Making of Shenmue

(Chapter 1 | General Series Discussion)

Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby Miles Prower » Sun Nov 08, 2015 12:03 pm

Wow, thanks so much for taking the time to translate the whole thing, Switch. That truly was a fascinating watch, was very interesting to actually see some of the development and discussions going on. One thing I can take away from it for sure is that Suzuki sure is a strict taskmaster :lol: He definitely has to have things just right, certainly a perfectionist. That's why I'm sure Shenmue III will be nothing short of amazing once it's finally here :D

It was interesting to see it within the context of the rivalry with Sony too, especially when they were specifically looking at Final Fantasy VIII. It does indeed show just how far ahead of its time Shenmue truly was - all of that splendour in FFVIII's opening sequence, then once to gameplay its nothing more than fixed camera and text boxes. Suzuki clearly wanted to push the envelope with Shenmue, and his passion really does show through in this video.

It was also cool to see him actually say to the rest of the team 'That QTE noise ruins the mood/music of this scene', change it :lol: when they were working on the forest bits with Shenhua. It was certainly a change for the better as I'm sure many of us can testify!

I took a load of screenshots as there was some interesting beta stuff/differences, I might post some of the more interesting ones along with observations when I get the time :D

Thanks so much again Switch. That was a lovely way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon :)

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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby C.. » Sun Nov 08, 2015 12:29 pm

Thank you for taking the time to painstakingly translate everything for us Switch :)

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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby SMDzero » Sun Nov 08, 2015 10:25 pm

I hope Suzuki has given up smoking! We need him to live to a ripe old age to see Shenmue 5 released in 2051

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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby code l name » Mon Nov 09, 2015 2:06 am

Miles Prower wrote: Wow, thanks so much for taking the time to translate the whole thing, Switch. That truly was a fascinating watch, was very interesting to actually see some of the development and discussions going on. One thing I can take away from it for sure is that Suzuki sure is a strict taskmaster :lol: He definitely has to have things just right, certainly a perfectionist. That's why I'm sure Shenmue III will be nothing short of amazing once it's finally here :D

It was interesting to see it within the context of the rivalry with Sony too, especially when they were specifically looking at Final Fantasy VIII. It does indeed show just how far ahead of its time Shenmue truly was - all of that splendour in FFVIII's opening sequence, then once to gameplay its nothing more than fixed camera and text boxes. Suzuki clearly wanted to push the envelope with Shenmue, and his passion really does show through in this video.

It was also cool to see him actually say to the rest of the team 'That QTE noise ruins the mood/music of this scene', change it :lol: when they were working on the forest bits with Shenhua. It was certainly a change for the better as I'm sure many of us can testify!

I took a load of screenshots as there was some interesting beta stuff/differences, I might post some of the more interesting ones along with observations when I get the time :D

Thanks so much again Switch. That was a lovely way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon :)


Thank you Switch and everyone else involved in getting this translated and up.

Just watched it this afternoon and it was nice seeing the game progressing. Add me to the list of those that didn't know Suzuki smoked. It was harder to see his more 'harder' edge in some of those developer meetings. I get the feeling like Miyamoto who has a very genial public persona behind close doors, in the middle of development he really is a perfectionist and strives for that at all times.

It was interesting to note how he foresaw the technical difficulties for developing for the PS2 and that it took developers a few years before they really started pushing out games that technically and visually looked superior to the Dreamcast.

Great stuff.
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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby Kiske » Mon Nov 09, 2015 4:41 am

Thank you so much for the translation Switch & Co.

I will finally fully enjoy this documentary :)
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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby Yokosuka » Mon Nov 09, 2015 8:10 am

The video shows pretty exactly the person I expected : harsh when needed, asking for suggestions, looking at the competition to take confidence and nothing else, get a precise picture of what he wants. He looks like a very normal boss with obsessions (and means) ahead of his time.

His negative exchanges with his team were the best part, just lacked of some "idiot" at his sentence ends lol. His care for lighting is reassuring for Shenmue III perspective.

Didn't understand what he said about 30 fps and feeling of danger though.

Big thanks to the translators, really.
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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby Amir » Mon Nov 09, 2015 8:20 am

Made some gifs of my favourite moments (also included them in my Shenmue history articles):

Image

Image

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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby Let's Get Sweaty » Mon Nov 09, 2015 4:39 pm

Amir wrote:Made some gifs of my favourite moments

You weren't tempted by this early version of the Suzuki Death Stare then? :lol:

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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby Peter » Mon Nov 09, 2015 6:34 pm

Let's Get Sweaty wrote:Image


Suddenly, I want my $10k back.
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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby GYO6161 » Mon Nov 09, 2015 9:37 pm

Seeing Suzuki flip out really brought me a new outlook of him. 8-[
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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby fittersau » Tue Nov 10, 2015 5:06 am

GYO6161 wrote: Seeing Suzuki flip out really brought me a new outlook of him. 8-[


Kung fu has soft and hard techniques. This his Suzuki's hard technique.

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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby Henry Spencer » Tue Nov 10, 2015 3:21 pm

GYO6161 wrote: Seeing Suzuki flip out really brought me a new outlook of him. 8-[


It's the Miyamoto effect. Smile for the cameras but behind closed doors, you have to be at your best working for them otherwise... Just like your boss at work. ;-)
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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby fittersau » Tue Nov 10, 2015 6:26 pm

SMDzero wrote: Love that we see why the QTE sounds were changed in Guilin. For some reason the different QTE sounds really impressed me like Shenmue was evolving.

To be honest, I thought the QTE sounds were too distinct from the start, something more subtle could have been used earlier on, but now those beeps and buzzes have become iconic to Shenmue and QTE in general.
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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby Yokosuka » Tue Nov 10, 2015 6:42 pm

fittersau wrote:
SMDzero wrote: Love that we see why the QTE sounds were changed in Guilin. For some reason the different QTE sounds really impressed me like Shenmue was evolving.

To be honest, I thought the QTE sounds were too distinct from the start, something more subtle could have been used earlier on, but now those beeps and buzzes are now iconic to Shenmue and QTE in general.


The sound artist has made a perfect work imo. Stressful at the pop and rewarding at the execution. The player's interactivity is perfectly put forward. QTE in other games sucks for so many reasons including this, they are too quiet as if you play with a DVD menu. The classy sounds of Freeze QTE, the invention of "relaxing QTE" just pushed the excellence a little further towards the brilliance.

I seriously mind if Yu changes anything of this.
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Re: Making of Shenmue

Postby Switch » Wed Nov 11, 2015 9:38 am

Thanks for everyone's positive feedback to the team on the video captions.

I guess Suzuki wasn't asked to review the voiceover commentary for the video, or he probably would have asked them to change the part stating that Shenmue is an RPG, rather than FREE. :)

One new thing I learned was that the number of channels on the Dreamcast's sound chip was driven by the requirements from Suzuki for Shenmue. It just shows the influence that he had in SEGA at that time.

In the scene at 52:00, Suzuki talks about wanting to deliver a "properly-finished, beautiful work" and presses his staff for some ideas about what to do for the last part of the harbor area. I believe they discussing the ending of Shenmue I (one of the developer's also mentions boarding the boat). Fascinating to see an important part of the game being worked out.

Image

One funny thing about the original Japanese voiceover is that the actual names of any companies or products are never spoken - instead they are shown in text on the screen. Even "Shenmue" is never mentioned directly. So for example Yamaha becomes "a large firm that manufactures musical instruments" and so on, leading to some amusingly round-about descriptions.

Miles Prower wrote:I took a load of screenshots as there was some interesting beta stuff/differences, I might post some of the more interesting ones along with observations when I get the time :D

Looking forward to seeing them!

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