interesting approach, more than just sprinkling some cutscenes in a fanservice fashion, or some "Oh yeah I remember this stuff" or just context dumps.

What do you guys think or how would you approach this ?

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Re: Shenmue III flashbacks for a more compelling experience

Postby sand4fish » Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:31 am

If not straying too far from the the way past reminiscing memories were done in the previous games, then the simplest way would it be by letting the player trigger the series' past events while finding specific items or locations, like this:

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Re: Shenmue III flashbacks for a more compelling experience

Postby Hazuki00 » Sun Oct 15, 2017 7:40 am

I'm not sure how Suzuki is going to make all of this but, for newcomers starting the game 6 hours after Shenmue 2 as Suzuki said without explaining what happened before I think it's not going to help to attract new people to play the game. People need to know before what is this all about.

They should add a digest movie apart from the game, and then add flashbacks if they want.
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Re: Shenmue III flashbacks for a more compelling experience

Postby Hyo Razuki » Sun Oct 15, 2017 8:03 am

Regardless of whether Sega release remasters of the first two games or not, I think flashback scenes can't hurt in S3. Definitely a good idea.
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Re: Shenmue III flashbacks for a more compelling experience

Postby Sappharad » Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:20 pm

There are some potential challenges with that idea. If the flashbacks aren't optional, people may complain that there are too many cutscenes. If the flashbacks are optional, people may complain that they had difficulty following the story.

I'm fine if they want to bury the previous summaries in a menu like Yakuza 4 did. (And I guess the S2 digest movie)
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Re: Shenmue III flashbacks for a more compelling experience

Postby KidMarine » Sun Oct 15, 2017 4:22 pm

The option to view a 5-minute "previously on Shenmue" video at the start screen, plus some flashbacks during the game seems like the best option to me.

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Re: Shenmue III flashbacks for a more compelling experience

Postby mrandyk » Wed Oct 18, 2017 12:26 am

A player could have gone through Shenmue 2 just fine without having played Shenmue 1. Flashbacks aren't necessary.

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Re: Shenmue III flashbacks for a more compelling experience

Postby OL » Sun Oct 22, 2017 12:50 pm

Shenmue ain't exactly Metal Gear Solid on the plotline front. I don't think new players will be all that lost.
Lan Di killed Ryo's dad. It had something to do with the dragon and phoenix mirrors. Ryo tracks Lan Di to China. Ryo gets stuck in a cave for 17 years.
A very short "previously in Shenmue" video would more than suffice.
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Re: Shenmue III flashbacks for a more compelling experience

Postby shredingskin » Sun Oct 22, 2017 3:04 pm

It may be misleading, but throwing a pair of redherrings for the new players, like someone saying "someone named ren is looking for you" And ryo acting in his robotic way but kinda concerned... to let the expectations flow that it may be a bad signal, to then show the flashback of their relationship (it's kinda deflated and short lived, but done in a tasteful way, though difficult, could be more entertaining, there are many redherrings in the original Shenmue that are very much left unanswered, like the scroll that even YS didn't remember).

I'm not caring much about "understanding" the story, since it's pretty straight forward, I'm thinking of a way to make newcomers don't have to watch a movie, or some flashbacks that are exposition dumps. Thinking of SIII as an in media res type of narrative, more than a linear one.

But I guess trying to make it like this will eventually permeate the regular narrative for old fans.
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