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Shenmue III QTE prompt

QTE prompt in Shenmue III.

During Quick Time Event (QTE) sequences, a button will flash on screen briefly and the player must press the button or combination of buttons to trigger Ryo's actions. Fights against opponents can take place in QTE form. In addition to battles, QTE sequences are used for various other scenarios. For example, at one point a QTE sequence is used when Ryo must chase Jimmy Yan of Asia Travel Company who has stolen money from him. The player's success or failure in these scenes can affect the flow of gameplay as well as the current cutscene. There are also two games at You Arcade that require QTE, they are "Excite QTE 2" and "QTE Title".

In addition to normal QTEs in Shenmue II, there is a new type of QTE called Command QTE. The game will freeze, then the D-Pad and Y, X, B, A buttons (or the Triangle, Square, Circle, and X buttons for the PS4 version) will appear on the screen. It will show a combination of buttons pressed. The player will need to repeat this command quickly or they will fail. Sometimes, if only part of the Command QTE is inputed correctly, the outcome will be different. Another way to succeed the Command QTEs is to input the command while the combination is being demonstrated. Also, when taking a long time to master the Iron Palm and Counter Elbow Assault move instructions which are mandatory to master to progress through the story, a Command QTE will appear on the screen showing the combination of buttons that need to be pressed to master the move. It will keep popping up until the player succeeds it. The Iron Palm QTE is the first possible Command QTE that can happen in the game.

QTEs are also implemented in some Mini-Games featured in Shenmue II. When Arm Wrestling, the player must continuously mash the A button (or X in the PS4 version) to win, but QTEs will appear while doing this. Succeeding the QTE will continue to give Ryo the upper hand, while failing it will give his opponent the upper hand. The higher the bet, the more difficult the QTEs will be to succeed. While Airing Books at Man Mo Temple, QTEs will appear while Ryo is carrying out the books to the yard. Walking the books out will have less QTEs, while running will have more. Succeeding the QTEs will have Ryo not drop the books, while failing them will have him drop them.

There also is one unique regular QTE in Shenmue II that actually requires you to press nothing in order to advance the story. Pressing the button on the screen will have Ryo fail and have to try the scene again the following day. This is when learning one of the wude at Zhangyu Barber's Shop, since the wude Zhangyu Kong teaches Ryo is to be brave and stay calm to make the right decision. He will tell Ryo not to move no matter what happens, and will put a blade to his throat. Doing what he says even when the A (or X for the PS4 version) button flashes on the screen will have Ryo learn one of the wude "DAN" and advance the story.

Quick Time Events return in Shenmue III. Unlike the the first two games where failing a QTE or two would change the flow of the scene and/or have Ryo perform alternate actions, failing a QTE will have you automatically retry the whole scene. Although sometimes the game will have checkpoints to retry the specific QTE you failed rather than have to retry the entire scene like the first two games. There is only one instance where failing a QTE would change the flow of the scene and that's where Ryo and Ren are kicking down a door. The classic QTE sounds including the buzzer sound when failing are also changed to more modernized QTE sounds. When the game was first released, the amount of time that the QTE prompt was on the screen was very short, which made it very difficult for players to succeed on their first try. With an patch/update on all platforms, the time the prompt is on the screen is a bit longer, making it easier for players to succeed on their first try.

Trivia[]

  • The creator and director of the Shenmue series Yu Suzuki is the one who created Quick Time Events and Shenmue is the first game to have them. They however have a negative reception by the majority of the gaming community as they added artificial difficulty to the game as well as interfere with player immersion.

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