I didn't hesitate to donate $10,000 for the dinner with Yu Suzuki. This is FUCKING unreal!

Holy mother of GOD, EVERYONE! WE DID IT!!!! I donated $10,000 for a dinner with Yu. I know that's crazy but I couldn't fucking help it.

Even though everything is going great, everyone needs to realize that 2 Million and even 4 Million is not the end of the road. If you watch the video (and look at the stretch goals) you will see that there are 3 places Yu wants to go with the game, the first is 4 Million and the others are currently unannounced.

We need to make sure that we all keep an eye on the Kickstarter and more specifically the stretch goals as more will be added over time :D!

Wow. Despite the fact that we truly have achieved a great victory, the amount and kinds of continuing and ongoing activities that we must now dedicate ourselves to as a united community are surely dizzying:

1) That some people think that Sony's intervention in helping to fund *some* of Shenmue 3 because the Kickstarter is a success is some kind of non-transparent shadow dealing that devalues the real money backers pledge is truly laughable.

Just as Adam Boyes sincerely explains in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRGlVDi3FHQ&feature=youtu.be&t=1m40s), Shenmue is virtually a "religion...an [emotional] cultural heritage [piece] in videogame history" that no one single person or company can own. This is precisely why Sony did not - rather, *could* not - just outright buy out Shenmue 3 as a Sony project - because as we all know, something that is lauded emotionally by many doesn't always mean the same in terms of the magnitude of the actual profit return.

Case in point. Rather than try and persuade the higher ups at Sony for how ever many months or years until some kind of 25 million dollar+ budget could be set aside for Shenmue 3, Suzuki and Sony did the most ethical thing possible - use Kickstarter.

Because Shenmue is loved by many fans and not owned by just any one person, why not let the fans prove the case to those would be profit supporters for the Shenmue 3 project? This Kickstarter, and the higher the amount of money that we can pledge as fans is outright *necessary* to truthfully show and prove to any and all larger supporters (like Sony, and hell, even Sega) that any resources they might plan on contributing to the project would be justified and fruitful.

After all, can you imagine what would happen if we didn't all act to make the Kickstarter for Shenmue 3 a success, or if the Kickstarter was never even announced? No Shenmue 3 - that's what. We all have the see the greater picture. The Kickstarter was merely a catalyst to a much bigger game that we all find ourselves involved in now.

2) Unfortunately, the reality of game making is certainly centered around profits and budgets. Do any of us really think that Suzuki, and we, his fans, would ever be able to fund a viable and competent Shenmue 3 just by ourselves and whatever we could raise on Kickstarter? That Sony is planning on throwing its weight behind the development of Shenmue 3 shouldn't come as a shock. Neither should it be reason for us to stop contributing to the Kickstarter.

The more money, the better. That's all it comes down to. If we can hit all the stretch goals on Kickstarter and get Suzuki a fan pledge budget of 4, 8, maybe even 10 million dollars in addition to whatever other funding he'll get - that *will* make an impact. Sure, that's a lot of pressure to make a great game with so many resources thrown at it. But we can't get cold feet now. We can't just have complained for 14 years. We have to follow through with the project to its very end now. We're strapped in till the end.

3) December 2017 is a long way from now. Two more years of megaton E3s and other gaming conventions from now, in fact. The more money we pledge now and the more resources other companies like Sony contribute to Shenmue 3, who is to say that we won't get a special physical retail limited edition of the game for PS4? Or possibly even a polished mirror Jade/pearl green limited edition PS4 to boot?

And what about Sega? Now as we lead up to Shenmue 3's release, we can't falter in campaigning for HD updates of Shenmue 1 and 2. We have the most ammunition for this cause now than we've ever had before. Now that the Shenmue IP is back in the mainstream conversation and everyone is talking about it, Sega can't wriggle around non-committally about it like it usually does anymore.

My apologies, but I can't seem but think we're all actually doing all of this for Yu Suzuki himself. You know it must have taken immense courage on his part to finally commit to this project. Part of him must have known that the Kickstarter would have been a guaranteed success - but that he would be enveloped by incredible pressure to deliver as soon as he decided to go forward with all this.

So lets do it. Lets make the next two to three years the greatest years of Mr. Suzuki's creative career - let's afford him the budget and resources to make the one true game work that he's always dreamed of making, and let's put on the pressure for Sega to release his prior works in Shenmue 1 and 2 HD as part of that ongoing celebration.

We've worked long and hard for this - that much is true. So let's make all of this one of the greatest times of our lives. Cheers.

Alright everyone. After a few requests and support from members in me doing this again and especially after Shenmue 3 was announced I decided it was indeed a great time to revitalize the podcast and stick to it.

I present to you all the first episode, which is really just an intro to where I want to go with this. Episode 0 is just myself but I will get others to join in soon enough.

Feedback is welcome. I want to turn this into a community podcast and build it up to help the fan base.

Enjoy.

Audio
MP3 download and stream.

https://soundcloud.com/alexander-munoz-1/the-shenmue-cast-ep-0

Slide show video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am6KEh2QA6g

Those are fantastic and very practical ideas. What's even more important at this moment however, especially because most fans or potential backers already think that victory has been achieved by the $2,000,000 goal already being reached, is what we as a Shenmue revival/support community continue to do from here on out.

Yes, Shenmue 3 is now a reality. But that is not any reason why we should shut down or stop our ongoing social media campaigns via Twitter or what have you.

Although it might seem greedy or insensitive of us to ask for more and more ongoing monetary support and pledges to be contributed to the kickstarter from more new backers or even backers who have already pledged, the absolute reality is this: do you/we want the ultimate, most technically, technologically, and artistically complete Shenmue experience that the saga deserves, or not?

Although it sounds greedy, the greater the kickstarter budget becomes, the more resources Yu Suzuki will have ever to create that wildly excessive Shenmue experience we have only dared to dream of over the last decade and a half.

The more we can get the kickstarter pledge to become, the higher the sense of accountability also becomes - with more money and resources than any other game company would/could have ever offered Suzuki, he will have just that much more pride and be that much more emboldened to create the true Shenmue sequel that the series deserves.

So? Rah, rah, rah, folks. It's going to be hard and unenviable work - but this time, Shenmue 3 and the *quality* of Shenmue 3 really is on the line. We need to develop more public acknowledgement of the overall design goals and stretch goals for the project and ultimately try and get as many backers to increase the overall pledge dollar amount as high as possible if we want the best Shenmue 3 possible.

Some of us have dreamt of a $10 million dollar final pledge amount. We already made one dream cone true with the kickstarter. Now let's continue working hard to support this wish. Cheers!

If we look at the last 3 hours, just as an example

9.20pm (BST) - $ 3,048,896
10.20pm (BST)- $ 3,061,544 ($ 12,648)
11.20pm (BST) - $ 3,070,500 ($ 8956 )
12.20pm (BST) - $ 3,078,138 ($ 7638 )

its not consistent, but all of today its been an average of 10k an hour. This is pretty good, if we keep that pace we have nothing to worry about, we will blast right past 4 million and hit 9-10 million around the end of the kick starter.

However! we need to be realists here. We are not going to maintain that rate, its going to drop and probably by half at least, if it maintains half of what we are currently getting we will come out around 6.5 million at the end.

Now keeping in mind there will be lulls after this week where it'll drop off people's radar, so best to work that into the final figure and reduce it a bit more. So I think its fair to assume we are going to hit around 5.5 - 6 million. the pace will REALLY have to tank terribly to end up with less, which is totally possible, its a 14 year old franchise.

for all we know those two extra goals might be 5 million and 6 million; in that situation, with a lot of luck (and I mean a lot!) we could make it, if they are more than that I really don't see it happening....

We may need to pool all those resources in the Shenmue community and fight for the kickstarter like we fought every month just to get our voices heard.. whatever stops we have, pull them all out!

Got Shenmue for dreamcast the first week of November. It is the best thing I ever saw in games. I registered here but lost the old login info. I can't believe how many people here seem to have had the same impact. I've read many comments about this and many of them could of been written by me. Going to put down at least 29.00. As much as I can I will contribute to Shenmue.

Serendipity . I was listening to the shenmue soundtracks on youtube last weekend for hours. While I had pulled out my dreamcast and my shenmue 1 and the import version Shenmue 2 from Uk. I was literally buffing the old discs on Shenmue 1 and 2 so I could play through them again, last weekend. Crazy awesome.

I had no idea about E3. I saw a thread on reddit and it was a gif of a guy yelling out games and it said shenmue 3, final fantasy VII etc. I literally thought it was some sort of joke directed at shenmue 3. So I googled shenmue 3 and Boom. I didn't cry but my eyes got moist and I've been psyched since I found out Tuesday.

I often daydreamed that if I got super rich that I would of paid for it. I was 18 when I played Shenmue in the first week of November all those years ago. I took my time and savored the game. Nothing has had impact on me as far as games go.
At least donate what I can on kickstarter. I never lost hope completely but I almost forgot about it.

Wonderful serendipity. Listening to the awesome score of these games and getting ready to play again last weekend(last played 2006), once I get a vmu with a battery that isn't dead. I like the japanese voices in 2nd one more, once I got used to it.

Never Give Up
Never Surrender

Hi everybody. Here's another shenmue fanatic who came back from the catacombs to praise the good news. words are not enough to express how I feel. But then, i had a strange feeling this two days. Can't stop thinking how many shenmue lovers had passed away in those 15 years. The just couldn't make it. So my prayer here tonight is for those fallen Shenmueholics. Here's a toast for you all!

I would cut the WII U suggestion. While the Xbox and PS are very similar in terms of tools and power, getting the game to function properly on the WII U would require them to dumb down all the other versions, or spend a large sum of money on specifically tailoring the game to Nintendo's console.

Probably the Shenmue 1 and 2 goals as well. Why have them spend time on remastering those games when they need to be working on 3? And as the FAQ states they belong to SEGA so it is ultimately up to them what happens with those games. A lot of the little features are nice though, and would probably work well as small incremental goals.

Newbie here. I have been reading this forum for over 10 years but I never joined, and I'm heavily involved in the Shenmue tweetathon, letter writing (pen to paper) to Sega, Sony etc... I am one of you.

I joined today because while I think this is a great plan, and I will back it to the fullest, I wish to reiterate what the mods of Shenmue 500k have been saying for the last 48 hours.

The way to raise capital is by raising awareness. That will do far more than us opening our wallets more. We need to get our of our circle, and onto other forums. If I may, my suggestion is we comment bomb as many gaming / tech forums as possible. Bring in images from the campaign. Catch peoples' eyes, get them to read.

I dropped links in:
overclock.net
Guru3D
Beyond3D

And I suggest you all do the same!

Another thing to consider. What matters more to Sony, # of backers, or $$$ raised? My experience in marketing tells me the numbers of backers is far more important. Sony will assume every backer is a guaranteed sale (even if they donate less than $29). They will also assume that for everyone who pledges, there are more people interested in buying who simply don't do kickstarter, especially after idiots like @DaveThier (I think he deleted the Tweet) on Twitter, ignorant of Sony's cash problems and budget shortfalls have basically tried to defund the kickstarter. Sony is aware of this and may assume it held back $$$ donations. The most impressive thing to show them is a huge number of backers.

While I love this forum and will support ay plan you decide is your ultimate strategy, I implore you to above all else - get out there and raise awareness. get on forums that have never heard of Shenmue. Use the promo imagery from the Kickstarter page. Show people the stretch goals.

The thing about PewDiePie is that when he isn't trying to appeal to his audience of 12y/o children by screaming and swearing he can actually be quite likable. Watch some of his older stuff, notably his "To the Moon" lets play and you'll see that he wasn't always THAT bad.
I think if he approached Shenmue with that same sort of attitude instead of trying to be funny by swearing in Swedish every couple of seconds he could do the Kickstarter a lot of good and actually be quite entertaining.

It's not even about him putting Shenmue in a positive light, all he has to do is play the game once, mention the Kickstarter and put a link in the description to donate. 5% of his subscribers donating $5 is 9.4 million.

Crying.... yep. Just like i was when Shenmue 3 was announced.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/PeterC2005/Shenmue%203%20dinner_zpsnssnyjmg.png

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/PeterC2005/Mobile%20Uploads/Screenshot_2015-07-03-17-11-23_zpsfisfrbbt.png

I'M GOING TO MEET YU SUZUKI IN MONACO!! FUCK!!

Being a degenerate gambler.

Makes me well up a bit. I think it's really only just hitting me now that we're getting Shenmue 3. Great video.

Yes, it's bad. I'm not worried about the trailer being an indicative of the final version, i can see Yu Suzuki doing interviews and other development staff doing other things and not focusing too much on the trailer. But, really, for new backers is really bad. "Oh let's look what Shenmue is and what it has to show... Oh shit... I'm not backing this crap".

shredingskin wrote: Bloodstained did more the last day than the first, but I don't think we can compare to that, since E3 reveal was a big one.

Anything is possibruuuuuuuuuuu!

The next 24 hours is a fuck you to all Shenmue haters everywhere.

Despite a half assed ks campaign handled by morons, being FAR less known in gaming, HUNDREDS of articles spreading misinformation on why you shouldn't support Shenmue III kickstarter, it will go on to become the highest backed game kickstarter of all time and set a new record despite people telling us for over a decade that no one wants nor cares about Shenmue. Far more well known and celebrated franchises and creators have been surpassed and after tomorrow no one will be able to deny Shenmue, its fans, or continue to treat it like a meme despite being the great game franchise of all time.

Eat it.

To remind everyone Shenmue's status just a year ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw8Tndlbyng

This is for every Shenmue fan who suffered through that awful Q&A at GDC for the postmortem that made a joke out of Yu Suzuki's legacy.

This is for every Shenmue fan who had to suffer through the Kikizo debacle.

This is for the Shenmue fans who remember when our beloved series memory had been reduced "where can I find sailors?" in the gaming populace at large.

This is for every Shenmue fan who remembers how the gaming media abused our trust and made a laughing stock out of us for having the adacity to adore this series.

This is for all the Shenmue fans who remember being the butt of gaming fandoms jokes for no apparent reason.

This is for Yu Suzuki, whose legacy had been laughed at, tarnished, and treated like a complete joke despite being a creative genius and a huge influence on our hobby.

I refuse to mollycoddle these people who have made it hard for Shenmue fans and most of all, Suzuki-san, over the years. I outright refuse and I will bask in this Kickstarter's finale like we deserve.

-

...only played the game(s) once?

Reading about other people's experiences with Shenmue, I see quite a lot of "I'm currently on my 11th playthrough" , or "I bring out Shenmue for a spin every christmas" .

Shenmue is by far my most powerful gaming experience - a real milestone for me - but in 14 years I have only played it once from start to fi... erm... cave. I loved it so much it actually scared me away from playing it again. Sounds weird as f*ck, I know... but welcome to my world.

Shenmue changed pretty much everything for me when it comes to gaming, and (as cheesy as it may sound) had a pretty big impact on my everyday life as well. As soon as I finished the second game I knew that I didn't want to "trivialize" the experience by repeating it. I knew the magic would never be the same. Most likely still awesome, of course, but never the same.

As the years went by, and the gaming industry moved on with bigger worlds and shinier graphics, I actually became more and more afraid of returning to Shenmue because I knew I would never forgive myself if all those wonderful memories from my time with the game would be tainted by slight disappointment. What if that "magic vibe" just wouldn't be there like the first time? I just couldn't take that risk.

I also knew that when - or if - Shenmue III was released, I had to return to 1 and 2 in preparation for the third, and the longer I could stay away, the more plot details I would forget and hopefully get a few nice surprises the second time around.

Now, with all that said, I did actually play the first game a second time in 2003 to break in my brand new tv, but I didn't touch the second one. "I'm sorry, Ryo... you'll have to stay on this boat for about 14 years now".

I know I'm rambling here, but I guess a potent mix of fear and extreme forward thinking has kept me away all these years. Now, finally, I can sort of see the benefits and I plan to return to 1 and 2 when the planned release date of Shenmue III draws near. Hopefully it won't mess too much with all the fantastic memories I've been guarding for all these years.

I guess I am the only one, right..? :lol:

I kind of envy you. The story has a lot of themes and characterization/character development that I picked up on after watching playthroughs many years later. Shenmue II in particular gets into the idea of developing strength, wisdom and courage in an individual's character in order to walk the path of a person's destiny. The first game is about the fleeting nature of life and the inevitability of change and being separated from people and everything that a person has known in life (Shenmue II briefly reflects on this, during farewells with the hong kong characters and when talking about memories and people to Shenhua)

It's a much deeper game than people give it credit for, on a narrative level. Unfortunately, Ryo comes across as robotic, partly because he's intentionally written as a sheltered and immature teenager (who happens to be a martial arts prodigy) and some parts of the story resort to anime tropes at times, mainly during the climactic action sequences, when the plot calls for an emergency (it's the narrative, way the story is told up to that point more than the story itself that makes it great, while there's still a lot of interesting content in the story itself, it's more the world building and characters than the action, which gains a lot of dramatic weight from the characters being developed so extensively)

Because of limitations with the medium and the shitty English dub (I'm fond of the first game's dub, but it failed the game's writing very badly. That stupid sailor meme would've been avoidable if the localization had taken cultural context into account and found a way to convey that everyone Ryo's talking to knows that "sailor" basically means smuggler/gangster and not Popeye or someone out of a Village People music video)

I think a lot of people didn't look past the game's surface, i.e the graphics and the QTE's and the fighting system, rather than what they were doing with them, like making almost all the new moves you learn part of the story, often with something thematically related to the way the move is explained, which connected the mechanics with the story in a unique way.

Anyway I probably think too much about this stuff.

I hope there's a Shenmue 2 post-mortem soon..

I don't think comparing these two games is as simple as you make it out to be.

When I play Shenmue I and II consecutively...I get homesick for Dobuita during my first couple hours of II. Hong Kong just seems like such a cold and foreign land compared to all the warm and welcoming people you meet during your time in Japan.
I don't know if Yu meant for the player to feel this way, but it's the same feeling I get when I travel away from home in real life. I'm enjoying the place where I am, but it feels like a piece of me is missing.

When you first arrive in Hong Kong, your money is immediately stolen and you're completely on your own. Ine-San isn't leaving money at the door for you every day...Fuku-San isn't in the dojo waiting for you to come and spar...Tatsya (sp?) isn't waiting for you to walk by the capsule toy machine so he can ask you for money. The shop owners in Hong Kong haven't watched you grow up like the owners in Dobuita did and they don't give a shit about who you are or what you're doing.

When I go right from Shenmue I to II, I always realize how much I take my allowance for granted. I can't just play darts and buy capsule toy machines to my heart's content (at first I least)...this is money I have to work for and earn...and if I spend it all I'm going to be broke.

It should feel like that though. An 18 year old kid that's traveling to a foreign country by himself should feel cold and alienated..and I think Shenmue II just nails that completely.

With that same train of thought, I don't think it's fair to necessarily compare the music from I and II. The FREE music in I is nostalgic and friendly. Whenever you listen to 'FREE 1' it's comforting and you feel like you're at home. There really isn't any free roaming music like that in II and I really like to believe that's intentional. Again, you shouldn't feel comfortable and nostalgic in this foreign country. The music in II has it's own distinct charm, but there's something that unique about it that completely separates it from the music in I.

So, to sum up my rant, I really believe that the first game is supposed to make you feel a certain way, while the sequel is meant to make you feel another. I don't believe one game is really superior to the other, it's really all about what you prefer. I personally prefer Shenmue I, but I would never tell someone that they're wrong for preferring II.

In what manner would the boat be implemented?

I think the reason they didn't have the boat chapter was because it would have been anti-climactic after the perfect ending we got in Shenmue 1. It ended at just the right place in the story.

And it also couldn't be at the beginning of Shenmue 2, because it would have felt like it was delaying the true beginning of the game. It would feel like those annoying tutorial levels that some games have, that you just try to get through as quickly as possible to get to the main game.

I think the best way to include it would be as an option in the menu at the beginning, but it only shows up after you've beaten the game/watched the ending/saved your game.
Kinda like in Resident Evil how they had new game modes after you beat the main game.

ShenGCH wrote:- Replace the rotary dial with keypads on the phones

no.

NO.

Can't say I approve of this If you beat Shenmue without even reaching Janurary you're really not playing it properly. I love spendinf time with the gaem and embracing the little details the town has to offer.

...I'll say it again like a I did a month or two ago, this place is weird.