Obviously waiting until tomorrow, to be in line with the 3rd of the 3rd, to add more excitement to this month's :)...hopefully they thought of that anyways haha.

Tomorrow is "Constitution Memorial Day" in Japan, according to the calendar posted by Switch.

Do you really think AJ are going to work? :lol:

http://i.imgur.com/L2buPG1.gif

"Day Off? Oh. Oh. Ok. Cool. Ok!"!

Kiske wrote:
As of May 3rd, 2016

$6,600,896

72,350 backers

As of May 9th, 2016

$6,600,896 --> $6,604,046 (+$3150) (+$525/day)

72,350 --> 72,378 backers (+28) (4.6 backers/day) ($112.5/backer)

Here's a translation of Ryuji Iuchi's message in Japanese on SoundCloud:

あくまで個人的なデモ曲です。
森の中の村、森の中の水辺をイメージしました。
習作を兼ねて、あのゲームのサウンドに少し寄せています。

This is purely a personal demo piece.
The image I had in mind is of a village and waterside in the forest.
I've been experimenting composing practice pieces to evoke the sound of "that game".

I'm taking this as a confirmation that it's happening. They wouldn't be talking about it at all if the licencing was completely unworkable.
Yeah, if Sega is saying anything about Shenmue 1 and 2 HD right now then they must be pretty confident most of the licencing issues can be overcome. The worst case scenario Sega could probably adopted a similar policy to how they ported Crazy Taxi, by replacing any brand names with generic equivalents: KFC = generic 'Fried Chicken Shack' etc. This means that the HD versions wouldn't be 100% like the original games but I'm willing to accept a few visual changes like that for the sake of overcoming the licencing problems.

333 days ago, Shenmue 3 was announced on Sony PlayStation's stage at E3 2015 (the E3 of dreams).

Some important ones:

. Sony's role is limited to marketing and publishing the PS4 version only of Shenmue III (Source: http://www.gameblog.fr/interview_948_shenmue-3-notre-grande-interview-de-yu-suzuki-et-cedric-bisc )

. SEGA's role is limited to providing the IP and production materials from the first games (Source: http://www.gameblog.fr/interview_948_shenmue-3-notre-grande-interview-de-yu-suzuki-et-cedric-bisc )

. SEGA/YSnet/Shibuya Productions formed the agreement to use the Shenmue licence before Sony was ever involved (Source: http://www.gameblog.fr/news/57133-shenmue-iii-pourquoi-la-ps4-et-pas-la-xbox-one-cedric-biscay )

. Shibuya Productions is the main investor in Shenmue III, and has a much greater role than Sony (Source: https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status/645483756371873792 )

Seeing how the "SONY/SEGA ARE SECRETLY FUNDING SHENMUE" lies are still put out there by the gaming press and the people who religiously take the media's conjecture as fact, I think it's up to us to put these real facts out there.
Thanks, dude! I'll grab what I can from the links and edit the original post :)

This just popped up on my twitter feed. Could be nothing, but I thought that I'd post it;)

https://twitter.com/giocorsi/status/734722558826668032

There's some direct feed footage of the videos shown off at Magic Monaco at about 1:11 here- https://youtu.be/BSZwkuBRB4c?t=70

Better than shaky cellphone footage!

Hi, guys.

We Chinese Shenmue club recently has donated a slide projector to the hope primary school which was built by wdrpgwd and his brother in Guiling.

The June 1st is the Children's Day in China, so we bring them a projector as a present. This machine can make the lessons more interesting and lively.

This is the twitter: https://twitter.com/mantisjojo/status/734954624675807233

Some picture of the school and children. Do you see the "莎木，你好" , it means "Hello, Shenmue" :heart: :heart:

http://i.imgur.com/huE854S.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/sjmFDue.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/W7ZzfRi.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Bwzi5T7.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/f82I3Vx.jpg

Once the PC version is available in the Paypal campaign it will be a good opportunity to get more PC gamers into the series.

World's worst topic title.

https://goo.gl/maps/FJ1aEbJj44k

This is the building according to Google Maps. Looks suitably humble. I'm pretty sure it's the right building, the narrow rectangle structure of the building seems to mimic what we've seen in pictures of the YSnet offices, but I could be wrong.
It's just behind that one, not visible directly from Street View. Actually Dojo member abaww went to visit it last year. Here's the thread with some photos he took of the exterior:
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48767

Yu Suzuki mentioned during his MAGIC Monaco presentation that his development studio for the project is located in Gotanda (also in Tokyo, a few minutes away by train).

So here's what I initially posted in the news topic about Shenmue III being the world's most anticipated game. I didn't mean to derail that topic and I think this is an issue that actually deserves its own one.

I said: Not to spoil everyone's fun, but the reason for SIII being #1 obviously is that nobody knows about that site (mostanticipatedgames) or cares to vote there, which makes it an easy target for (western) communities of hardcore fans (of japanese stuff). #3 is a game called Zero Time Dilemma - never heard of that. #18 is Danganronpa 3, whatever the hell that is. It's still not a bad thing of course, it just doesn't mean anything. Or say anything about the popularity of Shenmue. Which is not the world's most anticipated game.

That topic and that thought lead me to think about the following issue:

Many people in this community seem to have a huge problem with lying to themselves, "remixing" reality to their likings, if you will, or simply dreaming stuff up. I saw somebody complain about Kojima getting the spotlight instead of Suzuki at E3, even though he's "just Kojima". Somebody else called Shenmue III and the Final Fantasy VII remake Sony's "biggest weapons". Final Fantasy, sure, absolutely. Shenmue? Man, come on. I love Shenmue, too, but stuff like that has nothing to do with reality anymore. If you people actually keep believing the bullshit you're telling yourselves and others you will end up frustrated and disappointed over and over again. At least that's my take on it.

In the end it all comes down to one thing I'd like to ask of you: Please try to maintain at least some rationality. And please don't make us Shenmue fans look like idiots and/or assholes on social media. Don't hate on other people (like Kojima) or other stuff just because it's bigger and to many or most people more important than Shenmue. Don't hate on Sony for not fulfilling your highly exagerrated and fanboyish desires. Simply stop hating. Know your place. Know Shenmue's. Love it for what it is. Accept that it will never be more. Be less demanding, more humble. Get your f*cking shit together.

LA dinner has been moved to December.

I guess that pretty much confirms we'll be seeing Shenmue III at PSX

Japan dinner flights booked. Can't believe its all becoming a reality.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ysnet/shenmue-3/posts/1616380?ref=backer_project_update

Hello Everyone,

We are at the one year anniversary from the day you all stood up and made Shenmue III a reality. So to mark the occasion, Yu-san wanted to take this opportunity to look back at the project thus far.

Thank you all for wonderful first year!

https://youtu.be/-69bno5BjGk

Survey Outlook

We have been receiving a lot questions about surveys lately, so here is where we stand now.

Surveys have NOT been sent. A date for the surveys has not been decided, and is still a ways off.

Because this is such an important part of the backer process, an official announcement will made on the Kickstarter Update page and in the news section on shenmue.link. The announcement will also be posted on Twitter at @Shenmue_3, so be sure to follow us!

On the survey, you will confirm all of your reward details (platform choice, T-shirt size, etc.) and shipping information. Please look ahead to coming updates for more information!

Edit: Found a higher quality video on the Shenmue.link page but cannot embed it here -
https://shenmue.link/post_en/336/?en

Here's my best-guess translation of the text on the whiteboard that is briefly shown in the video.

*** WARNING: SPOILERS! ***

The text on the whiteboard does reveal clues about the game's story and content. Don't click below unless you wish to reveal potential story spoilers!

http://i.imgur.com/ax99HkR.png

As usual Yu's handwriting is quite hard to make out. Additions/corrections are welcome (Kiyuu, David...?).

A reader's letter here :

Now that E3 is over I thought I’d point out that means it’s now exactly a year since Shenmue III was first announced. I’m obviously not the only one that noticed though as they put up a new video to show how things have been going (you can’t seem to share Kickstarter videos, but here’s the link ).

I know Kickstarter games have an increasingly poor reputation nowadays, and I think in a lot of cases that’s perfectly justified, but Yu Suzuki and his team seem to be getting on very well. Everything seems very professional and instead of being full of excuses and timewasting side projects the updates are just things like new people they’ve hired and details of what they’re working on at the moment.

It’s actually not really that interesting, but I think that’s actually what’s most encouraging about it: professional people getting on with their job and trying to make the game live up to expectations. A lot of others, I’ve noticed, try to make themselves seem like pop stars or pretend that making video games is some sort of cool spectator sport. I think I feel more confident knowing that quiet, sensible people are just getting on with it when it comes to Shenmue III.

Fair play to the author because it's more or less summed up exactly how I feel. It's easy to piss and moan about a lack of info, but honestly, do you really want all of that in monthly dosees? I sure as hell don't. I've toiled with completely leaving the Dojo ever sInce last year, and I've reduced my presence solely with an end goal in mind of disappearing for all of 2017. We have seen already how we can seriously analyse any little morsel of info (that's not a dig, I wouldnt expect anything less from the fans!), and that's only going to get worse with time, as the usual dilemma of promotion/secrecy becomes evermore so blurred.

If you feel they could have shown "something" more substantial, then yes, there is an argument for that. But rest assured, they are coming, and when they do I feel it really will have been a case of absence made the heart grow fonder. For now, we are 18 months away, so let them get on with it I'd say! Life is awesome, and if I could give any advice, it's go find something to take your mind off of it. Preoccupy yourself because we knew from the start this was going to be a loooong process, and i know firsthand what it's like logging in and refreshing daily..... hourly in fact, for any small snippet of news

Speaking for myself personally? I already know far too much about this game. Way much more than what I ever would have wanted to know at this stage. Bring back the monthly magazines as a news source like the good old days! I'd love to hypotheses and theorise like we have gotten so good at over the years, but I just know if I do, my on the spot raw emotions that I know I will feel whilst finally playing this game will have been manipulated from all of the information that had came before it. I don't want that, and I am not going to jeapordise a 15 year payoff for it.

Keep the updates sort by all means! Tell me what's in Suzuki's t shirt wardrobe and I will be happier

Ryuji Iuchi the main composer for Shenmue 3 has created a youtube playlist of all the music he's made from Shenmue 1&2. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... SUDNZrWFV_

3 pieces of concept art (composites) from the June 2016 Kickstarter update video.

Edit: plus 2 more.

http://i.imgur.com/9Iqhm8u.png

http://i.imgur.com/OPmw5P6.png

http://i.imgur.com/hKIJz3K.png

http://i.imgur.com/P5oXV8a.png

http://i.imgur.com/38KuFeh.png

Ryan was gone long before Halo 4 shipped. This was ultimately because of butting heads with Microsoft over the direction they were going in. (There's some info about this in the podcast, he was kind of put out of pasture by MS in the same way Yu was by SEGA)

For MGS4, Payton was hired specifically by Hideo Kojima to help Westernise certain elements of the game, such as camera and control functionality. If you ask me, MGS4 sucked for several other non-camera/control related problems.

The all-important fact here is that he's only part of the advisory board , he's not a Producer like he was on MGS4, and not a creative director like he was on Halo 4. He meets with Yu every two months, and seems to have helped when putting the Kickstarter plan together as well as having some input on the overall game design. He's acting as a guiding hand, effectively.

This is some interesting information, thanks for clearing it up!

Hey guys,

My own site PauseResume.com conducted a new interview with Cedric Biscay and Shibuya Productions that some of you might appreciate.

http://www.pauseresume.com/shenmue-shibuya-productions/

Don't expect any ground breaking reveals but Cedric did mention during our chat that he and Yu Suzuki were working on a project before Shenmue III which was abandoned.

Unfortunately, they didn't reveal any further info on what that project might be but maybe in years to come we'll find out.

http://i.imgur.com/dqJMVQj.png
http://i.imgur.com/UAA3ilM.png

Very happy with the update and for the 'new' incorporation to the team! With every upddate I can feel that it'll be a great game with the true Shenmue essence!

Could anyone translate the japanese subtitles of this picture?
I must say it's nice and helpful of them to leave hints of Japanese text in each video so that we can analyze them to death.

Anyway, the gist of the subtitle is:

"Occasionally, there are even times when the mountains along the Li River bring misfortune..."

"Ryo... That word on your watch - beginning with T... That has another meaning in this village."

"Another meaning... Is that so?"

"Yes... In their ancient traditions, that word is rather offensive."

"I see... I'd better scratch it off."

Anyway, Switch signal is up again:

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

Any chance of figuring out what the stuff on the right means?
I missed noticing this, you've got eagle eyes! Each figure has a name written next to it.
http://i.imgur.com/aZAqfQeh.png Nozomi
http://i.imgur.com/Sozzm7Qh.png Seiji
http://i.imgur.com/dW7l5wKh.png An [truncated]
The drawings have a very simplistic style... wonder what these represent.

Anyway, Switch signal is up again:

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

Any chance of figuring out what the stuff on the right means?
I missed noticing this, you've got eagle eyes! Each figure has a name written next to it.
http://i.imgur.com/aZAqfQeh.png Nozomi
http://i.imgur.com/Sozzm7Qh.png Seiji
http://i.imgur.com/dW7l5wKh.png An [truncated]
The drawings have a very simplistic style... wonder what these represent.
Wow, nice catch, Spaghetti! My initial thoughts on these incredibly simplistic representations of the characters was that it was just a way of presenting their in-game design with a very basic guideline, but then I saw Nozomi's name, and the design doesn't match that of the Nozomi we're all aware of whatsoever. (Also, the only character by the name of Seiji in the series is an unremarkable forklift operator at the Harbour, so I sincerely doubt that's who they're going with.) Unless there's going to be a new character named Nozomi in Shenmue III , what if these designs are simply emblems or some repute (e.g., custom clothing patches or accolades for completing certain challenges)?

28th July

$6,632,986 --> $6,633,070 (+$84)

72,708 backers --> 72,711 (+3) ($28 per backer)


29th July

$6,633,070 --> $6,633,204 (+$134)

72,711 backers --> 72,715 (+4) ($33.50 per backer)


1st August

$6,633,204 --> $6,633,904 (+$700)

72,715 backers --> 72,727 (+12) ($58.33 per backer)

$300,609 raised since the start of the campaign last September.

The Ryan Peyton interview suggested that Yu Suzuki is actually living in the office basically working 24/7 to ensure that

A. Shenmue 3 makes it's December 2017 release date
and
B. Shenmue 3 doesn't turn out like Mighty Number 9

I was wondering, it is just Yu Suzuki living at the office or is it also the rest of the team members?

Also maybe we could pitch in to help them out?

What if the Dojo members put some gift baskets together? We could include things like snacks, blankets, toiletries, reading material, basically anything to make living in the office more comfortable.

Thoughts?

I'm curious about the source of YS hiring Devs with UE4 experience. I remember him saying something along the lines of finding UE4 experienced talent would be hard, but I don't remember him saying he was sucessful in hiring such people.

http://shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=49948

Having made the decision to proceed with Shenmue III as a game, we asked if the project had encountered any unusual challenges. Suzuki explained that with his preferred engine Unreal 4 being relatively new, and with little information available in Japanese, it had been difficult to find experts in Japan. "Fortunately, now at our offices we do have skilled experts," he smiled.

Henry Spencer wrote:Why does Tom go back to America exactly?

This one's easy: because no one ever buys his frickin' hotdogs!

No matter how many moves he teaches them!

Considering Sega doesn't even make games anymore, they can look all they want, and it still means nothing.

Unfortunely Sega statement Isn't really about the branded things, It's far worse I'm afraid, It's about claiming if they rerelease them at all, they want a brand new graphics engine to be built from the ground up, which is never going to happen.

You need to remember, Sega is a company that will rerelease the same game 5 times, yet have none of them released outside of Japan lol, so expecting them to follow through with that BS remake of the 1st two Shenmue games they are claiming they want to do, is idiotic at best.

It's not going to happen, especially if they keep this stupid remake mindset.

They should hust port the games as is, no so called HD remaster, and definitely no remake from the ground up. The less effort Sega has to put towards such, the better.
There are quite a few things wrong in your post. Check SEGA's statement again.


" we will need to ensure that any HD remaster lives up to the quality of the original titles. "

That part of it, is what I'm referring to, It's utterly impossible for Sega to do something like this to beginwith, but It's moot anyway, because Sega would never even try to do such, so yea It's them saying, It's never going to happen.

1+1=7

Yokosuka wrote: After having randomly watched a Shenmue video, yeah that door was really a bug nest:

https://youtu.be/Qh2XSFVXrbI?t=12s

Damn, son, they should have renamed it the Man Move Over Temple.

I don't know what anybody - devs or fans - would have to gain from the demo being released so early.
It's not really too early to have a demo be released less than a year before the drop date.....
I don't know about that, but certainly not all games seem to have vultures circling with sharpened bills, salivating for an excuse to portray them as falling short of expectations.

The more polished the demo can be, the less chance there'll be of yet another round of media bashings and misplaced I-told-you-so's from people whose fourteen years of gleeful naysaying was shown up in grand fashion last summer, to their seething resentment ever since.

...Sorry, getting a little carried away. :-#

Before release: "It takes more than $6 million to make a good game."

After release: "Anyone can make a good game with $6 million of scammed donations."

Just letting you know what to expect so that you'll have your arguments prepared.

Here's my take on the Shenmue logo, I also posted this on the Community Projects so I aplogise if you're seeing this twice.

Feedback welcome :D

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqA3y4HXYAA-tbW?format=jpg&name=large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqA3y4PWYAA9ylj?format=jpg&name=large

Still promoting it (of course).

For one simple reason. The money goes to Shenmue 3 development, no matter which errors they are making in the promotion of the campaign or in the PayPal backers treatment.
At the end of the day, a better final product will benefit everyone.

Anybody else feel this $40,000 from $6.6 mil has just flown by?

I did the Math.

May 1st ~ $6,600,000
August 30th ~ $6,640,000

121 Days.

February 12th ~ $6,560,000
May 3rd ~ $6,600,000

81 Days.

Note:
February 27th -> MagicMonaco
March 16th -> Welcome China

Final Comment:
The only way to see a significant rise of the Paypal campaign numbers (with maybe PC version and KS upgrades) is a massive and positive media coverage.
That means Shenmue 3 gameplay or Shenmue HD announcement. Since the Slacker Backer is still running, you can make your bets :mrgreen:

A very exciting update! It is so cool to see actual in-game footage in creation before our very eyes.

Switch! We need you lol. Very interested to see what the post-it notes say on the bottom of his screen.
I hear your call!

Actually I've just written a quick blog post about the video, so I'll extract the relevant part.

⋅ Note 1 is titled "MVN Development" with some notes underneath. One looks like it might say "fly". Aha! That makes sense. MVN Studio is the name of the software used to develop with Xsens, the 3D motion tracking technology being used in Shenmue III.
⋅ Note 2: looks like business contact details, having a phone number, the name of a shop, name of the contact and an email address.
⋅ Note 3: is a single word with the number 1 after it. Er... I hope it's not a password as that would be bad security practice! (I won't give it here just in case).

P.S. As you can see from my updated signature, I've just launched a blog where I'm planning to post my Shenmue translations / updates etc.

Here's the link to my full post with some observations about today's video. Enjoy!
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2016/09/kickstarter-update-59-observations.html

Add me to the "100% against retconning a damn thing" club.

Spaghetti wrote:It also seems confirmed that animals will be in the game, as I noticed "Crow" was in the asset list.

That will be an exclusive restaurant menu option for non-backers.

Also - the boulder sequence is in Baisha, and it seems the Free Battle idle pose is involved somehow at the moment, perhaps there's a battle on a clifftop?



About the boulder sequence - I was wondering the same because of the idle Free Battle trigger. What if there's actually a battle on a clifftop and this battle includes one of the "High Ground Battle System" mechanics Yu was talking about in a past interview?

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.

http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=49223

Now, try to imagine a battle on a clifftop where Ryo gets overwhelmed by enemies. You can chose to fight to the death or can try to escape down the cliff. Unfortunately, you move a rock in the process and part of the cliff collapses. A QTE sequence starts: If you succeed, you live and part of your enemies get stuck in the rockslide. If you fail... well, you die.

I would love this kind of gameplay where you have multiple approaches for one situation and the opportunity to change your strategy in the middle of a free battle.

http://imgur.com/3z7xwdZ.jpg

Quick question - is the 160818 build linked in here more advanced than the 180816 build on the Demul website? I figured higher number is better, but some of the old build numbers start with a 2.
160818 is the latest build(more advanced). Actually i'm not sure if theres is latest build on main site right now it might not been updated because.. and I quote

person who post news and binaries on official site is semi-retired (and often do it then drunk to shit LOL)
:D

I didn't expect a game announcement, I expected a better justification from Sega.
Honestly, you're reading way too much into this. This magazine interview is neither the time nor place for Sega to go into specific details about Shenmue 1 and 2 HD. We already knew that Sega wants to make this happen. Just as we already knew Sega isn't ready to make an official announcement yet. So, nothing ground breaking, this interview was just a harmless opportunity to touch base.