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Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Website
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Shenmue 3 Update #65: Dev Room Progress Report Vol. 2
https://youtu.be/HUblCa_MHBM

Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Update #62: Yu-San & Music
https://youtu.be/2ePkAKD3gUI

Shenmue 3 - Yu Suzuki Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3lnJsGTC_s

Yu Suzuki Interview Part 2 (May 9 Bessatsu Shonen Magazine)
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=50092

Yu Suzuki Interview (May 9 Bessatsu Shonen Magazine)
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=50042

Yu Suzuki Interview - Shenmue3 (Shenmue Dojo & Team Yu @ Magic Monaco 2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-_kR2fnYKc

Yu Suzuki interview (MAGIC 2016) by Shenmue Master
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpnc23uyH4w

Yu Suzuki No Life Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjgvJp8LDhU

A weekend with Yu Suzuki
https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/a-weekend-with-yu-suzuki-6ff4d9d9edb6#.9shym44kn

Yu Suzuki interview by Journal du Japon (Translated by Yokosuka)
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=49125&start=510#p1131657

Magic Monaco 2016
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=49125&p=1118425#p1118425

Yu Suzuki Red Bull Games Interview + New Screens
http://www.redbull.com/en/games/stories/1331775510544/shenmue-3-yu-suzuki-interview

Magic Monaco 2016 - Exclusive New Shenmue III Screens
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=49589#p1128104

Cédric Biscay interview by Desert Bus de l'Espoir (15/11/21)
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=49417

Yu Suzuki Reveals Shenmue 3 Prototype in China (Complete Video) -Subtitled-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNkaLCzL6Z8

China interview with Yu Suzuki (Nov 19)
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=49353

Cédric Biscay : Monaco Hebdo and modogameur.fr interviews
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=49338

Executive Shenmue Ambassador interview with Yu Suzuki
http://shenmueambassador.tumblr.com/post/132143057983/from-the-desk-of-yu-suzuki-a-community-exclusive

Kickstarter - Month 3 Progress Report
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3/posts/1398446?ref=backer_project_update

Yu Suzuki interview with David Deville - Shenmue 3
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=49223

DualShockers Yu Suzuki Interview
http://www.dualshockers.com/2015/10/20/shenmue-iii-interview-yu-suzuki-talks-gameplay-tech-romance-ps4-pc-frame-rate-and-much-more/

EuroGamer Article/Interview
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-10-04-i-could-do-with-a-bit-more-money-yu-suzuki-on-the-return-of-shenmue

Famitsu Interview with Yu (Sept 8th)
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=49050&p=1116549#p1116549

Otakumode Yu Suzuki Interview
http://otakumode.com/news/55c62e97887d92a516b043ae/Interview-with-Yu-Suzuki-Producer-of-the-%E2%80%9CShenmue%E2%80%9D-Series

Progress Update Interview with Yu Suzuki
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3/posts/1336892

The Point - How Did Shenmue 3 Raise $6.3 Million? (Gamespot)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp_jAoaDFxs

GamesTM Yu Suzuki Interview
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&p=1114235#p1114235

Play UK Magazine
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48921&start=15#p1114240

Phil Spencer (Xbox) talks about Shenmue 3
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48911&p=1113520#p1113520

Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Final Countdown (Twitch)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK7lg_Ip6Og

Yu Suzuki interview from Hobby Consolas. (Spanish)
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48828#p1111832

Interview with Cedric Biscay (Radio Monaco) - July 22, 2015
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48753

Cedric Biscay Interview @ Gameblog.fr - July 15th 2015
https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/comments/3de0mh/french_english_video_game_article_about_shenmue/

Yu Suzuki interview from Nico Nico Douga.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IntCDAc6c8Y

Yu Suzuki Twitter Q&A Recap (June 10th)
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48420

Yu Suzuki Q&A on Twitter (#YouaskYu)
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=170828960&postcount=12245

Corey Marshall back for Shenmue 3 (Official)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3/posts/1280725

Ryuji Iuchi's blog update on Shenmue music
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&p=1100498#p1100498

Shenmue 3 Funding and Budget Statement
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3

Famitsu Article Translation
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47760

Yu Suzuki 4gamer interview- touching the character perspective system
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47935

Inside-Games.jp - Yu Suzuki interview - (updated translation)
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47878

Yu Suzuki interview published by Inside-Games on June 17
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47878#p1093031

Twitch Q&A (Fan Translation)
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48103&start=15#p1097784

GAME Watch interview snippets
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47937

Yu Suzuki AMA - Reddit
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47838

Yu Suzuki Game Informer Interview
http://goo.gl/HkSdgQ

Getting The Rights To Shenmue Was Easier Than You’d Think
http://goo.gl/U5Udul

Yu Suzuki/Cedric Biscay interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKb0vtQz8xo

Blit Software Interview about porting games
http://www.gamespek.com/2015/07/14/entrevistamos-a-blitworks-el-estudio-responsable-de-muchos-de-los-mejores-ports-que-habeis-podido-disfrutar-recientemente/

Shuhei Yoshida Contributed $29 to Shenmue 3 Kickstarter
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48057

Jim Ryan (Head of Sony Europe) discussing Shenmue
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48055

Sony clarifies its role in bringing Shenmue 3 to the PS4 - thanks to @yosp (Shuhei Yoshida)
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-06-22-yu-suzuki-needs-usd10-million-to-make-a-truly-open-world-shenmue-3

Understanding Sony's Role in Shenmue 3
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/141291-Sony-will-be-involved-in-marketing-and-production-for-Shenmue-3?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=all

So, what is Shenmue III - and why should I care?
http://crashlanded.co.uk/Shenmue-clearing-up-the-confusion.php

Cedric Biscay Tweet (Sony only funding PS4 port from PC)
https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status/612352032851259392

Sony is providing various supports, including marketing and investment, to YSNet. However, SONY is just one of many backers of #Shenmue3
https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status/612504077658923008

Sony's Yoshida Interview - Not completely funding Shenmue question - http://i.imgur.com/WhDkpyN.png
http://goo.gl/bpYp8h

Kickstarter Money going to Developers. Not Sony
https://twitter.com/DanShoeHsu/status/612461118326345728

What We Know About Shenmue III So Far.
http://bit.ly/1HX8mzL

How to make Shenmue on a budget
http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/17/8795017/shenmue-on-a-budget

Yu Suzuki Wants To Introduce A New QTE System For Shenmue 3
http://www.siliconera.com/2015/06/17/yu-suzuki-wants-to-introduce-a-new-qte-system-for-shenmue-3/#XZoGokRCsjqs902E.99

Yu Suzuki - Playstation E3 Experience 2015 Live Cast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPgiRIR07qU

How Sony Pulled Off Their E3 2015 Press Conference
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRGlVDi3FHQ

Sony definitely supporting Shenmue 3 (Adam Boyes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRZzuTwTEUE

Adam Boyes explains Sony's role with Shenmue 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dL198n2d0o

Adam Boyes - Shenmue Discussion (Gamespot Live E3 2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FhW-1TRJ54

Shuhei Yoshida E3 Highlights
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47686&start=60#p1091419

Andrew House mentions Shenmue
http://goo.gl/ZttCBq

News of the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter reaches Time magazine!
http://time.com/3923809/shenmue-3-kickstarter-campaign/?xid=fbshare

Shenmue 3 sets Guinness World Record for quickest video game crowdfunding
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-06-17-shenmue-3-sets-guinness-world-record-for-quickest-video-game-crowdfunding

Shenmue 3- tells the underside of revival
https://goo.gl/QPA1ot

Shenmue 3 Epic Reaction Art
https://twitter.com/nambabowl/status/611172660416937984
Reaction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsS0fWIo9FY

MCV article: multi platform and the magic $10 million
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/shenmue-3-could-hit-extra-platforms-suzuki-says-10m-would-deliver-open-world/0151531

Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Image Gallery
http://shenmuedojo.net/gallery/index.php?cat=11

Concept Art Topic
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48150
by Ziming
Fri Jun 19, 2015 8:09 am
 
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Re: Shenmue's Success in Direct Proportion to Suzuki's Happi

I remember an Interview with Yu Suzuki, I saw that about a year ago. It took place in his kitchen and was part of some series covering legendary game designers like Hideo Kojima, Shigeru Miyamoto and of course, Yu.

The interview revolved mostly around Shenmue and Yu kind of evaded the questions regarding Shenmue's future and he seemed a bitter and broken man to me through his answers. It's just great to see Yu full of life, ambition and happiness again. This is the Yu Suzuki we all know and love!
by Hyo Razuki
Fri Jun 19, 2015 7:34 am
 
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Re: The Dojo and Shenmue Community linked on the OFFICIAL SI

Main character is clearly Goro, don't know what you're smoking OL.
by Thief
Tue Jun 16, 2015 1:02 am
 
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Re: Yu Suzuki - Reddit AMA Today!

The only thing I'd like to ask Yu, is to please not ask the fans how they want certain characters to be. Shenmue should be about his vision, even if it is Kickstarted. I would have thought that would be what most fans wanted too. Does anyone really want to vote on polls determining a charater's personality...
by mue 26
Fri Jun 19, 2015 11:24 am
 
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Re: Corey Marshall SEGA Nerdcast Friday, June 19th

Live right now boys and girls!

⋅ "None of the voice actors knew anything about it"
⋅ Thinks they are "trying to keep the look and feel as much as possible" whilst pushing the technology
⋅  Always had "stuff in the mix" about Shenmue III, shown some ideas and concept art to Marshall at the time.
⋅  "99.999% of the reason we have Shenmue today is because of the fans", "the best fans in the world, who do not take no for an answer"
by NeoShredder
Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:22 pm
 
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Re: Ideas to help the Kickstarter campaign

I just tweeted it out and will keep doing so frequently on my Twitter account. Hopefully I can gather pledges that way. Also as a Youtuber I will be mentioning it at the beginning of my next video and in my streams that I do daily.

I have 153k followers on twitter and over 400k subscribers on Youtube. Hope I can help as much as I can as this for me is a dream come true. I've also pledged $500 and will probably pledge more once higher options are available.

http://s9.postimg.org/fw20345fj/a916a0b8e54d9fa3d86c1acdb15eac02.png
by itani
Sat Jun 20, 2015 6:38 am
 
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Re: Reddit AMA Answers

Im so proud that Dojo and I curated so many quality questions and we got most of them answered.

Thank you and to everyone & this thread for making Reddit comprehensible. It was a genuinely fascinating read.

I still don't see why Paypal is under consideration, I was expecting it upon signing up to KickStarter for this.

As neat was it is to hear of past ideas returning in Shenmue 3, some I am not so keen on. Forklift driving/racing was fun but I consider that a feature of Shenmue 1, I wan't a new mini-game/job feature which isn't identical to the previou games. Reading that got me all excited though, going to return to more Shenmue 1 right now :)
by TheThirdComing
Sat Jun 20, 2015 12:28 pm
 
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Re: Wasting money on smaller languages

This is starting to get ridiculous. Please just let Yu continue his original plan and don't mess with it.
Even just showing that you don't like how money is going to subtitles is bad. Please stop this nonsense.
We all want to pull together to get Yu Suzuki's vision done, right? RIGHT?
by BlueMue
Sat Jun 20, 2015 4:29 pm
 
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Famitsu Translation & Scans

http://www.mediafire.com/view/6siygr66m2te2qr/i-wf0702_004.jpg#
http://www.mediafire.com/view/bp8911gv5b7y5a3/i-wf0702_005.jpg#
http://www.mediafire.com/view/zhehbcn73zhkp9a/i-wf0702_006.jpg#
http://www.mediafire.com/view/bf1trmgz7tejf1m/i-wf0702_007.jpg#
http://www.mediafire.com/view/6md3ql10x1ppiw6/i-wf0702_008.jpg#
http://www.mediafire.com/view/6iot4869ui62rdr/i-wf0702_009.jpg#

thanks to kurushii for the scans.

Famitsu Translation by Axm and Switch

Feature Story
- Ryo Hazuki is coming back -


Shenmue III has set off
The fundraising campaign has started on Kickstarter


E3 2015 is being held in Los Angeles from June 17th till 19th (Japan time). Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) press conference was held in June 16th, a day before E3 starts, and a game creator Yu Suzuki announced the new “Shenmue 3.” He also revealed his campaign using the crowd-funding site “Kickstarter” to raise funds for this game.
It’s been 14 years since the release of Shenmue 2. What will this eagerly-awaited Shenmue 3 be like? Why did he chose Kickstarter?--- I have asked the executive produce Mr.Suzuki. (Interviewer: Famitsu chief editor Katsuhiko Hayashi)


Finally setting off the official sequel “Shenmue 3”


---The impact of the name of “Shenmue 3” is so great and it surprised me when I first heard it. Well, it’s been 14 years since Shenmue 2 was released. Why make Shenmue 3 now? Would you give us the accounts on how it started?
Suzuki: I have been always looking for the way to launch Shenmue 3, so it is not like we just started this project. Although it’s been more than a decade since Shenmue 2, there are many enthusiastic fans still existing and when I attend autograph sessions abroad, they always come ask me “When is Shenmue 3 coming?” For example in France, 80% of people who come to my autograph sessions are the Shenmue fans. The rest of 10% are Virtua Fighter fans and the other 10% are Hang-on fans or so. There are fans who still manage fan communities. Every year around March and April, the rumor “They say that they are making Shenmue 3” comes out and it reaches me.. haha.


---The eagerly waiting voices turn to rumors.
Suzuki: Yes that’s right. But slowly the fan’s voices have changed to something wistful. They say “It can be just a novel, so please give us the sequel story at least” or “Just manga is fine. We want to see a new “Shenmue”.” Those voices made me think that I should push the project forward somehow for the fans, no matter if I couldn’t make a full-spec game.


--- And for the means to make it happen, you chose Kickstarter. Why?
Suzuki: About three years ago, one of the fans who has experience using Kickstarter suggested me using it for the Shenmue project. That is when I first learned about Kickstarter, and started researching it. If it comes to really making the game, I have to make sure it satisfies my fans. So I couldn’t go like “OK I’m doing this with Kickstarter!” I seeked other ways,--- for instance finding a partner, but I couldn’t find one that meets my requirements. After careful consideration, we decided that Kickstarter is the best way to set off, and we were able to announce it finally in 2015.


---So you were just saying that you wanted to make the sequel, but really you have been working on it already for a long time.
Suzuki: Yes. Strong feedback after the Shenmue lecture at GDC 2014 also pushed me into coming this far. Sega agreeably licenced it to me and SCE also supported us by saying “We will support you if you are making Shenmue.” I knew that announcing the Kickstarter project at SCE’s conference is a very remarkable thing and am so happy that many people still support Shenmue this much.


---The title “Shenmue 3” is very direct and has no twist.
Suzuki: I couldn’t think of any other name. Shenmue 1, 2 and 3. It is not a spin-off. It comes to PS4 and PC.


---Its an eagerly awaited official sequel and fans will be definitely delighted. What is the goal of the Kickstarter funding?
Suzuki: 2 million yen at the very beginning.


---It must be easy to raise 2 million if it is for Shenmue.
Suzuki: However, 2 million is the very least amount of money you need for a game to come to exist. If it’s just 2 million, it will be more likely a very story-driven based game. If we can raise more, it will be more realistic for me to be able to do what I want to do. I want to try something new.

--- Just like you.. Your stance of “making something new” has never changed.
Suzuki: Yes. I will do my best to make a new Shenmue.

--- We will talk about this “New Shenmue” later. What are the pledge rewards for donating to Kickstarter?
Suzuki: I would like to adopt everyone’s opinion into the game to the extent that I can. For example if there are two designs of one character, then I will ask everyone to vote for each of them. I will provide the participation privilege for that kind of voting. Also while Shenmue 3 is under development, I will prepare a trial-demo so they can take a sneak peak of it.

--- So you are creating Shenmue 3 with your fans?
Suzuki: I think every one of the people who invested in this project has a leading role in it and I hope each one of them enjoy it. Please visit Kickstarter’s Shenmue page to learn more about the pledge rewards.


F: Next, I would like to ask about the key content of Shenmue 3. What kind of story developments can be expected in Shenmue 3?
YS: At the end of Shenmue 2 Ryo visits Guilin, said to be the most beautiful region in China. The area is famous for landscape paintings, and it has a river called the Li river. Shen Hua’s house is located on a tributary of the river. The story of Shenmue 2 ends at the point where Ryo reaches Shen Hua’s house, and the story of Shemue 3 continues right from there.
F: So, Ryo and Shen Hua will make an appearance, continuing from the previous part.
YS: For people who have played the Shenmue series, those familiar characters will appear as they were.
F: Will the setting be Guilin?
YS: Yes. For example, visiting a town(s) in the Guilin area, or going back to the mountains. Also infiltrating the Guilin chapter of an underground organization, the Chi You Men.
F: It could be said that Shenmue is the originator of open world gameplay, and has influenced many games since, but for Shenmue 3 what direction do you plan to take the open world model?
YS: When I created Shenmue 1, I was aiming to create exactly what is now called an “open world”. Being able to stop freely at any location you wish, advancing if you wish to move the story forward, or just standing still if you prefer. Back then, we called the system “FREE”, but in time it came to be referred to as open world. In Shenmue 2, with advances and technology and techniques, the open world was expanded even further.
F: In Shenmue 2, it was possible to walk through many towns over a wide area of Hong Kong, wasn’t it.
YS: Actually, at that time, I had decided that for Shenmue 3 I would delve in more deeply.
F: More deeply?
YS: Yes. People might expect that the open world would be made even broader, but in contrast to that, I will focus on depth. For example, for the case of 100 characters, splitting the development budget among them would limit the elements that could be incorporated into each character.
F: That’s true, it would make it harder to create each with detail.
YS: However, if we reduce the number to 10 characters, a lot of possibilities are opened up. The amount of conversation could be increased 10 times, or detailed A.I. provided for each character. As a result, conversations could be much richer. As an example, in Shenmue 3 the person that Ryo will speak with most is Shen Hua, so I want to portray her with depth. I envisage an approach where, by settings parameters for Shen Hua, on-going conversations with her will influence events such as changing her attitude, or changing the way that quests relating to her unfold.
F: I see. I think a lot of support for Shenmue comes not from just the realistic towns, but from the realism of the people inhabiting it. From what you have described, this realism will be further increased, and the world will feel even more “human”.
YS: Yes. In Shenmue this time I will be focusing particularly on digging down further on such internal aspects.
F: This is your vision for the new Shenmue, isn’t it.
YS: Of course, that’s not to say it will not be open world. Stretch goals will allow the town(s) to be expanded. However, what I would like to try first is to develop something that everyone has not anticipated; a deep Shenmue world.

F: I can’t wait to see this new Shenmue. Speaking of Shenmue, apart from its open world, its QTEs and minigames made it special, didn’t they.
YS: QTEs were originally included so that even people who were poor at battles could enjoy them. I’m happy that various games have included QTEs since then.
F: QTEs also had their origin in Shenmue, didn’t they.
YS: This time, I would like to show new QTEs; ones which can played by anyone, and which have carefully-crafted event sequences. In addition, I’d like to change the nature of free battles. (I will think of a different name, as I don’t want to call them free battles). I’d like to make a battle that is won by making the correct decision, rather than by correct timing of pushing buttons.
F: I believe Shenmue was made with the concept of being a game that can be enjoyed by any player, and this new system feels to be in keeping with that.
YS: Also this time I am planning a “technique scrolls” system. Ah.... maybe I have said too much (laughs).
F: Not at all, we’d like to hear more! (laughs)
YS: For example, with the free battle it is tough to practice and input the various commands required, so simply by obtaining a technique scroll you can apply the technique to help you win a battle. In the case of a QTE, the new technique could be unleashed during the QTE. I would like to make it so that a technique can be used to your advantage in battle just by obtaining a technique scroll. Furthermore, I’d like to make that technique scroll connect with various elements within the game.
F: Could you explain a bit more with respect to “connecting with elements”?
YS: Shenmue has had a number of ways you could play around, such as mini-games and gambling spots, but I have always been thinking about how to connect these together in some way. Of course, they are connected in the sense that you can take a part-time job to earn money, then increase that amount by gambling, then buy weapons... but not that kind of connection, something much closer. If the stretch goals can be reached and more detailed elements incorporated into the open world, this will allow technique scrolls to serve as the pivot for connecting together the various side games. That’s the kind of direction I would like to take it.
F: I see. So various elements of the open world will be connected together in a more natural way. Apart from that, are there any other elements that you are keen to include in Shenmue 3?
YS: One particular part of Shenmue that fans seem to have fallen in love with is the forklift part-time job, which is extremely popular. So I really want to include it in Shenmue 3 too, but how can you operate a forklift deep in the mountains of Guilin (laughs). I haven’t stopped thinking about how to find some way to include a forklift (laughs).

F: Please tell us about the development set-up for Shenmue 3.
YS: This time, the main development company is Neilo. The representative for Neilo, Takeshi Hirai, worked as the chief programmer for Shenmue and has a good understanding of Shenmue.
F: Since Shenmue is an open world game, I had thought that working with an overseas development company that is experienced in open world games would have been an option.
YS: Yes, that may have been an option. However, the main distinguishing characteristic of Shenmue is its culture. I believe that users overseas also have taken interest in the culture and customs of Asia. People have said they appreciate it when Ryo says “Thank you” for the smallest thing, for example. Someone who has worked all along on creating Shenmue understands that kind of culture and values.
F: So this time, development will be using Unreal Engine 4, won’t it.
YS: I have been looking at various engines for Shenmue 3 for the past 3 years, but the colors of Unreal Engine 4 are closest to those I envisage for the world of Shenmue. Although that’s a pretty broad statement, given that it’s a technical topic. The feeling of slight dampness in the air, the skin colors, the feel of materials etc were closest to my ideal.
F: Apart from the Neilo staff, are there others participating who have worked with Shenmue before?
YS: Yes, of course. I wanted to build up the team with past members as I believe that gives the fans some reassurance. Among others are scenario writer Masahiro Yoshimoto, and Kenji Miyawaki who is in charge of the character designs.
F: Given that this project is coming to life 14 years after the previous release of Shenmue, everyone must be very surprised.
YS: Mr Yoshimoto has been active in the world of television, and reacted with surprise saying “With television, producing something new with a theme that is 14 years old is unheard of”. But Mr Yoshimoto told me that he made many discoveries through his experience with Shenmue. Later on, I plan to release a video with comments from Mr Yoshimoto and the rest of the staff, so please watch out for it.
F: We are looking forward to seeing it. The fans are sure to be happy.
YS: I have gathered together quite a few of the original key members who gave Shenmue that special feel. I’m sure this will bring a feeling of both reassurance and nostalgia.
F: By the way, it may be a bit impatient to ask, but do you already have in mind how things will progress after Shenmue 3?
YS: Of course, I have that in mind. But first and foremost, I’d like to put primary focus on Shenmue 3.
F: When is the planned release date for Shenmue 3?
YS: I’d like to release it by the end of 2017.
F: That’s quite some way off, but we can’t wait. From speaking with you today, I can really appreciate the challenges that you are taking on of producing a new Shenmue. Finally, do you have a message for all the fans who have waited all this time for Shenmue 3?
YS: The fans have told me over the course of 14 years how they wanted part 3 to be made, and I have always told myself that I had to find some way to make it. And now, through the crowd-funding of Kickstarter, at last I have been able to make a start on the Shenmue 3 project. In order to bring about a Shenmue 3 that incorporates a perfect blend of both a Shenmue that everyone desires, as well as a Shenmue with the new challenges I want to take on, everyone’s effort is needed. Thank you so much for your support.

Picture captions:
1) This image shows the figures of Ryo and Shen Hua walking on a mountain path. Note that Ryo has changed clothes from the leather jacket he wears in the first and second parts of the series.
2) Using a telescope, Ryo observes buildings below a cliff. According to Yu Suzuki, before Ryo lies the enemy’s camp, which Ryo is searching for a way to infiltrate.
3) Shen Hua and Ryo, drawn by Kenji Miyawaki who is in charge of character design for the series. Shen Hua, the main heroine, did not appear much in the first and second parts of the series. In Shenmue 3, she will surely take a principle role.
4) Niao Sun, one of the leaders of the underground organisation opposing Ryo, the Chi You Men. Although her existence has previously been revealed, she has not made an in-game appearance until now.
by shenhua legend
Thu Jun 18, 2015 1:30 am
 
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Re: How Do You Feel About Shenmue III Becoming More Spiritua

I love it. It perfectly punctuates the general tone of the series, and especially which throws it right in your face. Ryo goes through a decaying, decrepit old crime filled city in order to find information on his fathers killer. Kowloon represents Ryo's inner demons as the cracks expose themselves leading to his own perdition. Xiuying tells him as much in the church and many times in Honk Kong. The analogy for Ryo's spiritual journey from Kowloon to Guilin is both figurative and literal in the scope of the games themes. Ryo, having found Zhu Yuanda, travels from a place that eats his soul and forces him to go to extremes to find vengeance that will never sate him, to a place separated from civilization, surrounded by nature in all of its wonders. It is through the nature of spirituality and friendship, which Ryo starts to embrace as seen in the Tai Chi scene at the crag, that will save Ryo and deliver him from becoming the exact person he hates.

The naturalism vs urbanism dynamic in II is a natural part of the evolution of the story, and one that gives it far more emotional weight.

I don't take it as an west vs east debate. I think that pits the story at its most reduced form. After all, Hong Kong is more advanced than Yokosuka which is a small town and many people that live in these places, like Xiuying, are on the straight and narrow. It isn't about west vs east, so much as I feel it is about Ryo's spiritual transformation as he grows from boy to man. He has two options. He thinks he NEEDS revenge, but it consumes him. The secret to his sating heartache is within him all along, and that is his own natural spirit.

The spiritualism is needed.

Further, I think people's take on east vs west debate is exotifying the east and trying to find a way to say the east is better when this is never explicitly said in neither games at all.
by Himuro
Sat Jun 20, 2015 5:43 pm
 
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Re: Reddit AMA Answers

Yeah yu allowing fans to get closely involved is a big mistake. Most shenmue fans I wonder how they manage to function during their daily lives.
by south carmain
Sat Jun 20, 2015 4:22 pm
 
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Re: Using fans as voice actors in Shenmue 3

It's a nice idea and someone I know also talked about this and would like this.

Just some things that I thought of (not shooting down the idea) having worked with sound, from recording to mixing and mastering. For the English dub, fans would likely have to travel to a studio in USA or Canada where a lot of voice work is done. Using different studios close to people could result in different sounding recordings due to the equipment being used, recording technique etc. This sounds weird in game and I've noticed this in a few titles. Even with communication, the sound engineers might not always be able to replicate results from other places.
Having the director at one place is also better to guide everyone.

For the other games Yu made people fly to Japan instead so he could follow the process closely. The cost of this, and the directing got criticized though: http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40831

What happens though when they don't like the performance? Or a foreign accent which clashes with the native English voice cast? Quite difficult situation, especially when the fan has paid for it. Just using the voice as background murmur seems anticlimactic.
by ys
Sat Jun 20, 2015 11:01 pm
 
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Inside-Games.jp - Yu Suzuki interview x2 UPDATE: Translated!

http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2015/06/20/88702.html

I'll try to translate it, but it might take a while...

Edit: Found another one on the same site from the 17th: http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2015/06/17/88607.html

Edit 2: Translation is complete. I'm neither native in english nor japanese, so it might sound strange in some places.

Again, this is the inside-games.jp article from 2015-06-20
- a follow up on the interview Switch translated.

------------------------------------------------

Yu Suzuki, the man who started the Shenmue III Kickstarter that set a new Guinness record for the fastest game reaching 1 million dollars. One night after the last time we spoke we ask again about the state of the project and about game creating.

-- Thanks for the other day. This time I would like to dig deeper.
YS: Please go ahead.

-- Can you tell us more about this "nostalgia" that you mentioned was like a theme or keyword for Shenmue 3.
YS: Wherever I go in the world I'm always asked "Where is Shenmue 3?" By mail or through other persons. That's when I felt it, that Shenmue has a lot of parts in it, the things that you feel about the game can differ very much from person to person. Like, one fan said he met a person called Nozomi in real life, you know, like the heroine of Shenmue I. He felt that it was some kind of fate and married her.

-- Wow. Really?
YS: Yeah. it's true. Other than that there were things that seemed obvious for japanese people, but were new for foreigners. For example in the first game Ryo walks around and asks for help from many different people, right? As he leaves he always says "Thank you". There are foreigners that were moved by that. When I heard that I thought "Well, don't you say thank you in your country?".

-- Maybe they don't say things that explicit in that culture?
YS: And in the game these "excuse me" and "thank you"s are repeated many many times. For people not experiencing that in their daily lives it might have been a bit of a shock for them. I took that to my heart.

-- I guess there aren't that many RPGs that end their conversations with "thank you".
YS: And in this society we live in now information is shared over the internet, but as you go further back through the years, and go further into the countryside, information exchange is slow and the culture and customs are more specific to that area. The beliefs and values of the people living there are [less complicated and] easier to understand. That is very interesting.

-- I see.
YS: So maybe the people anticipating part 3 are having fond memories and feel a bit nostalgic. I think people are probably feeling nostalgic about the Shenhua, Ryo and Shenmue from fifteen years ago. And I think that I shouldn't destroy that nostalgia with part 3. If I don't make that work with part 3 I don't think the game will live up to the expectations. That's why the keyword for part 3 is nostalgia.

-- Wasn't part 1 and 2 also make with nostalgia as a keyword?
YS: It's a different kind of nostalgia with part 3. In part 1 and 2 there is the nostalgia towards the era, in part 3 it's the nostalgia towards the game. For part 1 and 2 the target user was late teens to early twenties, so for these users I wanted them to experience the culture of the streets still having that showa-period feel of 1986, and be nostalgic about it. So in contrast to that, in part 3 I want the players to be nostalgic about part 1 and 2.

-- So looking at the years... part 1 and 2 came out in 2000 and 2001. Since part 1 in taking place in 1986 Yokosuka, the users playing the game at 20 years of age would have been six when the game took place.
YS: So it's not really nostalgia since it's a story from when they were just kids. Maybe making them feel "there was a world like this" together with the nostalgia.

-- Since then 15 years has passed and the users has become 35 and start feeling nostalgic about things. Now they are looking back and being nostalgic about having played part 1 and part 2.
YS: Yes. Now they are nostalgic about the experience with Shenmue.

-- So the games were released and as said before the users over the world described what moved them which you didn't think about when the games were made, right? As a game creator, did you continue to be surprised by all the reactions over these 15 years?
YS: Yes. They didn't come all at once. The comments continued coming from all over the world. Especially about cultural differences.

-- As with part 1 and 2, even if you think about what the users will enjoy in part 3, it might be different between japanese and foreign users.
YS: It's different. I can't remember making part 1 and 2 for foreigners.For example the themes of Outrun and other arcade games I made a long time ago were chosen in order to be popular all over the world. But for Shenmue 1 and 2 there were no thoughts about the target country.

-- You didn't make them for japanese users?
YS: I didn't really think about it. It was more about making a new game style, there is something interesting in just that. Making a new thing means a new kind of game which would make the world take notice of it. A new system. But I never thought everyone would react to the culture and customs like this.

-- You can say the new system was the skeleton and the culture and customs were the flesh and outward appearance, maybe?
YS: Maybe more like the system is the physical and culture and customs are the spiritual.

-- That would connect with the word "spiritual" that is often said about Shenmue. So for part 3 you can keep working on the aspects you didn’t think about that people actually really enjoyed about part 1 and 2.
YS: Yeah.

-- Neilo is developing part 3. The CEO Tak Hirai was the lead programmer of part 1 and 2 I've heard. Could you share the story of how you came to work on this project together again? Did you keep in touch during these 15 years?
YS: I've been in contact with Hirai and other members all the time since then. Drinking sometimes, talking about wanting to make Shenmue etc. "If it ever happens I'll count on you". We always said things like that.

-- Everyone was thinking about it.
YS: I'm a programmer from the beginning and Hirai too, so we have a kind of programming bond. In a game there are graphics, sound, program and other elements, but I want to focus on the programming.

-- I see.
YS: There are great games in the world today. Destiny, Grand Theft Auto, Assassin's Creed and more. The budget difference makes it very hard to challenge them in graphics and quality. For example Nintendo games are a bit less graphically advanced, but I don't care about that. They have great playability and I love them. So that's the approach. I'll probably challenge myself on the programming side. I think the programming makes games fun. So with that in mind the programming lead becomes an important partner.

-- Meaning Hirai-san.
YS: Yes. Back then Hirai was the programming lead and... Ah, I guess I can't call just call him Hirai anymore {as in dropping “-san”}. He was working under me back then... He was the one who started Neilo so f course he's great at programming. And this time, for the development of 3, we have gained access to the source code from part 1 and 2. He has written much of that code and might be able to reuse some of it. Back then there were probably nobody as great as him at programming. So in that sense being able to collaborate with him and his company is great.

-- It looks like there are other important creators participating.
YS: Yes. The screenwriter Yoshimoto-sensei is helping out. I'm very happy that many key members are participating.

-- How is the development looking now? I guess you have been talking with Neilo until now.
YS: It all depends on how the Kickstarter goes. If it fails, everything stops. Since it's not finished yet we can't do any real work. But we can do the work we can. We've been having a lot of meetings. For the Kickstarter we've been making promotional videos in Unreal Engine 4, but that was delegated to Neilo. However, I was of course directing it. We worked together like that. The budget will be decided in about a month I think so that's when we'll organize the project team. The plan is fluid but Neilo will be the center, and that won't change.

-- During the Sega era, how was Hirai-san?
YS: When we made Shenmue we were over 300 people at one time. We had managers for different sections, and he had about 100 people under him. So he was between me and where work was being done. He was very much trusted by his subordinates. I think that's the best compliment I can say about him. People who are trusted from above might just be appeasing their supervisors. But it takes someone special to be trusted by those working for him.

The rest of the questions are more about how and why he creates games. While interesting, it’s not that relevant in regards to the Shenmue III project.
by Capsule Toys Maniac
Sat Jun 20, 2015 6:56 pm
 
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Inside-Games.jp - Yu Suzuki interview (June 17)

Here's a translation for a Yu Suzuki interview published by Inside-Games on June 17.
http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2015/06/17/88607.html

Capsule Toys Maniac working on the translation for the second interview with Yu Suzuki they published on June 20.

[E3 2015] Interview with Yu Suzuki following his Kickstarter achievement
June 17, 2015

The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter: the campaign got underway on stage at the SCE press conference held on June 15 (local time), and achieved its minimum goal in the short space of just 8 hours. It is now aiming to achieve stretch goals, and the amount of backing is continuing to increase as it heads towards the deadline of July 17. At the E3 venue we asked the creator of Shenmue, Yu Suzuki of Ys Net, about his most recent thoughts and about the enthusiasm for Shenmue 3.

-- Congratulations on the Kickstarter achievement.

YS: Thank you. At any rate, it’s the first time I’ve done this, so I don’t have much experience with it. When I heard that the sheer number of accesses to the Shenmue 3 project page on Kickstarter caused it to crash multiple times, I knew we would be successful. This may sound bad, but I was happy. I heard that the times it took to reach the $1 million and $2 million levels are a new record within the games category, and second-fastest across all projects. Since it’s my first experience [with Kickstarter], it’s only through those kinds of statistics that I get a sense of the reality.

-- How do you feel at the moment? Pleased? Relieved? A deserved result?

YS: Well, things are really just getting started. I’m always looking to try new challenges, and so in order to take on as many of these as possible, the more budget we can collect the better. We’ve got stretch goals as well, and I’d like to see how far we can go.

-- Is it accurate to say that all of the development funding will be raised through Kickstarter?

---Show to continue reading ---
YS: No, development will be carried out with Ys Net own funding together with Kickstarter. I won’t know the scale of the budget until the Kickstarter campaign has finished, so I can’t comment on it right now.

-- What were the events that led to you being on stage at SCE’s press conference?

YS: It started by my sounding them out to see if they had any interest in the Shenmue 3 project. Actually, it turns out that Shenmue was at the top of their list of software that people wanted to see revived. And so, with that being the case, I had the chance to speak with SCE and (without sounding like I’m blowing my own trumpet!) they told me “It’s a game of great historical importance; and everyone wants it, so if you were to go ahead and develop part 3, as an exceptional case, we will give you our co-operation”. I had already let them know that I wanted to do this through Kickstarter, and so that’s how it came about.

-- Are there plans for a release on Xbox One?

YS: We don’t have plans for a release on Xbox One. The platforms that are confirmed are PS4 and PC.

-- Was the reason you started development on part 3 due to the voice of support from the fans?

YS: That’s right. For more than 10 years I had been hearing those kinds of requests, and trying to find a way to make it happen. I did things like searching for a partner (company) but did not find one that fit the criteria and so I wasn’t able to make a start. Then came the possibility of realizing it through a combination of self-funding and Kickstarter.

-- I see.

YS: Also there was the aspect of Kickstarter of “creating something together with everyone”. As I stated in my promotion video, it’s the spirit of “within your hands”. Some say that the Shenmue series is the originator of the open-world genre. In reality, with the present amount of $2 million, making a Shenmue that will meet everyone’s expections, even without implementing an open world, is unlikely to be achievable. However, the demand I hear most from the fans is to know how the rest of the story plays out.

-- Yes, that’s something we’d like to know.

YS: In addition, the Shenmue series has a rich portrayal of Eastern and Japanese culture, and so it has quite a different feel to it compared to any other open world games. Because of this, trying to accomplish both the “story” aspect and the “open world” aspects simultaneously is likely to lead to the budget rising higher and higher, and no matter how much time passes it is impossible to get development underway. After thinking long and hard, I have decided to do as much as possible with a minimum level of funding, even if it means creating something story-oriented. Then, if additional development funding is collected, I will add on various elements. And so I decided that development will be based on this kind of scalable approach.

-- This way of thinking is uniquely suited to Kickstarter, isn’t it.

YS: Further, with [development of] any game, there is a piece of it which can easily cost a lot of money to implement; while at the same time it has another piece that doesn’t need to cost a lot of money, namely making it interesting through its ideas and plot. I also think that Shenmue does not consist of merely its story and its open world; it is also fun to play, and I think the way we capture this is vital. Above all, I decided to maintain both the fun and the story aspects, even at the minimum budget level.

-- How much money will be raised is becoming increasingly of interest.

YS: Yes. It’s not that we will not be implementing an open world, but doing so lavishly will cause the budget to shoot up. On the other hand, since I am a creator, I’d like to try new mechanisms. I have set stretch goals with that balance in mind.

-- Compared to 15 years ago, the possibilities for game implementation have greatly widened. Are there any games that have influenced the creation of part 3?

YS: That would be Shenmue 1 and 2.

-- What aspects do you place most importance on, and wish to continue in the new game?

YS: Firstly, the most important is that I want to show how the story continues. As well as that, “nostalgia” is a keyword here: the nostalgic feeling of when we created part 1 and 2, 15 years ago. But even at that time, the setting for part 1 and 2 was the world of 1986. In principle, I believe that going back to an earlier age really brings out the flavor of a region’s culture. That’s the case with the era of the 1980s (and earlier), compared to the current day. Even looking at other countries around the world, as the eras pass by, the scenery of cities all starts to look the same.

-- Yes, that’s true.

YS: This kind of Eastern and Japanese culture, and the spiritual aspect, is what makes Shenmue special. Although though this has given it popularity in the West, what it expresses is certainly not Western. Through thorough creation of so-called Eastern spiritual aspects, culture and customs, I want to bring out people’s interest towards a different culture. There are a lot of things I would like to carry through from parts 1 and 2 to part 3, but through the scalable plan that I mentioned earlier, I want to pay special attention to these kinds of things.

-- Are there any aspects you want to try, given the increase in hardware specs nowdays?

YS: This may not directly answer the question, but actually when we made part 1 and 2, we also completed the plan for part 3. I want to go forward with that exactly as we had planned.

-- Could you explain more?

YS: In part 1, we implemented an open world that we called FREE, and the concept of time passing within the game. In part 2, we greatly expanded that world. In part 3, and this may be giving too much away, but we planned to keep these aspects intact, while making it much deeper. And in parts 1 & 2, while there were elements centered around money e.g. you could “do a part-time job, gamble to increase your money, purchase items at a shop...”, they did not really have any connection with the fighting and skill improvement parts. So when we make part 3, I have in mind to build up those elements; that’s something I would like to try doing.

-- What would be a concrete example?

YS: I’m thinking of a “Technique Scroll” system. Through actions in the game, you can gain new technique scrolls which let you perform special moves. Whether these moves are something you can control directly, or whether they are implemented in a QTE, is something we will be considering and deciding in the future.

-- Please tell us about the release schedule.

YS: Release is planned by the end of 2017.

-- Could you give a message to our readers.

YS: It is thanks to the continous voice of the fans who have waited for the next part of Shenmue across these many years, that we have been able to get started. This is only possible thanks to all the people who give their support. I will continue to put in my best effort, so please give your support and encouragement.

-- Thank you very much.
by Switch
Sun Jun 21, 2015 5:00 am
 
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Re: Twitter push to reach $10 Million! | #10MillionToShenmue

This is something I came across in NeoGAF, worth spreading

Image
by Rikitatsu
Sun Jun 21, 2015 8:49 am
 
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Re: 10000 dinner reward back up for grabs!

I feel guilty now, Peter...

I feel like I need to explain who I am now.. I'm not a casual Shenmue fan. My brother and I are 35. We are identical twins and we help lead a school just outside Guilin in Yangshou where we teach poor kids English in helping them get scholarships to achieve better education.

This was inspired by Shenmue. My Avatar is of me laying on a raft on the Lijiang river just outside Guilin.

I've been there from the beginning like most of you. This will be a great experience in my life that I will treasure until I die.

EDIT:

You can find us on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/VolunteerEnglishTeacher?fref=ts

A lot of the pictures are of my brother and I.

Here is me with the kids.
http://i.imgur.com/b8Bc9z0.jpg
by wdrpgwd
Sun Jun 21, 2015 1:23 pm
 
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Re: shenmue is also for kids !!

What's even more amazing is that the same girl also seemed to discover this rare scene from Shenmue, which the dad had never seen it before after having the game for 12 years!:

phpBB [video]
by Henry Spencer
Sun Jun 21, 2015 3:37 pm
 
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Re: Ways to Help the Kickstarter Campaign - Spread the Word

Just wanted to let you all know that I run an extremely popular blog on the Tumblr platform and I have just written a long piece about why Shenmue matters. The piece has already gotten about 190 notes and has jumped to the top of the Shenmue, Sony, E3, and PS4 tags on Tumblr. It is also near the top of the Gaming and Video Games tags.

Wanted to set the tone of Shenmue discussion in a positive way.

Thought the folks at the Dojo might enjoy what I wrote...
http://cinemagorgeous.com/post/122099238480/shenmue
by Erevador
Sun Jun 21, 2015 4:07 pm
 
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Re: Can you imagine the feeling when...

I'm really hoping they keep the same menu music from the first two games

phpBB [video]
by Sonoshee
Mon Jun 22, 2015 12:20 am
 
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Re: Wasting money on smaller languages

Well, we got our answer. The smaller languages won. It's in the FAQ already. They're even thinking about adding Portuguese and Chinese.

Shenmue 3 will be available in English and Japanese, and since the Stretch Goals have been reached, German, French, Italian and Spanish languages will be added as well. We have received many requests to add Portuguese and Chinese among other languages as well. We are hopeful that funding levels will allow for further languages. Should additional languages be added, there will be an announcement made on the Update page.


Guess the translations can't be regarded as wasted money since the subtitles have been requested by some of the Kickers themselves.

Yeah, fine by me. I guess there is a big enough demand for other languages after all. And I'm also Ok with having to pay for it (in a way) with my Kickstarter money. If there's a big enough demand for it and Ys think the game having those subtitles will sell enough extra copies to make extra money, I'd be the last one to oppose.

Curious to see their decision about Portuguese and Chinese.
by Hyo Razuki
Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:15 am
 
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Re: Ways to Help the Kickstarter Campaign - Spread the Word

I've been looking at this place and Gaf from the backseat but the way you guys are going you won't hit the $10 million. I think we can all agree it should hit around $6 million just based on how it's going. The thing with the Bloodstained Kickstarter was they took control of the community and how they spread the word. Someone has to take charge of everyone and arrange something, set a calendar with what the community as a whole can do each day. One day tweet and the next day do something else. As it stands you have 200 people doing 150 different things. The Team Tu guys, Shenmue 500k, dojo members and Gaf members all have to come together under one roof and have a game plan. Not start a thread saying everyone tweet this hashtag and run off.
by Riku Rose
Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:51 am
 
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Re: About the character design

I'm sure you already noticed this and maybe it has been mentioned already but I want to bring this up again.

Shenhua wears earrings.

http://fs2.directupload.net/images/150622/8at6wo64.jpg

I find it a bit strange that she does that now. It doesn't really fit her really natural clothing and appearance.
Interestingly though, she did wear earrings in the past, on the artworks with the fancy dress on the OST and US Shenmue.

http://www.shenmuedojo.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/wall002_1024_768~0.jpg
by BlueMue
Mon Jun 22, 2015 3:27 pm
 
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Re: Shenmue 3 Kickstarter has new stretch goals

There are many former members of the Dojo who have not even logged in. We will be updating said members who hopefully still use the same email addresses they signed up with. Yama and Sean are currently organising this.
Damn, I also want the privilege of a special customized e-mail from the Dojo. Just for the hell of it.

I think a lot of shenmue gamers stopped playing games long time ago. Hopefully if they find this on not gaming media, it'll spark some good memories and back it.
They clearly forgot about a few of these :
Gon - Everyday, without neglect, to keep training
Dan - Be brave and stay calm to make the right decision
Jie - Judge yourself without conceit and do not show moves thoughtlessly
Yi - To act without hesitation, to do what is right
by ys
Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:28 pm
 
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Re: OFFICIAL SHENMUEDOJO CAMPAIGN LEADERS

Ideally, initiatives like this should come from the people running the Kickstarter campaign I think. It seems like it would be easier for them to unite different communities.

Ideally yes, it'd be nice and "easier" if Awesome Japan were running things, posting motivational updates every day, throwing in new tiers, adding a decent Shenmue intro video to procure new interest, and moving the Stretch Goals to the top of the page (seriously guys, WHY NOT?!). But beyond setting up the initial Kickstarter, FAQ, and advertising Yu's Reddit spot they're kinda just letting it run. As Shenmue Dojo, the biggest and most cohesive Shenmue community online, we should be fighting for more than that so it's on us to up the game.

We absolutely need some leadership to coordinate this, so we don't split our efforts 100 different ways.
by Mystere
Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:55 pm
 
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The Day The Snow Turned Into A Game

http://i.imgur.com/R9dPCjn.jpg

Dear Members,

As many of you know, last week was a week that will go down in history for our community. After 14 years of waiting and hoping, it was revealed by Yu Suzuki himself that he is finally in a position to move forward with the creation of Shenmue 3, albeit with a bit of a caveat. Through the announcement of a Kickstarter campaign , Suzuki-San as asked us the fans to help bring his dream, as well as ours, to life by backing and supporting a campaign to help fund the development of the project. While there are various entities supporting this project, Suzuki-san himself has stated that that the fate of Shenmue 3 now rests in our hands and that our actions as a community will dictate the capabilities his team will have in creating the game and to ideally meet its full creative potential.

If you have not already done so, please visit the campaign website and take some time to consider the extent to which you would be willing and able to support this project; note that there are a range of pledge levels with corresponding reward tiers for every single level of backing. As the campaign progresses, there will also be added levels of support to coincide with stretch funding goals as they are introduced. All of the funds that are pledged will be allocated to and utilized SOLELY by YSNET to develop the game.

Contrary to a lot of the dubiously sourced misinformation that has been circulating in recent days, Sony will NOT be funding the entire budget for the game nor will they subsidizing the development costs for YSNET. While Sony will provide various technical investments in conjunction with marketing and promotional support, this project will remain firmly in the directorial hands of Yu Suzuki and his staff. While it is true that there are a number of backers for Shenmue 3, we at this time do not know the scope of how these other entities are involved with the project. All that we can establish for now is that we as a community are in fact the primary patrons for the development of the game and that the responsibility of making Shenmue 3 the strongest game it can be ultimately resides with us.

Over the next few weeks leading up to the conclusion of the Kickstarter campaign, we will be introducing two specific social-media based initiatives to promote the backing of the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter and the series as a whole. The first initiative, #30onthe3rd , is a continuation of our monthly tweetathon #SaveShenmue but with a twist. On 7/3/2015, we encourage everyone to who is able to increase their pledge amount by $30 and post a corresponding tweet as a sign of solidarity within the community. The 2nd initiative, #10MillionToShenmue3 , is a hashtag campaign to be disseminated across all social media platforms to highlight the need for additional funding for Shenmue 3 in order have it be the project that Yu Suzuki has dreamed of creating. In a recent interview, Suzuki-san stated that at a $10 million funding level Shenmue 3 would feature a truly open world that would follow in the lineage of the previous installments.

The time has finally come for us in the Shenmue community to support the series that has given us so much over years. We are now in a position where we can directly impact and influence the creation of Shenmue 3 and give Suzuki-san our direct input While the task at hand may seem daunting, if we come together and collaborate our efforts we will attain the game that we have wanted and deserved for so long. Thank you all very much for your support and we would not be in the position we are in now if it was not for your perseverance and dedication for the series against all odds. We have truly made it.

Keep friends,

The Shenmue Dojo Staff
by Yama
Mon Jun 22, 2015 10:44 pm
 
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Re: The Day The Snow Turned Into A Game

If instead they would have stipulate "higher is your participation better is the game" with no numbers at all I'm sure that the amount would be more than 3.5 millions by now.

My thoughts exactly.

That's not how Kickstarter works. A "kickstart" gets a project going in a certain direction. We've done that. There will be a Shenmue III. Now we've got to keep the project moving and make the most of it we can.

The $2 million was a "something is better than nothing" target. People saying that number should have been higher have an "all or nothing" philosophy which frankly was not working for Shenmue fans after 14 years. We wanted at least something, anything.

You can tell us to take our something and be happy with it, but don't tell us we're being dishonest or wrong or unprofessional, and certainly don't tell us Sony is already fully funding tens of millions of dollars into this game to make it open world like the original but that's not even close to true.
by Phong
Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:58 am
 
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Re: Suzuki, "I want to make Shenmue 4"

I hope it happens. I don't want everything the series was meant to be to be compressed into one game. I still want it to flow as intended. So hopefully after Shenmue 3 does get the support it deserves a production company of some sort will realise the potential in it & back Shenmue IV.
by TheThirdComing
Tue Jun 23, 2015 6:33 am
 
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Re: Kickstarter page possibly getting an overhaul or additio

I tweeted him about wanting to donate 10,000 but there are no dinner spaces left. I don't know how to use twitter but I decided to give it a shot and he replied. I'm hoping some good news comes of this!

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/PeterC2005/Screenshot_2015-06-23-16-17-24_zpsik8hbkga.png
by Peter
Tue Jun 23, 2015 11:20 am
 
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Re: Please share this alternative Shenmue III Kickstarter vi

Where did you find the transparent logo of Shenmue III please ?
Here's the one that is in the non dub version:
https://i.gyazo.com/89ba85c4341844d8fc413610d79a7429.png

The one in the dub version can be found here:
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=47899


Also thank you to everyone who has left feedback. I do appreciate it :)
by Jibby
Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:27 pm
 
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Re: SHENMUE 3 ANNOUNCED FOR PS4 KICKSTARTER (INFORMATION INS

Wow the daily amount pledged has dropped like a stone. The Kickstarter raised $44.6k yesterday and has only made around $25k today. If previous Kickstarter projects are anything to go by the amount pledged each day is only going to go down until the last few days. At this point Bloodstained was still making around $100k a day and wasn't doing this badly until it's worst days. I think with Shenmue though you're going to have trouble bringing in new people as it's the third game in the series. The majority of people who buy games don't care if they've played the previous games in the series but people who back Kickstarters are the people who do care if they've missed out.

Each of the first two games sold about a million each and that was around 15 years ago. How many of those million liked Shenmue (Many people don't like it), how many read gaming news sites and how many still play games 15 years later. I have 2 brothers who played the originals who haven't played games much since the PS2 era and they most likely wouldn't know Shenmue III exists until they see it while shopping one day in 2017 and it's on the shelf.

Also if you didn't follow Shenmue news there hasn't been much in the games press about this since the E3 announcement. They really should have come out kicking and screaming and trying to get everyone on the hype train. When you have 30 days to entice people you have to get in their face as you don't have time to play the long game. They had such a chance to promote this at E3 after the conference and all we got was a 5 minute segment on a 3 day livestream and a GameInformer interview. People like the Yooka-Laylee guys had interviews go up on all gaming sites the moment the Kickstarter was announced. Bloodstained had livestreams from day one and ways for the community to interact throughout.

Yu Suzuki should have had an english Twitter like Kojima for awhile before E3 and built up an audience. The Shenmue 3 twitter should be tweeting and getting people excited every couple of hours but they've said nothing on it. His biggest audience is America and he still seems to only be doing interviews with Japanese publications. They should have booked interviews with all big gaming sites well beforehand (You have them sign NDA's, most sites know all the new games announced at E3 weeks beforehand and all journalists book their interviews months in advance). The Reddit was a good idea but felt like it was planned within about 24 hours of happening and was really poorly timed. The Yooka Laylee team had built quite a bit to show as a concept which got people excited, YSnet have nothing to show apart from a stiff scene. Then you also need to make the Kickstarter more welcoming to newcomers and have all the tiers open from the start, someone may see there isn't a psyhical copy tier on day one, decide not to pledge and then never check again. You also need too be more clear about what these new things like technique scrolls and character perspective system are. Average Joe pledger isn't going to read a translated interview from a Japanese magazine to find out.

The next stretch goal is over $400k away and at this rate will take over 10 days to get there. They need to get the PS4 physical copy and Paypal up instantly too save this fizzling out. Once they get into the area where they can hit a stretch goal every 200k they can start building up some hype and excitement again. This was a massive missed opportunity and no matter what they do now they will never get that level of hype from E3 back for the general gaming crowd about this Kickstarter. That first $3 million was down to Shenmue fans and the E3 hype and now that both of those groups have pledged they're giving no one else a reason to jump on board.

They won't hit that $10 million at all. They would need to be hitting about $230-240k a day to get there and are struggling to make $50k now. With every day that passes that target becomes harder and more impossible to hit. Looking at how Kickstarters normally pan out we're looking at about $5.5-6 million should it stay at around $40k a day and have the last day surge. This Kickstarter could be run much much better but for that to happen it has to happen now. Right now.
by Riku Rose
Tue Jun 23, 2015 7:54 pm
 
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The Day Shenmue 3's Announcement Blew The World

On June 16, 2015 Shenmue 3's anouncement at E3 literally lightened the world!

Image

by sand4fish
Wed Jun 24, 2015 12:48 pm
 
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Re: There Is No Reason For Negativity

Even Yama was on the brink of giving up and merging the forum with BioHaze.

:lol:

However, I think it's fair and important to note, that without the positive Shenmue fans who didn't give up years ago, we wouldn't have gotten this Kickstarter or a resurgence we are having now without them pushing Sony and getting Shenmue III to the top of their Most Wanted list.
by Himuro
Wed Jun 24, 2015 5:48 pm
 
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Re: Doesnt this make you smile.

Namron_Bearded wrote: Guys, the graphic is from Google.ca and they surely forgot to add "Shenmue" search written in Chinese and Japanese ideograms. ;)


Confirmed. 8)
by NeoShredder
Thu Jun 25, 2015 3:51 am
 
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Re: About the character design

Here are some of the polycounts, I couldn't find were I have stored Ryo's model from Shenmue I.
http://i.imgur.com/uT0gpQ8.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/wn0KBPW.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/bxv4HG1.jpg?1

http://i.imgur.com/pr3XTEY.jpg?1

I don't know if anyone posted this or not but the character models used in the original Shenmue Engine are wierd. They're split into various parts with the head, body, arms, legs, feet and hair all being seperate models which are stiched by the movement engine.

Its not a simple import job to copy the old assets into the game (textures aside), also the assests are 15 years old - we've moved on. It will have to be done using the particular way the unreal engine handels character models, this gives them maximum flexability and its probably quicker to start again from scratch than trying to re-use old assests.

Back when Shenmue was developed the gaming world - especially on consoles - were using custom engines for everything. This isn't practical in this day and age where the development of these engines can outstrip the amount of time spent on a game!


Yes the models are split as you can see in the first pic of RYo's model I posted, and some joints are missing so the total amount of polygons should be higher.

http://i.imgur.com/HseDgNk.jpg

As I've said before, even if they have lost the original assets they can always rip them from the game files, I'm pretty sure they can develop better tools to do it than the ones the community has done in the past years, and even If it weren't the case, they could use the community tools, rip the models and use them as a base for the new ones, that's exactly what I've done, and I started doing it with 0 knowledge in 3D modeling.

I fixed the faces and gave the characters new bodies trying to stay as close as possible to the original ones.

Ryo.
http://i.imgur.com/R5JwYmg.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/umiTXo0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rFJaTAf.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/VyE7Jxb.jpg

Xiuying.
http://i.imgur.com/3LY5qZg.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Y2GtOwC.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Sgh49yT.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/IUyKKF1.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/am8z0Jh.jpg

I am pretty sure they can do a way better job. It is fastest and cheapest than creating new models from scratch that look worse than the originals. And the passport faces looks absolutely stunning, with a few tweaks, honestly.


I just want to be clear, I am not complaining at all just talking about what I think is very important for Shenmue III over things like open world, extra content etc, number one priority should be stay closer to the original characters designs otherwise it would look lke I am playing a game with some people cosplaying shenmue characters, in fact that's how it looks it its current state.
by Esppiral
Thu Jun 25, 2015 9:50 am
 
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Re: Is Yu Suzuki married?

he has a daughter who is also his assistant, he mentioned her in a interview with eurogamer a few months back.
the polygon article also mentioned that there was an artwork on a wall which was drawn by his daughter.

his daughter's name is Nanami, who is 'learning English with his encouragement.'

http://www.polygon.com/a/life-in-japan/Yu-Suzuki-kitchen
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-03-22-out-ran-meeting-yu-suzuki
by johnvivant
Thu Jun 25, 2015 6:38 am
 
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Re: Shuhei Yoshida Contributed $29 to Shenmue 3 Kickstarter

Polygon headline: SONY BOSS CONFIRMS DIRECT FUNDING OF SHENMUE III
by NeoShredder
Thu Jun 25, 2015 4:04 pm
 
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Masaya Matsukaze - Ryo Hazuki (English/French Subtitles)

Click captions to change the language. Subtitles provided by Yan Herrera.

phpBB [video]
by Ziming
Thu Jun 25, 2015 4:30 pm
 
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Re: Shenmue 3 - All stretch goals announced.....

Who knows? Maybe Yu Suzuki intends to put Chinese as a stretch goal at 11,10 Mil. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if he thought out stretch goals till hitting the budget of his two previous games. Sometimes the guy is too ambitious for his own good. :shock:
by sand4fish
Fri Jun 26, 2015 12:55 am
 
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I was featured in Metro.co.uk's Games Inbox

So, over the years, my sporadic 'Shenmue 3' google search often yielded a hit from metro.co.uk. Their Games Inbox, which I think is posted twice daily, is a collection of reader submissions. Usually anything Shenmue related was rather negative in nature, and it definitely seemed like those who run the blog aren't fans either based on some of their responses and just the mere fact they frequently post about Shenmue and it's usually in a bad light. Anyway, I wrote in a response this morning after reading yet another downer post about Shenmue's kickstarter. Here's the post I responded to:

I don’t know If you’ve been following it day-to-day, but the Kickstarter for Shenmue III basically seems to have stalled. It may have broken records at first, but it’s been hovering around $3.5 million for days now and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Any chance of making it to $10 million seems to be out of the window and it’ll probably struggle to make $5 million.
I know that’s still a lot of money but I do wonder whether the popularity of the game was overstated a bit. It seems to me it’s more a meme and in-joke than anything else. I actually played the first one again recently and it is really pretty bad: awkward controls, terrible dialogue, pointlessly easy combat, and a story that goes nowhere.
That doesn’t mean I don’t like it. I do admire its ambition a lot, but I can’t imagine myself sitting down to actually play the whole thing again. I’m curious to hear from other readers that have also played it recently and what they honestly thought of it. To me it was a niche game back in the day and it’s probably going to be a niche game now too.
Iceman

And here's my response which was put in the evening edition:

Speaking on behalf of Shenmue fans everywhere: We get it it. You guys don’t like Shenmue.
In the past couple of years, typing Shenmue in the little Google searchbox to see if there was any buzz has usually yielded nothing more than an occasional outlandish rumour – or some Metro Games Inbox blurb about how overrated the game is.
Now that the sequel’s been announced, you’d think Metro would back off a little bit and let the game’s fans have their moment, but already I’ve seen a couple snippets about how hard it is to understand that people actually love this game.
Granted, no one’s trolling per se, and all opinions are valid, but still: give it a rest. All Kickstarters stall in the middle. It’ll get a rush at the end, and I’m confident it will reach a solid $5 million – a huge success, by all means. As a fan who has yet to make his pledge but certainly will be before the end of the campaign, I’m perfectly content with how this is panning out, and I look forward to see where it ends up.
The stretch goals are ambitious – but ambition is the first word that comes to mind when you consider Shenmue. Sure, I’d love to see this soar to $11 million, and though unlikely, after last Monday’s announcement I will say this: anything is possible. It’s been 10 days and I’m still basking in the glow of this unexpected announcement – and I haven’t played video games seriously since, well – Shenmue II on Xbox. This series very effectively dulled my appetite for gaming, because to me, it’s just that good.
So let us fans who have stuck this out for 15 years continue to bask – and perhaps Metro can stay quiet about their distaste for Shenmue for a while.
Michael Chenard


Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2015/06/26/games-inbox-mass-effect-andromeda-hopes-shenmue-debate-and-ghost-recon-wildlands-5268218/#ixzz3eCgXiSvl

I don't think I was too off-the-mark: Definitely seems like there's a disproportionate amount of anti-Shenmue rhetoric on this blog, although I don't really follow it, or gaming news at all, in general. Has anyone else ever noticed this? I do think there's no reason for the negativity when us starving Shenmue fans have a 30 day window for redemption.

Regardless, I encourage you all to send in your praises for Shenmue!
by Lan Di-sama
Fri Jun 26, 2015 4:54 pm
 
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Rough transcript of the interview on Twitch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZm-HzCVzL4

For those who missed the Twitch stream, I made a very rough transcript while listening to the interview.
Here we go:

"We have lots of very important things to get to so let's start right away!"

*They all pause to drink some Fanta*

Q: "One more time, explain Sony's role in Shenmue 3."

A: "Sony's providing us comprehensive support in terms of publishing and marketing, as well as funding of the project partially."

*Stream goes down due to technical issues*

Q: Once again they ask about Sony's role

A:"Sony is providing us comprehensive support in marketing, promotion, and funding. They are one of the most important partners of this project. But as we said before in our statement ... they are not receiving one cent from the Kickstarter... the funds collected in the KIckstarter project will be all used for development except for the fees used for the Kickstarter and for providing the Kickstarter rewards. Not a single cent will go to Sony from the Kickstarter funds."

Q: PS4 physical reward ?

A: "It's one of the most requested rewards and I personally want to prepare for it as a reward. We are now considering how we can provide the reward in such a way that satisfies the backers. Please be patient."

Q: Before you were talking about how the funds will be spent. Can you explain more?

A: "We have a pie chart for how the funds from Kickstarter will be spent. KS
Fees: 8 - 10 % Game development: 65 to 72% Backer rewards: 20 - 25% Most of the kickstarter funds are going to the game development. Everything excluding necessary fees and the reward fulfilment.. everything's gonna be used for development."

Q: "Will the real Ryo please stand up?"

A: "We're still improving the qualities of Ryo's face. Not satisfied with the face Ryo has right now. Today we have the latest version, a new pic or Ryo's face. (They show a pic) This new pic we're not satisfied with. Ryo still looks kind of 'frowny.' So I want to continue the improvement. I want to enhance Ryo's attactiveness and personality through not only the models but through the facial expressions and actions he does to make Ryo even better. So we are going to see an improved Ryo in the future. He'll be much better through the process of development."

Q: "Another big issue. Voice actors coming back to reprise their roles. Specifically Ryo. Will we be seeing them again?"

A: "So, I think that the original voice actors will be the best match for Ryo's voice. So I want them to come back as his real voice in shenmue 3 as well. I'm now in negotiation with them. Please wait. We'll have more details about that."

Q: "Will PayPal be an option to help fund Shenmue 3?"

A: "No definite answer, but we're looking into it."

Q: "Is Shenmue 3 going to be DRM free on PC?"

A: "We are now looking into it, but it's not something I alone can decide on. I'm talking to other parties to decide if that's possible... we're looking into it."

Q: "Shenmue 1/Shenmue II HD remaster: are we gonna see it?"

A: "I personally want to see them so that the fans can enjoy Shenmue 3 more. However the property rights belong to SEGA, so I'm not in a position to comment on it. But I want it, so I will talk to SEGA if that's possible."

Q: "More rewards?"

A: "Today we will have additional rewards. First of all we have the grab bags. A lot of surprises in different prize tears, starting from 1,000 dollars to 500 dollars. It contains Shenmue merchandise, and it is random, so you have fun in opening the bag. And also we'll have one more reward, that is the replica of Ryo's watch. There is only one. This will be in the 5,000 reward tier. *They show the watch*

Q: "What are the other rewards going to be like?"

A: "The grab bags will include for example special figures of Ryo. There are also Shenmue watches. (Not the one just shown.) They also include autographed art work. Check out the page later. The rewards will be up. Check it out! For today we have grab bags and watches but in the future we'll have more additional rewards so please stay tuned to the kickstarter page!"

Q: "Stretch goals... stretch goals... stretch goals. Can we get a little bit of explanation please, about the stretch goals."

A: "The budget we have right now, it's Shenmue with story elements. It will be Shenmue 3 up until the duel against the four big bosses. But with additional stretch goals, more areas are going to be added and expanded.

The Rapport system is the system that governs the changes in characters' attitudes toward you, depending upon actions you take in conversations. It will provide a new twist to Shenmue.

In Shenmue 3 there'll be a lot of occasions when you can obtain technique scrolls through special events, jobs, missions, etc. They can be used in battle right away as a QTE. However the advanced skill scrolls and arcane skill scrolls are managed in a tree diagram. Completing that tree will be another side of fun, and it links to the actual martial art learning.

Q: "More on stretch goals"

A: "With the area Baisha, we want to include new fun not included in Shenmue 2. Traditional tactics such as seige and infiltration that we see in warring kingdoms in traditional China are also added. But I want to make it Shenmue-like, easy to grasp, easy to play, and provide more fun.

There's an opportunity for the players to play as different characters. In that event you'll see different choices that different personalities offer, different from Ryo and other characters. That will provide more fun and more personality to the characters.

So there's a lot more stretch goals we published, but there will be a large amount of explanations and a large amount of fun still to come, so we'll leave it to other occasions to explain the other stretch goals.

Your cooperation is what makes this Kickstarter progress, so please support us!

Q: "How will Shenmue 3 at its current funding level be different from Shenmue 3 at the 10 million dollar level?"

A: "The current funding level - about 3.6 million - will have story oriented Shenmue. More focus on story. Exceeding 5 million will allow the development to include more things that are new, such as we explained about Baisha. Exceeding 10 million will allow for the players to enjoy a more open world like Shenmue."

Q: "When is Shenmue 3 going to be released?"

A: "It's expected to be released by the end of 2017. We're confident."

Q: "Is this the end of the story?"

A: "The initial storyline contained 11 chapters. With 1 & 2 it advanced to only a little bit of the 11 chapters. I considered doing the final game to include all the remaining chapters, but in the final consideration it would be skipping all the big arcs, and the completeness of the game would be less enjoyable. So this Shenmue 3 will have more storylines, but this structure will not finish the storyline with Shenmue 3."

Q: "When can we play the trial version?"

A: "It requires many of the basic systems to be developed. The release date of the demo version will be the latter half of the development stage. It might be after the new year of 2017. Until then it requires more development for the basics."

(Inaudible)

Please keep sending us your questions. We want to make Shenmue 3 the best we can. Please share the project. Get the word out. Let everybody know that Shenmue 3 is happening, and we need everybody to support and make sure that we make this Shenmue 3 spectacular."

Q: "Final thoughts?"

A: "I always want to do new things. I hope to achieve all the things I want to do in the new Shenmue, matching with what the Shenmue the fans want, to meet the ten million dollar goal. We ask your continued support, and that you spread the word around to make Shenmue a real thing! Thank-you very much!"

"Let's make this happen! Everybody has been so great the past fourteen years. Making it happen. It's happening now. #SaveShenmue! Let's do this! Thank-you!"
by benayun88
Fri Jun 26, 2015 11:17 pm
 
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Re: Rough transcript of the interview on Twitch

Translation of the Interview on Twitch

Ok, I'm done! Here's a translation of Yu Suzuki's actual answers for comparison. Overall I think the translator on the Twitch session covered the information pretty well, except for maybe some minor detail.

Q: What is Sony’s involvement with Shenmue III?
YS: Sony is providing us with support in various ways including marketing, funding and promotion, and they’re our most important partner; they’re also our largest and most valued backer.

We plan to invest all the money collected from everyone through Kickstarter on development, excepting the Kickstarter fees and costs for the rewards. No portion of the collected money will flow to Shibuya Productions or Sony.

Q: PS4 physical reward?
YS: This is one of the most requested rewards, and it’s the reward I most want to make happen. Um... Please be patient!

Q: How will Kickstarter funds be spent?
YS: Please take a look at this pie chart which I’ve prepared.
[Fees: 8 - 10%, Game development: 65 to 72%, Backer rewards: 20 - 25%]

http://i.imgur.com/JtmE4vg.png

Q: Ryo’s appearance...
YS: We’ve had a lot of comments about how Ryo’s face looks, but we’ve just got started and so it is still under development. Personally, I’m not satisfied at all either, and so even now we’re continuing to improve it. Today I’ve brought a slightly improved version to show you – it’s not the final version, and we’ll be improving it even further, but I wanted to show you it.

For comparison, we’ve included two shots of Ryo from Shenmue II.

http://i.imgur.com/moKhHjb.jpg

The one at the front is the slightly improved version for Shenmue III. Again, I’m not completely happy with this Ryo – the shape of his mouth is not quite right – and I’d like to make further refinements.

As well as the shape of his face, his facial expressions and his actions also add to his personality and his attractiveness. So going forward I’d like to work on facial expressions and movements in making an attractive Ryo.

Q: Will the original voice actors reprise their roles?
YS: I auditioned Masaya Matsukaze and Corey Marshall for Shenmue I & II, and I believe their voices are perfect for Ryo’s voice. So I’d definitely like to have them reprise the role again this time. We’re currently in negotiations and I’m sure they will both be happy to do so, so please look forward to that.

Q: Can PayPal payment be added?
YS: I’m considering funding methods other than Kickstarter, including PayPal.

Q: Will a DRM-free version be made available?
YS: It’s something that is under consideration at the moment. However it’s not something Ys Net can decide by ourselves, and so discussions are taking place with various parties.

Q: Will HD versions of Shenmue I & II be released?
YS: I think that if Shenmue I and II could be released before Shenmue III, people would be able to understand the backstory and enjoy Shenmue III even more. And so I also personally strongly want this to happen, but as the rights are held by Sega I’m not really in a position to be able to comment. However I will also express to Sega that that I really would like for them to be produced.

Q: Details of new rewards?
YS: There has been feedback that there are not enough rewards, and so we have added additional rewards. We have prepared $1000, $2000 and $5000 grab bags. The bags will continue various items of Shenmue merchandise, and I think these will be quite exciting. And also at the $5000 level will the one-only prototype of the watch worn by Ryo in the Shenmue games. I have it here to show you... This is the Timex watch worn by Ryo, and it has the YS and Shenmue logos on it. It’s a very rare item.

Q: Details of the grab bags?
YS: It includes various things such as special figures of Ryo, watches... these watches are not quite as valuable as the one-of-a-kind one mentioned before; they’re more casual and they also have the Shenmue logo. Anyway, there are a variety of different items included.

Also, we have prepared some of the original art drawn by our main character designer, Miyawaki. These are quite valuable, and are a great reward I think.

In addition to the rewards we have added today, we will be continuing to add further ones in the future, so please look forward to them too.

Q: Tell us about the stretch goals up to $3.6m?
YS: Firstly, I’ll talk about the stretch goals up until around the $3.6m mark, which are the most basic goals. The stretch goals up to $3.6m will achieve a story-oriented Shenmue. As further goals are reached, the content for various areas will be correspondingly expanded, but even with the story-oriented version, the plot will develop to reach a confrontation with the 4 leaders {of the Chiyoumen}.

Also, game features like the Rapport system and the Skill Tree system will be included.

Q: Rapport system
YS: With the Rapport system, various data on your interactions with Shenhua will be tracked, such as her level of trust and rapport with you and so on, according to your actions toward her and the way your conversations progress. Later, this will affect how cooperative Shenhua is toward you, for example. I think we’ll be able to express a new and exciting angle to Shenmue that wasn’t present in the previous games.

Q: Skill Tree system
YS: In Shenmue 3, you will be able to obtain move scrolls {“technique scrolls”} in various places – for example, in shops, mini-games, part-time jobs, gambling, quest events. You’ll be able to make immediate use of move scrolls in battle QTEs – for example, once you get a new scroll, you’ll be able to use it straight away as a QTE appearing during a fight. Being able to use it as soon as you have collected it will make it easy and satisfying to use. I think it will be fun to have it appear and be used when fighting. Advanced moves and Arcane scrolls will be managed in a tree structure; these will not become immediately available after obtaining them. Instead, a likeness can be drawn with learning of actual martial arts, where you build up to reach an advanced move through the accumulation of several moves; in a similar way, you will need to build up moves in the tree in order to reach the advanced moves, and I think filling the moves in the tree will be fun.

But you won’t have to build up to the advanced moves by actually participating in fighting (which can become tiresome); instead you just need to accumulate the necessary move scrolls to fill the tree.

Q: Stretch Goals up to $5m
YS: If the $5m mark is reached, we will focus on the area of Baisha There will be new types of play here which were not present in Shenmue I & II. Typical classical war strategies from the historical Three Kingdoms period of China, such as seiges and infiltration, will be incorporated.

Features such as “infiltration” may sound as if they will make the game too complicated, but they will be implemented in a way that is in keeping with the feel of the Shenmue games and will be easy to enjoy and engage with for anyone.

As another feature, I am planning a Character Perspective system. To put it simply, it is being able to change the character you play, but in Shenmue it will be done a little differently from other games that have this: in Baisha there will be an event where you will be able to change character in order to accomplish the mission. The player will be able to control not just the character of Ryo, but also other characters such as Shenhua and Ren; Ren has his own distinct personality, and Shenhua as a female has her own viewpoints and decisions; the choices will be different depending on the character you play. So it won’t simply be changing of character, but rather each character’s personality will be expressed and I think this will make for an enjoyable experience.

Q: Stretch Goals to $11m
YS: Currently further stretch goals have been announced through to $11m (such as the expanded battle system and so on), I’d like to leave it until next week to talk about these.

Q: Shenmue III at the Current Funding Level (around $3.6m at time of Twitch) vs $10 million
YS: At the current level of funding, as I mentioned earlier the game will be focused on the story. However once we reach $5 million we will be able to introduce aspects such as the Three Kingdoms “war strategies” mentioned earlier which will set it apart from the first two Shenmue games. This is actually the part I would most like to accomplish. If we can go above $10 million, the town of Choubu will be significantly enhanced. The town of Choubu has scenery that is somewhat like, for example, the Dobuita and Yokosuka areas of Shenmue I, and this will open up various options for amusement there. So, above $10 million, we will be able to include both game features that I would like to take on the challenge of including, as well as making the game “open-world like” with an even wider range of choices available.

Q: When is Shenmue III going to be reLEEEAASED?
YS: By the end of 2017.

Q: Will Shenmue III end the story?
YS: In terms of the 11 chapters that form the basis of the Shenmue story, we have only traversed a little way through these in Shenmue I and II. I did consider completing all the remaining chapters within the third game, but it would mean skipping a lot of the good parts and would not result in a satisfactory game. There were a lot of people who want to know the ending of the story, but in order to make the game as high quality as possible, the end of the story will not be reached in Shenmue III.

Q: Release Date of Demo Version
YS: Providing this at an early stage will be difficult because we need to develop various systems and the game to a certain extent first. It is likely not to be until the latter half of the development period.

I think it won’t be until 2017.

Q: Final Comment
YS: I always love doing new things and taking on new challenges, and so I would like to aim for the goal of $10 million in order to produce a Shenmue that is both the one I want to create, and one which everyone wants. I really hope to somehow bring it to reality, and so I would like to ask for everyone’s continued efforts and cooperation. Thank you.
by Switch
Sat Jun 27, 2015 4:32 am
 
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Re: Rough transcript of the interview on Twitch

I prefer that he's upfront about it, otherwise the backlash might be huge for some people. Some people would be pissed if he wasn't. It makes it more exciting for me, since it means 3 won't feel like a rush to the finish. We all like Shenmue because it takes its time, right?
by Henry Spencer
Sat Jun 27, 2015 7:40 am
 
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