I think Yu Suzuki was planning something like at least two or three more games. At this point, I feel like if that ever does come to pass, as highly unlikely as it is, I will just wait until I can get all of them, together, in a single bundle, at a steep discount, before trying to get back into Shenmue again. Which means, realistically, I'll probably never get back into Shenmue again.
And yeah, I completely agree that knowing the third game ends on a cliffhanger yet again dilutes my interest in playing it almost to non-existence, at least for now. From what little I've read from people talking about it, though, it's not just that Shenmue 3 ends on a cliffhanger, it's that it apparently also doesn't actually advance the story all that much, overall, at least not until the end when the cliffhanger happens.[1] From what I understand, it mostly just rehashes a lot of stuff from the previous games, for whatever reason. Now, granted, having not played it myself, I might just be talking out of my ass here, taking rando bunk at face value, but it wouldn't surprise me much if any of it was true.
As far as the DLC... yeah, it sucks. It's as if game companies these days feel as though they, like, have to include DLC (or, rather, have to bust their game into chunks specifically for DLC purposes) in their games now, even when it makes no goddamn sense to do so. The love of money and all that...
[1] - Honestly, thinking back on it, Shenmue 2 kind of did the same thing. There's all the shit in Hong Kong, then Ryo goes to Kowloon for more shit, practically none of which I can even remotely recall now, other than that Ryo fights that big fat dude on a roof while Lan Di watches while hanging from a helicopter or some such bullshit. And then Ryo ends up in a completely different area for the very tail end of the game. Hell, if I recall correctly, the mystery girl Shenhua doesn't even show up (in person) until that point, and then there's some big plot dump (of which, again, I recall next to nothing, now), Ryo finds another mystic mirror or whatever, and then the game just... stops. If Shenmue 3 does the same sort of thing, then... yeah... fuck off with that shit. Seriously, it's kind of simultaneously amazing and depressing just how much my view of Shenmue, as a whole, was completely soured by their mishandling of the Kickstarter and the naked greed of all the Epic Games horseshit. I don't even want to go back and replay the first two games again, despite those having nothing to do with that shit, and even though I remember liking them rather a lot (despite the constant cliffhangers).
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And yeah, I completely agree that knowing the third game ends on a cliffhanger yet again dilutes my interest in playing it almost to non-existence, at least for now. From what little I've read from people talking about it, though, it's not just that Shenmue 3 ends on a cliffhanger, it's that it apparently also doesn't actually advance the story all that much, overall, at least not until the end when the cliffhanger happens.[1] From what I understand, it mostly just rehashes a lot of stuff from the previous games, for whatever reason. Now, granted, having not played it myself, I might just be talking out of my ass here, taking rando bunk at face value, but it wouldn't surprise me much if any of it was true.
As far as the DLC... yeah, it sucks. It's as if game companies these days feel as though they, like, have to include DLC (or, rather, have to bust their game into chunks specifically for DLC purposes) in their games now, even when it makes no goddamn sense to do so. The love of money and all that...
[1] - Honestly, thinking back on it, Shenmue 2 kind of did the same thing. There's all the shit in Hong Kong, then Ryo goes to Kowloon for more shit, practically none of which I can even remotely recall now, other than that Ryo fights that big fat dude on a roof while Lan Di watches while hanging from a helicopter or some such bullshit. And then Ryo ends up in a completely different area for the very tail end of the game. Hell, if I recall correctly, the mystery girl Shenhua doesn't even show up (in person) until that point, and then there's some big plot dump (of which, again, I recall next to nothing, now), Ryo finds another mystic mirror or whatever, and then the game just... stops. If Shenmue 3 does the same sort of thing, then... yeah... fuck off with that shit. Seriously, it's kind of simultaneously amazing and depressing just how much my view of Shenmue, as a whole, was completely soured by their mishandling of the Kickstarter and the naked greed of all the Epic Games horseshit. I don't even want to go back and replay the first two games again, despite those having nothing to do with that shit, and even though I remember liking them rather a lot (despite the constant cliffhangers).