Board 8 > Shenmue III. The story... *spoilers

(+) Yeah! (+)

goes on

Would have been fine if the story covered something at least but this was literally Filler: the game.

Ryo basically accomplished nothing except getting his ass kicked by Lan Di. Again. Hell he lost the Phoenix Mirror so instead of the plot advancing, it is set back even more.

Yes, Yu Suzuki envisioned a 5-6 part series back in the day so maybe this explains all the fillers and fetch quests-like segments.
But after all the time and funding it took for the 3rd game to finally get made, it is a giant middle finger to all the fans who have waited 18 years to get a conclusion to the series or at least any meaningful advancement of the plot. Instead now we have to hope the game sells well enough (which it isn't doing so) to get the 4th game.

And as for the gameplay. Hoo boy. Whoever thought it was a good idea to implement a horrible stamina system with constantly needing to eat and grind for money (jesus christ those two pay walls in both the areas to learn a new move) to pad out the game length unnecessarily should have been fired on the spot.

Can't get over how the game literally went backwards instead of forward with the plot from Shenmue II. Also literal zero character development for Ryo and Shenhua. If anything Ryo feels like a complete loser by the end of the game. Getting absolutely owned by forget Lan Di but those two thugs as well as all the masters he trains under.

The whole 20-30 hour game is basically a wild goose chase in Bailu village and then another city where only at the end you get to Shenhua's father with not a very satisfying payoff in the end anyways.

Also how the fuck did they manage to make the gameplay worse in almost every way than Shenmue II and even the first game? Combat becomes literally an R2 button masher (not even exaggerating) and also the developers completely forgot to add quick travel in the noticeably bigger 2nd area.

I don't think Suzuki is gonna get lucky with another crowdfunded project after this debacle. So imagining a future Shenmue IV is looking like a long stretch at this point. So the story goes on.... with no conclusion is what we Shenmue fans ultimately get. Nice.