Thanks, Switch!

Had some fun on Tinder:

Interesting article (Games) but nothing exclusively new to be honest.

That said, there are a few aspects of the article which makes me more confused than I was before reading it.

Q: "Will arcades comes back"?
A: "It will depend on the budget"

I naively thought that arcades were confirmed in S3 but which ones would be back was still unconfirmed?

Then the statements from "Games" about the area of Choubu and Bailu not beeing funded sounds confusing as well.
In my understanding, those area will be in S3 but not in their fully "extended" form, at least not without more funding.
Can someone confirm their presence... I'm starting to sweat :|

Arcades aren't confirmed yet.

Choubu and Bailu are in the game (Bailu is where you start off, then I think you go to Choubu and Baisha). They just aren't as fleshed out as they would be if those stretch goals are met. Hopefully we hit a few Choubu stretch goals in the PayPal.

Congrats on interviewing Suzuki-san :)

1. I'd like to know how far Shenmue III got into development for the Dreamcast and/or any subsequent consoles over the years. Was he working on it all between the release of Shenmue II DC and Shenmue II Xbox? It's funny how most of the preview images I remember from '98 and '99 ended up being scenes from Shenmue II so we know that was already far into development before the game was split in two and Shenmue I was released.

2. Will the White Leaf and the Mysterious Scroll be in Ryo's inventory in Shenmue III? What about photos of Nozomi, Fangmei and Joy?

3. What is the AI Battling stretch goal? I asked about this and the High Ground Battle System during the 2nd Twitter Q&A and he responded that the latter involved some chain reaction system which put images of rolling boulders or something down hills in my head, but I still don't understand what AI Battling is.

4. Was Sega working on subsequent hardware after the release of the Dreamcast before they decided to become a third-party developer/publisher, and was he involved at all like he was with the development of the Dreamcast? It's standard practice to work on the next console not long after the release of the current one, so I'd be surprised if they didn't look into it in some way.

5. Was Virtua FIghter 3 for Saturn actually completed? I've heard rumours that AM2 ported the game in some fashion to the Saturn before Sega pulled the plug on it and got Genki to do a rush-job port to the Dreamcast.

5. Was Virtua FIghter 3 for Saturn actually completed? I've heard rumours that AM2 ported the game in some fashion to the Saturn before Sega pulled the plug on it and got Genki to do a rush-job port to the Dreamcast.

I think this video has some footage at one point. Or a still. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hk84nSsAv4

I'll add my own questions for the OP a little later. About to go to work.

I've read that those are fakes made by messing around with a Model 3 emulator, don't think any footage got out.



6. What is the music that accompanies the Shenmue Saturn footage? Was it from the Saturn version of the game or was it unused music for the Dreamcast games?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCt-TFzuwmw

- Were there plans for more meaningful choices in Shenmue I and II? One can guess that the conversation choices in Guilin with Shenhua in Shenmue II were an early version of the Rapport System and were meant to lead to different outcomes in Shenmue III (and there is also the oft-overlooked Fangmei sidequest), but I was wondering if there were any other areas you wanted to implement choices that had to be cut for time/budget/disc space reasons.

- Was there/is there a plan for multiple endings to the saga (be it in Shenmue IV or V), besides the taking-too-long style Bad Ending as seen in the first two games? You mentioned the main story being 11 chapters but there being more with branching chapters, is that what these branching chapters would be?

This is the Q&A I'm referring to:

Q. Were there originally 16 chapters in the Shenmue saga or were there 11? please elaborate as to why some say 16 and some say 11.

A. It is 11 chapters, but with branched story line, it will be more than 11.

1. Zereshk polow tahchin
2. Fesenjoon
3. Cheeseburger
4. Kabob soltani (kubideh + barg)
5. Ghormeh sabzee
6. Pepperoni stuffed cheese crust pizza
7. Meatza
8. Bolognese with red wine and cocoa

Checked out a few sushi places for first time, impressed by detail:

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

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

Ryo seemed really excited about this "Flame Tree", what is it called in Japanese? I assume this is the same one as in the park with Jianmin and at the back of Man Mo Temple:

http://i.imgur.com/Zg6XUNy.jpg

Finally got Kids Dural C, where does she appear in VF Kids? What's the deal with the fish? :P :

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

Will we finally see Ryo wielding a Chinese broadsword in Shenmue III? I read somewhere that one of the reasons they moved Shenmue development from Saturn to Dreamcast was that they thought the latter could better handle swordfighting that they wished to implement:

http://i.imgur.com/D1SAuYr.jpg

It'd be funny if as an easter egg they just had some Chinese dude as a tomato vendor who whistles the Tomato Convenience Store theme, or someone playing it on a guzheng.

Spent an hour trying to win Darts Strike, finally won when baseball dude missed completely and I got just 1 bullseye.

Got Hang On Gold in just two goes, though (one of the boards by Jianmin, just stuck to the left when dropping ball). So shiny:

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t31.0-8/11930896_10100568690861122_1676539856893746250_o.jpg

Have VF Completion capsule toys, just missing Super Sonic and Metal Sonic from Sonic the Fighters, gotta hit the Tomato Convenience Store.

Watched lunchtime taichi, I usually just see the old dude, didn't realise that sometimes there's a bunch of people practicing:

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfl1/t31.0-8/11958303_10100568690871102_1603441999886626134_o.jpg

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t31.0-8/11890018_10100568690876092_7262007035618989481_o.jpg

Interesting, I had a look at NeoGAF and found this from one of the people behind the rerelease:

I also want to help clarify what the VMU saves functionality means to the our new PC version.

- The VMS file format is the same file format used by the original Dreamcast console
- Because the Anniversary Edition is based off the original Dreamcast code, Grandia II also writes & reads to the VMS save file format within the data/save file directory
- This allows the player to import their own VMS save files that can be downloaded from any Dreamcast community websites like Blue Swirl
- Also, since Dreamcast emulators also use VMS save files, they can also bring any of their personal save files over from their emulator and continue on within the Anniversary Edition. Any Grandia II VMS save file will work.
- This allows the Grandia community to share VMS save files easily between their friends & fanbase regardless of platform

Where to find your save files
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Grandia II Anniversary Edition\data\saves

In this folder you'll see a list with all your save files. All you need to do is rename your downloaded or personal VMS files to match the format used by the game which looks like:
GRANDIA2_000.VMS

That's all there is to it. The next time you load up the Anniversary Edition your imported save files will appear in the Load Game screen.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=176424546&postcount=583

There's a couple of benches, one in South Carmain Quarter towards the Wise Men's Quarter exit and one in Man Mo Park, where people like to nod off before getting up and leaving. Didn't manage to capture the South Carmain one but I got this from a guy in Man Mo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8BzEjOLGhI

If Shenmue I and II HD do get announced I hope they drop the Cinema Shorts stretch goal and put that towards Shenmue III development.

Who's the game Dev Yu refers to as finding success on kickstarter and was a Shenmue fan- Tim Schafer?

Ryan Paton who made République, they had him in a couple of the Kickstarter videos, and he did an interview with Suzuki-san and David Cage a few years back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8gxwGIDPFs

Supa wrote: No big deal, don't worry about translating the Niao Sun details, GAF user.

Hah, to be fair I don't want too much to be spoiled about individual characters, I'm more interested in hearing about game mechanics without giving away the story.

Just curious, why don't you want to play it on a PC? You'll most likely be able to use the controller of your choice (360, Xbone, DS4) and connect it to a TV with an HDMI cable or via streaming. You can get a PS4 level rig for the same price as a console if you build it yourself, which is basically like putting LEGO pieces together. Plus, you'll get the benefit of mods down the line as well, not to mention better resolution and framerate.

So i guess we cant expand our original pledges like i thought we could? You would have to "repledge" to get a better reward of choice.

Latest Kickstarter update says there will be upgrades down the line for KS backers after they send out surveys:

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

DEVILLE_David wrote: My life is complete !

The badge is from Gachapon tho.... Spent more than 1000 yen and nothing *grrrrrr*

"Maybe I should get another..."

;)

Was thinking about ideas for PayPal rewards and I tweeted Cedric and Suzuki about contacting John Sweeney to see if they could get some Shenmue art prints from him. If Suzuki signed them I'm sure there are fans (including myself) who would pay 2-3x as much for them, so Sweeney would still get paid and the PayPal would get a decent contribution:

"@CedricBiscay @Shenmue_3 You contacted J. Sweeney about having his print as PayPal reward? Signed by @yu_suzuki_jp? http://bit.ly/1PnbpCd "

https://twitter.com/resnate/status/646256839236190208

Cédric Biscay Tweet to Keanu Reeves...
https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status/649158160574496768

http://i61.tinypic.com/20hmwsm.png

That's where I start to dream about a Shenmue related collaboration :-o

That's not Keanu's Twitter account (he doesn't have one). I tweeted Cedric to contact the Screen Actor's Guild instead.

I think it's more likely he wants Keanu for Shibuya's Astro Boy remake than for Shenmue III.

I'd suggest having the Monaco Dinner + 1 available again, but separately so there's more chance of fan(s) going for it.

Also if they could contact John Sweeney who did that Shenmue print that came out during the Kickstarter, see if he'll sell them a few that Suzuki can sign, and then they can double or triple the price and for the PayPal.

Someone mentioned something about not being able to donate freely to PayPals in Japan (i.e. you need a reward), so maybe they should add something digital at $30, like your name on a Slacker Backer section of the Shenmue website or something similarly trivial and inexpensive.

Tweet from @Shenmue_3:
Yes, it’s official! NoconKid is signed on for #Shenmue3 !!! http://shenmue.link/order/

http://i.imgur.com/ew0tlo8.png
Source: https://twitter.com/Shenmue_3/status/650337291781566464

In the rare case you don't know already, NoconKid is the creator of the Shenmue HD Fanmade Remaster:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7cjDaOQpB0

Just noticed the Unreal Engine 4 book on the shelf behind them ;)

Posted the story to reddit, has over 1000 upvotes, hope it means more PayPal backers!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments ... t_year_of/

Tried sending e-mail to all the related person including Kickstarter KS / YSnet and etc about a week ago, but still no reply from any one of them. There's not much I can do now than to hope they will respond maybe by end of this month or next. It would be great if paypal backers get the same if not similar response treatment to Kickstarter backers. So far no notification, no replies, no updates, just frozen in time.

I just find it very strange and odd that not a single auto generated e-mail was sent as a form of notification of payment received. Would have been nice to know or get at least some sort of auto generated " thank you , we received your payment and order " acknowledgement.

That's one of the problems to resolve at the moment. If we want the Paypal campaign to be a success, we need more reactivity coming from Awesome Japan. Why not more appealing rewards, works in progress etc. Interactivity with the fans, newcomers is a must and they have to work on it.

If they pay for my flight for Japan I'll do it, I'll live on ramen for 3 months if it means getting awareness of the PayPal campaign out there! I'm a web developer and even at my basic skill level I know an auto-generated email isn't that hardest thing to do in the world.

Honestly I'm going to buy the two versions, I just can't chose. The two have their drawbacks.

I don't really see any drawbacks with the PC version, it'll (hopefully) be graphically superior and support PS4 controller (though I'm hoping for 360 controller support as well). Been meaning to have a proper gaming PC for years, will save up and build one just before Shenmue III comes out.

Within the span of a few hours I received two responses from the Kickstarter team regarding having a Shenmue Exhibition. As expected, it would require permission from Sega which would take some time.

Hello Amir,

We at the Kickstarter team are delighted to hear of fans wanting to support Shenmue in this way.

I have taken the liberty to forward your message to the Ys Net team.

We will contact you with their response as soon as we can.

Thank you very much for all your support.

Sincerely,

Oscar &
The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Team

Hello Amir,

We have already gotten a response concerning the Shenmue exhibition.

In order for us to officially support a project like this, and possibly provide you with artwork or other things , we will first need Sega's permission since they own the rights to Shenmue.

We would have to submit your project to Sega for review, and it will most likely take a lot of time until the details with Sega are worked out.

In regards to this we would like to ask you there is already a planned schedule of when the exhibition would take place.

Also if you would have any mock-ups, documents or material that would give us a concrete idea of the exhibition, please forward these to our email
( [email protected] ) so we can present them to Sega for review.

If you have any more questions feel free to contact us through here or through email.

Thanks again for your support.

Best regards,

Oscar &
The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Team

I'm currently writing a piece on Shenmue but once that is done I'll spend the rest of the week coming up with mock-ups and documents for the exhibition. If anyone else wants to help that would be amazing!

From the 27th-29th of November there will be an event called the Hyper Japan Christmas Market in London:

http://hyperjapan.co.uk/

The form to apply for a table is here, and the deadline is the 16th of October:

http://form.jotformeu.com/form/50555526371354

I reckon it'd be a great opportunity to raise awareness for the Shenmue III PayPal.

A basic table and chair is pretty steep at £280, but if there's 4 or more of us that'd be less than £70 per person. I've got a small 15" LCD monitor I could bring along (that's how I play on my Dreamcast via VGA) and a copy of the UK game, though if anyone has burned discs of the Jap-dub/Eng-sub version we could go with that instead. I've also got a sealed JP copy I could put on display, and if anyone else has any Shenmue merch they wouldn't mind bringing along to pretty up the table that'd be much appreciated.

I'm planning on spending the whole weekend there but even if you've got just a few hours to spare some of us could take it in shifts for piss breaks/food/games of Lucky Hit.

Speaking of Lucky Hit, if anyone is any good with woodwork it'd be amazing if we had a Lucky Hit board for the table. And if anyone has any capsule toys they're willing to part with or can make their own, we could sell those to go towards the PayPal.

A few fans from the UK Shenmue Meetup "The Long Zha" should be coming along on Sunday the 29th, so even if you don't want to volunteer at the table it'd be great to have your support by just popping by the table and asking us if we know of any bars where sailors hang out.

Segata Sanshiro awesomeness at 6:10. Ryo at 7:50 (and for a split-second in anime form at 0:50).

Hey guys, I wrote a few words on Shenmue :)

UPDATED LINKS:

Part I: Of Dreams and Dreamcasts:
https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/what-s-shenmue-6145a484bbf1

Part II: The Death of the Dreamcast and Shenmue’s Uncertain Fate:
https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/what-s-shenmue-7415134fd9c0

Part III: The Brief Lives of Shenmue Online & Shenmue City, the Birth of Ys Net, and the Seeds of an Idea"
https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/what-s-shenmue-91b3add6dbbd

Part IV: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt and Hope:
https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/what-s-shenmue-feb33078ef60

While Sega stopped supporting the Dreamcast with their final release, Karous, for the console in 2007, companies such as Hucast continue to publish games for the Dreamcast to this day, and a dedicated community of indie developers take advantage of the ease of coding for the system as well as it’s lack of software protection to program games for the cult system.

Another! :)

Thanks, looking at that first sentence as well it's too stop-start, changed it to:

While Sega stopped supporting the Dreamcast with their final release for the console in 2007, Karous, companies such as Hucast continue to publish games

Made a few more changes and decided to publish them on Medium, feel free to share!

Part I: Of Dreams and Dreamcasts:
https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/what-s-shenmue-6145a484bbf1

Part II: The Death of the Dreamcast and Shenmue’s Uncertain Fate:
https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/what-s-shenmue-7415134fd9c0

Part III: The Brief Lives of Shenmue Online & Shenmue City, the Birth of Ys Net, and the Seeds of an Idea"
https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/what-s-shenmue-91b3add6dbbd

Part IV: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt and Hope:
https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/what-s-shenmue-feb33078ef60

You're not going to run into major spoilers when reading the interview HOWEVER, DO NOT read the question 14 if you don't want to know bosses that are going to be in the game. You've been warned ! ;-)

Thanks for warning us, please may you put question 14 in a spoiler tag when you post the interview? I'm looking forward to hearing more about the game but I still want to leave the story itself unspoiled :)

I asked about translations a few days ago:

https://twitter.com/HeroesdePapelES/sta ... 8547250177

Here's the full script (sorry about the mistakes, I've worked on it as fast as possible) :

Chaque semaine vous découvrez une personnalité qui veut changer le monde à travers les médias ou internet. C'est dans notre rubrique : "Le Tube d'avance".

Et aujourd'hui on va parler d'un jeune français : "Cédric Biscay". Il a 36 ans et il a récolté plus de 6 millions de dollars sur le net, un record, Pour relancer un jeu vidéo japonais culte : Shenmue. Shenmue avait disparu des consoles depuis 15 ans. Et bien Résapony Watcher (à vérifier, c'est ce que j'entends) a rencontré le français qui va ressuciter un des héros des gamers.

Cannes, au début du mois, la croisette déroulait son tapis rouge à l'occasion du Mipcom, l'Hypermarché international des programmes TV. Une centaine de pays représentés, 12 000 participants, dont cet homme : Cédris Biscay, ce jeune producteur qui a l'air perdu dans les couloirs du Palais des festivals, a rendez-vous avec une productrice japonaise d'un dessin animé culte. Un indice se trouve d'ailleurs sur la table.

- Il voyage tout le temps avec moi
- Il vous porte chance ? (rires)
- (rires) c'est la seule figurine que j'ai
- Il faudrait d'ailleurs qu'on envisage de créer de nouvelles figurines d'Astro Boy

Des figurines en préparation, mais ce qui les réunit ce jour-là, c'est surtout la nouvelle adaptation en série d'Astro Boy. Cédric Biscay devra en co-produire 26 épisodes.

- Ben en fait on a des scénarios, on a un teaser. Là le next step ce sera d'annoncer les chaînes de télévision qui vont participer à l'aventure.

Cédric Biscay ne se contente pas de remettre au goût du jour une icône de l'animation Nippone. Il y a quelques mois, il a fait sensation en participant à une levée de fonds record pour la création d'un jeu vidéo. Cet exploit lancé sur le site de financement participatif Kickstarter, ce français l'a réalisé avec Yu Suzuki, une légende chez les concepteurs japonais de jeux vidéo.

Petit retour en arrière pour mieux comprendre. 15 juin dernier, le Los Angeles Convention Center accueille l'E3, un des plus gros salons du jeu vidéo. Parmi les moments les plus attendus, la conférence de presse de Sony. Dans les coulisses, Cédric Biscay n'est pas loin. En plein milieu du show, débarque timidement sur scène Yu Suzuki. Devant 10 000 personnes conquises, le créateur annonce vidéo à l'appui, le lancement d'un financement participatif événement.
C'est officiel, le troisième volet de Shenmue arrive. Shenmue, un jeu vidéo culte, une saga lancée il y a 16 ans sur cette console : la Dreamcast, une relique de la marque Sega.

L'information abasourdit la foule. Certains sont au bord des larmes, d'autres qui suivent la scène depuis leurs ordinateurs sont même hystériques. En 24h, 2 millions de dollars sont prélevés, un record ! En grande partie grâce à Cédric Biscay, producteur officiel de Shenmue III quand il ne pose pas à côté de Yoda.
Monaco, à quelques minutes du Casino dans une rue calme du Rocher, nous avons rendez-vous dans les bureaux d'un homme plutôt content de lui.

- Bienvenue chez Shibuya Productions !
- Pourquoi vous être installé à Monaco ?
- Monaco c'est un cadre de vie agréable et en plus nous sommes la seule société de production d'animation et de jeux vidéo. C'est toujours sympa d'avoir un mini monopole sur un si petit territoire.
Ici à Shibuya Productions, une société une société lancée il y a un peu plus d'un an que ses employés et lui travaillent au marketing de Shenmue III. Une partie de l'équipe est au Japon. Une équipe assez prudente devant nos caméras.

- Anything new ?
- J'apporterai demain ici une nouvelle table plus grande. Ce sera un grand bureau.
- C'est parfait. On pourra organiser de grandes réunions comme ça !

Mise à part l'acquisition d'une nouvelle table, nous apprendrons ici que Cédric Biscay a rencontré Yu Suzuki il y a 5 ans, le temps nécessaire au producteur français pour convaincre le créateur qu'un financement participatif pourrait relancer le développement de la suite d'un jeu très attendu comme Shenmue.

- On a réussi à mettre en place un système avec la possibilité d'avoir une part d'investisseurs traditionnels et d'autre part le crowdfunding. Quand on a lancé ce crowdfunding en juin de cette année, on savait que ça allait cartonner mais ça a cartonné au-delà de nos espérances.

Au total, plus de 6 millions de dollars sont levés pour Shenmue III, du jamais vu. Une opération de communication réussie. Pour Cédric Biscay et sa société de production jusqu'ici inconnue dans le milieu. Mais l'aventure japonaise de l'entrepreneur a commencé bien avant, en 2002.

- Lorsque j'ai fait ma première rencontre au Japon, j'ai été taper aux portes et il y a un président de société qui s'appelle production IG qui est un studio très connu qui a fait "Ghost in the Shell" qui a bien voulu m'ouvrir sa porte. Et en fait j'ai commencé à travailler avec lui, il m'a donné une petite mission.

S'en suivront 12 ans de missions ou plutôt de conseils pour ce professeur de jeux vidéo. Cédric Biscay a depuis perdu sa frange, mais rempli son carnet d'adresse avec le gratin de l'animation japonaise.

- J'ai mon ami Yoshitaka Amano, le créateur des personnages de Final Fantasy. J'ai rencontré Reiji Matsumoto le créateur d'Albator. Go Nagai le créateur de Goldorak. Akira Toriyama le créateur de Dragon Ball.

Un large réseau qui lui permettra sûrement de relancer d'autres jeux et films d'animation japonais cultes. En attendant, la sortie de Shenmue III est prévue pour Noël 2017.

My stab at an English translation:

Each week in "Future Hits" we seek out the latest person who will change the world of entertainment and the Internet. Today we talk about a young Frenchman, Cedric Biscay; at just 36 he has set a record for Internet crowdfunding at 6 million dollars for the revival of a cult Japanese video game: Shenmue. It has been 15 years since Shenmue disappeared from consoles, and now Reza Pounewatchy meets the Frenchman who resurrected one of gaming's greatest icons.

Cannes: at the beginning of the month, the red carpet is laid out on the Croisette for Mipcom, an international conference of TV shows. 12,000 participants representing 100 countries, and out of them all this man: Cedric Biscay, a young producer somewhat lost in the corridors of the Palais des Festivals, who now has a meeting with a Japanese producer of a cult Japanese animé. A clue [as to the exact nature of the show] can be found on the table:

"He travels with me all the time"
"He brings you luck? <laughs>"
"<laughs> It's the only figurine I have"
"We have to come up with new Astro Boy figurines"

The figurines are being prepared, but the true purpose of this meeting is the new TV series adaptation of Astro Boy. Biscay will co-produce 26 episodes.

"So we have the screenplays, we have a teaser trailer. Now the next step is to announce the TV channels which will collaborate with us on this venture."

Biscay is not content to merely bring back a single Japanese animation icon to the mainstream. A few months ago, he made a sensation by being part of a record-breaking funding campaign for the creation of a video game. This great achievement, launched on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter, came about with Biscay and Yu Suzuki, a legend among Japanese gaming visionaries.

To better understand, let's go back a few months. 15th June, the LA Convention Center was host to E3, one of the largest gaming expos in the world. Among the most anticipated moments, the Sony press conference. Biscay was not far, waiting in the wings. In the middle of the show, Yu Suzuki walked timidly onstage. In front of a captive audience of 10,000, with the aid of a video the auteur announced the launch of a crowdfunding event.

It's official: the third entry in the Shenmue series is coming. A cult video game, the Shenmue saga was launched 16 years ago on the Dreamcast, a relic of the Sega brand.

The news stunned the crowd. Some were close to tears, others who were following the show on their PCs were similarly hysterical. In 24 hours, $2 million was raised, a record! Thanks in great part to Cedric Biscay, official producer of Shenmue III when he's not posing next to Yoda.

Monaco: a few minutes from the Casino in the quiet streets of Rocher, we have a meeting in the offices of a man who is quite pleased with himself.

"Welcome to Shibuya Productions!"
"Why are you based in Monaco?"
"Monaco has an agreeable living environment and we are the only Animation and Video Game Production company here. It's always a nice feeling to have a "mini monopoly" in a little place such as this."

We're here at Shibuya Productions, a company founded a little over a year ago, where its employees are busy at work on the marketing for Shenmue III. Part of the team is in Japan, and this team is somewhat cautious in front of our cameras.

"Anything new?"
"I'm picking up a new, bigger table tomorrow. It's gonna be a large office."
"Perfect. We can have large meetings there!"

Apart from the acquisition of a new table, we learn that Biscay first met Suzuki 5 years ago, the amount of time it took for him to convince the creator that a crowdfunding campaign could restart the development of the sequel to a much-anticipated game like Shenmue.

"We succeeded in putting in place a system with the possibility of having a mix of traditional investors on one side and crowdfunding on the other. When we launched the crowdfunding campaign in June of this year, we knew that it would do well, but its success exceeded our expectations."

In total, more than $6 million was raised by Shenmue III, a never-before-seen amount. A communications [and marketing] success. Cedric Biscay and his production company were unheard of in this field until now. But the Japanese quest of this entrepreneur had started long before, in 2002.

"When I made my first visit to Japan, I knocked on a lot of doors and there was the President of a company called IG Production, a studio well known for making "Ghost in the Shell", who then really opened the door for me. Then I started working with him, and he gave me a little TV programme [to work on]."

What followed were 12 years of TV shows, or rather lessons learned for this Professor of video games. Cedric Biscay has since lost his fringe, but his address book is filled with the cream of the crop of the Japanese animation industry.

"I have my friend Yoshitaka Amano, who is the creator of some of the characters for Final Fantasy. I've met Reiji Matsumoto who is the creator of Albator. Go Nagai, the creator of GOldorak. Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball..."

A large network which certainly will help him bring about the revival of other cult Japanese video games and animés. In the meantime, Shenmue III is set to be released for Christmas 2017.

Updated English translation.

Hi all.

After holding off for as long as possible, I decided to jump in a buy a copy of Shenmue 2 on EBay. It set me back over £60 but I just had to play it again. It's been over ten years since I played it last.

I received the game today in the post. The cardboard case looked in great condition. The discs, especially disc 3, looks chewed on to be honest, despite it being classed as 'good condition'. I thought I'd see if it worked anyway.

After watching Ryo depart the boat to touch down in Hong Kong, I was very surprised to hear him speaking in Japanese!

Now I understand that there was a Japanese version of the game, but I'm 99% sure that PAL shenmue 2 was in English with Corey Marshall. There are English subtitles, and an English game menu.

Am I missing something here? Was shenmue 2 always on Japanese? We're there 2 versions?

I'd greatly appreciate it if someone could help me.

Thanks.

The Dreamcast version is Japanese dub with English sub, the Xbox version is English dub. There's a fan-made Shenmue 2 for Dreamcast with English dub out there (though audio quality has been lowered to fit on CD-Rs).

I wouldn't be so hard on lower level guys at Sega Europe; it's obvious these guys love games like Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia and such games are most likely the reason why they went to work for the company, but at the end of the day decisions like these aren't up to them, have to be approved by higher ups in Japan, etc. If they don't comment on them, they're accused of being deaf to fan's requests, if they do comment on them and plans don't come to pass they're accused of being arseholes.

Here are links to the images in the highest resolution I could find them (from the shenmue.link/topics page):

http://shenmue.link/topics/%E3%83%90%E3%83%88%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3%E2%91%A0.png

http://shenmue.link/topics/%E3%83%90%E3%83%88%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3%E2%91%A1.png

http://shenmue.link/topics/%E4%BC%9A%E8%A9%B1%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%B3.png

http://shenmue.link/topics/%E8%8C%85%E8%91%BA%E3%81%AE%E5%AE%B6.png

There's been at least 2, if not 3 Ryo models so far. The awful one in the E3 and KS video, then the one in the image with Shenhua, and then the Famitsu one which we see in these testing shots as well. We've already seen progress, I'm sure the final model will be great. I think the most important thing is to make him expressive; the Passport version of Ryo is nowhere near as warm and expressive as the in-game version on Dreamcast.

Here's the Sumo Digital guy rhetorically asking about a Shenmue III Kickstarter: http://videogamewriters.com/sega-all-stars-dev-wants-to-see-shenmue-3-on-kickstarter-45797

Here's Biscay with the "contrepartie" quote: http://shenmueangel.free.fr/news2.php?id=315

And here's another post from Biscay on the Shenmue Master Facebook from April 2013: https://www.facebook.com/Shenmue.Master/posts/576838789002463

He says that the photo with Mark Cerny was just a publicity shot for GDC 2013 (i.e. no confirmation of deal with Sony), and that Suzuki is thinking about Kickstarter as well as trying to find funding partners and convincing Sega.

Here's more context to Moore telling Naka to fuck off: http://www.gamesradar.com/when-peter-moore-said-f-you-to-yuji-naka/

Wonder if he'll sport his original look at any point in Shenmue III?
Was thinking about this too. While I'd love to see this at some point, at least in a demo, I don't think they should change Lan Di's look as it's now more then established with the way he has his hair.

Would be cool if it featured maybe in a flashback of the young Longsun Zhao training in his quest of vengeance against Iwao Hazuki:

http://www.shenmuedojo.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/sou_02.jpg

Interesting to think that Lan Di's hair was supposed to be like a lion's mane but due to the Dreamcast's limitations they went with the ponytail. Wonder if he'll sport his original look at any point in Shenmue III?

Man, going through this GAF thread is a rollercoaster of emotions: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1062734

Fast-forward to page 45 if you want to see the moment when Shenmue III is announced, but starting from the mid-20s really lets you relive the hesitant anticipation before E3.

What a time to be alive.

Going through an old Assembler Games thread, found a few bits on Shenmue from DonnyK, the guy who leaked Sonic Extreme and Geist Force:

"I'll tell you this. We had a final, tested, and approved Shenmue 2 for the US that was scraped and never came out. The producer came around and got ever single burn and returned them to SOJ." - http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/old-sega-veteran-just-joined-what-did-you-want-to-know.31214/page-2

"US Shenmue was the same as the PAL version wtih American localized text (color vs colour) kind of thing." - http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/old-sega-veteran-just-joined-what-did-you-want-to-know.31214/page-5 [I did note while playing the UK version though that it used the US spelling "traveler"]

Later on a guy named Super Magnetic chimes in; this guy would later try to auction a Sega Pluto (a Sega Saturn/Netlink hybrid of which only 2 were ever made):

"Shenmue was such a massive (and miserable, if you ask people who worked on it) production, and things changed so much over the course of development, that things probably just got moved around in the timeline. Shenmue was really a beast of a project, and none of my SOJ friends have anything good to say about working on it, unfortunately... it was basically a development meat grinder, and the only person who could probably answer questions about the Shenmue timeline is Yu-san." - http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/old-sega-veteran-just-joined-what-did-you-want-to-know.31214/page-17


Unrelated to Shenmue, was surprised to hear that a top-down RPG was being developed... for the VMU!:

"there was a game I was directly working on -- "Shadows of Defiance," an RPG for the VMU. We got as far as making a world map and having a semi-running prototype before the plug got pulled. The code is long-gone, sad to say." - http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/old-sega-veteran-just-joined-what-did-you-want-to-know.31214/page-18

I did a quick Google and could only find these comments from Alexander Villagran who was a Senior Software Engineer at SegaSoft:

"AlexV: Right now the company called Access has developed DreamPassport for Japan, and DreamKey for Europe. When version 3.0 of DreamPassport is unveiled, I am sure that they will make a European version as well. I am working closely with PlanetWeb to offer the 2.0 version of the Browser (and possibly even earlier versions), to European software developers. It will be up to them to determine if they want to use it. There are some nice features that will be coming soon on Dreamcast Network. Once such feature is SegaPD under the 'Games' Area. We will start discussing on how to make an RPG. We will start with the initial design phase. Once that is complete, playable prototypes will then be released on the site so you can see what we are making as we make it. Eventually after following the whole saga you will have episode 1 of Shadows of Defiance!" - http://www.goodcowfilms.com/farm/games/news-archive/Interview%20-%20Alexander%20Villagran%20-%20Part%201.htm

"DCMann2 asked: What will the vmu rpg be like?

AlexV: Shadows of Defiance will be an episode based RPG. It will be Zelda like, where you see yourself from a top down view. Probably more like Final Fantasy 6 (or 3 for US). You can fight monsters, build up your character. Go on quests. Great stuff. It will be a totally free game, and Episode one will be available for everyone. Episode 2 through 6 will be released on the Dreamcast Magazine, and once VMU upload is in the Browser 2.0, it will also be available on DCN. Of course we will release on DCN two months after it has been on Dreamcast Magazine. They will always get the exclusive! I have heard rumors... that there is a secret Episode 7, if key things were done correctly in Episodes 1 through 6. I will need to play with the technology, but I might even get some 3D dungeon action going!" - http://www.goodcowfilms.com/farm/games/news-archive/Interview%20-%20Alexander%20Villagran%20-%20Part%202.htm

I assume by 3D he means 2D from a first-person view?