Info is from Zem in the thread EDGE #330 review scores (Apex Legends, Metro Exodus, Resident Evil 2, Kingdom Hearts III), image is from Illusionary
* Yu Suzuki is using his documents from 20 years ago that he gathered on Chinese culture in the 1980's, chinese tribes, their customs and villages, he's also traveled to the Fujian Province for direct hands-on research of the people and their lifestyle
* First two games had modern settings, this one is steeped in religion and ancient culture of China
* You start in a village called Bailu, it sounds like the start will be slow paced. People will barely talk to you and won't answer your questions because you're an outsider, there's a dialogue system and you need to complete tasks and become more known around the village before the local people will give you info. If you have Shenhua with you the villagers will be more open with you because they know and trust her.
* Each villager will have their own day-night routine just like the previous games
* Because Ryo is a city boy there's a lot of obliviousness from him and there's funny and interesting conversations because his viewpoint is so different.
* The game is more about looking inward than outward, Suzuki says he wants to look deeper into the Ryo character and we'll learn more about him.
* Same voice actor as before
* A large part of the game is the affinity system between Ryo and Shenhua and a major part of the story of the game is the relationship between the two.
* Combat system looks much smoother and is more RPG based, not just learning skills by repeating moves over and over
Attack power and stamina are the two main stats for combat, stamina is used for everything (sprinting, fighting moves) and can be restored by eating food. eating before doing something strenuous will become routine
* When training you can customize Ryo's clothes into training gear
* Training is done through mini-games, Horse Stance, One inch Punch and more, mostly rhythm based but satisfying to pull off
* Technique scrolls from 1 & 2 return as well as new ones, around 100 in total
* The intricate world building of characters being linked and having back-stories is present in 3
* There's a fight club in another city you can enter where you fight people with nicknames like "The Knee of Death" and "Mach Fist" (voiced by Chris Bellinger)
* At one point you'll have to fight multiple people in these fighting events, people who want to master the combat system will be spending a lot of time fighting in these events. All of the fighting happens in the Rose Garden and is optional.
* Controls are carried over from Shenmue 2 but with analogue stick camera improvements
* Capsule toys are back
* EDGE sound very positive on what they've seen.
* Suzuki stresses how important it is to make the game feel like a Shenmue game, modern games are more open world nowadays but he doesn't want to go that way because then it wouldn't be Shenmue
All this sounds exactly like what I was hoping for from a third Shenmue game. If anyone has any other info from the article let me know and I'll update the OP
There will be a new trailer with gameplay footage on March 9th.
Edit: Full cover thanks Tricky I Shadow
Edit 2: For anyone interested in what the game is looking like so far.
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