Shenmue 3

Several comments on the KS page lamenting the lack of tiers so there are like-minded people.

If at least Sony would wake up and contribute to getting physical copies for the PS4, the pledges would be through the roof.

I only have to wonder if Sony intend to release the game in a physical format after the KS ...

Same, I might up my pledge to the 100$ mark but....it's a shame there's no physical copy. I'm not the biggest Shenmue fan, but I have friends who are dying over this game.

Hell, I'm a huge Shenmue fan and I've played it last year for the first time!

Although the translation stretch goals were somewhat laughable(sort of... it's not like proper translations take no effort/money), beyond that... I mean, what sort of stretch goals are you hoping for? This isn't Bloodstained. Any development time that's spent on stuff other than the main thrust of the game is development time wasted. The game is likely going to be taking place entirely within Baisha Village. What else should they be doing with funding other than making that area as detailed and involving as they can? Extra modes of play would be pointless, and would probably piss the fanbase off. Extra characters? Not feasible for this game. Extra areas beyond what's already planned? Would water down the experience.

Shenmue has always been about depth, not breadth. That's not something that lends itself to exciting stretch goals.

It's Shenmue.  Those are pretty much guaranteed to be part of the basic deal.  Shenmue pretty much pioneered all that stuff.  It would be like Bloodstained doing stretch goals like "jumping"  "secondary attack skills," and "supernatural elements."

Except the ports to other systems, and I think that's an unrealistic expectation of a project being partially or even primarily funded by Sony.  Like I said on Reddit, we'll see Shenmue 3 on systems like the Xbox One when we see Halo 5 on the PS4.  Or to put it in a closer comparison, when we see Bayonetta 2 on anything other than the Wii U.

I can't imagine Shenmue not having an orchestra, but I suppose we'll find out more since Yu is coming onto Reddit to answer questions today sometime.  As for physical copies, yeah, I'd like that as well.  I would be interested in knowing why there won't be a physical console release, but they sounded like the decision was pretty final.

Okay, so I've been defending Shenmue and its Kickstarter on two threads here, and I stand by what I've said. But if you ask me if - as someone who never played the original 2 two games - it would be worth backing sight unseen... that's really hard to answer definitively. The original was a landmark game, setting records and establishing conventions that we still see in games today. It had such high production values that it is still a fairly good looking game 16 years later(though the movement controls are rather clunky due to the Dreamcast only having a single analog stick). The music is amazing, the immersion is overwhelming, and the level of detail that went into the neighborhoods the game takes place in is still unmatched by any game I've encountered.

But.

We are talking about a story that started 16 years ago. If you didn't play the games back then, it won't be quite as meaningful to you as it is to me. Part of the sheer fervor behind this Kickstarter stems not so much from nostalgia(because I do think that the game holds up really well, awkward controls aside), but from a decade and a half of expectation. Shenmue is kind of the Lord of the Rings of open city games, and like LotR, a lot has come after that have taken various aspects of its design and refined them. There is no replacement for Shenmue. Nothing has come since that has accomplished all the things that Shenmue did. But how much that matters to people that can play games that did improve on some aspects of its design isn't something I'm capable of predicting.

Ultimately, if you decide you want to back Shenmue 3, what you are doing is committing to playing two old games if you want to get the most out of the experience. Maybe that appeals to you after the things I've said about them. Maybe, like with many younger fantasy fans and LotR, the original isn't that important to you because many of the things it set up have been done many times over in faster paced works that followed it. Because make no mistake: Shenmue is not a fast paced game. It focuses more on immersion than on fast paced storytelling and action. Advancing the actual plot is more about hunting down people and following clues than it is beating enemies. It's as much a life simulator as an RPG.

I guess what I'm saying is that you should find out for yourself if Shenmue is the sort of game you're interested in. Buying the disc is going to be a bit pricey, but at least checking out a Let's Play might be a good start.

Lol, I WISH Shenmue 1 was English subs only, but no, it's full English dubbing. It's hilarious at some points.