Hard to get nice screenshots with games cluttered with onscreen info, but I really wanted to give a shout out to a game I might like even more than the Souls series (neck to neck tbh)... Dragon's Dogma

https://s1.postimg.org/11vz9927ov/Dragon_s_Dogma_Char.png
https://s1.postimg.org/8e05gz98r3/Dragon_s_Dogma_Screen.png
https://s1.postimg.org/7rzp4ieslb/Dragon_s_Dogma_Hydra_1.png
https://s1.postimg.org/13carr5d5r/Dragon_s_Dogma_Hydra.png

Doubt anyone with Bill Gates' kind of money is going to dump $50 million into a game that's of no interest or benefit to them. Would be nice in a different world.

I know. But, it's still possible and is also the best thing I could think of.

Hmm you also could think of becoming an overnight multi-millionaire yourself by ways of staking your entire house and savings on low odds gambling, winning the lottery and/or playing with derivatives on the stock market, and donating about $50 million of the winnings for the cause in the end. You can keep the rest, for you know, future or something. And not mentioning that Yu would be even more proud of your deed because you are a true fan, unlike Bill Gates. IT IS STILL POSSIBLE.

I finally took the courage to start doing martial arts again (Jiujitsu). I did a lot of Karate and Kickboxing before entering college, but after so many years in the workforce I felt a bit uncoordinated and too old to go for it again. What really got me to do it is the fact that I started to show symptoms of depression over the years and I don't often exercise as much as I used to.
Sure, I hit the gym here and then but it was not enough to instill a sense of discipline and motivation in me.

Holy crap, I've got great news. I contacted a company sometime ago and asked them for a donation and they now contacted me back saying they are closely looking into the request. Then I had a live chat with one of the guys, and it went really well. Oh damn, if it happens then WOW! It's gonna be crazy!

Great news! So you managed to talk yourself to Microsoft after all. When are you finally gonna meet Bill Gates himself? Keep us posted on the $50 mil donation!

Why would bill gates donate? What would he even get out of it?

Well, instead of ending world hunger or building schools for the poorest he will get the official title of Shenmue Legend. And when he does, all Shenmue fanboys around the globe can't help but endorse the new XBone X (even though there will be no Shenmue 3 on it).That alone should be worth more than $50M, right? Gates is all business man. He's got no time for world problems.

https://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Kowloon-VR_10-03-17.jpg

This VR game gives you a glimpse of what the ultimate Shenmue experience could be like on the exploration side (as in Shenmue 2's Kowloon segment), though this particular game leans towards the thriller horror.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny4y1a7svTk
https://youtu.be/5ppgC2-CtwU?t=51

Like Shenmue 3, Kowloon's Gate VR: Suzaku is a totally crowdfunded game, stemming from a cult classic PS1 game.
Available on the Japanese PS Store, it's too bad we won't likely see it in the west.

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.

^ Damn. With your talent for headhunting investors left and right, Shenmue 4 & 5 should be already a guaranteed green-lit project given time. Have you thought of applying for a position in YsNet or even better, Awesome Japan, as you have this knack of bringing investors in? I'm sure they'd love you over there. TBH your skills are kinda wasted here on the forum with just winning a couple of awards, but congratz anyway!

No, it's because Ys Net take a while to reply back. Unfortunately, that's why it's taking so long but can't blame them since they're busy with development. Will keep everyone posted!

That's unfortunate. If only someone could hand to you Yu's personal phone number... I'm sure only good things could come out of it. Too bad... Back to tweet millionaires I guess.

Lately I've been reminiscing about gaming and pondered about why after so many years of gaming (including skipping a couple of console generations) I still regard Shenmue as my personal greatest of all time. I managed to tie down the reasons to my fondest gaming experiences. As a kid my favorite genres were beat'em ups and fighting. The first game I ever owned and played was Streets of Rage and back then even though I was already aware the game didn't have the complex mechanics of a Street Fighter 2, it had instead that extra layer of immersion to it as my avatar could traverse its world while beating up people. It was like living in a martial arts world from those Hong Kong action flicks.

Later in the 90's I discovered and fell in love with LucasArts' games like The Secret of Monkey Island, Full Throttle and The Dig. And beyond I found the eye-popping semi-realistic worlds of Gabriel Knight, Broken Sword, The Last Express and Phantasmagoria. The adventure genre was king to me because the visuals and immersion were above anything else in other genres, with your character interacting with animated npcs with more than 1 liners and manipulating objects in the background or the scenery itself to advance the game.

And then came Shenmue, adding all what I came to love in games and scale the meshing elements to a 3D space, what at the time it looked to me to be an one-to-one digital replica of a real town. Back then I thought this game was just made for me and still today, that feeling has never left as I couldn't find anything quite like it.

MAGIC 2018 Participation Info
Posted by Ys Net (Creator)
日本語はこちら

Hello Everyone,

As some fans may already know, MAGIC (Monaco Anime Game International Conferences) is coming up to be held on February 24th. We are happy to announce director Yu Suzuki will once again be making an appearance!

https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/019/876/363/3c3ba0e51eec7426698933efead38322_original.png?w=639&fit=max&v=1516065722&auto=format&lossless=true&s=211508898e93497af828b7886b2a2cf0

MAGIC is organized by Shibuya Productions who’s CEO, Cédric Biscay, is co-producer of Shenmue III. The event hosts conferences for manga artists and game creators as well as gaming, cosplay and manga contests.

A conference with Yu Suzuki is planned for the day. Once details have been worked out with participating partners, we will have an update to follow up.

Please see the official MAGIC site for more information on the day’s schedule.

Thank you as always for your continued support!

I just found out about the Fatal Frame movie. Has anyone here seen it? Is worth watching?

From what I remember it was actually not bad. It's a coming of age lesbian drama with a horror mystery theme to it. The movie is way too slow for my liking and the acting lackluster, but I did like the rite of passage theme and the ending which I think it was the best one from all the movies based on a videogame. Though I have never really played a Fatal Frame game, I believe it's only loosely based on the franchise and so, said that I'd rather recommend better movies like The Wailing or A Tale of Two Sisters than this one for a similar Asian eerie horror type of experience.

When a project that 'claimed to be set up and determined by a kickstarter campaign decides to hide information, lie and ignore the said donors then I feel scam is the only word to describe it. Nice to see an ad hominem attack thrown in as an after thought or in the absence of thought entirely.

Hiding information, lie? What are you talking about? And what donors? This is no charity. Most of us if not all are not giving money away for free out of kindness. People are basically purchasing a tee or digital copy of the game at the very least. It's very far fetched to call the project a scam when names like Sony, which are getting an exclusive console release out of the deal, and Deep Silver, which very recently published a very commercially successful Kickstarter game, are attached to Shenmue 3.

In fact your "complaint" posts seem more likely a scam, a trick, dishonest attempt at discord when you are actually trying to fish for views and subscribers for your channel. This is clear when you keep asking us to watch your video in order for us to counter or agree with your supposed in-depth arguments at every post of yours. If you want to be part of this community and have something to say just straight up type your points right here. We can read. And yes, we noticed you posting your same video in multiple topics btw.

http://c-6rtwjumjzx7877x24anlsjyyjx2ebnpnfx2esthttpnjx2esjy.g00.wikia.com/g00/3_c-6zshmfwyji.bnpnf.htr_/c-6RTWJUMJZX77x24myyux78x3ax2fx2fanlsjyyj.bnpnf.sthttpnj.sjyx2fzshmfwyjix2fnrfljx78x2f3x2f34x2fItzlmszy_Iwfpj_ozrunsl_tajw_htajw.OULx2fwjanx78ntsx2fqfyjx78yx2fx78hfqj-yt-bniym-itbsx2f355x3fhgx3d75665457568977_$/$/$/$/$/$/$/$/$/$?i10c.ua=1
Doughnut Drake. It seriously enhanced the experience playing the games with it. His voice changes as well lol.

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/residentevil/images/4/40/0314_-_Resident_Evil_-_Deadly_Silence_33_18830.png/revision/latest/zoom-crop/width/480/height/480?cb=20141020103528&format=webp
Resident Evil Chris Original Playstation Costume. Just 'cause leather jackets can't go wrong in a survival horror setting. Ask Leon about it.

https://cdn.capcom-unity.com/capcom-unity.com/user/strumslinger/large/41726be31180c073461090ba6aaf21bf.jpg?v=201600
Interpol Agent Chun-li Costume. Something I'd expect a real life Chun-li would wear in a fight or mission, and it's not a mod.

Deadly Premonition's director Swery just launched a new Kickstarter project, The Good Life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrWOdfs8QDQ

And here is the prototype trailer presented at PAX WEST for his then failed Fig campaign last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MzVVp-aqUs

For more details go to the Kickstarter campaign main page.

EDIT: I just noticed that the creator of the Panzer Dragoon trilogy is the creative director for this game!

Also the ammount asked is crazy high (well, less than a half of what he originally asked for, and even less of what the other ammounted), for a game that seems kinda hit or miss, with no real name behind it (really, sweary just hit gold with DP, the kind of B movie turned cult classic kind of gold).

You have no idea how many people out there thought the same about the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter back then and still up to today. Btw Yukio Futatsugi, creator of the Panzer Dragoon trilogy, is a beloved name and he is the creative director for this game. Besides, not many people may know it but SWERY worked on one of the best 2D fighting games ever, The Last Blade.

Most of the money gets done in the first and last days, it's high because it's a big ammount for a game in general (specially for one lowpoly made on unity), and it looks scammy that they're now asking the same ammount of money they got in the old crowdfounding.


Isn't ironic Shenmue 3 fans getting to call other Kickstarter games a scam but when it's the other way around it is a sacrilege :D ?

EDIT: Also wasn't him working on another project ? Or relaunching a kickstarter was the "secret project" ?

Still happening, but that seems to be a game developed by Arc System Works rather than Swery's studio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16QsRYKMdhU

I'm not sure what's the big deal with these cutscenes being widescreen or not. Wasn't the whole Shenmue HD thing a mean to generate serious interest outside the core fanbase towards the third game and revitalize the brand? It's not like most here never played a HD version of these games already. Newcomers will likely see this game for what it really is, straight forward HD ports of almost 20 years old games, $15 per game... just a little bit more than having a port of GTA: San Andreas on your smartphone. Not having widescreen for cutscenes might even work in favor for the modern gamer as it can work as a visual cue for putting the controller down. There are already talks about skipping time in Shenmue 1 and having a side map on screen, so it's not much of a stretch imo.

And unfortunately, Shenmue is not Metal Gear or Uncharted. Those franchises actually turn a profit for their publishers. If Sega was really serious about dumping money on Shenmue HD, we wouldn't have had to wait two decades for the company to start doing something with the series after throwing the franchise's future to the whims of crowdfunding. Let's be thankful we are having something right now. Down the road, if Shenmue HD turns out great sales wise from gamers in general, Sega might be convinced to hire someone like the folks at Bluepoint and have an actual remake a la SOTC. When you think about that prospect, stuff like widescreened cutscenes on HD ports are such minor issues to be worried about. Well, at least that's my two cents on the issue.

^ Can't blame them. People tend to be mesmerized on graphics and plot over anything else, trying hard to tie games' cinematic value as close to film, and so validating their hobby as art.

Haven't played it yet, but the vibes I'm getting from the game are the same ones I got from playing Horizon Zero Dawn, terrific on presentation but only okay everywhere else.

Just came across a very old tv show focused on videogames (and recently uploaded on Youtube) with a Shenmue segment on it. There's a small interview with Yu Suzuki and even a snippet of him doing martial arts choreography for the game! The show refers Yu as Game Guru for Sega Japan! :D Gold.

https://youtu.be/m_DegC2vwFA?t=293

^^^ oh wow that is alot of papers for a day of work. I can't really wait for a story trailer and gameplay footage. How long does the voice work last for a video game?

It will depend on how much dialogue said character will have, but apparently according to a professional an hour worth of finished recorded dialogue averages 5 hours of work for the voice actor plus 2 hours of editing per finished hourly dialogue. That is, if it's done professionally. Amateur or heavily budget constrained work will take way less time as the director might only opt for one take per line and be done with it.

Hum, all of this make me curious :
How much time worth of dialog will there be stored in the game ?
How much was it for SH1 and SH2 ?

I did a little digging around and found out that for the first game the script had about 42,000 lines of dialogue and a count of 330,000 English words, according to this community gaming database . If you take the average reading speed of 180 words per minute, the entire Shenmue 1 would have roughly over 30.5 hours of recorded dialogue audio. More surprisingly, the script was bigger than RPGs like the first Mass Effect and Tales of Vesperia!

Hopefully Shenmue 3's budget will hold and we can have once again a fully voiced game.

It seems to be impossible to find any pictures of the Dorikore version.
Does the cover it even look different, like the rest of this rerelease lineup?

It's just the standard edition with a sticker slapped onto it, labeled Dorikore and maybe an extra spine. I have it and would take a pic of it but I just moved, so that discounted version is buried somewhere among other piles of stuff. I will post a pic whenever I find it, but it is really nothing to write home about. I guess it's uncommon because like the limited edition the sticker was on top of a shrink wrap, so it is hard to locate a mint condition one nowadays.

Edit: Found a pic while browsing...
http://i57.tinypic.com/wsaesl.jpg

In the grand scheme of things, Shenmue was one of those wish scenarios of what if a talented game designer was given basically a blank cheque to do whatever he wanted for as long as he deemed necessary for a sole game project. Thus came Shenmue, a dream come true for any young videogame enthusiast like myself at the time looking for the most immersive gaming experience they could get their hands on. That itself is special because looking forward, how many more insanely high budget and ahead of its time games like Shenmue was in 1999 will we even have from now on, specially without the strings of having to inflate them with live service and microtransactions?

Previously banned member, alt account and the usual shitposting which will not be part of the site.

I can understand you are trying to keep excessive trolling out of the site, but may I ask what is exactly the level of shitposting acceptable in here from now on? The Haruto guy might have been a previous offender but the way I see it now his posts are pretty harmless specially when stacked with his contribution to the gaming section with new trailers and news. So once members are banned, will they be lockout for life? Do we get any warnings? Shouldnt the forum have some kind of guideline for tone and humour acceptable while posting? I don't get why even old time regulars Himuro and Bluecast were banned (or remain so). I'm asking because I'm kinda wary of attempting any lame jokes or even engage on any controversial discussions at the chance of being misunderstood as trolling or creating drama, when there were no such restrictions a year or so ago.