Wu Lian Zi.

Hello guys, i hope you can help me. I remember I saw a long time ago a video where a Chinese martial artist (baijiquan, I guess) talked about his collaboration with Yu Suzuki.... I don't remember if it was part of the Shenmue project or still a research on Virtua Fighter's Akira.
Anybody remember the video and the name of that master? Thanks!
Here's my topic about the TV program:

http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=37549

His name is Wu Lianz h i, as you see there.

A game called "Hell Yeah!™ Wrath of the Dead " has some new DLC content which includes Shenmue.

http://segabits.com/blog/2012/10/24/hell-yeah-dlc-releases-today-adds-shenmue-jet-set-radio-and-more/

50 seconds in you'll see a customizations option with Shenmue selectable. Which appears to be the Dragon mirror.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M70VI3e3u5I

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/PeterC2005/Screenshot_2012-10-25-14-50-28.png

It's not just the Shenmue themed wheel, but they include Ryo Hazuki costume among the selection.

http://hellyeah.sega.jp/dlc.shtml

It's after a long while to see the word "Shenmue" in "SEGA EXPRESS," their weekly online news letter, though they misspelled "Hazuki" in Kanji. :P

Wow, guys... Just seen this exciting news on the reddit....
please be true. I'll buy a console for this...

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/12k09o/nintendo_discussing_the_future_of_shenmue_with/

http://i.imgur.com/xllaI.jpg

Do you think there's a chance? :heart:
First of all, the image up there is not taken from any magazine, I'm afraid. Obviously, the Japanese there could not be written by any native speaker of Japanese, or rather, could be written by a machine translator, most likely. Still, it's possible to have been reproduced by someone who was trying kindly to convey the "news" to the fans worldwide.

So, I went out to check the magazine to find out if it really is the reproduction of an article from Brutus. But, unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any article on Shenmue, nor Nintendo, in the current issue of Brutus which was released on Nov. 1st. It could be from a backnumber, but, oh well... :dunno:

the reddit user "mattew9" was asked what issue this was in and he replied today that it was issue no.741, dated 15/10/12.

Kiyuu looked at a Nov 1st issue, I wonder if that was issue 742, and this is a bi-monthly mag?
Yes, BRUTUS comes out bi-monthly, and it's not really a fashion magazine, though they publish "fashion issue" twice a year. Actually, the one I've checked out was #743 dated Nov. 15, though it hit the shelves on Nov. 1st.

Now, I went back to the book store where they carry some backnumbers as well, and checked out #741 page by page. (It's dated Oct. 15, but actually hit the shelves on Oct. 1st.) The only game name I found in it was "Biohazard 6" in its full-page ad. No Nintendo, no Shenmue, once again...

Or, mattew9/masterG is prolonging this prank even after he's theoretically been busted....there's no way that scan, as Kiyuu pointed out, is completely legitimate, unless it was just an online translation slapped over the real print (which makes no sense).
That's right. It makes no sense at all. If there really is an article in Japanese, how come they bother to translate it into English first and translate it back into Japanese by machine? Did they think no one would notice that is not the original article? :???:

I asked Mitsuzuki to rip all his official Shenmue soundtracks into a lossless audio format. (FLAC)

Shenmue Original Soundtrack
http://vgmdb.net/db/assets/covers-medium/5/9/5/595-1191431492.jpg
http://vgmdb.net/album/595

Part 1
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?y4f74bb44e3da1v
Part 2
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?pl8mgymaujc9r0k
Part 3
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ib0xb6jrn9p020l
Part 4
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?8ism69nn5mfpuf4

Shenmue Orchestra Version
http://vgmdb.net/db/assets/covers-medium/5/9/8/598-1257004438.jpg
http://vgmdb.net/album/598

Download : http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?h7auw1g0upw6n6c

Shenhua ~Jiang Qing Ri Bao Hua Ge~
http://vgmdb.net/db/assets/covers-medium/8/2/0/4/8204-1209235694.jpg
http://vgmdb.net/album/8204

Download : http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?6cu4o5hp6ojcv76

You're my only...... ~Shenmue's Whisper~
http://vgmdb.net/db/assets/covers-medium/8/2/0/5/8205-1209236827.jpg
http://vgmdb.net/album/8205

Download : http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?6kb2qb056j4bzr1

Shenmue / Shenhua (Gift CD)
http://vgmdb.net/db/assets/covers-medium/6/0/0/600-1203551899.jpg
http://vgmdb.net/album/600

Download : http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?5phb32b52u7mza3

Shenmue Jukebox
http://medium.media.vgm.io/albums/99/599/599-1399841091.jpg
http://vgmdb.net/album/599

Download : http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?607hoza9ds0brss

Sega Piano Nocturne
http://vgmdb.net/db/assets/covers-medium/2073-1342910210.jpg
http://vgmdb.net/album/2073

Download : http://www.mediafire.com/?c4i0157a5ac8ak9

http://i767.photobucket.com/albums/xx318/askvera/s2cd_sigbanner.png


DOWNLOAD - https://www.dropbox.com/s/8qkby011a3tkgg2/Shenmue%20II%20Character%20Database.rar

Yep. After nearly a decade, it's done, people :D

HISTORY OF THE SHENMUE II CHARACTER DATABASE PROJECT
Ever since casting my eyes upon screenshots of Shenmue published in the (now defunct) UK magazine Computer and Video Games, I have been absolutely enthralled by the series. This game was definitely something different. As the famous tagline proclaimed in the trailers before its release – RPG had changed. Sure, hailing the game as being its own exciting new “genre” with a somewhat silly acronym as its name (FREE- Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment) was being a tad overzealous perhaps, but you had to admire Yu Suzuki’s ambition for this game. When I finally got to play it on the Christmas morning of 2000, it did not disappoint. The atmosphere created was just amazing to me – a realistic, living, breathing town with over 300 individual characters – all with their own specific daily routines and, in supplementary materials, all named and given detailed biographies! Throw in the fantastic music and the engaging (if not completely original) story and you really had something special. And this was only part one of the saga...

Bundled with the game was the ‘Shenmue Passport’ disc. Through the Dreamcast’s internet connection, this enabled access to all sorts of information about the game, as well as ranking leaderboards for the various mini-games and the chance to get exclusive capsule toys. One of the best features was the character profile section however; as you met and conversed with the characters during a playthrough, their profiles would gradually be added to the Passport. Now to some, giving all 300+ characters names, stats, and biographies may seem extraneous, (especially given characters that Ryo can’t even speak to have detailed information about them!) but it really shows the love and care put into the game by the developers and the amount of depth to Shenmue that few games have matched.

PASSPORT EXPIRED
The Passport service was eventually taken offline in April 2002, but thankfully the character profiles had also been published in Prima’s strategy guide book for the game, so the information was still readily available to fans.
Which brings us to the sequel game, Shenmue II – which I got the following Christmas in 2001. This sadly could end up being the last game in the series, despite it ending on a cliffhanger and at a game-changing point in the saga’s story. Nonetheless, the sequel’s world was even bigger than the first’s– Ryo travels to Hong Kong to continue his quest, with most of its areas completely dwarfing Shenmue I’s in terms of size, as well as the amount of characters – around 700. There was also a lot more mini-games and sidequests to discover, and fans generally agree it is more action-packed and that the plot moves a lot quicker than the first game (though some will argue Shenmue I’s atmosphere has more charm) And what of these 700-odd characters? Were they all named and profiled as per the original game? As it turns out, yes – but these were not readily available to the fans outside of Japan.

Firstly, unlike the first Shenmue, there was no Passport. There was no Prima guide either, as the Dreamcast version had been cancelled in America. America eventually saw an updated version of Shenmue II on the Microsoft Xbox, and a Prima guide was finally published. However, unlike the Shenmue I book, there were only profiles on the main characters; Ryo, Shenhua, Xiuying, Fangmei, Ren, Joy, Wong, Lan Di, Dou Niu and Yuan. The Xbox version, with the new snapshot feature, did include profiles on some of the other characters; unlocked when you took pictures of them, but it didn't come close to having profiles for all the characters. Would we ever know the names and backgrounds of the reams of anonymous characters?

A FAN EFFORT
Shortly after I had completed Shenmue II, I looked around on the internet for fansites/information about the series, ultimately finding the excellent Shenmue Dojo website. I joined the forums, and this was in fact one of the first message boards I signed up to on the internet. My handle on the forum was (and still is) ‘Miles Prower’, as I am also a long-time fan of the Sonic the Hedgehog series of games (and Sega games in general). I made a lot of good friends through the Dojo community and have many fond memories associated with the forums. I think between us we have probably discussed every single aspect of the games to death, but as many fans will attest, you find or notice something new with every playthrough of these wonderful games. Not to mention the very active hacking/modding scene that developed, mostly headed by longtime member LanDC, in which reams of unused content was discovered and many interesting and or humourous modifications made to the game. I still get a warm nostalgic feeling every time I watch LanDC’s Road to Amihama videos in particular.

And indeed, the question of whether detailed character profiles existed for Shenmue II’s cast was raised in discussion. In a thread from 2003, a member named Eek the Cat shared some scans of a guidebook he owned published in Japan called the Shenmue II Perfect Guidebook. The scans showed that there were indeed names and profiles for each and every character.
Eek was even kind enough to put all of the scans together on a CD for me and mail it to me, and even threw in a couple of audio CD’s he had compiled containing music from Shenmue II (sadly the second game never had any official soundtracks released).

The problem? Being that this book was from Japan, the character names were in Chinese and the information in Japanese. Through discussion in the topic, another forum member called khien agreed to help with translating the character names as she could read Chinese. And so began the effort to translate the many character profiles. I began by gradually posting them within the topic, and then eventually creating a website (which, thanks to Web Archive, you can still view here , albeit with most of the images missing).

Continuing into 2004 and beyond, progress was quite slow, mainly due to me starting university. Khien’s life ended up becoming quite busy as well, but thanks to the efforts of another forum member, Oda Ryo, the translation work still continued. The forum member Kiyuu (possibly Japan’s biggest Shenmue fan, and often referred to as the ‘Shenmue Queen’), also informed me that another book existed, the Shenmue II Complete Guide, which contained profiles for characters not included in the Perfect Guidebook; namely those for the many pedestrians who wander the streets of Hong Kong. I made the effort to acquire this book myself and make scans for the remaining profiles.

RESSURECTING THE PROJECT
As the years went on, however, my free time became less and less. I studied for three years at university and after graduating in 2008, I was working full time; in short I was growing up. It was also looking increasingly unlikely that a Shenmue III would ever emerge. Life went on. However, my enthusiasm to complete the project was somewhat fired up again when Peter from the forums (who most likely owns the biggest Shenmue collection in Ireland) got in touch with me on Facebook asking if I was still working on it, as the Dojo staff had managed to get an interview with one of the voice actors for the English dub of Shenmue II (a very interesting read by the way, which can be found here , and they had requested that video clips be assembled of the characters he voiced, which he supplied a list of – but only by name and brief descriptions. Using the information from my project I helped with finding some of them. I then found myself wanting to get the project finished once and for all, and got back in touch with Oda Ryo who happily assisted me with getting the remaining names translated.

I had also spoken to the member ‘thegreatchai’, who had also been attempting to catalogue the character information on her wiki site, and over time we assisted each other greatly. I began transferring the information to an Excel spreadsheet with the intention of creating a complete database of all the Shenmue II characters – which after assembling a numbered list I discovered there are exactly 700 – surely a deliberate intention of the creators? At any rate, after a few months work the project was finally finished. I am glad that this information is now easily accessible to Shenmue fans, and while some may consider me obsessive or downright insane for pursuing with the project, it was worth it for a game series that I love so much and one day hope will be continued in some form. We can but hope. The saga may still go on....

DOWNLOAD - https://www.dropbox.com/s/8qkby011a3tkgg2/Shenmue%20II%20Character%20Database.rar

Please feedback and let me know if you spot any mistakes or errors, or any factoids about the characters that I may have missed. Most of all, enjoy :D

How about a Shenmuedojo groupbuy. Maybe we can get a better price if we place a lot of orders. Ryudo, maybe you'll earn enough money if we try this.

Part 1 within an hour ready at:

http://youtu.be/mYnbHkTrb5s

I'm sorry but there is a GAP:

Local time:
Part 1:
16:17H -- duration 20 minutes
Part 2:
16:37H -- duration 17 minutes
Gap
16:54H -- gap because of a overheated Nikon J1 7 minutes
Part 3:
17:01H -- duration 8 minutes

Hi Shenmue fans !
Let me clarify this for you. After a travel of 1200km made just to meet Yu, I was in Monaco this weekend, where I met Richard ( rdk_nl ) from this board. He filmed me when I asked this question http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p3PjvKA7m0 that was misinterpreted since...

The question was " If Mr. Suzuki ends up being unable to find the financial resources or the good circumstances to develop Shenmue 3, would it be possible to him to decide to finish the story as an Anime in 3D, or even cheaper : as a book ".

His answer was, if I can relate to the translator (really not sure about that) : " Maybe, it's a possibility... Even in that form, I would like to make some more Shenmue ".

2 things :

1. With the conference translation, I still don't know if Yu Suzuki means that "Even in that form...some more Shenmue" means : "If I wanted to do it, I would not make one episode, but a series of anime or books" or "If I chose to release Shenmue on those medias, I would still want to release more Shenmue as a videogame". Maybe one of you japanese speaking fans might translate Yu's answer there, it would be really nice ;-) .

2. I never said anything about a "manga", I spoke about a book (refering in french to the word "romancé" that relates to a novel, a written adaptation of the original script). I hope it's been well translated to Yu Suzuki. It's that french journalist who made the connection between an Anime and a manga book, not me.

Let's hope we'll have something concrete in the near future... Thank you !

I wanted to give you a complete retranscription of the conference in French and then translate it into English ( with the help of Ziming ). But we haven't got a complete video of the conference yet, there is a missing part. I prefer to wait that Kenji sends us his version, because he will accurately translate all the questions and the Suzuki-san answers.

About the interview of Shenmue Master:

To keep you informed about our interview, here is the information I could get from Kenji ( By phone ).

From what Kenji told me ( we still need to do a debriefing on Skype with all the team of Shenmue Master, normally tonight ).
- Our interview had a duration of 15 minutes, the contact with Yu Suzuki was very very good, Suzuki-san was really friendly and respectful towards Shenmue Master.

- About the content, the content of our interview is really really average, we asked good questions but Yu Suzuki seemed to have forgotten a lot of things concerning the story of the saga and he couldn't answer.

About the questions:

Kenji asked questions about Niao-sun and Yuanda Zhu.
- He asked what would become the preparatory work within Sega. ( Which can be found in the basement and we can see in the making-of )
- There was also a question about the TAO ( Chinese notion of philosophy ).
We have prepared the questions together and I'll bring them in my next post, np.

We've been hearing his cryptic and short answers about Shenmue 3 for years now. Which fans have been trying to decipher with no avail to give them a glimpse of hope. Based on that can we confidently assume Yu Suzuki will give us a straight answer on Shenmue HD? He's not with Sega anymore, so he can't provide anything reassuring.

I'm kinda biased about this whole HD port because I was privy to some information about it last year. It's frustrating to hear Yu Suzuki say there is nothing happening.

of course :) but you see? The game sold well. As you said, the loss was due to poor management of their resources
I know. It's Sega. I should have said before that's probably how sega looks at it today. They see the game as a loss. While it part of a much large picture of SEGA itself starting in 1994. I honestly believe on XBL it would sell decent.

May I interject with an awesome image?

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/602713_10151461738402365_2032554069_n.jpg

Our beloved 'OutRun' designer holding a copy of Kavinsky's album 'OutRun'. Perfect. Taken at the Monaco Anime Game Show, so relevant.

That is all.

Here are the screens from the Monaco conference.

BTW, I've seen pages of personal opinions based on nuthin', but couldn't spot any reply to my call for an accurate japanese translation of the Anime/book question (page 11). Could someone who understands japanese AND would give a f%£k help to get Yu's answer on that one ? Thanks.

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It was a pleasure too, pal !
Since your cam was filming everything but the screen, I obviously had to do it (I missed the video of the saturn dance game he's been involved in, but I believe I've got all the others)...

Here are those pictures at a higher resolution (3600x2700) : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/51587875/Yu%20Suzuki%20screens%20from%20Monaco.rar ;-)

...and I know it's already been said in here, but if Yu did insist on the dissolution of the Soviet union, it's because military forces had the best computers at that time, and he's been able to buy some cheaper elements from the USSR in 1991. Those high-end computers sold cheaper made the development of real 3d game possible...

This is just a tidbit about Yu Suzuki while he was in Monaco.
According to the following facebook page in Japanese, Yu-san took a tour of Côte d'Azur on March 1st.

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=208376462514654&story_fbid=568956586456638

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af167/Kiyuu/Monaco2013_2.jpg
Yu-san with Go Nagai, a famous animator, and the tour guide

As he wanted to stroll some old village with an ambience that would be suitable for a game, the guide took him to Dolceacqua . He liked the village very much and took a lot of pictures. Some day, we might stroll an old village like this in some video game. ;-)

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/af167/Kiyuu/Dolceacqua38_-_Panorama_del_paese_vecchio.jpg

Shendream wrote: Here a video of the complete conference of the Sunday March 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il8bSiWu_CA

Thank you for the video. Now that I can hear the Q&A part clearly, I've fixed the inaudible part in my translation.

Here a video of the complete conference of the Sunday March 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il8bSiWu_CA

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il8bSiWu_CA[/youtube]

Here a video of the complete conference of the Sunday March 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il8bSiWu_CA

Thank you for the video. Now that I can hear the Q&A part clearly, I've fixed the inaudible part in my translation.

Can you please add time stamps to the duration of each Shenmue question.

Time stamp example: Shenmue question 1 (8:40-9:00)
Japanese Translator: blablablabla (translation)
Yu Suzuki: blablablabla (translation)

Time stamp example: Shenmue question 2 (18:22-19:55)
Japanese Translator: blablablabla (translation)
Yu Suzuki: blablablabla (translation)

I can edit those parts together into a single video. Once together I can add English subtitles to each question, from original interviewer to the translator, and lastly Yu Suzuki.

hey guys!! thanks for having me:) ok, so...
as for the questions-
first of all I have played Shenmue a few times, but it was at a friends house. I actually don't have any game consoles,etc at home...because if i did, I am sure I would be addicted. lol:) I thought it was a cool game but at that time I had no idea how big of a following it had. and yes, of course I would love to see the series continue!
And as for having a Shenmue 3, I read that Yu Suzuki recently (last month) said "I think Sega will let me make it", but then went on to say that it depended on various budget issues...so I don't know. but fingers crossed, I guess.

Yuan...ahhh, yes, the mysterious character that is Yuan. so with that voice, I probably spent at least a few hours in the studio offering up various voices for that character. I guess Yuan was a very sensitive topic for the game, because Sega was trying to keep the game as "politically correct" or "mainstream" as possible, and yet keep as close to the original character as possible. Honestly I actually had another voice that I gave them that was a bit closer to the character, so I was a bit bummed that they didn't use it. It was actually a voice that I kinda modeled after the character Samantha in "Sex and the City". lol.. I will say that experimenting with that character was quite a bit of fun.
And yes, I do believe that the director told me that they had envisioned Yuan as a bit of a flamboyant, cross-dressing boy/girl...


Some of you may or may not know, but when we go to a voice job for a video game, here is how it usually goes...
we sit down with the director (and sometimes client) of the project.
they explain the character we are voicing.
they we go through various lines to warm up, sometimes WITH the video, but many times it is without the video.
we give them various voices, and the director chooses the voice he wants to use.
then we use that voice and go through the various lines.

I remember when I was doing Xiuying, the director kept telling me that he wanted her to have a very flat, almost monotone feel. I wanted to add a bit more emotion to her character, but the director didn't want that.
Probably one of the hardest things for me during the recording of Shenmue 2 was actually keeping the consistency of my voice. When I recorded the various characters, it was right in the middle of winter AND flu season.
And unfortunately I got sick during the recording. (it didn't help that my "regular"job was DJing Mon-Fri for a radio station in Tokyo, so I was probably overusing my voice a bit...)
But anyway, I remember one day I showed up at the Sega studios all ready to record, but after about 15 min in the studio, they told me to go home, because my voice was just a teensy weensy tad off, but they needed to have it the exact same voice quality. So I was totally bummed...especially because the commute to the Sega studios from downtown Tokyo is over an hour by train:(

but I will say that being a part of the game has been a great experience. And I had the opportunity to work with some good friends on this project, like Paul Lucas, who is awesome, btw. I am going to try and get him on here at some point.

ok, so as far as my Tekken characters...I am Nina Williams, and also do the voice for Christie Monteiro, as well as Zafina. I actually went in the studio here in LA a few weeks ago to voice one of my Tekken characters for an upcoming game, which unfortunately I can't really discuss yet...but can give you details at a later date:)

how did I get into voice acting...well, I have been in radio since I was 19, so it was kinda a natural thing for me, I guess.
I'm not sure if you guys know this, but I grew up in Japan. Lived there since I was 5.
In fact, the first city I ever lived in was Sendai (which was, of course, the epicenter for the huge recent earthquake)
And yes, it has been quite surreal to watch the events unfold...very sad :(
As we speak, I am actually coordinating a big charity event which will be on 5/20 in Tokyo, and have been pretty wrapped up with that the past couple weeks.
Anyway, so I have pretty much lived in Japan my whole life. And just recently (as in two years ago) moved back to the US. So I speak totally fluent Japanese, and while I was in Japan, I hosted mostly radio and tv shows. That led me to also doing quite a bit of voice over work, which led to my video game work. And I must say that video game work is DEFINITELY a highlight.

OK...so I know that I haven't answered all your questions, but I will be back for more.:)
And Peter told me that some of you guys have been donating some stuff to help raise money for Japan. I can't even begin to tell you how touched I know the Japanese people would be if they knew...and I am very touched as well:)
So thank you :)
will be back to talk again soon:)
xoxo

Here a video of the complete conference of the Sunday March 3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il8bSiWu_CA

Thank you for the video. Now that I can hear the Q&A part clearly, I've fixed the inaudible part in my translation.

Can you please add time stamps to the duration of each Shenmue question.
Here's the translation of the Shenmue related Q&A:

21:24-TR: What is the most memorable game to you?
21:29-YS: Every game is memorable to me. But, Virtua Fighter is the most memorable as it was
the hardest game to make, having had to go through various hardships. Shenmue as well.

24:01-TR: Is there any regrets?
24:04-YS: Ah... I hate this (kind of question.) Not having been able to make Shenmue III yet, of course.

24:43-TR: Do you have any plan or project for the next-generation consoles?
24:52-YS: I don't have any concrete plans, but I'd like to do something for them.

25:23-TR: What do you think about using the service like crowd-funding, such as Kickstarter?
25:33-YS: There's such possibility, I think.
(Here, the translator took the liberty of connecting the answer of YS with Shenmue III, and the MC got excited.)
15:47-YS: That was a leading question, wasn't it?

26:06-TR: Perhaps you've already been asked this a lot, but everybody wants to know it. How is Shenmue III
going at the moment?
26:17-YS: I want to make it for sure, if a good partner is found.
26:30-YS: If the circumstances allow, I want to make it.
26:41-TR: Everybody wants to help you in anyway.
26:45-YS: Thank you. Merci beaucoup.

26:51-YS: May I speak a little here? French fans, especially, have been caring about Shenmue a lot and
always ask me about Shenmue III. I'm very glad about it.
27:18-YS: I sincerely want to make it, if circumstances allow.

36:50-TR: Now, there's a rumor that Shenmue I or II will be playable soon by downloading with PSN or Xbox...
37:06-YS: Where is it from?
37:10-TR: Huh? He (the questioner) says so.
37:15-YS: Well, I don't get it. Every year a rumor says Shenmue III is coming. I wonder who is making it.

42:24-TR: Do you have a plan to make Shenmue HD?
42:50-YS: The license of Shenmue I and II belongs to SEGA. Now that I've left SEGA, it's not my decision,
but SEGA's, to remake and sell them like that. It'd be possible for SEGA, I guess.
43:27-YS: I could make anything related to Shenmue series, though, by getting the license from SEGA,
if they say OK.

45:10-TR: Instead of a video game, will there be any chance that you depict the story of Shenmue 3
in other forms, like movie or novel?
45:24-YS: There will be such possibilities, I think. Even in such forms I want to do something related to Shenmue.

It may have already been asked before but I couldn't find the thread.... who drew the sketches and concept art for Shenmue and Shenmue II? I used to know his name but I forgot.... :| #-o
If you mean this kind of sketches and drawings, it's Kenji Miyawaki who is credited as "2D Graphics Design Supervisor" and "2D Graphics Character Designer." He also did the Shenmue II side story comics .

http://www.shenmuedojo.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/normal_Ryo.jpg http://www.shenmuedojo.net/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/SHE_05.JPG

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/p480x480/941724_10151334106170927_990592229_n.png
Winner: James Brown Time Scored: 3:49:36

Entry Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tNlV9tKERc

Competition Rankings

1. James Brown (UK) - 3:49:36
2. Moonwalker123 (AUS) - 4:14:43
3. SONICSPEED36 (UK) - 4:32:56
4. Bertie Wiseman (UK) - 4:39:30
5. Sailesh D. (USA) - 4:40:83
6. Mestre (POR) - 4:48:66
7. Michael K. (IE) - 5:09:00
8. iQDaTruthMTL (CAN) - 5:11:13
9. Giorgio Sotiro (GRE) - 8:03:40

New Yu Suzuki Interview with English Translated Captions. Press the "CC" option in the video to view English subtitles.

6:34 - Yu Suzuki is asked about Shenmue 3.

Question: If he was still in discussion with Sega about Shenmue III.

Yu Suzuki: No, I do not talk about Shenmue III with Sega now.

(Hesitates) I can not talk too much.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kKVMcRxpqo

I saw this on Shenmue.de and it hasn't been mentioned here on the Dojo yet.

http://youtu.be/qXMKQCz5Uk0

The German Indie-Band Schrottgrenze has released an album called "Das Ende unserer Zeit" in 2004 and one song on it is perticularly interesting for us. It's called "Nozomi's Lieder" wich translates out to "Nozomi's Songs".
It is about a girl from the east that's very beatiful and charms everyone with her singing. Sounds quite fitting to a certain Shenmue character besides the singing, does it? Might be a coincidence? Well they make it pretty clear from where they got the name because they actually sing the girls full name: Nozomi Harasaki.

Now this could've still just be a huge coincidence but no, they actually do mean Shenmue's Nozomi!
The guy that runs Shenmue.de recently asked the bands singer Alexander about the song and he replyed the following: "I was obsessed with Shenmue when it was new. I'd say it was my favorite game so far."

This just made me smile and I though, I'd share it with you here.

While the work is credited to AM2, the only one behind the team that actually worked extensively on racing, fighting, shooting classics of before, is Yu Suzuki.

There were overall 5 different development sections for Shenmue: The Scenario, Planning, the overall Software realization, the Graphics design. Then there was Music and Motion capturing.

Takao Yujitso - Scenario director:
The only video game work he has ever done is the Shenmue games, he did a special collaboration for Shenmue with Suzuki, due to his expertize Asian TV and Cinema before.

Eigo Kasahara - Planning director:
He still works at Sega coordinating projects made in-house, and published.

Software:
Game and Programm director, Keiji Okayasu - He mostly worked on Virtua Fighter games as a programmer, and converted these games to consoles. After Shenmue II, he left Sega to work on rather miscallenious projects such as DS versions of Dynasty Warriors, and some of the wierd Nintendo published games such as Odama and Custom Robo. A shame, he seemd like a great tech person.

Design Director - Masahide Kawakami
He seemed like on of the persons that worked in the Arcade divisions of AM2, worked on Shenmue, and then went back to Arcade, he was director of After Burner Climax, for example.

Graphics design director - Masanari Ohe
Another one who still is at the Arcade division of Sega.

Sound director - Takenobu Mitsuyoshi
He still does lot of music stuff Sega's Wave Master publishing label...remixes and albums of classic Sega games and contributions here and there, and several orginal works for rather arcade centric Sega games.

It seemed many people were specifically hired for Shenmue, and then let go afterwards...or stuck in Arcades

It seemed many people were specifically hired for Shenmue, and then let go afterwards...or stuck in Arcades

Not entirely true actually. Besides, I enjoy sometimes looking through game credits. You find some surprising discoveries.

Shenmue I

Screenplay : Masahiro Yoshimoto - Like Takao Yujitso, he also only ever worked on Shenmue as a game project, writing the game. He works primarily on live action movies, CG animated films and anime TV series.

Shenmue II
Dreamcast Version Game Directors : Shinichi Yoshino, Yoshihiro Okabayashi
Shinichi Yoshino is now working at Sony Japan. He worked as an animator on games such as Jeanne D'Arc for PSP.
Yoshihiro Okabayashi worked on the Sega All Stars Racing series (SEGA R&D1) and After Burner Climax.

"FREE" Scenario Writer : Yasushi Otake
Yasushi Otake left SEGA and worked freelance at various companies including Atlus, Tri-Ace and others before ending up back at SEGA again and being the writer of Sonic Colors. His other game credits include Digital Devil Saga and End of Eternity/Resonance of Fate.

Xbox Version Director : Shin Ishikawa
Shin Ishikawa left AM2 and joined Kojima Productions at Konami. He worked on MGS3 and Zone of the Enders 2. Mysteriously absent after this...


What is really strange though is some of them just disappear off the face of the Earth after working on either of the Shenmue games. Guess some of them just gave up?

More info can be found Over:

http://vf20th.sega.jp/

Here's a very new special ongoing Interview with Yu Suzuki regarding the 20th Anniversary of Virtua Fighter

http://vf20th.sega.jp/interview.html (We need a possible / proper translation @the earliest possible!)

We can expect more to come out during upcoming days & catching Yu Suzuki on the live stream as well!

http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv161691595

He's expected to show up @the final event on Dec 26th too:

http://www.sega-mag.com/Un+evenement+Virtua+Fighter+en+presence+de+Yu+Suzuki-news-5519.htm

Keep an eye on the anniversary site news for any changes / new stream links!

Part of Yu Suzuki's new interview was already shown on today's stream! (Archive will be available for review)

On a side note: Tekken Director "Harada" showed up for the event as well along some key AM2 developers.

It's good to see Yu Suzuki re-forming / keeping in touch with SEGA-AM2 in some ways,

And he, himself states "He's currently still a Special Adviser to SEGA"

Let this be a warm up for you before his GDC 14 Appearance regarding Shenmue!

Now let's keep our demand going on for the series' completion.

Happy Twitting / FB Commenting over SONY/SEGA/Etc Official Twitters & Facebook!

Cheers~

http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2015/06/20/88702.html

I'll try to translate it, but it might take a while...

Edit: Found another one on the same site from the 17th: http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2015/06/17/88607.html

Edit 2: Translation is complete. I'm neither native in english nor japanese, so it might sound strange in some places.

Again, this is the inside-games.jp article from 2015-06-20
- a follow up on the interview Switch translated.

------------------------------------------------

Yu Suzuki, the man who started the Shenmue III Kickstarter that set a new Guinness record for the fastest game reaching 1 million dollars. One night after the last time we spoke we ask again about the state of the project and about game creating.

-- Thanks for the other day. This time I would like to dig deeper.
YS: Please go ahead.

-- Can you tell us more about this "nostalgia" that you mentioned was like a theme or keyword for Shenmue 3.
YS: Wherever I go in the world I'm always asked "Where is Shenmue 3?" By mail or through other persons. That's when I felt it, that Shenmue has a lot of parts in it, the things that you feel about the game can differ very much from person to person. Like, one fan said he met a person called Nozomi in real life, you know, like the heroine of Shenmue I. He felt that it was some kind of fate and married her.

-- Wow. Really?
YS: Yeah. it's true. Other than that there were things that seemed obvious for japanese people, but were new for foreigners. For example in the first game Ryo walks around and asks for help from many different people, right? As he leaves he always says "Thank you". There are foreigners that were moved by that. When I heard that I thought "Well, don't you say thank you in your country?".

-- Maybe they don't say things that explicit in that culture?
YS: And in the game these "excuse me" and "thank you"s are repeated many many times. For people not experiencing that in their daily lives it might have been a bit of a shock for them. I took that to my heart.

-- I guess there aren't that many RPGs that end their conversations with "thank you".
YS: And in this society we live in now information is shared over the internet, but as you go further back through the years, and go further into the countryside, information exchange is slow and the culture and customs are more specific to that area. The beliefs and values of the people living there are [less complicated and] easier to understand. That is very interesting.

-- I see.
YS: So maybe the people anticipating part 3 are having fond memories and feel a bit nostalgic. I think people are probably feeling nostalgic about the Shenhua, Ryo and Shenmue from fifteen years ago. And I think that I shouldn't destroy that nostalgia with part 3. If I don't make that work with part 3 I don't think the game will live up to the expectations. That's why the keyword for part 3 is nostalgia.

-- Wasn't part 1 and 2 also make with nostalgia as a keyword?
YS: It's a different kind of nostalgia with part 3. In part 1 and 2 there is the nostalgia towards the era, in part 3 it's the nostalgia towards the game. For part 1 and 2 the target user was late teens to early twenties, so for these users I wanted them to experience the culture of the streets still having that showa-period feel of 1986, and be nostalgic about it. So in contrast to that, in part 3 I want the players to be nostalgic about part 1 and 2.

-- So looking at the years... part 1 and 2 came out in 2000 and 2001. Since part 1 in taking place in 1986 Yokosuka, the users playing the game at 20 years of age would have been six when the game took place.
YS: So it's not really nostalgia since it's a story from when they were just kids. Maybe making them feel "there was a world like this" together with the nostalgia.

-- Since then 15 years has passed and the users has become 35 and start feeling nostalgic about things. Now they are looking back and being nostalgic about having played part 1 and part 2.
YS: Yes. Now they are nostalgic about the experience with Shenmue.

-- So the games were released and as said before the users over the world described what moved them which you didn't think about when the games were made, right? As a game creator, did you continue to be surprised by all the reactions over these 15 years?
YS: Yes. They didn't come all at once. The comments continued coming from all over the world. Especially about cultural differences.

-- As with part 1 and 2, even if you think about what the users will enjoy in part 3, it might be different between japanese and foreign users.
YS: It's different. I can't remember making part 1 and 2 for foreigners.For example the themes of Outrun and other arcade games I made a long time ago were chosen in order to be popular all over the world. But for Shenmue 1 and 2 there were no thoughts about the target country.

-- You didn't make them for japanese users?
YS: I didn't really think about it. It was more about making a new game style, there is something interesting in just that. Making a new thing means a new kind of game which would make the world take notice of it. A new system. But I never thought everyone would react to the culture and customs like this.

-- You can say the new system was the skeleton and the culture and customs were the flesh and outward appearance, maybe?
YS: Maybe more like the system is the physical and culture and customs are the spiritual.

-- That would connect with the word "spiritual" that is often said about Shenmue. So for part 3 you can keep working on the aspects you didn’t think about that people actually really enjoyed about part 1 and 2.
YS: Yeah.

-- Neilo is developing part 3. The CEO Tak Hirai was the lead programmer of part 1 and 2 I've heard. Could you share the story of how you came to work on this project together again? Did you keep in touch during these 15 years?
YS: I've been in contact with Hirai and other members all the time since then. Drinking sometimes, talking about wanting to make Shenmue etc. "If it ever happens I'll count on you". We always said things like that.

-- Everyone was thinking about it.
YS: I'm a programmer from the beginning and Hirai too, so we have a kind of programming bond. In a game there are graphics, sound, program and other elements, but I want to focus on the programming.

-- I see.
YS: There are great games in the world today. Destiny, Grand Theft Auto, Assassin's Creed and more. The budget difference makes it very hard to challenge them in graphics and quality. For example Nintendo games are a bit less graphically advanced, but I don't care about that. They have great playability and I love them. So that's the approach. I'll probably challenge myself on the programming side. I think the programming makes games fun. So with that in mind the programming lead becomes an important partner.

-- Meaning Hirai-san.
YS: Yes. Back then Hirai was the programming lead and... Ah, I guess I can't call just call him Hirai anymore {as in dropping “-san”}. He was working under me back then... He was the one who started Neilo so f course he's great at programming. And this time, for the development of 3, we have gained access to the source code from part 1 and 2. He has written much of that code and might be able to reuse some of it. Back then there were probably nobody as great as him at programming. So in that sense being able to collaborate with him and his company is great.

-- It looks like there are other important creators participating.
YS: Yes. The screenwriter Yoshimoto-sensei is helping out. I'm very happy that many key members are participating.

-- How is the development looking now? I guess you have been talking with Neilo until now.
YS: It all depends on how the Kickstarter goes. If it fails, everything stops. Since it's not finished yet we can't do any real work. But we can do the work we can. We've been having a lot of meetings. For the Kickstarter we've been making promotional videos in Unreal Engine 4, but that was delegated to Neilo. However, I was of course directing it. We worked together like that. The budget will be decided in about a month I think so that's when we'll organize the project team. The plan is fluid but Neilo will be the center, and that won't change.

-- During the Sega era, how was Hirai-san?
YS: When we made Shenmue we were over 300 people at one time. We had managers for different sections, and he had about 100 people under him. So he was between me and where work was being done. He was very much trusted by his subordinates. I think that's the best compliment I can say about him. People who are trusted from above might just be appeasing their supervisors. But it takes someone special to be trusted by those working for him.

The rest of the questions are more about how and why he creates games. While interesting, it’s not that relevant in regards to the Shenmue III project.

Japanese site 4Gamer interviewed 147 Japanese game developers for their thoughts on the year that has passed, and a message going into 2016, one of them being Yu Suzuki. Here is a translation of his interview ( original article ). Thanks to Giorgio for sharing the article link.


http://i.imgur.com/qTb2EYMt.jpg
Yu Suzuki
YS Net President
Representative works: Hang-On, Space Harrier, Out Run, After Burner II, Power Drift, Virtua Fighter series, Shenmue series



Q1: Of the games released in 2015, which title impressed you or amazed you most?

YS: The Last Guardian & Final Fantasy VII Remake
Although they’re not titles released this year, these two titles were announced when I was waiting for the Shenmue III presentation at E3. I could feel the huge cheers like earth tremors from back-stage, and I was overwhelmed especially at the popularity of Final Fantasy VII.

Q2: Of the entertainment content released or announced in 2015, which work was most memorable?

YS: This year there were a lot of movies I wanted to see, but things were so hectic with preparations for Shenmue III that actually I haven’t been able to see even one of them. I want to make time to see Terminator Genisys, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, 007 Spectre and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

And although they are not new releases, in order to enhance the portrayal of Shenmue III I spent time re-watching the Zatoichi movie series and works by Kurosawa, as well as Hong Kong & Chinese Kung Fu movies and others.

Q3: Which person in 2015 did you follow (or are still following)?

YS: Personally, I like watching [tennis player] Kei Nishikori and watching table tennis matches, so I watch them as much as I can when they are being broadcast. In addition, it’s good that Japanese athletes are not just remaining in Japan but are increasingly stepping out globally, and I feel that they are pushing the ceiling higher. I hope many more people will gain an awareness of Japanese culture and history through the activities of Japanese around the world.

Q4: What are your aspirations for 2016, and please also give a message for 4Gamer readers.

YS: 2015 was a very significant year for the Shenmue series, and for me. And it was also a year in which I felt the great love for Shenmue.

I will continue on with development to deliver a creation that will shine radiantly in the hearts of everyone who has waited for 14 years.

http://i.imgur.com/4aqduE6.jpg

The NPCs and compression are the biggest issue, of course. And lack of direction. I really don't care who they get to do the dub, but I do hope it's 'passable' this time just so we're not dealing with the same "Shenmue sucks" bullshit we always have to deal with.

Hi there. I do not think that would stop the casual gamers from hating Shenmue. Ultimately, it is only understood by certain players with a certain mentality. The way Shenmue is, it's definetly more for the "hardcore" crowd. First post by the way!

Welcome :)

A long time ago I would have agreed that Shenmue is for the more 'hardcore' audience but now JRPG's are becoming a bit more mainstream I think it will appeal to a wider audience. The English dub does need to improve hugely on Shenmue 2's English dub. Some of it is plain awful, the first had a charm to it and some of the voices (Lan Di, Terry, Chai, Guizhang) were all done very well.

It begs the question that will most of the JRPG's coming over with Japanese voices and English subs, why are they doing an English dub? I've always enjoyed the Japanese voices in Shenmue 2 and the Yakuza games. Maybe an English dub will extend appeal but it needs to shine as otherwise people will jump on it.