Thanks for all the interest and replies, everyone. I'll try to address things as best as I can.
First, I have to reveal my idea and inspiration and motives for this project. Not to generalize but I think it's pretty obvious that Visual novels are popular in Japan, though not nearly as popular in the USA. This grants me a unique opportunity to give fans of Shenmue something else Shenmue related to play, and for the Japanese, something more familiar. I don't think the IP is nearly as popular in Japan as it is in Europe or the U.S., thus a Visual Novel would hopefully garner more interest than a more western style game.
Hopefully depending on the success of the project, Japanese, Europeans and the U.S would feel even more likely to want another
real Shenmue game and would voice their concerns to Sega and Sega Japan (which, I personally feel may be more receptive of the idea, depending on if this project fails or not.) Sega, seeing people supporting a free fan-game might give more thought into their apparent stubbornness when it comes to Shenmue. With the right promotion, translation, and social awareness, it might (probably not) force Sega to reconsider.
As for addressing individual thoughts.
@
raymonf - I'll have to go back and have a look, I think there was some specific Shenmue model ripper. Anyway, I think I may try alternatives such as taking screenshots where there are no NPCs and then just overlaying it onto the image.
@
mue 26 - Being as I plan an episodic game, there is time for many stories. The first episode will be more of a testing ground than anything else. There will also be a beta demo that only demonstrates the UX, the retelling of the opening scene of Shenmue, paths, interactivity, and unlockables. It'll probably be only 10 minutes of gameplay.
If the first episode received well, it grants me time and indeed incentive to continue working on more interesting stories until all four are complete (and maybe even more.) I hope to distribute it globally (perhaps even someone may translate it). Anyway, the point of an episodic game is that it doesn't exactly have to be set in stone as far as the story goes, and that I believe is bonus.
Some original story idea's I've been throwing around are
Exploring how Fuku-San is taking Iwao's death and his concern over Ryo.
Exploring how Nozomi is adapting to life in Canada
An exploration of Shenhua's supernatural abilities.
A prologue side story involving Ren, Joy and Wong, before they met Ryo
A Chronicle of Iwao's journeys in China.
As you can see, none of these are trying to be a conclusion to the story or directly involve Ryo, they're all sort of open-ended so as to not drastically upset fans and such.
As for the retelling of story, I feel that there are some that just absolutely need to be adapted. Not 1:1 mind you, there needs to be familiarity yet something different. I liked the anonymous idea thrown about a while ago, and that is the script I have been working on. Maybe I'll post the first of the ten pages I've written so you all can give feed back.
@
UnHoly Bible - Thank you, I have this and it is really a great resource. I also have an offline backup copy of the entire Shenmue Neoseeker in case I don't have access to the internet. (I don't know if that's exactly legal, but I use the info for projects)
@
Ryudo - Side story involving Tom and young Ryo are very interesting to think about.
@
Rakim -
A lot of info on Shenmue Gai & some
Accompanying pictures. It's an entire hands-on detailing how the game works, classes, and such. Pretty cool.
As this is only a Project and not anything definitive I can't really guarantee plans won't change. But now that I've lay out my motives, and such there will be volunteers to help with the project? Art, scripts, etc. I've gotten a few pms that are quite intriguing so I'll keep my eye on that.
Let me know if any of my ideas are unrealistic and such, and I'll try to evolve if it's reasonable as I can't do everything everyone wants and ultimately I have to make the game what I think it best is. Hope you all understand. (: