The arcadey action of the racing section of the new Shenmue III Battle Rally DLC contains some nice touches that hark back to Yu Suzuki's classic arcade games.
As mentioned in our Battle Rally DLC recap post, there are several graphical tributes to Yu Suzuki's 1986 arcade game Out Run. One of these is the Goal banner:
And another nod to a SEGA arcade game has been spotted. The game in question is Bass Fishing (also known as Get Bass), which had an arcade release in 1997/1998 and came with a built-in fishing rod controller.
SEGA's Bass Fishing arcade
The game was later ported to consoles including the Dreamcast.
Comparing the Bass Fishing logo side-by-side with the title on the Battle Rally main selection screen shows the strong similarity, from the color graduation effect to the slant and font design. (Credit to Nikolai Antonov for the discovery).
There may well be more such nods to SEGA's classic arcade games. Leave a comment if you have noticed any others!
The first playable DLC for Shenmue III, called "Battle Rally" has become available from today, and offers not one but two games set in Shenmue III's world.
One is Battle Rally, the an entertaining series of time-trial courses (mixed with fighting!) which gives the DLC its name. And the second is a separate treasure-hunt style game that will look somewhat familiar to Shenmue III players, called Bailu Chan Hunt!
Both of these activities are set in Bailu village, and the game will check that you have progressed past this location in your main game, before making it accessible. Also be sure your main game is up-to-date (at the time of this post, the latest version is currently v1.04.01).
Battle Rally
Battle Rally has a fun, arcade-like feel to it that will immediately remind players strongly of Yu Suzuki's past arcade titles. You can choose to play as one of three characters: Ryo Hazuki, Ren Wuying or Wei Zhen (the martial artist who can often been found practicing opposite the Sunflower grove in the main game).
New content has been announced for Shenmue 3! It comes in the form of DLC entitled Battle Rally, and it will be available on January 21 for PS4 and PC.
This represents the first DLC for the game since its launch at the end of last year, and will be available for purchase online on the Sony Store and Epic Games Store. If you have already purchased the Complete DLC Collection season pass (which also comes with the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game), then the new content will automatically become available to you on the launch day.
What is it About?
The Battle Rally DLC offers "fresh gaming activities" and takes the form of a race in which the objective is to beat your competition to be first across the line, with some "truly awesome items" to the winner [see Yu Suzuki's comment at the end of this article for more information on these]. On the way, contestants will "engage in head-to-head battles" as they race through the course.
The new DLC will also allow players to play a choice of characters for the first time in Shenmue III: choose from Ryo, Ren or Wei Zhen (the young martial artist from Bailu village who often trains at Sunflower Grove).
The planned price for the single DLC is reported to be $7.99 / £6.49 / €7.99 through the Sony Store (PS4) or Epic Game Store (PC). Or, if you are intending to purchase further DLC content in the future, then the season pass will be more economic.
PC players can take advantage of the 30% off deal for Shenmue III that is currently running on the Epic Games Store, which also applies to the DLC season pass. The sale runs until January 28th.
Tap mage to visit the Shenmue III page on the Epic Games Store
Additional Shenmue III DLC
In an interview with IGN Japan (source, in Japanese) near the end of last year, Yu Suzuki talked a little about the DLC for Shenmue III that the team was working on:
"Following the game's release, DLC is scheduled to be distributed periodically. They are currently working on 3 or so: one is action-based, one is story-related and one is to do with a casino. Furthermore, as a reward for completing the DLC, some will allow you to obtain additional costumes, with plans for costumes for characters other than Ryo."
There is a good chance that one of the prizes will be an alternative costume for Shenhua, given the hint Yu dropped during our interview with him at last year's Tokyo Game Show:
PRS: We've heard that Ryo will be able to change his costume. How about Shenhua? YS: Yes she will, but not in the main game. I wonder if I can say more. It's DL... something! [laughs]
Regarding the two DLC other than Battle Royal, the names have already been leaked via the PlayStation trophies list, and although they do not in themselves give much away, I will enclose them here in spoiler tags:
