Shenmue 3 is set to get an Enhanced edition, which will also see the game coming to Xbox and Nintendo platforms for the first time.
As announced by creator Yu Suzuki and publisher ININ Games, Shenmue 3 Enhanced will be officially unveiled at Gamescom this week, and will feature “overhauled visuals, performance boosts and quality-of-life updates”.
The enhanced version will be released on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store) and ‘Nintendo‘, though ININ has yet to specify whether this means Switch or Switch 2.
Players who already own the PS4 and PC versions of the game will be “offered an upgrade path” to the enhanced edition, ININ says.
New features planned for Shenmue 3 Enhanced include:
- Enhanced graphics and performance, with sharper textures, faster load times and smoother frame rate
- 4K “texture uplift” offering more refined and detailed environments and characters
- Support for DLSS and FSR upscaling
- An increase in the number of NPCs populating the village, to make it “feel more alive”
- A “Classic Camera Mode” inspired by Shenmue 1 and 2
- Gameplay tweaks including “optional stamina system adjustments, health restoration before fights and reduced money barriers for smoother progression”
- The ability to skip cutscenes and conversations, and an expanded QTE timing window
- Menu and UX enhancements
ININ says all the major changes which have been added to Shenmue 3 Enhanced can be turned off, should players prefer to play something closer to the original release.
The long-awaited RPG sequel was released for PS4 and PC via the Epic Games Store in November 2019. It appeared to get off to a difficult start, debuting at No. 17 on the UK chart and selling just 18,000 copies during its launch week in Japan.
In the UK, Shenmue 3 sold a little more than half of the previous year’s Shenmue 1 and 2 remaster at launch.
However, sales will have been skewed by Shenmue 3’s huge Kickstarter success. In 2016 the project raised over $6.3 million from 69,320 backers, making it the highest-funded video game Kickstarter in history.
In November 2023, Shenmue creator Yu Suzuki said that if Shenmue 4 happens, he wants to make it more accessible to new players than Shenmue 3, which was primarily designed to please hardcore Kickstarter backers.
“I want Shenmue 4 to be enjoyable for newcomers,” he said. “To make that possible, the most important thing is to make it enjoyable without knowing previous events in the story. I don’t think that a new player wants to know 100% of the story. 20 or 30% could be enough.”
Suzuki has also pondered the idea of making a prequel, similar to Yakuza 0, because he thinks “recreating the streets of Dobuita with modern visuals on a new engine alone would make it worth doing”.
Source link
