All of the weirdness and jank that came from the first two releases without all of the charm and nostalgia those two had. Shenmue III leads off almost directly where 2 ended, Ryo is back on his revenge tour and there's not a sailor in sight that can stop him.

The game does feature a new coat of paint both visually and design wise. Graphically, the improvements feel still a bit dated for 2019 but the controls have been modernized and goes a long way as a great improvement compared to the original titles. Moving around and looking at things is so much easier, though moving around NPCs can still be a little weird. The game also features some laughable and clear game loading areas where running is just plain not allowed in the city, for reasons that are just not explained in game. It's not game breaking or anything too awful but it's more obvious here than in most modern games.

You will spend the game in two big locations; a small village and a bigger, bustling city. Both have been built to feel completely different from one another and fairly unique, though characters feel more placed and less organic compared to other Shenmue games. Some characters definitely are on a schedule where they come and go from certain locations but they feel fewer than in the past.

These locations, despite looking and feeling a bit different though feature pretty much the same types of things to do with very little difference between them besides places you can buy random stuff in.

Since you need to be constantly making money in order to afford various things, the biggest disappointment is the ways you go about doing that, despite the changes in location and clear differences in their settings (small, quiet village vs. busy city) don't really change how you go about making money. Your choices are fairly limited unless you want to take advantage of some tricks; you can chop wood, you can gamble, or you can fish and that's about it. It would've been nice to get some changes in these money making opportunities to reflect their setting a bit more.

The money making is a chore overall in this game too, even if you take advantage of some loopholes to speed this up. I found myself constantly having to buy food to eat to up my health, especially since your health gradually falls doing literally anything as the day progresses. Wanna train and get stronger in fighting? Your health's gonna go down. Train your stamina so you can block more? Health is gonna go down. Running? Same thing. Sitting there and just letting time go by? Somehow makes your health go down.

On top of that, the story progression will force you to buy expensive items twice in game. So you'll be forced to grind through the few paths you can take to make money over and over and over or take advantage of save scumming in gambling games, which come with their own problems (basically you can only gamble with non-money chips you have to buy. You can then take those chips to buy items that then in turn can be sold at pawn shops for money, so you can technically make money gambling but it's a tedious, multi-step process that feels unnecessary).

Most items only improve a bit of that health too so you'll either be spending more on items that improve it better, which of course costs more money, or you'll just have to hope your day ends without having to do any story focused battles, since all fights in this game start you off at whatever health you started the fight at, so if you're already low just because the day is almost over, your health will be low period and you'll just have to be really good at the fighting aspects of the game, which to me, just aren't very good.

Targeting and the fights in this game were a pretty big downgrade to me. Targeting was always a pain to me and overall fights were a bit more challenging than in previous games. Harder is not really my problem either but with the health factor being a thing, and sometimes fights happening back to back from one another, some of these fights can get really ridiculous unless you are really prepared and aware of what's coming next and stock up beforehand (which is gonna cost ya of course).

You can't heal yourself during fights unless you've bought one specific item. You can buy multiples of these items but they aren't cheap in context to the game economy. They are a one time use item too, so if you use them once, you'll need to buy more.

There are a ton of moves you can learn and add to an auto-use list but that list has a five max limit so you'll have to memorize other moves if you want to diversify your move set or just stick to the handful of moves you've locked to your list. Buying more moves can be a pain too since that will also cost money and that spending can get quite expensive.

There are a slew of other janky things but honestly, some of that jank was expected and fairly charming. Things like the bad voice acting returns and is probably a negative in hindsight but after two games of bad voice acting, it just feels like the Shenmue way and not a major negative.

Awkward back and forth conversations with strangers is also back where the things they say back to you or the things Ryo replies with sometimes doesn't make any sense. Is it bad? Probably, but its return got a laugh from me more than anything.

Basically, Shenmue 3 is definitely a Shenmue game, good and bad. If you remember these games being janky as hell but charming in it's jank, maybe give Shenmue 3 a shot. Some of the newer annoyances may turn you off but the game still brings the janky charm you may look back on fondly. I also respect the hell out of this game ending with a tease for a 4th game. Despite my issues with this game and the continued issues this game still possesses, I'd probably dive right in to a fourth game and see what kind of himbo nonsense Ryo gets himself into.

Shenmue 3 isn't bad because they didn't try to learn from new games. Shenmue 3 is bad because they tried to do the same stuff modern games does, but without Yu Suzuki playing them.

New big world's to explore, with collectable stuff, lot to buy and customize and mini games while having the worst stamina bar I ever seen. Everything new Shenmue 3 does to the franchise is bad in gameplay, maybe the fish but that was very easy and only to farm money. I am sure someone showed to Suzuki the concept of substories from Yakuza and he tried to do without understanding. This game wouldn't be good if RGGS tried to make, this game would be good if he tried to be Shenmue 100% of the time. Give me more personal stuff by training like Ryo seeing his father mark on a tree, Ryo talking with Shenua about his life or calling a old friend, exploring the places in a interesting way. When the game does this, it was amazing, but no, only 2/3 hours of stuff to like.

The gameplay of Shenmue 1 and 2 was amazing, not so hard but I really like how training is the true definition of Shenmue as art (1 even finished with one) but here? Is a shit grind and more grind mini games with a new style made to be more accessible but without knowing how make a combat accessible. Is just grind RPG but with bad controls.

The more frustrating part? This game is so easy to tell why is bad but people only continue to missing the point of Shenmue. I like Eyepatch Wolf but man, the way he affects the view of this game only because he is bad at Shenmue was funny to see.

You have to be very much fun of the franchise for enjoy this. I want to Yu Suzuki finish his tale, I want to see how Ryo will fight Lan Di like a Yu Yu Hakusho fight but man, Shenmue 3 did make me think maybe is better to not see how this will end if a 4 game continues like this.

Pues más allá de los gráficos y 4 detalles más, continuista al máximo con los dos anteriores juegos, para bien y para mal (en mi caso pesa más lo negativo). Su mundo sigue siendo flipante, pero ya no impresiona tanto, y sus defectos se hacen ahora más notorios.

Putos QTE y movimiento tanque, el combate sigue siendo malete, pero ha mejorado al menos, eso sí, ni una pelea que tenga ganas de repetir. La historia pierde fuerza en esta entrega, da demasiadas vueltas para no llegar a donde debería y se hace repetitiva. El peor Shenmue sin duda.

Tampoco es un mal juego, sigue molando perderte en su mundo a hacer el chorras. Simplemente es decente, está destinado totalmente a sus mayores fans, a aquellos que en su mayoría descubrieron la saga en su época, y a mí aun gustandome los 2 anteriores Shenmue, no soy ese público.

Barely ran on my potato pc in the pre-graphics card days, despite the fact that it's a dreamcast game. Reviews said it was a boring slog, so I skipped it.

Update: I was confused. It was not a Dreamcast game.
It still sucks.

Update: eh, I might give it another try at some point, so don't take me saying it sucks as the final word on the game.

I didn't want to drop it but I'm not going to force myself through a game I'm not big on just because of the series it's from. Shenmue III is unfortunately stuck in a spot where it's desperately trying to recapture the soul of the original which it simply can't because it's not a dreamcast game. Shenmue I and II had an intrinsic soul thanks to their pushing the limits of the dreamcast's power with a semi-realistic artstyle and lovingly crafted environments. Shenmue III retains all of the clunky aspects of the original games but lacks the soul that would have made up for the more shoddy aspects and even turn them around and make them endearing. The artstyle has an uncanny cartoon-y look to it that is generally unpleasant to look at for every character but shenhua, and the environments are reminiscent of unreal engine tech demos. The combat somehow feels worse than the original games with a serious lack of impact on the hits like every opponent is a human-shaped sandbag. Also for some reason you lose health for running which is a very annoying design decision. What really pushed me to finally drop it was learning that the game does not even conclude the Shenmue story which is ridiculous even if the series was initially stated to have like 6 parts, because Yu Suzuki and his team should've known that managing to put out this game was a miracle in and of itself. I doubt that conclusion will ever come now. If I can praise the game for one thing, it's that they managed to get Ryo's original voice back and he somehow sounds exactly the same which is a nice walk down memory lane.

I'm glad that the series got a continuation and I have no regrets in taking in the Kickstarter. "Shenmue III" does have its strengths, but also some weaknesses.

For the positives, the music is great. The surrounding environments are stunning. There's more options to make money, including the returning forklift jobs. Shenhua proves to be a great companion to have around. I love returning to her house every night just to chat with her. Also, I love being able to call Ryo's friends to catch up. That's wholesome right there.

As for weaknesses, I'm not a fan of Ryo's health decreasing and having to eat every time. The combat is even clunkier than its predecessors. There are a couple of paywalls (5,000 yuan to a learn a move? Get out of here!) Also, the story feels like filler. By the end, I feel like not much was accomplished.

Still, I don't hate it. It has its qualities, even if it is countered by those pitfalls. I really don't want this series to be dormant again. I want to see Ryo complete his journey. As of now, though, it doesn't seem likely.

A disappointing sequel to two of my favourite games of all time. Having so many of the elements from the original return is an incredible feeling, It feels like a Dreamcast game made in 2019. That also has its' drawbacks though. Elements of the gameplay are very janky, the combat is a large step backwards from the Virtua Fighter fighting of the first two and the game is padded with repetitive training and money blocks to fill out it's length. After waiting nearly 20 years for this follow up it's also shocking just how little it progresses the overall story.