How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritual?

(Chapter 7 and beyond)

How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritual?

Postby TheThirdComing » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:17 pm

After watching the Project Berkely Promo Video it really got me thinking about the tone of the series. So far it has been pretty grounded. We play as Ryo a normalish enough lad with natural martial arts skills. Well in that video it pretty much hints at a confrontation between Shenhua & Lan Di. Where Shenhua summons some mystical power.

How do you feel on this?

My thoughts are while I can't see it being exaggerated to DragonBall Z proportions of epic flashy anime battles. I do still worry about it. The main reason being I don't want Iwao's death sequence at the start of Shenmue 1 to be compromised. It's a key event within the series and the catalyst for Ryo's adventure, if the notion of spirituality goes too far and we get characters floating in magical aura it will really make Iwao Hazuki seem like such a push over. It just changes the tone for the whole story, I can't see Ryo returning back to his forklifting job after that...

Project Berkely Cinematic - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ6-QRThA8A
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby MiTT3NZ » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:23 pm

I think the first two games are what they are to highlight the whole "east vs west" thing they have goin on. Ryo's personal journey will obviously take him to a more... cultured place if he's to become the martial arts master he must in order to defeat Lan Di. Unfortunately.
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby Locke_cole » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:25 pm

TheThirdComing wrote:
My thoughts are while I can't see it being exaggerated to DragonBall Z proportions of epic flashy anime battles.


phpBB [video]


2:00 says otherwise
Last edited by Locke_cole on Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby Hyo Razuki » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:29 pm

I am not worried about it at all. Even the prologue hints at some mystical story so when I first played S1 I was surprised at how "down to earth" it is.

I await whilst praying,
For this destiny predetermined since ancient times.
Awaiting in anticipation.
A dragon emerges from the earth
as ominous clouds fill the sky.
A phoenix descends from the heavens
trailing purple from its wings.
The pitch-black night unfolds
with the morning star as its only light.
And thus, the saga begins.
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby Sonoshee » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:35 pm

This is what I'm looking forward to the most. Even at the end of Shenmue 2...

with the giant mirrors and the sword


... it was handled really well and never felt abruptly "out there". It's so exciting to finally see what all this means.
Last edited by Sonoshee on Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby elmatto » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:35 pm

I always felt it was going to take this route anyways. Kinda like the kickboxer movie (just not as stupid).
Man seeks revenge. Goes to the east and learns a bunch of ancient mystical stuff under a master.
It's pretty typical of martial art stories. East meets west. Coming back to nature...etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyxCy5E0ZOc
Last edited by elmatto on Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:38 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby Hyo Razuki » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:36 pm

Locke_cole wrote:
TheThirdComing wrote:
My thoughts are while I can't see it being exaggerated to DragonBall Z proportions of epic flashy anime battles.


phpBB [video]


2:00 says otherwise


I'm just so happy this awful Shenmue Online thing never got released. \:D/
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby johnvivant » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:38 pm

its a representation of Ryo's journey further into the mystical, magical culture of the East, and away from the more grounded Western influenced Japan.

i hope they postpone the learning of magic spells at least until half way through the game, or maybe leaving that until shenmue 4.

i have a theory that in the concept stages of development Lan di was to use magic to kill iwao but this was later removed because Suzuki wanted magic to be more of a surprise by introducing it later.

in project Berkeley cg we see a hole in the roof when iwao lays dying. this hole could have been created by a thunderbolt summoned by lan di to kill iwao (maybe by using the magic of the mirror directly)
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby ImGladUmad » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:39 pm

Shenmue 1 was successful because of modern day realism.



I am too em I afraid it's gonna take it too far.
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby Sonoshee » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:42 pm

ImGladUmad wrote: Shenmue 1 was successful because of modern day realism.



I am too em I afraid it's gonna take it too far.


To be fair, Shenmue always came across as mystical and spiritual. If you even go back as far as the Project Berkley screens and videos, it was always apparent then too. I don't think anything Shenmue 3 (and hopefully onward) story wise could ever disappoint me.
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby Himuro » Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:43 pm

I love it. It perfectly punctuates the general tone of the series, and especially which throws it right in your face. Ryo goes through a decaying, decrepit old crime filled city in order to find information on his fathers killer. Kowloon represents Ryo's inner demons as the cracks expose themselves leading to his own perdition. Xiuying tells him as much in the church and many times in Honk Kong. The analogy for Ryo's spiritual journey from Kowloon to Guilin is both figurative and literal in the scope of the games themes. Ryo, having found Zhu Yuanda, travels from a place that eats his soul and forces him to go to extremes to find vengeance that will never sate him, to a place separated from civilization, surrounded by nature in all of its wonders. It is through the nature of spirituality and friendship, which Ryo starts to embrace as seen in the Tai Chi scene at the crag, that will save Ryo and deliver him from becoming the exact person he hates.

The naturalism vs urbanism dynamic in II is a natural part of the evolution of the story, and one that gives it far more emotional weight.

I don't take it as an west vs east debate. I think that pits the story at its most reduced form. After all, Hong Kong is more advanced than Yokosuka which is a small town and many people that live in these places, like Xiuying, are on the straight and narrow. It isn't about west vs east, so much as I feel it is about Ryo's spiritual transformation as he grows from boy to man. He has two options. He thinks he NEEDS revenge, but it consumes him. The secret to his sating heartache is within him all along, and that is his own natural spirit.

The spiritualism is needed.

Further, I think people's take on east vs west debate is exotifying the east and trying to find a way to say the east is better when this is never explicitly said in neither games at all.

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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby Hadoken Hazuki » Sat Jun 20, 2015 6:00 pm

Shenmue has had supernatural undertones since the very beginning - even the prologue of the first game is about Ryo's predetermined destiny, and his connection to some apocalyptic-sounding event to come. It's not going to get to DBZ levels as you say, but I'm guessing that in terms of key battles, the action will become more along the lines of Street Fighter. I even think the Project Berkley and Shenmue Online trailers were giving us major spoilers of events to come (the huge flood, Shenhua controlling the Phoenix, Lan Di controlling the Dragon)

I liked that Shenmue chose to keep things relatively grounded in reality before the supernatural occurrences towards the end. It allowed us to somewhat relate to Ryo's perception of life, before shattering said perception (along with his own) as Shenmue II's ending reveals that the somewhat simple goal of his quest is intertwined with something much grander and other-worldly.

I had a theory that I posted here around a decade ago, about Shenhua being the living incarnation of the Qing Dynasty treasure, something that the mirrors would reveal when they were combined. Another user then theorized that Ryo could be destined to become Shenhua's Guardian, the protector of the Qing Dynasty treasure. So I think Ryo could somehow be connected spiritually to the Shenmue tree, as Shenhua mentions she always felt like Shenmue was protecting her, in the same way Ryo would come to do. I mean, the series has gotta be named after that tree for some reason, right?

Anyway, getting off topic - I welcome the increasing supernatural occurrences as the story gets closer to its finale. :)
Last edited by Hadoken Hazuki on Sat Jun 20, 2015 8:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby fif » Sat Jun 20, 2015 6:13 pm

I think we would learn more about supernatural stuff but like Indiana jones movies, it will actually happens just in the end. And that's great that the tone and story feel different in each game.
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby JaySw34 » Sat Jun 20, 2015 8:27 pm

Some very good viewpoints in this thread. Keep them coming everyone
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

Postby Shenmuehua » Sat Jun 20, 2015 8:50 pm

The scenario is done for years....

We all wanted Shenmue III.........


I feel really great..................................... Thanks!
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