Although everything in this new "update" tells us backers to lower our expectation even more, the dreamy people (as usual) are excited and happy with that ....
In short, what we've just been told is : graphics won't be comparable to AAA titles, it took almost two years to make "acceptable" models of the two main characters, facial expressions and animations are not done yet, we now have fewer characters than what's been initially announced, the new fighting system will be puzzle-based and more aimed towards causal players so we can kiss anything close to the decent fighting system of Shenmue and Shenmue II goodbye, and finally another delay is highly expected.
btw, can someone remind whoever subtitled the video that we're still in 2017 ?
https://i.imgur.com/82MLCiU.png
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2017/12/commentary-on-kickstarter-update-78.html
Switch's Phantom River Stone blog has an analysis up for the video, including some clarifications about Yu's comments in Japanese that didn't come across as directly as they could in the English subtitles.
Which matches with Yu's comments at Gamescom that Choubu alone could have an NPC count of 200.
Similarly, "puzzle game" is a bit of a translation goof, and is actually "thinking-style game", which is the same phrase Yu has used at Gamescom and (I think) in interviews even earlier than that about the combat. It's obviously not referring literally to puzzle games, but was likely used to evoke a sense of strategy Yu has talked about before in regards to the new combat (splitting enemies into smaller groups, knocking objects and other enemies into each other for an advantage, etc).
Also, the "2018 has been the year..." comment at the end of the video is not just a 2017/2018 typo mix up, but a tense mix up and meant to be "2018 will be the year...".
Thanks a lot to Switch for his contributions in clearing some of the ambiguity up! Spaghetti
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On the topic of character models, with character design studio Lakshya Digital now having joined the project , Yu states that this month (December 2017) the number of character models has substantially increased. The English subtitles in the video say that the count
In today's video interview, Yu again uses the same phrase in Japanese ("thinking-style game") to describe the type of battle system he wants to create. This is a description that applies to games such as board games (chess etc), 3D-block puzzles or puzzle video games
In his wrap-up message, Yu talks about the coming year. 2018 will be a crucial year addressing the most important part of Shenmue: the way in which the Shenmue characters go about their daily lives.