About The Disaster I watched on Twitch …
Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2015 1:57 amShenmue is a brand that has always set the imagination of fans around the world on fire, and having a new instalment in this wonderful series has always been one of my dreams since my very early days as a video gamer.
One of the most important aspects in Shenmue has been its unprecedented attention to detail, in almost every NPC, every line of speech, every interaction, every building, town, city, almost everything used to scream perfection loud and clear. Shenmue back in the days was the very first of its kind, it was a fantastic story with rich vivid environments and state-of-the art audio-visual interactive design and presentation. Shenmue was so advanced it even had DLC and online functionality and that was 15 years ago. However, some may argue that the one of the biggest problems of Shenmue in the Dreamcast era was being way ahead of its time, the videogame market wasn't ready or mature enough to fully appreciate something as huge as Shenmue especially on the a platform like the Dreamcast. Today and more than 14 years later, we live in a world where Shenmue 3 is a reality.
But it’s 2015, a world where the video games industry has gone a long way, the likes of GTAV, The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid V, Uncharted and many more keep redefining what an epic video gaming experience could and should be. I want Shenmue 3 to be the even more epic experience that I have dreamed of since the ending of Shenmue 2. As much as I want to say yes we are going to get that from Shenmue 3, things keep pushing me in the opposite direction. Shenmue 3 has been so far “feeding” on the Shenmue 1 and 2 since its very first moment of existence, yes I know Shenmue 3 is a continuation and it should be based on the very first two games in one way or another, but usually when a new game is announced, especially after years of painful waiting, one should expect at least some “original” material to look at, to be excited about and most importantly in Shenmue’s case to financially back the project with their hard-earned money. Is that the case so far with Shenmue 3? Before you answer that I’d like to ask you to look at the amount of stock material Shenmue 3 campaign have been using since day 1. Stock music, stock game art, stock demo videos etc..
This makes me think what’s the reasons behind using as much stock material in what’s supposed to be THE advertising campaign for the game? Then look at the “new” Shenmue 3 stuff, I think those are simply horrible, starting with the font and design used in the new Shenmue 3 logo, to the bad characters models in the announcement trailer (they deliberately zoomed on them in the video although they knew they look horrible). How much time does it take to make a decent CG video in 2015? Especially with the muscle power of Unreal Engine 4? They had at least 1-2 years before the announcement to make “something” decent, but still I think the announcement was fantastic, although and to be completely honest, we should thank Sony for it, and their effort was a priceless push forward to the Shenmue 3 project. However, after that brilliant moment, the momentum started to slow down more and more.
The press started to negatively talk about Sony’s role and involvement. Yet another missed chance is the ambiguous stretch goals which are still unclear till this very moment, the new terms and systems need to be explained much further, they need to be demoed in some form to convince more people to join in and support the project, which is unfortunately is not happening as well as we want it to.
And last but not least, let’s talk a bit about the disastrous Twitch stream. That stream was supposed to be a great chance to push the Kickstarter higher and I thought it would by at least 1M, since it was pay day and people were very excited for it, then, everything went wrong, the unprofessional set up, the shaky camera, the horrible low sound and the echo problem, also it looks like the Kickstarter prizes and info about them were not ready, they had a free choice over what questions they answer live and for most of them they didn't even have an answer and kept asking fans to be patient and wait, after 14 years of painful waiting they asked us to wait and wait even more.
I think Shenmue 3 as it stands today is in a very serious threat of being “behind” of its time, that level of perfection that has always trademarked Shenmue is simply missing, things everywhere feel rushed and unprofessional on so many levels, the only thing that’s keeping this project alive is Yu Suzuki and his legacy, we all know he’s a legend and can do wonders. However, in order to truly #SaveShenmue, he and he alone has to act fast before it’s too late …. We've been waiting for Shenmue 3 for more than 14 years, and we as a community need to do our best to make Shenmue 3 a success if we ever want to see Shenmue 4 …
One of the most important aspects in Shenmue has been its unprecedented attention to detail, in almost every NPC, every line of speech, every interaction, every building, town, city, almost everything used to scream perfection loud and clear. Shenmue back in the days was the very first of its kind, it was a fantastic story with rich vivid environments and state-of-the art audio-visual interactive design and presentation. Shenmue was so advanced it even had DLC and online functionality and that was 15 years ago. However, some may argue that the one of the biggest problems of Shenmue in the Dreamcast era was being way ahead of its time, the videogame market wasn't ready or mature enough to fully appreciate something as huge as Shenmue especially on the a platform like the Dreamcast. Today and more than 14 years later, we live in a world where Shenmue 3 is a reality.
But it’s 2015, a world where the video games industry has gone a long way, the likes of GTAV, The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid V, Uncharted and many more keep redefining what an epic video gaming experience could and should be. I want Shenmue 3 to be the even more epic experience that I have dreamed of since the ending of Shenmue 2. As much as I want to say yes we are going to get that from Shenmue 3, things keep pushing me in the opposite direction. Shenmue 3 has been so far “feeding” on the Shenmue 1 and 2 since its very first moment of existence, yes I know Shenmue 3 is a continuation and it should be based on the very first two games in one way or another, but usually when a new game is announced, especially after years of painful waiting, one should expect at least some “original” material to look at, to be excited about and most importantly in Shenmue’s case to financially back the project with their hard-earned money. Is that the case so far with Shenmue 3? Before you answer that I’d like to ask you to look at the amount of stock material Shenmue 3 campaign have been using since day 1. Stock music, stock game art, stock demo videos etc..
This makes me think what’s the reasons behind using as much stock material in what’s supposed to be THE advertising campaign for the game? Then look at the “new” Shenmue 3 stuff, I think those are simply horrible, starting with the font and design used in the new Shenmue 3 logo, to the bad characters models in the announcement trailer (they deliberately zoomed on them in the video although they knew they look horrible). How much time does it take to make a decent CG video in 2015? Especially with the muscle power of Unreal Engine 4? They had at least 1-2 years before the announcement to make “something” decent, but still I think the announcement was fantastic, although and to be completely honest, we should thank Sony for it, and their effort was a priceless push forward to the Shenmue 3 project. However, after that brilliant moment, the momentum started to slow down more and more.
The press started to negatively talk about Sony’s role and involvement. Yet another missed chance is the ambiguous stretch goals which are still unclear till this very moment, the new terms and systems need to be explained much further, they need to be demoed in some form to convince more people to join in and support the project, which is unfortunately is not happening as well as we want it to.
And last but not least, let’s talk a bit about the disastrous Twitch stream. That stream was supposed to be a great chance to push the Kickstarter higher and I thought it would by at least 1M, since it was pay day and people were very excited for it, then, everything went wrong, the unprofessional set up, the shaky camera, the horrible low sound and the echo problem, also it looks like the Kickstarter prizes and info about them were not ready, they had a free choice over what questions they answer live and for most of them they didn't even have an answer and kept asking fans to be patient and wait, after 14 years of painful waiting they asked us to wait and wait even more.
I think Shenmue 3 as it stands today is in a very serious threat of being “behind” of its time, that level of perfection that has always trademarked Shenmue is simply missing, things everywhere feel rushed and unprofessional on so many levels, the only thing that’s keeping this project alive is Yu Suzuki and his legacy, we all know he’s a legend and can do wonders. However, in order to truly #SaveShenmue, he and he alone has to act fast before it’s too late …. We've been waiting for Shenmue 3 for more than 14 years, and we as a community need to do our best to make Shenmue 3 a success if we ever want to see Shenmue 4 …
