I pledged $300. May take it up to $500, depending on finances closer to the end of the campaign.

I have to say I am more than pleasantly surprised with the visuals at this very early stage of development. Also, as Monkei says, in the greater scheme of things, this is basically a high-end indie title, so we have to curb our expectations somewhat.

That being said, I am optimistic the game will punch above its weight. Didn't The Witcher 2 also have a relatively small budget? $10 or 11 million or something?

I'll no doubt spend the day alone, take a little time off work, stock up on coffee and lock myself in my living room, playing Shenmue III. No idea what pace I'll play it at, I'll just go with the flow.

This is of course, based on the assumption that my copy actually arrives by release day, which knowing AJ, I'm not exactly filled with optimism that it will. Although I suppose it should be easy enough to buy another copy, which is probably ideal anyway, as I can keep my collector's copy sealed.

Surveys regarding rewards, platform choice, etc, will be sent out to backers in due course, so nothing to worry about, you haven't missed anything.

I gave up after part three, there was only so much shouting and singing I could cope with, gave me a headache.

It was somewhat amusing to listen to their reactions to the cheesier elements of the game (voice acting, Tom, etc), but for the most part, I just found it loud and idiotic. Their short attention spans and over-reliance on maps got tiring, as well. Can't see myself finishing this series off.

That said, it's probably one of the fairer playthroughs I've watched, and any mockery of the game is pretty reasonable and tongue-in-cheek.

1: No
2: Yes
3: Yes
4: No
5: Yes
6: Yes
7: Yes
8: No
9: Yes
10: No
11: No

About to dive into Yakuza 0, finally. Have already beaten 1-5, but am looking forward to going through them again, with Kiwami after this. Really hope the second game will get the Kiwami treatment, as well.

"Hey, my lunch!" - Mark

Another favourite of mine is when, after receiving Fuku-san's life savings, a frustrated Ryo comes out with: "Argh, that's still not enough!".

Although this is purely a frustrated response, I'm just amused by how ungrateful he sounds.

Rakim wrote: amakuchi of course. Ryo can't handle spicy things.

I'll give you that. The exact answer I had in mind was apple, but as apples are an integral ingredient of amakuchi, I think we're on the same page.

Just arrived this afternoon.

Lost my old PAL Saturn several years ago, which I have very fond memories of, so decided to order a new one. Opted for a Japanese model this time, for the wider game library.

Not sure if this has been brought up before, but has it been confirmed whether the yuan is going to be the currency used in the game? If so, I wonder if players will be given the opportunity to exchange the money themselves or whether it will be done automatically.
I was going to say that the Yuan must have been used in Shenmue 2, given that it's in Hong Kong (China). I now know that Hong Kong has their own currency.

Was there an exchange from Yen to Hong Kong Dollars that I don't remember?

There was. At the beginning of the second game, it's mentioned in Ryo's notebook that he converted his money while on the ferry.

The Kickstarter itself ended a while ago, but you can still back the game through the Slacker Backer at https://shenmue.link/order/?en

At $175, you would get your name in the credits, as well as whatever else is included in the lower pledge tiers.

Although the screenshots so far seem to indicate we'll be getting the same textures as the originals, I am just glad that we're going to be getting more than just the bare-bones port that I feared we would. Seems a certain level of care will be going into this.

Definite PS4 and Steam double-purchase for me.

I wonder if there might be a special edition of this in addition to the standard retail release. I would definitely be willing to pay extra in this case.

God, I'm already itching to pre-order this! I'll have one more Dreamcast playthrough for old time's sake.