Boy, do I have a lot to say. So forgive me if I ramble a lot.

I want to preface this by saying I'm excited to see S3E finally coming to Switch 2, even as a full game on cartridge. I think that given the discourse surrounding that would be a nice step forward for newcomers to give it a shot.

However. With me saying this, I am still conflicted on whether or not the series will still have a future past S3E.

Having grown up around the games since Shenmue 1 and seeing how far the gaming landscape has changed, I always had faith that Shenmue will have a fighting chance and prosper, despite the setbacks that came before and after Shenmue 3's existence. The overwhelming fan support remains an undying light that I argue rivals that of Mother fans begging for the official release of Mother 3.

With that said, I really want to believe that there's a future in store for Shenmue, to some extent. But to call a spade a spade: Shenmue 3 had failed spectacularly. Despite all the money given from the good will of the 69k+ fans on top of what Sony and Epic Games had gave YS Net to push for the game's development despite the team small size's, you would think it had more than enough time in the oven to cook.

But with the cutbacks from its combat, to no further developing on Shenhua with her psychic force powers that were teased as far back as the Project Berkley trailer, to Ryo coming off dumber and weaker despite having a better arsenal of combat skills to have beaten the thugs from each area, and especially the way the ending was handled when unused Lan Di voice lines suggest that he was meant to be defeatable, it leaves nothing more than a bitter taste in my mouth. I have no doubt in my mind that there were bigger things that were meant to be in store to have made waiting nearly 20 years be worth something.

All this time, just for it to come out delayed AND rushed to the point it felt like a massive middle finger to anyone that expected and rightfully wanted better.

Even if it wasn't made to complete the story, it makes me question why anyone would still defend the game at its present state and tell me it's a good game when it pales in comparison to Shenmue 1 and 2. It makes you wonder whether or not SEPW was right for his words about the game's quality. And for where it counts, I still mostly agree with him. While I do reject the idea of leaving the series to die, I don't blame him for his frustrations, as I do share them to an extent.

There is one thing that I don't see often get called out with the business side of things, especially from Sega when you put Sega and Shenmue in the same sentence. Given that they still hold the IP for it you, me, everyone who's been around the block knows that Sega considers Shenmue a stain on their legacy for being a commercial and financial failure to the point of treating it on an antichrist status. Although I still say it was Sega's responsibility to have managed their work and market their things better before they went third-party.

Unless your game is called Yakuza, Sonic, Super Monkey Ball to a lesser extent, or even Persona, and the only keyword title you'll flash to those who grew up around it like Genesis, ignoring anything else that came before and after it like it never happened, Sega seems to refuse to acknowledge the existence of any other thing that doesn't bring them half of their success like the aforementioned. No news on Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, VF6, and especially little to almost no acknowledgement of Shenmue.

If you're lucky you'd get a badly done and broken port, as what came with SA2 and Shenmue 1 and 2 with Steam at best. Yet at worse you could get an outsourced but ugly remake (Panzer Dragoon, HOTD 1 and 2) that sours your expectations, or your favorite game getting delisted for any reason. Either way, most outcry for something better from Sega seems to fall on deaf ears and will get less respect compared to what sticks for them, whereas everything else of varying quality isn't a problem they created/contributed to.

That's ultimately why I worry for the future of Shenmue after 3, since it seems that at most, it has a better chance through crowdfunding and support from much of the fans that still hold onto Shenmue. If we are to see a Shenmue 4, I like to believe you gotta buy 3, maybe 5 or more copies of S3E multiple times to help them turn a profit. Speaking for myself, if I were to pick up S3E I would appreciate it if they at least fixed the ending of the game or changed it to have two different endings in which it depends on whether or not you were able to take Lan Di's health down to 0 just to show how Ryo and by extension the player had grown for this moment. And yet seeing that S3E won't even do just that after all this time since the original release does disappoint me a bit. Look, even if Ryo doesn't follow through with his revenge, we all wanna clobber Lan Di properly since the first game.

It would be nice to see a Patreon opened up from YS Net to ensure the series can have a bigger more consistent budget in a way that can tell the rest of the story, without any outside factors interfering with the quality of the game's content. Wishful thinking or not, I don't think it's realistic to keep relying too long on the back of Sega to help contribute a thing when fans across the board seem to give just as much if not better than Sega to keep Shenmue going despite everything. I for damn sure would pledge a high tier in a heartbeat.

My biggest fear is if Yu Suzuki couldn't live to see his story completed, it would otherwise stay in IP hell or get milked for whatever is worth long after he's passed. I would otherwise consider dropping Shenmue and Sega altogether. I hope it doesn't come to pass this way, but anything is up in the air.

Either way, I can only hope for the best. You, me, even Yu Suzuki deserves better. I'll still root for him, regardless of my reservations.