Original
http://www.gameblog.fr/interview_372_yu ... -interview
Translation provided by Schiff
Your activity in the last years has been shrouded with a lot of mystery. What are you doing now?
- Actually I'm working on many things that right now are just at project level, concepts. And I'm doing everything I can to make them happen. Among them, the things I care the most are related to games for smartphone, but there are other things, too.
* Later, during the conference, Yu Suzuki said he would love to be able to work on iPhone, iPad and… Kinect.
Let's talk a bit about your career, which we can split into three great periods: the amazing Arcade era of the 80s, the shift from 2D to 3D in the 90s and finally the Shenmue era… which period do you prefer?
- In my career, the most stimulating moment for me was for sure the shift to 3D.
Shenmue Gai itself is a work project that concerns mobile gaming?
- The idea is to continue developing Shenmue Gai on smartphones, yes.
Should we finally expect a new announcement?
- I would love to reveal more soon but I cannot talk about such things for the moment, since these are just projects.
We can say the Shenmue period has not finished… Do you think you suffer as much as your supporters for the premature stop to the adventures of Ryo? What do you feel about this matter?
- Yes, this unsettles me a lot, too. You know, I would really love to make the sequel, if I could.
You can say your vision about Shenmue was too ambitious at that time. Maybe if it had been a bit less "great" it would have been possible to have enough time to publish all the episodes?
- Yes, it's true, this fact is part of the reason.
And if you had the chance to finally publish Shenmue III, then years after having written its story, its concept, its gameplay, would you change many things of the game?
- It would be for sure a totally different approach from Shenmue II, if I could do it.
Okay, but would you accept to compromise on the technological aspect?
- From a sheer technical point of view, there are things that cost a lot of money and others that don't cost a thing. The idea might be to change actually a bit the approach, but at the same time to keep a good level of quality. You could actually have a less "great" approach, but my idea is to develop something which adapts to the license.
And in case the possibly to develop Shenmue III never came, have you thought about using Shenmue Gai as a mean to continue the main story?
- So far no, Shenmue Gai is too different in its concept, it's a social game. Its main idea is develop relationships among players, while keeping the world and vision of Shenmue, of course, but, first of all, the aim is to allow the players to communicate. I want to keep the story aside and use it for Shenmue III, if I have the chance do make it someday…
But have you had at least the beginning of a plan? A discussion? A contact? A trail?
- I know you regularly hear this kind of rumors but at the moment there's nothing really concrete. If someday I have the slightest chance to develop Shenmue III, I'll do it.
(* During the conference at the end of the day, Yu Suzuki said the same thing with these words: "I must make Shenmue III".)
When you look at all the new concepts you introduced to the game industry at that time with Shenmue, some of which a few years later would have given birth to very successful games such as GTA III, do you feel proud?
- Yes, I'm really happy for this. Especially for the example you just made… I was very glad to meet with the creator of GTA, who came to greet me a few years ago.
I'll take advantage of this chance of meeting to ask you a question I wonder about from a very long time with no answer… Project Berkley was the project name for Shenmue, but why exactly "Berkley"?
- Ah, it was a decoy for a secret project. It comes from a Japanese pun, with a word which means "to start in reverse", "to pretend not to have seen".
So it had nothing to do with Berkley in the United States?
- Actually no, it was just the part of the project name which made a pun of it. To say somehow "I know nothing, I pretend not to see anything"… And the fact it sounded like an American game made a lot of red herring.
Unfortunately our interview comes already to an end, may I ask you if you are playing lately and what?
- Of course I play… 9 balls…. billiard! And I also love wine. About this, I'm taking the chance of being here in France: yesterday I had a very good wine tasting!