Thanks Switch!

Doesn't seem like we'll be getting the backer demo soon, but I like that Yu is considering a What's Shenmue-style bespoke quest. That'd be a great treat for fans who backed that tier.

Thanks again Switch!

Sounds like we'll have something big when we finally be able to play the game. Sounds very ambitious everything he is telling and I like the idea of the recalls that will have Ryo.

I'm always confident in the master Suzuki.

You're the man, Switch! Thanks a ton once again.

So, this quote from the Famitsu Gamescom interview probably means Deep Silver is funding all the remaining stretch goals and then some.

With Deep Silver to become our partner, I realized that we would be able to aim even higher than our initial goals. However, for that additional development time would be needed, so in order for us to adopt these, I set the release timing to the last half of 2018.

If that's true, this is truely fantastic news.

Great interview! Thank you very much Switch! Quick and efficient as the fox, as usual!

I just can't wait to chop wood (seriously!) and do some frogs race. :mrgreen:

That said, apart from hearing only exciting things about Yu's vision for Shenmue 3 gameplay, I'm a little bit surprised that apparently not everything has been decided about the "how".

My feeling is that they are going to struggle with the second half of 2018 release date, but again, I'm fine if they need more time for a release in 2019 (20 years after the first Shenmue!).

Now please SEGA... bring those damn remasters quickly!

Great job, as always, Switch! Thanks a lot!

This is a great interview. The fact that the Deep Silver partnership will allow for a more ambitious game is extremely exciting. Personally, I wouldn't mind if they delayed the game yet again, to 2019 (or maybe even 2020), if that meant that Shenmue 3 would be every bit as amazing and ambitious as the first two games.

Great interview Switch... I'm also excited for wood chopping. Hehe Now that there is more funding the game will probably be much bigger than intended.

Big thank you to Mr. Switch, as always.

This new Deep Silver funding may be the biggest news in Shenmue history.

Yu-san seemed adamant emphasizing that this new partnership will now enable Shenmue III to aim well beyond initial visions.

From this point forward, we may see drastic enhancements to Shenmue III's production, depth, and scale.

LET'S GET BEEFY !!!

\:D/ \:D/ \:D/

Thank you so much Switch! These news came as a remedy for me...

I was seriously worried by the lack of facial animation, but know I'm confident that there's still much work to do and the team will significantly improve the game.

When worldwide promotion begin, Shenmue would certainly have a total different treatment.

Just another point that worries me... the stories that will be made to tell newcomers about previous games.
Please don't do Street Fighter V cartoon stories like. That's just horrendous. Totally unprofessional on my view.

Switch if i ever meet you, remind me to buy you dinner and a beer. Your contributions to the community are always immaculate.

Great interview.

Anyone posting it to NeoGAF? I was banned after making three innocuous posts about Shenmue 3 two years ago (new account with no other posts). Not sure how you are able to maintain an active account there.

Thanks Switch for your quickness.

Q: Yesterday a teaser trailer for Shenmue 3 was released...

HM: Actually, we jumped the gun on it. [laughs]

YS: There's a huge uproar.

HM: It was really planned for today [the first day of Gamescom].

YS: Boy oh boy...

Glad they don't looked affected by the bad reception!

Thanks again for another translation!

I really hope the mainstream gaming media picks up on this.

Another great translation, of an equally great interview. Lots of insight, lots of reassurance.

Thanks a million, thanks a ton, thanks, thanks, thanks.... when will come the next interview Switch? lol

I've been playing Shenmue II for about fourteen years, and I just noticed the poem in the Thousand White Church. I took a photo with my phone, here's the poem:

A happy new year
Today is fine
Gone with window
A happy new year
Today is fine
Gone with window
Refining the vegetables
Refining the vegetables


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

Oh man, I'm still a bit exhausted from the trip and the whole event.

It was amazing to meet you guys! I was just too thrilled to have the chance to get together with other fans and to see Yu Suzuki in person, shake hands with him. I must've looked totally freaked out all the time. And then out of all the people they had to chose me, posing with Yu Suzuki, as the first picture in the article on that Japanese website... 8-[

I'll post some of my photographic impressions of the Gamescom compiled into a little video later today. Still trying to process all of this and catch up with everything here. I'm just so happy that everything worked out so nicely! =D>

The left side of the screen has others characters too apparently. Is the second one Chai???

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
Spoilers below - some more characters.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DH_TOTcXUAAyU1Y.jpg:large

Super interesting. Zoomed in a lot on this picture. The power point presentation itself is named New Characters 22-08-17. By looking at the page scroll on the left hand side, and by counting the amount of slider also, it looks like they have around 14-15 characters already model in this presentation!

If you look at the characters from the 4th and 5th slides, It looks like they match the concept art of those found on the boards in one of the screen shots? That could confirm that YSnet are using the boards as placeholders to show where those characters should go. (I can't find the image where someone zoomed in on the boards though :sad: ?).

This interview from 4gamers.net is going to be super interesting, we are so luck to have Switch in this community! Our hero! haha!

Hello guys,

2 new interviews have been posted on Japanese websites. Full translations will most likely be done by Switch I think, but I've decided to translate some stuff quickly on my free time.

Hope you'll like it !

https://s2.postimg.org/6be2u47rt/003.jpg

From Dengeki :

- Anticipated things (best 3) : 1. Continuation of the story, 2. Open World, 3. Forklifts

- Suzuki san thought at first that it'd be difficult to have something like an open world (because of the budget), but with the recent partnership with Deep Silver and development's improvements, he might be able to provide something that has the atmosphere of an open world. Volume of the 2nd area that we can see in the PV should be around 3 times bigger. That's also why they had to announce the delay, because the game's content has been improved and they need more time

- In the "Shenmue World", players can earn money through different ways like gambling, selling items (to a pawn shop for example) and purchase new moves (scrolls) to get stronger and beat a boss

- He's also talking about Shenmue's logo changes. "My father wrote Shenhua's kanji (莎花). And my mother worked on the "愛すべき友を持て" (Keep friends, those you love, close to you) calligraphy. However, I thought it'd be great if I could do it myself this time

https://s2.postimg.org/z2awk6dll/shenmue3_006_cs1w1_900x360.jpg

https://s2.postimg.org/6qty0vj2x/shenmue3_007_cs1w1_900x206.jpg

- Players who haven't played the first two games will have no problem playing the 3rd one. For Shenmue II, we added a 15 minutes movie of the first Shenmue so players could catch up, but this time we'll work on something more simple based on images and texts

https://s2.postimg.org/qmpxgf049/009.jpg

4Gamer :

Can you tell us why you decided to work with Deep Silver ?

- Suzuki san : We worked on the Kickstarter Campaign right after announcing the game and it was a success. However, it's difficult to do an open world with the budget we had, that's why we kept looking for a partner. They already worked with Sega in the past and they were a recommandation from people I trust

- About improvements, Suzuki san is providing an example. For the 2nd city we are going to visit in the game, they planned around 50 to 60 NPC, but now, this number could reach 200

- Shenmue III will start 6 hours after the end of Shenmue II

Other things are mostly stuff we already know like the phone calls etc.

Original links :

Dengeki

http://dengekionline.com/elem/000/001/580/1580312/

4Gamer

http://www.4gamer.net/games/305/G030593/20170824023/

That's it for now. Have a nice day !

- Pinball, punching ball and whac-a-mole as mini games.
- The new QTE system consists of QTEs based on "sounds" and "lights".

source: http://www.jeuxvideo.com/news/700176/ga ... ritage.htm

We did it!

For the exact wording:

As for anything released at gamescom, it will be made immediately available for the public. No worries there!

I think the key word is released here. The extended trailer hasn't been released. Kinda the opposite, kept captive.

All in all, it's not the biggest deal in the world. They've followed the letter of what they said, even if not exactly the spirit of it, and that's perfectly within their rights. Especially when they do need to play the media game, and give the press something to chew on.

As for it leaking out via phone, if it hasn't already it's not gonna, not by the media or Peter. The only way it would have anyway was if YSnet were okay with it, and if that was the case they could maybe have released the whole thing in the first place. If the media secretly films it, it's a breach of integrity and could get the leaker fired. If Peter films it, it's a breach of the trust of Yu Suzuki so he's obviously not going to do that.

We'll have to live without that extra minute & change for now.

We may get a treat by the end of the year according to what Suzuki San says in this interview:

https://www.gamekult.com/actualite/yu-suzuki-le-plus-difficile-est-de-creer-de-bons-personnages-3050797909.html

Tout d'abord, j'aimerais savoir pourquoi vous avez choisi de ne diffuser qu'une version raccourcie de la vidéo que vous venez de me montrer ? Est-ce une question de marketing ou une éventuelle exclusivité pour les soutiens de Kickstarter ?

First of all, I would like to ask why you've decided to publish a short version of the video you have just shown us? Is it a marketing strategy or maybe it's meant to be an exclusivity for the Kickstarter backers?

Il discute un peu avec son traducteur, également responsable de la partie business d'Ys Net, qui prend le relais pour répondre) C'est une bonne question ! Il n'y a pas de raison particulière, honnêtement, mais certaines personnes pensent qu'il est un peu tôt pour montrer la version longue. L'idée derrière ce teaser pour la gamescom était avant tout d'accompagner l'annonce de notre partenariat avec Deep Silver. On voulait surtout montrer qu'on a désormais un meilleur soutien financier, que l'équipe est prête et que le projet avance. Nous sommes restés discret pendant trop longtemps et je trouve qu'il était important de montrer quelque chose pour ce salon, sans que ce soit une véritable stratégie marketing.

Yû Suzuki (en anglais) : Peut-être qu'on va réaliser une version plus peaufinée et plus longue de cette vidéo pour la fin d'année, un vrai trailer promotionnel.


... (I'm not translating the first part since it's basically something Yu did explain already about the fact that the teaser was meant to show they are making progress since they were relatively quiet since then and it was to come with something substancial now that they have signed a deal with Deep Silver.
There are also people within the team who think it's too soon for showing the long version of the trailer.

Yu Suzuki (in English): We may create a longer and more polished version of this video for the end of the year, a real promotional trailer.

Place your bets... PSX, Christmas backer update?

PS. If you are interested in a translation of the rest of this interview, I can do it tomorrow morning ;)

http://i.imgur.com/BW3hAi7.png

Dojo contributor Switch has translated three new interviews with Shenmue director Yu Suzuki from this years Gamescom. Executive producer Hideaki Morishita also makes an appearance to discuss certain aspects of the development process.

These interviews include (but are not limited to) the latest information on character models, gameplay duration and scope.

GAME Watch Interview | GAME*Spark Interview | Dengeki Online Interview | Shenmue 3 Teaser

VG24/7 Yu Suzuki interview:

https://www.vg247.com/2017/08/25/shenmue-3-open-world-dead-eyed-characters-shenmue-4/

A big part of Shenmue 3 for fans is nostalgia. How do you bridge the gap between nostalgic nods and new stuff? The first two games are quite unique in that you really have an all-new cast in each game, but that isn’t so good for nostalgia…

Yeah, this time we will see a lot of new people in the game. But at the same time, you can make a phone call to the characters of Shenmue 1 and 2. When you call those older characters, all of the images come up as your flashback, your memory.

In the form of original screenshots, or new recreations of those scenes?

Movie, a movie from the original.

The environments look fantastic, but there’s been a lot of chatter about the character models this week. What do you have to say to that? Are improvements coming?

You know, to be honest… the faces, they’ve not been properly deployed yet. This is a behind-the-scenes story, but up until a point 2 months ago the face motion has been removed. The developer changed some structure to the bones of the character model, and this caused a problem. Because of the problem, we decided to stop working on face animation for now.

[Suzuki opens his laptop and brings up an internal, unreleased development video showing facial animation tests for Ryo and Shenhua. The animations look fairly decent, and certainly avoid the dead-eyed stares seen in the recent Shenmue footage or Andromeda-style exaggeration.]

This is still the sample model, the older one, but… this is a test. We’re going to make this even better. We’re incorporating about 11 different types of face motion, and we’re working towards that. That will be improved a lot.

...

https://www.gamekult.com/actualite/yu-suzuki-le-plus-difficile-est-de-creer-de-bons-personnages-3050797909.html

Interview context: Gamekult is shown an extended version of the trailer with additional scenes and QTEs with "work in progress" mark. Then the interview begins with Suzuki and his English translator.

https://i.imgur.com/jseQm8Q.jpg

Gamekult: First of all, I would like to know why you decided to publicly publish a short version of what you just showed us privately? Is it for marketing purpose or a future backer exclusivity?

(Suzuki begins to talk to his translator who is also in charge of the business side of YSnet. The latter takes the floor.)

YSnet businessman: That's a good question! Honestly, there's no specific reason but some people think showing the extended version is too early. The idea behind the trailer was to announce our partnership with Deep Silver. We aimed to reveal that we got a better financial support. We have been silent for too long so it was important to show something at Gamescom while it's not a real marketing strategy.

Yu Suzuki: We may create an improved and longer version of the video for the end of the year. A true promotional trailer.

GK: After watching the video, I now wonder how you proceed with animation in Shenmue 3. Do you use motion capture, handmade animation or both? Are you working with an outsourcing studio or do you have your own motion capture studio?

YS: We use motion capture as working base then we make adjustments. Everything is captured internally although we do not have a true motion capture studio. We're using a magnetic capture tool because it needs less space to work so we can easily proceed in an open space. However, we are certainly going to use a real motion capture studio for the most important action scenes.

GK: Are you working with outsourcing studios? For instance, TOSE or Virtuous.

YS: We have our own team where people from various companies are working. In general, everything is made internally. The goal is to avoid outsourcing.

GK: How many people are working in the team?

YS: Sorry but I can't tell you any figure.

GK: How will your partnership with Deep Silver benefit Shenmue III? Is the original project going to evolve?

YS: To be honest, we just signed the contract. We have yet to know what Deep Silver can bring us exactly but we hope it's significant (laughs). From a business point of view, we should take advantage of their international network and their communication expertise since they have a great record with Japanese studios.

GK: How will you proceed to make the game interesting for the fans as much for the newcomers? Can we start Shenmue III without having played the previous episodes?

YS: We plan to insert images and videos from previous episodes in ingame situations, something like memories. One of the ideas consists of inserting visuals when you're phoning characters from Shenmue I & II.

GK: Yakuza 3 proceeded differently with cinematic buildups to summarize the story of Yakuza 1&2. I wonder if Shenmue 3 can proceed the same way but the visual contrast between cinematics and the gameplay would be obviously significant.

YS: I still don't know how it may look on screen but it's a possibility. Anyway, we'll decide our own way to proceed.

GK: What will the Shenmue III main themes be? Storywise, is there any particular event or topic you're willing to set up?

YS: It's faster to show you. (Suzuki starts his PC and launches a slideshow) Here we go, the three key points of the game are romance, characters' life and martial arts. Then my main goal is to use the latest advancements in technologies to express feelings through gaming situation. Today there are even more ways of expression but also more challenge with the modern tools. With Unreal Engine 4, the most challenging part is to create good characters.

GK: You mean, using your own engine when you're working on Shenmue I&II was easier than using a foreign third-party engine?

YS: Yes, absolutely!

GK: So far, have you programmed with your own hands?

YS: I created some algorithms and little prototypes but I'm not working at the heart of coding. I worked on an artist's AI who appears in the game, NPC behaviors and some combat scenes. But my main job is research. The final code is written by people who are more skilled than me.

GK: About visuals, how far do you think you are from the final state?

YS: First of all, I confirm that everything related to the characters is temporary. Then I would like to say that, in order to reach the best possible result from a technical point of view, we need a lot of resources, way more than we currently have today. That's why I'm trying to find a balance between visual quality and the other key points of the game, especially what makes the gameplay singular and different from the other productions.

GK: About environment size and interaction volume, how would you rate Shenmue 3 compared to the Dreamcast episodes?

YS: I would say that the game is as wide and dense as Shenmue 1&2... On further consideration, it will even be richer. The time of play is more difficult to estimate since each player has his own pace and may progress differently with all the side quests available. I think more than 20 hours will be needed.

GK: In order to make Shenmue 1&2, you traveled several times in China. Did you travel again for Shenmue III or are you using mainly archives and memories?

YS: I went back to China two years ago, when the project did start. (Suzuki is searching his PC folders to find photos of mountain landscapes, old buildings and busy streets) As you can see, we reproduced some roofs of tiles in the last video. I really would like to display as much characters as those you can see in these photos! (laughs)

GK: If you were going to leave Japan to live in another country, would you choose China?

YS: Not China, no. (laughs)

END OF INTERVIEW

Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txUktzVlAIc

Didn't see a dedicated thread for this so...

Full interview:

https://www.vg247.com/2017/08/25/shenmue-3-open-world-dead-eyed-characters-shenmue-4/

The bit we've all come for:

The environments look fantastic, but there’s been a lot of chatter about the character models this week. What do you have to say to that? Are improvements coming?

You know, to be honest… the faces, they’ve not been properly deployed yet. [b]This is a behind-the-scenes story, but up until a point 2 months ago the face motion has been removed. The developer changed some structure to the bones of the character model, and this caused a problem. Because of the problem, we decided to stop working on face animation for now.

[Suzuki opens his laptop and brings up an internal, unreleased development video showing facial animation tests for Ryo and Shenhua. The animations look fairly decent, and certainly avoid the dead-eyed stares seen in the recent Shenmue footage or Andromeda-style exaggeration.]

This is still the sample model, the older one, but… this is a test. We’re going to make this even better. We’re incorporating about 11 different types of face motion, and we’re working towards that. That will be improved a lot.

Romance is a key theme? I know what we're all thinking here...Finally we'll see the softer side of Chai and Lan Di!

Q: What's the reason for your focus on humidity?

YS: I'd have to say creating a reality. Just being realistic isn't interesting, so my approach is to embellish it a touch further.

Around the time of the first and second Shenmue games, everyone wanted graphics that were as realistic as possible. However now, we're in an era where achieving that is taken for granted.

His mind is so brilliant that I may cry. :cry:

Loving that Japanese Shenmue III logo.

Holy shit! Nice work dude.

This is legendary!!

http://i.imgur.com/v3vtF5d.png

http://i.imgur.com/86lHJcj.png

http://i.imgur.com/syr33OA.png

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

http://i.imgur.com/5RrDPh7.png

http://i.imgur.com/86lHJcj.png

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

http://i.imgur.com/v72okKc.png

I found some unused audio while looking through the scene file of the tape listening scene.

There are some unfinished / alternate takes on conversations as well as very curious other inclusions.
I really wonder what they were thinking with these. My guess is that they were just trying things out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZrU0OC19hY

Now that I am back, it's time to rewind time all the way back and read everything that has came out from Gamescom. If only we had this awesome member who had a site with translated interviews from Suzuki-san

I really liked this interview.

When Yu Suzuki is talking about trying to capture 'reality' as opposed to simply aiming for 'realism', I think he's describing the same approach he's had ever since the original games, and not really a shift in a new stylistic direction. The original Shenmue games felt very real and grounded and had an obsessively detailed and fleshed out world, but they weren't at all games interested in the constrains of realism. The original games are chock full of silly and strange grotesque characterisation, exaggerated and distorted depictions of humanity. Just think of Chai, Tom, Goro, Don Niu, Yuan, Cool Z, Ren and most of the games' characters really. They aren't 'realistic' at all. They are barmy, larger than life, often comical, but are still great and human characters that feel realer than most characters in games concerned with realism do. Exaggerated characterisation often does capture the strange truth of reality much better than more realistic depictions. I think this is what Yu Suzuki understands.

So I was pleased by the muscle man in the trailer, he seems very much in the vein of the original games :)

And that's not even to mention that the series is of course preoccupied with the unfathomable, the metaphysical, even though it never forgets to ground it in the quotidian. That's the genius of Shenmue, and that's why it feels so real, realer than most realism. The real world is a bloody strange and unknowable place.

Yeah of course sacrifices will have to be made and whatnot, we all know this isn't a massive AAA budget game or whatever, but I don't think that's particularly relevant to what he's saying in this interview. And I don't think he's lost his sharp eye for detail, we can already see that from the trailer let alone in saying things like he wants visuals you can "smell". This is the same ol Yu Szuki we know and love, who made Shenmue 1 and 2 and is now making Shenmue 3, a proper, true to form continuation.

I just want to give a huge thanks to Yuc02 and everyone else involved in this. Seeing Yu-san with the message from all of us was a great thing to witness indeed. This is why i love the shenmue community!

Here are the interesting bits of the multiplayer.it interview to Suzuki San.

Yu Suzuki: "My vision of the Shenmue universe and the way I see the characters have never changed.
To me, it's like not even one day has past [Since Shenmue 2 release]."

According to Yu Suzuki, it's still early to show a playable version of Shenmue 3 to the public.
Yu Suzuki: "More than half of the work has been done, but really I shouldn't tell you at what point we are in the development."
The partnership with Deep Silver will allow YsNet to focus on the development and work with better conditions but at the same time, the communication with media and the Kickstarter backers should be less transparent.

We had the opportunity to watch an extended version of the teaser (~3minutes). There were no dialogues o specific story related references. On the other hand, the video gives a good idea of the environments, characters and shows interactions with each others, like fights and side activities.

Following the feedback from the Community about the teaser, Suzuki San wanted to reassure the fans: "The characters shown in the teaser are temporary. We have just added a new facial animations system but the video we have prepared for the Gamescom was based on the previous version of the game."
Then, Yu Suzuki showed us a serie of 3D characters pictures, without texture but with a significantly higher complexity compared to the teaser models. "This is the quality level we are aiming to for the final version [of Shenmue 3]."

Of course, there are going to be a lot of extra activities. Mini-games and "hobbies": In the extended teaser, we saw Ryo practice punches on a cabinet looking like "Fighting Mania" or play pinball. Other classics like gashapons or forklift driving will not be forgotten. Lastly, news regarding the fighting system too: In the video, we saw a few QTE's not so different from the ones from the original Shenmue's, but Yu Suzuki claims that they are introducing some ideas to make the QTEs more modern and dynamic.

Source: http://multiplayer.it/articoli/187741-shenmue-iii-yu-suzuki-ci-racconta-della-grande-scommessa-di-shenmue-iii.html

Do you remember this picture of "Manabu Takimoto" Bailu concept drawing posted by Switch back in June 2016?

http://i.imgur.com/y7UhGUO.png

http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1134422#p1134422

How many theories about the meaning of this scene and which characters were depicted?

Well... mystery solved I guess. :mrgreen:





















http://i.imgur.com/K1XEsce.jpg

I'm genuinely amazed by how much the WIP (!) result looks better than anything I was expecting.
Everything feels so Shenmue to me in this scene. :heart:

That was a very good article and some really great observations.

Thanks Switch

Brilliant again, Switch. Keep them coming.

NoconKid said on Facebook that he did the mirrors. Not sure if that's already been posted.

Is someone able to translate this sign?
http://i.imgur.com/YAj520o.jpg

Zoom on the left side of the shop entrance.
http://i.imgur.com/hZmYfQ2.jpg
Love those NPC outfits.

http://i.imgur.com/X4YEtJX.png?1

店名募集
Diànmíng mùjí
「てんめいぼしゅう」
Tenmei Boshu

English translation: Requesting Shop Names