Where's shenmue 3?....ONLINE!

BlitzKrieg

bit of old news but didnt see any mention of it here.


Started playing the two shenmues again and i got curious to what happened to the third game (which was rumoured to have been canned since 2003) a quick search showed this:

http://www.planetxbox.com/shenmuedojo/shen...e_preview.shtml


two things caught me on this.


one...is the trailer for it. which worries me because it seems to have stuffed the original shenmue concepts up its own arse. (more on this in rant)

two...Sega seems to be out for blood in getting a corner in the market of mmorpgs. They are also developing matrix online and have the first handheld mmorpg on the n-gage with pocket kingdoms. They were (before it was canned) invovled in the warhammer mmorpg. Not to mention phantasy star online.


Now my rant:


I love the shenmue games. Yes they can be horribly tedious at points but the story and characters were amazing and the combination of beat em up and rpg worked brilliantly. My main complaints was that you never got enough chances to show off the skills you learned. And admittadly the early part of shenmue 2 when you had to work to keep your room (or so i thought before i learned he just put it on a bill)

anyway when i first saw mention of a online shenmue game. I pictured the worlds first mmorpg beat em up. Go into the world and take quests under different masters of martial arts and develop your own style of fighting (in shenmue you could change what move some of the combinations tweaking it to your own fight style. expand on this for mmorpg). Visions of a mmorpg which was based in a real world system. Requiring you did a small part time job (or gambled or street fought) to pay rent and then going off on quests and deciding whether to stick to your masters strict code or become a thug (or better work for lan di).

It could be the MMORPG all those who couldnt stand elves and jedis were waiting for. Where you didnt have to look up your mana, force or psi powers, you looked up how strong you were. And even better it would be suited for a console release cause everybody knows beat em ups work better on consoles.

I saw they ardvertised a trailer on the website so i downloaded it. A FMV which seemed similar to the deus ex 2 intro in style. Its Lan Di and all the agent extra's from the matrix versus Ryo on his own on a roof top. O...K. Hong Kong no longer looks like the dirty 1980s version from shenmue 2. Its all clean and hi tech, then all your self made characters are introduced...in a very matrix fashion (slight gritting of the teeth here) diving in at the last moment to save ryo, another extra...this time from the final fantasy games stands up (teeth break here). A large number of players face of against lan di and his goons. Then they all decide to perform the ?kameha? attack from dragon ball z. (lower jaw pierces skull here) HUGE EXPLOSION...and SHENMUE ONLINE APPEARS.

i sit there shocked. Instead of being unique in the mmorpg scene shenmue online now seems to be some bizarre offspring of final fantasy and the matrix. to make matters worse the system (once i read up on it) is very typical. 3 classes, close range fist fighters, weapon specialists, and magic users of some kind. how annoyingly predictable. The relevence to the original shenmue's concept seems to go only as far as the name. The original shenmue was the *virtua fighter RPG* not some stupid rpg with dragonball z style power moves and big explosions. I WANT BONE CRUNCHING KNEE CAPPING STREET VIOLENCE. I WANT LEVEL 20 TELLING ME
I CAN NOW BREAK PEOPLES NECKS...NOT FIREBALLS FROM MY ANUS...I CAN DO THAT IN REAL LIFE WITH TEN PINTS OF VODKA 2 TINS OF BEANS AND A LIGHTER! what i cant do is kill someone with my little finger...but i would like to.

When MMORPGS first appeared I thought the idea was amazing. This great chance for players to create their own stories and adventures. But now since the success of everquest and World of Warcraft game designers seem to to think there is a set formula to a massive multiplayer and are cautious to step outside the box. Oh how my blood boils, mmorpgs should offer EACH a unique experiance and freedoms, not all be about leveling up and killing the same monster over and over for that one elusive super sword/gun/flavoured condom. I wanted to get into WOW, everyone told me it is so amazing, but i read up on it and it just looks like to me (and i could be wrong) a really well polished and crafted product of these rules. I wanted it to be something i could only ever find in the warcraft universe.

But what i am asking is impossible. the reason being that in any other form mmo games would be unbalanced or unworkable with 1000 of players. Maybe. But could someone at least try. I commend the following two groups. ww2online and Engima: Rising Tide. At least they are being different. They are not without their faults. But at least they are unique.

So in conclusion, Shenmue which tried its most to be a wholly unique game in a flood of mass produced crap (1999...the rise of EA) has castrated itself into becoming a cliched MMORPG.





Blitz's top 3 advice for MMO's FOR SEGA LICENCES

number 3: ALL OF SEGA'S RACING GAMES in a persistent world: Make money buy and tune your cars and then drive them wrecklessly in SEGA RALLY, or DAYTONA USA, or challange a friend cross america in a OUTRUN race. choose whether to be a gran turismo style perfectinist, or a sega arcade driver (pay other players to tune your car)


NUMBER 2: Sonic the hedgehog: A MMO game which is not complicated, which has an already creative fan base and is *god forbide* a platformer and therefore fast and fun...cool.



NUMBER 1: PANZER DRAGOON. THE best and imaginative world sega ever came up with. A flight simulator AND RPG. Raise your own dragon or worm creature thing or other flying beast. Or command imperial air ships. Add in exploring imperial cities, lost technology and mutated jungles. Sega this is a winner!

goodnight


-the comments of this rant are the comments of me, any comments which you felt were unfair or inaccurate please do not be afraid to tell me if it is in anyway sensible i will accept it or debate it. If it is a comment of *U SUC U N00B pwned by lvl 100* then please take a burning chopstick gouge your eyeballs out and let the nearest four legged beast skullf*ck you. thank you

ViperVenoM

i loved shenmue!!!! i still wait for the 3rd part...but that just sounds..wrong what they have done ... :mad: :mad: :mad: