by Scribe86 » Thu Feb 22, 2018 5:18 pm
The Shenmue Odyssey - Page 25-26
FROM THE PROTOTYPE TO VIRTUA FIGHTER RPG
As can be seen, Shenmue had a modest but promising beginning; a small playable prototype in which many novel game mechanics were introduced, that surely would have caused quite a stir at the time if made public. But that was not the goal of this project, now Suzuki could take the next steps to begin to build a complete game based on these basic pillars already established. It was 1996 when Sega gave the green light to take the project forward, two years after initially working on the technical aspects of the prototype. Yu Suzuki wanted to create the best role playing game ever seen to date and, for this, he would tell the story of Akira Yuki, one of the main characters from another of his creations, Virtua Fighter. The Virtua Fighter series being a successful and innovative franchise meant that creating a role playing game attached to that series seemed the most logical move, allowing the game to have recognisable characters with an already established fan base whilst expanding the universe. With this production, Suzuki wanted to create a very broad, completely three-dimensional game in which each and every one of the in-game dialogues and interactions were very diverse to give the characters more realism, with a cinematographic touch that would help the player get emotionally involved in the situations that presented themselves. Another unique feature would also be the intense multi opponent combat in which a single character would have to face several rivals at once (unlike the Virtua Fighter franchise, in which battles are fought one-on-one). In short, a really ambitious and risky project in which Sega had their reservations in regards to budget and timeframe. However Suzuki’s track record spoke for itself and he had demonstrated on numerous occasions his gift for creating and delivering innovative and unique games. To ensure development costs were manageable the game was going to reuse many elements and assets from the Virtua Fighter series. Including characters, fighting mechanics and graphical engine already prepared for the Saturn (the platform in which several instalments of the three-dimensional fighting franchise were present).
The idea of setting the game in China came to Yu Suzuki several years before, when he traveled to that country in 1993. According to the Japanese creator, his trip was a unique experience, since it allowed him to discover a mysterious and attractive culture. One that had a great influence on the history of martial arts and helped inspire the story that he wanted to tell. For the most part, this trip aimed at studying different styles of martial arts first hand, for characters in his upcoming fighting series. This is how he learned of the Bajiquan style under the careful supervision of Master Wu in a Shaolin temple. In addition to learning some of his techniques, Suzuki observed that the teacher drank a lot of saké. This image had lasting impact on him, thus in Virtua Fighter 2 he introduced Shun Di into the character lineup; an expert in the drunken master style.
The indelible mark that China left on Yu Suzuki's mind would be transferred into the game, that at that time was known internally as Virtua Fighter RPG: Akira’s Story. The story would be divided into four parts. The first of these was the introduction, in which the main theme would be sadness. In that first phase of the adventure, the player would see that after the loss of his father, everything for Akura would begin to go wrong. This accumulation of misfortunes would provoke a feeling of increasing sadness. The story develops in the second part, dealing with the theme of overcoming adversity, in which Akira channels this sadness that afflicts him and travels to China, to become a master of martial arts and to avenge the death of his father. In the third part of the game, which would be considered the climax of the adventure. The primary focus would be on a final encounter against the enemy that Akira himself had created, one which he would defeat. The conclusion came in the fourth and final part of the game: after fulfilling the goal of the revenge that so obsessed him, Akira would have to start over. Without a clear goal in mind, Akira starts a new journey that would tie in to the events of Virtua Fighter. At the beginning of the game, Akira would be only 16 years old; the objective was not so much to tell a story of the character, but rather to present the audience with a teenager, wounded by life, who would grow up through adolescence into a man of his own right.
After laying down the basic aspects of the game, Yu Suzuki put himself to work on one of the most fundamental aspects of all role playing games, the plot. He worried that the developers may not be able to adequately capture the script or did not know how to understand the nuances of the game. So he hired screenwriters, filmmakers, playwrights and other specialists to help perfect the plot.
They held small meetings every week, which soon became a constant tug-of-war between developers and writers; a classic dispute in which it is about finding the middle ground between what the creatives want to do and the programmers can achieve. These meetings would favor the understanding between both sides and, together, they would write the script consisting of eleven chapters. However, things got a bit out of hand and they found that they were creating a much more complicated title than initially expected, so they decided to temporarily put aside the technical aspect and focus on writing as if it were a novel, highlighting the most dramatic aspects and emphasise the sensations that the story would transmit. Subsequently eleven illustrations were created, which would accompany each of the chapters of the novel.
In this way, the game development team had a complete visual representation of the final product, both in terms of timeline and artistic and environmental point of view.
Above all, it was expected that each of the eleven chapters was going to be linked to a specific location in China and would have its own environments, true to real life.