The project started out as an idea to blend River City Ransom and Shenmue together. After a while though, the story got too serious to adequately portray in 8-bit graphics, so it evolved into this: a 2D adventure / RPG with QTE, and what I hope will eventually be a fitting homage to Shenmue.
To start with I'm releasing a short(ish) concept game before July of this year, which will act as a demo as well as being a self-contained story, and part of the overall story of the final game. This will be a glimpse into one of the two protagonists, 7th Fleet Officer Cathy Wilkins, as she struggles to uncover a conspiracy involving the Yakuza, the US Navy, and a powerful martial artist smuggling a mythical herb into the city. After the events of the demo she'll be joined by the second protagonist, Fukuhara, whose quest to attain martial arts mastery thrusts him into the same perilous situation as Cathy.
The demo will feature most of the following. The main game will feature the entire list:
- A point & click style adventure system. Pointing and clicking optional (you can use a gamepad or keyboard instead).
- QTE combat system.
- Utilize the Shenmue journal by clicking clues and 'using' them on the environment or people, to investigate.
- Day / Night cycle, and the passing of weeks.
- Magic weather.
- Fully voiced by fans of the series (text optional).
- Collect toy capsules featuring games such as Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Sonic, and Skies of Arcadia.
- Play Darts 777, QTE Champ, and possibly more at the arcade.
- Explore parts of Yokosuka that you never saw in Shenmue 1.
- As Fukuhara, quest to seek out and prove yourself to the four masters of Yokosuka.
- As Fukuhara, you'll eventually be in charge of managing the dojo and helping a master to train students (including Goro).
- Puzzles.
- Meet old and new characters alike.
- Featuring music from both games, unused tracks, and tracks from Shenmue Online.
- To be released on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and HTML5. Eventually, possibly Dreamcast, too.
- Free! Of course.
