Six days before 9/11, Shenmue II came out. Seriously, it has been that long. 18 years. The world was literally a different place the last time Yu Suzuki released a chapter in his ongoing magnum opus. I say ongoing because you will find no resolution here. Suzuki himself has already apparently committed to continuing the series. This isn’t a trilogy tied up neatly with a bow. In fact, there’s nothing neat about Shenmue III from Ys Net and Deep Silver. It’s a messy, earthy, flawed game that sets out to accomplish one goal. Continue the saga of Ryo Hazuki, the ironically 18 year old Japanese martial artist.
If you haven’t played Shenmue or Shenmue II, this is going to be a mite bit confusing. It’s been so long since the last game came out that you could actually have been born after its release and grown up never hearing of it. Shenmue was one of the early releases for the Dreamcast and it was revolutionary. Its a game where you play a young Japanese martial artist attempting to avenge his father, but also living a life and experiencing Japan. You work, you gamble, you play video games, and you experience mid 1980s Japan. Keep in mind that the original Shenmue is faithfully set in 1986 and when it was released, that was only 13 years ago.
Flash forward to now. 1986 was 33 years ago (anyone watch Dark on Netflix?) and it feels like a time lost to the misty past. But Shenmue III acts like it was only yesterday. We are reintroduced to Ryo and his ongoing saga right where it left off. If you’re unfamiliar with the previous plot or need a reminder, there’s a cinema recap, but it’s pretty sparse on the detail. You’re probably better off refreshing with YouTube or Wikipedia, or if you’re one of the few people that still have Shenmue II for the original Xbox, the DVD movie of the first game that it was included with!
Anyway, Ryo and Shenhua start out in Bailu Village, her hometown and you’re looking for clues to the origins of the Phoenix Mirror and to find Shenhua’s father Yuan. Sukuzi prides himself on his accurate descriptions and Bailu seems to be a traditional Chinese village, as authentic as can be for 1986. In Bailu, you’ll talk, and talk, and talk, and talk. Ryo has a tendency to say weird things and repeat phrases, and it can be tedious as all hell. Every conversation has disjointed cut scenes and requires button presses to navigate for no reason. Load screens are plentiful every time you interact with everything and simply walking depletes your health/stamina meter, which is possibly the most irritating thing ever. Want to get across an irrationally large village fast? Hope you brought some garlic. Yum?
In addition, you’ll come across a ton of things to interact with, from picking herbs to sell to gambling dens to capsule toys with collectibles inside. There’s something to do around every corner in Bailu and all of it is slow, meandering, and time-consuming. Take too long and it’s past Ryo’s bedtime so he goes home to bed. 9 P.M., don’t be late! And up every morning at 7 A.M. so don’t expect to sleep in. There’s absolutely no way to accomplish anything without patience in Shenmue III and everything takes days and days to finish. On the one hand, it’s as accurate a depiction of learning martial skills as I’ve ever seen in a game, but on the other, it’s just boring. Standing there for literally hours of real-time gameplay training by punching wooden dummies and standing in martial poses is simply not fun. And combat is clunky and dated, much like the original Virtua Fighter which Suzuki created. Fortunately, you can learn a plethora of special moves and map your top picks to the R2 button. Select with R1, hit with R2 and suddenly clunky combat is a breeze! But don’t forget to spend even more hours sparring or you won’t have the attack power to beat your enemies at all! And you can’t map moves if you want to learn them quickly. Yeesh.
The plot of Shenmue III is thin and glacially paced, the dialogue is odd and often times simply pointless, and the combat is clunky and unpleasant. Everything takes forever to do and the village is enormous. What is the point? Well, Suzuki has managed to faithfully recreate an original Dreamcast game on a modern console. Not only recreate it, but actually continue it on with modern hardware and retain virtually the exact feel of the original game. If you played these as a kid, they’re almost like coming home. Of course, if you’ve been a regular gamer all that time, you’d think maybe a few things could have been tidied up a bit, but no, this is as rough as it comes. Every attempt was made to maintain the exact feel of the franchise and completely pacify it’s small but rabid cult following.
Now, that’s not to say everything is bad about Shenmue III. For one, it’s an utterly beautiful game. The scenic vistas, the colorful outfits, the incredible background detail all add up to make Bailu feel like a living place, even if wandering around the edges of town picking herbs gave me Skyrim flashbacks. And moving on to Niaowu and the final mountain fortress were no less impressive. The attention to detail is honestly astounding and everything is alive and vibrant in every detail. No area was overlooked, aside from the characters themselves, which is a conscious design choice. Everyone in Shenmue III looks odd. They’re too smooth, too lumpy, have weird expressions, and incredibly bizarre outfit. But it fits perfectly with the previous games, so it’s forgivable, especially when while odd, they do look crisp and clean. The game could definitely have used some better facial movement mapping though.
The music is also very vibrant and Asian. It’s not my thing, but it’s very well done, and while it does become repetitive after a while, due to being stuck in places for so long, it’s never outright irritating. Speaking of being stuck, get used to it. Shenmue is decidedly not an open world game, even though you have freedom of movement within your location. There are only three areas in the whole game, and just Bailu Village will take you a significant time investment to get past. Don’t even get me started on going to Niaowu, where I had to learn where everything was all over again. Gah. There are a few tricks to speeding the game up, such as cheating at gambling by using the fortune teller. If you grab a color fortune and play Flower, Sun, Wind, & Moon, you can rack up a ton of money fast, and this saved me hours of gameplay. You can basically skip almost every personal interaction and side quest too, but you definitely must keep up with your kung fu or face the consequences. Don’t forget to buy more techniques, which you’ll of course require more money for, and oh, what’s that? It’s Ryo’s bedtime again? Yeah…
Honestly, anyone who’s never played Shenmue before should pretty much skip this game. It’s not fun, it’s not well-designed, and the menu and fighting systems are archaic. The story is a bit thin and Ryo’s personality is sadly lacking, even after two previous games. It’s just not worth your time. However, it’s also a fantastic achievement for Yu Suzuki which manages to demonstrate that in this era of AAA titles, a small publisher can put out a niche title, make it the most successful Kickstarter in video game history with a $6 million take, and actually release a game that’s fundamentally exactly what everyone that funded it wanted. Make no mistake. This hobbled, convoluted, slog of a game is what people were expecting when they funded the game in the first place. The nostalgia for Shenmue is off the charts and hard to explain to anyone who wasn’t a part of the Dreamcast’s timeline. It’s a legendary title that takes itself incredibly seriously, and in some ways, that’s utterly charming. I have nothing but respect for Yu Suzuki, much as I’m not a fan of the series. It’s impossible not to appreciate what he’s done and the artistry involved in the Shenmue franchise and Shenmue III in particular. But they’re also tailored to a very specific, very tailored audience of otaku, and designed for people that have the time to play them. You can load up the game, play for an hour or so and then go, but you definitely won’t get anywhere fast. Shenmue III was created for people that want to have an experience, not play Uncharted. Every facet of the game is complex and drawn out to the point that much of it has the feel of a semblance of real life. This of course, is entirely what was intended and it’s incredibly rare to find a game that manages to achieve everything it sets out to, but it’s still a mixed bag in terms of pure gameplay.
Simply put, Shenmue III is not for everyone. In fact, it’s not for most people and the majority of modern gamers are likely to either hate it, or secretly hate it and say they loved it because they’re expected to love it by others in the gaming community. It’s a masterpiece, but it’s also a bad game, due to the fact that it has a limited fun factor, the plot is thin and slow, and the controls are antiquated at best. From a technical standpoint, everything is smooth and works perfectly, but it’s still a test of patience to muddle through, especially with Ryo’s inane commentary. I’ll admit there’s one scene with Shenhua towards the end of the first section that had me entranced, but it only lasts a few minutes. Ultimately, this is the Shenmue everyone asked for, and it delivers the experience that everyone wanted. But it’s still a terrible game with terrible mechanics. If that’s charming to you, then you’ll have a blast. If it’s not, then definitely skip this one, especially at the AAA price of $60 a copy and even more for the digital deluxe.
This review was based on a digital copy of Shenmue III for the PS4 provided by the publisher. It was played on a Sony 55” 1080p TV using a PS4 Pro and a hell of a lot of thinly veiled patience. Shenmue III is also available on PC via Epic Games. All screenshots are of actual gameplay. I’ll grudgingly admit I kind of liked catching chickens. That part was fun. But that’s it! Leave me alone!
