Shenmue III (3) - Our Review Of A Long-Awaited Sequel

Shenmue is a unique gaming experience in the fact that it is very different from the typical games of today.
It delivers an experience based on Martial Arts, revenge, love, despair and desire. It heavily focuses on the Asian cultures of which most of it is often either based in China and/or Hong Kong.
Sadly, perhaps due to this Shenmue II sold rather poorly and thus for a massive 18 long years the whole series was left on a cliffhanger, with no mention of another game to help give it closure in sight, this obviously left a lot of fans ourselves included with a somewhat disappointing feeling and taste in our mouths.
However, thankfully after a long wait and a lot of faith and hope a third Shenmue game was indeed announced, though it needed to be backed by fans in order to actually happen.

Shenmue III feels very nostalgic in both it’s story and gameplay. Nothing much has changed compared to its predecessors and we are alright with this. Shenmue is known for its very linear story telling and was perhaps the game that invented the whole QTE system.
Even the combat style hasn’t changed much and is still heavily focused on its rather clunky but easy to follow mechanics.
We are not trying to put off Shenmue III in the slightest and we love the whole nostalgic feel, however 18 years is a long time to wait for a follow up and during that time life and games have changed a lot, thus the feeling of perhaps these very similar mechanics of back then are perhaps just a little too old now to compete with the games of today?

There are some nice add-ons to the game though in the way of optional side quests to complete and the ability to play with either Japanese or English voice actors. None of which where available back in the day.
There are also many Easter eggs within the game too, which will no doubt please older fans of the series.

Sadly though the game is not without its flaws and that is the fact that, the overall story seems rather boring and did not offer the conclusion one had perhaps hoped for. Also, the ending felt very rushed and poorly executed too.

**OVERALL:**

For a game that was never going to happen without the fans backing we can look past some of the flaws in which this game unfortunately has.
However, we are still disappointed that we where not given the conclusion we expected and wanted for a series that has taken a long time to come to this point.
Also, as we have already mentioned though we respect the whole nostalgic appeal that this game has, is it enough to compete with games of today? We are unsure as due to this none of it feels new or different any more and thus a lot of the enjoyment comes from the story and characters instead, and as already been mentioned the story is very rushed during the later parts and it is very short.

We are glad to see such an underrated gem make a return but at the same time, due to how long it has been we also would of preferred a proper conclusion too.

Developer: Ys Net / Publisher: Deep Silver
Release Date: November 19th 2019
Platforms: PS4, PC
Genre: Action Adventure
Main Story Length: 5-6 Hours
Platinum Trophy Length:
Platform Reviewed On: PS4 Pro
Overall Rating: 2/5

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Selphie1999Gaming

Admin at Selphie1999Gaming

The owner of Selphie1999Gaming.com.
Has been playing video games for her entire life so far. Grew up with the Sega Master System II. Her favourite games include both Resident Evil 2 (OG) and Final Fantasy VIII.
She now writes articles about video games.

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