Shenmue 3 Publishing Rights Passed to ININ on Fifth Anniversary

Hopefully this story ends before I’m too old to play games.

Shenmue III was building up for an epic showdown only to leave the player hanging and wanting more!

Bring on Shenmue 4!

I still haven't played my copy of 3. I think about it once in a while.

Just let Shenmue go, let's pretend the third game never happened.

I have long since come to the conclusion that the Shenmue franchise has a very loud but actually very small fanbase. That is why despite the fanfare of its launch the third game went on to incredibly disappointing sales and ended up in obscurity soon after.

I just cannot recommend Shenmue 3. Not only does it end up with a cliffhanger that might never be resolved, but it's gameplay just has not moved on in twenty years barring the graphics. Still the same stilted dialogue, still the same long stretches of nothing happening, still a very stop-start story. And worse, they even managed to bugger some things up such as adding stamina mechanics and simplifying the combat.

Do yourself a favour and just buy Yakuza. Shenmue walked so it could run.

Shenmue 3 was terrible. They should just have left the franchise where it was.

The Yakuza series, is far superior.

I've read this was more like Shenmue fan-fiction than a proper series entry...

@Steel76 Dude... shenmue and Yakuza aren't the same type of game and Yakuza has way more budget besides a full team for development.
Shenmue 3 is an indie title and people like you seem to forget it. For an indie title and first project of an indie developer it was an amazing effort. Stop expecting Sega backed Yakuza level of production. That hasn't been on the table for decades.
Also, shenmue is an exploration game with visual novel elements. It's life sim with martial arts context. It's not meant to be an action packed thriller like yakuza.

@Nem The same indie descriptor is meaningless. Cyberpunk 2077 is an indie game. Bastion, which seems like an indie game, is published by Warner Bros, one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world. And Yakuza is clearly built on the ideas in Shenmue. You explore an urban location that's depicted in amazing detail. There's an intimate, almost soap opera style to the story, but crossed with a melodramatic martial arts storyline. The gameplay is basically a beat 'em up. You can play various Sega arcade games. There's life sim elements.

The creator of Yakuza, Toshihiro Nagoshi, worked in AM2 for years under Yu Suzuki, the creator of Shenmue. He was even the supervisor on the first Shenmue game. He was the director and producer of Shenmue in the last months of development despite saying prior to that that he wasn't happy how it had turned out. He's said since there's no one he's learned more about game development from than Yu Suzuki.

This game was such a con and a big slap in the face to fans.

@Nem @Matroska Wasn’t Yakuza born from the work that was done for the canceled Shenmue Online?

Heck, Shenmue started out as a Virtua Fighter spin-off adventure.

@Matroska I am not gonna debate what you consider an indie developer. It's enough when i say it does matter cause it's a small team with limited funding. You can put whatever title on that that you prefer.

No matter how they were born they do not play the same. They have very different pace, atmosphere and gameplay loop. You don't have to explore anything in Yakuza. You just move from action scene to action scene. In shemue you need to talk to people and explore the envyronment to progress. Time passed plays a role. You need to sleep, you need to work, you need to train. You have to make a living and not from beating people up and taking their money.
Shenmue is a drastically different experience. Even if they both started with depicting a japanese setting. Heck i wouldn't even say there is a martial arts background in yakuza as there is a brawling one, which isn't the same. I don't recall ever talking to a martial arts expert to learn from them in all the yakuza games.

Massive Shenmue fan too, played through the first two games many many times and even backed a Kickstarter collectors edition for 3, unfortunately it just didn't click and I haven't finished the game, I definitely will at some point.

So long as the creator refuses to modernize how his games are played, this series will go nowhere

I saw a brand new copy for $15. But i'm not sure if i need to grab this game to complete my Shenmue collection since i heard mixed reviews with more negative than positives...

I've always thought it slightly entertaining how large the fan outcry was for Shenmue 3 for years, and then after it was released, barely any mention of Shenmue since.

Imagine if Half-Life 3 was finally revealed and released and caused the entire community to never speak of any Half-Life game again

So far it only had three games, just release a full trilogy of the first three games to all platforms while Yu Suzuki himself work on the fourth game. It shouldn't be this difficult to make a new Shenmue game. This series is heavy on the budget but doesn't want to deliver the goods. If Yu Suzuki want the story of Shenmue to be widespread, he needs to make it wide available and to do that the games had to be everywhere. Steam, Epic Game, GOG, Nintendo, Xbox, all of those. Heck even include some Shenmue cameos in Yakuza, Virtua Fighter, and Sonic games would be helpful too.

@Matroska

> Bastion, which seems like an indie game, is published by Warner Bros, one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world.

no, it was. now it's published by Supergiant.

"indie" has multiple contexts in games; independent developers (IE, one without a parent company, that isn't publicly traded), independently published (IE, when the developer publishes the game), independently distributed (IE, when a dev publishes their game on their own distribution platforms, like their own website, without a distribution partner). obviously there are some subjective ideas of how they ought to be applied (many would argue that "indie" oughtn't apply to relatively small studios run by industry heavyweights). but those are the base, objective definitions.

the idea that "indie" is meaningless because it has different contextual meanings is an absurd leap in logic.

therefore, YS Net is an independent developer working with publishers. CD Projekt is NOT indie because they are publicly traded—they independently publish, and in some cases are fully independently distributing (GOG), but they will occasionally work with a distributor... like WB Games on consoles for The Witcher III, lol. Bastion IS independently published now, despite previously having been published externally. it was also crafted by an independent studio in the first place.

see how simple things are when you don't mix up multiple different contextual meanings of a word? imagine if you tried saying that "jump" is meaningless because it can mean the act of leaping, the act of powering up a car battery, the act of getting attacked apropos of nothing, etc., etc., lol.

@Serpenterror "It shouldn't be this difficult to make a new Shenmue game"

The only question who's gonna funded the game when the 3rd game doesn't sold well and dissapointed many Shenmue fans.

I feel Yu Suzuki have better chance to finish the series through manga or anime.

@Nem It's not what about I consider an indie developer, it means "independent" as in "independent from a major publisher" the same a with indie music and indie films being independent of a major record label and film studio respectively. If you mean "low budget" then just say that - major publishers like Nintendo or Ubisoft can still do low budget games.

Yes the tone is different with Yakuza and Shenmue but they're both massively about exploring the town you're in and getting really familiar with it until it feels like a real place to you. They're both very character focused. They both typically have stories based on getting revenge for something (a classic martial arts movie trope). In Yakuza you could spend hours playing darts and Virtua Fighter before doing some karaoke. It's not just constant fighting. Even the style of combat is similar, very martial arts movie style, very arcadey - Shenmue combat was modified Virtua Fighter.

@Matroska So, i can't agree. There really isn't much exploring you need to do with Yakuza. You don't really get to talk to the locals. They are either unvoiced strangers you can't interact with or a quest giver that triggers a cut-scene.
In Shemue you are looking for clues on how to progress and you talk to them (just about anyone you can find) and you can ask them questions on each part of the story you are on and can even get to know them and their grievances and what they are doing. They are doing different things depending on the time of the day. It's a more involved and realistic experience.
We are talking about how these games progress on the critical path. Arcades are side activities on both that are optional.

So, you are making the argument that cause Yakuza has arcades side activities with virtua fighter and shenmue combat derived from virtua fighter back in the first game they are the same kind of game even though you progress on a totally different way?
I dunno what to tell you. I can't go along with that.
Look there are similarities in look and that is because of the setting and the semi-realistic portrayal of the setting. But the games are really not the same. Yakuza is way more arcadey indeed and now more turn based. The focus is on the combat and the story. Shemue has always been a game where you interact with the environment and a life sim. Combat is less the main focus of it but just a part of it. You have to explore and interact with the environment and people to find a way to progress while managing your time schedule and daily activities. That is the main game. Action scenes are way less often than they are in Yakuza.
They really are not the same type of game experience. If you played them you should know this.