"I Could Do With A Bit More Money" Yu Interview @Eurogamer

[Tomato Convenience Store]

Ehh, there was nothing too alarming for me in that interview - it seems the game will be scoped according to the budget. I honestly don't mind that we're going to need a Shenmue IV eventually. My hope is SIII will bring the franchise back from the dead so we can get proper publisher support for Shenmue IV. It'll also give the team the ability to improve upon lessons learned from developing S3.

[south carmain]

Yeah I hope so. I would rather SEGA regain faith in the Franchise and invest in to 4 than yu suzuki go to kickstarter for every entry like some other developers have been doing. I've been wondering where the profits from their previous games have been going tbh.

[Peter]

We all could do with a little more money. But you make do with what you have in life. Ive no doubts this will already be an amazing game. No matter if we had the original Shenmue budget, in this day and age, there will always be a wonder of, "what could have been". In regards to this unique situation.


I dont see GTA fans asking what could have been done with V, if given an extra 10 million. I would hazard a guess that Dan Houser would buy an 8 million quid mansion. And with the extra 2, eat a baby sea urchin every afternoon for lunch, and have 15 individual pugs lick the crumbs off of his chest.

This game will be everything Shenmue 3 has supposed to be, and will not disappoint in the slightest. If it does then sorry, but your expectations were way too high.

[fittersau]

"When we made Shenmue 2, we knew it was the last one," Suzuki reassures me. "We decided to go out with a bang - that's why there are those fantastical elements in there! Also, in China and in Japan, there's a strong belief, like in England and with Stonehenge and the druids, we get energy from the spirits and the trees and nature. It's called ki, and it translates as feeling and emotion. It's not the same as fantastical fairies and demons - it's more to do with a natural, basic power. We're considering bringing that element into Shenmue 3."

I wonder in what context did he mean, they knew Shenmue 2 would be the last one? Because Dreamcast was dying/Sega were pulling out of the console making business?

Yes, Suzuki knew there would be no Shenmue 3 on the Dreamcast, thus the confusing mystical ending to Shenmue 2.

From that quote he goes on to say, that the more mystical elements of Shenmue 2 are actually founded in real life mythology. What he is referring to here is true strength and power of Kung Fu / Kempo is derived from the power or spirit of nature around us. A key tenet of Bajiquan Kung Fu is drawing power from the ground and releasing it in your strikes.

Whether we will see Xuiying do Spin Bird Kicks and Hadoken's from Ryo... ala Shenmue Online.. who knows..

[Amir]

I'd love to see an ending to the saga of Ryo attempting to return to normality after all the increasingly fantastical events of his journey. Like, a final scene of him back in Dobuita at Manpukken Ramen at Xmas time, staring at a bowl of ramen, watching the noodles soak up the water. Would be nice to see Suzuki finally realise that with today's technology

[SMDzero]

SO Suzuki knew that a Shenny 3 wasn't gonna happen so that's why he made II's ending all acid trippy???

Also what does the interviewer mean when he says combat will be parred back? We hit the Advanced Free battle stretch goal right???.....

[Amir]

Also what does the interviewer mean when he says combat will be parred back? We hit the Advanced Free battle stretch goal right???.....

No, he means there won't be as much action/fight scenes as Disc 3/Kowloon in Shenmue II. There'll be more focus on dialogue and relationships in Shenmue III (though there will still be fights).

[SMDzero]

I'm sorta expectin' Shenmue 3 to look as good as Uncharted 4....... hey it could happen.

[rigo8582]

I don't take the sky is falling approach to his comment. Hell I make a decent living now, I could sure as hell do more if I made more.

If the game visually looks like the stuff Noconkid has done that is good enough for me.

[Yokosuka]

Invest money in visuals is not that important as UE4 provides good defaults assets but they really need to live up to the expectations about the faces.

[SMDzero]

I think reality is setting in for Yu and there a massive amount of work to do for Shenmue 3 and I'm sure the money is running out fast.... I hope there's enough leftover for a good game.


We, the hardcore fans, will be able to tell 5 seconds into playing if Shenmue 3 is a low budget fan-game or a proper AAA quality title.

My theory is 10 million on kickstarter was the minimum needed for a AAA quality title which is why Yu wanted it so bad.

Think maybe they'll be a spike in donations at the end of the Paypal run? Maybe we can at least get >7 Mil??

[Himuro]

low budget fan-game or a proper AAA quality title.

So according to you there's no in between? Shenmue III was never going to be AAA. Do you know what AAA means?

Shenmue III is indie. Indie is decidedly NOT AAA. An AAA game is a game with a massive marketing push numbering in the millions. GTAV cost about 300 million dollars. You thought Shenmue III would ever get that amount? Shenmue III will not get that. It isn't AAA.

[SMDzero]

I just mean AAA is terms of the quality of the game. Shenmue 1 and 2 would have been AAA even if there was no marketing push. Shenmue 2 on Xbox was AAA even though it wasn't advertised much.

I think at 2 million Shenmue 3 would have been an interactive cutscene.. 10 million would have been full AAA quality. Anything in between would be measured of course but anything SHORT of AAA would be immediately noticed by the fans.

We are all accustomed to Shenmue games when no expense was spared (AAA) so we'll be able to tell if Shenmue 3 is a game on a restricted indie budget.

[xbluemystx]

Yu and Shenmue fans have been through so much pain... but at least we got something very special out of the experience of it all with more to come.

[Peter]

But I'm confused about this graphical sacrifice. Isn't the engine already built and universally accessible.

I don't know about how it all works, so where does the cost cutting come into play graphics wise? Is it less 3D modellers to work on the intricate designs? I mean if Nocon kids videos are what Shenmue 3 looks like, including his Ryo, I would be doing cartwheels. I'm certainly not expecting Arkham Knight graphics and stuff.