I didn't hesitate to donate $10,000 for the dinner with Yu Suzuki. This is FUCKING unreal!

It sucks that so much may potentially be lost due to funding. A lot of the fun I had in Shenmue 1-2 was just exploring the environments, the different buildings, searching for goodies, playing mini-games, gambling, practicing fighting, etc. So it would suck to not get the complete Shenmue experience in Shenmue 3, but on the bright side, 3 days ago all I wanted was to get the remaining story, and now Shenmue 3 is going to be released and we will be able to finish the story. I'm going to up my donation to the next tier to help out, but at the end of the day, I'm going to be happy that Shenmue 3 is going to be released.

I had a dream that the kickstarter was at 7 million with 30 seconds left and Sony donated 33 mil to make it a square 40.

Then I woke up. :/

We're back over $3.2 Mil thanks to a lot of backers who upped their pledges, I added myself just now.

If these troll backers think they are being funny they have another thing coming...

Pledged my $503 ....Usually I hate spending my money but felt awesome for doing this!!

Here we go guys, one of the most Important questions was answered:

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

We have to make it known that 10 Million is the Minimum Goal that we need to reach with the Kickstarter! Spread the word!

indeed, but look at the speed of pledges now.. we would be insanely lucky to hit more than 6 million :(
You can expect a few million alone during the last 48 hours if every previous kickstarter is anything to go by.

http://i.imgur.com/R9dPCjn.jpg

Dear Members,

As many of you know, last week was a week that will go down in history for our community. After 14 years of waiting and hoping, it was revealed by Yu Suzuki himself that he is finally in a position to move forward with the creation of Shenmue 3, albeit with a bit of a caveat. Through the announcement of a Kickstarter campaign , Suzuki-San as asked us the fans to help bring his dream, as well as ours, to life by backing and supporting a campaign to help fund the development of the project. While there are various entities supporting this project, Suzuki-san himself has stated that that the fate of Shenmue 3 now rests in our hands and that our actions as a community will dictate the capabilities his team will have in creating the game and to ideally meet its full creative potential.

If you have not already done so, please visit the campaign website and take some time to consider the extent to which you would be willing and able to support this project; note that there are a range of pledge levels with corresponding reward tiers for every single level of backing. As the campaign progresses, there will also be added levels of support to coincide with stretch funding goals as they are introduced. All of the funds that are pledged will be allocated to and utilized SOLELY by YSNET to develop the game.

Contrary to a lot of the dubiously sourced misinformation that has been circulating in recent days, Sony will NOT be funding the entire budget for the game nor will they subsidizing the development costs for YSNET. While Sony will provide various technical investments in conjunction with marketing and promotional support, this project will remain firmly in the directorial hands of Yu Suzuki and his staff. While it is true that there are a number of backers for Shenmue 3, we at this time do not know the scope of how these other entities are involved with the project. All that we can establish for now is that we as a community are in fact the primary patrons for the development of the game and that the responsibility of making Shenmue 3 the strongest game it can be ultimately resides with us.

Over the next few weeks leading up to the conclusion of the Kickstarter campaign, we will be introducing two specific social-media based initiatives to promote the backing of the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter and the series as a whole. The first initiative, #30onthe3rd , is a continuation of our monthly tweetathon #SaveShenmue but with a twist. On 7/3/2015, we encourage everyone to who is able to increase their pledge amount by $30 and post a corresponding tweet as a sign of solidarity within the community. The 2nd initiative, #10MillionToShenmue3 , is a hashtag campaign to be disseminated across all social media platforms to highlight the need for additional funding for Shenmue 3 in order have it be the project that Yu Suzuki has dreamed of creating. In a recent interview, Suzuki-san stated that at a $10 million funding level Shenmue 3 would feature a truly open world that would follow in the lineage of the previous installments.

The time has finally come for us in the Shenmue community to support the series that has given us so much over years. We are now in a position where we can directly impact and influence the creation of Shenmue 3 and give Suzuki-san our direct input While the task at hand may seem daunting, if we come together and collaborate our efforts we will attain the game that we have wanted and deserved for so long. Thank you all very much for your support and we would not be in the position we are in now if it was not for your perseverance and dedication for the series against all odds. We have truly made it.

Keep friends,

The Shenmue Dojo Staff

So they decided to stream on what looked like a built in laptop camera. They also just decided to film in what looks like the corner of Yu's dining room. It seriously looked like a school project some kids where doing for a media project.
The interviewer was clearly stoned or suffers from some form of autism and shouldn't have been put in that position. They're lucky only 2,500 where watching because if this had a large audience the whole Kickstarter would just become a meme about that guy.
75% of the questions had already been answered yet the interviewer asked every question twice.
The translator seemed too get stuck on a word during every answer and just gave up translating and smiled at the camera as if the answer was finished.
They're looking at a way to make the psychical copy happen but in a way that will make fans happy? Put the disc in a box with a cover that says Shenmue 3!
They announced there would be pictures of the new rewards and then said that the photos weren't working and moved on.
The interviewer just kept saying the chat was going too fast and ended the stream.
The fact they said they would explain in detail the stretch goals past $5 million makes me worried they'll do this again. I can honestly see them learning from nothing here.

Game Trailers has given Shenmue 3 the best debut award at E3. Winning out against the heavy hitter FF7 Remake.

Videos: E3 2015 Awards: Best Debut | Michael Huber Reaction | Shenmue 3 Reaction Playlist

Awesome Japan are fucking shit, and are not promoting it at all, so it's tanking.

The twitch stream is what happened, a killing blow to our chances of getting new people to pledge.

And people say we shouldn't get mad at Awesome Crappan...

People will get their pay checks next week and we have #30onthe3rd next Friday too. Don't get all panicky just yet.

What upsets me most are the people who will only pledge or raise their pledge for better rewards. Considering Yu threw us a life line to get this game made yet they are pushing for rewards for their money sickens me. The only reward you need is Shenmue 3. F*ck everything else.

http://i.imgur.com/yzQrS87.png

The $30 on the 3rd Kickstarter push is almost upon us!
For those of us who can afford to make an extra $30 donation, it would be highly recommended to try and up our pledge together across the globe in one big hit. This way we can make the strongest impact on the Kickstarter.

Below are the ideal timezones for varying countries:

PDT 11 a.m. | MDT 12 p.m. | CDT 1 p.m. | EDT 2 p.m.
———————
UCT 6 p.m. | BST 7 p.m. | CEST 8 p.m. | EEST 9 p.m.

More information about this Kickstarter push can be found on the Dojo's forum discussion thread .

Please understand that in no way, shape or form is this push forcing you to pledge extra. If you can afford any extra at this time (or even after the 3rd) then please do - but it is important that you and your own are taken care of first and foremost.

Thank you - to anyone who can - for going the extra mile. Now let's send a shock wave through that Kickstarter!

Links & Hashtags: #SaveShenmue #30onthe3rd
Shenmue 3 Kickstarter | 30onthe3rd.com | Forum Discussion | News Archive

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

Hey everyone, my brother and I decided to contribute $20,000 for the making of Shenmue III. We spent many hours thinking about whether this is a good or bad decision. We spent $10,000 in 2012 to get our school off the ground and that went a long way. Because of our initial $10,000 pledge, the school received an amazing amount of attention in China, social media and gaming websites. I'll reiterate, We are not wealthy! This was a hard decision. We could have given $20,000 directly to building the school and it's programs but we feel that this pledge will lead to more exposure and support than what we could do through other mediums.

For those who don't know our school yet. We are called The "V.E.T. Program" (Volunteer English Teacher). You can find us on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/VolunteerEnglishTeacher?fref=ts&ref=br_tf We teach children and young adults English to help in their educational and career pursuits. Many of these kids come from small villages in the Guilin area and may not have an opportunity to learn elsewhere. You can go to the "about" section on the Facebook page to learn more.

We really need help in reaching our goals. We would love for you to like us on Facebook. We will eventually look outside ourselves and setup a way for donations to be made but we didn't want to distract from the Kick Starter or be overbearing donation hunters.

We decided to make the second $10,000 pledge a character in the game. We don't want to be a character attacking Ryo though. We are going to try and ask Yu Suzuki to let us have one of our Volunteer Chinese teaching assistants be a character in one of the villages. They deserve to be recognized for their hard work. They are volunteers and many of them come from poor rice farms.

We are also hoping that since we will be listed in the credits as a special sponsor that it can have our school with a logo and a website rather than our names.

I don't think any of this would be asking too much. I think it would help get attention to the school. We would love any assistance in helping us achieve this. We also would love to have Yu Suzuki come to the school some day but we won't don't want to be greedy.

Please, help our little school!
http://i.imgur.com/GS7Iwrq.jpg

$4.2m target reached!

12. Have had bunch of people saying to me on GAF today that even though they haven't played Shenmue, the fan passion has inspired them to pledge for the game.

Link?
Here are just a few of such posts. There are a bunch more...
https://41.media.tumblr.com/c3b20fbe197b6fc3163bc952459c197d/tumblr_nqzfumDvh91tyym0to1_1280.jpg

Yeah as a backer of the $1500 a feel a little uneasy about it. But I guess we need to trust Yu on this one. I don't expect my beautiful face to be a damn billboard, but I still want people to know its me without having to zoom to 50x magnification after image processing. Maybe a mock of the idea they had in mind about how to display the photos would ease our minds.

Everywhere I look, someone is desperate to see the negative in Shenmue 3. It's kind of depressing, but I'm used to it.

If the lucky hit boards all sell they'll be an extra 15 I Am Shenmue 3's aswell bringing the total up to 143. I'm a little bit disheartened by it aswell, I agree a bit with Rig, but at the end of the day, I just want the project to get as much funding as possible to make the actual game the best it can be. I'll check to find my photo obviously, and show friends and family, but then after that I just want the game to be as kick ass as it can be!

I'm sure many people have heard of the Shenmue kickstarter, but how many have actually played Shenmue?

I know I wouldn't back a game that has such a strong emphasis on the story, missing the first two installments and being unable to play them for a reasonable price. Just as I wouldn't read a book starting at chapter 7 or a movie 45 minutes in.

I also think it must be quite a hassle for Japanese fans to navigate through a non-Japanese website in order to donate. I may be wrong, but I have a strong feeling that for most it's just too hard. So basically 50,000 fans showing up from mainly Europe/USA after all these years is amazing.

I'm surprised how well the KS is doing considering all of this and the amateurish work AJ is delivering.

Thank you everyone for the kind words.

We have received an unimaginable amount of press over this. Most good, some bad. There are some places that seem to think we took food from the mouths of the kids and gave the money instead to the game.

http://n4g.com/news/1754367/chinese-school-for-underprivileged-kids-pledges-20-000-to-shenmue-3-kickstarter

We were made aware of this place a few minutes ago. My brother decided to respond to these people.. This is just one of several places giving us bad press.

All the outside money we receive goes to the kids. All advertising costs come from my brother and I. We have spent plenty of money in advertising over the years but none has ever got us the exposure we have received now. All the advertising we did in the past only got to western parts of China, now we have been getting attention not just in ALL of China, but globally. The best part is the money we spent didn't go to some large marketing corporation but to Shenmue and dinner with Y'S. It was the smartest decision we ever made.

We have been getting ton's of gaming sites in China trying to interview us. We have been on the news in Guilin (5M people). Even Eurogamer.net posted our story on Twitter a few minutes ago.

https://twitter.com/eurogamer

I'm having a hard time with the criticism, frankly. I have only had the intention of helping the school. I wish people would look at this and think about giving of their time and energy to helping others but some people only live to hate and criticize. If people are thinking we are spending our money unwisely, let's hear what they are doing to help the world and what better ways they are spending their money on charity...

You gotta be kidding me if you think I'm going to click that. Kotaku should be put out of business.

$4.4 million reached!

They seem to be losing the plot it seems and are fixated on the success of the $1500 tier...

..This isn't helpful for the KS..

Well I upped again from $800 to $1200 so something's working :P

If the $1500 included the $1200 then I'd probably stretch to that, too, tweeted Cedric and @Shenmue_3 about it a few times but no response.

Have you seen the beautiful irl illustrations on the different threads ? The only thing that could interfere our experience is the lucky hit reward and they are only 2 backers at the moment. Yu Suzuki leads the development, not Joel Tess.

Hi! I am totally new to Shenmue but I loved everything I have read about it so far. I recently supported Shenmue III and I can't wait to play it!

I am wondering how I in the best/easiest way can get the backstory information I need to be able to enjoy Shenmue III fully? Should I watch all the cut scenes from the first game on YouTube (does it exists for Shenmue II as well?), or what should I do to get to know all the story of the game I need up to Shenmue III?

I have never really jumped into a game without being there from the start, so I am not really sure how to do it the best/easiest way and would like some help.

Sorry if this isn't the right sub-forum for my question.

Well, today's looking like a disaster. It doesn't help that someone dropped out of the NPC tier. They really only needed to add one capsule tier, if they were going to do capsules.

pledge wise they are still coming in, but so many people are downgrading tiers to the new lower lost ones that the pledges totals are bearly moving. AJ strikes again..

No offence to the people here doing that, but could you, like, not? Are these shitty rewards really worth having a negative impact on the funding levels? Just stick with your original pledges. You really don't need your face on a crappy toy capsule or some exclusive technique scroll that, for all you know, could be worthless or whatever you're downgrading to.

RiGoRmOrTiS wrote: $1500 I AM SHENMUE.. (will choose PC Phsyical)

+ $80 for PS4 (Phsyical)

I'll never reduce my pledges for that would be disingenuous and cause too much heart ache for those like me who watch the total day in day out

Exactly the same as you dude $1500 first account, $80 second

Hey guys! Most of you probably don't remember me but I made a few post on my travels in Guilin back in 2011.

Since this kickstarter started, I kept thinking Baisha rings a bell, but it took me until today to realize that I was there on that same trip I made when I was in Guilin. And the biggest coincidence of it all, is that I went there straight after Guilin, so I took the same path as Ryo without knowing it! By the way, the train ride from Guilin to Lijiang (Baisha is located near here) took me 30 hours! Which means that Ryo will probably have to take the train, so maybe that explains that train he was hanging on in the Berkely demo....

I wrote an article on Baisha in my blog back in 2011. It's in Japanese, so most of you might not be able to read it but there's some pictures on there too so I'll post the link anyway. The second half of the pictures are from Baisha (starting with the old farmer standing near his crops)
[url]
http://world3languages.blogspot.jp/2011/12/december-16-2011.html[/url]

I remember Baisha as a small, picturesque town in the countryside with a really peaceful and relaxing atmosphere. The people very friendly. Like that old farmer, he gave me and my companions some of his carrots for free.
The old man in the white doctor suit was some Chinese herb specialist that's supposed to be worldwide famous. Apparently he cured himself of some disease that was incurable at the time, and has helped other people with the same disease. He gave us some free "healthy tea" that was bitter as hell. The man was 89 when we visited but still looked healthy and energetic. I wonder if he's still alive, he would be 93 now. He seems to be the main reason Baisha is visited by foreigners, so maybe he has something to do with the story? Who knows...
We also went for some noodles at this eatery that all the locals recommended, but I remember they were not so good as the noodles were overcooked, ha! Maybe Yu-san will finally be able to make his dream come true of showing the difference in noodles depending on how long they were cooked at this eatery.
:D
Anyway, don't know if this was of any help, but it's a magical feeling to realize that I've been there, especially since I also visited Luoyang and the Shaolin Temple which are highly suspected to appear in the future of Shenmue's story!

Just backed for $300
Glad to be on board!

Some games just get better coverage just by being exclusive, and some fanboys will buy it just for being on X console.

Today PS4 is ahead in the race, and I think it will mantain the breach.

But to be honest, if you REALLY want to play the game, you can just play it on pc (by 2017/18 a cellphone will be as potent as a ps4/xbox one). Not being on X electrodomestic it's just an excuse.

I'm worried about ports though. Shenmue's engine is a bit clunky and far from perfect. I also remember a rumor that SEGA didn't even develop Shenmue's engine and that it was bought/licensed from some company who are now out of business. I don't know if that's true, but if it it, wouldn't that mean that they couldn't tweak the engine and add things such as new lighting effects and stuff?
I'm just scared that awful ports are going to put people off Shenmue III.

When you look at the Shenmue credits, you can see a lot of obscure logo companies so it's a valuable theory. Not an excuse however, they had 14 years to negotiate the right properties. But Sega is Sega...

Signed Collector's Edition here. Going to keep it displayed on my shelf and never even open the game. Will buy an additional copy to play and support. :)

My final pledge will end up being a total of $360 including shipping (adding some more for #TheFinalBlow!) It is an honor and privilege to contribute to this with all of you, and one of my proudest moments ever as a gamer.

Does anyone know if Sony's deal includes exclusivity...

It's not been disclosed. But many within the gaming media, as far as I have read, say it's a fair assumption that it does due to the financial help Sony is giving them and also the opportunity to present the Kickstarter on their E3 stage. Adam Boyes himself said there had been meetings for a year, so those meetings more than likely would have been the organisation of some deal.

We could be wrong and Microsoft could still come to be involved, but I feel it's an impossibility. There's a deal done. It may not have been made public, but all arrows point to it.

Incoming:

$560 tier - Become an author in the local library - find your book in the library and receive a special reward.

$833 tier - Have your name featured in a special pathway. Find your name and receive a 'winning can'

$971 tier (20 available) - Have your excrement featured in the game. When you've got to go, you've got to go! Each time Ryo has to do his business, a special backer's stinky poo will be featured in the game.

$2,245 tier (40 available) - Have your name featured within one of the many arcade machine's score board.

$2,390 tier (7 available) - Have your lucky underpants featured within the game. As Ryo awakes in the morning, you will have the choice of which special backer's underpants to wear. "Let' get sweaty".

$3,560 tier (5 available) - Have your photo featured on Shenhua's bedroom wall in an exclusive poster

$4,700 tier (1 available) - Have Ryo's penis designed after your own. When Ryo decides to "get sweaty" with Nozomi or Shenhua, your penis will be featured in an exclusive scene

$6,100 tier (1 available) - Have Ryo's outfit modeled and designed entirely by you. Choose Ryo's socks, shoes, pants, tshirt and jacket.

$8,200 tier (3 available) - Have your artwork featured in a special temple

Yu Suzuki interview on NicoNico LIVE transcription [2015.07.12]:
(Sorry if there are some english mistakes)

J: Journalist
Y: Yu Suzuki

J: Here’s Yu Suzuki-san, I think he doesn't need introductions. We are still surprised for Shenmue 3 announcement.

Y: Yeah… We waited for 14 years and are very, very excited. Years passed by, and it doesn’t matter where I go, it was always the same, where’s Shenmue 3, Shenmue 3… And I just recently watched a video from the grateful fans all over the world; it was really moving for me, it’s difficult to explain with words.

J: Shenmue was a true revolution for the time, but nowadays it will probably be more difficult to surprise gamers like you did all this years ago right? Please tell us about your origins as a game designer.

Y: At first I didn’t want to become a game designer you know, I wanted to be musician, even dentist… But especially musician, I was very interested in music stuff back then, since very early school days. I even had interest on foreign languages (not Asian languages, written in horizontal, like English). Then I went to different interviews, one of those interviews was in SEGA for programmer stuff, I thought it was very interesting and then I decided that’s what I wanted to do with my life (game designer).

J: So let’s check this slide with different games Yu Suzuki-san created over the years. So incredible names come out, Outrun, Virtua Racing… and so on. We can see back then a lot of them were arcade games right? (like the ones you can find inside Game You/Shenmue Arcade Center)

Y: Yes, back then arcades were very successful, a lot of them were later adapted to consoles and even to Shenmue, including the boxing one.

J: Yeah… Shenmue Arcade Center was truly incredible; we could play games like Outrun, etc., what were you thinking for creating something like that?

Y: Well, back then arcades in Japan had a very negative image on the society, like the kind of dark place where delinquents would meet, bike gangsters and bad guys smoking… I wanted to change that, and at the same time create a new style of gaming. I wanted arcades to be considered like treasures, like Disneyland.

I: Well, you created something truly wonderful! It was a place even girls could enjoy… (Kicked from NicoNico, don’t know if he was referring to real Arcade Centers or Game You)

Y: (…) the evolution of game engines, CG, pseudo-3D sprite-scaling with games like Hang On or Virtua Racing, and then real 3D boards!, full 3D games like Virtua Fighter, back then it was something unbelievable you know. When we were studying on school we were always thinking how awesome it would be to have 3D games. Hang On was kind of 3D, pseudo simulated 3D, and then we created different patterns using different 3D effects, it was very curious, for some time we were creating fully 3D games inside our heads, but the final product was pseudo-3D, not real 3D. Games like Virtua Racing used indirect 3D effects, then for Virtua Fighter we created polygons full contact, full 3D games at last.

J: And all of this starting from scratch right?

Y: Yeah, back then everything was like that, from scratch, we created everything starting from 0, there was no other way.

J: Then with Shenmue you created not only a stage or racing track but a full 3D city to explore.

Y: Normally at first you have to design your initial planning for the game, so you think about the human body, and if it’s a soccer game 11 players per team, and things like that. But with Shenmue we had to think from the beginning on creating a full living city. That was something I wanted to achieve from a long time ago.

J: A game that feels like a full experience right? You created a new genre by the time, it was called FREE, some kind of special RPG style genre?

Y: Well, yes it was an RPG, but I don’t like to call Shenmue like that, it was something completely new, an adventure you needed to experience by yourself. So we decided to call it like that, FREE, a new genre to help people easily understand Shenmue was something completely new, nothing like they knew by then.

J: Let’s talk about Shenmue 3, meetings, reasons, the timing needed to make Shenmue 3 come true…

Y: It’s been already 14 years since Shenmue 2, it was a really long journey. Wherever I go it was always the same, Shenmue 3, Shenmue 3… Then by march/april, is Shenmue 3 finally coming? They wanted Shenmue much more than any other of my previous games, like Virtua Fighter, and I really thought one million possibilities to make it true, there were a lot of things to deal with, budget problems, licensing problems with SEGA, etc. After continuously thinking for 14 years then I decided to make it via Kickstarter, that way we could get the budget we needed via crowdfunding and finally create Shenmue 3.

J: I see (sorry). And fans from all around the world joined forces to become this project a reality. During E3 Shenmue 3 announcement there were some unbelievable reactions don’t you think?

Y: Yes, I couldn’t see that reactions LIVE because I was waiting behind the main stage, and before Shenmue 3 there were some awesome games announcements like Final Fantasy VII, I could hear really big reactions so I was very nervous about Shenmue and how the people would react. But then, it happened, I remember screams all over the place… after Shenmue music started it was like an explosion… It was too much for me, I couldn’t bear it and started to cry backstage.

J: I could imagine Yu’s happiness just by looking at those emotions from all over the world.

Y: Indeed, it was truly awesome. Also, a lot of Shenmue fans from a lot of countries learned a lot from Japan and even started to study japanese and eventually moved to Japan thanks to playing the game. Specially Shenmue II using japanese voices and english subtitles helped foreigners to learn at least some well repeated japanese phrases and expressions. I even know some incredible stories, folks who dreamed to get married in Japan with someone like Nozomi, and eventually they did it! It makes me really happy to hear stories like that.

I: Congratulations for all you’ve achieved during your life Yu Suzuki-san. Now please tell me, what was Shenmue I and II original staff reactions after Shenmue 3 announcement on E3?

Y: They sent me LINE messages like ‘congratulations!!’ or things like that, some of them are living abroad, and they were super excited and relieved for the good news. Also, like I said before recently I saw a 20 minutes video with Shenmue fans from all over the world thanking me for making Shenmue 3, I was very moved by their feelings, it was incredible.

J: It’s unbelievable don’t you think Yu Suzuki-san? What a game can achieve…

Y: Indeed. Maybe it is something you can’t make outside of videogames. It is more than just good graphics or sounds, inside the game you create some kind of bond between the story and the spirit of the player, I think that’s awesome.

J: Let’s talk about the real condition of cities like Yokosuka. Kind of nostalgic feeling don’t you think? How things have changed all over Japan since 1986. Now we have incredible places like Mirai Kan, etc.

Y: Yes, Japan changed in a lot of ways. And let’s not forget Japanese and Asian people have very different beliefs and traditions than the ones from foreigner countries. Probably those differences also helped foreign fans to learn to love Shenmue, trying to understand a country so much different than theirs. Also, internet and technology helped a lot to unify the world and making it easy to understand those differences. Going back to Yokosuka and old Japan, for example if you go back in time 80 years, there are not so many records, and (…) Yokohama and ‘Yoko’ Kanji (??) (Kicked from NicoNico)

J: And you can immortalize the atmosphere of those years inside the game right?

Y: Yes, using 3D and techniques like motion capture we tried to capture and recreate that atmosphere from old times the best we can.

J: No doubt you did it. I think you can really feel the japanese Showa era (1926-1989) inside Shenmue. Please tell us more about your relations with producers and staff before the Shenmue 3 announcement.

(From now on NicoNico started to kick me a lot, not using a premium account + too many viewers…)

Y: With Hirai-san we are wine friends (laughs), and always ended talking about Shenmue no matter the situation. We wanted to make Shenmue 3 from the beginning, and we know now it’s a life time opportunity to finally continue this project and making it come true after all these years.

J: And you reunited all the original Shenmue staff. That’s incredible, I think only someone like Yu-san could achieve something like that. Now, please tell us more about crowdfunding and Kickstarter. Aside from Ys Net almost all the Shenmue 3 budget will be thanks to the fans effort right? Let’s check how it works (slide, lot of explanations, credit card system, different stretch goals, etc.).

Y: There’s still 1 Monaco dinner left (laughs). We are now approaching 5m, and the funds amount will impact directly on the final game. But I want to make the best game possible with the budget we reach. I want to thank every one of you who helped Shenmue 3 coming this far. Shenmue 3 is now true thanks to all of you who never stopped believing and supporting Shenmue. We are creating three big areas inside Shenmue 3 and a lot of features based on our budget. We really want to create an open world game, but that really depends directly on the final budget. We need 10 millions to make it, I know it’s very difficult, but I’m very grateful with Shenmue fans, and now I really believe in miracles, I believe we can make it, together.

J: Also let me add this Yu Suzuki-san, please, try to involve your friends in the project, a lot of people around the world still don’t know about Shenmue 3 on Kickstarter. Yu-san needs 10 million to create the game he has been dreaming since the beginning, so let’s all together make it true. I already pledged! Let’s help him create the Shenmue 3 he dreams of! C’mon, now is our chance!, we are the fans, we are united, we can make this come true (yes, he was really excited at this point of the interview, you can really tell he’s also a big Shenmue fan =) ) Oh, sorry, I think I speaked a little too much. (…) Please tell us more about the game concept; there will be real time system right? And the story? Will it begin just after Shenhua & Ryo event at the cave?

Y: Thank you very much. Yes, Shenhua & Ryo have a very powerful objective in common related to Shenhua’s father past. Finally we can focus on Shenhua’s story and her past, something Shenmue fans were waiting since the original Shenmue. Some things are still being decided right now, but I want to start the game in the beautiful mountains of Guilin in China, and deepen into the relation between Shenhua & Ryo, the free selection system, and the character perspective system. (Kicked from NicoNico) Inside these 3 areas one of them is Baisha, and then Chobu, where I want to make some kind of China sandbox game inside Shenmue 3, an area full of events, quests and possibilities, a sandbox with Shenmue charm, that’s what I’m aiming for. (…) There is a sandbox image like something complicated… This is not the case for Shenmue. If you go back into Shenmue I or Shenmue II the battle system was not a timing technical game like Virtua Fighter, and the player can go through the story with simple mini events like QTE, it’s a game everybody can plan and enjoy. Sandbox? Seems difficult, complicated… But everybody can enjoy Shenmue 3!

J: What about character perspective system?

Y: We can choose our character thanks to the characters system on Shenmue 3, and it’s not only the character, the routes we can follow are also different, and the personality of different characters and their gender will make us choose between different options. At some point you will think “Yeah! That would probably be a man’s choice!”, or the opposite if you’re using a female character. That’s the charming point of this system.

J: So interesting! So many characters and possibilities… Oh, and now Ryo can jump right?

Y: Yeah, and climb mountains.

J: Please tell us more about forklifts (laughs).

Y: Forklifts (laughs). Yeah, everybody asks for it. You know, in the top 3 the most wanted things by Shenmue fans would be, 1st: Story related things, 2nd, Open World doubts, 3rd, forklifts (laughs), in that order. Even I can’t fully understand why it’s so popular! I’m thinking different ways to make them appear on Shenmue 3, but with the present Shenmue 3 scale is not easy to implement. Maybe in Chobu… Chobu is a port town, but it’s still too small to think about forklifts, maybe if we get more budget we can make it true.

J: Something like 5 more millions?

Y: Yes (laughs). I also want to include an Arcade Game Center from 1988, with SEGA games inside, and one of them could be a forklift arcade game invention, I’m also thinking crazy ideas like that (laughs).

J: Awesome! Let’s check some fans questions… Masaya Matsukaze return, yes… (keeps checking…)

Y: (Yu checks fan questions by himself) Chai returning to the game? Yes! Chai appers in Shenmue 3! (laughs).

(Kicked from NicoNico)
Y: One justice (…) Five… (???), a lot of objectives. (Yu then explains more detailed information for Japanese fans about the Kickstarter system, different rewards, the special place in Baisha with Shenmue fans photos, NPC fan based characters that got kicked by Ryo and stuff). (…) I also want to say that people who never got into Shenmue I and II will still be able to fully enjoy Shenmue III, for example using flashbacks to advance in the story, everyone will be able to understand what’s happening and progress into the wonderful world of Shenmue. And this is also very important, we can call Ine-san with Telecom card! (Yu check some comments…), no, she’s not dead! (laughs), but maybe her voice will be a little different. Also, remember that instead of Nozomi you can choose to be with Ine-san or Fuku-san for the gashapon reward! (laughs)

J: Can’t wait for Shenmue 3…

Y: We are doing our best to release the final game by the end of 2017. Finally, let me say Ryo’s aspect will fully change, including his jacket. And please, tell your friends and people you know about Shenmue 3, let’s make the best game together! I’m counting with you, always, thank you very much!

pretty much my thoughts too. we are currently on track to do the same as yesterday (53-54k).. still no evidence of any supposed up turn at the end.. I'm not surprised but thought I'd put it out there for those who are convinced there will be one. if the steady 50k a day continues which it has for a while we will end around 4.9 million. painfully close to 5 million :*(


Rig, I know I often pick up on your funding posts (like the other day when you predicted $25K and we got $50K+) and I'm not trying to be an arse. But we're going to make it. IT WILL pass $5M, so good God man, stop worrying about $4.9!

No "big" Kickstarter follows a straight line pattern at the end. Last minute backers (those who pressed "Remind Me Later" at the start, & fence sitters) jump in. Fans that can afford to, add a bit more. Bloodstained (yeah, I know it's always mentioned) raked in $1M in its last 24 hrs alone; $1.5M in its last 48hrs; $1.7M in 72.

Will Shenmue see a boost that big? No. At day ~4, we're at half the daily pledges of Bloodstained at that point. But with the "Final Push", the fence sitters, and (if we're lucky) maybe even a worthwhile last reward, it'll clear $5M even if we only manage "half" Bloodstained's ending spike. That's an additional 800,000+ in 3 days. Sound unachievable? OK. Let's be downbeat and cut it down to $500,000. Still past $5M. Or let's be straight up pessimistic and even half that again - we'll still make it. See how well the odds are stacked yet?

For my part, I'm not being complacently optimistic here... I'll be upping my pledge an extra $200 tomorrow and add $80 on a new account.

A day-on-day rise can already be observed. We might not beat Bloodstained, but $5M will happen.

Even AJ's latest shit rewards can't stop it.

Is it me or is the Kickstarter increasing quite quickly today?

yeah someone took an NPC tier (10k). I'm mentally subtracting it every time I check the pledge totals in case its a troll. I wouldn't be surprised if most of the NPC buyers are trolls waiting to strip 40-50k from the pledge total at the worst possible moment... lol I have no faith in humanity.

Haha no it's not your fault you're like that, we are Shenmue fans, we are now permanently pessimistic without realising it!

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