You can love both Series for different reasons. I don't see the need to decide which one is better.
Ding ding ding. I'm glad it wasn't just an article that went in to trash Shenmue, but the concept it operates on is flimsy.

Who wants Shenmue III? The fans. Do the fans know about Yakuza? Yes, probably. Some (like me) might even like it.

So why don't the fans just want Yakuza instead? Because it's not the same . They were never the same .

The article acknowledges as much, but can't seem to grasp the idea of preferring Shenmue, or god forbid enjoy both for different reasons. Enjoyment is not one-size-fits-all.

I'm wondering if the author played Shenmue II at all? All the references to the series are based on the original game.

Ultimately the article is inoffensive, and really more just gushing about Yakuza (which is fine, because the series deserves it), but doesn't look past Shenmue's technical achievements for the reasons why the fans stuck with the series so strongly during a 15 year hiatus, nor does it really answer the question posed in the article title (though I suspect that's more to do with trying to get eyes on the piece than anything).

Added a countdown timer to the OP. I'll replace it with an amended one if we get more specific information about when Shenmue III will be shown, but until then it's set for the opening of Gamescom on its first day, 22nd August.

Less than 35 days to go!

I can see why they'd ship it as a flatpack, as having nothing actually in the physical box makes it several more times likely to get damaged/crushed in transit, but the manual not fitting in the Japanese box version is a massive oversight. The box design also looks... cheap as fuck.

http://i.imgur.com/M14BmIe.jpg

Starting this Friday at 9PM BST/1PM PT/3PM CT/4PM ET, our very own Jibby will be taking us on a tour of AM2's finest games, until Mr357's Shenmue II stream begins in September.

As with the Shenmue streams, Virtua Fridays will be streamed on the Shenmue Dojo's Twitch and YouTube channels.

Hope to see you all in chat for the inaugural stream this Friday!

http://twitch.tv/shenmuedojo

http://youtube.com/ziming

Hopefully speaks to the extensiveness of what we're seeing if Cedric is coming along.

Is it poorly worded?

Seems to be trying to preemptively dampen expectations that the public area event means playable demo/looping video at a booth.

We are go for a Shenmue event at the general admission entertainment area! Unfortunately, we will not be doing a large event like showcasing promotional videos or placing playable demos in this venue, but Yu Suzuki will be there and give all of you a big welcome greeting.

Unless your brain switches off for the words "in this venue", it's pretty clear what they mean.

The rest of the update makes clear what they're going to do at the show.

Latest news about Shenmue III will be shared in the business area, and we will be posting an update through Kickstarter and our official website at the same timing. So stay tuned to our webpage and Kickstarter page during the gamescom.

They're showing the game for press in the business area (which we already knew), but now they're confirming a KS/website update will release alongside (which we assumed).

Stick to the facts? Sure.

We will be attending Germany's mid-August gaming event gamescom 2017! While we are still working out the details with our partners, we plan to show our newest movie clips , share the latest updates and even make some new announcements.

We will be participating in the business area. The area is limited to media and other business members of the game industry.

Maybe "some fans" have problems with their memory not being able to span back further than a month.

Compared to the Famicom Rockman box arts:



Much like MN9 itself; vaguely resembles what its supposed to be, but with absolutely none of the charm.

So then... who's planning to go to the Yu Suzuki meet n' greet?

It's definitely going to be our most comprehensive look at the game so far. I don't think you'll get many claiming otherwise. There's always a good argument for not setting expectations too high... but in this case it's justified to get a bit excited about what YSnet are bringing.

Flying Yu Suzuki to Germany, inviting the media to see the game, and even attending a trade show like Gamescom in the first place is a very clear message that, at least to YSnet, what they've got to show is a big enough deal to put themselves through the trouble of arranging this.

Good update. Continually baffling how the games media fail in reading comprehension. I thought you had to be good at that stuff to be a "journalist"? Ah, I wish I had such a cushy job.

Nice to see confirmation of an update going out simultaneously with their press screening. It's exactly how this should play out, and tbh was probably the plan for the start if people didn't connect the dots from the last update.

You don't know what the current development state of the game is or what they will be sharing at Gamescom, you just enjoy complaining and being negative about everything, now even to the point of complaining about things that haven't even happened yet like the Gamescom showing.
That's kind of his gimmick. Reappears to have a whine, disappears again shortly after. Best ignored tbh.

Hell's bells. Are people being intentionally obtuse or what?! Do you need people to explain to you that the sky is blue, and chew food for you? Videos being shown to press and included in KS update that week. Shake hands with Yu Suzuki for the public. What's the problem here?

If anyone is seriously confused about what words mean, just accept the reassurance of those who aren't.
It feels like a comedy of errors sometimes.

Part of it is just not accepting that something nice might happen. I can understand scepticism when it looks like we're just chasing smoke (E3 this year and last), but YSnet have been pretty straight with us about their plans over the last month and are likely filling us in on the details as they evolve.

Well, if there is this much confusion among everyone, I would say yes, it could be more clear, and not as mysterious. BUT I was mainly talking about this:

*snip*
The confusion is largely coming from a.) people not reading the update correctly, or b.) not joining up the dots from the other Gamescom updates issued merely a few weeks ago.

The proofreading is indeed terrible , but this is a long way from the total fuck up of communication we had with, say, that dumb rewards poll at the end of 2015.

Pledge upgrades are probably more important than Slacker Backers right now. No matter how good YSnet's showing is at Gamescom, some people are always going to hold back and wait for release.

There are over 50,000 backers who pledged below the $100 demo tier. If they're given a reason to get excited about the backer demo, it could mean some serious money flowing in, and because they've already pledged to Shenmue III they'll be an easier market to sell to than fence-sitters.

If only half of that number pledge only an additional $20 at minimum, that's an extra $500,000.

31st July 2017

$6,784,239 (+$10,521)

74,699 Backers (+115)

$6.8 million is basically in spitting distance now.

Man.

Three weeks away from Gamescom opening. Feels like nothing, but at the same time waaaaaaay into the future.

Excellent news.

Not sure what the etiquette for recording a press screening is, but I'm sure whoever is handling PR on the day will say something if they're explicitly not allowed.

It may not matter anyway, though. The KS update going live at the same time might contain everything being shown in the business area.

Weird to think we're just over two weeks away from this thing now, y'know? After literally years of anticipation too.

Shenmue III hasn't been at an event of comparable size since it was announced two years ago. MAGIC is kind of just a blip in comparison, when you think about it. A distant blip at that, over a year and a half ago.

Even the stuff $10K backers saw in Japan is like 14 months old now. Even our super brief glimpses at the game running in late February will be six months old when Gamescom rolls around. There's just so much distance between what we know about Shenmue III, and what YSnet actually has now.

Probably best not to let expectations run wild, though. There are going to be at least a few other opportunities where Shenmue III has to appear in a promotional sense, so some cards are going to have to be kept up the sleeves.

I prefer the orange blur to the blue/pink smudge.

To be honest, I don't even think YSnet are considering a fourth Shenmue right now. It's everything or nothing on III, really. There'd be no point starving extra money raised for III for a potential IV when the future of the series kind of depends on how well III does.

As for whether extra cash would be really beneficial to III... ehhhhhh, there's like a year/year and a half left before 2018 ends (if the game doesn't slip again). You're right that they probably could have used the money up front two years ago, but they'll definitely find a use for anything extra that comes in between now and when the Slacker Backer site finally closes. Even if it's just polish it'll be of some help.

Back to Gamescom chat though - I would hope we get everything the press does but I'd be naive to believe that's how things work. The press need something to make it worth their while turning up when all the information may be online anyway, though that could easily be an interview opportunity with Yu.

I think we're safe on the stuff we're all eager to see; the video content . It wouldn't have been announced as part of their Gamescom showing via the KS if there was no intention to bring it to backers too. They didn't talk about the MAGIC footage only attendees saw in-person. They didn't talk about the $10K backer showing, or when people like Justin Bailey saw the game either. There's a set precedent about not teasing backers with things they couldn't see themselves.

sand4fish wrote: At this point we might as well call Sleeping Dogs a successor to Shenmue too, and any future Asian city themed free roaming game for that matter.

There are some people that actually tried to do that. No joke.

Just realised the countdown timer has ticked down to single digit days.

The statements of intent would be more exciting if SEGA hadn't been making them for almost two years now with no results.

I felt better about when they did it last May because it sounded more committal than in October 2015, but here we are over a year later, and SEGA's position hasn't even evolved into a simple yes or no answer.

It's actually kind of nuts we're going to see Shenmue III's first re-reveal before Shenmue HD is announced.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You're most likely on the right track, Peter. It's low-key for a re-reveal, but I'm increasingly getting the feeling it could be a very smart choice.

There's no point trying to hang with the AAA crowd with a flashy 2 minute overview trailer, because it won't be able to compete (although Shenmue III will probably get its day again at a press conference before release).

But there's a lot of good PR to be potentially gained by inviting the press in for closer look at the details of what YSnet have created. Shenmue III won't sell on spectacle, it'll sell on its depth and artistry, and it's looking like YSnet's Gamescom plans could be made with that in mind.

Yeah, Shenhua looks a little off. Ryo, besides the hair, looks basically like an updated:



- so I'm actually pretty pleased.

That fucking environment is A+++ though. Choubu?

Shenhua needs work, but Ryo is on-model again and basically 2017 version of the original DC model.

@Kid Marine

Photoshop tinkering. Contrast and saturation on the models in the key art seem to have been boosted to match the background more.

Going to the Great Wall is a huge surprise. Doesn't seem part of the Bailu/Choubu/Baisha environment either so it could be an interluding area like the forest outside Bailu. Shenmue III could be bigger than any of us think.

The obsession with clutching to the passport models is ridiculous considering Ryo never actually looked like that through all our hours actually *playing* the game. It's ruinous and warps expectations into unrealistic territory.

It was a moon-shot at realism on Dreamcast, but that's it. As good as they were then, they fall short immensely on modern standards of realism, and aren't stylised enough to look like an art style decision.

Even if they DID use cleaned up passport models that attempted realism, you guys all realise the possibly 200 NPCs needed to match for a consistent art design, right? More hours, more money. You *might* get a prettier game on the whole, but it all needed to come out of something else on the project. Smaller environments, less quests, less dialogue, whatever.

The new Ryo model is a near enough 1:1 update of old Dreamcast renders or even his in-game model. That's a fucking huge victory considering where we started two years ago.

Christ. It's always the same people who say the same shit. No attempt at nuance, no attempt at reasoning. If it ain't the Shenmue III you had it your head, you don't want it. Nobody is getting the Shenmue III in their head, but god damn, you can at least keep yourselves open to what YSnet are making. You're acting like they showed a smeared sketch drawing on a napkin.

Animating her might help. She's just kind of a blank face right now.

They got Ryo right though. >:( all day, every day, until revenge is had.

No one wants realistic characters, Shenmue is more about stylized charecters, I don't see Why they can't atempt to use similar aesthetics, no one is asking for Realistic characters, but for charecters that remotely resemble to the one they are atempting to cosplay...

Actually basic facial features of this new Ryo are mostly identical to the passport one, yet, they fail to match its aesthetics.

http://i.imgur.com/vRNo74j.jpg

Yes Dreamcast Ryo never looked like the passport during normal gameplay, yet it didn't look like the continuous abominations we are getting, so.... If we have to choose one..

I won't get tired of repeating the same, passport model quality is nothing unreachable, and they still look fenomenal even today, not AAA level, but quite serviceable

Shen Huas Passport says hi.

http://i.imgur.com/C3CyPFO.png

This is far from being realistic, yet is appealing, something those new characters fail to achieve.
Come on man.

You know this new Ryo isn't Passport Ryo, nor is it trying to be. It's THIS Ryo:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/3d/9c/56/3d9c563069dde03f398acade99dd9f05.jpg

The one we actually played as rather than the Passport model or CG art that was inconsistent from one image to the next. The new model is almost completely analogous to that render I posted.

If anything the new model makes it completely clear why they photoshopped the old render onto that screen from December. THIS is the intended look for Ryo, clinging onto the Passport model is just a fool's game at this point.

Now Shenhua, is a different story. She looks dead eyed and kinda weird, but it might just be the angle. Even weirder, the Shenhua model is taking inspiration from the CG art that gave her sharper, daintier features rather than the rounded youthful ones we saw in her in-game models on Dreamcast. I don't know what the fuck is going on there. If they're looking to the Dreamcast games for inspiration for Ryo's model, they should do it for Shenhua too.

But abominations? Give me a break. The amount of pearl-clutching, hyperbole-spewing madness over pretty serviceable and improved (over 2015) models is nuts. It's always the same schtick. Some of you will genuinely never be happy with Shenmue III if it isn't exactly how you imagined it.

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect something better than that when we're 2 years into development. Ryo looks OK, Shenhua looks less than OK. Need to see more before forming a full opinion, but I'm a little concerned - the E3 promo Shenhua looked like Shenhua, at least.
You... might want to look at the E3 model again.

http://www.develop-online.net/cimages/5162db8d42a0d67ba348734cf6b6fe33.png

The new one still needs work but... it at least evokes some of the designs we've seen for her in the past.

I think you're specifically talking about the cartoony look of that steroids guy we saw in that KS update and the negative reaction it got from many people.

Yeah, I must say was one of those people who didn't like the look AT ALL. Then again, you are right when you say that we should embrace change and not have a kind of negative knee-jerk reaction to it. However, I must admit I've always been an overall change-averse guy in my life, which I realize is not a good thing, but that's just the way I am.

Now, of course I expect changes in Shenmue 3. After all, the last game was released 16 years ago on the Dreamcast. And I do not want a Dreamcast game in 2017. I do want things to evolve, after all. Besides, that will be the positive side of us having to wait such a long time: Shenmue 3 will be much more advanced than it would have been, if it had been released for the Dreamcast back then.

Having said that, one of the reasons I really dislike that character's look is because Shenmue was very focused on realism. Real-world cities, with crazy attention to detail, real-world based weather (for Yokosuka, at least), realistic routines for NPCs (who felt just like regular, real-world people), true-to-life streets, shops, real-world product brands (well, in the Japanese version)... So, the whole thing always had a very "real" feel to it.

Not only that, but the previous two games already had a realistic aesthetic and, since this is just one continuous saga, I think aesthetic consistency should be important. It would look odd, if all of a sudden, when we dive back again into Shenmue's world, we find it to be all cartoony. It's not like, say, Final Fantasy, where each installment is a whole new thing, in a different world with new characters and new mechanics.

Not only that, but the screenshots we've seen of the game's setting (Bailu Village, that temple entrance etc.) actually look pretty damn realistic (though with stylized, exaggerated colours, which is fine and expected in a videogame), so I really don't see how a bunch of cartoony, manga-like characters will fit in those environments.

Again, of course characters will have to look different, this being PS4 and all, but they should be consistent with the previous' games realistic aesthetic (which I'm sure is easier said than done and that's probably why they're taking such a long time to show us the final version of Ryo and Shenhua's faces).

However, I realize that that steroids guy was still a work-in-progress model and that even the previous Shenmue games had some cartoony-looking, over-the-top NPCs and side characters, so it doesn't mean that everyone will look cartoony and I'll hold my judgement for now.

Having said that, maybe that will be the look they're going for and, if that's the case, I'll just have to come to grips with it. After all, Shenmue is Yu Suzuki's creation and if this is what he wants to do, then he has the right to do it and I'll just have to get used to it, because, obviously, I'm still going to play Shenmue 3 anyway (even if I hadn't already paid for it).

It is as you say, Spaghetti. If, even with a different approach to aesthetic, the game still keeps its core values and spirit, I'm sure I'll eventually get used to it, even if it takes me some time.
At this stage, it might just be better to accept that the models are not going to change drastically. There will inevitably be tweaks, as models in the originals were tweaked right up until near release, but the art style is basically set.

It all depends how you feel about those other NPCs revealed in the end of June update. They're a lot more restrained than muscle-guy, but there's still an obvious stylised aspect to their design. If you're okay with those, you'll probably be okay with 99% of the NPCs.

As for the environments, well, we haven't seen the full package yet. In fact we've seen more of the character models recently than the game world. After Gamescom's showing you'll probably know where you stand on the matter, but I don't really think we've got much to worry about.

Not long to go now.

over and over they've been told we want something close to the character models on the passport disc
See the problem with this statement is, it's not actually correct.

They've been asked to make Ryo look like himself, like he did on Dreamcast. This new model is almost 1:1 a recreation of his original Dreamcast model; you can literally see it was inspired by a cleaned up piece of promo art featuring the in-game model from the original game.

We've had a lot of looks for Ryo over the years. How he's looked in art, how he's looked in-game, and how he's looked in promo art; are all inconsistent to the point where there's no genuine consensus on the ideal. When YSnet hear they want Ryo to look like he used to/on Dreamcast, what do they assume fans mean? Most logical assumption would be to base the new model on the one players spent the most time with, the actual in-game one, rather than a talking head in a bonus feature.

For me really it's not that much about the proportions, but really it's the skin. It looks like tekken tag or SFIV/V.

You can say that Shenmue was always about stylistic artstyle or cartoony like, to me it doesn't "feel" right (and THB the narrative, specially in the first, tries to evoke quite a feeling of realism/day to day), and it's probably a psychological thing, but it looks cheaper to me (like those ps2 era sports games).
Nobody is denying tweaks could be made. There are plenty of mock-ups in the other thread that I think look better than what we've got now, but the hysterics and hyperbole (kinda like that PS2 sports game comment you just made) are getting old and unfortunately seem unlikely to change unless a very specific kind of look (that likely only exists in your head) is achieved.

What's worse is this imaginary idea that when we say "make Ryo look like he used to", we automatically mean the Passport model. How the fuck are YSnet meant to know that's what people mean when there's no consensus, and the highly inconsistent promo art has created several looks that different fans consider their "ideal" Ryo? All things considered, they came back wisely with a model that at least represents an update of the model we played with in the original Dreamcast games.

We're at least on the right track that gets behind a look Ryo had that all fans have experienced.

Except there's literally a quote from Sony in the press release (and the game is still console exclusive to their platform), but I knew you wouldn't do much more in this thread other than do a driveby shitpost.

For Ryo..

http://cdn3.dualshockers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ca517d68a37d20177fb00617a5df315c_original.png

I find that this was the only one they got right as of yet in my opinion.

Again, this is 100% about lighting.
Yip. That's the E3 2015 model too, which we know can look pretty awful in certain conditions. It's too baby-faced to be Ryo anyway.

That quote from Sony means they'll do nothing more than watching what YS Net and Deep Silver will do.

Sony will be having an upcoming press conference during Paris Games Week and another one in PSX 2017, and based on the horrible progress made and the badly edited screens released so far, the quality of Shenmue 3 at this stage is far below Sony's standards, thus I don't think Mighty No. 3 will even get mentioned in either press conferences... just wait and see...
A totally ignorant, if expected, post from you. No desire to actually look at what the Sony rep said or previous behaviours when they have actually dropped games, but just making shit up to suit your warped, negative agenda.

“We are very excited for the continuation of Ryo Hazuki’s journey in Shenmue III, and are confident the game will deliver the story and gameplay PlayStation fans have been waiting for,” said Florian Hunziker, Vice President of PlayStation’s Third Party Relations & Developer Technology Group. “The global partnership between Ys Net and Deep Silver will help realize Yu Suzuki’s vision for Shenmue III—we are thrilled to see his spirit of innovation materialize on PS4.”

In contrast when Sony dropped Rime and sold the rights back to the developers:

"SCE is no longer proprietary of the IP, nor the publisher of the game,"

Cut and dry, night and day, apples and oranges. But I doubt you give a fuck about facts.

EDIT: And surprise, surprise. Yokosuka likes your post. Birds of a feather.

You're even obsessed by my likes, wow I didn't except to be that important tbh :king:
To your credit, you at least have the pretence of being a semi-regular poster, but fucking hell you do overreact to things.

Technophilz turns up whenever new information comes out, says something negative whether it has any basis in factual reality or not, and disappears again.

Don't associate yourself with this guy, Yokosuka. He's not a sceptic, he's barely above a troll.

Technophilz needed some backup as he's probably the only one thinking what he said and I feel bad for him.

I find his theory rather interesting though. Shenmue 3 would be so underwhelming that Sony is reluctant to do significant action but at this this stage, it's truly literature.
Don't indulge him. Seriously. It's absolutely not worth it.

Choubu looks great (and whomever takes these shots has a hard on for Sunsets)... it doesn't look as urban as I imagined.. Is it even a real town in China or fictional? Maybe it's no even in Guilin.
It appears to be based on Fenghuang, judging from the image Yu used during his China powerpoint in 2015.

This isn't the image used, but it's of the area, and looks kinda similar to the stuff we've seen in the new key art.

http://www.cnto.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Fenghuang-2.jpg

There are maybe a few creative liberties taken by accentuating the older architecture of the location. That said, we're only seeing the harbour port.

All in all, don't expect a blow-out from Gamescom, but we're on the road to one at least. Still good reason to be excited.

The game has a new publisher with the previous two (Shibuya/Sony) still supporting and standing by the title. We don't know exactly what this means, but Deep Silver could possibly be bringing a cash injection that gets us closer to that dream $10 Million Shenmue III, or even beyond.

And look at Choubu ! Look at that shot of the Great Wall! Yu's comments about towns the size of Dobuita are likely to get blown out of the water, and we've got a look at a location we didn't know was in the game.

Yu's initial estimates of scope are looking like they were incredibly conservative.

I know, time seems to be slowing down the closer we get.

And I'm still not really sure what to expect. The new models have already been revealed, so that's one off the checklist at least.

The Choubu and Great Wall tease make me think part of the video content could be an overview of the locations...

Feedback isn't necessarily bad.

But the way things have been phrased in this thread have been, well, unconstructive - to put it lightly. During the first ten or so pages at least; although cooler heads and largely more nuanced opinions have surfaced since.

I don't think it's fair to say just one side is acting out of passion either. Extreme reactions, positive and negative, have come from the same place.