Still pushing ahead, the Shenmue 3 team recently released their fourth developer progress report highlighting a rapid improvement to character facial animations. Emotion is the key!
With Shenmue 3 having been in development for a couple of years now, many were surprised to see the hugely anticipated official trailer feature a severe lack of personality from its characters.
The problem is that things still look pretty rough around the edges. Somewhat reminiscent of The Elder Scrolls' Gamebyro engine days, it looks like the Shunmue 3 devs have either jumped the ship yet again, or are taking this on in a very different direction than decades of eager players would hope.
To add insult to injury, Shenmue 3 almost wasn't going to be open world
Just before skipping out on E3, Shenmue 3 was delayed into the second half of 2018
After all that fighting, Yu Suzuki was given back the Shenmue licence to carry on the series that put him on the map. Sadly, we can imagine some are now a little nervous as to what they've caused. The game will still sell in droves, that's for sure; but a poor quality product after all this time could mean all that campaigning, wishing and hoping did more harm than good.
Things are still pretty static and likely subject to major change before release, but right now Shenmue 3 isn't looking like the dream project many were anticipating during that long-awaited revival announcement. Whether it's a stylisitic choice or not, there's some ways to go yet.
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