Welcome back JC
Still can't quite believe it myself either, if truth be told!

I feel guilty now, Peter...

I feel like I need to explain who I am now.. I'm not a casual Shenmue fan. My brother and I are 35. We are identical twins and we help lead a school just outside Guilin in Yangshou where we teach poor kids English in helping them get scholarships to achieve better education.

This was inspired by Shenmue. My Avatar is of me laying on a raft on the Lijiang river just outside Guilin.

I've been there from the beginning like most of you. This will be a great experience in my life that I will treasure until I die.

EDIT:

You can find us on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/VolunteerEnglishTeacher?fref=ts


A lot of the pictures are of my brother and I.

Here is me with the kids.
http://i.imgur.com/b8Bc9z0.jpg
Just wanted to say, this is amazing, and good for you for the great work that you do :) Quite jealous, I would love to visit Guilin one day...

7heavens wrote: The Phoenix mirror was probably not in his jacket but rather in his bag which he left back at his room

Except he shows it to Zhu when they get back to Ren's hideout (pulling out of his pocket if I remember rightly), so no

Going through Shenmue and that little music riff that plays when it becomes 7pm and all the street lights turn on is so atmospheric and relaxing.

For some reason, that little jingle holds the greatest dose of nostalgia for me regarding the series. Have no idea why.
What's crazy is that there's actually a whole track you don't get to hear within the game! Always find it soothing and relaxing to listen to :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdZ3821-k8Y

Good to see ya back Bellator
And gawd yes, let's try and be positive here, people. Yes, the KS could be being handled a lot better, but we've still got a little while to go yet...

Himuro wrote:

ShenGCH wrote:- Replace the rotary dial with keypads on the phones

no.

NO.

I concur. HELL NO. It's accurate to the time, and there's something weirdly satisfying about dialling the numbers that way...

It's a little early to tell, but yeah, I'm not sure if we should expect it to be quite on the same level/budget as the first two games...as long as it has everything that makes Shenmue Shenmue , however, then that's good enough for me. Just annoying that some of these stretch goals are so vague, as we don't have an idea of what the game will be like if they aren't met =/ I'm really really hoping it's not too linear, and that there is enough sidequests and extra things to do...I feel bad having these concerns, as a few short weeks ago we thought Shenmue III was never going to happen at all, but it'd be crushing to wait so long and for it to be a disappointment...

Yeah, it's done by skipping cutscenes and using some pretty major skipping glitches (you can basically skip most of Kowloon and go straight into the Yellow Head Building!) While I agree Shenmue should be savoured, puri puri's speedruns are pretty interesting to watch :) It's how I found out you can explore floors 19-39 of the Yellow Head Building just by using the map glitch ;-)

An Xbox version would cost YS more money to develop and eat up money that can be used purely for a better game. People need to get off it about this. After the game has long been released for PS4 and PC then start making requests for Xbox. We dont have the luxery of being able to get everything we want. We can still hardly get a physical PS4 release yet.
This. I am so sick and tired of seeing people moan saying, 'Wah I'm not gonna pledge cos I wanted it on Xbox!' or 'I'm not gonna pledge until they do a physical PS4 copy!'. I mean, for christ's sake, we're living in a world where Shenmue III is actually happening and the odd idiot acts like a spoilt entitled little brat about how they want it. You are quite right, money should be spent making the game as good as it can possibly be. We should be grateful to Sony about giving Yu this chance while Sega were quite happy to completely forget about the series.

Well, when a series comes back from the dead...

Probably the Virtua Fighter series, which sadly seems to have gone into hibernation, despite Tekken 7 and Street Fighter 5 :( Never thought that we'd see a Shenmue 3 before Virtua Fighter 6!

At least he doesn't pull that 'Eat all your carrots and you'll be able to see in the dark' bullshit that our parents fooled us with when we were kids (or is that just a weird British thing?)

4 million! Great :D
And yeah, people really shouldn't be worried about fan's faces appearing on characters/pictures in-game, I'm sure it will be done tastefully and in a way that doesn't break the immersion. Using backers' faces on Chi You Men members is probably a good move, as they will probably just be black-suited grunts seen very briefly in free battles/QTE's just like S2.

Sounds like truly fantastic work you do Just liked the page on Facebook

Haha yeah, that whole Canada thing cracked me up. Still so stupid that people have this attitude in this day and age, RARGH I'M MOVING AWAY RARARA, for christ's sake if you don't approve you can, y'know, just IGNORE it. How exactly does gay marriage affect half of these idiots personally??

Lovely article, it's nice to see one about Shenmue on a gaming site that's actually well-informed, and also sums up why it's different from othet open-world games. But yeah, the comment about S2's size is a bit unfair, I remember being blown away by just how big Wan Chai was, at the time. While it arguably didn't have the depth and some detail of Yokosuka, it was still pretty damn big.

I think 'failing' the QTE at Zhangyu Barber's is the quickest way to advance days in S2, isn't it?

you've got all the underlying aspects like the prophecies of the mirror opening a gateway for chi you which Chen explained to Ryo- that would be pretty out there! But then Zhu showed Ryo the mirrors made a map to treasure of sorts...

I think combat wise it'll stay pretty grounded- enhanced with some Ki (sp?) moves courtesy of Shenhua.

Anything more likely cut scene/qte based and probably sparingly.
Yeah, I was going to say that we should have been expecting this ever since Chen's explanation of Chi You and what is meant to happen if the two mirrors are joined together...we've known that this is Lan Di's goal for a long time now. Though Zhu's explanation does seem to differ, yes...but again, it just confirmed that there is some 'magic' involved.

I really wouldn't worry about them going over the top with it. But for people to not realise that the story would eventually head this way does seem a bit naive, especially since the Chi You discussion is as early as the second disc of the first game!

The way Yu Suzuki created what felt like a real, living, breathing world is always what appealed to me. Since GTA3 happened, it seems like open world games have focused more and more on creating larger and larger worlds that act like playgrounds for the player to wonder from place to place to partake in missions and side quests, but nothing ever feels very realistic or detailed.
.

This, GTA to me feels empty and fake, Shenmue felt real.
I've not played the GTA series much, I did start GTA5 though and I have to agree, the world seems huge, but there isn't any soul to it, you know? No open world has really ever come close to Shenmue's IMO.

FREE 15 is beautiful, yes. I got to the point in the game where that plays last night, and spent ages just wandering around Dobuita at night just to fully appreciate it :)

Other favourite tracks of mine in S1 include:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZZ8m3DJEwE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oaVRKI76I0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdZ3821-k8Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxni4fm77C8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPAm_Ga-aP8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Pi1rdxTnQ

Oh wow, this is incredible and really great to see - even those who haven't played it seem to 'get' it. If they do go back and play the first two games, I'm quite jealous as they'll get to experience the beauty of them for the first time

I'm not sure if Wong, Joy and Xiuying being in Online is proof the characters will return. I mean, the thing seemed to be a Best of Shenmue II anyways. Even going so far as to repeat entire mini games and story retreads (Delin stuff) that were in II.
Exactly, I'm not sure why people think any of the Online stuff is even remotely canonical. It clearly wasn't meant to be a continuation of the story. That trailer, with Joy being kidnapped on the roof and with Lan Di etc, in my opinion, has absolutely no storyline bearing and was probably just made of the sole intention of looking cool and giving the game a 'hook' for existing fans. Some of the magic powers may show up in the series further down the line, sure, but I'm confident to say that for the most part, Online can be pretty much ignored.

I wasn't particularly aware that they took some of the people that worked on the game and used them as NPC's...I think I remember who this guy was, in sakuragaoka the small construction area near the phone booth where you kick a football in charlies face right?
That's right, and Hiroaki Takeuchi, who they interviewed previously, was used as one of the forklift drivers who works with Ryo :) (he drives Forklift no. 1 if I remember rightly)

Mugen wrote:

Shenhua to the right, is that Baihu in the center or are both characters left of Shenhua "new"?

I'm pretty sure they are both Shenhua, just in different outfits, as seen in artwork for the first two games.

...It's a Sega game. It's meant to be fan service, not 'in your face marketing'.

NiGHTS actually makes sense as an arcade game, seeing as the whole draw is the 'score attack' idea and going back to beat your score. The Shenmue one is pretty cool as a novelty, I guess. Though it made me think of this scene from the Simpsons, is this what it would play like? :lol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qause0z-9tM

This is why you save the game before you gamble

He seems to be an awesome dude. Loved the way he kind of "hosted" the Twitch last night.

Edit: I didn't notice that a lot of these NPCs were actually staff members. What's Takeuchi's name in the game again? Is it still Takeuchi?

That architect dude was in Shenmue 1 too.
Yep, the character's name is Hiroaki Takeuchi as well :) And the architect guy based on Manabu Takimoto also has the sane name.

Yeah, I've honestly lost count of how many times I must have played the two games over the years. Well over double-digits, for sure. But I'd held off from playing them recently, I'd been a bit burned out from S2 especially as I'd 'played' it a lot in order to complete my character profile project (mainly loading specific saves to double check character details/locations etc, but still playing it), and as Shenmue III was seeming ever more unlikely I just didn't feel like playing them anymore...but now we've got this news, I definitely plan on another playthrough, just knowing that there actually will be a continuation to this story after I've completed Disc 4 of S2 for the billionth time will be a great feeling indeed :D

To be fair, games like Bethesda's TES series do have NPCs that all have full work, sleep, and leisure schedules. It was one of the most touted features beginning with Oblivion, and continuing in Skyrim.

The difference - and in my opinion advantage - to Shenmue's implementation of this (apart from being the first game to really innovate it) is the smaller, more closed community allows those schedules and behaviors to 1) feel more important, and 2) actually get noticed by the player.

Sometimes in modern sandbox games, there's almost TOO much freedom to really stop and appreciate the more subtle stuff that's going on. But with Shenmue, everything from the camera's closeness to Ryo, to the methodical pace, to the smaller scale of the world all forces those things into the player's attention front and center. And as a result, they feel so much more immersive and REAL to me.

In sandboxes, the journey and the experience is about massive visual vistas and freedom to roam and create your own personal story. In Shenmue, the the journey is Ryo's, and the experience is about intimate, granular minutia and everyday life details. It's almost more like a life sim than an open world game.

That was by far what I loved most about Shenmue.

Sidenote: What was the first game to feature dynamic shadows that change with time of day? Because Shenmue 2 did a fantastic job with that and I remember thinking at the time that it was amazing. Did it innovate that too? Or at least beat others to it?
You've basically summed it up perfectly :) An 'open' world that still feels intimate and small. Most open-world/sandbox games just feel a bit soulless and anonymous, to be honest. As said thoigh it is a pity that some of the finer details were lost in S2, to the point that in my most recent playthrough I have been surprised when some shops have actually closed at night-time. I guess some cutting back was necessary because the world is so much bigger than S1's, but it's still a shame. Hopefully we'll see a bit of this return in S3, seeing as it will be set in villages, hopefully allowing for more attention to be given to the little details :)

Holy hell, Pol!!! That's an amazing collection indeed o_O
Do the statues in that catalogue actually exist anywhere?

i was just playing lucky hit in shenmue 2 - the one with the move scroll prize on dragon street - and my marble actually got stuck between some of the nails!

the owner says something like ' oh dear, this board is very old, that one doesn't count' and it gives you another go.

i must have played thousands of games of lucky hit and this has never happened to me before.
Whoa, I never heard of this before, didn't know it was possible :shock:

It is possible. In fact, the guy who speedran the game at SGDQ this year played on 360. He ran into some sound problems in the Golden Quarter and just general lag in places.

Of course, he skipped nearly the entirety of Kowloon by glitching through walls. :P
Yeah, I'm familiar with puri_puri's runs :P Though technically he 'completed' the game, it was by skipping most of Kowloon as you say. Hence I'm wondering if it's possible without using glitches or skips.

Notice the 'Magic Maze' system is mentioned in this one
http://i.imgur.com/PzfD3aN.jpg

I can't say I've seen the screenshots featured in the Dreamcast Fan #4 scans before, either (the early shots of stuff that would end up in S2)

Thanks for these Phong ^_^

Haha, I guess this is kind of amusing in retrospect, I'm not sure it was intentional though

Wow, that *is* nice detail on the sushi. Never thought to look that close before :D
By the way, Kids Dural C is an unlockable 'costume' for Dural in VF Kids, the fish actually floats in her head as seen here:

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/virtuafighter/images/a/a4/VFKids_Dural_Fish.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/185?cb=20130717031742

EDIT: Found a video as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmFiqgXXmGk

Ok, I don't know anything about this supposed secret fight sequence, but stop acting like visitors to the shrine is some super secret amazing thing. I'm sure most of us know some characters visit the shrine, like Liu-san first thing in the morning, and sometimes the kids in the neighbourhood.

Also, the fact Fangmei hides her sadness is still ultimately a foil to Ryo, who doesn't know what to do with his sadness. The entire point, I feel, is to show how many characters react to sadness and loneliness to contrast with Ryo and the many paths he can take. Ine-san deals with her depression by cleaning all day and making sure the Hazuki residence operates as Iwao wished it. Fuku deals with his depression by funneling his sadness into his martial arts and practicing everyday to be the student Iwao wished him to be. Fangmei lost her parents and was placed in an orphanage. She honors the caretaker that adopted her every day by showing her gratitude to her temple and her faith. Wong and Ren are also orphans; both turned to crime to deal with their lack of needs. Xiuying not only had her parents murdered, but she lost her brother as he was driven to revenge. Instead of lashing out and going with him, she turned to religion and martial arts as a manner of dealing with her demons. Shenhua never knew her original parents, and has a stepdad. She deals with life knowing the only way she knows how and is pretty happy. Lan Di let his anger stew for decades to exact his revenge. His father was murdered, and he turned to crime and martial arts.

Mostly every character of import has their own demons that are relatable to Ryo's struggle for vengeance. The important thing to grasp is that they've all gone in their own ways of handling death and sadness. Shenmue is a story about Ryo Hazuki and the "potential that could either destroy him or realize his will." Mostly every character is there as a foil to show THEY handle their own personal demons to help Ryo along his path.

Expect Ling Ling to be another foil

Ultimately, how Fangmei feels isn't important - it's what she DOES - that's important for Ryo to learn a lesson from.
Some interesting thoughts here - it's kind of intriguing, for me anyway, to look back on certain details of Shenmue's story now that I'm older, and pick up on things my teenage self wouldn't necessarily have understood/appreciated. The theme of losing your parents and how you choose to deal with it seems to be a major one, which as you say all of the orphaned characters in the game deal with it differently. While I've always thought the whole 'dating sim' aspect of the game with Fangmei is a bit weird/creepy (Ryo bonds more with a 14 year old than a school friend of his back in Japan who was the same age as him??), her role as a character is still important, as it shows despite losing her parents she has still been able to carry on and live her life, even if her cheerful nature is sometimes just putting on a brave face. You are quite right that she is intended to demonstrate to Ryo one of the many ways you can deal with loneliness and grief.

For those here who may have a passing interest in poetry, please check out my first published work, 'The Awakening' -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Awakening-Selection-Poems-Stuart-Peacock-ebook/dp/B017BZBH6M/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1446158264&sr=1-1&keywords=apex+publishing

it is currently only an eBook, admittedly, but hey, it's a start :) Even if you don't own a Kindle, there is a download on that same page for the Kindle app, which works on PC's, smartphones and tablets. You may also notice a little Shenmue inspiration in the final poem in the collection, 'The Surfacing'.

So please, if you do download please leave a review on Amazon, it'd help tremendously :) And let me know what you think in the topic, of course! Thanks :D

I can only afford the $13 for the soundtrack, but hey, every little helps ;)

Peter wrote: It's Shenmue 3. That's good enough for me by miles.

Right? Seriously guys, so much negativity in this topic.

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 :)

They show up at both Ling Ling Porridge and Canton Cafe in the Green Market Qr, as well as one of the cafes in the Lucky Charm Qr. It's essentially the exact same QTE and scene for each place though.

Cheers for hosting my character database on there - I'm glad people can use it as a resource

Just a bump to post this; I am being interviewed tomorrow about the book on BBC Essex (3pm) - just in case those in the UK are interested in having a listen. Nervous as hell but excited too, fingers crossed I don't ramble or fluff my words x_x

https://scribblingsofstu.wordpress.com/2016/01/10/the-awakening-interview-on-bbc-essex-radio-1112016-with-tony-fisher/