http://www.gameblog.fr/interview_1100_yu-suzuki-je-ne-suis-pas-encore-satisfait-du-design-actuel-m

Translation from French.

https://i.imgur.com/zyrGefI.jpg

Gameblog: Suzuki-sensei, how are you? How do you feel here at Gamescom after you showed us this first trailer ?

Yu Suzuki: To be honest, it's more a teaser rather than a real trailer! About the Gamescom, I believe hundreds of thousands of people come here, that's truly gigantic. I only visited the business area at the moment, I don't know how things look at the other side, in the public areas. But we will go into it soon, I'm sure that will be great. I have already met a lot of fans and enthusiastic journalists. All these people give me a huge boost.

GB: So far, is the development going well? Are you pleased with your working pace and progress?

YS: We made a lot of research before we signed our partnership with Deep Silver. Since that moment, I feel we now have the full team and I'm relieved. Finally, we can focus entirely on the remaining part, I mean the production.

GB: Does Deep Silver provide you funds for the remaining production? Can you tell us something more about it?

YS: I cannot comment officially or give you precise figures. But yes, there is something...

GB: How close we are actually to the trial version?

YS: I'm currently thinking about the best way to design the demo, in order to show the game to the players. But I'm still unable to tell you when it will be available... It will be sometime!

https://i.imgur.com/9sssThK.jpg

GB: What are the main mechanics that you will take back from Shenmue 1&2 and the new ones you're currently creating for Shenmue III?

YS: I could not be really specific about Shenmue 1&2 mechanics but I can tell you that our first priority is to remain faithful to the spirit of the first episodes, the "Shenmue universe".

However, regarding Shenmue 1&2, the constituent elements such as mini-games, jobs and miscellaneous activities were not really linked together. They were simply there, and their connections were not strong enough. In Shenmue III, I want to tie the different elements really tighter, make these connections clearer. This way, the world of Shenmue will be improved. Each gameplay sequence will be included more naturally into the story, the screenplay, then the player feels more involved and focused. I believe this will be one of the strongest and most attractive features of Shenmue III.

https://i.imgur.com/kEdploI.jpg

GB: Can you tell us more about the new QTEs we've seen in the extended teaser?

YS: I hope you'll appreciate this new QTE system! Let me give you few examples...

(Yu Suzuki starts his PC which is connected to the television then opens a Powerpoint file with pictures and texts about every elements of the game. He goes directly into the slides about the QTEs)

The most important aspect of the new QTEs is the fun provided to the players. We would like to challenge the QTE concept with a new function called "Variable Speed Play" in order to offer a funny and entertaining experience to the players. It's a style of QTE that has never been seen before.

So far you're only seeing the Circle or Triangle buttons from the PS4 controller but more symbols are yet to come. QTEs might be based on colors seen on the controller buttons, or even on Chinese characters associated with some specific actions. Moreover, we may imagine a system based on specific sounds associated with each controller button. A color coupled with a sound. This way, we could perform QTEs only by referring to a game sound... Well, it's still experimental but I would like to offer that kind of experience to the players.

https://i.imgur.com/mSnKDBJ.jpg

GB: What about the battle system?

YS: In Shenmue 1&2, I choose the Virtua Fighter system. It was more about strategy than button mashing. In Shenmue III, I would like a more friendly system and something completely new. One of the most important improvements would be the ability to attack several enemies once, during the same combo. Unlike the previous episodes - and many other games - where you had to fight only one ennemy once, if three enemies surround you, you need to fight all of them at the same time, by doing combos on each other (Suzuki mimes a triple combo with his fists: "bam - bam - bam!").

Of course, if you want to focus on one enemy only, you can do so, but you will have the choice.

GB: Like Shenmue I, can we train our moves to improve Ryo's abilities, skills and techniques?

YS: Yes indeed, I would like to make this happen and I'm still thinking about it. Solo training is definitely part of Kung Fu. The skill tree system is still confirmed as well. (Suzuki opens a new Powerpoint slide named "Skill Tree").

Each blank rectangle you're seeing here represents a skill book. These books can be obtained by several manners. You can buy some books in stores while you can earn the other ones by prizes. They can also have different forms: books, scrolls or sheets...

https://i.imgur.com/PLxQ3x2.jpg

GB: Everyone was suprised by the lack of facial motion in the teaser. Can you give us an explanation? By the way, is the charadesign final?

YS: First of all, no the charadesign isn't final. Actually, no character in the teaser is finished. I'm still not pleased with the current design, even if it's way better than the characters we showed at E3 2015. About the facial motion, it was there two months ago, but the developers changed something in the face bone structure then everything started to bug. (The translator is miming with his hand the jaw entering the head). The facial motion no longer worked so we decided to remove it from the teaser.

GB: The logo has changed again too...

YS: Yes, it has been changed because I wanted to remake it myself. By the way, the ideogram you can see on the poster has been made by my father (Suzuki points at the kanji on the poster - see the red circle on the picture below).

https://i.imgur.com/CpkMb09.jpg

GB: The interview already comes to the end... Shortly, have you got any positive news about Shenmue HD?

YS: As you know, Sega still owns the licence, so I really cannot say anything about it.... but I want to tell something to Sega: please, do it! I really would like to see this happen.

Aside from his eyes, it seems that YSnet has nailed Ryo completely.
https://i.imgur.com/j8nXXUc.jpg https://i.imgur.com/7NPCQlA.jpg https://i.imgur.com/9Ykm10E.jpg https://i.imgur.com/YM5E75B.jpg https://i.imgur.com/1yiIvw7.jpg https://i.imgur.com/mgAcUuH.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/jzI56X4.jpg

Face as much as body:
https://i.imgur.com/D2jJ33S.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/7nsj1aS.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/nO83aUb.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/6zVcc8b.jpg

Tweak the eyes and polish his face skin for camera close-ups then we have the real Iwao's boy.

Spaghetti wrote: Maybe I'm seeing things, but on the wide shot of Ryo from the Mr Muscles fight, does it say "S3" on the side of his shoe?

Shenmue III confirmed.

We've come a long way.

Prefer the original, over any of the variations offered.

In June, Japanese gaming site Famitsu Online ran a poll to find out which game their readers thought deserved the title of Best All-Time Game on any system, as reported earlier on the Dojo .

The results of the poll have now been published in the Weekly Famitsu magazine, and both Shenmue titles have scored remarkably!

* 12th: Shenmue II
* 10th: Shenmue I

The Top 12 rankings are as below.

http://i.imgur.com/Hil6Zr9m.jpg

Article at the Phantom River Stone blog .

https://68.media.tumblr.com/c76cd8e09ccbe5c284a877f39c982a54/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco1_400.jpg

At the Gamescom 2017 event, we were very lucky to have a quick interview with Shenmue 3 director Yu Suzuki. Unfortunately, over the 3 days available with Suzuki-san, it was very hard to secure an interview with the team due to the general media already having pre-booked all of the time slots available with Suzuki-san through their new publishing partner, Koch Media. But thanks to a few people behind the scenes (especially the community's own Shenmue Ambassador Ali Novin!), we were able to be squeezed in for some quick interviews at the end of the final day, and got to experience the Deep Silver media area! (and rub shoulders with other developers in the area. 5 points to who can guess the developer in the chequed shirt.) Possibly a happy accident, but quite hilarious that Shenmue 3 was allocated Wareho...errr room number .08!

https://68.media.tumblr.com/e10f0bec5012af5650278ed6617f3ea1/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco2_500.jpg

For this interview, we are unbelievably thankful, as both Suzuki-san and Harry-san were understandably extremely tired, and in light of that, our time with them was very short. Despite having upwards of 20+ questions prepared, i only had time to ask a very short number so apologies in advance that i did not get an opportunity to ask a lot of gameplay based questions. I didnt get to that stage, and before i was out of the "introductory" questions stage, it was time to wrap up the interview! Either way, its always an honour to be in the company of Suzuki-san, and we are so grateful for his time at Gamescom. Enjoy :)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SD. So hello Suzuki-san. Welcome to Germany! Have you been to Germany before? Have you been to Gamescom before?

YS. It’s my first Gamescom, but however, for Germany, I don’t remember… 2 or 3… around 3 times. I have a feeling the number grows with each interview (laughs)! It’s around 5 times… I think. Although, just before when you asked the question, I said twice! But I think 5 times is the right number.

SD. So we know you are in Cologne for Shenmue, but I know you have a love for art and architecture. Do you have any plans to do any sight-seeing whilst you are here?

YS. On the day we arrived, or maybe the day after, I went to see the Dom (Cathedral). It’s splendid! I also walked around the Old Town. Yes, it was amazing. It was more impressive than the Tokyo Tower (laughs). I am joking! But it was amazing. I could say amazing over and over.


https://68.media.tumblr.com/d9b32515d8c7f5ffadb78bf509d9ff0c/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco3_500.jpg

SD. We are at Gamescom for Shenmue 3. But I have to ask, why Gamescom? We just had E3, and Gamescom is a little bit after, so did it just feel right?

YS. The reason for the timing was that I wanted to make the announcement in conjunction with the forming of the contract with Deep Silver. The agreement, to put it simply, was not ready in time for E3.

SD. Ok, so I just want to bring it back a bit, to the Kickstarter update where you announced that you had to delay the game. How hard was that decision, and were you worried about disappointing the backers?

YS. Hmmm, yes of course. I was most concerned about the backers. At the time, we had already made progress in our partnership talks with Deep Silver. So for us, being able to aim for something above what had been the plan with the original Kickstarter, it would have been extremely difficult to implement an open world with the initial plan we had at the time of the Kickstarter. So I continued to look for a partner after that. I really wanted to create an open world somehow. So I kept searching, and eventually we were able to form a partnership with Deep Silver which enabled us to upwardly revise the plan.
So at that time, I took into account what we would be able to achieve with Deep Silver. I felt positive we would be able to achieve a “scaled-up” Shenmue 3. If conditions improved after forming a partnership with Deep Silver, we would be able to expand our plans. That would bring along with it more tasks to complete, and I hoped to announce the good news to everyone along with the schedule change. But at that point the contract with Deep Silver hasn’t been finalized, so I wasn’t able to mention it. That was the situation.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/02ed8d4d4c19b506b54b42ccf5da6441/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco4_500.jpg

SD. In the same video, you mentioned “new technologies, possibilities and new expressions” for Shenmue 3. Could you tell us more about those, and have they changed what you originally thought Shenmue 3 would be like?

YS. We have a complete set of basic shaders, although these need to be tuned for Shenmue. But having a full set of basic shaders is one of its (Unreal 4 Engine) advantages. Also it’s an engine designed for games, so there are all sorts of libraries for 3D games. So when you’re at the prototype/building stage, it’s very quick and efficient. That’s another benefit.
With Shenmue 1 and 2, my program forms the base, so I understand all parts of the program. However this time, the innermost working are a “black box” so I can’t obtain a full understanding of every part, and that can sometimes be a problem. From an overall perspective, it’s a really marvellous engine, especially when it’s used by multiple people. For example, we take the case of 30 or 40 people, or more, are developing the game simultaneously. It can handle management and so on, and do things like analysing the workload, rendering load, CPU usage and various others. Product management has also been made easier too, so overall, I think it’s a superb engine.


SD. I’m glad you mentioned shaders because I remember a conversation we once had about how important the colours of Shenmue were important to you. How difficult has it been to achieve the “look” and “colour” of Shenmue with Unreal 4?

YS. The basic attractive colours in Unreal 4 are formed with High Dynamic Range, and there is a wide range of colours from light to dark which can produce images where you can really feel the light and shade. This was the key deciding factor for my selection of the Unreal Engine. For me, the light and the shade are the most important part. For Shenmue, there are 2 things which are necessary to add. The next stage is there has to be a feeling of humidity. Shenmue has to have a slightly “wet” feeling to it. A damp kind of feeling in the air. I don’t mean actual rain, but the air should have a kind of moist feeling to it.
It’s difficult to achieve this with the standard Unreal 4 shaders, so I think we will have to write our own. The Shenmue teaser we have shown has achieved that look of “wetness” I think. We have now reached the second step. We are not yet at the third stage, but that will be images that you can smell. For example, in China they may chop up a pig like this, and then, without storing it in a refrigerator, sell it under the hot sun. It has that kind of raw stink, and that’s something I think we managed to achieve in Shenmue 2. Shenmue 3 will also be going onto this stage next. A “smell shader”, or a “stinky shader”! (laughs).

https://68.media.tumblr.com/9d51b582086d5bd4cb64552253c54f48/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco5_400.jpg

SD. I have a lot of questions to ask, but I know time is very short, so I will ask my final question. With being president of your own company, you have hired new staff members to work on Shenmue 3. How does it feel to pass on all those years of knowledge and experience to young new developers? Have you had any difficulties managing a team like this?

YS. Well not all of our staff are young, there is someone who is 50 years old… all ages really. But management is the most difficult part. They have entered the company going through interviews, and it’s hard to get to know someone properly at the interview stage. So after that process it turns out there are some people who speak extremely little, for example, so yes it can be pretty difficult. Various strategies are needed in order for each person’s performance level to reach 100%, and that’s the part that’s most difficult. I would prefer to lose myself in the creative work, but quite a bit of time is used up on management.

SD. Suzuki-san, thank you.

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...and in the blink of an eye, it was all over! Apologies again that we could not have had more time to ask more questions, but there maybe more inverviews coming out from the Shenmue Online Community in the near future with lots more questions so stay tuned for that! ;-)

But before we left, as always, we had to surprise Suzuki-san with a gift! Thanks to a fantastic idea from 500k owner Aaron Barstow, we decided to try and somehow put Suzuki-san into one of his favourite bands, Van Halen. So working together, we came up with the idea of having an artist design an image of the band members but also insert Yu Suzuki in amongst them! After contacting one of our contributors to the Instagram page, @r_wuying, he understood the concept, and very quickly came though with an awesome piece of work!

https://68.media.tumblr.com/0909930dd8da47c5b51aaf4011880926/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco6_400.jpg

Of course, we couldnt give Suzuki-san an image on a PC, so we had it framed and brought it to Germany to present it to him from all of the Shenmue Community, for which he was extremely surprised and thankful (as always!)

https://68.media.tumblr.com/2e40913861ed15c10f8431df35f79231/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco7_500.jpg

https://68.media.tumblr.com/5d4165cea5becd3cdfd3c367fa97797f/tumblr_ovog4lS9W61vilcqco1_400.jpg

My Gamescom experience was one i will always remember, and i have to say thank you to so many people including David and Kenji from Shenmue Master, Aaron and James from 500K/Team Yu, Silvia from 500k, Chao from the community and of course Ali Novin for all his hard work behind the scenes to make the interview happen. On a personal note, it was fantastic to meet long time Dojo members YS, Snoopbob, B-Ren and Bluemue at the event too!! Its a shame we couldnt have all spent more time together! Also, of course how could I forget (which I did :oops: ) the amazing Switch for being on point with translating duties as always!

But with that, another event has ended, and the long journey continues! See you all again soon :D

https://68.media.tumblr.com/b234f70ac010c1b6abbdc429c3014c6e/tumblr_ovoeetc4Sy1vilcqco8_500.jpg

Just found a Dutch interview of Yu Suzuki from Gamescom.

Nothing really new according to the google translation, but for those interested.

Translated by google: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.xgn.nl%2Fshenmue-3-release-interview-yu-suzuki&edit-text=&act=url

Original article: https://www.xgn.nl/shenmue-3-release-interview-yu-suzuki

The Character Perspective system

The previous Shenmue games were only played in single player, but nowadays most games still have a multiplayer or co-op mode. According to Suzuki, Shenmue 3 will focus on the single player again, but players can get started with a new feature:

"Shenmue 3 is a single player game, it does not have network features, but there are certain events that can change the playable character. We call this feature the Character Perspective system."

Normally you play Shenmue 3 as Ryo, but at some times you can switch to other characters like Ren or Shenhua. During such events, the outcome of the situation remains the same, but the way you achieve this outcome may change depending on the character you choose.

"For example, Ryo is a strong fighter, when he faces an enemy, he will fight with them directly, but Ren may use another weapon. Shenhua can not fight, so she uses her brains and ignores tactics. Ultimately, you achieve the same goal. That's the concept. "

I was at the Bowling yesterday with the kids and I saw this...



I had to take a picture and imagine how it could look in Shenmue 3.

I think it could be fun as a QTE training machine

So much negativity abounds, even with the most recent screens. Gotta tweak this, gotta adjust that. There is a lot, a LOT of development time left on the game. We *may* get the game by December 2018, but again we may not depending on how large the scope has increased.

"It's what they chose to show us..." No, it's what they felt they HAD to show us, no matter how early it was, or short notice in concordance with Deep Silver coming on board, because everyone was jumping on the Doomed boat because it had been so quiet.

"Another month of nothing..vaporware/jank confirmed"..this place was turning into GAF, where people just want to compete and see how big of a dump they can take on Yu Suzuki's passion.

I think Ryo looks well on his way to a successful render, especially considering time left. The style of Shenmue isn't the same as Yakuza, so that's a different comparison. We also do not know how old those "new" screens are. They might be recent, might be a month or two behind.

The signs point to us seeing what a true, more current build of the game looks like by year's end(PSX). I will reserve judgement until then.

You cannot judge too much on these models without motion. Lighting, facial expressions, animation..we need that kind of picture before we can accurately say it needs this or that.

Once a true trailer, replete with updated models and a glimpse of gameplay appears, we can commence on the speculation as to the status of the project.

Yu Suzuki interview by Eclypsia.com (French)

Original interview: http://www.eclypsia.com/fr/shenmue/actualites/shenmue-3-interview-de-yu-suzuki-a-la-gamescom-2017-23773

Shenmue 3: Interview with Yu Suzuki at Gamescom 2017

At Gamescom 2017, we were able to talk with Yu Suzuki about Shenmue III.
A few days ago, Yu Suzuki was present in Cologne for the Gamescom 2017. For a few minutes we were able to talk to him and ask him some questions about Shenmue III.

Here is the full report of this exchange.

Eclypsia: Before speaking about Shenmue III, is this your first time in Cologne and / or Europe?

Yu Suzuki: This is actually the second time I've been here in Cologne and as for Europe, I came here 5 to 10 times, I cannot remember exactly. As for the Gamescom itself, I do not have enough time to go for a walk in the public area, being caught by the interviews for the game. I should nevertheless be able to take a few hours to go see what it is, see what happens overall.

E: Let's get to the heart of the matter, are you satisfied so far with the direction of development of the game?

YS: Things are going very well. Recently, and thanks to the signing of our partnership with Deep Silver which will publish Shenmue III, I can devote myself fully to the development process.

E: What have been (and still are) the most complicated challenges in the development of this sequel, so long after the previous episode? Has your vision of the game (Shenmue III) changed during this time or are we going to be entitled to what you had initially in mind?

YS: As for the general concept of the game, it has never changed in my mind and I have kept the same line in mind from the beginning. At the same time, everything related to technology, gameplay as a whole and even my development team has changed. My real challenge has therefore been to adapt myself as much as possible to what had evolved drastically during all those years that separate Shenmue II from Shenmue III.

E: At the level of history itself, you have kept the original idea?

YS: Exactly. With regards to Shenmue, everything works through chapters and from the beginning, I imagined the sequel from a certain angle, which I could not change.

E: Many fans of the Shenmue franchise have been waiting for this game for many years and are probably having high expectations, are you afraid to disappoint this specific part of hardcore fans?

YS: Totally. I really have a lot of pressure, but at the same time, I attach great importance to it. I can’t necessarily do according to the desires of the players, but my goal is obviously to satisfy everyone, especially the fans of the first hour.

E: Shenmue in his time revolutionized the genre with an utterly realistic and coherent universe. Virtually 20 years later, how have you gone about offering a game of the same caliber again?

YS: I sincerely believe that the work I do is unique. My goal is not necessarily to create something fundamentally new or which is considered new, but I think that by simply following my instinct, I can create something meaningful. Generally speaking, when I share ideas with my development team, we often have big debates about how to approach things, and they sometimes have a hard time understanding my point of view. By continually exchanging our views, we come to find the perfect balance between my way of seeing things and the way they have to apply it. It is surely this complete alchemy that allows us to propose things of this sort.

E: For a few years now, Open-World games have swarmed from everywhere, even being for some, real gold mines at the level of the present characters, possible interactions and global coherence of the game. Did this force you to revise upwards the third episode realization?

YS: In reality, I do not pay much attention to it and hasn’t a lot of impact, simply because I don’t really play a lot of games myself. As you know, Shenmue III is developed on Unreal Engine 4 and if I had to do a research work, the focus was more on that side. Indeed, I gave priority to the technical aspect in order to avoid any weakness from this point of view, rather than watching what was done from the competitors to find where to position myself.

E: Have you planned some kind of system that would allow players who have never played Shenmue I and II to still enjoy the III as it should?

YS: Let's make a quick parallel by using a film saga like Spider Man. If you start watching the saga with the third episode, you will understand the movie, even if you have not watched the previous episodes before. But at the same time, you will appreciate it even more if you have followed the adventure since the beginning of the saga. It was necessary to make sure that the people who would start playing Shenmue with number III would still be able to enjoy the experience at its best. However, you will really enjoy the game to the fullest if you have played previous episodes. Because of that we have incorporated a lot of features that will link to the previous opuses, such as the ability to pass a phone call to Shenmue characters or Shenmue II.

E: Last question about music. How important is this aspect to you in developing the game?

YS: I'm really convinced that the music and the sound atmosphere have an essential role in the development of a game and this is one of my priorities. For me there are three highly important aspects to abide by: Everything that concerns the interactivity within the game, then the graphics and finally the music. These three things are an indissociable whole for me to really make a special universe.

________________________________________
Shenmue III is planned on Playstation 4 and PC at the end of 2018



Note: I've first google translated the French interview and then proof read the result and made some adjustments to ensure that no questions or answers were distorted.
Please, keep in mind that English isn't my first language and therefore, I cannot guarantee my translation is 100% accurate.
If something sounds odd in the interview, just ask and I'll double check.

Wow! An amazing find by Shenmue Forever‏ on twitter. Lan di and Niao sun are in the teaser! Probably an Easter egg.

https://twitter.com/ShenmueForever/stat ... 2827518976

Same shit, different month:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=50539&p=1146391&hilit=Shenmue+pack#wrap

It's the same retailer that has had it posted since January, back then with an April release date. Not real.

More money, expanded scope, slightly larger development team, and allowing Yu more time to devote to development.

The Deep Silver deal seems to have unanimously been a good decision.

Now beware kids!

I'm pretty happy with what I saw in the trailer. Being able to expand it to be what Yu Suzuki has always wanted Shenmue 3 to be is an incredible dream come true. Not just for him, but for all of us fans as well. I'm really excited and I'm hoping that this game does well enough that it pushes passed the criticisms of modern day skeptics and trolls and allows YsNet to create a fourth and final game in the series. Having an ending... a conclusion to the narrative has been a long time coming.

Well, I figured I can't make videos on my YouTube channel for every little thing that I wan't to say about Shenmue so I took the great example that is Switch's Phantom River Stone and made my own little Shenmue blog!

Yeah I know, name and design are "very" creative but it's just purpouseful. Not much to see on there yet but I'm sure there'll be many thing to post about and lots of content in the near future.

BlueMue's Shenmue Blog

Well it was a net-negative and wasn't there some crazy statistic out there that everyone who owned a dreamcast would of had to buy two copies of shenmue for it to of been profitable?

I wonder if Sega even intended from the beginning for Shenmue to make any money and instead was developed to be a shield to protect the dreamcast upon the looming doom of the ps2,how Yu managed to swindle so much cash out of Sega and keep the development going for 5 years is quite remarkable

they would have recouped most of the investment by Shenmue II and turned a profit by Shenmue III (hence the whole everyone would have to buy 2 copies thing. the budget was the groundwork for 5 games, not 1 game) had the Dreamcast not failed.

it's the failure of the dreamcast that brought the series down more than anything, because the game was supposed to be part of Sega's massive library of exclusive titles. for what it's worth, Virtua Fighter, the Sega Sports published NBA 2K games, Sega GT and other first party titles like Jet Set Radio and Sonic, were all industry leading games at the time in terms of innovation and critical reception. There were also a lot of innovative titles that, while not great, were certainly more unique than any other console's first party lineup, like Space Channel 5 and Seaman.

In the context of that suite of exclusive first party titles that dwarfed other console's first party exclusives, Shenmue was also an investment in the console itself. but it was just one out of many. it was not a hail mary pass or Sega putting all their eggs in one basket.


I don't think Shenmue was the one game that was supposed to save the Dreamcast. They didn't see the console's failure coming. I think that their calculation was, based on the assumption that the console would survive, that even if they were third behind Sony and Nintendo they would still be in the hardware market and it would be a strong addition to the console's exclusive library, and because it had a major industry company behind it rather than just a game developer, they could recoup the profit over 5 games instead of one, thereby creating a series on a bigger scale than anyone else could. which would have been an achievement both in terms of software project of its own, and the cachet it would bring to the console. Sega was in both the hardware and software business. but I doubt they assumed everyone who owned a Dreamcast would buy the game, or that it was the singular main attraction on the console.

basically, Shenmue needed the Dreamcast to be possible more than the Dreamcast needed Shenmue.

it had a good chance of being adopted by the fanbases of other consoles, (PS2 and Gamecube) had the first game at least been ported to another console.

by only releasing the second game on the Xbox, they fragmented the market multiple times- by region, by the majority of the dreamcast fanbase being more likely to have a PS2, and by the game already having been released on different consoles in Europe, Japan and the US.

if you look at every other Sega franchise and Dreamcast exclusive from that era, like Virtua Fighter, Crazy Taxi and Sonic all the games ported to PS2 and Gamecube did well, while the Xbox exclusives like Jet Set Radio flopped. i don't think it's an unreasonable assumption that neither Shenmue nor Jet Set Radio would have been flops on PS2 or Gamecube.



the strategy of trying to reach new fans with just the second game was the first mistake in trying to keep the series going after the Dreamcast, and this was made much worse by xbox exclusivity.

fortunately Shenmue III is on PS4 and Steam, and is releasing to a totally different market landscape for games, so at the very least it's going to do better than Shenmue II.

it's unfair to say that Shenmue was responsible for bankrupting Sega, because they were invested in developing and publishing so many big budget first party titles, way more than Sony Microsoft and Nintendo had, so Sega's strategy of investing extensively in software, perhaps at the expense of developing a more powerful console or making sure that other developers supported their console more, is a much broader issue of strategy than whether Shenmue was a colossal failure or not.

a look at the wikipedia article for the Dreamcast seems to bear out my theory-

"Sega spent US$50–80 million on hardware development, $150–200 million on software development, and $300 million on worldwide promotion—a sum which Irimajiri, a former Honda executive, humorously compared to the investments required to design new automobiles.[32][45]"

if shenmue was a failure, then so was every other Dreamcast exclusive. really the failure was the console's hardware and marketing. it was the weakest of its generation of consoles, and the extent of sega's software strategy, where they were investing heavily to be competitive in genres that other first party developers wouldn't go, like sports, ended up alienating EA which was a pretty decisive factor in the console ultimately failing to gain widespread popularity.

it turned out a lot of developers didn't want to have to compete with that many first party titles in a marketplace where the first party manufacturer is that deep into the software market, with that much of a competitive advantage in software development resources as well as marketing if they were going to invest in supporting sega's console. First party developers don't have to pay themselves royalty fees either, which also worked against developers' perception of Sega and the Dreamcast.

Nintendo had first party franchises that no third party developers really saw themselves competing against directly, Sony and Microsoft had only a handful of major first party exclusives- they opted for the more ultimately successful strategy of subsidising other developers' games in exchange for timed exclusivity.

if you're namco developing Tekken 4, you're probably not going to want to have to pay royalties to the company that makes Virtua Fighter 4 and still have to compete against that game when Sega has more resources than you and doesn't lose any profits on royalties. I guess this was the issue a lot of developers had with the Dreamcast, and with the level of investment EA needed with licenses for their sports titles, there's no wonder they didn't want to support the Dreamcast. Who wants to put money in their competitor's pockets when there's that much investment at stake?

Sega tried to take the best of Nintendo and Sony's approaches to the PS1/64 generation, but unfortunately the market trend away from the primacy of first party games and towards third party titles solidified with the PS2 generation and the Dreamcast had the wrong approach.

it's probably small consolation to Sega, but all that investment in software is also the Dreamcast has more of a cult following than any past console aside from the NES/SNES.

Here is my translation of that Yu interview in the German magazine.
I didn't translate everything because some of the questions are just about Yu's hobbies etc.
I'm not a native english speaker, i tried my best.

Question 1 to Yu:
You said that Shenmue 3 will be bigger than you thought at first?

Yu's answer:
Yes, the game will probably be three times as big as i had in mind at the beginning. One of the villages has over 200 residents now instead of just 50. This village alone is five times bigger than i had in mind.

Question 2 to Yu:
But still - Shenmue 3 has not the same budget as 1 or 2. What do you have to change in the game because of that?

Yu's answer:
The story is still intact but i had to adjust some of the extra elements and details. We talked about the 200 people in that village - maybe we will even have 400 in the end, i didn't decide yet. You have to remember that all the city / village residents in 1 & 2 had a "real" simulated life, thats a really complicated and tough quest and the budget for Shenmue 3 is probably not big enough to do that again.

Question 3 to Yu:
Will there be voices and sound for everything in the game?

Yu's answer:
We don't know yet. To tell the truth - the amount of text is getting bigger and bigger and not all of it is planned, so we don't know if all of it will be available with sound.

Question 4 to Yu:
Will you use the voice actors from 1 & 2?

Yu's answer:
Ryo's english and japanese voice will be the same in Shenmue 3. I can't tell you anything about the other people yet.

Question 5 to Yu:
Shenmue 3 will be only available on PS4 and PC, why is that?

Yu's answer:
That's simple - it's just because of our partnership with Sony and their support at the E3 2015.

Question 6 to Yu:
Did you ever thought about how you could tell the story without a real Shenmue 3?

Yu's answer:
Yes, i thought about a mobile game before.

Question 7 to Yu:
There were a lot of critical responses for the Shenmue 3 teaser. What would you tell the people who feel dissappointed?

Yu's answer:
We don't have any facial expressions in the game right now and none of the character models are final yet. So it will look different and better in the final game. The teaser is not representing the quality of the final game, we are still in the middle of developing. And of course you have to remember the budget. The budget is good enough for our game, but its pretty small if you compare it to other games right now. We can't keep up with big modern games. We would need a way bigger budget (ten times bigger than now) to make perfect modern graphics. So we need to find a good middle way between good graphics and good content. Please don't expect highend graphics, Shenmue 3 is not about that.

Edit - the translation of the additional info box in that magazine:

Shenmue 3 will turn out bigger because of the partnership with Deep Silver.
The shown teaser was just released because they wanted to celebrate that partnership.
(they had the teaser ready before that, but couldnt decide if they should release it or not)

Shenmue 3 starts with chapter 6 but Shenmue 3 is not the end of the Shenmue story.
The original Shenmue story was planned for four or five games in total,
it would be too much story content for Shenmue 3.
There will be flashbacks in Shenmue 3, so that everyone understands whats going on.
Shenmue 3 will not have any online options and the fighting will be easier (adjusted to match modern games)

Personally I reckon the best thing to use is social media. I always had huge doubts about the "tweetathon" and wrote it off, but lo and behold it fucking worked. Screenshots of visuals, using non-Shenmue hash tags, sharing clips n beauty shots on PSN (and Xbox Live if it ends up on there) can be enough to stoke interest.

There's been a few occasions where I've gone out of my way to get a game solely because of shit like this. One that sticks out in particular is Papers, Please. A simple tweet from an old college mate saying that it's one of the most oddly engaging experiences he had playing a game saw me play it every day for a week. I didn't end up buying it coz I was skint at the time, but that's not gonna be true of everyone.

I'm sure as well that a few on here will have mates that only really dabble in games and will buy based off your recommendations. Focus on them and emphasise the fact it isn't a JRPG. People don't really have time for that. Speaking of, let them know it's a game that they can play at their own pace, much like Skyrim or GTA.

I guess what it boils down to is focusing less on the aspects that made you fall in love with the series and more on what they look for in a game. Simple shit like "yeah, it feels proper like a film but you do it moment to moment like in 24", "it's coz these proper mint action sequences", "it's open world, there's no guns, but the fighting's like proper martial arts shit n the combos aren't stupidly long", "it's set in the 80's man!" Things like that.

While buying multiple copies can generate high sales figures, companies aren't stupid. They can tell the demand for something by the sheer volume of people talking about it. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc have made this much easier to track, so the more "legitimate" noise it makes the better. I have a feeling that multiple purchases could be detrimental in some way or another. All it takes is one journalist to catch wind of it and write an article on it.

^ Thank you.
I get it. Shenmue I and II were cutting edge when they came out. Shenmue III probably won't be. It only exists in the form it exists because no one wanted to take a chance on it and the fans had to push it over the finish line. Now the fans are turning their backs on the team and crying about every little piece of information the team shares with us. It's distressing and counterproductive, and I hope Ys Net doesn't spend much time reacting to the feedback that's all over the internet (I doubt they are).

If you can't accept the fact that Shenmue III isn't a game with a $100-million budget and that it's still deep in development, just give up. There's no hope for you.

I, on the other hand, can't wait to play it. Maybe it's not the game I dreamed of, but I'm sure it'll be close. It's certainly better than a game that would've never existed.

It's just a test video showing off some work in progress facial animations. Why are people crying about this? It is in no way, shape or form indicative of the final product so why are some idiots treating it like that? Damn, gamers are a freaking whiny bunch.

^ Thank you.
I get it. Shenmue I and II were cutting edge when they came out. Shenmue III probably won't be. It only exists in the form it exists because no one wanted to take a chance on it and the fans had to push it over the finish line. Now the fans are turning their backs on the team and crying about every little piece of information the team shares with us. It's distressing and counterproductive, and I hope Ys Net doesn't spend much time reacting to the feedback that's all over the internet (I doubt they are).

If you can't accept the fact that Shenmue III isn't a game with a $100-million budget and that it's still deep in development, just give up. There's no hope for you.

I, on the other hand, can't wait to play it. Maybe it's not the game I dreamed of, but I'm sure it'll be close. It's certainly better than a game that would've never existed.

It is distressing. Just a few years ago, Shenmue III didn't exist. Now it does. Then many were questioning the game's development because YS Net wasn't showing anything. Now they are, and people are STILL complaining.

I get it too. Blind fanboy-faith won't get anyone anywhere. But it just seems that many are really just LOOKING for a reason to hate on a game that has a fraction of the budget that the previous games in the series did, and is still clearly in development. It's like they're judging a book before it's even been fucking written, let alone its cover. People will find a reason to hate on anything if they try hard enough.

I for one have been really happy with the development so far. If this game was scheduled to be released next month, then I'd be worried. But since it still has like, more than a year to go, then it's all good.

I get it too. Blind fanboy-faith won't get anyone anywhere.

I may end lynched for what I'm going to say, but I don't agree on that. Not fully at least.

I personally think that, as the Shenmue fanbase, we should be a little bit fanboys.

There is more than enough people jumping on every single occasion to bash Shenmue or Yu Suzuki for many various reasons. There is more than enough people wanting Shenmue to fail for many various reasons.

I don't say we need to be blinded by our passion for the Shenmue Series but we need to be united and put things in perspective when a mere 53 seconds video update for Kickstarter backers is enough to see wagons of people use it to bash Shenmue 3 or insult Yu Suzuki's talent.

it's a crowdfunded project, we get to see steps of the development we usually never see. I can agree that the communication around the project is not good, but that doesn't mean that the game won't be good in the end.

What good can come out from joining the chorus of critics? What good can come out from telling to YsNet and Yu Suzuki that they are bad at making a game? That the artistic direction is wrong, the Ryo model is off, etc...?
They know what they are doing and are doing the best they can anyway.
Just think of the Deep Silver partnership: Suzuki San always knew he would need more budget to achieve what he has in mind for Shenmue 3 so he managed to increase the budget. For a man who never gave up on his dream to continue the Shenmue story, the least we can do is to keep our faith in him.

Until Shenmue 3 is released, the best attitude the Shenmue fan base can adopt is to be supportive of the development team efforts.

Now, let the lynching begin.

Perhaps, we can fund billboards, "Have you see any Sailors? Call 1-800-Shen-mue" that turns into a real life promotional Shenmue-esque mystery?

or perhaps, we try to get a Shenmue III trailer in theaters around the world?

"A sequel nearly 20 years in the making..." may spark some interest in the mainstream alone.

We can even promote a backer-created puzzle in Shenmue III that the first solvers win a prize for?

I don't know. We have to try something.

I backed at $100 on the Kickstarter. You give them all that info on the questionnaire that they will send you. They are working on those now and should be out probably earlier next year I would imagine.
I looked on the website and that only talks about if you want the PS4 or PC version. I guess time will tell.

The questionnaire will have various things on it including...
- Which version of the game you want
- Where to send physical items too
- What name you want put in the credits

There will possibly be other things as well, but those are the main ones.

Jesus Christ. :lol:
I don't think I've ever seen anyone make such a big fuss over a logo. And no, not just in this topic, but ever since SIII was announced I've been hearing the same stuff.
The absolute least important thing about the entire game, and people still get uppity about it. Absolute gold. =D>

Peter has just opened a new Youtube channel dedicated to Shenmue where he intends to stream Shenmue at least 3 times a week.

Check out the video below for more details

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A04vV8hyCLE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrMXhLoFEbI

Looks awesome. Cant wait to see more and best of luck Peter.

Sounds like bollocks to me.

Tweeting completed. I am now a Twit.

Peter,

I've had an idea for your streams. when you next stream why not have the character profiles at hand and whenever you come across an npc that you're curious about you can read their profile. there is tonnes of interesting info in those profiles. just a little something extra to do in the slower moments of the game. maybe this is more appropriate for the legacy steam.
keep up the good work, I'm enjoying them!

Being a rabid fanboy is a double-edged sword. On one side it's thanks to fanboyism that we got as far as $6 million for a crowdfunded project. But in the other end of the spectrum unrealistic expectations sets in pretty hard for them to the point that fans will criticize anything that does not look like an exact copy/paste from the past games, like even a freaking new logo that the own creator spent hours designing by hand! There are some that would even go as far as threaten the team if their demands of receiving solid updates are not met. Entitlement as its best.

I'm not sure what is the idealized story every fan has for the series, but if they are really worried about that kind of stuff just watch the Shenmue Postmortem 2014 GDC video. A lot can be inferred from that presentation on a closer inspection and I find the concept story arc to be quite poignant and it should have a strong emotional weight by the end of the journey, specially for the players who have stuck with Ryo since the very first game. If the plan is still to stick to that very initial concept I would find the story to be quite epic and satisfying.

Anyway, 14 years of constant outcry for a sequel and now that is a reality, doubts and criticism about the game development suddenly sets in? Well, we had 14 YEARS to make up our fucking mind for that. Even if it fails miserably, we had our wish granted and always the first two games to look up to as masterpieces. Nothing is going to change that.

It's great we're letting some guy who's making us all look like idiots and now harassing Yu Suzuki still post here.

Cedric lied about something? What did he lie about?

well he forwarded us to look at the PlayStation presentation hinting there would be some Shenmue 3 reveal
(to no avail)
people like to forget it like it didn't happen.
but it happened

Dude, stop being so entitled. He didn't promise you or anyone shit. He just gave an implication that it MIGHT have been a possibility. If you would like to see how Cedric and others related to Shenmue 3 promotion handle promise that were actually made, please take a look at the Gamescom and Magic announcements, they promised Shenmue 3 stuff would be there and guess what? Shenmue 3 stuff was there! There were zero promises for E3, PGW, or PSX. BUT there is one for this year's MAGIC next month.

SO IF we don't get any Shenmue 3 stuff in February, then you'd have a right to complain but until then you should just cool it because your yapping sounds like a whiny 4-year old that gets upset with their mum because she said they miiiiiiiiight go and get ice cream later, and gets pissy that they didn't go.

Yu has the licence to make 3 from SEGA. I would think that would include trademarks and copyrights.

In terms of the first 2 games he does not have the licence to make them but has access to the assests from the games as part of the process to make 3. I know he is using music previously recorded for 2 in 3 and was talking about having playable flashback scenes.

While waiting for new Shenmue 3 material (MAGIC can't come fast enough!) here are a few fan artworks illustrating what could be the Magic Weather System in Shenmue 3.

https://i.imgur.com/uWAR4Nn.jpg
Original artwork (Gamescom 2017)

https://i.imgur.com/z9gJAKN.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ME8kINX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/mAqtYig.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/9ge8XhY.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/3zMby5O.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NSQM1e5.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/k9Ec6aA.jpg

The new character model looks really great! :D

Sega Europe just posted a poll on their Twitter account.



It's a good opportunity to show them once again what they should already know ;)

https://twitter.com/SEGA_Europe/status/ ... 9245514752

https://i.imgur.com/5eFlJLv.png

Sega Europe have posted a poll on their official Twitter asking fans to name their favourite console and video game.

Please take this opportunity to vote for Shenmue while reminding them of the importance of releasing HD versions of both titles before Shenmue 3 arrives later this year.

Visit this link to vote and remember to use the #SaveShenmueHD hashtag in any tweet you make!

mjq jazz bar wrote: Wow, is that true? He's the same guy who posted the thread about Shenmue Legend/himself on Resetera. lol

That's very sad. He must be craving attention.

Why have I been banned? I thought it was a 7 day suspension?
You will forever be banned, you are not welcome here. No matter how many accounts you make because all you do is annoy others with your trolling and pestering others on Twitter.

According to the IP checks, you and Shenmue_Legend are one and the same.

I haven't got time for your split personality, so do one.

It would be cool if the facts thread contained citations and links to sources.
I agree, this would be very useful - although a big job to go in now and apply them retroactively.
It was an oversight at first, but the bigger and bigger the OP became, the more it became a case of laziness on my part. I'll work on this at the weekend, hopefully, now I know it's something people would like :)

Before anyone gets their hopes up, no, Shenmue III will not be at the Magic Pre-Conference today. How do I know? Well, I don't "know", but I know. Wait until late Feburary. We will finally see what Shenhua's hat looks like.

Yes, you know.

http://i.cubeupload.com/GKq9Gq.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/sX4nKr.jpg

http://i.cubeupload.com/zz4PGm.jpg

MAGIC 2018 Press conference, filmed by Shenmue Master:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f5M6u51wpo

Mod Edit:

They are official and are from the Magic Monaco pre-conference, details below:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/magic-monaco-2018-24-feb-new-screenshots-gameplay-for-shenmue-3-live-demo-of-vampyr.16808/

- New screenshots and gameplay details on Shenmue III are expected at Magic Monaco 2018

I read my email history and it's the first time they talk about Magic 2018. In addition, I knew that Yu Suzuki will be there but I was not sure whether there would be a conference so I do appreciate the clarification.

I believe Yu has always said he'll hold a firm hand with publishers prior to signing any deal, especially where full creative control is concerned. I cannot see the Deep Silver agreement causing any major issues.