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Shenmue 3: The changes it needs 15 years on
“Do you know where I can find some sailors?”
Shenmue 3
© Ys Net
This year’s E3 expo was remarkable for many reasons: it marked the resurgence of Xbox One under the guidance of Phil Spencer, saw the reappearance of the Last Guardian, and reduced grown women and men to simpering puddles of spiky hairgel at news of a Final Fantasy VII remake (maybe that was just us). Perhaps most stunning of all though was the fact that a Kickstarter project proved to be the highlight of the entire convention: legendary game developer Yu Suzuki took the stage at Sony’s PlayStation keynote to announce plans for Shenmue 3, the next instalment in his ambitious open world Quick Time Event simulator.
It’s not just any Kickstarter, however: this is the game fans have waited more than a decade for news of, ever since Sega yanked the power cable out of the Dreamcast and the company’s time as a hardware manufacturer. As if to prove the point that Sega has been sitting on a keycard for the easy-money-printing-machine all this time, Shenmue 3 immediately went on to become the most funded game project in Kickstarter history, raising a staggering $6,333,295 in a month.
The game is not due out until 2017 at the earliest, but we’ve been playing through the original Shenmue titles to see how Ryo would fare in today’s cutthroat games industry. Suzuki upended gaming conventions at the end of last century with the blockbuster series, but neither Shenmue 1 nor 2 has aged all that well, especially compared to other Sega titles of the time, such as Jet Set Radio. With that in mind, we’ve drawn up our list of what changes need to be made for Shenmue 3 to succeed.
Not a bigger world, but a better one
Suzuki’s renderings of quiet, suburban Japan and glittering, tumultuous Hong Kong blew Dreamcast gamers away. They were sprawling. They weren’t exactly lifelike – hopefully not too many players have seen their fathers murdered in front of them by evil kung fu masters – but they were naturalistic. You could idle away time in a cafe, learn Tai Chi from a pensioner in the park or throw money down the drain on toy capsules from vending machines. Most importantly, you could talk to anyone, and they’d engage you in conversation, countless hours of scripted and recorded audio.
Grand Theft Auto 3 would soon redefine open world gaming; by today’s standards (Just Cause 2’s map measures over 400 square miles) Yokosuka and Kowloon seem cramped and empty. But Suzuki would be unwise to attempt to match Rockstar and Avalanche Studios for scope: on what is likely a much smaller budget than either previous Shenmue game was made for (not even adjusting for inflation), Shenmue 3 simply couldn’t compete. Much better to concentrate on filling a few small areas with life, and even more of it; thankfully, Suzuki’s studio Ys Net appears to be planning on doing just that, announcing only three Chinese villages as locations for the game. Keep it small, and keep it packed.
People should lie to you
While many remember the original Shenmue games for the onerous 9 til’ 5 jobs you were forced to grit your teeth through for a meagre salary (carrying boxes, running Lucky Hit stands, dusting down books), Ryo actually spends much of his time playing detective, running down clues and jotting down childish notes in his memopad. Sadly, anybody you ask will either immediately tell you what you need to know, or shrug and wander off after a few pleasantries. We can’t help but wonder what a new Shenmue would play like with a bit of L.A. Noire’s face scanning and reading thrown in. Should you believe that shifty looking fellow who can’t be bothered to wear a shirt when he tells you that what you’re looking for is down that alley there? What about the amenable old lady in the bookshop? Are those frown lines or LIE LINES? Graphics have come a long way since the days of the Dreamcast – we’d love to see people’s responses, tics and tells actually differ from the answers they give you.
Forklift truck racing needs to return
Suzuki may have been the creator of Out Run, but his greatest racing game ever is this mini game from the original Shenmue. It’s just a shame that each race is followed by several hours of tedious virtual labour in a dockside warehouse.
Quick time events need to go
For all Suzuki’s claims of verisimilitude, Shenmue took the easy way out of recreating some of what should have been the series’ most thrilling sequences – mad dashes through packed markets, fights against insurmountable numbers of thugs – by relegating them to pathetic timed button inputs or “Quick Time Events”. The QTE would go on to become Shenmue’s biggest and most nefarious impact on the games industry, so Suzuki has a lot to answer for in Shenmue 3. We’d like to see QTEs sidelined entirely, with action kept in your control throughout, in much the same way Naughty Dog has pledged for Uncharted 4.
An in-game Dreamcast to play
You could play Hang-On, a classic Sega arcade game, at the arcade in Dobuita, so it only makes sense that you be allowed to play more retro games from the company this time round. We’re thinking a few Dreamcast titles thrown in would prove a suitable apology from Sega for making us wait all these years: we’d love to take Shenhua on in a bit of in-game ChuChu Rocket! or Virtua Tennis (or if you want to get particularly meta, Shenmue 1 and 2). Never mind that the game is set in 1987 and that this would be a jarring anachronox; it’s the only honourable thing to do.
No cliffhanger this time
What made the gut punch to Ryo at the end of Shenmue 2 hurt so much was the lack of closure. Spoiler alert: after the briefest of glimpses of Lan Di, the series’ antagonist, it was all over. Suzuki always intended Shenmue to run for a dozen or so chapters, of which the original two games comprised the first five, so there’s much more of the story still to be told.
Not wishing to sound like overly-entitled Kickstarter backers, let’s be clear: this cannot happen again. Kickstarter has helped fund some incredible games that otherwise would never have existed, but it’s also seen its fair share of implosions, as developers have struggled to complete their games under the surprising weight of transparency to backers. If the project fails or Shenmue 3 does not provide the return on investment Sony are looking for, there’s every chance we’ll never see Shenmue 4, with no hope of a return in another 15 years. This time, Suzuki needs to provide satisfaction and a complete, bookended story, not to mention the chance to punch Lan Di in his stupid, smug, ponytailed face.
And one thing that should never change... Ryo’s breathtaking egotism
Ryo clearly means well – he will intervene whenever a group of feral youths are bullying a child – but his father did not teach him manners, or instill in him a sense of self-deprecation and modesty. The world of Shenmue revolves entirely around him; when Ryo asks someone if he can use their phone and is politely told it is broken, he interrupts to demand when it will be fixed. Master Hazuki will quite happily spend the night at a motel with absolutely no intention of paying, then do it again; he’s got a dad to avenge, after all, so stuff your need to put bread on the table.
Then of course there’s those elusive sailors. Much of the humour in Shenmue comes from Ryo’s naivety – as does his selfishness – so it would be a shame for Shenmue 3 to lose this with knowing asides and clued-in quips. At least based on the first trailer for the new title, it look likes there’s no danger of that: when Shenhua asks dour Ryo if he can jump, he simply replies “Yes.” Gamers have grown up since Shenmue, but we certainly hope Ryo hasn’t.
