Ouch, the comments on the youtube trailer are harsh...

[Yokosuka]

That's stretching things. Shenmue has always been divisive. If the game honors the series legacy, expect a lot of negative reviews.

Really ? I remember Shenmue I & II had impressive positive critics despite a lot of weaknesses spotted by the reviewers. Considering the modern gaming has not evolved that much, Shenmue can still distinguish itself from the competition if YsNet make it right.

[LucBu]

Really ? I remember Shenmue I & II had impressive positive critics despite a lot of weaknesses spotted by the reviewers. Considering the modern gaming has not evolved that much, Shenmue can still distinguish itself from the competition if YsNet make it right.

I agree with this.

I think it's too early to tell what kind of game Shenmue 3 will be like. Certainly, if the game is going for intrinsic detail rather than wide expanses of area we might find it holds significance for the industry regardless of its scope.

When you look at a game like Fallout and Elder Scrolls, the last versions of those games had so many repeated textures. There was certainly an impression of scope with those games. Yet every cave, every house, was just so similar that the sandbox started to become more and more transparent. You could really feel them pasting these assets in their own level editors. Some of the ruined building models in Fallout 3 were repeated endlessly. It was immersion breaking for me.

Shenmue 1 and 2 had their own share of repetition, I'm thinking of the warehouses and perhaps the kowloon buildings, but those areas would realistically be unitary. Poor rural villages, such as the ones potrayed in Skyrim, would not be.

If you've ever lived in a rural community for a while you'll know how individualized people's lives are in those areas. They build their own huts, cabins and barns. There are no fast regulations. They collect things - oddities. They have a lot of character. It's not like a city where the premises are exact in measurements and in the plots of their land. From my own experiences with poor, rural communities, I remember one family who had saved in their barn loft the shedded skin of a black viper that some grandfather had killed out in the woods on a fishing trip when he was a young man. It had spat at him and lunged whilst he knelt by the water. The way they'd told it, the grandfather managed to block the snake strike with the fishing rod, scamper away, and then return to pulverize its head with a stone. The family kept the skin nailed to the dry wood in the attic space as a reminder; had this viper killed the man in his youth, none of them would have been born. They kept this piece in the attic next to a deer skull and an empty honey comb, both of which also been picked up over the years by some ancestor. Amongst these items there was also an early television from the 1920s one of them had bartered for at a recent market.

For me, this rural village setting gives Shenmue 3 great potential where orginal assets are concerned; personal touches on the houses, slums/grottos, natural scenery. I think it could do nicely. It would be a great contrast from the sprawling sandboxes prevalent today that feel so empty. I think that all it would take would be the love and attention of a great team, and that's what we've got. There will be critics, there always are, but Shenmue 3 has plenty of potential. I can see reviews being good at least, or, hopefully, great.

[Henry Spencer]

Like moths to a flame. And trust me, YouTube comment section is almost always like bloody wildfire...why do you always do this to yourselves?

[Pogogacy]

The amount of anger around this place will be hilarious when the reviews come in.

I think it will be fairly well received personally.

That's stretching things. Shenmue has always been divisive. If the game honors the series legacy, expect a lot of negative reviews.

Yup. Especially if it stays rigidly to its roots and fails to "modernise" enough.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

It's entirely possible to 'modernise' the aspects of Shenmue that are in need of updating (dual analogue controls, menu interface, competent voice acting and localisation) whilst at the same time retaining what made the series great (it's immersion, sense of detail, its incredible heart and passion).

I think there's this perception within the Shenmue community that the gaming press has it in for the series. All the recent horrible click-bait concern trolling articles haven't helped with that. Yet people seem to forget that the first two games were very, very well received indeed when they were released on the Dreamcast, and are still revered amongst plenty of critics (see the recent Empire list).

In a way, this paranoia has always been there. Those who've been fans since the beginning will remember the Gamespot fiasco (and even they gave the game a respectable 7/10!), where so much attention was focused on that one review, to the complete exclusion of all other media outlets, who almost unanimously scored Shenmue I 9/10 or 10/10.

Shenmue III will not receive reviews that favorable, but my impression is that Suzuki knows what's needed to update the series. Admittedly, it's very difficult to forecast at this early stage, but if I had to guess I'd say it will probably receive a metacritic average in the 75-79 kind of range, with Eurogamer been most likely to acclaim it and Gamespot/Polygon/Kotaku most likely to pan it.

I personally am quite ambivalent either way, since I've long been of the opinion that 90%+ of videogame journalists are morons who's opinions are worthless, but I don't really buy the idea that this game will automatically get poor reviews.

[Henry Spencer]

Gamespot originally gave Shenmue a 6/10, actually.

[Himuro]

That's stretching things. Shenmue has always been divisive. If the game honors the series legacy, expect a lot of negative reviews.

Really ? I remember Shenmue I & II had impressive positive critics despite a lot of weaknesses spotted by the reviewers. Considering the modern gaming has not evolved that much, Shenmue can still distinguish itself from the competition if YsNet make it right.

Gamespot gave Shenmue a 6.8.

[Pogogacy]

Gamespot originally gave Shenmue a 6/10, actually.

They actually gave it a 6.8, which I rounded up to 7 for brevity's sake since it's splitting hairs. They raised it to 7.8, so pretty much an 8, which was still the lowest score the original received from any mainstream source.

[Henry Spencer]

Wow, I was out by a .8 how silly of me.
Still a pathetic scoring system and a ridiculously low score (respectable, my ass).

[PILMAN]

Gamespot has always been anti shenmue and was responsible for spreading the rumors about shenmue 3s cancellation back in the day.

As for the other, there will always be the anti shenmue idiot that thinks the entire world should be playing battlefield or call of duty multiplayer. Who cares what they think.

[Telekill]

A majority of forum going gamers these days only know how to attack others. They have no idea what a sense of community is and will never be a part of something special. It's us that need to feel sorry for them. I'm personally proud to be part of a community that doesn't rip each other a new one with every sentence.

We Shenmue fans generally are from a different era; a better one.

[Jibby]

I know I shouldn't let it get to me but I feel so demoralised about all of this.
This was our chance to finally revive the franchise and stupid clickbate, ad-revenue sucking scum ruined it all by spreading lies and misinforming people. Shenmue is just associated with sailor searching and Kickstarter scamming now. Shenmue has turned into a laughing stock and that's really upsetting.

But then the more rational part of me kicks in and I realise that this is just normal internet behavior and that it won't last, but it's still really upsetting to see something that's been important to us for so long be sabotaged for the sake of a little extra income from ads.

Sigh.

[Jibby]

Dont let it get to you!!
Look at the people who matter to you, those that are close to speak in shenmue terms..
So many lives have been touched by the series, dont doubt yourself!
It is the passion of fans that will stay, dont forget, 14 years later, AND WE ARE STILL HERE.
Do you think that those people ranting in comments sections have any passion for Shenmue?
Here you find people with passion, so you need not look further, in any case, not at the comment sections anyways, it is just a game bored people play, to see if they can bully by bashing something you genuinilly love!
I love you for loving Shenmue and let us stay passionate!! Okay?

will of the ancients

-sona mi areru ec sancitu-

[amiga1200]

@ Himuro.
worry not for they don't know arses from elbows.
wouldn't know a 'rating' system. from a quality game if it ran up to them and wrapped a crowbar around their skulls.
in me saying this, quality is subjective, as beauty is in the eye of the cyclops..as it were... :fukd&bombd:

[shredingskin]

If the comments say so means Shenmue III is gonna sux

Don't want it no mo

[Pltnm06Ghost]

Negative reviews hardly amount to squat these days. Likewise for the negative comments I see about Shenmue III on YouTube. The most memorable games for me has always been the ones that were poorly received anyways. Which is why it's best not to let these comments get to me since they're a load of crap :T