![]() ![]() This form of interaction was unchanged from previous entries. He asked other people hyper specific questions and if they didn’t yield any clues, he’d have to keep asking around until someone knew something about suspicious characters, or where a certain whatchamacallit could be acquired. Instead, Ryo was laser focused on the goal at hand. This was a conversational game, but not like in Mass Effect, where as Commander Shepherd I could “explore” a conversation, or have a material effect on it. His investigative work – questioning locals – comprised the most material form of gameplay, both in terms of time spent and how the story progressed. More often than not, Shenhua took care of the house while Ryo explored the village, slowly learning of the general goings-on and of more disappearances. Her father’s unexplained absence impelled them to put on their detective hats. I’m usually diligent about keeping notes, but Ryo did a good enough job that I didn’t have to! With destinies intertwined, their journey together was just beginning. On their way to see her father, they stumbled upon a large sculpture in a cave, prompting Shenhua to recite a prophecy that’d been passed down in their village since ancient times. Her family of stonemasons was connected to the mysterious set of Chinese mirrors that partially influenced Lan Di, the martial artist and Chinese cartel member who killed Ryo’s father. His quest for revenge led him to the rural Bailu Village, where he happened upon a young woman named Shenhua. The events of that game centered on Ryo Hazuki’s time in Hong Kong, tracking down the man who killed his father. Shenmue III began where Shenmue II left off. Personally, I would’ve been fine if it looked like a Dreamcast game as long as it was authentic to its predecessors. Some weren’t promising, but I made sure to keep my expectations in check throughout the process. To their credit, the developers at Ys Net and Shibuya Productions were transparent about the process, with many updates through Kickstarter. Its release on PlayStation 4 and PC was tentatively scheduled for late 2017 but this date got pushed back a couple of times before it was finally released on November 19, 2019. The campaign was a riotous success and with $6.3 million raised, it still stands as the highest-funded video game on Kickstarter. I got the chance to put my money where my mouth was following the surprise announcement of a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of Shenmue III during E3 2015. And the settlements truly felt like real places. I jokingly concluded my review of the first game suggesting I’d become one. Series creator and video game luminary Yu Suzuki never gave up hope for future installments though, perhaps buoyed by some of the most fervent fans of any media. By the time Shenmue II released in 2001, prospects for future entries in the series were dim. They were contributing factors to Sega discontinuing the Dreamcast and exiting the console manufacturing business altogether. The first two games were some of the most expensive ever made and although well received critically, wound up being commercial failures. ![]() The fact that Shenmue III even exists is somewhat of a miracle. ![]() ![]() And yet, Shenmue III is in many ways a game about embracing the banal, for better or worse. I know relatively little about the rigors of game development, but it seems ludicrous to offer such attention to detail for something as banal as navigating a flight of stairs. In Shenmue III for instance, whenever the protagonist Ryo walks up or down a flight of stairs, his feet hit every step. It was a brief comment in Dave Halverson’s review of Dragon Quest VIII from the November 2005 issue of Play Magazine, and not especially relevant to the full review, but it’s stuck with me ever since: “…given the detail, that the lead character is not dynamic to steps and slopes does take a bite out of the realism.” I wouldn’t say I’ve paid attention to the functionally irrelevant detail of characters walking on stairs in every game I’ve played since, but sometimes I notice. ![]()
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