Maybe it's good to remind us what's the actual reality of Shenmue 3 development.
Are we (still) expecting Shenmue 3 to be at AAA standards?
Thanks to the Kickstarter and following Slacker Backer campaigns (6,813,403$ at the moment), the funds that will really go into Shenmue 3 development budget from crowdfunding are actually more or less
4,905,000$ best case scenario.
Nobody knows how much funding is coming from private investors but we do know that Yu Suzuki said he would be able to create the Shenmue 3 experience he has in mind for $10 million, so let's assume that's what the budget really is.
Yu Suzuki explained repeatedly and most recently in the interview to M! Games the budget situation.
Q) There were a lot of critical responses for the Shenmue 3 teaser. What would you tell the people who feel disappointed?
A) We don't have any facial expressions in the game right now and none of the character models are final yet. So it will look different and better in the final game. The teaser is not representing the quality of the final game, we are still in the middle of developing. And of course you have to remember the budget. The budget is good enough for our game, but it's pretty small if you compare it to other games right now. We can't keep up with big modern games. We would need a way bigger budget (ten times bigger than now) to make perfect modern graphics. So we need to find a good middle way between good graphics and good content. Please don't expect high-end graphics, Shenmue 3 is not about that.
I don't know if people have too much expectations, if they are missing the point of what the existence of Shenmue 3 means or if there's a lot of bad faith around, but the way Shenmue 3 development is treated by average media outlets look unfair to me.
By comparison, GTA V development budget was around $137 million according to media analyst Arvind Bhatia.
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Developme ... eft_Auto_VThis doesn't mean we shall expect Shenmue 3 to be a bad game, with ugly graphics and amateurish animations.
Q) You said that Shenmue 3 will be bigger than you thought at first?
A) Yes, the game will probably be three times as big as I had in mind at the beginning. One of the villages has over 200 residents now instead of just 50. This village alone is five times bigger than I had in mind.
Q) But still - Shenmue 3 hasn't the same budget as 1 or 2. What do you have to change in the game because of that?
A) The story is still intact but I had to adjust some of the extra elements and details. We talked about the 200 people in that village - maybe we will even have 400 in the end, I haven't decided yet. You have to remember that all the city/village residents in 1 & 2 had a "real" simulated life - that's a really complicated and tough task and the budget for Shenmue 3 is probably not big enough to do that again.
We need to accept that choices are to be made and as Yu Suzuki says, that a middle way has to be found between good graphics and good content.
The Shenmue Serie are much more than just graphics ahead of their time and Shenmue 3, also thanks to Deep Silver partnership will be better and bigger than what even Yu was expecting when he started this Journey.
Just have faith guys.
It may take longer than expected, but I'm sure the final result is going to be the best we could have dreamed of.