Update #77: New Character & Lakshya Digital

[Shenmue_Legend]

For the people asking where Ryo is, he's under the bridge on the right. It's a tiny figure but you can't miss it!

[Verderame]

I think this looks...pretty good? In fact, better than any character model we've seen untill now.

What's bad about it again?

[sutoji]

What's bad about it again?

Nothing

[Niowiad]

Does anyone else think the model looks kinda like Nozomi?

Well I actually thought she was Nozomi for a split second as soon as I saw the pic and I hadn't red anything, then noticed the different facial features right after. So I got that impression as well

[Telekill]

Great news that there's a third team working on this. Adding in talent means that the game will get done quicker. The model is looking good and this lends further merit to the idea that the game will be fully populated with numerous characters.

I don't see how any could see this as a negative.

[Technophilz]

For the people asking where Ryo is, he's under the bridge on the right. It's a tiny figure but you can't miss it!

Here he is, in all of his default T-Pose glory...

[Shenmue_Legend]

For the people asking where Ryo is, he's under the bridge on the right. It's a tiny figure but you can't miss it!

Here he is, in all of his default T-Pose glory

Shoot I got it wrong! The one under the second temple also looks like him. Hmm, maybe there are 2 Ryos!

[alexh86]

For the people asking where Ryo is, he's under the bridge on the right. It's a tiny figure but you can't miss it!

Here he is, in all of his default T-Pose glory

Shoot I got it wrong! The one under the second temple also looks like him. Hmm, maybe there are 2 Ryos!

Is does look like there might be two Ryos!

[Shenmue_Legend]

there, see?!

[gillian_seed]

Am I the only one who thinks that NPC look better than Ryo and Shenhua? This new character and the girl shown in last dev room report look far better than the main characters, specially Shenhua, who looks even worse than the model used in the E3 reveal. It shouldn't be that hard to make a model that matches with the Dreamcast ones. I don't understand...

On the other hand, some people on KS page are stupid and racist. Must be really discouraging for people at Lakshya Digital to read all that shitposting from that bunch of idiots. I hope they don't waste their time on it.

[WildManofBorneo]

Lakshya Digital past work:

Games
Full Throttle: Remastered (2017)
NieR: Automata (2017)
WWE 2K16 (2016)
Gemini: Heroes Reborn (2016)
Just Cause 3 (2015)
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015)
WWE 2K15 (2015)
Bloodborne (2015)
Murdered: Soul Suspect (2014)
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (2014)
Grand Theft Auto V (2013)
Divekick: Addition Edition (2013)
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two (2012)
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012)
Starhawk (2012)
NeverDead (2012)
ArcaniA: Fall of Setarrif (2011)
Kinect Adventures! (2010)
ArcaniA: Gothic 4 (2010)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009)
Saw (2009)
On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode Two (2008)
On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One (2008)
Crash of the Titans (2007)

[WildManofBorneo]

The fact that a 3rd party company has been brought in just now signals to me two things:

A) There has been a recent injection of cashflow, affording the extra manpower.
B) This game isn't seeing the light of day before 2019.

[KidMarine]

I'm 100% sure Suzuki said in an interview maybe a year or two ago that they were going to outsource the character modeling. I can't remember where or when it was but I know he said it. So outsourcing isn't a sudden thing, it's been planned for quite a while.

EDIT- Higher res image here. Thanks to Switch and Spaghetti!

[Shenmue_Legend]

Am I the only one who thinks that NPC look better than Ryo and Shenhua? This new character and the girl shown in last dev room report look far better than the main characters, specially Shenhua, who looks even worse than the model used in the E3 reveal. It shouldn't be that hard to make a model that matches with the Dreamcast ones. I don't understand...

On the other hand, some people on KS page are stupid and racist. Must be really discouraging for people at Lakshya Digital to read all that shitposting from that bunch of idiots. I hope they don't waste their time on it.

I don't want them to match the Dreamcast models, I want them to be better. And the promo models were always better so they should aim for them.

[Switch]

Someone screenshot the supposedly hiding Ryo cause I dont see him at all.

Edit: nvm. I found em. Hardly visible at all.

Also, from my crappy phone screen the temple looks like it says 堂札社千

Tangzha Community Temple? Thousand Tangzha Building? I dunno. Haha.

That actually should be read right to left: 千社札堂 (Qian she zha tang).
However, I believe that that's actually a 扎 and not a 札, both pronounced "zha". The pic is quite small, so I'm not 100% sure, though.
So, 千社 could be translated as "Thousand offerings/sacrifices/altars" or something of the sort.
扎 most commonly means "to prick", so I don't know what to make of it. Actually, if it really is 札 and not 扎 (as I think it is), it would actually make a bit more sense, as 札 is that kind of thin wooden strips used in writing in ancient China, and I could see this building being used to house such kinds of ancient scrolls. Still, it definitely looks more like a 扎 than a 札, though.
And, finally, 堂, which is the easiest part, as it means "hall".

So (if we ignore that mysterious "zha"), Hall of a Thousand Sacrifices.

Anyway, this new character looks cute and, in fact, is the best-looking character I've seen so far, better than even Ryo and definitely better than Shenhua. I get a sort of Photoshop-y feel from it, though, so I wonder how representative this is of her final look.

As for the news about some of the work being done externally in India, that's pretty much what happens in every AAA game. Nothing to be shocked about. In fact, I see it as good news. More manpower. And they seem to have pretty good credentials at that.

EDIT: OK, now that I've seen that higher-res pic (thanks!), I changed my mind and now think that is a 札, after all, like ShenmueTree said.
So, Scroll Hall of a Thousand Sacrifices.*

*I'm sure there's a more elegant way to translate it. English isn't my mother tongue.