New Shenmue III Trailer & Logo Divides Opinion

Yeah, yeah. It's not really related to the Dreamcast anymore but here it is. Shenmue III's latest trailer. Apparently this is showing off some actual in engine footage which is...interesting. I mean, the locations look excellent - lots of lovely lighting effects, shadows and architecture as you'd expect. The music, too is as rousing and spine tingling as it ever has been. However, those character models look a bit basic don't you think? After two years of development time?


Again, these are early renders but the comments on the Shenmue III Kickstarter page show that people are divided not only by Ryo's altered look, but also the new logo. Some of the more negative include this from Phillip Zamora:

"While I can see your going for a somewhat cartoon look, the bad guy's face looks ridiculous & unrealistic for a human being. As well the new Shenmue logo looks less cool or professional than the original handwritten one."

And this from François Mahieu:

"The best decision now would probably be to cancel the project. Please leave us with our memories from the original Shenmue."

Although it's not all bad - far from it in fact - and lots of positive comments echo what Riled Up had to say on the progress thus far:

"The game really looks good. But you need an inteligent mind to see that. You could easily say no facial expression blabla. But that trailer is not intended to show that it is final."

Personally, I couldn't give a flying toss about either as long as it plays well when it lands in my PS4, and going off Yu Suzuki's back catalogue I don't think we have anything to worry about on that front. But what do you think about this new trailer and logo change? Sound off in the comments or in our Facebook group.

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6 comments:

Unknown said...

To be honest the logo really doesn't bother me. But those character models are pretty bad. Yeah it's just a teaser and we all know that probably won't be a final build but not a great first step. Does still have my interest though.

hoogafanter said...

Here's the thing about the logo... it alone doesn't bother me that much. It looks stupid but it's just a logo. What worried me is the quote on the kickstarter update from YS:

"I really wanted to bring home the Shenmue logo because this belongs to all of you, and I know how passionate everyone feels about it. As the result, I felt the design should come more from the heart. So, with more than a bit of trepidation, I took brush to hand. I believe we have reached a design that will please, but let me know what you think!"

HE ACTUALLY THINKS THAT MESS LOOKS GOOD! That is what scares me. YS may be losing his mind in his old age. As we discussed already, it's like he's going George Lucas on us...

But only time will tell, I'm not going to cancel any preorders over this :)

fatherkrishna said...

Let's look at this sensibly. For approximately 15 years, people including myself have yearned for more Shenmue. In those wilderness years, we scrabbled to find any positive news about Shenmue... it was going to be Shenmue 3, then Shenmue Online, then Shenmue the weird mobile phone app(?) Then nothing... for years! We would have KILLED for anything like what we see now! Yes, the character models look a bit cartoon-like (but would people say they were too realistic compared to their Dreamcast models if they were over-developed?) Yes, it could have been truer to the original and yes, the logo has changed, but COME ON PEOPLE! We've got a taste of Shenmue 3, something I had written off as never happening! It's a taste! Not the final recipe! Let's keep things in perspective! I'm excited! 😎

hoogafanter said...

Hell yeah, definitely pumped to see more!

Sean said...

It's an odd one where, everyones hankering for a proper looksee at the progress, but what they have isnt polished to the standard the gaming industry are used to seeing in a 'teaser trailer' and showing it off is potentially harmful. It is what it is though, a progress update video.

Keep in mind however a lot of this, is old footage, those high level kickstarter backers who had dinner with Yu saw 70% of this footage a year ago now. Those are still very early models and they took the facial animations out last mnute as a certain change made them bug out so the characters jaws were going up into their faces! I have full confidence all this will be improved upon.

The locations etc look stunning and thats no suprise given Kid Nocons involvement in that area, his fanmade shenmue HD vids showed he has skills!

The new logo is growing on me, it's weird though right, we had the logo originally with the KS, people called for the original shenmue logo we all know back. In a July update we got it, all was happy, thanks Yu. Then next month they decide to change it. Now I know Yu has stated his reasons for the change but I really cant help feeling, they put the OG logo up in haste and Sega said ah ah ah, that's our property! So they had to draw something up..

hoogafanter said...

Yeah I think you're right. That's the only way to explain why they would change the logo that nobody asked for...