You see, Ryo gets his ass kicked by design sometimes. But that emotional connection is what ultimately fuels Shenmue III and carries it throughout its runtime like Atlas with the world on his shoulders. It is satisfying in a sense to train up, raise your stats, then nail that big finish on a goon that’s been terrorizing your friends. Fights have some rhythm or reason to them as you can block, dodge, and queue up special attacks, but the AI is sluggish and non-responsive to the point where only a few encounters are riveting. It’s perhaps my least favorite part of the game, especially early on when cash is hard to come by without grinding out menial tasks for a paycheck.Ĭombat is probably the worst aspect of Shenmue III and the chief element Suzuki and his team should have updated in this modern era.
It’s possible Suzuki wanted to extend the length of the game while forcing people to literally adore the in-game roses, but either way, it’s extremely annoying as you have to eat food right before a battle, lest you go in with no health to spare. Walking around town will deplete your stamina meter, which actually doubles as your life meter (oops!). There’s a lot of teeth-gritting here as you work your way through some of the more dated concepts. That’s where the third game starts, literally moments after the events of the second iteration. Eventually, Ryo ends up in Guilin, China and meets a companion named Shenhua, with whom he is linked by destiny.
Ryo’s adventures take him to Hong Kong, where he’s wrapped up in an ancient legend involving mystical artifacts. For those of you who haven’t, the premise is easy to understand, at least. Ryo Hazuki, one of the least charismatic characters in video game history (but also one of the most endearing), is out for revenge after his father was murdered in Japan by the criminal Lan Di. In fact the whole project has this sort of odd glaze to it, as you really shouldn’t be diving into this weird, heady game without having played and enjoyed the first two. I think a lot of people are going to bail on Shenmue III already, and you’d be wise to do so. And those aforementioned bizarre design choices: much of it is stuff you just don’t see anymore, or haven’t seen since Shenmue II. Those slow moments can be equally frustrating, as well as calming, as you really take the time to get to know this world and respect it.
The lack of direction can be frustrating for some, but joyful as someone who loves Yu Suzuki’s cryptic sandboxes where you kind of have to assume what he is thinking or what he wants you to do half the time without a breadcrumb trail leading the way.
It has vague brief tutorials that don’t really teach you anything (good and bad), very slow-going moments that feel rote and cheerful on a dime (good and bad), and bizarre mechanics that feel like Shenmue III was released in the mid-2000s as a direct follow-up to the second game and we’re just now discovering it (you get it!). I’ve been slowly working my way through Shenmue III and what can I say? It’s kind of a monkey’s paw fever dream.Ī lot of us wanted a true continuation of the storyline that kept us hanging nearly 20 years ago, but with that narrative power requires great patience.Īs I said in my prior early-going assessment, Shenmue III feels like a glorious relic and an anachronistic chore.
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