Yu Suzuki On Shenmue III’s Game Length, Difficulty, And Finding Your Own Fun

Yu Suzuki, the director of Shenmue III, recently sat down for an interview at Gamescom, where he talked about the game’s difficulty settings, game length, and reiterated that Shenmue is about finding your own fun. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]

Here are the highlights:

• Regarding difficulty, Suzuki says that Shenmue III is being balanced so that if you raise each parameter about 1-2 levels or so and get the hang of the moves, you’ll have an easy time. However, people confident in their abilities can get more of a challenge by taking on the bosses earlier.

• The game has four difficulty settings: ‘Story Mode’, ‘Recommended’, ‘Challenge’, and ‘Don’t Play This’. That said, Story Mode doesn’t mean it’s less harsh on difficulty – rather, you’ll be able to collect the materials apart from the skill books easier, which cuts down on sidetracking time. However, Suzuki reiterates that Shenmue III is all about finding your own journey and overcoming the difficulties, so players will have more fun on Recommended or harder, as they experience more.

• The game will take around 50 hours to complete on Challenge, 35-40 on Recommended, and less than 30 hours on Story Mode.

• Suzuki says once again that Shenmue III is a game about having fun while sidetracked. He says that as you get used to the game, it’ll begin to feel like you’re having some fun with side activities while you figure out the next step. It’s all about finding your own fun, and this is something goes against current trends.

Shenmue III releases for PlayStation 4 and PC on November 19, 2019. The latest trailer can be found in our previous report here.