Would playing as Shenhua ruin her mystique?

[SMDzero]

Shenhua is supposed to be this mysterious and esoteric character. Will playing as her ruin her character?

Suddenly she'll just be another player controlled character that we can screw around with. I don't want to BE Shenhua.. I want to go on a journey WITH her.

[Scrounder]

I always thought playing as another character kinda gets rid of the point of Shenmue. It felt like Ryo's journey was my own because I played through everything and with my effort I got all the way up to the events of Shenmue 3.

Shenmue is a long journey through Ryo's perspective if that makes any sense. It's like if Half-Life 3 allowed you to play as Alyx -- it'd feel weird and jarring. The character perspective system might be kind of neat actually, but we'll see for ourselves when Shenmue 3 is out.

[Yokosuka]

You control Shenhua only at Baisha, perhaps during rather short parts. That means she has time to share you big parts of her personality before, at Bailu and Choubu.

Then controlling her does not mean she's going to lose all her mysteries, you basically just unfold the story from her point of view. Shenmue is not Skyrim, the player has always some distance with his character.

If Yu wants to implement the character perspective, it's because it will be much more interesting this way whatever we can think.

[Scrounder]

And if Yu wants to implement the character perspective, it's because it will be much more interesting this way whatever we can think.

I might have sounded a bit pessimistic but I believe Yu Suzuki knows what he's doing. This gameplay mechanic could be really cool and I don't think it'll detract from Shenhua's character. In fact, it might enhance the character.

[Hanzumon]

Maybe there is a reason, that you can play as Shenhua. Maybe Ryo was captured and Shenhua have to save him.

I don´t believe, that you play as Shenhua without any context to the story. I can`t imagine that Ryo says to her: "You should do the next quest. I will wait here for your return."

[Sonoshee]

Although I always felt only Ryo should be playable... "In Yu we trust"

[SMDzero]

The more I think about it the more I think it would be cool if we got to play as LAN DI at some point. We could see the story through his POV.. him vowing revenge against Iwao and eventually joining the Chi You Men. By the end we would realize that Lan Di isn't any more evil than Ryo.

[code l name]

I've felt like others that Shenmue was Ryo's story and should only be from his perspective. I've avoided spoilers and in-depth interviews with Suzuki but I hope the other playable characters play out like in the film Rashamon. Where you see the same event from different perspectives.

[GYO6161]

Yeah, like some have said, Shenmue is about the journey of Ryo, playing as Shenfa, Ren ect would kinda ruin that for me, i hope is optional, i didnt like that example that Yu gave of playing as Shenfa with Ren as a recruit, it will feel off not having Ryo in the scene at all.

[NeoShredder]

I dunno about Shenhua just being "another character to screw around with". If anything, playing as her could bring some entirely different/new gameplay to the table. Imagine a QTE to save that white deer, for example. I've got a good feeling that it will be handled in a way that will only add to the experience, rather than just some re-skin.