Hey guys, not sure if this text was on the page before but under the next video on the Shenmue 3 site that is labeled as 'Coming Soon' we have this text. http://puu.sh/itmil/44d23e681d.jpg

"Ryo and Shenhua arrive at the Fairy Fountain after their long journey. Entranced, they watch the gentle flight of the lantern bugs upon the mirage-like oasis"

Sounds like that scene in from the Shemue II pre-release stuff to me.

Can't wait to see the first real trailer. I know yu isn't going to fuck around with any CG bullshit too.

I posted this on the Kickstarter comment section. Agree/Disagree?

Thank you Yu, and everyone else involved doing this. However, there's a lot of confusion with this Kickstarter. I think you guys are unknowingly damaging the potential for the Kickstarter. Besides revealing Sony's involvement on the first day of the Kickstarter, giving people the idea that there is no more need to back it on Kickstarter because a big company like Sony is supporting it, there's also a lot of vagueness in relation to the stretch goals.

For example, what exactly is Raport? What is the Skill Tree? What are Character Perspectives? No one knows or understands, and this vagueness leaves doubts not only on your potential backers but current backers. Could you further expound upon these features?

Finally, why isn't Yu doing interviews all over the place for the Kickstarter to give information? There was a French interview on Youtube, but not one available in English. A lot of the marketing so far is scattershot and unorganized. Please do better. Thank you, a grateful Shenmue fan.

Just be a total slut for 30 days. Try and get interviewed by everyone and get news sites posting about Shenmue. Yu needs to get in the public light similar to how other Kickstarter project leaders have. Get more developers to make videos about why they love Shenmue, plenty of people have said they love it over the years in interviews. Get someone in the team to interview Yu and put it on the Kickstarter page and drop them every few days. Interviews should have been arranged weeks ago for every major gaming news outlet. I can imagine Yu will just go back to Japan after E3 and we won't hear from him again for months.

Make it clear what these S I&II scenes are. If it's like Shenmue the movie let people know so it doesn't put people off who have never played the series and that they can catch up. Nowhere on the Kickstarter page does it sound welcoming at all to newcomers to the series.

Do a let's play of certain sections of the original Shenmue. In these Yu could just speak about making the game and the history at SEGA. Let's plays aren't my cup of tea but people go crazy for them. Add a tier where you get a monthy skype session or online Q&A's with members of the team working on the games.

Get an english twitter account similar to what Kojima has. The Japansese audience is very small compared to America and America has the biggest funding potential. Only starting to use Twitter again about a day before E3 was silly. This isn't like the FFVII announcement where it's a nice surprise. For a Kickstarter that only lasts 30 days you should be teasing it for quite awhile.

Don't announce you'll do shows like the one in Monoco. Announce stretch goals that you will go to places like PAX, Tokyo Game Show, Playstation Experiance and Gamecom. No one outside of the core people who already have donated will care about seeing a game at an anime convention in Monoco. A tier could be made that if you donate enough you get access to a special Q&A with Yu or early hands on time with the game at Pax would bring in some extra money. If people are willing to pay £10,000 and also pay to fly to Tokyo to have dinner with the guy they'll do it if they don't have to pay to fly and his coming to PAX so extra dinners is something.

Include tiers like letting people voice a character or to let them name something in a tier between the $500-$10,000. You're letting people include their name in the credits why not let some people add a message next to their name for a few extra dollars to get a few people to up their pledge. Heck for even more money get your photo in the credits. Include a tier where people can have themselves made into a toy capsule Ryo can collect.

The toy capsules replicas are great but have a donation pledge to get replicas of the mirrors. Make them a decent quality so you can ask for more to get them.

The Double Fine team did a documentary about making the game that certain backers got access to. The Shenmue III story will be one people want to watch.

FUck yeah, a let's play commentated by Yu Suzuki would be incredible.

Gametrailers is doing one of Shenmue II, would be awesome to see Huber, Yu Suzuki, Rocco from mega64, or some guys hyping the shit of Shenmue for people that haven't played it.

The whole 70 man battle scenes, the third disk of shenmue II, the ending.

Don't make it 1 hour long, but something like 15 minutes hyping the shit out of the game.

+1 to the mirrors replicas.

The documentary is great, but actually quite expensive, DF hurted a lot, it was awesome (even more so than the actual game), but just saying "exclusive making of videos for X tier backers" would be great.

That's a silly way to promote the game though there are fans from around the world and they need to get the word out more.

So barebones...we need more than that.

I hope someone asks "what the fuck were you thinking with this Kickstarter, and why is it this amateurish when you've had years to build up to it?"

Not to be an annoyingly negative dick, but Jesus Christ, the stretch goals are still hidden at the bottom of the fucking page!

This is more than great news and we have to make sure that we get some of the important info out in the open about the kickstarter and also try to help them by asking about adding more Reward Tiers (between $500 and $10,000), and also by making the stretch goals more clear/descriptive.

Here is a list of questions that are being complied on Neogaf by the user GavinGT.

Updated List of Questions for Friday's Yu Suzuki AMA

- Why no physical PS4 disc?
- What's the deal with the other two towns mentioned in the Kickstarter video?
- Can we have some more higher tier Kickstarter rewards, please?
- What do you forecast the final budget to be?
- Will the game have English and Japanese VO?
- Will Corey Marshall reprise his role?
- Will you finish the story with Shemue III?
- Do you have access to Sega-branded arcade games and capsule toys?
- Can you go into more detail about what the stretch goals actually mean?
- Will you update the controls?
- Will we see a return of some Shenmue I systems, such as lots of interactivity with objects?
- Will the free battle system still exist in the game?
- How will you update QTEs?
- How many developers do you plan to have working on the game?
- Is an Xbox One version out of the question?
- Do you have any specific cost-cutting measures in mind?
- Will the final game be at full price?

A great list IMO.

Great idea.

AMA question: Regardless of stretch goals what is the minimum number of locations that will for sure be in the game?

They're thinking about adding a Pay Pal donation link as well, which will help with funding even once the kickstarter ends.

I think they could reach ten million if they do the following things.

1. Better structure their kickstarter.
2. Explain in detail what each Stretch goal is.
3. Detail a graph for how much money is needed for each portion of development
4. ADD PS4 Physical Kickstarter backer exclusive.
5. Explain the minimize size of the game and locations. Ie, if the game will have 4 main locales regardless of if it reaches 6 million dollars or not. I don't think having one location will cut it.
6. Fire Awesome Japan, hire the team that did Bloodstained immediately.

Though Suzuki said that despite the evolution of open world game design since Shenmue 1 and 2 shipped, he doesn’t have any plans to alter the way Shenmue 3 will play to keep up with the times, aiming for a feel similar to the original games.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/17/8795017/shenmue-on-a-budget

The more Suzuki talks about Shenmue 3 -- the more at ease I feel about the project turning into something that I'll be happy with.

I posted this on the main thread but I think it belongs here.I've got some big reservations about what i've seen so far from a marketing comms perspective. We have a long way to go yet but the initial announcement created a huge noise, the Shenmue community have turned this up to 11 and generated a huge buzz online promoting interest in Shenmue way beyond just the gaming press. Honestly the hype generated by the online community is priceless, can't be manufactured, can't be bought and can't be replicated, it's been unbelieveable.

While there will be a comms strategy for Shenmue III the game, imo the project needs something akin to an election campaign, an overall comms strategy to tell every gamer that they simply must play this game, which i see no evidence of. For instance the design of the kickstarter is poor, the reward tiers and benefits have gaping holes. Somebody overseeing all of the project from an overall comms perspective would have seen that straight away, nailing the kickstarter is just as important as nailing E3, momentum is everything with Shenmue III . The silence of Sega has also been deafening, not a statement, not a tweet, retweet, like, simply silence. The HD remakes will have a huge impact on the success of Shenmue III and the fact they are letting Yu have the IP should have been part of the E3 presentation. Sega's absence is strange and unhelpful. Sony have been off message in the last two days and have not got a consistent line regarding their involvement, i've heard 6 different lines from Sony spokesperson's which is unforgiveable. It all points to a bit of a mess on the comms front. In contrast the community have been incredible and masked some of these early mistakes.

9. Sony and other investors only funding a part of the games budget. Does this mean most of the budget will come from the Kickstarter? More importantly, how much does Suzuki-san want the Kickstater to reach in order for him to make the FULL vision for Shenmue III?

Great job so far Himuro! I found that you have a typo in question 9. Sony and other investors ARE only funding a part of the games budget. :)

I gotta say, besides the awesome news of Shenmue 3 happening, everything else from the kickstarter to this AMA has been rather amateurish and unprofessional. Kinda wish they hired a better team for the kickstarter.

Riku Rose wrote: I don't care how much Sony is funding the game I want to know how much Awesome Japan is getting for this fuck up.

HOW MUCH????

They better not be getting paid!!! This could have been done better and for free by Shenmue fans!

Someone should start an ama called "I'm waiting for the Yu Suzuki AMA so AMA."

Anyone still willing to do this, please PM me two fictional news submissions exactly as you would post them on the front page. I'd like to add a couple of users this week.

Well I backed a couple of these, it's pretty amateurish. The kickstarter video is pretty damn bad, the coolest update yet (the video with the programmer) isn't even on the kickstarter. They reached the goal on record time and barely awknoledge it, one update was for giving thanks to another guy (and give a shout about his game), there are not enough tiers, etc. They couldn't even put the time right ! like, come on.

Bloodborne had social media "achievements", dreamfall had cool video updates about the game, concept art, broken age wasn't even a videogame, but the guys did let's plays, documentaries that were awesome. I even backed a game made by pretty much 1 guy and the updates were better than this.

It's pretty bad.

I'm not saying anything about negativity, look at my posts about the kickstarter and how it's developing moneywise. Just that the guys that should be doing it the most approchable possible are not doing a good job about it. It's criticism to improve, not to destroy.

PS. the gratitude should be to Yu Suzuki, the guys that are actually running the kickstarter are getting paid to do a mediocre job.

I dont get it. When in another topic we discuss that game footage is not really good, eveyone keep saying that this video was made for 0$ and just for showing. Im ok with that. But do you think they have money to make full campaigin? It requires budget. Really big budget. Good marketing campaigin can cost 100k$+ because its really hard to promote kickstarter for the people who not interested in it, a lot of people never heard of Shenmue, and of course they dont wanna give money for the game for no reason.


Look at this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs_KO4_Dvy4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Gz3x2MAP8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XLSMRRvsEI

Do those look like hundreds of dollar videos ?? It's just being more professional.

ello to Everyone around the World!
The Shenmue Carnival is in full swing now! Invite your friends to the party and keep sharing the news. Shout it from the streets to the mountains that Shenmue is back!

Today we have an interview from the main programmer of the Shenmue series, Tak Hirai. He was a key member of the team that made the series what it was, and his experience and familiarity with the code from the original series will be an invaluable resource in helping bringing back the world we all know and love. Give a big round of applause for Tak as he talks about the trials and tribulations of programming for Shenmue 1 and 2, and expresses his hopes for where Shenmue 3 will be headed.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/130940385
Hirai-san hard at work

Later on Today

Suzuki-san will be on Reddit today, so please join him and give him your support to celebrate this momentous occasion! The Reddit AMA will start around 9:30 pm and the link will be posted here on the Update page.
See you there!

Did you see read this interview ? A few questions are a partly answered :

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2015/06/19/yu-suzuki-shenmue-iii-interview-e3-2015.aspx?utm_content=buffer1500d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

"Shenmue was a very revolutionary and influential game when it was released on Dreamcast. A lot has changed in the games industry since then. How does the team work to make a game just as revolutionary so long after the original?
It’s all about the new challenges with me, and I definitely want to try these new things. Of course, it’s going to come down to the funding and how much we’re going to be able to spend on Shenmue III, but if we get to that point, I believe it will be just as revolutionary as the ones before."

So it's seems it doesn't have a budget secured. But maybe more funders would come after such hype.

I've decided to start tonight's stream 20 minutes early. Open invite to anyone interested, whether new to the series, or a veteran. This stream might last a few hours, so I hope to entertain some of you there.

http://www.twitch.tv/slyspy/

Yikes, now this is amateur hour. A good marketing team would've contacted reddit in advance, gotten him on the calendar and had the mods set up the thread. I've been through these before. I'm pretty disappointed by what's happening tonight. I also feel bad for Yu, as I know he has no part in this.

How accurately will Shenmue III be compared to your original vision of the game or will there be major compromises?

Suzuki: There are a total of 11 chapters that make up the whole story. Over the past 14 years I originally planned for there to 4 or five games to the series. If at all possible, I would still like to realize the full story of 11 chapters.

He didn't really answer the question. :cry:

I think that is his way of answering the question. He is basically saying he wants to retain that full vision if at all possible. Meaning he doesn't want to compromise, which is great!

AxmShenmue 1 points 2 minutes ago

Any plans for a Passport style features like Online Leaderboards or character explainations?

Shenmue is credited with introducing/popularising the QTE. Given the significant advances in gaming systems and technology over the last decade, are you confident that you can show the gaming world something we have not seen before?
Thank you from all at Pioneer One.
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[–]Yu_Suzuki[S] 22 puntos hace 18 minutos
Thank you very much.


LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3 ... ?context=3

He is deciding on Japanese and English as options for us yes! It could include both at the same time!

Q: Yu, are you really going to be signing your autograph on the illustration for the $300 kickstarter signed collectors edition? So far there is almost 2000 backers, that is a lot of illustrations to sign! 2.) Will you please keep the japanese audio for Shenmue III? A lot of fan loves the Japanese voice overs over the US voice overs.

A: Of course I will write them all myself! Dude is a badass. One of the longest AMA's I've seen too.

Wanderin' wrote: 10 million's the target, boys and girls.

Have to push this kickstarter into overdrive.

I'm upping my initial backing to $500 next week.

10 million's the target, boys and girls.

Thought I'd compile all the reddit Q&A in an initial post so it's easy to read for those who don't want to go through 10 pages. I'll edit my initial post as it goes on.

How accurately will Shenmue III be compared to your original vision of the game or will there be major compromises?

YS: There are a total of 11 chapters that make up the whole story. Over the past 14 years I originally planned for there to 4 or five games to the series. If at all possible, I would still like to realize the full story of 11 chapters.

Will Shenmue III enable PayPal or a means to donate to the project when the Kickstarter ends? Projects like Star Citizen gained tens of millions in donations by allowing this.

YS: I am still thinking about it, but have not decided yet.

Shenmue is a Peach Blossom tree correct? Could you tell us what type of tree exactly?
I would like to plant one.

YS: It is more like a cherry blossom tree, that blooms its flowers in the springtime. It is actually a tree I made up for the story.

Hello Suzuku-san! Will a day-to-night cycle and weather system return to Shenmue 3? They added so much to the atmosphere of previous games. Thank you Suzuki-san!

YS: Of course!

Will you reassure us that Ryo's face will be changed back to the Ryo we all know and love when Shenmue 3 releases, and not this impostor wearing Ryo's jacket that you have on Kickstarter? That is NOT our Ryo!

YS: I am not happy with Ryo's face. It will be the face I have in my mind in the end.

Will the gameplay in Shenmue III be more contemporary or will it be more in line with past Shenmue iterations?

YS: As for III, I would like to make a less stressful user interface, that will feature more usability. From now on, I will make that a focus.

Yu are my hero!
Shenmue is credited with introducing the QTE. Given the significant advances in gaming systems and technology over the last decade, are you confident that you can show the gaming world something we have not seen before?

YS: Thank you very much.

Will we see any capsule toys based on Ape Escape or any of the Sony franchise in Shenmue 3?

YS: I have not decided the capsule toys, so please keep your ideas coming.

Have you ever consider telling the rest of the tale for Shenmue in a book if the opportunity to make Shenmue III never came up?

YS: Yes, I have but if I did do that, it would give away the end of the story, and I thought that would be a big minus.

What was your inspiration for the story behind the first two Shenmue games?

YS: When I was making Virtua Fighter, I went location hunting in China. I was very inspired by Chinese martial arts. That very well may have been the beginning.

Will practicing moves make a return in Shenmue 3 along with the FREE battle system? A lot of fans feel not being able to practice moves was big piece missing in Shenmue 2, and I also personally loved being able to practice and make the moves stronger. It really makes you feel as if you are learning marital arts and then performing them in a skill-based actual battle feels very satisfying.

YS: I want to do it yes!

Will players have access to both the Japanese and English voice overs for the game?
And I wanted to say thank you so much for Shenmue and Shenmue II, it brought a tear to my eye seeing those games at E3 during the Shenmue III announcement, I cannot wait. Those two games are what made me curious about Japan as a child, and I am now trying to work as a Japanese translator!

YS: I am thinking about that, yes. However it is not for sure.
It is because of fans like you, I wanted to make a sequel. Thank you very much.

Will the band-aid ever come off?

YS: I am considering a special option where it could be removed.

Will we see Ryo's Journal return? Would be cool to be able to flip the pages using the PS4's touchpad.

YS: I would like to bring back the Journal. That is an interesting idea, I will look into it. Thank you.

What do you think of the current state of Japanese game development?

YS: I see the share of mobile games increasing, the budgets of games decreasing. It will be harder to express a game's vision.
I would hope the console and PC markets gain more popularity.

Any possibility of a bicycle finally being added to Shenmue 3? Thank you so much again, Yu!

YS: There is a 60 horsepower bike in Shenmue 1. For Shenmue, 3 I was thinking about something with 1 horsepower.

Will character polls compromise your artistic vision?

YS: I really want to get everyone's opinion on the characters. I have something in mind that won't break the world immersion.

In Suzuki-san’s opinion, what is the essence of arcade games? Are those influences in Shenmue?

YS: With an arcade game, you are restricted to a 3 minute window to express what the game is. That is how I made games for the longest time. I wanted to create a game that could be played at a more leisurely pace, so I created what ended up being Shenmue.

Yu, are you really going to be signing your autograph on the illustration for the $300 kickstarter signed collectors edition? So far there is almost 2000 backers, that is a lot of illustrations to sign!

YS: Of course I will write them all myself!

Will Shenmue 3 have any sort of multiplayer component? Perhaps Co-op or a versus mode?

YS: I am thinking about something that would resemble that.

Do you have any more details to share about the stretch goals? It's not clear to me what a "Rapport System" or "Character Perspective System" entails.

YS: They are new systems, so naturally they need new names. The Rapport System will govern changes in Shenhua's actions depending on your conversations with or actions towards her. The "Character Perspective System" will highlight different characters personalities as they go through the story.

What will Ryo do to earn money in Shenmue 3?
As great and engrossing as the story and gameplay were in Shenmue 1 and 2, I (and many others) really really liked the forklift driving. It was like I could learn a new (video game) skill, get good at it, and putter around the docks like a badass.

YS: There will be part time jobs that will be indicative of those you would find in China. In the Stretch goals there will also be the old favorites.

Do you have any dogs or cats?

YS: 3 yorkshire terriers and a turtle.

Love your work! You are a pioneer in this industry! As for my question:
How much game elements/features will we be missing in the game if the campaign doesn't reach the $5 million mark?

YS: I will say this: if we reach the $5 mil mark, one of the things I really want to do with Shenmue 3 will become a reality.
At $10 million, it will truly have the features of an open world.

Who would win a fight between Ryo and Akira?

YS: Akira! Akira is up to 5 now, and Ryo is still on 3.

Can we expect more duck racing in Shenmue III? That was the best easter egg I've ever seen in a video game.

YS: I would love it.

How was it working with mega64?

YS: It was really fun. I would love to do it again.
I hope they pitch in for the replica Ryo jacktet!

Will there be forklift gameplay in Shenmue III?

YS: Look for it in the Stretch Goals!

Given Shenmue 2's ending and previous items found within the series; will swordplay enter gameplay at all? What about the story, can we expect Ryo to use a sword at some point?

YS: I can't answer that.

Do you have a favorite game that you've developed other than Shenmue?

YS: I had fun making all the games I worked on, and can't say one was better than another. Boring answer I know, but it really is true.

I only have one statement. I think I speak for everyone here when I say that Shenmue is one of the greatest game series of all time. And one quick question, what can we expect for surprises in the 3rd installment without spoiling the storyline at all?

YS: How could I do that? Sorry, gotta pass. Thank you very much though!

I've always wondered, why did you set the game in the 1980s rather than present day?

YS: I wanted put forward the differences in culture and values between the two periods.

(Suzuki-san, thank you for coming today! Shenmue is the reason I came to Japan. Those living towns and people you showed in your games were so natural and real, that I wanted to see it for myself. So, now I am in my fourth year of living in Japan.
What I'd like to ask is, if you had billions of yen, what would your dream Shenmue be?
Also, were there any features or gameplay you liked that didn't make it into Shenmue 1 or 2?)

YS: One where the player could live in that world. A second life.

I have two important questions for you:
Do you know where I can find some sailors?
Would you like to try a game of Lucky Hit?

YS: Yes, but not right now.
Uh, ok.

I love the music from Shenmue, if anything kept me thinking about Shenmue from time to time during these 10+ years it was the music. Was is your favorite piece from the soundtrack? Thank you for bringing Shenmue to our lives, I can't thank you enough.

YS: Of course I love both the Shenmue and Shenhua themes, and all of them really, but the one that really sticks with me is the Tomato Mart.

Will there be more funding tiers added to the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter, specifically between the $500 and $3000 tier?

YS: Yes.

Shenmue 3 is just the start. How successful does the game need to be for us to get Shenmue 4 and so on until the saga is complete?

YS: If the fans are not happy with 3 there will not be a 4. So I please hope we can together make this game the best it can be.

What Sega console is your favourite and why?

YS: The Dreamcast. It has really good balance. I was involved with the hardware as well, so it had a lot of meaning for me.

Suzuki-San...welcome to the fantasy zone! It's finally happening. Any plans on more arcade games within Shenmue III?

YS: I plan on making plans.

Why do you create?

YS: Why does one climb the mountain?
The shark cannot breath when it does not swim.

Any info on the stretch goals for Choubu and Bailu village?

YS: Choubu is a riverside village with lots of shops, souvenir stores, hotels and temples. The quests in this village should be very enjoyable, I think.
Bailu is the village where Shenhua was raised and also a place that Ryo's father, Iwao, had visited when he was younger. Here as well the quests will play an important role as Ryo and Shenhua start their journey.

Are all the towns listed in the Kickstarter stretch goals in the game already, or are the stretch goals only there as a means to help give them more features and spice?

YS: They are there, but with more powered up through the stretch goals.

Will Ryo ever go back to Japan?

YS: Not in 3.

Who is your favorite Shenmue character?

YS: It has always been Shenhua.

Are you still involved in any programming activities?

YS: I still write algorithms, logic verification, and make simple prototypes.

Do you play airsoft, paintball, or anything similar?

YS: I think it was Afterburner that I really got into airsoft. The office floor was covered with plastic BBs. Yeah, the Berretta 93R rocks. I put a real hunting scope on that one.

Are you at all a fan of Anime? If so, what are your favourites?

YS: Sure, but its all pretty old stuff.

Will the game take advantage of the virtual reality goggles on PS4 and PC?

YS: Right now, there are no plans for a vr system compatibility, but I love the idea of using it to peer into the world of Shenmue.

When creating Shenmue 3, will you use any assets at all from 1 & 2? Or do you have to start all over from scratch because SEGA still owns the first two games?

YS: The assets from 1 & 2 will get a lot of use.

Dragon Light wrote: How can a legend of a game Shenmue be doing this poorly?

Yeah beating a world record, making kickstarter go down and doing better than any other video game kickstarter out there so far really is a shit result.

Some people on Neogaf i swear.... before it was "uh, the game is being funded by Sony they don't need my money", now it's "Uh, Sony is not funding it? the game will be crap then, i've lost interest".

At least the Shenmue guys there are doing an excellent job, there almost always 2-3 threads in the first page.

This is not necessarily related to Shenmue 3 itself, but more the campaign and everything surrounding it.

Understandably, many people are excited and passionate for the game, and of course, many people have their worries or their criticisms about the marketing in regards to the Kickstarter campaign, and Sony's involvement, among other things. I just want to remind everyone to keep a clear, rational head about all of this. Remember that we all want the same thing; for Shenmue 3 to be good as it possibly can be given the odds. Bickering over trivialities and trying to be the right one in an argument can be counterproductive to the campaign itself if we're not concentrated on pushing this current Kickstarter campaign as strongly as we can. I am not saying we are not allowed to have disagreements, but don't let them get to the extent of becoming distractions from the goal. We have plenty of time to get this ball rolling, so lets not panic; keep it cool.

In the end, we're all on the same side. This goes for the forum, Twitter, Youtube, Kickstarter comments, and any other context in which we have to interact with one another. Let's try to make some history here.

...you could elaborate on what is so "shit" about the marketing and what you would like to be done? I personally thought that announcing it at E3 was a great way to promote the Kickstarter and get things going. Surely marketing and promotion costs money? And surely they have little money and hence why the Kickstarter is so important?

Sorry mate, I was being a knob. I totally agree, I think announcing it at E3 was fantastic, and I'm delighted that Sony will be covering the marketing of Shenmue III.

However, the current Kickstarter campaign being run by Awesome Japan is shit . Off the top of my head, I can think of a few ways to immediately improve it massively:

1) Mark all current videos and images of Shenmue III clearly with "concept art/images" a la Bloodstained did.

2) Immediately tidy up the main Kickstarter page: clearly show the stretch goals at the top of the page, have relevant links to Shenmue history for new people to see what all the fuss is about, link the update videos on the main Kickstarter page so they're there for all to see clearly - I've been following the campaign religiously since the announcement, and I've only just stumbled upon the Shenmue III theme that was released a couple days ago by watching AdamKoralik's video. People are missing this stuff because the campaign is so badly laid out.

3) Put a huge, huge fucking header clearly stating that $10M is required to make the full Shenmue III that Yu Suzuki has envisioned. Make that abundantly clear to absolutely everyone, right away.

This is not to mention some of the cooler things like maybe ripping off the Bloodstained campaign even further, and adding "social media achievements" to it, unlocking new stretch goals for a certain amount of tweets, likes, views or whatever.

Sorry mate, I was being a knob. I totally agree, I think announcing it at E3 was fantastic, and I'm delighted that Sony will be covering the marketing of Shenmue III.

However, the current Kickstarter campaign being run by Awesome Japan is shit . Off the top of my head, I can think of a few ways to immediately improve it massively:

1) Mark all current videos and images of Shenmue III clearly with "concept art/images" a la Bloodstained did.

2) Immediately tidy up the main Kickstarter page: clearly show the stretch goals at the top of the page, have relevant links to Shenmue history for new people to see what all the fuss is about, link the update videos on the main Kickstarter page so they're there for all to see clearly - I've been following the campaign religiously since the announcement, and I've only just stumbled upon the Shenmue III theme that was released a couple days ago by watching AdamKoralik's video. People are missing this stuff because the campaign is so badly laid out.

3) Put a huge, huge fucking header clearly stating that $10M is required to make the full Shenmue III that Yu Suzuki has envisioned. Make that abundantly clear to absolutely everyone, right away.

This is not to mention some of the cooler things like maybe ripping off the Bloodstained campaign even further, and adding "social media achievements" to it, unlocking new stretch goals for a certain amount of tweets, likes, views or whatever.

I appreciate the apology, thanks. Like I said, I'm not here to argue with anyone, so I apologise if my initial comments came across as confrontational. I should have worded it differently.

I can't say I disagree with any of that either. Those are some good ideas. Hopefully, we start to see some of those being implemented in the next few days. We definitely need to see this game reach as close to $10M as it can. If it doesn't, they better allow donations after the Kickstarter ends.

I've contacted Himuro to start using Shenmue Dojo's own Twitch channel. So be sure you all tune in at 7pm Central time.

http://www.twitch.tv/shenmuedojo

Guy is playing Shenmue for the first time http://www.twitch.tv/vashzaron

I don't have any objections whatsoever about Shenmue not taking place in Japan. In fact the prologue to Shenmue hints at that: "He shall appear from a eastern land across the sea." Meaning the hero of the saga will come from abroad and cross the sea westward into China. Shenmue 1 was only the introduction and is meant to give the audience an explanation why a Japanese small town boy embarks on this journey to China.

Remember that Shenmue 1 closes with the words "And thus the saga begins." I think Yu never meant Shenmue to have that much to do with Japan.

I've been to small villages near the city of Guilin in Guangxi Province, China like those Shenmue 3 will probably take place in and I absolutely love those places and the people there. It was one of the best holidays I've ever had and I'm happy to be able to "go back there", this time not as myself but as Ryo Hazuki. :D
You deserve a ban just for using that horrible text colour.

Really enjoying the Dojo stream tonight, good job Himuro!

James Brown wrote: Really enjoying the Dojo stream tonight, good job Himuro!

indeed was good

ALSO: someone who knows how to configure the game on nulldc come into slys stream and see if u can help us with this damn framerate!

I love it. It perfectly punctuates the general tone of the series, and especially which throws it right in your face. Ryo goes through a decaying, decrepit old crime filled city in order to find information on his fathers killer. Kowloon represents Ryo's inner demons as the cracks expose themselves leading to his own perdition. Xiuying tells him as much in the church and many times in Honk Kong. The analogy for Ryo's spiritual journey from Kowloon to Guilin is both figurative and literal in the scope of the games themes. Ryo, having found Zhu Yuanda, travels from a place that eats his soul and forces him to go to extremes to find vengeance that will never sate him, to a place separated from civilization, surrounded by nature in all of its wonders. It is through the nature of spirituality and friendship, which Ryo starts to embrace as seen in the Tai Chi scene at the crag, that will save Ryo and deliver him from becoming the exact person he hates.

The naturalism vs urbanism dynamic in II is a natural part of the evolution of the story, and one that gives it far more emotional weight.

I don't take it as an west vs east debate. I think that pits the story at its most reduced form. After all, Hong Kong is more advanced than Yokosuka which is a small town and many people that live in these places, like Xiuying, are on the straight and narrow. It isn't about west vs east, so much as I feel it is about Ryo's spiritual transformation as he grows from boy to man. He has two options. He thinks he NEEDS revenge, but it consumes him. The secret to his sating heartache is within him all along, and that is his own natural spirit.

The spiritualism is needed.

Further, I think people's take on east vs west debate is exotifying the east and trying to find a way to say the east is better when this is never explicitly said in neither games at all.

Just beautiful words, my friend! These are things that I felt were in Shenmue all along but I couldn't have found such precise words to articulate it. =D>