Great review, i agree with everything they state.
Most aesthetics things are great but the models of Ryo and Shenhua are only good enough, but we knew that they were struggling already to catch their likeness correctly for a while.
Just like the review mentions, the combat feels like a big step back, at least if you cared for it in previous games. Animations are kinda rough even when compared with the old games and the system itself is way less elegant. I'm still baffled about how the inputs for specific moves works....jeez, what were they thinking?
Edit:
The game looks fantastic. There are some rough edges with the animation but overall it's nothing to sneeze at. It's got that slavish attention to detail, chill pace and sense of place that defines so much of the Shenmue experience.
I know I'm gonna love this game. I'm not too crazy about the changes they've made to combat, though. I'm kinda hoping that grabs & throws can be included post-release somehow.
It goes deeper than throws and grabs
Can you guess the normal input for that move now? Every move that is not a single button besides the moves you can use from guarding are a sequence of button presses before the animation starts, for example: Tornado Kick is "A, A, X, X" BEFORE the kick even starts animating, it makes every move feel laggy because the buffer the game has to have before knowing which move you want execute, for example : A or A, X or A, A, X or A, A, X, X. Kinda crazy really, i hope it gets somehow fixed or improved. Never imagined in my life that i would be explaining to someone why i think Shenmue's combat is trash lol
Move list video for reference: