Training Efficiency

When you have learned a new move you get the option to keep training for a while.

Is it worth it to do so? Is this kind of training more efficient than Free Practice?

Some people, including me, like to believe that practicing the move with the instructor will increase the level noticeably faster compared to just letting Ryo do it on his own. It seems to be a naturally given benefit for those who keep up the spirit and go all the way with the lessons.

To solve this mystery I chose to learn the Swallow Dive and started with practicing as much as Guizhang allowed me to. I was able to perform the move a total of 15 times. Then I went with just learning the move and pulling it of exactly 15 times inside Warehouse #4 during Free Practice.

First of all we will have to look at the base level that the Swallow Dive will be at after you've just learned it, which means not doing any practice with the tutor.

So the level is just the slightest bit under the Learning bar. That gives us an idea what to look for when comparing it to the second approach later. But first we're going to have to check out how efficient the first approach is. Which brings us directly to what it looks like when you perform the move 15 times in Free Practice.

The progess bar shows a very slight increase with the level sitting just a hair over the Learning bar. 15 times is of course not a whole lot of practice for one move, when some require hundreds of repeats to get to the Moderate level. So could the other way of training help to get you a little starting boost with its higher efficiency, if that is actually the case? Let's take a look.

What is that? The level bar is lower than in the approach above? How can this be?
Well you are looking at the sad reality when it comes to training the move with the tutor.
I spare you the extra pain of putting it side by side with the baseline level as it is already obvious enough that it does not increase the level at all!

This is actually very surprising news to me. I wouldn't have expected this kind of training to be completely worthless. I get the idea that it is just meant for the player to learn, to get the button inputs down, but this is Shenmue we're talking about. In a game so full of immersion, that throws a lot of conventional things out of the window, I expected the extra training to pay off for Ryo aswell.

Well I guess you can't have everything. Even when it comes to Shenmue.
Except of course when it comes to learning new things. That's where it always gives.