“Shenmue 3” developers have recently mailed out a reply about the differences of rewards in Kickstarter and buying the game through regular retail. Apparently, the Season Pass is only exclusive to players planning to buy it through retail. What about the backers that supported it?

Backers will be eligible according to their Kickstarter rewards according to a correspondence email revealed on the Resetera forums. “Shenmue” developers YS Net revealed that the Kickstarter rewards is separate and handled differently from the rewards available in the retail version. Looking at the replies on both Resetera and Neogaf about the topic, many fans are disappointed on how “Shenmue 3” develops right now.

As seen in the Kickstarter page, the “Shenmue 3” rewards doesn’t have any information on the season pass. At around $250 pledge, backers could receive the Collector’s Edition of the game which includes a unique scroll, a skin-changing feature for Ryo and a physical CD soundtrack of Shenmue 3. Even at the latter pledge levels up to $10000, players are not promised any Season Passes.

Meanwhile, the Deluxe Edition on the Epic Games Store promises three add-ons and a DLC Pass which assures these players to receive the new added game content into the game. The add-ons are the Blazing King advanced technique scroll, Peking Power starter pack, the Kenpogi training outfit costume and the main character’s Flight Jacket. The DLC Pass also provides the Burning Sandstorm advanced technique scroll along with the DLC.

Lastly, the Deluxe Edition only costs around $38.98 compared to the gargantuan price of the Kickstarter Collector’s Edition.

Fans are baffled on what to expect with “Shenmue 3” as its original promises turned into sales shenanigans. “Shenmue 3” was originally planned to be released in Steam and the first set of game keys should have been handed out now. However, the company announced that they’ll be partnering with Epic Games instead. The company handled the anger of some fans through offering refunds through Steam.

The “Shenmue” series was loved during its release as it was one of the most compelling games of its time and an Open-World game during the Dreamcast-PlayStation 1 era around the late 90s and early 2000s. Like “Shenmue’s” main character with his father’s death, fans are furious yet looking for answers why all this happened.

Shenmue 3 kickstarter
Various images from "Shenmue 3." Shenmue 3 kickstarter
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