It hasn't been long since we had the chance to relive the deep emotions of the first two Shenmue thanks to Remastered di SEGA.
Even today, the release of Shenmue III: no one in fact expected that Yu Suzuki would go back to get my hands on this jewel released at the time of Dreamcast.
However, we must admit that the title has never taken off, compared to perhaps others of his "derivatives”Like the series of Yakuza. To find a part of "success", the brand had to overcome a mountain full of obstacles, and despite everything, it is still a title dedicated to only one niche of players.
But we want to make one Premise before entering the I live from the review: the title is primarily intended for fans of old date, to those today looking for those historical mechanics that don't cling to modern technicalities, but with their (very slow) times they manage to excite thanks to a story gentle e poetic.
Where were we?
The story picks up right where the second chapter left off, inside that cave where Ryo Hazuki e Ling Shenhua have been waiting for the player to return for a long time.
The two are still looking for the killer of their father Ryo, and the first thing they come across when they reach the end of the cave is the presence of two big symbols, one dedicated to a Fenice and the other to a Dragon.
All this leads us to think that the protagonist is on the right path to find the culprit and that someone inside the village Bailu may know the key to unraveling this mystery.
During several dialogues with the villagers, we learn that the father of Ling Shenhua misses the appeal. In fact, he was mysteriously captured by a group of "thugs”Who invaded the village during their absence.
The starting point
Our first task is to reveal who kidnapped him sculptor, as it is an important piece to understand the mystery that grips Ryo. From here a sequence of situations will start, which will engage us in very long dialogues, before reaching the real action of Shenmue III.
History will take its time for catch on. The first fifteen hours are all devoted almost exclusively toscouting, To dialogues and to some mini-games present in the village of Bailu.
The fights are infrequent and this makes the whole continuation of the narrative very "frustrating”For those who have not lived through the Shenmue era and are not used to a title that is taken his times to tell everything you need to fully enjoy the plot.
Rather slow rhythms
A compromise to fully enjoy the Shenmue experience is to get used to long journeys from point A to point B, because it will be the basic mechanics on which the entire title moves. Moreover, it will also be necessary to deal with dialogues dishes e monotonous, and often also repetitivei.
The fights, when present, are a lot woody e lenses, also due to a not exactly flawless animation sector, which almost winks at a production of two generations ago.
The clashes are slow, as mentioned before: the character will not be quite fast during the fight and often this will boil down to very short combos, which can be extended a little by buying of the others.
As far as the mini-games break the monotony at Shenmue III, the slowness of the title destroys any attempt to approach the game by a young person who has never livedepic of the Dreamcast.
The controls are slow and woody; every action takes time because of the slow movements e awkward of the polygonal model. The rhythm of the narrative does not help, and often forces the player to avoid every approach with the NPCs present in the area. Often talking to these will be safely avoidable.
THEunique emotion of Shenmue is still present, the same as when we played the first two chapters, unaware of a possible third return of Ryo Hazuki. The music and settings make the title of Yu Suzuki be something only and "intimate“, Which is aimed only at one niche of gamers.
The ending of the game does not close completely the events of the series, or rather, it launches the foundations to be able to develop a fourth chapter of the game.
Despite everything, we can confirm that they will come answers several questions left on hold for some time, leaving one imprinted in the heart of every player story full of twists unexpected.
Technically not the best
To fully explore the title you need to take it a lot of time, about forty hours will not be enough to discover everything there is production can offer.
Il time it is also a fundamental element of the game: we will understand how the people of the village their habits change and that some actions can lead us to discover one secondary mission that we didn't think could exist in the slightest.
The rhythm slow e soporific leads the player to always explore far and wide same areas, face the same dialogues and thus making his own grow knowledge of what surrounds us.
The English dub seemed too subdued, especially for Ryo, which often has somewhat irritating shades.
Therefore, we advise you to savor the title with the Japanese dubbing; although this is not of high quality, it manages to accompany the gamer with a more engaging audio sector and consistent with the characters played.
The title was created with theU, but this has not been properly exploited: the polygonal models are unfortunately very "simple"And many times accompanied by low quality texture, treated marginally.
The settings are flat e devoid of details, so much so that they often repeat themselves in larger areas. The only areas most inspired are those of the gods villages, where we can see that greater care has been taken to convey the non-Japanese belonging compared to previous chapters.
In conclusion
It is undeniable that Shenmue III is an intended title for a few, and unfortunately it is unacceptable that a technical sector has been proposed not up to par with the technologies of our times. We would have expected one greater care for animations, which turn out to be too much lens e surreal, and that make the gaming experience a lot frustrating.
The narrative leads to gods important implications for those who have followed the adventures of Ryo, and will surely be fascinated by it. For those who are approaching the series for the first time, they will be able to find difficult follow the story - especially for the references to the previous chapters - but above all too slow to get to the heart of the action.
Finally, we believe that the Team at Yu Suzuki could have dared more to donate to Shenmue III the right success that he deserved.
