Shenmue 3

 How i play: Shenmue 3

Shenmue 3. What a game to introduce my new habit to the world. Most people have had their say about this game.. (that's probably a statement that's true of all the games I intend to write about. But this game is peculiar because its not hugely contentious in the world. We all agree that its dated, Slightly shocking and likely a franchise killer.

Having said that... How did I play it?

To start, it was with great anticipation and surprise. I am the kind of person who wont pay to be the first to play something... I will keep my eye on a game and if enough time as passed, i keep my ears plugged as so i can enjoy it based on my own reactions. It was difficult to do with this game, though, probably due to the level of anticipation felt by each fan of Shenume and Shenmue 2. That said, i still managed to ignore why people found Shenmue 3 so irritating.

Shenmue 3 actually had me laughing over the starting line with the dialogue between the two protagonists, Shenhua and Ryo. I thought... "Woohoo, they've given me the next installment of the series that feels such like the older games that there doesn't seem to be any transition issues." 

This soon turned into "boohoo-they've not improved the way you play through this story one bit in fifteen years."

This became a personal challenge. Could i still employ the patience i must've had, half my life ago when i completed Shenmue 2? 

Well I did complete the game. The story side of it, at least. There are a lot of things that challenged my patience. One of them being:

That clock. Fuck me, that clock. Having story prompts happen at a certain time of Ryo's day is quite irksome. There isn't any realistic or sensible transition between beats of the story. This results in the game feeling incredibly real; But not the "real" you look for in a videogame: distractions, excitement, doing something you'd never do in your own life. Instead it fills you with reminders of real suffering and drudgery; like not knowing how to pass the time or like life can be repetitive. Interesting thing to play through to say the least. 

I found that my response to this was to develop a routine for my main protagonist. Kung fu training first thing, then 4 to 6 hours of work, then questing/getting through the story from about 1800. You should have seen it. Ryo was so mentally well looked after with a great routine, working on his on body and his bank account, all the while looking for some girl's dad. So over a 24hr clock; Ryo is awake 13 hours.... 9 hours of my time are spent mini gaming and <4 hours are spent on story.

As a result of this graft... I was amazing at Kung fu...but would still have to retry fights as combat is genuinely glitchy.

I had a steady income... but id always have to graft harder in order for Ryo to advance the story wherein he'd have to buy something expensive.

I suppose the game is giving me a reason to play it, but when ive been such a good boy anyway, where's my reward?!

I guess its not such a bad thing that a game wants you to play with it. But this game became like my cat. Constantly making nonsense prompts at me (that for some reason i understand) to do things that interrupt my gaming flow. Like Feeding Ryo just for running around a city looking for things, getting lost and playing "one shot". I thought that if you had to feed your character in a game you were playing it was wither a survival horror you were playing... or a Tamagochi. I guess Shenmue 3 is a very advanced Tamagochi. 

After enough time in this world i became impatient to indulge any side hustles the game offers you... I didn't top any fighting rank in any way. I didn't indulge gambling any more than i had to, I didn't go out of my way to be the best fisherman, and i ate the food that was most HP intensive for the money, resulting in Ryo having foul breath(black garlic and cabbage) or just a growing waste (steam buns/cakes). 

I basically searched for every story hoop you're expected to jump through and give each one a big run up just to make sure i finish this.

I'm not going to talk about how the game ends. As a game ending it is awful. As a visual piece... It'd do well melted on toast or enjoyed with crackers.

But my adventure is over and i can safely say... I finished Shenmue 3. A story that i've anticipated so heavily for around half my life. I honestly thought they'd have made a better game to play. Although i truly support the direction taken with dialogue. It really brought intrigue and more importantly: Hilarity.