Shenmue III Gameplay: My Predictions

(Chapter 7 and beyond)

Shenmue III Gameplay: My Predictions

Postby Mr.Jigen » Sat Jun 16, 2018 2:07 pm

I posted a thread here months ago discussing things I hoped to see in Shenmue III. With the announcement of the Kickstarter surveys I believe we will be seeing the game in 8-10 months’ time. I wanted to take the time to sort of "predict" how the gameplay mechanics will work out. Note, that these are only guesses and I can't necessarily predict any innovations that may be introduced.

The core mechanics of Shenmue will remain mostly the same. The defining feel of Shenmue will remain mostly intact due to Suzuki-San and Sub Director Okayasu-san's incredible efforts to make sure the "Shenmue Color" will remain a reality, and the smell of the world originally envisioned by Suzuki will as well.

The game will benefit greatly from the new camera mechanics possible in the Unreal engine. This will make investigation much more fun with a more dynamic range of motion (especially on the PC with the mouse). Background scenery will be more beautiful than ever as we have already seen. Not only will the camera be significantly improved, but also will be movement overall. Instead of tank-like movement in the originals, the new movement will feel more fluid and will finally benefit from dual analog mapping.

Due to budgetary restraints, only a few characters will be as fully fleshed out as the original, the core cast. These are the characters that will have daily schedules and backgrounds. Most of the other characters will be like those represented in Shenmue II. Characters will own shops in the game and we will get to explore them like in old entries and we will finally be able to eat food.

The Rapport system will allow Ryo to build relationships with major characters depending on how he reacts to them. We will see multiple playable characters (Shenhua and Ren) each with their own unique abilities and methods for handling conflict.

The time and date functionality will remain the same and many secrets will be discovered by triggering them at specific dates and times. Also, the traditional bad ending for not finishing the game in time.

Mini Games will make a return, we will see many old ones and some new. Part time jobs will also be back and I suspect a return of forklifts. Also, Arcade games hidden around with the already revealed Excite QTE.

QTE’s will be the same as always, with the QTE’s from Shenmue II returning and new innovations to be added to this mechanic with cooler cinematic action and set pieces than before.

Free Battles will change a lot, I suspect there will be more of them to appease a more mainstream crowd however, a balance between action and exploration will still be present. The core battle system will change fundamentally, scrapping the old Virtua Fighter engine and using something new.
The new battles will take place on a large radius and the improvements for movement from the new engine will make combat rely more on dodging and blocking. Typical punches and kicks will remain along with moves with will be trained in real time battle.

There will be a new "reaction system" that will trigger when Ryo makes a perfect block in combat. An action command will appear on the screen and if pressed with proper timing Ryo will make a cinematic counter attack.
There will be new masters in the game that will teach Ryo more moves. There will also be more access to sparring partners that will be used for move training.

Let's see if I get anything right, some of them are safe guesses

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Re: Shenmue III Gameplay: My Predictions

Postby adom11800 » Sun Jun 17, 2018 3:35 pm

I think the game will be out in about 8-10 months too. In terms of gameplay I've no idea until we actually see it.
Nice theories btw.

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Re: Shenmue III Gameplay: My Predictions

Postby Mr.Jigen » Sun Jun 17, 2018 6:19 pm

Yeah the wait is killing me and thanks.
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Re: Shenmue III Gameplay: My Predictions

Postby Spaghetti » Mon Jun 18, 2018 9:23 am

These are all pretty reasonable and I think we may end up seeing a good few of them.

I'm pretty interested in seeing what comes of the active ragdolls in combat, same with other physics/environmental interactions. Mixed in with the skill tree system and simplified basic controls, I think there's a recipe for something really fun and responsive to play, that ticks the boxes for Yu wanting to have a cinematic flair to the combat.
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Re: Shenmue III Gameplay: My Predictions

Postby Reprise » Mon Jun 18, 2018 12:31 pm

I'm just so excited to jump back into the world of Shenmue. There's really no other game like it. The rapport system sounds like it will build on what they started doing with Shenmue 2. I'm really looking forward to seeing what hidden events there are (e.g. Fangmei's Birthday Event or all the hidden scenes in Shenmue 1).
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Re: Shenmue III Gameplay: My Predictions

Postby Mr.Jigen » Mon Jun 18, 2018 2:03 pm

Reprise wrote: I'm just so excited to jump back into the world of Shenmue. There's really no other game like it. The rapport system sounds like it will build on what they started doing with Shenmue 2. I'm really looking forward to seeing what hidden events there are (e.g. Fangmei's Birthday Event or all the hidden scenes in Shenmue 1).


It seems there will be less of them unfortunately, Yu-san suggested in an interview that Deep Silver's funding only just made it possible to deliver an open world, before it would have been much more linear, thank god it wasn't.
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Re: Shenmue III Gameplay: My Predictions

Postby Reprise » Mon Jun 18, 2018 3:00 pm

I think they should still be able to put in a few easter eggs and 'missable' extra cutscenes. Whether they will or not is another thing of course. It's hard to know how far funding and resources will stretch, but from the sounds of that particular interview (if I'm thinking of the same one), they really did need that extra funding from Deep Silver.
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Re: Shenmue III Gameplay: My Predictions

Postby swimingdeer » Mon Jun 18, 2018 3:03 pm

In my opinion, we may have more alternate versions of the same events.
(alternate spoken lines, alternate behaviors...)
It would cost less assets than alternate events.
And, if done well, it could even be more interesting than alternate events.

For instance, Ryo may ends agreeing more with Ren than with Shenhua,
and this would trigger more Ryo/Ren oriented versions of events.


About the dual analog controls, my expectation is still this :
left stick and directional cross has the same behaviors they had in SH1&2.
("tank" control + camera angle)

And, I would like it that the right stick could be used as a quick "turn Ryo around".
(Like in the 3d Legend of Zelda, where it turns link around, according to the camera.
Except, maybe it would be best if it does not move Ryo around after making him turn.

Think : "Gotta turn back ?" Then "tilt right analog appropriately".
And, Ryo would cleverly make a few steps to face accordingly,
then, camera is re-positioned behind Ryo.

All of this because, turning around with accuracy, always felt, to me,
like the weak part of SH1&2's control scheme.


While I'm writing my own dream-interface design, one thing I would like to have,
is a trigger to switch between "explore-mode controls" and "battle controls".
With the mundane use to allow Ryo to sidestep/strafe while exploring.
(I always wanted to have Ryo use his epic-QTE-chases-sidesteps in regular play!)
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Re: Shenmue III Gameplay: My Predictions

Postby Mr.Jigen » Mon Jun 18, 2018 3:47 pm

swimingdeer wrote: In my opinion, we may have more alternate versions of the same events.
(alternate spoken lines, alternate behaviors...)
It would cost less assets than alternate events.
And, if done well, it could even be more interesting than alternate events.

For instance, Ryo may ends agreeing more with Ren than with Shenhua,
and this would trigger more Ryo/Ren oriented versions of events.


About the dual analog controls, my expectation is still this :
left stick and directional cross has the same behaviors they had in SH1&2.
("tank" control + camera angle)

And, I would like it that the right stick could be used as a quick "turn Ryo around".
(Like in the 3d Legend of Zelda, where it turns link around, according to the camera.
Except, maybe it would be best if it does not move Ryo around after making him turn.

Think : "Gotta turn back ?" Then "tilt right analog appropriately".
And, Ryo would cleverly make a few steps to face accordingly,
then, camera is re-positioned behind Ryo.

All of this because, turning around with accuracy, always felt, to me,
like the weak part of SH1&2's control scheme.


While I'm writing my own dream-interface design, one thing I would like to have,
is a trigger to switch between "explore-mode controls" and "battle controls".
With the mundane use to allow Ryo to sidestep/strafe while exploring.
(I always wanted to have Ryo use his epic-QTE-chases-sidesteps in regular play!)



In my honest opinion I would like more unique events, I hate the idea of Telltale Shenmue, where all the events are the same but slightly changed. (Although that is more realistic for the budget, and appease the idiots in the media who think linearity in story games is better for some reason.)

I hope for fluid control, tank control was acceptable in that era but now I don't think there is an excuse. I think a lot of fans just hate change in general. A lot of people lost their minds when Yu merely suggested a change to combat as if it has not been nearly 20 years since this series was introduced. (Not directed at you)
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Re: Shenmue III Gameplay: My Predictions

Postby spud1897 » Tue Jun 19, 2018 3:13 am

As much as I liked the combat I think it had to change. I've been watching some play-throughs of the originals and I've seen lots of them struggle with the fighting system in the originals. I just hope it isn't over simplified. Hopefully the skill tree will integrate nicely.

Controls wise it wouldn't shock me if we got fully modern controls similar to the ones in the re-releases. It would make sense, especially if they are lining up joint marketing etc.

Release of 8-10 months from now seems fair but if it went beyond this into Autumn 2019 that's fine too.
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Re: Shenmue III Gameplay: My Predictions

Postby BlueCreeperBoy12 » Tue Jun 19, 2018 5:32 am

swimingdeer wrote:

And, I would like it that the right stick could be used as a quick "turn Ryo around".
Except, maybe it would be best if it does not move Ryo around after making him turn.

Think : "Gotta turn back ?" Then "tilt right analog appropriately".
And, Ryo would cleverly make a few steps to face accordingly,
then, camera is re-positioned behind Ryo.

All of this because, turning around with accuracy, always felt, to me,
like the weak part of SH1&2's control scheme.

I think you could just tap down on the d-pad and he'd do a 180 in 1 and 2.
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