I put together this animated short in an attempt to bring more awareness to the Kickstarter. The idea was to try and animate a Shenmue themed Mega Man stage. If you're wondering why I decided to mix the two, it's because we're a couple of guys who have been working on a Mega Man fangame for a couple of years, so we're using our Facebook page that we set up for that game to promote the campaign. Hope you guys like it :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07KXALnWyv4

http://i.imgur.com/58WUNo1.jpg

Episode 2 of The Shenmue Cast is now live for your listening and viewing pleasure.
This episode features a prominent figure in the Shenmue community, Mr. Adam Koralik .
Discussions include the Kickstarter ending results, Shenmue 3 features and more.
Listeners are able to subscribe to this podcast over itunes and other podcast apps using the iTunes subcribe link and RSS feed link below.

| iTunes | RSS Feed | Soundcloud Channel | Stream/mp3 Download | YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_2zVHXVTBY
Shenmue Cutscene Playlist
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE94E2CA09AE4F238&feature=plcp

Download: (Part 1) http://www.mediafire.com/?wazvu11h92atfzi
Download: (Part 2) http://www.mediafire.com/?vdji71ymwxb1gb9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1Am9xYC7nk
Shenmue FREE Playlist
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCB745D6F41FE45ED&feature=plcp

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?toalttpvcskkis1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz3Kn-Ej0Cg
Shenmue In-Game Playlist
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7AA87FDDCCE4A72&feature=plcp

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?jk0rk8hik60gbf1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qTexVaXnX0
Shenmue Passport Playlist
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9EFC55A98DF06C88&feature=plcp

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?3tj8ei4g982b31y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaQQOQp6sqE
Shenmue Cassette Tape Playlist
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL92C7B667DB78D19A&feature=plcp

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?edyd15vfss2eh6g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Us8tk1eExc
Shenmue Misc Music
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4BFF9D4AFF74C9FE&feature=plcp

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?uqws0md92d4mg58

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxZrVCa517w
Shenmue Original Soundtrack Playlist
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6393AB2853560583&feature=plcp

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?a00qq2s4jq8ybdj
Lossless Quality (FLAC): Part 1 Part 2
Part 3 Part 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWm8Gml8w4w
Shenmue Orchestra Version Playlist
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEE5FC23F50D4E87F&feature=plcp

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?m19e88qe9iuk5j8
Lossless Quality (FLAC): http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?h7auw1g0upw6n6c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaVKbCkxdPw
Shenmue Singles Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?eox53gspb7pp8ra
Lossless Quality (FLAC): http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=44503&p=1020012#p1020012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnWR-xDlg3M
Shenmue JukeBox Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?37w4578lwuv3gfu
Lossless Quality (FLAC): http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?607hoza9ds0brss

Hey guys,

Just picked up 2 magazines from my local newsagents here in the UK, I got the Official Playstation 4 mag, and Games TM. After reading through both magazines, I would say Games TM sound more like fans, as alot of the early "hype" in the magazine bearing E3 mentions Shenmue 3 quite alot. I took shots of the main Shenmue 3 related pages though incase you were interested. Feel free to post your own shots from your own magazines you might find with Shenmue 3 tidbits in :)

Games TM:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/348/19787150568_f956ca1c9d_k.jpg
Games TM August 2015 Editor Note by James Brown , on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/512/19354231983_0cba5cf7bd_k.jpg Games TM Shenmue 3 Article by James Brown , on Flickr


Official Playstation 4:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/408/19788502979_f2584fcf64_k.jpg Official Playstation 4 Magazine Shenmue 3 Article by James Brown , on Flickr

Games TM
http://i.imgur.com/QZDZu9B.png
http://i.imgur.com/bCY9DRr.jpg

Official PlayStation Magazine UK
http://i.imgur.com/K209i8v.png

GamesMaster
http://i.imgur.com/KrkurSv.jpg

Play Magazine UK
http://i.imgur.com/1mLxKPa.jpg

Retro Gamer Magazine
http://i.imgur.com/1IwXSmL.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Y3DvEfj.jpg

The brother of Wang from Shenmue I must not be forgotten. True cringe-worthy goodness.


Edit: the video also features Ryo sounding as excited as I've ever heard when he finds out it's Wang's brother.

This is a translation of an article that was published in the September 2001 edition of the Dorimaga magazine. In it, Yu Suzuki and some of the Japanese voice actors talk about the completion of Shenmue II (released for the Dreamcast in Japan during the month this article was published) including some of the content that had to be cut from the release, and reflect back on their experiences over the previous 5 years they spent on the Shenmue project.

Part of this article (about Chapter 2) was translated by Kiyuu and discussed back in 2003. Also a short manga version of the Chapter 2 boat scenario is included as unlockable content on the Xbox version of Shenmue II.

http://i.imgur.com/FoGm3IDt.png

Special Interview: Looking Back on Shenmue

http://i.imgur.com/PAaSTUg.png

Yu Suzuki – Executive Producer
Masaya Matsukaze – Japanese voice & motion actor for Ryo
Hazuki Ishigaki – Japanese voice & motion actress for Shenhua
Takumi Hagiwara – Japanese voice & motion actor for Ren

Compared to the previous episode, “Chapter One - Yokosuka”, the townsfolk of Shenmue II seem friendlier. The game gives the impression that it has been made to address some of the areas that had room for improvement in the first game, as if to acknowledge that some may find it off-putting if everyone were to give you the cold shoulder like in Shenmue I. Some people may already have completed Shenmue II in its entirety, but this interview covers a range of topics, including things that people who have finished the game will also want to hear about.

TV Commercials

Q: The first topic is about the commercials for Shenmue II that are currently being shown on TV.

Shenmue II Commercial #1: "Pork"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cdJMDayC4o Shenmue II Commercial #2: "Kung Fu"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVGozf4zCRs Shenmue II Commercial #3: "Beautiful Woman"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jv1cgLsQAk
Suzuki: To film those TV commercials we went over to Shanghai, although in the near future we plan to show commercials that will feature actual screens from the game. I think showing some of the gameplay will help attract ordinary members of the public to the game.

Matsukaze: You know, Hagiwara-san and I actually appear in one of those commercials, but probably no one’s noticed. (laughs) And we're really acting, too!

http://i.imgur.com/WV2O5Qr.png
Left & bottom-right: the set of the Hong Kong street at the Shanghai Film Park. The first photo was actually taken by Yu Suzuki. In the “Beautiful Woman” version of the commercial, look for Masaya Matsukaze (Ryo), and Takumi Hagiwara (Ren), showing their “real acting" (!) in the background.
Top-right: two giant pig carcasses containing a machine gun were chopped up on location. The set crew took the innards home for dinner.



Hagiwara: Right. People who have played Shenmue II are sure to recognize that we’re acting the bit where we lie in wait for Yuan. There are several different episode variations of the commercial, and they’re fun to watch. In the one with the old man, he was pretty shaky on his feet, so we had to film using a high-speed camera to make it look as though he was standing steadily. Gee, that old man was wobbling all over the place. (laughs)


Release of Shenmue II

Q: With Shenmue II going on sale soon, how do you all feel about that? You've been involved with Shenmue for a really long period of time.

Suzuki: We’ve been through a lot to get here, but for me I think the main thing is to have created something that will be loved by the people who play the game. Recently that’s all I’ve been thinking about. So I’m extremely keen to hear everyone’s comments. Right now it’s the only thing on my mind. (laughs)

Matsukaze: For me, I started my “countdown” about a month ago. It hasn’t felt that long, but I’ve been willing it to get here faster. (laughs)

Suzuki: I think the way the game has been put together is pretty unusual these days. For example, the shop interiors have been created down to the last inch. I don’t think any other game pays such ridiculous attention to detail. “Shenmue: The Movie”, which is playing right now, has that same flavor.

Q: It really has been a long project, hasn’t it. The voice actors have also been involved for ages; how long has it been?

Matsukaze: I’ve been playing the role of Ryo since the days of the Saturn. All up, I’ve been acting the part for just over 5 years.

http://i.imgur.com/LRomR4A.png
Matsukaze has been playing as Ryo for over 5 years.

Q: Did those 5 years feel long?

Hagiwara: It felt long! For one thing, an enormous amount of time was spent on filming, but it also took a long time for it to be incorporated into the actual game. We captured an endless amount of motion footage, and even after the voice recordings had been done, the creation of the game still had to be done. It seemed like the release day would never be reached.

Suzuki: Well, the software implementation side was tough too! After writing the software there was a huge checklist to be run through – I wish I had it here to show everyone! (laughs) There was a line chart that showed the number of check items decreasing; there were more than 10,000 items to check and it seemed endless.

Q: By the way, how many times larger is Shenmue II compared to Shenmue I?

Suzuki: I don’t know exactly, but I'd say easily 3 or 4 times the size of Shenmue I. But a lot of scenes got left out, because right as we neared the end of development I added a whole lot of extra content. Even using the best compression techniques of the time, there was too much for it all to fit. Even so, at the end we increased the content by about an extra 30% of the total game, for the area of Guilin where Shenhua appears.

Matsukaze: I heard a lot about that near the end of the development. People were saying that too much had been made and it wouldn’t all fit in.


The Cutting Room Floor

Q: I’ve heard that there was going to be a “Chapter 2 – The Boat” between Shenmue I and Shenmue II, but Shenmue II starts with Ryo disembarking from the boat, doesn’t it. And the mother of a little girl makes reference to something about that. (laughs)

Suzuki: That’s right. “Chapter 2 – The Boat” from the original scenario was dropped completely.

Matsukaze: Oh yeah, the boat! Actually Chai shows up there. It turns out that Chai survives being cast into Yokosuka harbor, and he shows up on the boat where Ryo fights against this unseen enemy. That was how the scenario was going to run.

Q: Were the scenes filmed?

Matsukaze: Yes, they were. They were filmed in a really over-the-top style. (laughs) Several of the people involved in the story on the boat were to then appear again in a later scenario. They would say something along the lines of “Oh, it’s you from that time on the boat...”, connecting the plot together. That was the plan for the scenario.

Suzuki: The confrontation with Chai would have made a nice situation. We had completed the designs for the boat interior, with everything detailed - from the escape routes and deck heights to the length of the handrails. The plan was that it would develop into a large-scale action scene.

Matsukaze: We completed filming of all the motion capture too. It started with opening the cabin door, and events developed spectacularly from there.

Q: So as you were working on making Shenmue II, you reluctantly had to cut it?

Suzuki: Well, it didn’t trouble me too much. I was like “It’s impossible, it won’t fit – cut it!”. (laughs)

Q: I’m guessing that there were a lot of other scenes cut from the final version, and motion capture that wasn’t included? In particular, I think Ren’s movements are really well done and I was impressed; but I kind of wish we could see more of them.

Hagiwara: Well, if the motion capture was kept for all the detailed actions, it would make a huge amount. We shot a ton of fight scenes as well. Quite a lot has been cut.

http://i.imgur.com/ppqn5We.png
On asking Yu Suzuki, “What happened to Niao Sun, who was shown at the premiere?”, he replies “I haven’t been able to use her yet, since she appears later in terms of the scenarios.” Masaya Matsukaze, who plays Ryo, hints at things to come: “When it’s time for Niao Sun to make an appearance in Shenmue, the story will have reached an amazing point!”


Q: Which was more difficult to carry out: dubbing voices to the actions, or the motion capture?

Suzuki: Firstly, these weren’t carried out by different people – the actor’s own acting is the source of the motion capture. Also, when an opponent is hit in the game he cries out; so by actually hitting him, his cry will be the cry of someone who has really been hit. (laughs) It may sound like tough work, but I think it was the perfect set-up.

There was a lot of trial and error at the beginning, but by the time we got to Shenmue II, at last we had found ways to manage things more efficiently.

Q: By the way, Shenmue is your first RPG-style game, isn’t it. Would it be correct to say that one of the main factors that sparked you to develop it is one that is commonly cited, namely the arrival of Final Fantasy VII during the era of the Saturn and PlayStation?

Suzuki: To be honest, part of it was because I found myself in a position of having “no place to go next”. The reason that the Sega Saturn lost popularity wasn't because it was beaten in terms of Sega vs Sony software titles, but because of a completely separate shift in power. And around that time I definitely had a kind of feeling of not having a place to go. As well as that, up until now I had been competing in the 3-minute world of arcade games, and I had been wanting to try my hand at creating something without such a time limit. So you can say that these two points are why I decided to move from arcades to try my hand on the home console.

http://i.imgur.com/9JQjld9.png
“At first Shenhua wears plain clothing, but I planned to have her wear various different clothes later on” says Suzuki. “I’m looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds” comments Hazuki Ishigaki, who plays the role of Shenhua.



Looking Back

Q: And so, now that at last Shenmue II has been completed, how do you feel now looking back on it? After the Shenmue Premiere event (December 20, 1998), I guess that the plan was to release it within a year, but it has turned out to have taken right up until now... Is that somewhere near the mark?

Suzuki: It’s true that it didn’t turn out quite as I had initially planned. As more people became involved things grew more and more complicated, not just by a factor of a few times, but exponentially. And with everyone being a developer, if the person next to them developed something impressive, then they would feel compelled to outdo it. This resulted in a kind of chain reaction where everyone would strive to improve their output quality. But it’s hard for me to tell people not to increase quality! It was really challenging to find the right balance.

However there is one thing I think turned out well. In some ways Shenmue shares similarities with fighting-based games, but in the last half of the game in Guilin, where Shenhua appears, there’s no fighting at all. So I feel that I’ve been able to bring out the true Shenmue spirit there.

With Shenmue the graphics are all generated in real time, and ordinarily an attempt to make a game like this would be abandoned in frustration. (laughs) Game developers simply don’t go to the extremes we did. To tell you the truth, I don’t think we could go through it all again.

The Future

Q: So you won’t be making another Shenmue?

Suzuki: The first thing I want to do is take some vacation (laughs), and the staff too. I don’t think we could put ourselves through such tough times again as we did with Chapter One. However, even so, I’ve now learned a lot about how to make this type of game and so I’m confident that we’ll be able to make the next one more efficiently and with less of a burden. We’ll be able to make a similar kind of game, and it’s something I want to do. But... I feel like taking a bit of a break first. (laughs)

Q: Hypothetically speaking, if there was the possibility again in the future, what would be your choice of hardware? Ah, before asking that - is there any potential for a port?

Suzuki: Porting Shenmue I and II across to other hardware wouldn’t be impossible, but due to the sheer size it would materially be a tough job to take on. The easiest and most likely option would be the PC, in a year or two. That’s because the PC has, in a sense, the ability to handle anything and has few constraints.

Q: What thoughts do you actors have about that?

Hagiwara: I’m already raring to go! (laughs) Bring it on!

http://i.imgur.com/CrmKdVM.png
We really hope to see more acting from Takumi Hagiwara, who plays Ren. “Just say the word and I definitely will!” he says.


Q: I would have liked to have seen Ren take part in more scenes, to be honest!

Hagiwara: I know, right? There are still heaps of interesting stories connected to the scenarios made so far. Things like “Why is Ren present?” and “Why did Shenhua make an appearance?” It all gets explained later on.

Ishigaki: My wish for a port is that it starts properly from the very first disk of the series (laughs).

Matsukaze: Yeah, I agree.

Q: Yu-san, going back to the point you mentioned about the feeling you had of “nowhere to go”, have you satisfied this to some extent for the future?

Suzuki: In a way... not completely though. Conversely, now things have turned into a kind of hardware war, so it has become kind of pointless, right? Life is full of variety, for better or worse. But for me, the creation process is enjoyable, and therefore I want to create a product that people will enjoy. I think that’s been the lesson I’ve learned.

Matsukaze: A lot of female characters appear in Shenmue II, but actually people like Fangmei have some really detailed parameters associated with them such as her level of intimacy. And to reflect these parameters, her spoken lines were all recorded with various tones of voice! I hope everyone can appreciate the amazing attention to detail that fills every corner of the game.

Suzuki: For me, I don’t consider that “Shenmue” came to an end with the demise of the Dreamcast. I have an emotional attachment to the game. And so, I hope to meet up with you all again one day.

Matsukaze: Let’s meet next time for “Shenmue Returns”. (laughs)

Hagiwara: Absolutely. I hope we can.

http://i.imgur.com/Xn9zNAj.png
Matsukaze, Ishigaki, Suzuki and Hagiwara. For now, the long long project that was Shenmue has come to an end. Will we meet everyone again in the next episode? Or perhaps in a different project... if one is in the works? We’ll be watching for the next release from Yu Suzuki!

Giorgio wrote:New interview of Yu Suzuki on Famitsu:
http://www.famitsu.com/news/201509/08087158.html

Happy to see another interview out!

It looks like there hasn't been any full translation made yet, so I'll make a start on it (may take a couple of days).

Update: translation posted here.

Chai sucks and is the worst character in the series. An ugly skinhead with an even worse voice with flat character development and motivations. The only thing Chai wants is to impress Lan Di. Boring. Chai returning so far is the only disappointing thing I've heard about Shenmue III. Chai sucks and should have stayed on the Dreamcast. What an awful, awful villain and character.

On a scale of 1-10, how spoilerific is the spoiler? (still haven't clicked on on it yet)

2/10

It's about the number and the name of the main bosses of the game. And we learnt nothing (as long as you followed the interviews at the E3). The today's Dualshocker interview releases the same info but did not use a spoiler on their side. I'm still grateful to David for having taken no risk for all the fans.

Now you know why I took my time and kept waiting for Yu Suzuki's approval before publishing anything.

I am not sure how DS handed their ITW, but in Japan, you have to show some respect and this time, I didn't feel like posting right away without getting the green light. I once screwed up with the Paypal release date and will do my best to never let something like that happen again.

When you're doing an interview, you always get info that you cannot publish and even tho that's the most rewarding part, it's also the most difficult one because you have to avoid posting spoilers.

I can't thank you all enough for your support and feedback, really appreciated. My goal was to provide new info and even tho I had to do it on my own, with my own budget, I have no regret, it was fantastic.

Next one should happen during Magic Monaco but many people will try to interview Yu Suzuki and I might not have as much time as I had in Japan.

I am waiting for Paypal's campaign to end and I'll probably ask the fans if they want to bring some questions to the table again, just like this time.

Thank you very much for reading the interview. That's by far, my best reward. ;-)