Interesting article from Gamespot here. We can hope they see sense and just man up and release S1 S2 lol.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/sega-p ... 0-6431226/

And rigged!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Df0fad-U28E

Shenhua Fan Art speed painting I created on my Nintendo Wii u Art academy home studio app! came out exactly how I wanted it to and am proud of this piece. took about 3 hours to complete. the full hd image is in my online art portfolio @ RyoHD.carbonmade.com hope you all enjoy!

Oh yea, lets not forget any company that flies reviewers out to these reviewer events, if that's not bribing(as well as another form of controlling the outcome of a reviewers reviews) in of its self, I don't know what is.

Yeah, paid travels, paid meals, many gifts like free games, collector's editions and even a complete gaming PCs with the game installed for the reviewers, and of course, ads on the websites, that not only can be used like a bribe, but are always under the pressure of being pulled out.

Sure, no website gets money directly from the publishers to give them good reviews, that would be retarded, not even gangsters did things like that. But, we've seen so many situations where incredibly boring AAA games get glowing reviews though, most of the times with no disclosure of anything, and with a big contrast to the actual gamers opinions, that it's not even a question anymore that gaming media is not trustworthy. Don't even need to mention the controversies, like the Gamespot reviewer being fired for a bad review too, among others.

Yeah, I sincerely doubt they are going to fork over pay, allow him intimate insight into the development process, and then publicize it, all just to stop him from releasing a (truly beautiful) fan project when they could have (or SEGA could have) simply issued a C&D, flagged his YT for copyright, and been done with it.

Could it maybe be a case of two birds one stone? Possibly. But it seems more likely they felt (given their limited budget and need to be selective with hires) the project would legitimately benefit from his presence. Which is awesome.

So much cynicism despite being a fanbase that literally achieved the impossible on a miraculous level. :/

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. ;-)

Hello guys,

As promised, I've received Yu Suzuki's approval to publish it, so here it is !

Meeting Yu Suzuki in Japan once again was awesome. I had the opportunity to meet with the development team and saw some footage and can say that Shenmue is definetly in good hands.

This interview do not contain major spoilers, however, DO NOT read the question/answer #14 if you do not wish to know about Shenmue III's bosses.

Enough said, here you go !

English version / 英語版 :

PDF version : coming soon

Yu Suzuki's interview : A New Shenmue (2015)

1) David : Hello Yu Suzuki. Today is September 14th and 2 months have passed since the end of the Kickstarter's campaign. Could you tell us how you've felt during the campaign ?

Yu Suzuki : Many people asked me how it was during E3 so I'd rather talk about what happened after that, the development and so on. That's what is the most interesting to me. The game's budget has been decided with the Kickstarter and we're working on it accordingly. We're currently testing the Unreal Engine 4.

http://s20.postimg.org/3q8adrch9/image.jpg

2) David : 14 years have passed since the release of Shenmue II. If you had to think about it, was there anything that could have been improved in the previous games ?

Yu Suzuki : When I was making Shenmue II, my goal was to make it better than the first one. Of course, there are many things that could have been better. If I had to provide an example, that'd be the use of time. How long you had to wait until the next event.

In Shenmue Yokosuka, the player had no other choice but to wait until the next event occured. The concept was to add many different features for the player to enjoy while waiting for the said rendezvous. After the first Shenmue was done, people provided their feedback and many of them were frustrated having to wait, that's why I've decided to add the « Skip Time » feature in Shenmue II. By using it, you could skip time and jump to the next scene.

3) David : During the trailer of Shenmue Online, we could see Shenhua summoning a Phoenix to fight Lan Di. Is it linked to the original story of Shenmue ?

Yu Suzuki : This is a story I made up specially for Shenmue Online. So no, It has no link to the original story.

http://s20.postimg.org/v4nf1xkvh/image.jpg

I would like to ask you some questions regarding Shenmue III and the Kickstarter campaign if you don't mind.

4) David : You've planned to add scenes from the first 2 games « Story Digest » in Shenmue III to describe the story. Are you going to use the previous games original scenes or do you plan to recreate them under the Unreal Engine 4 ? Is there any chance you're going to add Chapter 2 « the boat » in it ?

Yu Suzuki : The boat chapter won't be added. Regarding the « Story Digest » we're thinking about the best way to add it.

5) David : A fan has made a suggestion and wanted you to hear it. Is it possible for Ryo to hold a camera and take some pictures that the player could save in the inventory ?

Yu Suzuki : Ryo holding a camera doesn't match with his style and the way he is. However, the fact that the «player» himself is taking the pictures sounds like a nice idea. To be honest, I already thought about it before, so if that's possible, I would like to make this possibility happen.

6) David : In your previous interviews, you've mentioned that Shenmue III's size would be around the size of Shenmue's Dobuita. Each village will be around the same size as Dobuita or where you talking about the full game ?

Yu Suzuki : I want to make Choubu as large as Dobuita. Now, about the remaining villages, we're thinking about it.

http://s20.postimg.org/ua0vfwd0t/image.jpg

7) David : Characters will be linked to Ryo through the « Rapport System ». But is it going to change the main story and why not, make some of the characters disappear at some point ?

Yu Suzuki : This system has been built for Ryo and Shenhua. We are thinking about the possibility to make it work with other characters but that's undecided. Regarding the impact that it's going to have on the story and the game itself, that is currently under experimentation.

8 ) David : The exclusive Kickstarter content « S3World telecom» will provide the possibility to call some characters of the previous games. But are the conversations going to be limited to some lines only or will they offer some variations ?

Yu Suzuki : No, It won't be limited to a single conversation.

9) David  : The Stretch Goals «AI Battling», «Ragdoll Reaction» and «High Ground Battle System» have yet to be reached, but is there anything we could learn about these Stretch Goals ?

Yu Suzuki : Some of you may know what the Ragdoll physics is. If you release the strength of the body, it becomes like a doll, that's not really natural. That's why we're working on the «Motion Blending», adding some resistance to the muscles for example, to obtain realistic moves.

In a Virtua Fighter scene, patterns were determined by the Motion Capture, but with the Ragdoll physics, moves won't repeat over and over. If you get into something (like a wall) the reaction won't be the same. In fact, I'd like to combine the «Ragdoll Physics», the «Motion Blending» and «IK Constraint» to make the NPC and battle's reactions as real as possible.

Regarding the «AI Battling» Stretch Goal, if I had to explain this simply, that'd be, for example, when you're hitting the punch button of your pad to hit your opponent. A jab when he's close, to hit him when he's away from you and to move to hit him when he's even more far away. I would like to create a system that is taking account of the distance, conditions and the position of your rival. During normal fights, if you push a button, your character will use the same move over and over without considering your current situation. I don't really like that and would like to use the «AI Battling» to add some variations to the movements depending on your current state.

And finally, the «High Ground Battle System», is the interactivity with the surrounding environment. I want to create and add strategy and realism to the battles. For example, throwing your opponent on a barrel and making it break or hitting a wall and making it fall like a wave on your enemy. I'd like to create more complex battles using the UE4's physical phenomenon.

David : These features were not available in the first two games right ?

Yu Suzuki : To say the truth, I've already used it. You could see something like that during the «70 Man Battle». But these techniques were used 14 years ago and I am sure that the result will be more interesting if we use the actual technology.

10) David : Is Shenhua going to be with Ryo all the time or is Ryo going to be on his own from time to time as well ?

Yu Suzuki : Both. Moments where Ryo will be on his own and some where Shenhua will stand by his side.

http://s20.postimg.org/6lldkmgh9/image.jpg

11) David : Just like in Shenmue I and II, is it going to be possibile to grab the items around us and examine them ?

Yu Suzuki : I would like to make it.

12) David : Some people would like to know more about the Paypal campaign and its rewards. Is there anything you can tell us ?

Yu Suzuki : The campaign will start on September 17th. With Kickstarter, people were limited to one reward, but this time, they will be able to add other rewards. Also, I'd like Japanese users to browse this page, all details will be in Japanese. The remaining Stretch Goals are also a part of this campaign and if we reach them, as promised, they will be made. I am counting on you !

13) David : Niao Sun has been presented during the first Shenmue events but is only appearing for the first time in Shenmue III. Why did you show her so soon during the promotion of the game ? Is there a special reason behind this ?

Yu Suzuki : There's no real reason. She was attractive and I liked her, that's why I wanted to show this character to all of you as soon as possible !

http://s20.postimg.org/jr0vqqact/image.jpg

14) David : Looking at the development's schedule, 4 big bosses will be added to the game. Have you decided to cut some parts of the story and add the 4 main Chiyoumen bosses ?

Yu Suzuki : All I can tell you is that you're going to face Niao Sun of course, and also Lan Di !

http://s20.postimg.org/40fsx3r3h/image.jpg

15) David : Many players would like to have the possibility to switch between the Japanese and English voices. Do you plan to add such a feature in Shenmue III ?

Yu Suzuki : We are considering the possibility to switch between English and Japanese voices. So, many people would like Japanese voices and English subtitles ? I will probably start a poll about this to see what people are looking forward to.

Here is the last question !

16) David : Any special message that you'd like to say to the fans and why not, people who never played Shenmue until today ?

Yu Suzuki : My message towards the fans :

Thank to all of you who have been waiting for the last 14 years. I will bring with Shenmue III a new way to play and many things that were not in the first two games. I am aware that many of you are expecting Shenmue III to be the same as the first games but as a game creator, I am always challenging myself and I'd be very happy if the fans appreciated Shenmue III. Thank you for welcoming the new Shenmue !

Now the message toward players who never experienced Shenmue before :

I am developing it in the best possible way to make sure that you are going to enjoy the experience even though you have never played the first Shenmue. So even if you have no idea what the Shenmue I and II were, please do not hesitate to try it out please !

http://s20.postimg.org/ja248r8x9/DSC_0563.jpg

The interview is now over. I would like to say thank you to Yu Suzuki who allowed me to do this interview. A huge thanks to all the people working at YsNet, for their warm welcome and kindness.

I'd also like to say thank you to Cédric Biscay, french co-producer of Shenmue III. I had the opportunity to meet him and I can tell you that he's really motivated and he loves Shenmue as much as we all do ! Shenmue III is in good hands and I am really looking forward to it !

My next interview should happen during the Magic Monaco in February 2016.

Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed the answers.

©David DE VILLE

**********

Japanese version / 日本語版 ：

鈴木裕さんのインタビュー : 新しいシェンムーへ

1) ダビッド ： 鈴木さん、こんにちは。本日、インタビューを行わせていただくことになり、ありがとうございます。宜しくお願い致します。それでは、はじめましょう。シェンムーⅢのKickstarterのキャンペーンが終了してから、二ヶ月ぐらい経過しました。よろしければ、キャンペーンの間の印象を教えて頂けませんか。

鈴木氏 ： 皆さんに良く聞かれたのはショーの期間中の印象でしたので、その代わりにE3（ロサンゼルスで行われるゲームショー）が終わったあとや開発について話したいと思います。バジェットが決まったので、そのバジェットに合わせてゲームのフローに従って、現在はUE4のテストに入っています。

http://s20.postimg.org/3q8adrch9/image.jpg

2) ダビッド ： シェンムーⅡが発売されてから１４年が経過しました。今、思い浮かべると、シェンムーⅠとⅡには改善点があったと思いますか。

鈴木氏 ：　シェンムーⅡを作るときはシェンムーⅠを改善して作ったので、もちろん改善点が沢山ありました。一つの例を挙げると、待ち合わせの時間です。シェンムーⅠでは待ち合わせの時間までただ待つことしか出来ませんでした。なので、シェンムーⅠでは待ち合わせの時間までに遊ぶ要素を沢山入れてあります。待っている時間に違うことをやって欲しいというのがシェンムーⅠのコンセプトでした。シェンムーⅠが終わったらそこに対してストレスが溜まると言うプレイヤーの声が高かったのでシェンムーⅡでは待つシステムを入れることに決めました。その時間まで待つというシステムを使うと、その時間と場所にジャンプすることが出来るようになりました。　

3) ダビッド ： シェンムーオンラインのトレーラーでは藍帝（らんてい）は龍を、シェンファは鳳凰を召喚して戦っているシーンがありました。このシーンはシェンムーのメインストーリーと繋がっているのでしょうか。

鈴木氏 ： シェンムーオンラインのために作った外伝なので、オリジナルストーリーと繋がっていません。

http://s20.postimg.org/v4nf1xkvh/image.jpg

4) ダビッド ： まだ、シェンムーをやったことがないプレイヤーにストーリーを分かってもらうために、シェンムーⅢにシェンムーＩ＆Ⅱのストーリーダイジェストコンテンツが追加される予定があります。
それは、昔の動画（シェンムーThe Movie)か、あるいはUnreal Engine 4でリニューアルしたもので追加されるのでしょうか。そして、カットされた「二章　船」の動画版を追加されますか。

鈴木氏 ： シェンムー「二章　船」　は追加されません。ストーリーダイジェストに関してはどの形がいいかどうか検討中です。

5）　ダビッド ： シェンムーファンからのアイデアを聞いたので、お伝えさせていただきます。シェンムーⅢの涼がカメラを持って、写真を撮って、アルバムに保存できるシステムというアイデアでしたが、いかがでしょうか。

鈴木氏 ： 涼がカメラを持つというと、ちょっと彼のイメージに合わないと思います。プレイヤーの方が写真を撮ったらいいと思っています。写真の機能が使えるのは以前からやりたいと考えていたので、出来ればやりたいです。

6） ダビッド ： 以前、他のインタビューを受けていたときに、鈴木さんはシェンムーⅢの世界のサイズはシェンムーのどぶ板と同じぐらいになると言いましたが、それは全部のエリアですか。それとも一つずつの村がどぶ板と同じぐらいのサイズになるということでしょうか。

鈴木氏 ：鳥舞をどぶ板くらいの大きさにしたいと思っています。他の村については検討中です。

http://s20.postimg.org/ua0vfwd0t/image.jpg

7） ダビッド ： 今回は好感度システムによって涼が他のキャラクターと繋がっていることは変わりますが、そのシステムでストーリーの変更や仲が悪いと仲間と会えなくなってしまう設定がありますか。

鈴木氏 ： 好感度システムは涼とシェンファーに向けて作ったシステムです。他のキャラに使うかどうかは検討中です。ストーリーやゲーム進行にどれくらいの影響を与えるかどうかは現在実験中です。

8） ダビッド ： キックスターター限定の国際テレホンカードで前作で出てきたキャラクターに連絡することが可能ですが、出来る会話が一つ限りなのか又はバリエーションがたくさんあるのでしょうか。

鈴木氏 : 会話は一つ限りではないです。

9） ダビッド ： 「ラグドールリアクション」や「ＡＩバトル」や「ハイグランドバトルシステム」というストレッチゴールはまだ達成していませんが、それについて詳しく説明してくださいませんか。

鈴木氏 ： 皆さんはご存知かもしれませんが、ラグドール物理演算というのがあって、人体の力を抜くと人形みたいなものになって、キャラクターがだらんとしてしまいます。これだけでやると動きが不自然になってしまいます。
そのため、これにモーションブレンディングしたり、例えば筋肉の抵抗（コンストレイン）を加えると、よりリアルな動きが出ます。バーチャファイターで攻撃をされるシーンはモーションキャプチャーで撮ったシーンでパターン化されていますが、ラグドールというのはそのときの地形やぶつかったときの動きを繰り返さないので、実際はラグドール、モーションブレンディング、ＩＫコンストレインを上手く組み合わせてバトルのリアクション・・・例えばNPCのリアクションをもっとリアルにしたいです。

AIバトルというのは、例えば簡単にいうとパンチのボタンだったら、相手が近かったらジャブ、相手が少し離れていたらストレート、もっと離れていたら移動してストレートというふうに相手との位置や距離や状況に応じて,自動的にバトルの技が出来るようにAIでコントロールしたいです。普通のバトルというのはコマンドを押せばそのコマンドの技が出るという風になっているので、その技が状況に合っていなくても出てしまいます。それは良くないなと考えているので、状況に合った技をだすためにAIでコントロールしたいと思っています。

ハイグランドバトルシステム は、キャラクターの周りのものを使って、バトルに臨場感と戦略を加えて作りたいと思っています。例えば、敵を投げたらドラム缶が崩れてきて敵をやっつけるとか、闘おうとしているときに壁を叩いたら波のように崩れてきたり・・・UE4の物理現象を連鎖させて、より複雑で楽しいバトルを作りたいと思っています。演算を使ってやりたいなと思っています。

ダビッド ： シェンムーⅠ・Ⅱではやっていなかったシステムですね？

鈴木氏 ： ちょっとやっていました。７０人バトルのときにドラム缶が崩れてきたりとか…　ですが、あれは14年前の技術でやった表現なので、現在の技術でやったらもっと楽しいものになると思います。

10） ダビッド ： シェンムーⅢではシェンファがシェンムーIIと同じように常に涼と一緒にいるのか、彼が一人になることが多くなるのでしょうか。

鈴木氏 ： 彼女と一緒にいるときもありますし、一人になるときもあります。

http://s20.postimg.org/6lldkmgh9/image.jpg

11) ダビッド ： シェンムーとシェンムーⅡでアイテムを細かく観察することが出来ましたが、シェンムーⅢでも同じような動作が出来ますか。

鈴木氏 ：　出来るようにしたいです。

12) ダビッド ： Kickstarterのキャンペーン終了後、更に支援したい方がPaypalで支援出来るシステムが発表されました。それについての詳細を説明して頂けますか。

鈴木氏 ： ９月１７日からPaypalを開始対応しています。Kickstarterでは１個しか買えなかったのですが、今回は追加の購入が出来ますし、あとは特に日本のユーザーが日本語で申し込むことが出来ますので是非ページを見に来て下さい。基本的にはストレッチゴールにも対応していますので追加金額でストレッチゴールをクリアすると約束している部分が実現出来ます。皆さん、宜しくお願いします。

13) ダビッド ： 鳥隼（ちょうじゅん）は昔からプロモーションキャラクターとして使用されていて、シェンムーⅢから登場することになりましたが、どうして１４年前からそのキャラクターを紹介されましたか。特別な理由がありますか。

鈴木氏 ： 特別な理由がありません。キャラクターが魅力的だったので、僕がそのキャラクターが好きで、早く皆さんに見せたかったからです。

http://s20.postimg.org/jr0vqqact/image.jpg

14) ダビッド ： 開発の構成によって、シェンムーIIIでは4つのボスがいるということが分かってきました。つまりストーリーを短くして、四天王（らんてい、こうてい、えんてい、げんてい）を含めることにしましたか。

鈴木氏 ： 一つだけのことを言います。四天王の藍帝(蒼龍) と炎帝（鳥隼）が出てきます。

http://s20.postimg.org/40fsx3r3h/image.jpg

15) ダビッド ： 日本語と英語音声を選択するオプションが欲しい方が多いそうです。このような選択肢をシェンムーⅢに追加するつもりでしょうか。

鈴木氏 ： 日本語版と英語版の音声切り替えが可能かどうか検討してみます。海外では日本語音声で英語字幕が欲しい人が多いですか。出来たら、一回アンケートを取ってみたいですね。

それでは、最後の質問です。

16) ダビッド ： シェンムーファンや又はシェンムーを初めてプレイする方々に伝えたい特別なメッセージがありましたら、どうぞ。

鈴木氏 ： シェンムーファンの皆さんについては１４年間ぐらい待ってくれて、本当にありがとうございます。シェンムーⅢではシェンムーI＆Ⅱにない、新しい遊びをチャレンジしようと思っています。シェンムーI＆IIとか全く同じ遊びを期待している人がいるかもしれませんが、鈴木裕は常に新しいことにチャレンジするクリエイターだと思って、シェンムーⅢを応援してくれると嬉しいです。新しいシェンムーを応援して下さい。

はじめて遊ぶ人については、シェンムーIとⅡを遊んでなくても、知らなくても楽しく遊べるように、シェンムーⅢを作る予定です。はじめてのプレイでも、シェンムーの良さが伝わるようなゲームになるので、是非遊んでみてください。

http://s20.postimg.org/ja248r8x9/DSC_0563.jpg

インタビューを読んで下さった皆さん、ありがとうございます。鈴木裕さんとYSNETのスタッフの皆さんにも大変感謝しております。

シェンムーIIIは２０１７年１２月末に発売予定です。興味がある方は是非、シェンムーIIIの公式サイトのページをご覧下さい。

http://shenmue.link/　

予約購入のページはこちらです。

http://shenmue.link/order_jp/

This is exactly why I've been through double-check and approval from YsNet. I didn't want journalists to grab some parts and turn these into false rumors or clickbaits.

Glad they quickly posted on Twitter that the Xbox thing was not true !

James Brown wrote: Does anyone know if Yu has promised a guaranteed 60 fps on those sexy cute girls boobies tho?

No but I heard Niao Sun will be a DLC character for DOAX3 sometime next year...

*Waits for Gamespot to make a new article stating this as fact*

Shenmue 3 can't promise 60fps but can promise 'cute' and 'sexy' girls

Series creator Yu Suzuki has said that he can’t promise 60fps performance in Shenmue 3, although he seems he can guarantee that its female characters will be sexually attractive.

“For the moment, I’m thinking about 30 frames per second,” he told DualShockers when asked about the game’s PS4 framerate. “60 might be too difficult, but I’m not sure yet.”

However, while Suzuki cannot confirm how the game will appear technically, he is ensuring that visually it will tick certain boxes.

“They are being improved,” he replied when asking about changes to early character model prototypes. “The person who originally created Shenhua, is collaborating with us on her character. Thanks to him, Shenhua is looking a lot cuter.

“There will be many new characters. There are the four main bosses. There will be Lan Di from the previous games, and two more fighters. The fourth, on the other hand is a strategist, and she will using more cunning than head on fighting. She is an extremely beautiful and sexy, but cruel woman.”

And then when asked about romance in the game, the developer added: “Yes, it will be an important topic in Shenmue III, and I will try to portray the differences in how men and women think in the game.”

Suzuki then went on to admit that he himself isn’t really a gamer.

“I don’t really play other games, because if you play games it’s too easy to be influenced by them, and even if it is unintentional, one ends up losing their originality. On the other hand, I’m watching movies,” he admitted.

The difference in approach to both female representation and wider equality issues between Eastern and Western game developers is not only widening but increasingly being brought into focus.

While games such as Metal Gear Solid, Tekken, Tomodachi Life and Dead or Alive find themselves clashing with modern Western values, American and European developers such as Blizzard, EA, Ubisoft and NetherRealm have openly adopted a more balanced approach to gender representation and sexual orientation, no doubt spurred by the efforts of vocal critics such as Anita Sarkeesian.

Last month UK industry veteran Andy Payne said that there was no longer any excuse for the sector’s inequality blind spot. And Japanese companies should not go completely without praise, with Sony and Square Enix in particular making some very positive moves in the right direction.

It was revealed yesterday that the Western release of Wii U title Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water will ditch the skimpy costumes found in the Japanese release in favour of less revealing Nintendo-themed clothing.


Source : MCVUK

Even without the bribery gaming journalism is too dependent on the big gaming companies to be able to give objective reviews. The fact that they depend so much on advertisement revenue from the same companies they do reviews for in addition to the fact that to stay competitive reviewers need to be able to receive games early meaning that being able to review the game itself becomes a bargaining chip, all this makes professional gaming journalism incredibly untrustworthy in general.

Can someone provide me a widescreen code for the Shenmue Undub by Kogami? I also need the enable code.

GDI download
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/24ydxz ... ndub%20GDI

Anthony817 wrote: Esppiral, if and when you do get it working, could you please show some video of it?

Done, this is the prologue



I'll post a short gameplay soon, still uploading to youtube.

They had to announce a release date before they had any idea what the scope of the game was going to be, or how many staff they'd be able to employ. December 2017 gives us a general focal point but we'd be wise to consider it a loose suggestion at best.

This is the highest caliber indie game of all time, or am I wrong ?

Esppiral, if and when you do get it working, could you please show some video of it?

Done, this is the prologue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u93g42dzE48

I'll post a short gameplay soon, still uploading to youtube.

Nice! Are you using a 1080p upscaler as well or a simple VGA to HDMI adapter with that?

This offscreen gameplay was captured using a plain simple RGB cable :oops:

Here's the full script (sorry about the mistakes, I've worked on it as fast as possible) :

Chaque semaine vous découvrez une personnalité qui veut changer le monde à travers les médias ou internet. C'est dans notre rubrique : "Le Tube d'avance".

Et aujourd'hui on va parler d'un jeune français : "Cédric Biscay". Il a 36 ans et il a récolté plus de 6 millions de dollars sur le net, un record, Pour relancer un jeu vidéo japonais culte : Shenmue. Shenmue avait disparu des consoles depuis 15 ans. Et bien Reza Pounewatchy a rencontré le français qui va ressuciter un des héros des gamers.

Cannes, au début du mois, la croisette déroulait son tapis rouge à l'occasion du Mipcom, l'Hypermarché international des programmes TV. Une centaine de pays représentés, 12 000 participants, dont cet homme : Cédris Biscay, ce jeune producteur qui a l'air perdu dans les couloirs du Palais des festivals, a rendez-vous avec une productrice japonaise d'un dessin animé culte. Un indice se trouve d'ailleurs sur la table.

- Il voyage tout le temps avec moi
- Il vous porte chance ? (rires)
- (rires) c'est la seule figurine que j'ai
- Il faudrait d'ailleurs qu'on envisage de créer de nouvelles figurines d'Astro Boy

Des figurines en préparation, mais ce qui les réunit ce jour-là, c'est surtout la nouvelle adaptation en série d'Astro Boy. Cédric Biscay devra en co-produire 26 épisodes.

- Ben en fait on a des scénarios, on a un teaser. Là le next step ce sera d'annoncer les chaînes de télévision qui vont participer à l'aventure.

Cédric Biscay ne se contente pas de remettre au goût du jour une icône de l'animation Nippone. Il y a quelques mois, il a fait sensation en participant à une levée de fonds record pour la création d'un jeu vidéo. Cet exploit lancé sur le site de financement participatif Kickstarter, ce français l'a réalisé avec Yu Suzuki, une légende chez les concepteurs japonais de jeux vidéo.

Petit retour en arrière pour mieux comprendre. 15 juin dernier, le Los Angeles Convention Center accueille l'E3, un des plus gros salons du jeu vidéo. Parmi les moments les plus attendus, la conférence de presse de Sony. Dans les coulisses, Cédric Biscay n'est pas loin. En plein milieu du show, débarque timidement sur scène Yu Suzuki. Devant 10 000 personnes conquises, le créateur annonce vidéo à l'appui, le lancement d'un financement participatif événement.
C'est officiel, le troisième volet de Shenmue arrive. Shenmue, un jeu vidéo culte, une saga lancée il y a 16 ans sur cette console : la Dreamcast, une relique de la marque Sega.

L'information abasourdit la foule. Certains sont au bord des larmes, d'autres qui suivent la scène depuis leurs ordinateurs sont même hystériques. En 24h, 2 millions de dollars sont prélevés, un record ! En grande partie grâce à Cédric Biscay, producteur officiel de Shenmue III quand il ne pose pas à côté de Yoda.
Monaco, à quelques minutes du Casino dans une rue calme du Rocher, nous avons rendez-vous dans les bureaux d'un homme plutôt content de lui.

- Bienvenue chez Shibuya Productions !
- Pourquoi vous être installé à Monaco ?
- Monaco c'est un cadre de vie agréable et en plus nous sommes la seule société de production d'animation et de jeux vidéo. C'est toujours sympa d'avoir un mini monopole sur un si petit territoire.
Ici à Shibuya Productions, une société une société lancée il y a un peu plus d'un an que ses employés et lui travaillent au marketing de Shenmue III. Une partie de l'équipe est au Japon. Une équipe assez prudente devant nos caméras.

- Anything new ?
- J'apporterai demain ici une nouvelle table plus grande. Ce sera un grand bureau.
- C'est parfait. On pourra organiser de grandes réunions comme ça !

Mise à part l'acquisition d'une nouvelle table, nous apprendrons ici que Cédric Biscay a rencontré Yu Suzuki il y a 5 ans, le temps nécessaire au producteur français pour convaincre le créateur qu'un financement participatif pourrait relancer le développement de la suite d'un jeu très attendu comme Shenmue.

- On a réussi à mettre en place un système avec la possibilité d'avoir une part d'investisseurs traditionnels et d'autre part le crowdfunding. Quand on a lancé ce crowdfunding en juin de cette année, on savait que ça allait cartonner mais ça a cartonné au-delà de nos espérances.

Au total, plus de 6 millions de dollars sont levés pour Shenmue III, du jamais vu. Une opération de communication réussie. Pour Cédric Biscay et sa société de production jusqu'ici inconnue dans le milieu. Mais l'aventure japonaise de l'entrepreneur a commencé bien avant, en 2002.

- Lorsque j'ai fait ma première rencontre au Japon, j'ai été taper aux portes et il y a un président de société qui s'appelle production IG qui est un studio très connu qui a fait "Ghost in the Shell" qui a bien voulu m'ouvrir sa porte. Et en fait j'ai commencé à travailler avec lui, il m'a donné une petite émission.

S'en suivront 12 ans d'émissions ou plutôt de conseils pour ce professeur de jeux vidéo. Cédric Biscay a depuis perdu sa frange, mais rempli son carnet d'adresse avec le gratin de l'animation japonaise.

- J'ai mon ami Yoshitaka Amano, le créateur des personnages de Final Fantasy. J'ai rencontré Reiji Matsumoto le créateur d'Albator. Go Nagai le créateur de Goldorak. Akira Toriyama le créateur de Dragon Ball.

Un large réseau qui lui permettra sûrement de relancer d'autres jeux et films d'animation japonais cultes. En attendant, la sortie de Shenmue III est prévue pour Noël 2017.

Here's the full script (sorry about the mistakes, I've worked on it as fast as possible) :

Chaque semaine vous découvrez une personnalité qui veut changer le monde à travers les médias ou internet. C'est dans notre rubrique : "Le Tube d'avance".

Et aujourd'hui on va parler d'un jeune français : "Cédric Biscay". Il a 36 ans et il a récolté plus de 6 millions de dollars sur le net, un record, Pour relancer un jeu vidéo japonais culte : Shenmue. Shenmue avait disparu des consoles depuis 15 ans. Et bien Résapony Watcher (à vérifier, c'est ce que j'entends) a rencontré le français qui va ressuciter un des héros des gamers.

Cannes, au début du mois, la croisette déroulait son tapis rouge à l'occasion du Mipcom, l'Hypermarché international des programmes TV. Une centaine de pays représentés, 12 000 participants, dont cet homme : Cédris Biscay, ce jeune producteur qui a l'air perdu dans les couloirs du Palais des festivals, a rendez-vous avec une productrice japonaise d'un dessin animé culte. Un indice se trouve d'ailleurs sur la table.

- Il voyage tout le temps avec moi
- Il vous porte chance ? (rires)
- (rires) c'est la seule figurine que j'ai
- Il faudrait d'ailleurs qu'on envisage de créer de nouvelles figurines d'Astro Boy

Des figurines en préparation, mais ce qui les réunit ce jour-là, c'est surtout la nouvelle adaptation en série d'Astro Boy. Cédric Biscay devra en co-produire 26 épisodes.

- Ben en fait on a des scénarios, on a un teaser. Là le next step ce sera d'annoncer les chaînes de télévision qui vont participer à l'aventure.

Cédric Biscay ne se contente pas de remettre au goût du jour une icône de l'animation Nippone. Il y a quelques mois, il a fait sensation en participant à une levée de fonds record pour la création d'un jeu vidéo. Cet exploit lancé sur le site de financement participatif Kickstarter, ce français l'a réalisé avec Yu Suzuki, une légende chez les concepteurs japonais de jeux vidéo.

Petit retour en arrière pour mieux comprendre. 15 juin dernier, le Los Angeles Convention Center accueille l'E3, un des plus gros salons du jeu vidéo. Parmi les moments les plus attendus, la conférence de presse de Sony. Dans les coulisses, Cédric Biscay n'est pas loin. En plein milieu du show, débarque timidement sur scène Yu Suzuki. Devant 10 000 personnes conquises, le créateur annonce vidéo à l'appui, le lancement d'un financement participatif événement.
C'est officiel, le troisième volet de Shenmue arrive. Shenmue, un jeu vidéo culte, une saga lancée il y a 16 ans sur cette console : la Dreamcast, une relique de la marque Sega.

L'information abasourdit la foule. Certains sont au bord des larmes, d'autres qui suivent la scène depuis leurs ordinateurs sont même hystériques. En 24h, 2 millions de dollars sont prélevés, un record ! En grande partie grâce à Cédric Biscay, producteur officiel de Shenmue III quand il ne pose pas à côté de Yoda.
Monaco, à quelques minutes du Casino dans une rue calme du Rocher, nous avons rendez-vous dans les bureaux d'un homme plutôt content de lui.

- Bienvenue chez Shibuya Productions !
- Pourquoi vous être installé à Monaco ?
- Monaco c'est un cadre de vie agréable et en plus nous sommes la seule société de production d'animation et de jeux vidéo. C'est toujours sympa d'avoir un mini monopole sur un si petit territoire.
Ici à Shibuya Productions, une société une société lancée il y a un peu plus d'un an que ses employés et lui travaillent au marketing de Shenmue III. Une partie de l'équipe est au Japon. Une équipe assez prudente devant nos caméras.

- Anything new ?
- J'apporterai demain ici une nouvelle table plus grande. Ce sera un grand bureau.
- C'est parfait. On pourra organiser de grandes réunions comme ça !

Mise à part l'acquisition d'une nouvelle table, nous apprendrons ici que Cédric Biscay a rencontré Yu Suzuki il y a 5 ans, le temps nécessaire au producteur français pour convaincre le créateur qu'un financement participatif pourrait relancer le développement de la suite d'un jeu très attendu comme Shenmue.

- On a réussi à mettre en place un système avec la possibilité d'avoir une part d'investisseurs traditionnels et d'autre part le crowdfunding. Quand on a lancé ce crowdfunding en juin de cette année, on savait que ça allait cartonner mais ça a cartonné au-delà de nos espérances.

Au total, plus de 6 millions de dollars sont levés pour Shenmue III, du jamais vu. Une opération de communication réussie. Pour Cédric Biscay et sa société de production jusqu'ici inconnue dans le milieu. Mais l'aventure japonaise de l'entrepreneur a commencé bien avant, en 2002.

- Lorsque j'ai fait ma première rencontre au Japon, j'ai été taper aux portes et il y a un président de société qui s'appelle production IG qui est un studio très connu qui a fait "Ghost in the Shell" qui a bien voulu m'ouvrir sa porte. Et en fait j'ai commencé à travailler avec lui, il m'a donné une petite mission.

S'en suivront 12 ans de missions ou plutôt de conseils pour ce professeur de jeux vidéo. Cédric Biscay a depuis perdu sa frange, mais rempli son carnet d'adresse avec le gratin de l'animation japonaise.

- J'ai mon ami Yoshitaka Amano, le créateur des personnages de Final Fantasy. J'ai rencontré Reiji Matsumoto le créateur d'Albator. Go Nagai le créateur de Goldorak. Akira Toriyama le créateur de Dragon Ball.

Un large réseau qui lui permettra sûrement de relancer d'autres jeux et films d'animation japonais cultes. En attendant, la sortie de Shenmue III est prévue pour Noël 2017.

My stab at an English translation:

Each week in "Future Hits" we seek out the latest person who will change the world of entertainment and the Internet. Today we talk about a young Frenchman, Cedric Biscay; at just 36 he has set a record for Internet crowdfunding at 6 million dollars for the revival of a cult Japanese video game: Shenmue. It has been 15 years since Shenmue disappeared from consoles, and now Reza Pounewatchy meets the Frenchman who resurrected one of gaming's greatest icons.

Cannes: at the beginning of the month, the red carpet is laid out on the Croisette for Mipcom, an international conference of TV shows. 12,000 participants representing 100 countries, and out of them all this man: Cedric Biscay, a young producer somewhat lost in the corridors of the Palais des Festivals, who now has a meeting with a Japanese producer of a cult Japanese animé. A clue [as to the exact nature of the show] can be found on the table:

"He travels with me all the time"
"He brings you luck? <laughs>"
"<laughs> It's the only figurine I have"
"We have to come up with new Astro Boy figurines"

The figurines are being prepared, but the true purpose of this meeting is the new TV series adaptation of Astro Boy. Biscay will co-produce 26 episodes.

"So we have the screenplays, we have a teaser trailer. Now the next step is to announce the TV channels which will collaborate with us on this venture."

Biscay is not content to merely bring back a single Japanese animation icon to the mainstream. A few months ago, he made a sensation by being part of a record-breaking funding campaign for the creation of a video game. This great achievement, launched on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter, came about with Biscay and Yu Suzuki, a legend among Japanese gaming visionaries.

To better understand, let's go back a few months. 15th June, the LA Convention Center was host to E3, one of the largest gaming expos in the world. Among the most anticipated moments, the Sony press conference. Biscay was not far, waiting in the wings. In the middle of the show, Yu Suzuki walked timidly onstage. In front of a captive audience of 10,000, with the aid of a video the auteur announced the launch of a crowdfunding event.

It's official: the third entry in the Shenmue series is coming. A cult video game, the Shenmue saga was launched 16 years ago on the Dreamcast, a relic of the Sega brand.

The news stunned the crowd. Some were close to tears, others who were following the show on their PCs were similarly hysterical. In 24 hours, $2 million was raised, a record! Thanks in great part to Cedric Biscay, official producer of Shenmue III when he's not posing next to Yoda.

Monaco: a few minutes from the Casino in the quiet streets of Rocher, we have a meeting in the offices of a man who is quite pleased with himself.

"Welcome to Shibuya Productions!"
"Why are you based in Monaco?"
"Monaco has an agreeable living environment and we are the only Animation and Video Game Production company here. It's always a nice feeling to have a "mini monopoly" in a little place such as this."

We're here at Shibuya Productions, a company founded a little over a year ago, where its employees are busy at work on the marketing for Shenmue III. Part of the team is in Japan, and this team is somewhat cautious in front of our cameras.

"Anything new?"
"I'm picking up a new, bigger table tomorrow. It's gonna be a large office."
"Perfect. We can have large meetings there!"

Apart from the acquisition of a new table, we learn that Biscay first met Suzuki 5 years ago, the amount of time it took for him to convince the creator that a crowdfunding campaign could restart the development of the sequel to a much-anticipated game like Shenmue.

"We succeeded in putting in place a system with the possibility of having a mix of traditional investors on one side and crowdfunding on the other. When we launched the crowdfunding campaign in June of this year, we knew that it would do well, but its success exceeded our expectations."

In total, more than $6 million was raised by Shenmue III, a never-before-seen amount. A communications [and marketing] success. Cedric Biscay and his production company were unheard of in this field until now. But the Japanese quest of this entrepreneur had started long before, in 2002.

"When I made my first visit to Japan, I knocked on a lot of doors and there was the President of a company called IG Production, a studio well known for making "Ghost in the Shell", who then really opened the door for me. Then I started working with him, and he gave me a little TV programme [to work on]."

What followed were 12 years of TV shows, or rather lessons learned for this Professor of video games. Cedric Biscay has since lost his fringe, but his address book is filled with the cream of the crop of the Japanese animation industry.

"I have my friend Yoshitaka Amano, who is the creator of some of the characters for Final Fantasy. I've met Reiji Matsumoto who is the creator of Albator. Go Nagai, the creator of GOldorak. Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball..."

A large network which certainly will help him bring about the revival of other cult Japanese video games and animés. In the meantime, Shenmue III is set to be released for Christmas 2017.

A fictive cover just for fun.



alternative color : https://i.imgur.com/tD7tcSW.jpg

An article about the making of Shenmue is published in the new book : Sega Dreamcast The Complete Manual 1st Edition.
You can read the scanned article on this link.

Update: this article was originally featured in Retro Gamer Magazine.

Enjoy.

I wasn't expecting them to announce anything until next E3, but if they're already buttering us up like this it means they're either:
- being dicks and getting our hopes up over nothing
- jumping the gun on trying to build hype
- almost ready to reveal something Shenmue related

The "fun" fact is that all of your three options are realistic :-#

I wasn't expecting them to announce anything until next E3, but if they're already buttering us up like this it means they're either:
- being dicks and getting our hopes up over nothing
- jumping the gun on trying to build hype
- almost ready to reveal something Shenmue related

I am very convinced, it looks beautiful. But then again my expectations are not that high. They've done an awesome job and game's development is going well (comparing with the version I saw in Japan).

Thing is if they don't show development progress, people will complain and if they do, people are still going to complain because they're not satisfied. :-s

Ryo looks better and it's an old model, so I can't imagine how he's going tot look like in 2 years ! Considering the budget, the result is fantastic already. =D>

YS Net is damned if you do, damned if you don't. If they don't show progress, people will complain that YS Net are stealing everyone's money and that' it's a scam. If they show progress, it means that apparently the game will ship like that even though it's only been in development for 3 months.

I personally prefer a more hands on feel to game development and press information. I like seeing the development process evolve rather than wait a year or two after the announcement for a trailer with no release date in site.

On the other hand Niao Sun looks like a tranny on crack xD

Thing is if they don't show development progress, people will complain and if they do, people are still going to complain because they're not satisfied. :-s

Yep. Haters gonna hate. For a budget of 6.5 mil, I'm blown away. And these are early test screens! If this is how it looks now, what the hell is it gonna look like in 2 years!!

Excited isn't the word :D

I am shocked at how good that looks. For the budget they raised I expected that there have to be some compromises but the look of that game far exceeds my expectations. To me, graphics of that quality are going to make the world more immersive and atmospheric.

yeah, as soon as i saw those shots i knew there was nothing to worry about. Shenmue is back, and looks even better than before. All those devs throwing millions into Halo and and Fallout should take note of how amazingly atmosphere can be rendered without a huge budget or army of programmers.

Come on guys, its looking better but lets not overreact...

One picture shows a better ryo on a UE stock building.
And another shows Ryo and a black suit in what it seems to be some kind of old irish fight.

I think we all know the amount of effort that is needed to make a Shenmue game and so far they are light years away from it... But you only get there by working.

There are irons in the fire, so to speak, which ought to leverage the traditional Tweetathons to boost PayPal activity throughout the next two months. Stay tuned for news this Tuesday. :)

Will we get new rewards???

People need to forget about rewards and actually realize that funding Shenmue 3 outright is far more important.

Ok so......

Done!

4:3
http://i.imgur.com/54AmOoW.jpg

16:9
http://i.imgur.com/yFdU7DC.jpg

4:3
http://i.imgur.com/Uiu4KWS.jpg

16:9
http://i.imgur.com/kqBSELW.jpg

Sorry for the crappy "screenshots"


Things to note, the Hud is not scaled just stretched, other thing to know is that, in the same fashion as the Dreamcast version emulated with the Widescreen hack on NullDC, geometry outside the 4:3 will start to disappear, but in a slightly different way, for instance, if Ryo's hand/arm goes out the 4:3 on Dreamcast, his arm and hand will disappear, on the Xbox, only if the full character is out of the 4:3 area will disappear, so the effect is less distracting.

The images above are a good example, the characters outside the 4:3 area are still "complete" and not "broken" as it would on the emulated DC version, also the extra FOV is awesome!!!!


I must thank MarvelousMirth I was failing miserably trying to change the aspect ratio, without him this couldn't be possible.

Next thing I want to do is increase a bit the internal resolution, from 640x480 to 720x480, the game shouldn't perform any worse and we could gain a bit of sharpness.

Edit I forgot to add the link lol

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_v8TiFb835KUDVzSll0VWpOWDQ/view?usp=sharing

mirror.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/awld54696m4hc1a/widescreen.7z

Update. Download link.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_v8TiFb835KUDVzSll0VWpOWDQ/view?usp=sharing

mirror.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/awld54696m4hc1a/widescreen.7z


Original Post.


Hi, I am just crazy and I can't stop getting involved in new things.

Right now I need help to test Shenmue II on Xbox, this is a quick and dirt attempt to make the game run Widescreen and/or at 720, hex editing the default.xbe.

I need people with a softmoded Xbox, an HDTV cable and if possible, an upgraded ram Xbox.

The goal is mainly to achieve propper widescreen support, 720p is a plus.

My setup is somehow a mess ( Xbox v1.6....) so my console hangs at the first loading screen. I could be either bad video config on my end or just that the Xbox ran out of ram, so that's why I ask for upgraded ram xbox to test, anyway anyone can test and post their results.

Here it is the default resolution.

http://i.imgur.com/QYM9F9z.png

And here the widescreen 853x480 one.

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

As said my Xbox hangs at this screen and I need people with different set ups to test it.

Links

720p .xbe
https://mega.nz/#!lF42yRiT!mv4uM7Pj-si2b06awYkD5tZHqgzv4w-CFnExbRoTM4k

853x480 .xbe

https://mega.nz/#!BNggyRAR!zVLNE-CjTRswYEO7kpydTSz_d6DiZKP45CDd0lMFp2Q

Just drag and drop the default xbe on the root of the game and overwrite, remember to make a backup of your original .xbe just in case.

Thanks.

Hello and welcome !

I've talked to Cedric Biscay (Shenmue III co-producer) recently and he told me that the PC version is still planned and they're working on it.

I can't tell you if you will be able to switch if you pay right now but they plan to add a system so people can upgrade their pledge (downgrade won't be available). If I were you, I'd just wait until the PC version is added, that'd be the best move to do and you won't have to worry too much about it. ;-)

Welcome on board again and if you have any other questions, feel free to ask ! :)

It's definately an improved model.

The lightning is defo tricky.

Let's try and sort that out then:

http://i.imgur.com/pz9w2yW.jpg

The nose profile, where the eyebrows meet, the jawline, the band-aid, well...

- Face looks much more defined and chiselled down, particularly the jaw
- The nose has a smooth slope in the second image compared to the prominent bridge in the first
- The hair has a slightly messier look compared to the Yamcha look
- The plaster on his face appears to have been smoothed out, given more depth, and an added blemish
- Thicker eyebrows (though that could be down to the lighting)
- The shape of the head has gone from a lemon to a curvier look

^^ What he said ^^

The jacket they need to fix, still shiny like it's made out of PVC. Also, if you look at the Dreamcast texture, I always had the impression it was designed to look bulkier than its presented and they should model that too. Atm its a flat straight jacket.

But it definately looks better, come'on guys. I'm more concerned about his dislocated thumb in the battle images :lol:

I think his hair also was a little more straight up, it didn't use to curve inside like it does there

9th Generation Brylcreem rendering :lol:

http://i.imgur.com/alu8cci.jpg
If it really is the lighting making the model look different, that's some ninth generation shit right there!

Then again...

- Face looks much more defined and chiselled down, particularly the jaw
- The nose has a smooth slope in the second image compared to the prominent bridge in the first
- The hair has a slightly messier look compared to the Yamcha look
- The plaster on his face appears to have been smoothed out, given more depth, and an added blemish
- Thicker eyebrows (though that could be down to the lighting)
- The shape of the head has gone from a lemon to a curvier look

I'm 95% sure it's an updated model. It looks way more like the Ryo we all know and love.

Hi everyone! I just finished reading Benjamin Berget's extensive Yu Suzuki Biography and since an English version of the book is coming too, I wanted to share some thoughts about the book with the Shenmue community. Here we go!

First off, the presentation of the book is outstanding and far more than one can expect from a small publisher such as Geeks Line. The book comes in a beautiful book jacket with the words "Yu Suzuki" printed in a slightly convex way which gives the reader an interesting feeling while touching the book's cover. The paper is pearly white and the font size makes it a very agreeable reading experience. The book spans 500 pages plus a roundabout 30 color print pages which show pictures of advertisement flyers for Yu's Arcade machines. The quality of those pictures is very good and the colors come out vividly. Unfortunately there are no pictures of Yu Suzuki himself in the book.

The book's content covers Yu's entire life starting with his childhood in a small coastal town, his beginnings at Sega, Yu at the peak of his power at Sega in the late 90's/early 2000's all the way till the emotional E3 followed by the succesfull KS campaign for Shenmue 3 earlier this year.

As a long time Yu Suzuki fanboy, I wasn't expecting a lot of new information from the book, but there was actually a lot of small details in the book which I had either previously overlooked or forgotten about as time went by. Anyway, Benjamin Berget did one hell of a job accumulating heaps of old interviews from magazines dating back as far as the 80's and also loads of online interviews and other source material.

Also, I think most western readers didn't know a lot about Yu Suzuki's early years, unless they were able to read Japanese and thus understand Yu Suzuki Game Works. I found it really interesting to learn that Yu was a die hard fan of Ritchie Blackmore's in the 70's and in his teenage years spent most of his time practing guitar, trying to become a guitar hero just like Blackmore. But fortunately for all of us, just before the final exams in high school were about to happen and with his parents worried about his long hair and indifferent attitude towards studying, young Yu came to the conclusion that despite all his dilligent practice, he lacked the musical talent to become a rockstar. So our Yu got a haircut and enrolled for programming in University. The rest is history.

Benjamin Berget covers all the games of Yu's career, regardless if he was involved as a director, producer, supervisor or something completely different. He gives detailed information about the development, the technical specifications of each arcade machine, the console conversions and the commercial performance (sales) of each game. That alone is an achievement in itself but it is the small anecdotes and details where Berget's book shines. Hitting the letter G in the fourth stage of Hang-On gives you a million extra points, not just Nintendo but also Sega was super close to striking a deal with Sony in the early 90s but the narrow-minded executives of Sega of Japan fucked it up which led to Sony taking bitter revenge on both Sega and Nintedo by releasing the Playstation. Yu worked for Lockheed as an advisor and helped them create a tank simulator of which Sega released a civilian version as "Desert Tank". Shenmue 3 was almost announced for Xbox at E3 2004 and for some reason we still don't really know the announcement got cancelled at the very last minute. Yu initially wanted to do a Shenmue 3 Kickstarter in 2012, but Sega asked too much for the license.

Granted, all those things may not be new to some of us but as I said before I had either forgotten or never learned about them. And God, how much this book made me hate Peter "I put the nail in the Dreamcast's coffin in order to take its IPs to Xbox" Moore and Hajime "I want Sonic on my Pachinko machines to seduce a younger audience to gambling" Satomi and Sammy again. :lol: Yeah, I know, I need to calm down and there's nothing I can do about Peter Moore being an asshole and Sammy being a money-grubbing piece of shit company which unfortunately has taken over Sega. :D Still, the truth needs to be said from time to time. :)

Shenmue gets most attention of all games in this book with S1 & 2 being covered in a massive 100 pages chapter, Shenmue Online and it's cancellation being examined in great detail and Shenmue 3 being the finishing sub-chapter of the book with about a dozen pages. I also found particularly interesting the way Yu underwent the development of Shenmue. He first took a ton of location pictures which he showed them to the composers (Mitsuyoshi, Iuchi, Koshiro and so on) who he would then ask to compose some music for those locations. After they were done, Yu listened to what the composers had created and when he found a track he liked, he would play it to everybody involved (graphic artists, programmers,etc.). He asked them to listen closely and to go to work with the music in mind. In that sense, Shenmue's development started with its music and the incredible athmosphere could be created because everybody had the music in mind while working on Shenmue.

With its sheer amount of information and all his little dietails, this book is a great read for every Yu Suzuki fan and all those interested in Sega or Shenmue. However there is one thing about the book I didn't like one bit. While the price (25 Euros) is reasonable, the binding is very cheaply executed and very poor quality. Geeks-Line really need to find a new partner for their bindings. I read about 20 to 30 books a year, some digital but most of the still physical. I have never before experienced this with a new book. I have only read it once and I've treated my copy in an absolutely normal way but still the binding is so bad, some of the pages just came loose and fell out of the book! :no: :2gunfire: :letitallout:

However, I'd like to stress, that this is in no way related to Benjamin Berget's work or the contents and reading value of the book. It's an issue the publisher needs to deal with.

I advise every Shenmue fan to read the book, but if you buy the original version, treat your copy with extra care. Hopefully the English language publisher will do a better job with the binding.

This is ridiculous. I can't believe that there are people here who actually think that it would be viable to make Shenmue III using the original Shenmue engine.
One minute, you complain that these pre-pre-alpha screenshots don't look good enough and point to a shit Shenmue and then next you suggest that using the DC engine would somehow make it all better? As if that engine is completely flawless? Do you not understand just how limited that would make the game. Remember all of those stretch goals that we so hope to achieve? They wouldn't be possible using the old engine. Maybe Shenmue III could have been done back in the day on that engine, but we need to stop living in the past. Shenmue III isn't a game from multiple generations ago, it's a game for the current gen and that needs to be expected and accepted otherwise it isn't going to be an enjoyable experience for anyone.

And for those who think that these incredibly early screenshots suggest that YS.NET don't know what they are doing, can we please use this as a reminder of just how much things can change:
Lan Di (Project Berkley)
https://i.gyazo.com/fa42c18bb253a2dc20e3bc889efe78b5.png

Lan Di (Final)
http://www.vgnetwork.it/images/Shenmue/Shenmue-landi.jpg

Hey Guys, new to the forums (Kind of. Registered years ago but forgot the username and password but never posted!)

Anyways, I write tutorials (C++) over at Epic Games for Unreal Engine 4 and help people out on the AnswerHub and work on projects all the time with this Engine. I've done so for quite some time now. Why am I telling you this? Because hopefully I can provide a little insight on what you're seeing and why.

The reflective properties on Ryo's Jacket is just the material. The material hasn't been properly adjusted yet and even so let's not forget about the lighting that goes into a scene. Typically it's something you'll want to play with over and over again until you can get it just right. I'm assuming they're going to have a day to night cycle and that means a scene will have dynamic lighting. This can effect a material whether it's on a character, a static mesh actor( Think of an object) or general decals (assuming they want them lit or not.). This means it will constantly be tweaked from now until release.

The jacket will probably be toned down abit but it is obvious that they're still experimenting with the lighting. They're also not utilizing any Post Processing at the moment and if they are it's only for a slight color node but I don't think they're using any in the second and fourth screenshot. I think it goes without saying that this will change and right now they're experimenting with an engine that they probably never used before so it takes abit of time and energy to figure these large frameworks out.

It's an exciting time for all of us as Shenmue fans and of course we want this to be the best it can be but try to remember that this project is going to see alot of changes from now until release.

The jacket will probably be toned down abit but it is obvious that they're still experimenting with the lighting. They're also not utilizing any Post Processing at the moment and if they are it's only for a slight color node but I don't think they're using any in the second and fourth screenshot. I think it goes without saying that this will change and right now they're experimenting with an engine that they probably never used before so it takes abit of time and energy to figure these large frameworks out.


Hey, welcome. So in your personal opinion, do you think there's plenty of time for Yu and his team to master Unreal and learn to use it to its fullest (or at least to a high degree of proficiency) before Shenmue 3 releases? I know Yu has been out of the loop a while, and I don't think refusing to play modern games helps that, but, I'm curious to ask, from someone who has experience in UE, how realistic it would be for Yu and his team to catch up fairly quickly? What do you think?

Thank you for the welcoming! Oh of course! It took me about a full year to learn everything and that was me going in with very little game development experience. Team Yu will be able to figure it out quite easily i'm sure. Even if it takes a year to learn the minute details it will still leave them with plenty of time for polish and effort.

If I had 6 months, a full animation set and the 3d models necessary and a few level designer's I could probably re-create Shenmue 1's systems entirely from the cutscenes (Minus the voice acting and lip syncing), to a combat system to the general movement and transitions in Unreal Engine 4.

Working with C++ in UE4 is great. Typically with alot of Engines you end up with some sort of... well, a high level language but a minor scripting language at that without the ability to use pointers. I won't turn this into a programming lesson but let me just say that pointers is why C++ is still around after all these years which makes everything pretty easy!

It's true Yu Suzuki has been out of the modern game market for a while... but Shenmue wasn't really like any other game was it? That could've been why it did so poorly but it was easily the best to me. Mixing RPG elements into a fighting game while taking HUGE risks on an emphasis of building an atmospheric environment (Not just the levels but the NPC's) while giving you a variety of options on how you wanted to perform. Shenmue was way ahead of it's time by a decade at least. I don't know the specifics but if I had to speculate i'd say the budget went over originally because of the technology switches from the Saturn to the Dreamcast, the re-creation of thousands of textures and hundreds of models and easily thousands of lines of code. People seem to forget that building an engine (A stable one anyways) takes years to do and is easily one of the hardest type of frameworks to make that requires huge teams.

So what is my point? If I could do this then Team Yu should have no problem. I wouldn't worry about it at all... plus we're all forgetting one important fact here. IT'S SHENMUE 3!!!

If I had 6 months, a full animation set and the 3d models necessary and a few level designer's I could probably re-create Shenmue 1's systems entirely from the cutscenes (Minus the voice acting and lip syncing), to a combat system to the general movement and transitions in Unreal Engine 4.

Do you know many people do it took, how long to make the Infiltrator cinematic? Some serious work there.. but an amazing result. To think Shenmue 3 is made with the same tech is very reassuring.


So what is my point? If I could do this then Team Yu should have no problem. I wouldn't worry about it at all... plus we're all forgetting one important fact here. IT'S SHENMUE 3!!!

I know right! \:D/

I'm sorry I don't know the answer for the Infiltrator cinematic question... but if you'd like to read on i'll explain a little bit about the process.

I know the same result could be achieved by at least 5 people. You'd need at least one director and four artists. 2 for particle effects who can work on textures and level design, 2 for character modeling and animations (And rigging) -- assuming both people are together and can make use of two or more kinect cameras for motion capture data and lastly a camera manager / director to over see the matinee cycles. From there you could record it and throw it in something like Adobe Premier or Vegas to give it anything extra that you might want.

Edit: But I can assure you that the Infiltrator Cinematic was done much more professionally and more then 5 people had contributed to it. After all, they were going to present it to the GDC.

Is it easy to do? No way! But if a team of people are dedicated enough then really anything can be done it just depends on how much time you've got and how much you're willing to put into it but I think that could be said about anything really.

08th MS Team and Stardust Memory are damn good. U.C. era is my favorite.

Open World Fatigue and Shenmue III: A Gaming Pioneer's Answer To Growing Homogeneity

http://naomidaniels.kinja.com/open-world-fatigue-and-shenmue-iii-a-gaming-pioneers-a-1740232568

A pretty good article on Kotaku's Talk Amongst Yourselves feature. Makes a good case for where exactly Shenmue and by extension Shenmue 3 would fit in to the open world genre.

PSA: I helped proof read the article. Still agree with it pretty much from top to bottom though, and it's worth reading.

Hi Guys,

With the annoucement of Shenmue 3, I made a fan art of our favorite character, Ryo Hazuki :)

When I started this project i was woundering what if Shenmue 3 has a more realistic design.

You can see the result here :
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/31BVB

When i ll have the time i ll try to put the character in the UE4.

Gotta love how much extra dialogue you can get out of the move instructions. This one even has a longer alternate scene after learing it when you've failed for a while. I actually like that more then the regular one.

I'm glad you guys enjoyed it!

PSA: I helped proof read the article. Still agree with it pretty much from top to bottom though, and it's worth reading.

I'm sorry to point that out, but the article is riddled with typos. And while I like the point it's attempting to make, I don't think it's particularly well written to be honest. On the contrary.

I have edited the post and it's now typo free! Could you tell me exactly how it isn't well written? I could always use constructive criticism.

great article, i'm going to read it a couple of times to absorb.

what i will quickly mention is that shenmue gives you the impression and therefore the feeling that the world is living and that there are events occurring even when you aren't directly seeing them. you really are viewing this living world from one mans perspective and following his particular story. you are constrained to behaving in ways that are within the limits of Ryo's character, but you have complete freedom within this range. this really assists in drawing you into the story. its congruent and therefore compelling. definitely not a power trip type of game.

most other open world games you feel that the world exists only for player, stuff happens as the player initiates it. this maybe convenient for the player but lessens the immersion hugely.

I completely agree and this was exactly what I was going for. Open-world games, from GTAIII up until now, have largely existed as simple playgrounds for the player. But that sort of restriction on the environment actively limits the genre's fullest potential.

This mires the genre with power fantasies and wish fulfillment, two emotions gaming abuses. By making their scope larger, often these games limit the emotions and diversity of play that could benefit from smaller worlds. That isn't to say the open-world game as it is shouldn't exist - quite the contrary. It has its place, but it shouldn't be seen as the only true interpretation of the genre.

Outside of a few, all of my friends complain about how so many games these days are just busy work and how they feel like they're wasting their time. As it is, some of the games become gaming for the sake of gaming - literal time wasters.

Surely there's room for a little more than that in gaming?

https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAADVHklwJocEQ

Well since we are sharing fan art figured I would share my recent work..