fritz wrote: According to the Chinese text, the locations following Guilin are xi'an (西安) and Luoyang (洛陽). I'd like to figure out the rest but the text really looks like a bunch of scribbles.
HOLY SHIT BRO I WAS RIGHT.
i love you so much thank you thank you.
Sorry it was just so much fun guessing those on the map. I'm calling Mengcun as well!
And although I never expected Shanghai, and never heard anything about Shanghai being in the game, the map makes the Eastern part look like it's definitely either Shanghai or part of Jiangsu.
EDIT- I replied before I saw your second post. Shanghai and Beijing too wow. I'm a bit disappointed that it's not Cangshan but oh well!
EDIT 2- I'm not claiming to have figured out anything I bet others have already, probably didn't search the forum enough. I bet LanDC or Ziming knew from before! I just found these images recently.
I'm just very happy to know the originally planned locations, and having guessed it just made it that much more fun! but just on a personal level.
Anyway- the usual disclaimer applies. This was the plan for VFRPG starring AKIRA in the 90s. Yu Suzuki already revealed chapter 3 (Ryo and Ren pictured with the phoenix mirror between them) which was set on a train, was cut from Shenmue II. So for sure, that part is at least shuffled in terms of its order in relation to actual game version of CHAPTER 4 GUILIN.
But I'll go ahead and admit that the amount of detail and degree of location and plot match that correspond to the chapters already released in the first 2 games (Yuan! Dou Niu! Master Chen! Xiuying! Guizhang!) makes me personally believe that even if it's not 100% the same as what the future direction will be, it is still more accurate than inaccurate, at least SOME of it is for sure.
So freaking cool. This was planned out in the 90s. Shenmue is like as long in the making as freaking Game of Thrones.
Last edit- ok maybe you won't believe me, but I was looking up Chinese water towns in Jiangsu, thinking about how cool it would be for Ryo to visit one. Just wow! turns out that made the list too!
I hadn't even heard of Suzhou. I was looking up other water towns. Hey hate on it if you want, but from time to time I like to picture locations in China for future Shenmue titles and what it could've been like to portray them fantastically.
What have you guys pictured before seeing this map? I pictured Shaolin temple (Henan) and of course Mengcun. Aside from that I pictured Wudong and I kind of wondered about Shanghai. I didn't think Shaolin/Henan would make the list, but it kind of seems like it does.
And I recently rewatched Shenmue II playthrough had forgotten about Luoyang. So that wasn't one of the places I pictured until recently.
And I admit I really really wanted Cangyanshan to be in the games: that's why I hoped the map marker near Beijing was actually Cangyanshan since it's just 3 hours away
Cangyanshan:
Sorry I'm so geeky