Virtual reality Shenmue 4

[SMDzero]

Just throwing this out there... but let's say Shenmue 3 is a resounding success... do you think there could be a chance that Shenmue 4.. or even 5... utilizes Sony's impending VR headset technology?

I'd like to imagine a virtual reality Shenmue where you truly see the world through Ryo's eyes. Imagine walking with Shenhua, and moving your head around to see the beautiful scenery.

Imagine reaching out your hand to manipulate a capsule toy machine or actually performing the karate moves while training.

Perhaps this technology wouldn't be at that level for games for another 25 years... but I do think Shenmue in particular would benefit from a full on virtual reality interface.

[NeoShredder]

Well, not talking about 4 really since we're just getting three lol.

Having said that thought, the timing of Shenmue III (2017) and Morpheous (some point soon?) is pretty neat. Perhaps Sony 3rd Party really could help here after all...

[JaySw34]

It would be cool... but in the end Shenmue wouldn't be Shenmue if it was all played in first person.

[shredingskin]

We don't know if S IV will be a thing, we still don't know if VR will be a thing.

I haven't used any of those VR, but I don't know how good can they work for third person.

I guess that by 2020 they can get things sorted out, if Shen IV it's a thing, hopefully they won't go the "you can turn your hands to do simple one button inputs" trying to sell bullshit.

BTW, First person (VR as right now) is also a design choice, in FP you "are" the character, while in TP you can feel the difference of "ok, this is a guy I'm actually playing as".

[Mystere]

It would be cool... but in the end Shenmue wouldn't be Shenmue if it was all played in first person.

Sure it is. Become a kung fu master, enter 70 man Free battles.. How hard can it be??

[Three Blades]

I agree that it shouldn't be constantly in 1st person, but I don't see why we couldn't keep the same camera as in the old Shenmue but in VR? You could still see Ryo from behind as always, but your head would move his head (like the control stick does in Shenmue 1 and 2). Then, when it occasionally goes in 1st person (like it sometimes does already), you could control hind hands like the opening post said..

[SMDzero]

Well REAL virtual reality wouldn't technically be "1st person" the way we think of that perspective now. In a true VR experience would be able to look down and see your torso and legs and you could hold up your arms and see your hands.

You wouldn't just "see" what the character sees you would be 'central' to the being of the character.

[Yokosuka]

It would be easy to implement it (F.R.E.E. system, FPS in Shenmue II free battle, Yu's enthusiasm for it) but I can't see this feature appears on PS4. VR needs at least 90 fps to have a comfortable experience.

[shredingskin]

Well REAL virtual reality wouldn't technically be "1st person" the way we think of that perspective now. In a true VR experience would be able to look down and see your torso and legs and you could hold up your arms and see your hands.

You wouldn't just "see" what the character sees you would be 'central' to the being of the character.

As far as I've heard, VR seems to cater to FP view. Not even that, it seems to give a lot of people head aches.

It's hard to think of third person VR (having a model in the middle as a focus eye point). Can they manage it ? I really do think so.

Do I think Shenmue should be a guinea pig for that ? I don't.

Even Shenmue "looking at" isn't as good as old adventure game design to VR, in those stuff you would actually get rewarded from it (in form of a comment), with limited hotspots. I don't think that a Shenmue VR would be "that" cool. I picked up an orange (Ryo says nothing), I picked a plate (ryo's comment doesn't matter that much).

I think these tech can be a cool stuff, I don't think Shenmue approach is best.

[Centrale]

There are quite a few third person VR games in development. Developers have said that they're pleased with how it works, as it still gives the player an immersive sense of place, but with less of some of the motion sickness-inducing aspects that some players experience with first person.

Actually this is one of the reasons I'm excited about the PC version... because if VR functionality isn't already in the game, modders will add it.

[Ceej]

I believe there was a third person virtual reality game recently demoed (the name escapes me...I feel like it was by Crytek?)

*Edit* The game is Edge of Nowhere and it's being developed by Insomniac for the Oculus Rift.
http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/11/876668 ... -exclusive

In any case, I haven't had the chance to demo any of the virtual reality headsets so I don't really have an opinion on this yet.

I don't know if I'd want a Shenmue that was first person. I think I'd personally prefer it as a mod...but I will admit it would be cool to walk around the streets of Dobuita in first person.

[ash55]

I've spent a lot of time in my Rift and Gear VR, and I plan on buying Morpheus the instant it's out... but after seeing how VR works, and the types of things that cause sim sickness, this just leads me to believe Shenmue isn't the best fit for VR without some significant changes to gameplay.

My TL;DR reasoning:

It's not the worst fit of course, since it's a fairly slow-paced and immersive game, but with the amount of locomotion in Shenmue (running around in an open world) almost everything about the game would need to be rethought, and it would cease to be "Shenmue" at that point. At least mechanically speaking.

A 3rd person camera would either need to be on rails, with the character constrained to a linear path to ensure smooth, predictable motion (which can still induce nausea), or the camera would need to be set up like some classic PS1 games (like Resident Evil) where it's fixed in pre-set locations and your viewpoint changes based on where the character moves to (like a fly-on-the-wall view). The over-the-shoulder camera in Shenmue would probably be vomit-inducing.

I do think it would be cool if there was a separate mode set aside for VR though. If you have a Morpheus headset on, you could view your toy capsule collection, play lucky hit online, play arcade games at a physical arcade cabinet, drive forklifts, control Ryo in fights that take place infront of you (like youre positioned at the entrance of You Arcade and Ryo will battle Chai in the arcade in front of you), view certain areas of the game that can maintain high framerate in VR etc. These sorts of things would probably work great. But trying to make the entirety of the game work in VR seems like too much of a stretch to me. Not impossible, but again, the design of the game would need to be overhauled.