Hey Shenmue fans,
I used to be active long, long ago, in earlier incarnations of the dojo (up until 2003, I believe).

Way too much time has passed, obviously, though I did manage to recognize a few usernames in this thread, off the top of my head:
Miles Prower; Yama; Damulder; Santino; Iwao Hazuki (the original? I believe he was one of the mods…shit I think I was a mod for a bit as well; didn’t they rotate for a while?)

Users I’d like to see come back, to further enhance the time capsule effect:
Kenshiro; John Petrucci; LanDC; Japanfan; Shenmue 2 (I think that was his name; some crazy-ass Chinese user who had a pic of the Chinese president as his avatar).

Anyway…who cares… the only thing that matters right now: Shenmue 3, mofos!!!! :D

Hello every one!

I'm from Germany and have been a die hard Shenmue Fan since early 2002, when I first played S1 and S2 on DC.

I have a lot of respect and feel deep gratitude towards the Dojo communitiy and what it has done for Shenmue. Especially people like LanDC, Hellraiser, Kiyuu and many more.

In my real life I have already travelled Guilin and Hong Kong because I wanted to see the real places where Shenmue is set. I've even been to the Man Mo Temple which looks almost exactly the way it looks in S2, at least inside the temple. The coutyard is not like in Shenmue however and if my memory serves me right, the real temple is on Hollywood Road, which is actually Kowloon, not Wan Chai. I'm planning to go to Yokosuka before S3 comes out, if I have the money.

So anyways, I'm glad our dream will come true. Have a great day!

Hyo Razuki

Dude, that story is freaking awesome!
Also...that's actually a pretty cool username.

I'm not really a fan of the US Shenmue voices as a whole, but I have to give credit where it's due.
Corey Marshall's attitude over the years, regarding Shenmue, has always been really cool.
(and yes, his original vocal performance is legendary...for multiple reasons ;) )

Good to hear he'll be back, and glad to see him spreading the good word.

Side note: for a complete antithesis, check out the Robert Belgrade (original SOTN Alucard on PSX) interviews on Youtube.
...Dude barely even remembers being in a game :D

It’s Y. Suzuki’s pet franchise. The quality will be there in the finished product.
(Like all things Shenmue, it’s the marketing that’s sh*tty.)

In terms of how engrossing the experience will be (a clear sigh of "quality")….it all depends on the $$$ collected. If they’re smart, they’ll include Paypal/ Latebacker options, and keep on marketing the KS long past its expiration date, to really meet those stretch goals and flesh out the game mechanics.

Regarding Shenmue 3 having lower production values (when compared to the first 2):
Not really an issue, IMO. Shenmue 1 wouldn’t cost anywhere near as much if it were made today. Most of the cutting-edge features that were revolutionary back in 1999 have not only become industry standards since, but have become mechanically cheaper as well. Basically, you can do more with less.

…Only thing that worries me are the stretch goals.

This. I am so sick and tired of seeing people moan saying, 'Wah I'm not gonna pledge cos I wanted it on Xbox!' or 'I'm not gonna pledge until they do a physical PS4 copy!'. I mean, for christ's sake, we're living in a world where Shenmue III is actually happening and the odd idiot acts like a spoilt entitled little brat about how they want it. You are quite right, money should be spent making the game as good as it can possibly be. We should be grateful to Sony about giving Yu this chance while Sega were quite happy to completely forget about the series.

Agreed.
It's equally worrying to hear more casual fans say they'll only get the PS4 copy in stores, and won't support the KS since the basic goals have already been exceeded.

Unfortunately...it doesn't really work that way with this specific KS, since the stretch goals are almost as equally important as the basic campaign.

Yeah, Ced's hint most likely pertains to HD ports of Shenmue 1 & 2.
Fingers crossed!

...Also, somebody get Kidnocon a job already....ffs.

My company definitely monitors what we view online. I don't think they do it actively. Just if they're having problems with some people being on Facebook. They've only confronted one person I know of but that's because she wasn't doing her job. I do my job and keep any personal browsing to a minimum once my work is done. My direct boss is the president and owner of the company so he knows I do my work.

I wouldn't be worried. Once confronted, your only reply should be "Shenmue 3"... immediately followed by a tornado kick.

I really don't think Shenmue 1 & 2 HD are crucial to the success of Shenmue 3, because not a lot happened in those games. Ryo is searching for his father's killer and his search led him to China. The murder had something to do with some precious stone mirrors. Lan Di is part of a bad guy organization known as the Chi You Men.

That's it. That's literally all you need to know. There is no necessary information that can't be illustrated in a simple flashback. Everything else was foreshadowing and duck racing.

Given that logic, there shouldn't be a lot happening in 3 either...perhaps we should just skip that one and go for pt.4? ;-)

I'm sorry but this looks very, very bad. It's not just the aesthetics that look bad or the animation or Ryo's weird face or anything that could be refined later, it's just plain cheesy. The firefly scene wasn't anything like that in Shenmue II.

I feel kinda sick.

Like, maybe I don't want my name to appear in this game.
well this is basically something they made for the KS, the game isn't really in development at all. at least I hope they do'nt keep that style, texture work etc

Good textures would go a long way

Well...this scene isn't going to attract any new backers, that's for sure.
Potential backers (ie non fans) will just be like "wtf".

Personally, I'm not overly enthusiastic at the notion of releasing pre-pre-alpha designs, or roughly animated scenes in the first place. It's confusing at best, and potentially harmful at worst . What's the point exactly? I'd much rather have Suzuki take his time without having to worry about churning something out every week and redesigning it ad nauseam.

Not to beat a dead horse, but look at Nocon's work: he shows it off when it's ready, and, lo and behold, receives unanimous praise.

Anyway, it's a "nice" sentiment a couple of days before the KS ends, I suppose... though I could've done without it.

You are being highly illogical.

Necon is a fan who has no deadlines to meet. He also doesn't have to appease 55k people who gave him 5million dollars and has to show progress or ideas of what the game would look. You're comparing a kickstarted project, which by necessity, has to show ideas of what they want the game to look like to draw pledges and show that they're working on SOMETHING to a FAN - that isn't doing it for money or has a deadline?

Has your brain leaked out of your head?

What are you expecting? Expect many similar non final videos throughout the games development due to the Kickstart platform and having to answer to 55k or more people.

Ugh.
I was making a broader point: as a sign of things to come, I’d rather not have Suzuki worry about churning something out every other day due to fan pressure, when it could potentially do more harm than good (Ex: You remember the backlash over the original KS Ryo model? Would you want that to happen every step of the way?)

I’m not talking about beta, or even alpha footage here. I’m referring to rush jobs.
Kidnocon was a one-man army example of quality over quantity (and someone who IMO should be officially involved in all of these projects). He’s alone. He does it for free. In his spare time. Last I checked, this wasn’t the case here.

Anyway, as stated, the firefly scene may have been a nice sentiment 2 days before the end of the KS, but one which I would’ve done without, since it probably won’t attract new backers/ non-fans at this stage.

Had Suzuki released this as a small “thank you” of sorts, post-KS, it’d be a different story.

PS- The finished game will undoubtedly look amazing. It goes without saying.

DOS wrote: Joel Tess looks like he's ready to knock some trolls out!

…Yeah, my money’s on Tess for this one.
(Dude on the right looks like he’s powerwalking it, whereas the badass in the middle has that vintage “I’ll get help!” look)

Oh I'll be playing on my own the first playthrough for sure, seeing as it's out December 2017 I may wait to play it on Christmas Day, as the first two games were Christmas presents for me in 2000 and 2001 respectively :D

Oh man...I bought Shenmue 2 around Christmastime '01 as well....there were piles of it at the store, out in the open.
What a nice sight that was!

Yeah, hopefully we'll have a way to track the pledges.

...Hell, Sega should just jump on the bandwagon and offer us a KS campaign for Shenmue HD remakes with Nocon on board. It’s not like we wouldn’t give millions of dollars for it.

Not to mention that Nocon’s already done a good amount of the work (and a breathtaking one at that) all by himself. IMO, they'd be flat-out stupid not to hire him. :roll:

So where is the donation page? Are they still settng one up?

Yes, but Awesome Japan doesn't work on Saturdays. Not even for this exceptionally rare case.

They're way too busy celebrating, after essentially having gotten paid to take suggestions from the Shenmue community on how to run a KS campaign :roll:

3-4 days after the end of the campaign, and not even a simple Kickstarter update.
Round of applause for Awesome Japan

...Dude, I wasn’t even hoping for a Paypal update at this point (that would be grossly overestimating things), just a simple congratulatory message, with perhaps a dash of hope and a twist of inspiration.
But nope!

Remember the 3rd guys.. that's "Shenmue day" for us and they know it and they too actively participated in it with us last time.
All bets on a Aug. 3rd launch of paypal . If not, no worries, it'll come when it comes.

If that’s what they’re planning, then they seriously need to reevaluate their strategy; the Paypal/latebacker options need to be out as soon as possible.

The only people who are aware of “$30 on the 3rd” are hardcore ultra fans; you can only squeeze that orange dry so many times.

...How the f*ck is Joel Tess sitting so close to Suzuki? They better be discussing Paypal, dammit!

...They've had their tiramisu. Now it's time for an update.

I don't find it to be non-wisdom. I think we take our friends and people who care about for granted. Ryo certainly does in I as he alienates all of them.

Eh, sure, it's not stupid advice, but my point is more that it's still kind of an obvious, not-exactly-spectacular line of dialogue. It's akin to "brush your teeth after every meal." Not everyone follows that advice, but it's still a really basic thing to say, and hardly fitting at all of being one of the most-quoted, most-remembered lines in a game.

Well, sure, outside of the Shenmue world, the line sounds like basic, straightforward etiquette; within the context of the game, however, it takes on a much darker meaning: that of a dying man's warning.

Ragdoll physics can look retarded at times…but I’m not too worried regarding the overall fighting system; it’s Suzuki’s bread and butter in a way, so I doubt he would f*ck things up on that front.

(Then again...I also doubted George Lucas could f*ck things up Star Wars- wise, but, as it turns out, a hiatus isn't always a good thing ;-) )

The point is: Nocon Kid is pretty awesome… even if he doesn’t speak d*ck.

“FINE! Just tell ‘em I had the f*cking shrimp scampi!”
- Cedric B.

Nocon Kid was most likely hired to work on the flashback scenes.

Re: the competition theory, it’s more valid than you might think. Especially if Sega ends up releasing “bare-bones” ports (if that), whilst Nocon releases his version for free on the internet (which he was considering).

Ideally, I’d love to have him gain experience working on S3, before integrating an official Shenmue [remaster] team…but since Sega doesn’t like money, I won’t hold my breath on this one.

On a side-note, I agree with Zoltor; it seems that certain JPN gaming companies are mentally stuck in the 20th century:
-Konami cancelling awesome IPs to make pachinko machines
-Sega selling merchandise exclusively to JPN market
-Shenmue Paypal officially focusing on the 5 retards who can’t use non-JPN internet.

Hiring an ultra-dedicated Shenmue fan with abundant Unreal 4 experience, whilst successfully/ legally binding him from releasing anything in the future that could be seen as competition.

Multiple birds with one stone; in other words, a good business deal.
This shouldn’t be hard to understand.

This is like, if Shenmue III the Gang Edition was considered canon to the Shenmue universe despite having nothing to do with the original creators, and then Shenmue III gets announced, and Yu is like,"yeah, any media related to Shenmue III besides the official Shenmue III is totally not canon and we are not going to pay attention to them or consider them as a part of our universe. That should be obvious but..."

and drops mic.


That literally makes zero sense.
Those books were internationally commercialized with Lucas’ approval. It’s not some fan project.

Anyway, like I said, canon is ultimately meaningless; Nothing prevents SW fans from picking and choosing their own timeline based on what they like. I’ll agree that it’s nothing worth arguing about in the first place.

Who cares what Lucas considers canon?!
The only true canon, as the fans recognize, is the Original Trilogy. From there on you can build your own SW timeline as you see fit.

The prequels are mostly crap (though Ep 3 is a guilty pleasure…even with the shitty acting, and stupid story turns). Some of the books were good, and some of the video games great (ie the force unleashed, which made me a SW fan once again).

I’ll definitely give Ep 7 its fair chance. It’s what any fan would do.

I can agree but there's no perfect game, there's always something lacking.

People were whining that Shenmue III wouldn't bring an ending, some were fine with it and wanted the full version. Same goes with graphics. Since Yu Suzuki said he wouldn't focus too much on the graphics part, people started whining. And now that we're talking about 30/60 fps when the game's development has just started, they still find a way to say something about it.

I will wait around one year or mid-2017 before judging. I don't even know if we could call Shenmue III an "alpha" as it is right now. So there's a long way to go. :happy:

And let's forget who Yu Suzuki is. I wouldn't even worry about Shenmue III being an "unworthy piece of crap". ;-)

I’ll certainly agree that it’s too early to judge the game. I mean…there is no game yet ;)
But…once again, after a 15-year wait, it’s all about hopes, wishes and dreams at this point, and vague announcements can certainly affect them all. The impact will just vary depending on the topic and the person.

Regarding Suzuki, sure, I would be more than inclined to believe in him as well…then again, the same applied to Star Wars fans back in ‘99. Sadly, anything’s possible after a long hiatus.

Realistically, in Shenmue 3’s case, everything will come down to budget and vision:
-Will Suzuki’s vision have evolved… or degenerated over the years?
-Can the very limited budget bring about something worthy of the title/legacy?

Yes, I really like the idea of ditching the English voice acting. But what the heck is the point of "revealing" stretch goals that have long been reached? :roll:

That's like saying: 4.7 million=Hiroaki Takeuchi returning. ](*,)

Seriously, ditch that lame-ass English dub already, and allocate those funds toward full voice-acting in JPN.

Would anyone here even have considered passing on Shenmue 3 had it been JPN-subbed only?!
…I think not.

Also, since we’re retroactively revealing the obvious:
$3.6M = Manabu Takimoto (original environment designer) returns for S3! ;)

Regarding your first question :
None of these tiers should count towards final game sales, since they’re directly funding development. Essentially, backers interested in Shenmue 4 should pick up a retail copy of S3.

Somewhat similar topic:
http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48851

This Slacker Backer campaign is a joke that was seemingly spawned from an afterthought.
Talk about wasted potential.

...and don't get me started on Awesome Japan.

Time heals all wound guys, this will pass. Keep the faith.

My faith in Shenmue 3 being an awesome game is unwavering :)

That being said, ignoring AJ’s incompetence hasn’t done anyone any favors. They’re literally the largest source of strife surrounding the project, and they’re bound to f*ck up again in the future if given the chance.

I suppose the only valid question at this point is: could things still be different if another company was to run the campaign tomorrow? …Or are we way past the point of making any real difference (aside from preventing future fiascos)?

I‘m not so sure anymore, to be honest, though if I were in your shoes I would definitely bring up the general topic of “AJ” with Cedric. Don’t be shy: you’re one of the game’s biggest individual backers inquiring over a legitimate concern. Nothing strange there. Unless you end up tripping on something whilst running up to him with your handshake out.

The initial goal was fine; one of the only true ways for the KS campaign to have raised more $$$ would have been to have had a quality company in charge of said campaign. Not Awesome Japan.

A quality company could’ve better sold the idea of a Shenmue revival to the general public, bringing in new fans along the way. Additionally, a Sega-coordinated Shenmue HD announcement would’ve also gone a long way … and could still very well bring the Paypal campaign/extension back from the dead in the future.

As things stand, no one aside from us dedicated superfans would’ve had any real reason to donate to Shenmue III in the first place, so, no, a $3M or $4M initial goal would not have changed anything in the long run, IMO, whereas a $10M minimum goal would've probably failed.

Great conference…but damn is that sketch F*CKING INTENSE!

^ Agreed, I don’t know why voice acting is even mentioned as a point of contention.
The actors were paid 15 years ago, and all of that quality [& questionable quality] voice acting is already owned by Sega.

Chalk up Sega’s cautiousness to licensing issues and fear of financial failure.
(Though, realistically, it wouldn’t exactly take a big investment to digitally release a bare-bones HD port full of Jet-Colas. I hope/ assume Sega has grander plans in mind ;) )

If you’re in no hurry to get the system now, OP, you might as well wait until the holiday season (if not longer) before making your purchase.
By then the standard PS4 will prob, have gotten even cheaper (with larger hard drives), and the Neo will have come out.

iyapol wrote: Seeing as we're all aboard the hype train, how funny would it be if Shenmue III was a no show at PEX? : )

Well, it would be a little funny. And then I would probably start cursing out Awesome Japan to make me feel better.

(It’s always their fault… even when it isn’t)

WTF.

Not even a simple teaser trailer showing off some environments and a Ryo model.
Actually…fuck that…not even a PC reward tier for the Slacker Backer campaign.

It’s hard not to be disappointed.

I sincerely hope they just delay the game for an extra year, especially if there’s so much stuff happening behind the scenes we’re not privy to.

Well...today sure sucked.
I didn't even get my singular announcement courtesy of Joel Tess.

Another case of miscommunication.
Perhaps we as backers will get a year-end update with some new footage/ screens, etc.

In any case, not having planned to capitalize on the PSX opportunity....is just....retarded.

I expect “something” substantial to be shown at E3. Whether it’s a full trailer, a playable demo, or just a minute-long teaser, it doesn’t matter. They need to show something at a big game show.

If they don’t do shit, then, at this point, they’re either not interested in game sales, or simply don’t care about generating extra funding for the project.
(spoiler: we lose either way)

With that said, as a backer, I’d appreciate getting a year-end update with some actual progress shown. A couple of environment screens; whatever. Something that caps off the year on an optimistic note.

PS- Shensun- please change the freaking title of this post. It reads like clickbait.
No one likes clickbait.

As long as they have a dual language option, I'm good.

I have Shenmue II on Xbox but I don't have Shenmue because I don't have a Dreamcast I'm waiting for Sega to release that Shenmue I and II HD!

You know, you’re actually a great example as to why we need the HD remasters.

How the freak are we supposed to get people to pledge $$$ when the first 2 games were last seen on a dead system 15 years ago? At this stage, it’s probable no one under 26 has even played the first game.

Get your asses moving, Sega.

The Room is a great movie for all the wrong reasons.
Having said that, I wouldn’t want a sequel anytime soon; being a one-time disaster is what makes the film so good, IMO.

With Shenmue, I have to wonder why some of you are masochistic enough to want not one, but three games filled with shitty acting.

I played S1 in English, and while the dub was atrocious, I can understand why some might be attached to those memories. Then again, nostalgia only works when relegated to the past. Wanting future installments to be filled with laughable acting is…something entirely different.

To each his own, I suppose.