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Re: Let's just say SIII is in development and....

I think an HD re-release actually isn't a great idea from a business sense, though I would love the opportunity to play the game on an xbox 360/ps3. Many 3D games from the early 2000's haven't aged very well. I just beat the re-release of Jet Set Radio, and while it was awesome (of course :-P), the controls were pretty brutal and the game is getting lukewarm review scores (gamespot gave it a 4.5!). Most people aren't going to give Shenmue the benefit of the doubt that "flaws can be overlooked because it's from 2001", and for $10-$15 there are tons of great original games on the XBLA/PSN service. I'd definitely be afraid that the HD re-releases wouldn't do so well. As an example, I remember a big criticism of the xbox version of Shenmue II was that it was basically a DC port. How would a DC port be received on the 360/ps3? In a way, it could almost turn people away from SIII. A re-release would be great for the established fanbase, but I don't think it'll really help make too many new fans. Making major changes can be difficult and costly, too.

What I would do is make a series of videos that retells the story using the game engine for SIII and record or rerecord the lines with new voice actors. The videos can be released episodically on gametrailers.com, xbox live marketplace, PSN, steam, etc. and can serve the purpose of getting newcomers hooked on the story and leave them with a cliffhanger. You can tell the story without having to about whether or not newcomers will be turned off by the goofy voice acting, or gameplay/graphics from 2001. That makes the most sense to me and I imagine would be more cost effective than an HD rerelease.

As for SIII changes:

I would re-evaluate the role of money and what you can do with it. It doesn't serve much of a purpose in S1 and S2, except for a few story segments. Nothing you buy really does anything.

I would expand upon the fighting/training system - Require a wider variety of strategies, have more opportunities to spar, have more moves and combos to unlock and learn, etc. Maybe have a level system for individual moves, which unlock additional combos and abilities. Be careful to not make it to "video gamey" though ;-)

In general I think the "critical path" could probably move at a faster pace, with the option to explore at your own pace. Remove the tedious chores like airing out the books, moving crates, or at least have them last for a shorter amount of time. I really loved the Iron Palm/Leaf catching segments in SII on the other hand. I guess because they were more unique and were a part of Ryo's "training" (even if it just concerned the story, like the leaf catching).

I agree with some more side stories/NPC interaction and all that.
by Tomato Convenience Store
Thu Nov 29, 2012 5:27 am
 
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Re: SHENMUE 3 ANNOUNCED FOR PS4 KICKSTARTER!

Yeah so I just been sinking at work letting this sink in for the past two hours!
by Tomato Convenience Store
Mon Jun 15, 2015 11:29 pm
 
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Re: Sega's Involvement with Shenmue 3

I would imagine that Sega is either 1) Getting paid to license out the Shenmue IP or 2) Are co-publishing the game with Sony. I think #2 would be the best case scenario, as it would be less risk for all parties AND hopefully more overall funding put into the game (and perhaps the use of other SEGA properties!). Of course I'm just speculating, so we'll have to wait and see.

As for your questions, given the size of the team they're working with (I am assuming they'll be a bit smaller than the original team), it's probably overall the easiest to work in the Unreal Engine and modify it as needed. While it's not the same type of combat, the Arkham series is melee heavy and uses the Unreal Engine.

Even if the game was going to be made by Sega, it would take too much effort to try to update the original Shenmue Engine. It's possible the engine used for Yakuza could be sufficient given the similarities to the Shenmue series, but I'm not familiar enough with the games.
by Tomato Convenience Store
Wed Jun 17, 2015 12:38 am
 
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Re: Shenmue 3 Kickstarter announced at E3 2015!

I don't think I posted in this thread yet.

I am happy.
by Tomato Convenience Store
Wed Jun 17, 2015 12:50 am
 
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Re:

OH SHIT, SON!

Martin wrote: I'd give my left nut to see Shenmue finished properly. How's that for an investment?


Well? ;-)
by Tomato Convenience Store
Thu Jun 18, 2015 3:35 am
 
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Re: Kickstarter Update #12 - Vote for your favourite charact

I still hate the idea of fans voicing/playing NPCs since it completely cheapens the game, but TEH FANS HAVE SPOKEN AND ARE ALWAYS RIGHT AND NEED TO BE INVOLVED CAUSE THEY PAID MONEY SO THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO INFLUENCE THE GAME ANYWAY THEY WANT!!1@!

The one and only thing I would be ok with is if it's an Easter Egg of some sort.

And I totally voted for Xiuying <3
by Tomato Convenience Store
Thu Jun 25, 2015 1:53 am
 
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Re: Kickstarter Update #12 - Vote for your favourite charact

SIDE NOTE: Holy shit would I love to have a replica Phoenix Mirror, but I just don't see any reasonable way that it would cost less than the Jacket replica. Unless it's really shitty.
by Tomato Convenience Store
Thu Jun 25, 2015 2:28 am
 
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Re: Shenmue 3 - All stretch goals announced.....

Alright, let's fucking do this!

(Let's convince YSNet to include a paypal option post KS so we can actually hit this shit!)
by Tomato Convenience Store
Thu Jun 25, 2015 10:44 pm
 
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Re: Kickstarter Update #14 - Yu Suzuki on Twitch this Friday

Riku Rose wrote: They seriously are ending because the chat is going too fast to read? How did these guys get hired?


All they have to do is scroll up, haha.
by Tomato Convenience Store
Fri Jun 26, 2015 11:03 pm
 
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Re: What would you want changed for a Shenmue HD?

-The option to select Japanese VO
-The wait system from Shenmue II
-Ability to save anywhere
-Keep the rotary phones, but be able to auto-dial if you'd like :-P
-Updated control options.

And the super pipe-dream feature:
-Re-record all of the English VO to get better performances
by Tomato Convenience Store
Sat Jun 27, 2015 5:30 pm
 
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Re: Cutest Shenmue fan ever dancing to Tomato jingle in stor

I can tell you she didn't pay me any god damn licensing fees to use my theme!
by Tomato Convenience Store
Sun Jun 28, 2015 12:03 am
 
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The KS is a huge success and we shouldn't be discouraged

Hey y'all - I think it's time for some perspective for how successful this kickstarter has been, all things considered.

1) First off, against all odds we are finally getting Shenmue III! Holy shit, we've been waiting for this for 14 years! We've remained rabid fans for this entire time and many of you have been going nuts getting the word out, getting a social media presence, bombarding anyone you can to share your love of the game. This is easily the craziest gaming community (and I mean that in a good way, of course :-P). We were the fastest game to reach $1M and $2M!

2) The success of the kickstarter is even more impressive when you consider Shenmue III is only on two platforms. Mighty No. 9 is on ten platforms, and Bloodstained is on seven. That pretty significantly limits the amount of potential pledges you can get. If there was going to be an Xbone version of Shenmue III, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that pledges could be up around an extra 15-20% (meaning, we'd currently be at around $4.5M funding and 55K backers). Considering this, it's still very possible we end up getting more funding than Bloodstained to become the most funded kickstarter game ever. That's pretty fucking awesome!

3) The number of backers != total number of pre-orders or sales. The average gamer is not like "us". There are a bunch of people who are skeptical about kickstarter and really don't see the point of putting in $30 for a game two and a half years before release. I have a few friends who are Shenmue fans who were super pumped for the announcement but haven't yet backed the project, and probably won't, but they'll buy the game at release.

For me personally, this is the first game I backed on kickstarter. I'm a big Tim Schafer/Double Fine fan, but I didn't back their kickstarter and ended up buying Broken Age upon release. I didn't back Bloodstained or Mighty No. 9, but will probably get those when they come out, too. This will probably be the only game I back on kickstarter as well (unless Shenmue IV gets a kickstarter!).

4) I would argue that while the kickstarter announcement at E3 helped the overall numbers, it also made us reach a saturation point much sooner. I believe without the on stage announcement we would have overall similar numbers to what we have now (maybe slightly less, but not significantly), but the numbers would have increased more steadily. Remember, people are still able to remove their pledges, so even if they pledge during the super duper E3 hype, they're still able to view the project from a distance once the hype dies down, so they're not a victim of an impulse buy.

5) We're not even at the midway point of the Kickstarter. We still have the $30 on the 3rd campaign and are awaiting more reward tiers. Maybe we get a PS4 physical release and a Paypal option. It's fine if we don't hit $10M - they'll figure something out. The success of this campaign could help ease investor risk, so it's possible the money is covered elsewhere (a post KS paypal option probably covers the rest, honestly). I don't think, in the grand scheme of things, an expertly run kickstarter campaign makes a huge difference (and let's not turn this into a topic about "that"). Let's continue to do our best spread the word. Remember that Bloodstained received $1.5M in pledges the last two days, so don't be too discouraged that things have died down a bit (also see point #4 again!)

So considering all these points, I would argue that in the end I'll consider this to be the most successful video game kickstarter - even if we fall just short of Bloodstained (though I'm still optimistic we'll hit around $6M).

Positive vibes - let's get sweaty!
by Tomato Convenience Store
Sun Jun 28, 2015 4:25 pm
 
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Re: The KS is a huge success and we shouldn't be discouraged

I agree. The thing is the PR is vital to this and they started with a bang by opening infront of millions of viewers live at Sony's E3 conference, what happened afterwards was a completely unworthy follow up to such a fantastic start.

Bloodstained brought in a lot of outside the community gamers by making the Kickstarter a fantastic experience, making backers feel how unique and historical that moment was. This KS gives us very dry updates and has not done a good job on making the stretch goals exciting or hyped, for the most part people just feel discouraged that they're out of reach.

To get this out of the way, I agree that Awesome Japan is doing a poor job, but what's a realistic expectation for how much extra funding a flawlessly run kickstarter campaign can generate for Shenmue III? I don't know the answer (and to be fair, no one else does), but I just can't see newcomers putting in anything above the $5-30 tiers, and I think it's even more realistic that they'll wait until the games release since they haven't played S1 and S2. Do people think a well run campaign would get us to $11M by the end of the kickstarter?

I think the best option, as mentioned by many before, is to have a paypal option post-kickstarter (and it's really the only option to reach that amount of crowd-sourced funding). There are a bunch of fans who will contribute monthly, it will allow newcomers the time to catch up on S1 and 2 (especially if there's ever a re-release), and progress and previews of the game can be shown to newcomers, which might get them to donate to the development of the game.
by Tomato Convenience Store
Sun Jun 28, 2015 6:32 pm
 
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Re: IGN continues to Fumble Funding Facts

We need to destroy all who oppose "the cause".
by Tomato Convenience Store
Tue Jun 30, 2015 4:04 pm
 
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Re: KS Update #23 - PS4 physical copy & New reward tiers add

I love seeing the Digital Only backers decrease from the 27.5K to 26K (so far!)
by Tomato Convenience Store
Fri Jul 03, 2015 4:22 pm
 
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Re: KS Update #23 - PS4 physical copy & New reward tiers add

Meh - wake me up when they introduce the $50,000 Phoenix Mirror replica :-P
by Tomato Convenience Store
Fri Jul 03, 2015 2:19 pm
 
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Re: Random Shenmue Thoughts

Xiuying's name kind of appropriately sounds like "Schwing!" from Wayne's World

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xTqUEhWYsI
by Tomato Convenience Store
Fri Jul 03, 2015 4:45 am
 
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Re: KS Suggetion- 2 player VS Fighting 5.5m- NPC head re. 10

I would love this feature if we were getting a fully funded Shenmue III (or at the very least, something much more simplified/small scale). I think you're underestimating how much work has to be done to do this, though. First off, Ryo is really the only character in the game with a fully realized move-set. You'd have to multiply that by how many other characters will appear in the game, plus make the move-sets and fighting style unique. Then you're talking about a lot of modeling and animation work, and the fact they have to make an entirely new fighting system anyways. It's pretty much asking to make an entire fighting game, in addition to Shenmue III. Additionally, the fighting game genre is competitive and there's no margin for error, so that means that you'd need to invest in a lot of money into this feature.

I did like the ability to replay boss fights from Shenmue II with additional challenges, so I hope something like that can return and maybe be more fleshed out.
by Tomato Convenience Store
Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:33 am
 
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Re: KS Update #36: New Trailer & NPC Reward Added

No one's gonna disagree with you about the Shenmue II version's superior art direction / pace (it truly is one of my favourites from the game). But don't forget, Yu Suzuki oversaw that scene too - doesn't this man deserve our faith and patience?

As for cheap - well, yes it is mate... That's why we have a Kickstarter!

Then why was that video necessary? Who was it for?

DBZ fans who think that maybe Shenhua was going Super Saiyan? Final Fantasy fans? Or Shenmue fans?

I don't get it at all.

Saying that I'm expecting too much is wrong because I wasn't expecting anything at all. I had literally zero expectations for a new video and was let down.

Oh yeah, man. Shenhua having magic powers is totally new and it could not ever appeal to any Shenmue fan ever.

There's especially not a part in the second game where she literally blows Dandelion seeds with her ki.

Haha, I was just about to post how much the new trailer reminded me of that scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXOHxuzvZ7A&t=1m0s
by Tomato Convenience Store
Wed Jul 15, 2015 2:17 am
 
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Re: KS Update #36: New Trailer & NPC Reward Added

I'm going to be paraphrasing because I won't be able to look for video footage of this, but I remember if you get through the conversations with Shenhua after the dandelion scene, Ryo says something along the lines of "when I used to play with the dandelions, I would pick them up and blow on them". Then Shenhua was like "what do you mean? Why do you need to do that?", implying that she did just will the dandelions to fly.

And I think Ryo's WTF reaction during the scene itself is a bit of a giveaway as well.

EDIT: Found the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMkz3asRQpQ&t=3m42s
by Tomato Convenience Store
Wed Jul 15, 2015 4:22 pm
 
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Re: Applause for YSnet for their Kickstarter Effort and Work

I think the main thing we learned about kickstarter is people (or should I say "the average person") really just want to buy cool shit and get good value for what they pay for. I don't think a more masterful campaign and better social media presence would have made a huge difference. I believe the turnaround for the campaign was the inclusion of the PS4 physical copy.
by Tomato Convenience Store
Fri Jul 17, 2015 3:59 pm
 
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Re: What amount would you be really happy at?

Obviously I would be happy if it 10 million. The reality is I'm glad its at what its at. I really just wanted it to beat bloodstained to atleast show how important it is to the fans. I think its going to be over 6 million. They've said they have outside funds from the kickstarter so I think we get the game that Yu Suzuki envisions.

Plus, I think the success of the kickstarter can open up the possibility of receiving additional funding and/or additional investors.
by Tomato Convenience Store
Fri Jul 17, 2015 4:10 pm
 
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