Shenmue 3 gameplay trailer shows combat, weird faces

In the new trailer for Shenmue 3 we see protagonist Ryo Hazuki seek out a wise old master, who is having a drink in the woods, and persuade him to impart his wisdom. There's a training montage and some combat, with a lot of kicking and sliding around to dodge. It's hard to focus on that stuff though when every line of dialogue is accompanied by an expressionless face with only lips and eyelids capable of moving. Actually, that's not true—I saw somebody's eyebrows go up one time as well.

This is work in progress footage of course, shown at the Magic 2019 convention in France. It's having the desired effect on fans, with a bunch of reaction videos already appearing on YouTube. If you're a bit baffled by all this hype, maybe Andy Kelly's piece on why Shenmue remains great because it isn't afraid to slow down might help enlighten you.

Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.