by SMDzero » Wed Sep 28, 2016 1:34 am
Shemmue 3 demo review
What must it be like to witness history? Never before in the history of videogames, has a director who “left” a game series during production been given the opportunity to revisit that cancelled sequel nearly 15 years later and complete his original vision! It may sound a bit melodramatic but history was made recently with a playable demo of Shenmue III and I got to play it on a huge 4K screen at Playstation Experience
Yu Suzuki, as any “Shenmue” fan knows, developed Shenmue and Shenmue II at the same time from a huge 11 chapter script – but as budget and hostilities with Sega and AM2 increased, all effort was focused on getting “Shenmue I” finished with the idea that they all would revisit Shenmue II. Suzuki was able to develop roughly 75 percent of Shenmue II, completed leaving an unfinished ending. When Shenmue I was released in 1998, it was a commercial success. So when the Suzuki went back to finish the Shenmue saga with a 3rd installment, it was decided that the project would not move forward.
Suzuki himself joked after the Shenmue II Japanese launch that “if ‘Shenmue I’ had been a flop Sega would have made me finish Shenmue as punishment I would have done ‘Shenmue III,’ but as it turned into an immediate success Sega decided to cut their losses and they didn’t need me anymore” – Suzuki makes no secret that he had a very difficult relationship with the Sega all through the production of “Shenmue.” When Shenmue 3 was cancelled Suzuki caulked it up to one of those “political things” and moved on and left Shenmue behind.
However, over the ensuing years there have been many hints at what Yu Suzuki's completed vision of Shenmue III was and how it differed from the open world games that were released after it. Many different rumors & fan films of the sequel and some of the “lost” Shenmue III screenshots had been released over the years. But, sadly it looked as if Shenmue III would remain a ‘what could have been’ thing – that is until now!
This past thursday night I was lucky enough to attend the world premiere of Shenmue III – billed as “The Version You Have Never Seen.” If you think you have seen all of Shenmue, think again!
The game has been restored by Yu Suzuki himself, using the original Shenmue III game script. Once Sega gave Suzuki the green light to move forward with the proposed Shenmue III, he traveled to his old abandoned offices where the games were created. Suzuki went on an Indiana Jones-like quest to dig through the drawers and cabinets, ultimately returning with six tons of concept art and game design maps originally intended for the “Shenmue III” production. “The game has been completely re-asembled not only to incorporate these lost game maps, but to complete the original story,” says Suzuki.
The result of this once in a lifetime venture was shown on the big screen for the first time at the Playstation Experience event. Many “Shenmue” celebs were there: Corey Marshall, Eric Kelso, Lisle Wilkerson, and even Peter Moore to name just a few! I was amazed how tall Corey Marshall was in person and how much he looks like Ryo.
SPOILER WARNING!
The game is dedicated lovingly to all the fans and features an all-new opening sequence. In the unfinished Shenmue II, the game abruptly ends as soon as 2 giant mirrors are revealed in a mysterious cave. In Shenmue III, the game opens with a fight between Ryo and Lan Di right there in the cave! Shenmue III opens as originally intended with a recap of the events of “Shenmue I” and "Shenmue II" finishing up with Ryo and Shenhua pushing the magic sword into the pedestal, floating into the air, and revealing the two giant mirrors.
The game follows with another new sequence where Ryo and Shenhua get an assignment to investigate a string of cattle robberies in Choubu. This new sequence rounds out with Shenhua teasing Ryo with revenge-this and revenge-that, suspecting Ryo is on a destructive path, and to prove her point, leaps out of a Tulou window in Baisha knowing Ryo must choose save her instead of fighting Lan Di...only to have Ryo perform a super-shadow step rescue resulting in Shenhua landing unharmed on a fruit stand. When Shenhua looks up she sees Ryo up in the window still fighting Lan Di in disbelief, how could he be do this? The scene is very funny and sad.
Another nice sequence involves the reveal of Ryo's Chi Energy superpowers at a Choubu martial arts school. This sequence never made it officially to AM2's desks, the FMV' concept-art storyboards drawn by Suzuki himself are used here, these storyboards are cut together with bailey wire and spit to complete the sequence. Ryo's storyboards show him looking more like Akira from Virtua FIghter . Shenhua's storyboards, apparently drawn many months later, features her with a Tibetan look. This sequence is very rough obviously, but nevertheless, the sequence is charming, the interplay between Ryo and Shenhua is undeniable and one can finally see how Ryo turns into a legendary Dragon Ball Z martial arts master with superpowers.
There is an all new ending as well, gone is the half-assed cliffhanger which ended Shenmue II (which is explained away as a dream anyway). Back is the original ending intended for Shenmue 3, a time travel ending. Which as Yu Suzuki points out was the original ending intended for Shenmue; Ryo uses his newfound Chi powers to turn back time to before his father was killed. He notes that while developing Shenmue II they did not have a real ending, and that when the decision was made to postpone Shenmue III indefinitely, the idea was suggested to create an esoteric floating sword ending to end Shenmue II and worry about III’s ending later.
We are treated to many new sequences throughout the entire game and all are a rare treat. I would suggest you replay Shenmue I and II first before playing Shenmue III to really get the full effect of the game. The most notable additions to this game are the 15 minutes of never before seen footage of Niao Sun. Now restored, these Niao Sun scenes in the Guilin forrest deepen the revenge narrartive. During the Shenmue premier, Niao Sun's artwork could be scene even though her scenes were cut from Shenmue II to save money. Suzuki remarked , “who would cut a great character like Niao Sun out of the game?” Thankfully this time out, the Niao Sun is back and as menacing as she was intended to be in Shenmue II.
In the end, it was a rare treat to sit and play a bit of videogame history in the making, but the game is by no means perfect. The new gameplay designs seem a bit low end, but thinking in the mid 1990’s – early 2000's technology, do nicely, and some new sequences the use of storyboards are obvious if looked at closely. The game runs a bit choppy, due to the fact that the game was rushed and never optimized on Unreal Engine 4, and as Suzuki said was never given the chance to fully complete 100 percent of Shenmue III. To quote Suzuki, “all of us will now have the opportunity to play ‘Shenmue III’ the way it was originally written and directed, with the exception of some gameplay and story sequences that we could not go back and complete.”
It was great to see Corey Marshall as Ryo use that famous "have you seen sailors?" line in the game again. “It’s been an incredible experience – almost like going back in time to finish a game series I loved, as did the fans. I hope you enjoy the game as much as I have enjoyed seeing ‘Shenmue III’ restored as it was originally conceived and intended to be played,” Suzuki added.
