25th September 2017

$6,813,403 (+$15,425)

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Yay ! 6.8M mark !

Succinct but interesting interview with Yu Suzuki by PlayStation Official Magazine UK (November 2017 issue)

- Shenmue 1 & 2 might be offered along with Shenmue 3. It seemed a no-brainer before Yu Suzuki thinks he should rather incorporate memories straight into the game.

- The Shenmue 1 & 2 memories you will get in Shenmue 3 might be playable but Suzuki remains "undecided".

- Yu Suzuki claims that memories are very well incorporated in the game and gives the example of a NPC guy able to tell you what happened before.

- In order to make the combat system simpler and visually different from Shenmue I & II, YSnet will use "Variable Speed". Suzuki did not give specific details.

- He emphasizes that the world of Shenmue III will be designed as a whole, rather than a sum of parts.

- Yu Suzuki gives few words on his position towards realism and VR in Shenmue III.

Read the issue for further details.

I've been playing Shenmue II for about fourteen years, and I just noticed the poem in the Thousand White Church. I took a photo with my phone, here's the poem:

A happy new year
Today is fine
Gone with window
A happy new year
Today is fine
Gone with window
Refining the vegetables
Refining the vegetables


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

At least we now have an official statement about the things we already assumed were the reason for the lack of updates and insights into the project. I fully respect that. Just let them work and do their best.

Earlier this year, a talented Shenmue fan and model hobbyist in Japan completed an amazingly-accurate scale model diorama recreation of the interior of Shenmue's You Arcade, which I'm sure many will have seen.

https://i.imgur.com/9hGElDB.jpg

I got in touch by email with the fan who created the diorama to ask what prompted him to embark on such a project and find out exactly how it was made.
Q: To start with, please tell us a bit about yourself.

HS: My real name is Hiroaki Suzuki. I teach the drums in Japan and as a hobby I mold figures and build model kits.

Q: What does Shenmue mean for you? What memories do you have about playing Shenmue?

HS: I came across Shenmue when I was about 12 or 13 years old. The first time I played, I found it hard and I remember spending all my time playing at the You Arcade.

Shenmue has taught me many things: to be thoughtful to those around you; the wonderfulness of helping each other; and the importance of making an effort.

In my work now as an instructor, I hope I’m able to pass on some of the things I grew to feel through Shenmue.
Interview continues here:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2018/03/interview-with-creator-of-diorama-of.html

Looks amazing! thanks for the photos.

I could gripe about a few things... Maybe tomorrow.

But for now... I guess I will say I was told D3T were behind this last May. So it's been in production since then at the very least, more than likely way before. I've had plenty of time to read up on their studio and have followed them on Twitter for the past year. They are extremely professional and have worked on a pleothra of titles, from The Witcher 3 to various others. They have also worked with Sega before on the Mega Drive collections, both previous release and current one.

For now what I will say is simply this. These games are absolutely vital to the success of Shenmue 3 and right now, that's where I draw the line. For players to have these easily accessible on modern day hardware is something that you cannot put into words. They are necessary for Shenmue 3, and finally it's all come full circle. 14 years of being on these boards.... Who the hell would have thought we would have gotten to this point.

Shenmue 1 and 2 HD, followed by Shenmue 3.

Let that sink in.

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/758330/header.jpg?t=1523670682

Some new bookmarks for you guys :) - feel free to post anything else you can find!

Europe + America
https://shenmue.sega.com/

Japan
http://shenmue1-2.sega.jp/

Steam
http://store.steampowered.com/app/758330/Shenmue_I__II/

It's so weird to think... I think it was January 1999 or so that I first saw Shenmue on the front cover of a magazine. I was 10 years old back then, 11 when I got to play What's Shenmue at EPCOT, and 12 when I finally played the full game in December 2000. I just turned 30 a week ago, and I'm still excited to go on the journey all over again :)

The perseverance of the Shenmue fanbase is something that should be in the history books.

I've been following the studio for almost a year now and I fell in love with them, so much so, that I wish I had some sort of talent or skills to have a career in game development because I would happily relocate and apply for a post at their company.
The biggest compliment i can give them is their treatment of staff. Every month they have various team building exercises, as well as awards for individual staff members hitting various milestones, such as time spent with the studio, achieving new qualifications and positions etc. Honestly it looks like a fun place to work, but at the same time, extremely professional. As the OP said, they were involved with The Witcher 3 and we all know of the success of that game, but they are also involved in a lot of other great pieces of work, as well as having a good relationship with Sega from their Mega Drive collections.

It's also interesting to note they are a Keywords company, who own Lakysha Digital, who are involved with the development of Shenmue 3. Any sort of cross development between the two certainly wouldn't be too difficult to achieve. But yea, I've had good vibes from them from when I first heard of them, and outside of the major players such as Bluepoint, I couldn't be happier Shenmue HD is in their hands.

As per Switch. https://twitter.com/phantom_river/status/985688424815312897

Much like with Corey Marshall, Masaya Matsukaze is getting ready to put on the brown leather jacket again sometime in the near future.

It's possible Japanese and English voice recording might be happening concurrently in Tokyo and LA, if the late May date Corey Marshall gave us holds; but that's just my take on it.

Gamefront.de, one of the best video game news outlets in Germany have a short summary of the Famitsu article. I'll give you guys a quick translation of it.

Shenmue I & II mit moderner und klassischer Steuerung / Gameplay-Szenen 16:9
18.04.18 - Der Fertigungsstand von Shenmue I & II (PS4, Xbox One) bei Sega und d3t beträgt 70 Prozent. Das schreibt die neueste Famitsu.

Weiter heißt es, dass das Spiel eine moderne und klassische Steuerung besitzen wird. Bei der modernen Steuerung bewegt sich Held Ryo mittels linkem Analogstick, bei der klassischen Steuerung bewegt er sich mit dem Digitalkreuz.

In normalen Gameplay-Sequenzen wird das Bild beim Spielen im 16:9 Verhältnis gezeigt. Event-Szenen werden hingegen weiterhin im Original 4:3 Verhältnis dargestellt, heißt es in dem Bericht werden. Release: 2018 (Europa)

Shenmue 1 & 2 with modern and classic controls/gameplay scenes 16:9

Shenmue 1 & 2, at Sega and D3t is about 70% complete, says the latest Famitsu issue.

Furthermore, the article says the game will have a modern and a classic control scheme. In the modern control scheme, the hero Ryo will be moved by the left analog stick, whereas in the classic control scheme he will be moved by the d-pad.

In regular gameplay sequences, the picture will be displayed in 16:9. Event scenes (cutscenes) however, will be kept in the original 4:3 proportions.

Just a quick translation of a translation by myself. Hope I could help you guys out.

Hello everyone,

I'm doing a remake of Ryo's room, everything is done from scratch, I don't reuse models and textures of original game, I used models only to respect the proportions

Do not hesitate to tell me what you think or if you have suggestions to improve my work.

Work in Progress ! ;-)

Render 04/17/2018:

https://i.imgur.com/SUNDHdG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RtdNlG7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Pu7jk78.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/x6hM2uL.jpg

Not saying this in terms of graphics, ratios or anything like that. But that image of Ryo staring at the Shenmue Tree gave me chills. I can't believe there will be players out there who will get to experience that for the very first time.

Shenmue 1 & 2, at Sega and D3t is about 70% complete, says the latest Famitsu issue.

I got my hands on the Famitsu magazine today, and can confirm that it has "Development Status: 70%" in the same information box as the name of a PR official at SEGA, implying it is sourced officially.

Edit: I'm planning to put up a translation of the article up on Phantom River Stone in the near future.

I'd say we're further along than 70%

Hi Allan, thanks for joining the forum! I'm not sure how much you're at liberty to say, but are you allowed to say how cutscenes will be presented in Shenmue II? Will they be letterboxed for people who select 4:3, and full widescreen for people who select 16:9?

Also, will the stencil/environment shadows from the Xbox version of Shenmue II be implemented at all? I only ever played the Dreamcast version and despite owning an Xbox never felt the urge to own the Xbox version of Shenmue II, but watching the DF Retro episode on the game, it was cool to see environmental shadows that I'd never seen before. Not a deal-breaker if they're not included, though.

Thanks!
I think its best I don't talk about 4:3 vs 16:9. All I will say is that for technical reasons parts of the game are currently limited to 4:3. If you play the game in an emulator with a widescreen hack you will see some of the issues.

We've ported the xbox version of Shenmue II so yes it does have stencil shadows.

Amir wrote:

Spaghetti wrote: I thought Little Stone Software did VC on PC?

Yeah, I'm not seeing anything linking D3T to Valkyria Chronicles, may have been he just got confused.

I assume he's talking about the Sega Europe corporate team overseeing the project, and not the development team (d3t) themselves.

We've ported the xbox version of Shenmue II so yes it does have stencil shadows.

It is probably too much to ask, but I would love if you were able to take the best of both versions and combine. The Dreamcast one has more textures and geometry in places ... Little details like more street signs and stuff make the Dreamcast version the better looking one to me.

Here you can see good examples of stuff just missing or having reduced detail on Xbox.
http://shenmuedojo.net/new/extras/s2xboxvsdreamcast.html

Especially things like the radiators basically being glitched into the mesh they should be sitting on would be a shame to have implemented like that.

Not to mention the overbearing heavy bloom.

Thanks for bringing this up and posting that link aries. Some of those texture changes too are just such a shame.

It's not just cut and dried in favor of the DC version, though. In some instances the DC version is better. But many of those Xbox examples in the link are improvements over the DC version. Fixing the Out Run texture and the Rockola badge on the jukebox, for example. Others are kind of a wash either way.

I like to mention the facts about how the Beta of Shenmue technically has both a time skip option and save anywhere with the aid of its debug options. Not everyone knows about them so it might be interstings.

The save option brings up the regular menu where you select a file and save, just as one would expect. It just isn't 100% on the spot though as Ryo will be standing at an entrance point of the area he's in. NPCs also have to respawn wich can mess up their routines a bit.

The clock can be turned forward and back at 3 different speeds each at any point. This definatly messes up the NPC routines as they just can't keep up with their schedules and thus the streets will be very crowded and stores open with no one inside to attend it. These results are amusing in their own way but not something that should be seen normaly. Of course messing with the time whenever you like goes much further than skipping time in Shenmue II.

These examples shows where the problems are and why these features were ultimately easier to pull of Shenmue if not the only way to pull them of at all at the time. That is not to say that it's impossible to make this work properly with todays technology. The save files can be much much larger and include all the necessary locations and routine points of the NPCs as well as Ryo's of course.

The time skip wouldn't really mess up the NPCs the way they work in Shenmue II because you don't really see things moving about and the time will skip to the point where Ryo has to go to bed. Of course that means only points where Ryo has to wait for the next day are sure to work without issues but adding these would be enough.
Another approach to save some time would be to allow Ryo to advance time quickly in his bedroom until he can go to sleep. Or just make it possible to go to sleep whenever you want... though that approach really goes against the foundations of Shenmue.

Zooming/cropping is a godawful idea.

I'm happy to know I'll be able to show the game to my kids in optimal conditions and hopefully, they'll understand why daddy is so obsessed with that game and why we constantly listen to Shenmue OST at home.

As per Gameblog's Romain, who noticed Shenmue III also now had a retail listing on Amazon FR; https://twitter.com/RomainMahut/status/988419535014367233

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dbetx48WAAI_7FG.jpg

Pretty sure the white on black placeholder cover has appeared before, but what appears to be new is the provisional PEGI rating.

In order to get a provisional rating, the publisher has to pay a fee, fill out a questionnaire about the game's content, and allow PEGI to play a portion of the game and review video sequences. From what I can gather, this happens when the publisher is moving forwards with the retail process (pre-orders, etc) and looking to get games certified by platform holders.

Not that it means a whole lot, but I've gone back through a few games Deep Silver have distributed and saw they had a provisional rating within 6-8 months of release.

Safe to say the wheels are turning in the background, though.

As I mentioned earlier even the whole game could be loaded. If it's reconstructed properly there are a ton of extra files that exist double or even tripple that could be removed, shrinking it a lot. But again, the former would be overkill.

I hope that they can tweak the behavior in places. In Shenmue II there are some instances where you enter an area and immediately get a cutscene. When you for example enter Big Ox B5F it will play the music of the area during the load screen very briefly and then the score for the cutscene. This is one of the very minor hits to the overall presentation that could be improved.

It's only a guess, but since they are working with the original Dreamcast source code as a base,it might be more difficult to add another platform than if the game was based on UE4 or another modern engine.

And Switch has an architecture that is more unique than the rest, being based on ARM and Nvidia rather than on x86 and AMD.

I think Yu said in an interview that III covers chapters 5 and 6. I think he's also said in the past Shenmue II was chapter 2, some re-purposed bits of 4, and the start of 5. 3 was apparently dropped altogether, but the scenario could return in a later game.

Can't for the life of me remember which interview(s) this all came out of, though. Maybe some from 2016?

Chapter discussion gets really confusing at a point, because there have been some conflicting answers over the years and we know Yu will adapt the original story as he goes along if an improved game is the result. Calling the canned boat section Chapter 2 has also mixed things up, because as we can see from the chapter art released; 2 is clearly the bulk of the main scenario for Shenmue III.

Small clip of new footage...! We get to see the little girl introduced in MAGIC 2018 in motion, and a small clip of Ryo in a village. And I mean small. It is from today's THQ Nordic financial presentation: https://tv.streamfabriken.com/thq-nordic-cmd-2018?seek=4323

Skip to the slides where they briefly talk about Shenmue. Around slide 20.

EDIT: looks like (what I hope to be) old, outdated Ryo and Shenhua models in a slightly different Gamescom teaser. Interesting stuff.

Example:

https://preview.ibb.co/kD0jgJ/Untitled.png

Images added to OP. Thanks to Rikitatsu and Kiske for the images below .

https://i.imgur.com/cPAxFjc.png

https://i.imgur.com/aywXLpy.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/a0btjNu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Ii4ygCX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IYQWwRM.jpg

Video added

https://youtu.be/rXkThIMfP0M

Great find Supa, that's definitely a new model for Shenhua. She looks way better than she ever did since the announcement!

https://i.imgur.com/cPAxFjc.png


EDIT: For comparison

https://i.imgur.com/kX9mSxo.jpg

I'm really happy with what I'm seeing here... Knowing that it also has 1+ year in the oven fills me with confidence.

I just can't wait for this game to be released...

Belgiumfan wrote: March 30, 2018 (+51 days)

$6,868,709 (+$14,790) ($290/day)

75,696 Backers (+180) (+$82/backer)

May 17th 2018 (+48 days)

$$6,891,136 (+$22,427) ($467 per day)

75,957 backers (+261) (+$85 per backer)

Hopefully didn't screw the numbers, did them myself.

This was pre-Kickstarter though. After it was a success, something might have changed, but at the time SEGA were still being financially very cautious, and we know how long it took them to finally commit to rereleases of the originals.

Actually I think this brings up a point that I'm very interested in. Do we really know when Sega actually committed to the HD versions?

The earliest point i know D3T was working on them is May 2017. But it could have been being worked on long before that.

Will definitely get a PS4 now that the entire (mainline) series is coming to that console (and it doesn't look like it'll come to PC any time soon).

Is it worth getting a Pro if I mainly plan to just play Yakuza on a 1080p TV? I'll wait until the series is all out to see if they do a cool bundle but Pros don't look like they're dropping in price.
I upgraded to Pro for Yakuza 6, and obviously future games using the Dragon engine.

It bothered me playing the Prologue on a base PS4 with the slow down and screen tears.

Another scan spotted on Twitter, this time from Spanish magazine Hobby Consolas (issue 322).

Hmm, an interesting update. However, I have to say, they've got Masaya Matsukaze's face all wrong. It's simply not what I envision when I think of Masaya Matsukaze working in a recording studio. I've taken the liberty of making big improvements upon the work of whoever designed him. I think everyone will agree - particularly everyone who hangs out in the depths of Youtube comments sections, the 'GAF crowd, and other prestigious comments fields across the internet - that what I'm presenting is the definitive headshot of Masaya Matsukaze.

http://www.zoonbats.com/s3/improvements.jpg

Credit to mjqjazzbar for finding this out, but the Sound Director in the image is Takayuki Nakamura who has been working in sound on video games for nearly 30 years; including AM2 titles like Virtua Fighter/Virtua Fighter 2, and Daytona USA.

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/takayuki-nakamura/credits/developerId,78235/

http://www.vgmonline.net/wp-content/uploads/takayukinakamura1.jpg

https://abload.de/img/03_recording_offshottmux9.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIub0Ok5zQs

So I was digging around the internet, and found some gameplay footage from Shenmue Online that I had never seen before. I thought it was the TGS 2005 footage, but it is different. Apparently, this is from T2 Technology Holdings' 2005 strategic conference on November 15th, 2004. Interesting stuff.

Source: http://bak1.beareyes.com.cn/2/lib/200411/25/20041125198.htm

Hi guys, I recently went on my travels over to China and Japan, and visited quite a few places along the way. I took heaps of photos and video footage, with the intentions of creating some sort of video series when I got back.

Part 1 -
https://youtu.be/mXRc6z4SEpk
In this first part I visited the Beijing Zoo, The Great Wall of China, Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.


Part 2 -
https://youtu.be/kqvyGUQWcWc
In this episode I visited the Terracotta Warriors Army, The Master of the Nets Zen Gardens, The Venice of the East Canal District, and Tiger Hill (Pagoda / leaning tower)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why is this considered a Shenmue Inspired Travel series? Well I believe that without Shenmue I would never have ever made it to these wonderful countries, it's because of Shenmue that I was inspired to make the journey to see some of the places from our beloved series. Whilst I didn't end up visiting Hong Kong or Guilin, what I did get to see in China, in my opinion was some of the things that Yu Suzuki would have originally seen on his travels, and it's these things in turn that I believe went on to inspire Shenmue aswell. I also did the one thing that's on every Shenmue fan's bucklet list - visit Dobuita Street in Yokosuka! :)


I will update this original post whenever a new Part of the series is available! Thanks for checking out the videos guys, and I hope you enjoy them 8) !

Trailer -
https://youtu.be/5Sq7UANsA1w

20 Aug 2018 according to Microsoft Australia

https://i.imgur.com/7sJX3hX.png

Source

Update:

20 Aug 2018 according to Microsoft UK

https://i.imgur.com/EkUENTS.png

Source

21 Aug 2018 according to Microsoft US

https://i.imgur.com/5SGF249.png

Source

Update 2:
21 Aug 2018 according to Sony UK

https://i.imgur.com/1FMFp2t.jpg

Source

Bloom can be turned off confirmed by Sega Europe
https://twitter.com/SEGA_Europe/status/1014616351229370368 Good news. I think I’ll keep it, personally! At least for my first play through. I don’t know why anyone would want cropped, zoomed in cutscenes; that sounds terrible lol.
I don't mind Shenmue 1 sticking to 4:3 but Shenmue 2 cutscenes are letter boxed so it would make a lot of sense to zoom them in. 4:3+letterboxing is just going to make them look really small

https://youtu.be/efAwKp02yDs

+ Bloom optional (enabling/disabling motion blur not confirmed yet)
+ Supports original resolution (480p) alongside higher resolution (1080p)
+ Gameplay sections playable in original 4:3 alongside widescreen
+ Fast loading times (1-2 seconds on base ps4/xb1 hardware)
- No micro-transactions
- No passport disc :*-( (alongside online features like leaderboards)
- No ingame product-placement

More videos+information coming soon from Adam and the official SEGA Europe channels