What do you all expect out of Bailu and Choubu?

[SMDzero]

Okay so stretch goal-wise the core gameplay elements of SIII (Rapport, Character Perspective, etc) will be there, the fighting systems will be fairly expanded as well and Baisha will be everything it was intended to be.

However, what will Bailu and Choubu be like? Will there still be plenty of cinematics, side-quests, mini-games, and fighting/training scenarios to experience in both these villages?

I'm hoping that Bailu and Choubu don't feel beta and undercooked since not a single stretch goal was (or will be) reached for these areas.

The most painful stretch goals we didn't hit is the part-time job and game stalls (arcade??) that won't be in Choubu now.

Hopefully, however, there will still be a lot to do and experience in Bailu and Choubu and Baisha will just feel that it has a ton of extra stuff in it.

I don't want to breeze through Bailu and Choubu in just a few hours due to a lack of content and have the majority of the game center on just Baisha.

[Spaghetti]

I don't think we've got a tremendous amount to worry about. Bailu at least is looking bigger than expected from the Shenmue 3 screens we've seen, and Choubu has been referred to as being where the game really becomes like the Shenmue we've known in the past in being a more sizable urban environment.

The stretch goals for Bailu and Choubu didn't look as crucial as the ones for Baisha did, as evidenced how the Baisha stretch goals were different and sometimes more system/story specific (i.e infiltration mission, battle event, character perspective system).

It's hard to know how much impact the Bailu and Choubu stretchgoals would have had overall on the game, but it's safe to say the important location-based stretch goals of Baisha were wisely loaded before the others for a reason, and funded pretty soundly as a result.

[SMDzero]

Yeah.. it's also telling that Suzuki felt that the add-ons for Bailu and Choubu were less important than expanding the fighting system.

[alexh86]

I expect the other areas to be more linear. All buildings and areas relevant to the story will be there but it won't have the shops, arcades, jobs and side quests that are a big part of Shenmue. Perhaps you won't be able to go inside as many buildings as well. Of course, all of this is speculation but I base it on the fact that $2m was said to fund a linear, story-driven game. Additional funding fleshes out areas to make them more "Shenmue-like" but they may not give us what we didn't pay for.

[Giorgio]

I expect to see what Yu Suzuki has in mind and, thus, his ideas about those areas.

[koalazeus]

Even with no extras whatsoever, I'd expect Bailu and Choubu to feel alive (in regards to NPCs and day/night cycles) and explorable in the way we're used to from the previous games. As long as parts of the story involve you talking and walking from point to point I will be happy. I would also like to be able to travel back and forth between the areas (if that makes sense geographically).

Part-time jobs I am less concerned about. They were more fun 14 years ago, before I had ever exchanged time for money IRL.

[shredingskin]

I hope the "strategy war" he has planned doesn't span for too long, hopefully it won't be like brutal legend or something like that.

I do trust Yu, he is a great designer, but I'll like shenmue to be shenmue, and not 2/3 shenmue, other third some strategy minigame.

[Spaghetti]

I wouldn't take strategy to mean Yu is literally going to turn the last part of Shenmue 3 into an RTS.

The way I interpreted it with his comments about comparing it to the Three Kingdoms and how there will be ways through "fire" and "water" to reach/obtain the objective (full quote is eluding me right now), that you will be able to plan an attack on an enemy stronghold with multiple paths and methods to complete the "quest". Other factors will probably play into it, like choices earlier in the game, or bonds/alliances forged. The rapport and character perspective systems will probably also play into this element as well.

Ryo can't make the deal for the support of another character/faction? How about getting Shenhua to appeal to them instead?

Or maybe Ren?

I dunno. I think it has the potential to be very cool.

[shredingskin]

I guess the difference lies if we take the word strategy as a game genre or literally.

Also he talked about commanding factions or something like that (if I remember correctly), also he said he talked about the whole deal as a new mechanic that he was really looking forward to, or something like that. That's why I swindled in the RTS/not Shenmue, style of gameplay.

But who knows, Hopefully Yu already knows what he means.