Shenmue Dojo

If they announce the demo for September, which of the 3 villages would you like it to be? Baisha, Choubo or Bailu Village. It's a hard pick for me because I don't want to be spoiled too much. Choubo for me then

The_Intruder wrote: If they announce the demo for September, which of the 3 villages would you like it to be? Baisha, Choubo or Bailu Village. It's a hard pick for me because I don't want to be spoiled too much. Choubo for me then

I want it to be entirely set in the cave.

^ Lol. I sure hope there is a good update tomorrow. Not expecting anything big but something to put our minds at ease at least.

I'm planning to stay up all night for the update. Lol

The_Intruder wrote: I'm planning to stay up all night for the update. Lol

I wouldn't expect anything too big man.

I'm trying to keep my expectations low just in case we only receive a brief statement just reaffirming that the delay is to better the game and thanking the fans for their patience.

I wouldn't set your expectations that low.

Why would they even bother putting together a separate update if there wasn't something more to be covered about what the delay means that didn't already get expressed in Yu's statement?

Don't expect the world, but we should at least get a little bit of info on surveys, the slacker backer site, and rewards fulfilment.

adom11800 wrote:

The_Intruder wrote: I'm planning to stay up all night for the update. Lol

I wouldn't expect anything too big man.

I know...They always only give us a very small glimpse. Probably by Fall we get a big update.

The dream of a big update may as well be dead right now.

Not in a bad way mind you, but it's getting to the point where we're going to have skipped seeing most of the nuts and bolts development process.

What we'll be seeing instead will be much closer to the final version - by which point they may as well just showcase that on a wider stage if at all possible.

We'll probably end up seeing a fuller picture of the game being developed after it comes out, via Adam Sipione's Shenmue documentary (if it releases after the game), and whatever YSnet decide to release posthumously (a "Making of Shenmue III" GDC panel in 2019 would be neat).

Spaghetti wrote: The dream of a big update may as well be dead right now.

Not in a bad way mind you, but it's getting to the point where we're going to have skipped seeing most of the nuts and bolts development process.

What we'll be seeing instead will be much closer to the final version - by which point they may as well just showcase that on a wider stage if at all possible.

We'll probably end up seeing a fuller picture of the game being developed after it comes out, via Adam Sipione's Shenmue documentary (if it releases after the game), and whatever YSnet decide to release posthumously (a "Making of Shenmue III" GDC panel in 2019 would be neat).

A GDC panel of Shemue 3 making must be the best thing to happen.

The_Intruder wrote: If they announce the demo for September, which of the 3 villages would you like it to be? Baisha, Choubo or Bailu Village. It's a hard pick for me because I don't want to be spoiled too much. Choubo for me then

Based on their level of effort to avoid spoilers by basically not showing video of anything besides Bailu so far, I'm guessing the backer trial is just going to be the beginning of the game. (Bailu)

Because the trial is only going to those who paid $100 or more, it's likely that most of us who paid that much are already familiar with the series and don't need a demo to introduce it. If they were looking to introduce Shenmue to people who weren't familiar with the series Choubu would be be a better choice. Actually, they must account for the fact that people are going to share gameplay of the trial, so maybe Choubu would be in their best interest but if they're thinking primarily of core fans then I think the beginning makes the most sense so they don't need to create content specifically for the trial. Throwing you directly into the middle of the game would require them to actually develop content specifically for that trial to know what's going on, and I don't think they're going to waste funds and time doing that.

It's an interesting problem for them to solve.

It's not totally outside the realms of possibility for a What's Shenmue-style demo. When you think about it, What's Shenmue was really only built out of rearranged pieces of the main game at its core; so quite a lot of the legwork was already done and costs already sunk into something that'd ship in the final product.

They could do something similar for III, but it depends if YSnet think it's worth the time and cost of a few unique VO sessions for the story they've ginned up for the demo. That is, if they decide to voice the demo at all.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed the demo lets you try more gameplay options than What's Shenmue did, though. Something with FREE Battle at least. Maybe the best option is just a basic free roam mode around Bailu, and being able to select isolated gameplay examples you wouldn't see in that part of the game from a menu?

A backer demo was a rewards tier for $100 and over, so it should be accounted for in the budget and schedule.