There are games that are capable of time travel and others that exist only at a certain time in history. The first ones change with the years and absorb the time that passes by translating it into new mechanics, graphic evolutions and additional features. The latter are the glory of a generation, crystallized in that particular vintage and replayed through a nostalgic eye or revisited by some remake or remaster version. Then, there is Shenmue 3, a temporal anomaly.
A game that was supposed to come out 18 years ago but that came out today, in 2019, thanks to the great passion of its creator Yu Suzuki and the hopes (supported by a long crowdfunding campaign) of the game's fanbase. A victory, in many ways, since it doesn't happen every day that such an event occurs. Shenmue 3 is just the game it was meant to be, the perfect sequel to the second chapter released way back in 2001, as if the 18 years in between had never passed… unfortunately.
A long time ago, in a different gaming universe
Shenmue 3 starts slow, extremely slow, picking up right where the second episode left off. However, the excitement for that final cliffhanger has faded over time and this third chapter does absolutely nothing to rekindle the flame of curiosity in us. So what it was the incredible ending of one game becomes the banal beginning of another which takes us to a small martial arts village in the middle of China. She begins to investigate again, often in a rather clumsy and fortuitous way, about the various events that are upsetting the peaceful village of Bailu. You interact with the inhabitants and get lost among jobs, mini-games, gambling, searching for herbs, martial arts and chatter, lots of chatter. If you have played the previous chapters of the game you will immediately realize that nothing in the Shenmue formula has changed, but it's all still there as if the third episode of the series was released a few years after the second.
If you loved spending pennies to complete the capsule toy collections, if you liked to bet on cockroaches in gambling games, if you spent the days on the forklift (also inevitable in this third episode) you will find everything, along with a series of new activities. Researching herbs will be key to getting cash or trading full sets with vendors who will unlock new attacks for Ryo. Making money has always been one of the main objectives of the series and if you are looking for easy earnings you just have to embark on the mini-game to split wood or fish in the hope of bringing up some fish that can make you a lot of money. Present practically everywhere, including the mini-games to power up Ryo useful, spending a lot of time in them, to improve resistance and strength in attacks.
An ancient world
All this is surrounded by a setting that offers the sight of wonderful views, during the numerous daily walks. The village of Bailu itself is very interesting and looks like something straight out of a Chinese legend: lost in the mountains, built on the bank of a river and filled with places that exude Chinese tradition from every pixel. The architecture of the houses, the temples and their warrior monks or the statues of divinities massed outside the houses of the stonemasons (a profession that we will also have to investigate in the first part of the adventure). Niaowu instead, the city where the second part of the game takes place seems a much more real and even more engaging place. In this port locality, a huge variety of shops and symbols of progress await us, as if to underline the gap between the almost legendary flavor of the first place and the more modern one of the second. Also the NPCs that populate these locations are well characterized with personality and distinctive traits that increase the feeling of familiarity with the places, making every scenario alive and welcoming.
An immense world, therefore, full of things to do. One of those universes that you set out to chase a thug and then find yourself chopping wood, but only after training in new martial techniques, often having a few coins in Gachapon and listening to the chatter about the time of the old woman of the village. An exhilarating world, perhaps to the point where the main story is just a filler. Usually the opposite happens, but in Shenmue 3 it's the story that doesn't measure up to the rest. The plot continues very slowly, and requires you to move several times from one place to another just to get the protagonist a bit of extra information for his investigation. A heavy and forced mechanism in which the player almost always arrives at the solution of the case before the character.
For example, at the beginning of the adventure, it takes hours to find thugs or even just to make Ryo understand that they are targeting the stone masons of the village. We often find ourselves slowed down by the overly mechanical narrative processes of the game, seeing the characters think about really obvious things. In addition, many areas of the map remain blocked until the protagonist can understand the obvious, almost trapping the player in small locations with the same things to do. I admit that very often I found myself facing mini-games in order not to go on in the narrative, because throwing stones in a bucket to win prizes seemed more exciting than the numerous discounted dialogues I would have to go through. Ryo's empathy doesn't help either the situation is not at all: he is still that boring, woody and personalityless character we left 18 years ago, unable to show emotions for the story he is experiencing.
The past is a heavy burden
The narrative rhythm of Shenmue 3, however, is not the only aftermath that the title brings with it, there are also all those playful mechanisms of the past that are very heavy in a modern video game.
For example the vital bar of the protagonist who is discharged whatever Ryo does. A bar that pushes the player to explore as little as possible and go straight to what he considers the next step in the narrative. A mechanism that at times becomes really frustrating for a game that bases much of its beauty on exploration. The bar can be recharged by eating, but it requires constant attention from the player as it is discharged even while running (and you will have to run quite a bit as fast travel between the places visited can only be done at certain times).
At the level of dialogues it often happens to meet interesting, funny and nice characters who know how to entertain an argument. However, if by mistake you end up in a dialogue in which you did not want to enter, you have to put up with all the chatter of a given character again without the possibility of escape. And this situation often happens as Shenmue's gameplay requires you to bother all the citizens of the locations to get information. Furthermore, the dubbing of the characters often leaves something to be desired with emotionless intonations even in the most intense moments. Fortunately, the sound sector offers a perfect mix of pressing tunes and relaxing oriental motifs.
Just as it happened in the past, however, the element that most mortifies the gameplay of Shenmue 3 is the combat. Unfortunately, the key combinations do not flow well together and landing a move that requires a longer combination of 3 buttons becomes a real challenge. Also because during the fights Ryo is forcibly placed in a corner where it is really difficult to see what is around. In fights with multiple opponents this feeling of narrowness becomes even more frustrating as you are knocked down by kicks and punches without even knowing who delivered them.
By training in martial arts for a long time it is possible to overcome this rigid technical system, fighting problems with Ryo's increasing strength. But even spending hours training is a process that leads to boredom in the long run.
Final comment
Shenmue 3 is a game that lives on and in the past. An ancient title, one of those who no longer do, unfortunately and fortunately. One of those games imbued with a unique magic and perhaps for this reason difficult to understand. The settings created by Yu Suzuki are alive and are a joy to go through. The mini games of the title are varied and, although repetitive, are fun. The rest is a nostalgia pack put together by a development team that doesn't want to leave, or can't, let go of an era. Shenmue 3 has its novelties and its moments, but it is a game for which there is no more space in our videogame generation, if not in the heart of some enthusiast who is never tired of living in the past.
Game available on PS4 (tested) - Xbox One - PC
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