Amir wrote: Having red-shirt muscle guy in two locations makes me think that he's a placeholder in at least one of them.

You wish Amir, red shirt muscle guy is the new......

The lighting effects are so unreal! The teaser one was a bit overdone IMO, but if these screenshots are actually the desired direction, then I really thank God we are getting to play Shenmue 3 during our lifetime. Look at that jacket and its dirt and wear, and Ryo's face!

PS. Who's that? Is this a Yu Suzuki cameo?
https://s3.postimg.org/gwndt52pf/Qcbflb_L.jpg

I think it speaks to how poorly thought out and executed the game's marketing material has been to date. I don't know exactly where the blame lies but it was pretty obvious that there were many elements with regards to the games character models, lack of animation, very bizarre key lighting, abrupt cuts in the trailer that shouldn't have been made for the public consumption.

With that said I think the latest screenshots give me a lot of heart and I am quietly optimistic.

According Yu Suzuki, the main story will take 20 hours to finish. Add 20 another hours to complete the secondary quests.

Game Watch published a very interesting interview with Suzuki-san, the interview took place during Gamescom 2017 and includes some really insightful and interesting information about Shenmue III, here's a short summary of it:


⋅  The released Shenmue III teaser footage is real-time in-game graphics.
⋅  All charterers models are temporary and subject to change.
⋅  Facial animations were initially implemented but have been removed about a month ago.
⋅  The teaser was especially made for Gamescom 2017, no further plans to show more of the game at this year's Gamescom or Tokyo Game Show. However, a full-scale promotion will take place next year.
⋅  Deep Silver will publish the game internationally, and they'll provide budget and promotional support. A publisher for Japan is to be decided.
⋅  Suzuki-san would like to continue the series in Shenmue IV if possible.
⋅  Suzuki-san is not interested in forcing the Shenmue story to complete in Shenmue III.
⋅  Shenmue III will take around 30 hours of gameplay to complete.
⋅  The fighting engine in Shenmue III is being built from scratch, and unlike Shenmue II it won't use the Virtua engine.
⋅  A system that allows phone calls with characters from Shenmue and Shenmue II is planned for Shenmue III.
⋅  Suzuki-san would like to bring as many voice actors from the previous games as possible, but some are retired now, he will audition a new voice actress for Shenhua.
⋅  OST from Shenmue and Shenmue II will probably be reused in Shenmue III.
⋅  The new partnership with Deep Silver is strong and it's aimed to improve the Shenmue III experience beyond what was initially planned on the Kickstarter.

Finally, Suzuki-san asks the fans to continue their support, and promises to do his best to make a good game out of Shenmue III.

I have a very strong feeling that 2018 will be the year of Shenmue ...

Update:
Switch has kindly translated the original interview

Here it is, a full translation of the GAME Watch interview. Enjoy!

http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2017/08/game-watch-interview-with-yu-suzuki.html

http://i.imgur.com/sCek1CHl.jpg

I've posted up a full translation of a Famitsu interview held yesterday with Yu Suzuki at Gamescom.

"Tortoises, ducks and frogs will be making an appearance!"

Link to interview:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2017/08/translationinterview-with-yu-suzuki.html

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

Here's a new article translation from Game*Spark Japan, interviewing Yu Suzuki and executive producer Hideaki Morishita.

I think it contains a lot of interesting insight. They speak about the fuss surrounding the teaser trailer despite the fact that many of the characters in the trailer are nowhere near their finished form.

Read the interview here:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2017/08/translation-interview-with-yu-suzuki.html

http://i.imgur.com/1xOO0HZl.jpg

Hello guys,

2 new interviews have been posted on Japanese websites. Full translations will most likely be done by Switch I think, but I've decided to translate some stuff quickly on my free time.

Hope you'll like it !

https://s2.postimg.org/6be2u47rt/003.jpg

From Dengeki :

- Anticipated things (best 3) : 1. Continuation of the story, 2. Open World, 3. Forklifts

- Suzuki san thought at first that it'd be difficult to have something like an open world (because of the budget), but with the recent partnership with Deep Silver and development's improvements, he might be able to provide something that has the atmosphere of an open world. Volume of the 2nd area that we can see in the PV should be around 3 times bigger. That's also why they had to announce the delay, because the game's content has been improved and they need more time

- In the "Shenmue World", players can earn money through different ways like gambling, selling items (to a pawn shop for example) and purchase new moves (scrolls) to get stronger and beat a boss

- He's also talking about Shenmue's logo changes. "My father wrote Shenhua's kanji (莎花). And my mother worked on the "愛すべき友を持て" (Keep friends, those you love, close to you) calligraphy. However, I thought it'd be great if I could do it myself this time

https://s2.postimg.org/z2awk6dll/shenmue3_006_cs1w1_900x360.jpg

https://s2.postimg.org/6qty0vj2x/shenmue3_007_cs1w1_900x206.jpg

- Players who haven't played the first two games will have no problem playing the 3rd one. For Shenmue II, we added a 15 minutes movie of the first Shenmue so players could catch up, but this time we'll work on something more simple based on images and texts

https://s2.postimg.org/qmpxgf049/009.jpg

4Gamer :

Can you tell us why you decided to work with Deep Silver ?

- Suzuki san : We worked on the Kickstarter Campaign right after announcing the game and it was a success. However, it's difficult to do an open world with the budget we had, that's why we kept looking for a partner. They already worked with Sega in the past and they were a recommandation from people I trust

- About improvements, Suzuki san is providing an example. For the 2nd city we are going to visit in the game, they planned around 50 to 60 NPC, but now, this number could reach 200

- Shenmue III will start 6 hours after the end of Shenmue II

Other things are mostly stuff we already know like the phone calls etc.

Original links :

Dengeki

http://dengekionline.com/elem/000/001/580/1580312/

4Gamer

http://www.4gamer.net/games/305/G030593/20170824023/

That's it for now. Have a nice day !

Spaghetti wrote: Haha, I was gonna say, a tape recorder sounds like our boy BlueMue, and so it was! How did Yu react?

Both he and Hideaki seemed to recognize it. They both showed great interest and laughed when they saw it.

Here's the promised video:

https://www.gamekult.com/actualite/yu-suzuki-le-plus-difficile-est-de-creer-de-bons-personnages-3050797909.html

Interview context: Gamekult is shown an extended version of the trailer with additional scenes and QTEs with "work in progress" mark. Then the interview begins with Suzuki and his English translator.

https://i.imgur.com/jseQm8Q.jpg

Gamekult: First of all, I would like to know why you decided to publicly publish a short version of what you just showed us privately? Is it for marketing purpose or a future backer exclusivity?

(Suzuki begins to talk to his translator who is also in charge of the business side of YSnet. The latter takes the floor.)

YSnet businessman: That's a good question! Honestly, there's no specific reason but some people think showing the extended version is too early. The idea behind the trailer was to announce our partnership with Deep Silver. We aimed to reveal that we got a better financial support. We have been silent for too long so it was important to show something at Gamescom while it's not a real marketing strategy.

Yu Suzuki: We may create an improved and longer version of the video for the end of the year. A true promotional trailer.

GK: After watching the video, I now wonder how you proceed with animation in Shenmue 3. Do you use motion capture, handmade animation or both? Are you working with an outsourcing studio or do you have your own motion capture studio?

YS: We use motion capture as working base then we make adjustments. Everything is captured internally although we do not have a true motion capture studio. We're using a magnetic capture tool because it needs less space to work so we can easily proceed in an open space. However, we are certainly going to use a real motion capture studio for the most important action scenes.

GK: Are you working with outsourcing studios? For instance, TOSE or Virtuous.

YS: We have our own team where people from various companies are working. In general, everything is made internally. The goal is to avoid outsourcing.

GK: How many people are working in the team?

YS: Sorry but I can't tell you any figure.

GK: How will your partnership with Deep Silver benefit Shenmue III? Is the original project going to evolve?

YS: To be honest, we just signed the contract. We have yet to know what Deep Silver can bring us exactly but we hope it's significant (laughs). From a business point of view, we should take advantage of their international network and their communication expertise since they have a great record with Japanese studios.

GK: How will you proceed to make the game interesting for the fans as much for the newcomers? Can we start Shenmue III without having played the previous episodes?

YS: We plan to insert images and videos from previous episodes in ingame situations, something like memories. One of the ideas consists of inserting visuals when you're phoning characters from Shenmue I & II.

GK: Yakuza 3 proceeded differently with cinematic buildups to summarize the story of Yakuza 1&2. I wonder if Shenmue 3 can proceed the same way but the visual contrast between cinematics and the gameplay would be obviously significant.

YS: I still don't know how it may look on screen but it's a possibility. Anyway, we'll decide our own way to proceed.

GK: What will the Shenmue III main themes be? Storywise, is there any particular event or topic you're willing to set up?

YS: It's faster to show you. (Suzuki starts his PC and launches a slideshow) Here we go, the three key points of the game are romance, characters' life and martial arts. Then my main goal is to use the latest advancements in technologies to express feelings through gaming situation. Today there are even more ways of expression but also more challenge with the modern tools. With Unreal Engine 4, the most challenging part is to create good characters.

GK: You mean, using your own engine when you're working on Shenmue I&II was easier than using a foreign third-party engine?

YS: Yes, absolutely!

GK: So far, have you programmed with your own hands?

YS: I created some algorithms and little prototypes but I'm not working at the heart of coding. I worked on an artist's AI who appears in the game, NPC behaviors and some combat scenes. But my main job is research. The final code is written by people who are more skilled than me.

GK: About visuals, how far do you think you are from the final state?

YS: First of all, I confirm that everything related to the characters is temporary. Then I would like to say that, in order to reach the best possible result from a technical point of view, we need a lot of resources, way more than we currently have today. That's why I'm trying to find a balance between visual quality and the other key points of the game, especially what makes the gameplay singular and different from the other productions.

GK: About environment size and interaction volume, how would you rate Shenmue 3 compared to the Dreamcast episodes?

YS: I would say that the game is as wide and dense as Shenmue 1&2... On further consideration, it will even be richer. The time of play is more difficult to estimate since each player has his own pace and may progress differently with all the side quests available. I think more than 20 hours will be needed.

GK: In order to make Shenmue 1&2, you traveled several times in China. Did you travel again for Shenmue III or are you using mainly archives and memories?

YS: I went back to China two years ago, when the project did start. (Suzuki is searching his PC folders to find photos of mountain landscapes, old buildings and busy streets) As you can see, we reproduced some roofs of tiles in the last video. I really would like to display as much characters as those you can see in these photos! (laughs)

GK: If you were going to leave Japan to live in another country, would you choose China?

YS: Not China, no. (laughs)

END OF INTERVIEW

1st September 2017

$6,797,978 (+$13,739)

74,894 Backers (+195)

$443,19 a day on average

https://68.media.tumblr.com/c76cd8e09ccbe5c284a877f39c982a54/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco1_400.jpg

At the Gamescom 2017 event, we were very lucky to have a quick interview with Shenmue 3 director Yu Suzuki. Unfortunately, over the 3 days available with Suzuki-san, it was very hard to secure an interview with the team due to the general media already having pre-booked all of the time slots available with Suzuki-san through their new publishing partner, Koch Media. But thanks to a few people behind the scenes (especially the community's own Shenmue Ambassador Ali Novin!), we were able to be squeezed in for some quick interviews at the end of the final day, and got to experience the Deep Silver media area! (and rub shoulders with other developers in the area. 5 points to who can guess the developer in the chequed shirt.) Possibly a happy accident, but quite hilarious that Shenmue 3 was allocated Wareho...errr room number .08!

https://68.media.tumblr.com/e10f0bec5012af5650278ed6617f3ea1/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco2_500.jpg

For this interview, we are unbelievably thankful, as both Suzuki-san and Harry-san were understandably extremely tired, and in light of that, our time with them was very short. Despite having upwards of 20+ questions prepared, i only had time to ask a very short number so apologies in advance that i did not get an opportunity to ask a lot of gameplay based questions. I didnt get to that stage, and before i was out of the "introductory" questions stage, it was time to wrap up the interview! Either way, its always an honour to be in the company of Suzuki-san, and we are so grateful for his time at Gamescom. Enjoy :)

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

SD. So hello Suzuki-san. Welcome to Germany! Have you been to Germany before? Have you been to Gamescom before?

YS. It’s my first Gamescom, but however, for Germany, I don’t remember… 2 or 3… around 3 times. I have a feeling the number grows with each interview (laughs)! It’s around 5 times… I think. Although, just before when you asked the question, I said twice! But I think 5 times is the right number.

SD. So we know you are in Cologne for Shenmue, but I know you have a love for art and architecture. Do you have any plans to do any sight-seeing whilst you are here?

YS. On the day we arrived, or maybe the day after, I went to see the Dom (Cathedral). It’s splendid! I also walked around the Old Town. Yes, it was amazing. It was more impressive than the Tokyo Tower (laughs). I am joking! But it was amazing. I could say amazing over and over.


https://68.media.tumblr.com/d9b32515d8c7f5ffadb78bf509d9ff0c/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco3_500.jpg

SD. We are at Gamescom for Shenmue 3. But I have to ask, why Gamescom? We just had E3, and Gamescom is a little bit after, so did it just feel right?

YS. The reason for the timing was that I wanted to make the announcement in conjunction with the forming of the contract with Deep Silver. The agreement, to put it simply, was not ready in time for E3.

SD. Ok, so I just want to bring it back a bit, to the Kickstarter update where you announced that you had to delay the game. How hard was that decision, and were you worried about disappointing the backers?

YS. Hmmm, yes of course. I was most concerned about the backers. At the time, we had already made progress in our partnership talks with Deep Silver. So for us, being able to aim for something above what had been the plan with the original Kickstarter, it would have been extremely difficult to implement an open world with the initial plan we had at the time of the Kickstarter. So I continued to look for a partner after that. I really wanted to create an open world somehow. So I kept searching, and eventually we were able to form a partnership with Deep Silver which enabled us to upwardly revise the plan.
So at that time, I took into account what we would be able to achieve with Deep Silver. I felt positive we would be able to achieve a “scaled-up” Shenmue 3. If conditions improved after forming a partnership with Deep Silver, we would be able to expand our plans. That would bring along with it more tasks to complete, and I hoped to announce the good news to everyone along with the schedule change. But at that point the contract with Deep Silver hasn’t been finalized, so I wasn’t able to mention it. That was the situation.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/02ed8d4d4c19b506b54b42ccf5da6441/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco4_500.jpg

SD. In the same video, you mentioned “new technologies, possibilities and new expressions” for Shenmue 3. Could you tell us more about those, and have they changed what you originally thought Shenmue 3 would be like?

YS. We have a complete set of basic shaders, although these need to be tuned for Shenmue. But having a full set of basic shaders is one of its (Unreal 4 Engine) advantages. Also it’s an engine designed for games, so there are all sorts of libraries for 3D games. So when you’re at the prototype/building stage, it’s very quick and efficient. That’s another benefit.
With Shenmue 1 and 2, my program forms the base, so I understand all parts of the program. However this time, the innermost working are a “black box” so I can’t obtain a full understanding of every part, and that can sometimes be a problem. From an overall perspective, it’s a really marvellous engine, especially when it’s used by multiple people. For example, we take the case of 30 or 40 people, or more, are developing the game simultaneously. It can handle management and so on, and do things like analysing the workload, rendering load, CPU usage and various others. Product management has also been made easier too, so overall, I think it’s a superb engine.


SD. I’m glad you mentioned shaders because I remember a conversation we once had about how important the colours of Shenmue were important to you. How difficult has it been to achieve the “look” and “colour” of Shenmue with Unreal 4?

YS. The basic attractive colours in Unreal 4 are formed with High Dynamic Range, and there is a wide range of colours from light to dark which can produce images where you can really feel the light and shade. This was the key deciding factor for my selection of the Unreal Engine. For me, the light and the shade are the most important part. For Shenmue, there are 2 things which are necessary to add. The next stage is there has to be a feeling of humidity. Shenmue has to have a slightly “wet” feeling to it. A damp kind of feeling in the air. I don’t mean actual rain, but the air should have a kind of moist feeling to it.
It’s difficult to achieve this with the standard Unreal 4 shaders, so I think we will have to write our own. The Shenmue teaser we have shown has achieved that look of “wetness” I think. We have now reached the second step. We are not yet at the third stage, but that will be images that you can smell. For example, in China they may chop up a pig like this, and then, without storing it in a refrigerator, sell it under the hot sun. It has that kind of raw stink, and that’s something I think we managed to achieve in Shenmue 2. Shenmue 3 will also be going onto this stage next. A “smell shader”, or a “stinky shader”! (laughs).

https://68.media.tumblr.com/9d51b582086d5bd4cb64552253c54f48/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco5_400.jpg

SD. I have a lot of questions to ask, but I know time is very short, so I will ask my final question. With being president of your own company, you have hired new staff members to work on Shenmue 3. How does it feel to pass on all those years of knowledge and experience to young new developers? Have you had any difficulties managing a team like this?

YS. Well not all of our staff are young, there is someone who is 50 years old… all ages really. But management is the most difficult part. They have entered the company going through interviews, and it’s hard to get to know someone properly at the interview stage. So after that process it turns out there are some people who speak extremely little, for example, so yes it can be pretty difficult. Various strategies are needed in order for each person’s performance level to reach 100%, and that’s the part that’s most difficult. I would prefer to lose myself in the creative work, but quite a bit of time is used up on management.

SD. Suzuki-san, thank you.

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


...and in the blink of an eye, it was all over! Apologies again that we could not have had more time to ask more questions, but there maybe more inverviews coming out from the Shenmue Online Community in the near future with lots more questions so stay tuned for that! ;-)

But before we left, as always, we had to surprise Suzuki-san with a gift! Thanks to a fantastic idea from 500k owner Aaron Barstow, we decided to try and somehow put Suzuki-san into one of his favourite bands, Van Halen. So working together, we came up with the idea of having an artist design an image of the band members but also insert Yu Suzuki in amongst them! After contacting one of our contributors to the Instagram page, @r_wuying, he understood the concept, and very quickly came though with an awesome piece of work!

https://68.media.tumblr.com/0909930dd8da47c5b51aaf4011880926/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco6_400.jpg

Of course, we couldnt give Suzuki-san an image on a PC, so we had it framed and brought it to Germany to present it to him from all of the Shenmue Community, for which he was extremely surprised and thankful (as always!)

https://68.media.tumblr.com/2e40913861ed15c10f8431df35f79231/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco7_500.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/5d4165cea5becd3cdfd3c367fa97797f/tumblr_ovog4lS9W61vilcqco1_400.jpg

My Gamescom experience was one i will always remember, and i have to say thank you to so many people including David and Kenji from Shenmue Master, Aaron and James from 500K/Team Yu, Silvia from 500k, Chao from the community and of course Ali Novin for all his hard work behind the scenes to make the interview happen. On a personal note, it was fantastic to meet long time Dojo members YS, Snoopbob, B-Ren and Bluemue at the event too!! Its a shame we couldnt have all spent more time together! Also, of course how could I forget (which I did :oops: ) the amazing Switch for being on point with translating duties as always!

But with that, another event has ended, and the long journey continues! See you all again soon :D

https://68.media.tumblr.com/b234f70ac010c1b6abbdc429c3014c6e/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco8_500.jpg

I've translated a early design diagram for Shenmue II into English. It's quite fascinating to compare some of the early ideas they were considering for the story. (The diagram can be found in the Shenmue art book).

In particular:

- The little girl who Ryo saved from Chai in the boat chapter side-story & her mother were originally going to help Ryo more, assisting him with finding Xiuying / Master Tao.
- There was going to be more interaction with the "two butchers" who always argue with each other, as part of the main story.

Here are the first 3 sections of the diagram:
https://i.imgur.com/3dLAGu5l.jpg

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

https://i.imgur.com/1Al2nkZl.jpg

Analysis & the rest of the diagram can be found at the blog:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2017/09/ryos-arrival-in-hong-kong-shenmue-ii.html

On the screen on the right. Looks like Ryo in town, talking to a new NPC?

4 new posts:

https://i.imgur.com/hdhJToOs.png Recap: Shenmue III Japanese Media Interviews | Gamescom 2017
https://i.imgur.com/j3jVQLis.png Shenmue 500K Interview with Yu Suzuki | Gamescom
https://i.imgur.com/M33Q5uls.png Zhu Yuan Da or Yuanda Zhu? | Character Names in Shenmue I vs II
https://i.imgur.com/BeFsywns.png YS Net Studio Visit by Koch Media with Blurry Dev Screenshot | Photos

25th September 2017

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642$ a day on average

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...