Shenmue III has linked health and stamina systems, so if you want to do anything quickly you best make sure you’re stocked up on food.Īs if making sure you don’t die of exhaustion from running down a short path wasn’t baffling enough, the rest of the game’s systems are similarly time-honoured. Anything more than a leisurely pace will put a serious drain on your health. It’s not like you can pick up the pace too much either. This makes simply exploring the village of Bailu and, later, the port city of Niaowu, a chore. Ryo is stiff and stilted, his movements laboured and limited. Simply navigating the world feels more akin to driving a forklift truck - irony very much intended - than walking the streets as a living, breathing, human. Well, that and it’s overall moth-eaten feeling. In fact, the only thing consistent about Shenmue III is how inconsistent it is. It’s clear that the developer wanted to have some fun with these characters, but everything about them is so maddeningly inconsistent. The English voice acting is completely confused, with voices often not even close to matching faces most of the time only serving heighten the game’s unintentionally farcical nature. A collection of flirts, drunks and assorted weirdos that sound just as odd as they look. The world is populated by rubbery, anime sea-front caricatures of people. The rest of the characters don’t fare too well either. His deadpan delivery causing some accidental laughs is one of our hero’s few redeeming features. Dead behind the eyes and with all the expressiveness of a plank of wood, he lacks the kind of charisma and charm expected from the protagonist of the kind of martial arts epic that Shenmue III looks to emulate. Still, the transition to modern consoles seems to have stripped the character of his remaining personality. He’s an OK-looking, less polygonal version of his original incarnation (something that can be said for everyone else in the game too).
Faring serviceably in cutscenes, the transition to gameplay is harsh, with blurred, muddy, and generation (or two) old textures plaguing every flat surface - something that is especially highlighted in indoor areas, or when scouring areas for clues.Įven Ryo himself looks out of place. Looking into the horizon will occasionally offer up a picture postcard view of China, but in motion it leaves a lot to be desired. The visuals offer up something resembling a modern Dreamcast game, smoothed out with a thick Vaseline-like sheen and a basic lighting engine. Graphically and gameplay-wise, it pales in comparison to anything else released this year, and perhaps anything released in the last decade.
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