I watched the playthroughs since the episode 1 and have no complains for the moment as they still enjoy the game and fill the blanks when needed.

Hopefully they will make a Shenmue II playthrough.

The Yu's vision about combat in 2000.

http://nsa38.casimages.com/img/2015/08/28/150828102325973146.jpg

In 2013 :
Yu Suzuki : "Modern fighting games are too complicated, too “hardcore”, overly attracting. Those factors definitely limit the audience, because even fewer people are playing them, and at this rate the genre can sink into oblivion. That’s why I support a more simple approach to gaming.
[...]
Difficulty in fighting games is usually based on the requirements for accurate reaction and memorization of combinations. Which means that you need to accurately calculate the timing, and flawlessly press buttons. But I would like to make a win dependant on how a gamer thinks. To make him think, like, “If I hit with an arm now, and then kick with a leg, I could win.”

I want to make a win based on making the right decisions. And because of that the battle system in fighting games is still imperfect. Even in Virtua Fighter. If you're not able to press a button in the exact moment, and because of that you lose, the problem is not in your wrong decision. The game just set the task of reaction for you. Did you accomplish or fail the combination – this is on what a win depends. It would be better to attach a sensor on the gamer, so all his thoughts could be instantly and flawlessly implemented by the character on screen. That would definitely be a battle of decisions and be true fighting action in a good sense, not thanks to blood and violence. For example, suitable for this could be sensors that measure alpha waves in the brain. And it's not a distant future, people have already been working successfully in such a direction for a long time. There are people, for example, who have microchips that can control heart function. Of course, I doubt that someone will insert something inside of them for games, but if they can stick something temporarily onto them – why not? Another example in this direction is Kinect from Xbox 360. So we don't have to wait much longer and there'll be a time for new realistic fighting games."

Then in 2015, we heard :
- Kaz Hirai talking about a fighting system mixed with QTE for Shenmue 3.
- Yu Suzuki purposely refuses to ever pronounce "Virtua Fighter" in the Q&As when the fans ask him about.
- Advanced Free Battle system unlocked

Thank you for this very interesting interview Yokosuka!

Very surprised to read that Yu Suzuki isn't into actually playing games!

He's got a precise vision of what he wants and where he wants to push gaming limits.

Couldn't be more excited about Shenmue 3 right now!

Yep, Yu has never been a real gamer in his whole life.

From my experience, I know that the best talents (especially in art) are those who are the most dispassionate people because they only focus on the most profound human yearnings and create directly with the existing tools whatever the others do or did, which are usually boring for them.

@Lan Di-sama : Like in Shenmue 2, I think we will face forest mazes again because of the storm damages. Maybe an early occasion to see the new Ryo's climbing abilities.

Key figures :
$4 000 000 Kickstarter budget at least allowed to the development ($4.5m at most)
$100 000 average wage to pay ($4180 average monthly wage in Japan according the OCDE 2012 list x 24 months of development)

$4m/$0.1 = 40 permanent workers at the very least

Notes :
- I consider in my calculation that the private budget is intended to pay the potential extras like licensing, rentals, motion capture, dubbing, material, outsources, publishing, orchestra, etc.
- I consider that the Paypal budget is only a spare wheel to anticipate the possible delays as Yu seems not to care.
- It's a very rough & straight calculation, it acts like if the duration of contract would be 2 years for everyone. Infact, one programmer can work only 6 months while another can be involved during the whole 2-years project. So the number of 40 workers may increase rather easily.
- sub-teams expected : quests, events, free battle, mini games, scenario, planners, graphic design artists, music/sound artists + Sony support team

Reminder :
In comparison with Shenmue Dreamcast ( http://segaretro.org/Shenmue#Production_Credits )
- No Shenmue Saturn cost
- No Shenmue Passport cost
- No "Promotion & Publicity" team cost (role assigned to Sony)
- No R&D teams cost
- Mainly no artworks cost

Comparable projects :
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Kingdom Come: Deliverance

If you have some other interesting facts, please share or correct me.

Rumors say that his name is Bill Gates.

If anyone should be hired it should be nicokid and espiral.
I'm not familiar with espiral other than by name, but if any fan of the series deserves to be hired, it's NoconKid. That dude has done some fucking incredible things with his HD remake of Shenmue - and all out of love, no less! Plus, he's clearly familiar and skilled with Unreal Engine, so it makes sense.

Espiral is famous here to make excellent Shenmue renders after extracting 3d models straight from the games. His best achievement is having given a fictional Shenmue III cover to http://www.favslist.com/MostAnticipatedGames

A rough translation has been made by Laevateinn from Neogaf : http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=177992816&postcount=2672

A lot of the interview is about E3, the Kickstarter and Japanese specific questions. It seems like they are slightly concerned with how English focused the Kickstarter campaign was, such as with the announcement being in English and English-focused tiers (e.g. get a call from Corey Marshall). My rough translations of the interesting parts about development:

Re Paypal:
Interviewer: By the way, at this time, The Kickstarter campaign has raised about 780M yen, will you be seeking further investments?

Suzuki: I think we will be accepting funds through PayPal. At this point, I am unable to give any details but preparations are in progress.

Interviewer: Is there any possibility of reaching additional stretchgoals?

Suzuki: If possible, I would like to add them. A big hurdle with Kickstarter has been that it was a foreign website. There have been issues entering addresses. I have been asked questions like "if I make a small mistake entering my information will I still be able to receive my reward?" which has lead to some anxiousness. In setting up a PayPal site, I think it will be important to allow entry in Japanese.

Interviewer: I see. You would like to make correspondence with Japanese fans easy. From here I would like to discuss the development. What type of candidates are you looking for?

Suzuki: For planners and programmers, we would be happy with someone who has experience with development using the Unreal Engine.

At this point, I decided that direct translations was too much work so here's the gist of some parts.

Interviewer wants to know about potentially returning voice actors but Suzuki suggests that some of them may have retired and are inaccessible.

The rest of the interview is about the areas we'll visit, character perspective system, and other little details like that. They spend some time talking about Niao Sun.

Talk of gameplay mechanics. Most of it is stuff we already are familiar with. He's most looking forward to testing the battle system so it sounds like that might be one of the first demos we get. They are also proposing a 2km by 2km playfield.

He wants to put in a fishing mini-game. They might also be a weapons shop.

He's interested in VR and talks about how at Sega he had experimented with early prototypes. He doesn't see potential for Shenmue 3 at this time but is very interested in it (maybe his next project?)

They would like to have a small update for the community every month.

Episode 15

Wow thanks for your fast answer.

Chai coming back looks more like fanservice than anything.... i mean he got beat when Ryo was much weaker than he is now :???:

Chai has one quality, he never gives up. He's the Terminator of Shenmue and things can become interesting if his relationship with Lan Di is finally exploited. All may not be lost yet with this character.

http://www.shenmue500k.co.uk/

You had simply to visit their facebook to know lol.

First time I really like a customized Dreamcast.

Jeuxvideo.com (the most famous video gaming website in France) has announced the release :
http://www.jeuxvideo.com/news/442695/un ... tembre.htm

Well done guys.

Shenmue 3 PC at 60 fps though...

And the ability to put his own arcade games maybe.

Kickstarter Update #45 : "One more chance to make history with Shenmue III!"
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3/posts/1355513

Hello Everyone,
Thanks to your support, Shenmue III became the most funded video game on Kickstarter with 69,320 people helping to bring back the Shenmue series back to life. However, there are so many people told us they could not pledge on Kickstarter, or could not make the deadline, and have asked for a PayPal page for another opportunity to contribute to Shenmue III. So here we go!

The Slacker Backer period will continue through December 31st. While the full game will be completed as promised with the use of the funding collected on Kickstarter, any additional funding collected here will go towards reaching the Stretch Goals to make the game even bigger and deeper.The three month window was set to allow a long enough time to for everyone who wants to support Shenmue III to do so, but short enough to keep the release date on track.

The PayPal page will feature a selection of rewards from the Kickstarter campaign including the Trial Version and the Collector’s Edition. If you missed out on the Kickstarter, you still have a chance to be part of the Shenmue legacy!

Surveys, add-ons and upgrades
Surveys are not quite ready yet, but they will be going out during this Slacker Backer campaign. Once the survey system is up and running, add-ons and upgrades will be available for existing Kickstarter backers. We will of course keep you posted here on the Updates page with all the developments.

http://nsa37.casimages.com/img/2015/09/17/150917071830311020.jpg

Chai sucks and is the worst character in the series. An ugly skinhead with an even worse voice with flat character development and motivations. The only thing Chai wants is to impress Lan Di. Boring. Chai returning so far is the only disappointing thing I've heard about Shenmue III. Chai sucks and should have stayed on the Dreamcast. What an awful, awful villain and character.

Looks like everyone agree although I found his English voice brilliant personally. At least, his fighting style fits very well with the character (more than Lion Rafale).

The misinformed articles, commenters and Twitterers are really kind of pissing me off. Why so many crocodile tiers about this game?

The Game Informer title is something like:

"YU SUZUKI WANTS EVEN MORE MONEY"

And all the comments are like WHAT A DISASTER!!!!

I'm fighting against these morons since the morning to enlighten the truth on several sites.

But we have to be aware that the trolls are mainly kids who have absolutely no clue and would have never donate for a licence that they never played anyway.

Monkei wrote: I don't think you should push for anything. Let them do whatever they can do within their budget and be grateful that we're getting the game at all.

Suzuki currently thinks the forklift is highly asked by the fans. Some points need to be cleared.

I don't know if it could be useful for someone but here a resume of my Q&A :


What is Shenmue ?
- very fast explanation with good links of articles and videos

Why do they ask for money since Sony fund the game ?
- Explanation of the real role of Sony

Why do Sony not want to fund Shenmue 3 themselves ?
- Shenmue is not a Sony IP
- Yu Suzuki got the rights of the game from Sega
- Shenmue 3 is officialy an indie game

Isn't shameful that Sony use crowdfunding to earn money ?
- explain that Sony can't make profit of this game since his role is just to help

If I give some money, I will have to pay again to get the game at its release, right ?
- nope

Shenmue 3 has earned 6 million, why did they announce a Paypal ?
- need of more developers to get the remaining features, the targeted open world and the full experience of Shenmue 3
- people ask for it

If Shenmue 1 has cost 47 million, how 11 million can be enough ?
- explanation of dreamcast budget
- mention of cheap unreal engine 4
- mention of re-used assets

11 million are still not enough to make a real open world....
- explanation of differences between gta like and yakuza-like
- mention of kingdom come and vanishing of ethan carter as good examples of cheap open world
- mention of the privates funds unlocked and safed by YSnet

If the 11 million are not reached, which game can we expect ?
- Yu Suzuki is still happy as he got his favorites features
- the development is already planned according the budget and has moved on.
- a 4 months room has been left to put the remaining concepts. Still need help from players to fulfill the full potential of the game


Why does no big company want to fund the game ?
- Too few people played Shenmue 2 and the fanbase could not extend enough
- Yu Suzuki wants independancy and make Shenmue 5
- Sega still owns the IP

Why does Yu Suzuki not want to conclude the story with Shenmmue 3 ?
- Explanation that Shenmue is a saga where original story is important

Will Shenmue 4 use crowdfunding ?
- quote of Cedric Biscay

Why so few people bought Shenmue in the past ?
- Explanation of Shenmue 1 success (top 5 of Dreamcast games with 1 million games sold)
- Explanation of Shenmue 2 flop : Sega stopped the Dreamcast production 9 months before so a lot of sellers no longer had dreamcast products in their stores + other reasons


The Shenmue 3 doesn't look really well driven
- Yu Suzuki gives a lot of interviews currently
- Yu Suzuki pushed strongly to make Shenmue 3 alive since several years and prepared himself
- Suzuki imagined six different models of Shenmue 3 according the budget type before the Kickstarter
- best sources to follow Shenmue 3 to avoid disinformation

Who develop Shenmue 3 ?
- the team
- Biscay is a true Shenmue fan and expecting to earn not so much money despite being the main investor

Is Shenmue 3 going to be an outdated game ?
- Shenmue 2 brought already new features at its time
- explanation of the new features of Shenmue 3

I want to (re)play Shenmue 1 & 2, why do they not remaster them ?
- Rights of 1&2 do not belong to Yu.
- tweet corsi


my original French article with all the sources : http://www.gamekyo.com/blog_article372327.html

Thanks a French article , I now understand why he talked about 16 chapters. In fact, it has always been 11+5 chapters. The 5 chapters were bridges between the main chapters. That's why we had the boat and the train as unique chapters. That could mean Ryo has still to take three other big travels.

I feel that any of these extra chapters will ever be playable sadly.

Notice that Yu said the story took its official form in 1998.

Few months ago, this section was named "Future of Shenmue". Look now

shredingskin wrote:Also a big thanks to Shibuya productions, they were crazy good with interacting with fans.

Above all, it's confirmed that Shibuya is the main investor of Shenmue 3. So yes we can be grateful to all these companies.

I like the fact that Shenmue tells a beautiful story on both plans : virtual and real. I don't think any game in history has ever reached the emotional dimension we have all experienced since a couple of months. F***in Shenmue

I'm pushing to make my article about Shenmue 3 published on a website (my chances are very poor but I try) and I'm currently correcting some parts : after reflections, I have difficulties to be precise about the most crucial part : the Sony's role.

We know since The Point with Gio Corsi that Sony's role is to help the devs by doing the promotion and giving some tech help and a bit of publishing but they're not the publishers. But Corsi was talking about his company Third Party Production and I think his active role as workers. That doesn't mean he has funded something or not before, right ? Corsi never tried to deny the funding . And we know that Andrew House said at the early beginning that Sony funds the game.

So, rather to say "Sony don't fund the game" or "Sony don't fund the development of the game", I decided to write "Sony don't fund the whole game". Would I be wrong ? I don't want to be dishonest.

Not a fan of asking for Shenmue HD just after the thanking.

Yes, it was even the first interview we got. You can see all the interviews in the Shenmue Dojo youtube channel, they're subbed in English and French with the original voice.

The reason why Hirai is trying to go in the water is still a little intriguing.

This is just a random life thought (inspired by the post above) but I noticed that whenever somebody says they're not really good at drawing, they're actually really, really, really good at drawing.

It's not a good drawing technically (few people are relevant in this field) but Esppiral interprets very well the lines of Shenhua, the drawing is really classy and beautiful.

100 days at the top

I actually felt embarrased to show Shenmue IIx to my friends who have never even played Shenmue. The voice acting is so incredibly cheesy and limp that it ruins the Shenmue II experience as a whole. The Dreamcast versions are the only versions I would show to newcomers. Thankfully having played Shenmue 2 on the DC before IIx I can saftely say I was not damaged by it.

In France, Metal Gear Solid 1 is cult not only because it's still an excellent game but because the French dub is horrific and laughable. Everyone here prefer to replay this version rather the English original. So it's not a total loss. The best kung fu movies have terrible voice acting too after all.

People tend to classify Shenmue as a niche game because of main two things : the gameplay and the consideration that the franchise was a flop. Without one of these two things, I'm 99% sure no one today would dare this statement.

But we know that Shenmue I sold very well. We know that the Shenmue II success was mission impossible even with Final Fantasy or Counter Strike as a title name.
We know that slow pace/contemplative gameplay can be appreciated by the mass (point & click golden era, FPS/point & click, sandboxes open worlds where you do nothing the most of the time, some stealth games).

However it's true that Shenmue cannot be played by everyone. Shenmue had excellent reviews but half of the reviewers were personally divided and you can find easily similar statements through the net. But which genre is really affordable for everyone ? Racing games, FPS, BTA, action games, GTA, rpg, all these genres can be boring according the player you are.

Then I would add that, unlike more classic games, you don't have to be a gamer to enjoy Shenmue : the mechanics are easily understandable and the themes are all open minded. If you're tired of the typical gunfights fest or brainless button smashing in video games, Shenmue is perfect for you.

It's funny to see Shenmue is somehow the remake of Virtua Fighter. Yu wanted to create a fighting game with a simple and very intuitive gameplay. Ten years later, Virtua Fighter is viewed as the most technical 3D VS fighting franchise and the perfect anti-casual game. Yu felt himself a little ashamed in spite of his franchise being praised by all the critics and the players. Remember the Yu's big smile at this child in the Making of Shenmue. He hates niche gaming, it's like discrimination for him.

A table about the US sales :
http://nsa37.casimages.com/img/2015/10/01/151001110005694696.jpg

All the franchises imported to Xbox have failed. It seems Sega were only interested in immediate exclusive contracts to save them from the bankrupt rather than to earn mass money in a further perspective.

The creation of the Shenmue OST is based on buddhist sutras so I believe you.

Suzuki : Since Shenmue is a game you play at a relaxed pace, we wanted music that wouldn’t be too noisy or distracting to the player. That’s why I told Mitsuyoshi, “why don’t you try listening to some sutras first.” (laughs) For example, take the babbling of a stream, the sound of footsteps, or a bird’s warbling… these are sounds that no one is bothered by, and they have no melody to them. But to the extent that there is a melody, after listening to it for 3 or 4 hours, it will start to wear on your mind and annoy you… as such, my closest image for the music of Shenmue was buddhist sutras. There’s something mysterious about them, and I asked Mitsuyoshi to try and match that image.

Mitsuyoshi : What I tried to achieve for Shenmue was not “Takenobu Mitsuyoshi’s music.” Rather, I tried to find the melody that lies in the sound effects themselves, something that used sound effects for melody and rythym. When you design the music for an arcade game, your goal is to get the customer in the game center to stop and take notice of your game. Basically, its kind of like you’re trying to make a “commercial” for the game: how many people can you draw in, in the short span of time they hear the music? That was what I pursued, compositionally, in my previous work.
With Shenmue I’m creating the total opposite. It’s music that you don’t really notice, but if it wasn’t there, the scene would feel barren. It was very nuanced, detailed work, and very challenging in many ways. But because the scale of this project was so large, it did afford me a lot of opportunities to experiment. As a composer I feel like I leveled up in a big way.

Still unreal from a guy who made the OST of the Virtua, Sega Rally, Daytona and Sega Touring Cars.

It's Xhizors92
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=46349

I still have one of his works as my wallpaper :

If Zoltor is right, give him the moderator status.

I remember Cédric saying the Kickstarter lost around 2 million dollars as well.

WHAT ?????

Journalist : What was your reaction to the problems embroiling the funding of the project, due to the clumsy statements of Andrew House (chief of Sony Computer Entertainment), and the reaction of certain journalists and players?

Cédric Biscay : It annoyed me because people forget that this game has never been able to be developed in the last 14 years, and so it's clear that the Kickstarter campaign played a vital role in its funding. I think that the media's desire to create buzz around this issue will strain our campaign by at least $2m. I don't have any words for the minority of journalists who seem to sometimes forget their duty to provide information by writing about their interpretations rather than facts. We know that to sell as much as we can we need to create a sensational game. Saying that Shenmue 3 is great and that it should be funded isn't going against the consensus, and so probably not interesting enough for them.
The people who have taken the time to read the statements and the official pages have all the information at their disposal. To put it clearly, without Kickstarter, Shenmue 3 would never have seen the light of day, and so the campaign is exactly what you're entitled to expect from participatory funding. Luckily, the Shenmue community is extraordinary and in the end I'm very happy with the campaign, especially from a human perspective. Most people understand that I committed Shibuya Productions to making Shenmue 3 so that the series could be brought back to life despite the risks that this entails. The thousands of thank-you messages I've received since E3 validate this approach and push us to keep on going.
https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/comments/3de0mh/french_english_video_game_article_about_shenmue/

http://i.imgur.com/i231OyR.jpg
http://nsa37.casimages.com/img/2015/10/08/151008115817359884.jpg
http://nsa38.casimages.com/img/2015/10/09/151009120446623501.jpg
http://nsa37.casimages.com/img/2015/10/08/151008115846986494.jpg
http://nsa37.casimages.com/img/2015/10/09/151009120446861005.jpg

Last episode !

https://i.imgur.com/jwhg8MG.webm
I found this trailer part memorable too, so heartbreaking that was close to a spoiler.

Very good article, well documented and airy, the reading is smooth with some general culture facts. The use of your personal experience looks a relevant choice. I'm happy that I could have been useful with my chapters thread. :)

I didn't know for the 99% Gamefan, I wonder from where it came from.

I guess you already plan it for the final version or maybe medium.com is unable but your article just needs to be divided into several pages or you will crash some browsers.

Probably Hang-On on arcade. I remember pretty well because I always failed to balance the bike as I was too young and light lol.

I would love to play the mythical R360, the best arcade cabinet of all time but never got the opportunity.

I think Suzuki is very conscious of spoilers

Looks like the complete opposite lol. His Nico Nico Douga interview spoiled already parts that annoy fans, not only the Chai's cameo. The Dreamcast magazines showed us that spoilers are a classic thing in the Shenmue universe. It's hard to give it the right promotion as you have to convince the newcomers and hesitating fans at the same time with spectacular trailers and clear gameplay presentations though.

redline wrote: i tried using google translator. does this correctly mean "70 man battle"? - 70男の戦い

thanks in advance.

David used 70人バトル in his interview.
(ちょっとやっていました。７０人バトルのときにドラム缶が崩れてきたりとか…　)

If being "truly open world" means spending 40 minutes getting lost in an empty forest that serves no purpose beyond background detail, then I think I'll take this horribly restricted, suffocating exercise in claustrophobic torture and enjoy it all the same.

Yeah this is not a surprising news according the previous interviews, although it still hurts a little to read that from Yu-san. We have to keep in mind that Shenmue will not be a modern semi-open-world but the old-school Shenmue we all loved in a way better version, with new ideas, innovations and the remaining story we're all waiting for.

Youzhi wrote: Update:
The interviews of Yu suzuki in beep MD magazines:
http://pan.baidu.com/s/1jGMuZSa

I uploaded the file in a better server.
https://www.mediafire.com/?jabo8gbgtak2lax

Monkei wrote:That's made up by dualshockers

Please don't mistake DualShockers for them.