The budget is already small, so the last thing we need is seeing half of these funds going into an HD port.

Like YS said, if you want a Shenmue Saga HD port talk to SEGA. They are all "we want the trust of our old fans back" so...

Its 2015, anyone that still thinks online petitions are a accurate statistical indicator of anything need to revalue their lives.

We made Shenmue top 10 of the most funded KS projects ever and we have a chance of making it the number one KS game project.

ps: the $10M mark will be meet post KS.

Yes, Shenhua is the Phoenix. Deal with it.

$60... I really can't give more, I'm on student loans and failing exams by 0,15 in a 20,0 scale. Shenmue III is the only good thing happening for me at the moment.

Told you guys everything pointed towards $6M and we will get those $10M post KS.

does anyone still read gamespot? In the mid 2000's they were competing with IGN, mainly because IGN gave extremely lenient reviews. Once they fired their editor because he didn't sell a good review score in exchange for advertising, they lost all credibility- but of course it's been long enough that people forgot about that, BUT, by the time people forgot, there was a lot going on with YouTube and Gametrailers expanding and the rise of smaller sites like Kotaku- leaving a site like Gamespot irrelevant. IGN persists because of their seemingly infinite budget.

who even cares about Gamespot anymore?

Sorry to disappoint you but Gamespot isn't alone on this. Expecting a gamejourno in 2015 to enjoy a open world game without a mini map and a giant "GO HERE to advance plot!" X is simply wishful thinking.

The whole concept of a living town meticulously developed to represent 80s Japan not only in design but also in culture, flies between their ears at the speed of light and crashes into a pile of mediocrity they praise as state of the art gaming.

Loading times would allow more detail in stores. Witcher 3 had a massive downgrade indoors due to this.

10 years ago, journalists had to write something worth paying for. Your occasional reader might get one mag once in a blue moon because the cover looked good but the core costumer base that appreciated good columns/articles was where most of the money came from.

This environment rewarded quality, while the current net news model rewards quickness and clickbait... It's no coincidence pretty much every single news publication (from minor to major) has turn into a tabloid in the past 5 years.

We expect gaming journos to have a vast knowledge on the history of videogames like they used to but they don't have it anymore. That's why none of them knows exactly what kind of project Shenmue was, nor what kind of budget it needs or why the fans are jumping over flaming loops to give Yu all the money they have.

Sadly most of the new generation of games journos don't even see gaming as a priority, so I can't say I'm surprised with the BS coming out of these trash websites. At this point youtube is a better place for in depth reviews, opinions and news.

Obviously when you are still on the testing phase, promising 60 FPS would be irresponsible.

Monkei wrote:

Anonymous81 wrote:[...] the problem there is not Yu's potentially-not-so-progressive thinking, but bad journalism.

The problem is that someone needs to spread propaganda and Shenmue happened to be in the middle of it.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the closed-world comment. Sounds like there's going to be big restrictions as to where you can go and what you can see. So much for a 'truly open world'.

Best news I have read all week. I hope he sticks with it.

Shenmue was always the type of game that chose detailed enviroments over number of kms/size.

I have no desire in seeing Ryo and Shenhua glitching through large fields of emptiness. I would rather have a few small towns where every corner is handcrafted.

I am shocked at how good that looks. For the budget they raised I expected that there have to be some compromises but the look of that game far exceeds my expectations. To me, graphics of that quality are going to make the world more immersive and atmospheric.

yeah, as soon as i saw those shots i knew there was nothing to worry about. Shenmue is back, and looks even better than before. All those devs throwing millions into Halo and and Fallout should take note of how amazingly atmosphere can be rendered without a huge budget or army of programmers.

Come on guys, its looking better but lets not overreact...

One picture shows a better ryo on a UE stock building.
And another shows Ryo and a black suit in what it seems to be some kind of old irish fight.

I think we all know the amount of effort that is needed to make a Shenmue game and so far they are light years away from it... But you only get there by working.

Shenmue is such an important IP to us we haven't touched it since a decade and a half.

We are talking about the same series that shows the male protagonist get his ass handed to him by signature.

This insanity of "representation in videogames" leads to creators avoiding making female characters because god forbids if they create one that is sexy or cute. On the reverse of the coin, we also have a bunch of bland token female characters too in order to please the uberprogressive crowd.

This hysteria is hurting the actual devs that do make good female characters like Yu Suzuki.

People have the right to be negative, specially if they gave some of their hard working money into the project.

Creating a community buddle where only positivity is allowed and criticism is taken as an insult will hurt Shenmue 3 a lot more than any media BS article.

Definitely has the Shenmue authenticity and attention to detail. Can't wait until they build a town.

Personally I don't really care much about the graphical quality, for me its all about architecture and if the objects feel real in context. For example, that woven looks like something you would find if you really went to a village in China.

Thanks to everyone that donated to improve Shenmue 3. Happy New Year.

Yu never said "Shenmue III won't be open world unless we hit 10M".

Obviously the bigger the budget the more complex the open world can be.

We all know what nocon kid is capable



I hope they manage to pack up a good looking teaser to get people hyped within a couple months.

Compare Shenmue's 2 Guilin to Shenmue's 3 Guilin. There is no point in using city environments as examples.

http://i.imgur.com/tqKUM.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/gUtvt6W.jpg

I don't see the point in going for squared grass if you can do it better... they just need a warmer color pallet.
To me the main issue continues to be Ryo's and Shenhua's faces/body models.

Shenmue III: it actually fucking happened, I can die now.

All the official brands can be replaced by "Jet Colas".
The voice acting is already done, at best you need to give a percentage of the profits back to the voice actors, but they don't hold the rights of their performance.

SEGA is indeed a business, a horrible one. They rather continue shitting out mediocre sonics, than rebuild their other forgotten franchises.

So basically: "I got nothing".

Persona 5 - Atlus
Total War - Creative Assembly
Valkyria: Azure Revolution - Media Vision

My point was, the last internally developed SEGA Japan game that's worth a damn is basically just Yakuza series, they make little else nowadays and even then we had to fight tooth and nail to actually get the newer games released over here (thanks Sony, no thanks to SEGA). Even Sonic is outsourced now. Phantasy Star Online 2 doesn't count since we never got it.

I can't get into Total War and Football Manager since those games aren't for me (I can't force myself to enjoy sports games as I can't force myself to enjoy PC strategy games; they fit a specific niche). It's kinda silly to say "that's on you, not them" when it only appeals to certain demographics. When I think "SEGA" I don't think of games like that. I think of games like "Virtua Fighter", "Panzer Dragoon", "Sonic", "Shining series", "House of the Dead", "OutRun", "Ristar", "Skies of Arcadia", "Valkyria Chronicles", "Yakuza", "Shenmue", "Phantasy Star", "Streets of Rage", "ToeJam & Earl" - games like that.

And no, I don't hate SEGA, I'm just really disappointed in them nowadays. Even the stuff they are making nowadays they don't want to give us.

I'm on the same boat, I grew up playing nothing but SEGA games during their golden age.
Despite being heavily disappointed with them, I would probably still camp outside for the release of a new console.

The company has no idea how to approach the west, their strategy is to put all marketing efforts on Sonic even if they know the game they are selling is utter trash while sitting on countless dormant IPs that their old fans want. This has destroyed their brand and their mascot, making a once gaming giant completely irrelevant in the eyes of most gamers.

Yakuza is the only AAA game they make and they don't even care enough about it to try to selling it here. Once again, it's Sony that has to go out their way to get these games in the west. It's lunacy.

First of, none of the games you mentioned are like Shenmue. Back in the 90s and 00s gaming was more experimental and people in general were open to new concepts. Hell, new game genres were getting made during that period. Nowadays everything is either a FPS, an action TPS or a walking simulator.

Second, the amount of 2016 gaming "journalists" that played Shenmue back in the day is optimistically around 0,1%.
It's not a conspiracy to believe journos that never played Shenmue or understand the scope of it, when they hear YS say: "I would like more money to make Shenmue III bigger" or "I want to make Shenmue 4", their reaction is "evil dev that got record breaking money wants to rip off his fanbase".

So I'm not gonna be optimistic about it, I'm going to be realistic about it. There are plenty alternatives to the archaic major gaming news websites that deliver more substantial and informed content. But there are some exceptions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0blSBgpRUg

Back in the 90's and 00's people were open to new concepts? What? Did you live in the same era as me? New concepts? You mean like Dreamcast games? The system that failed and ended Sega leaving the console business? Back then if your game didn't have killing people in it your game wasn't shit for the most part. Action was main currency in games and many games that drifted away from that frame work were extremely poorly received, especially compared to now. These days a lot of people are more open to slower games. Nowadays everything is an fps or a walking simulator? Walking simulators? You mean what Shenmue II disc 4 is? The statement that games now are nothing but fps' is hilarious and I don't even play games much anymore.

Apparently we didn't live in the same era because back then there was always something fresh coming because companies weren't afraid of taking risks. And yes, that meant some games made it and others didn't, that was the magic of it. Shenmue would have never been a thing if what you are claiming to be true was true.

Also, can you point me to a Mario, Sonic, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Pokemon game that was about killing people? Because those were the biggest franchises of the 90s and Shenmue isn't about singing kumbaya, it literally opens with "killing people".

CD4 is a important step back to gather new information, just because Metal Gear Solid has huge cutscenes it doesn't mean there wasn't a game behind it. The Same is applied to Shenmue, after all, is in its core a Virtua Fighter RPG not a telltale game . If you don't play games anymore, I don't see how you can claim to have a clear vision about this subject and compare both eras.

And those games are similar to Shenmue. Life Is Strange is a game that takes places in a modern setting and features very intimate storytelling and dull, everyday affairs. Games like Heavy Rain feature lots and lots of item examination and talking. All of those games are adventure games, which is what Shenmue ultimately is. Are they 1:1 exactly like Shenmue? No. But nothing really is. But they're close to the spirit of Shenmue than most games and very, very well received. I think Shenmue III, if it's good, will be as well. Let's be clear. Life Is Strange, a game where you play as a teenage girl who has to do homework, listen to her teacher talk about the history of photography is lectures, and talk to people about school and everyday stuff has sold over 1 million units. A game like that wouldn't have sold 1 million units back in the day. I guarantee it. Otherwise games like Grim Fandango and Monkey Island 3 wouldn't have bombed. The late 90's were tempered by excess. There was experimentation but it wasn't always rewarded. Action was the main ingredient to things back then, and the death of the Dreamcast made sure that certain niches remained niches, experimentation be damned. Games like The Sims were exceptions. In the 90's and early 00's a game like Life Is Strange or Heavy Rain would have never sold as much as they did. But they did, and people want more of that type of game. Shenmue was far ahead of its time, on the wrong systems, surrounded by games that didn't want to grow up.

Saying Life is Strange is like Shenmue is like saying Gravity is like 2001 a Space Odyssey because they are both in space and seem similar. Sure they have things in common but... they have nothing in common in the grand scale of things.

No other game since has been able to replicate the feeling of living in particular space and time like Shenmue. You can put up any Telltale game or any major open world game against it, nothing compares. To me personally only hearing Pink Floyd comes close to it (and yeah I know they are nothing alike but listening to the Wall paints a perfect picture of a particular moment in culture).

There are people who haven't played Shenmue and work in the press but there's many in the press who have played the games for the first time in recent years and really liked it. Game Informer did a let's play and it was great. Other journalists and youtubers who had never played Shenmue played those games and love them. If you're going to be realistic you need to have facts. Everything you've said is a supposition.

Here are facts:

People are more open to different kinds of games now.

Shenmue offers a unique take on open worlds which will help it stand out.
The most backed game kickstarter of all time.

People are okay with slower games now. Turned based computer RPGs became almost universally action based in the 00's and recently crpgs have had a massive turn based revival. People aren't scared of turn based games anymore. People play a game where you do nothing but build shit with blocks. There's demand for slower games.

This will be the first time Shenmue is ever available on the most popular systems at launch.

All of this combined shows that, if this game is good or great, it will do extremely well. The only worry one should have is whether or not the game sucks, and I doubt it will.

Let's end suppositions then. Please name me these "many" journalists: Journo A, B and C completed Shenmue and Shenmue II on date X and wrote this about it. Because if someone is going to write an article about Shenmue III implying Yu Suzuki is a crook. I want that someone to know the history of the franchise both historically and financially. Or I want that one of the many you mentioned to tell these drama queens trying to destroy Shenmue III reputation to fuck off.

Unless you have an openness to intimate games meter, I don't see how you can claim it's a fact. if nowadays people are so open to "intimate/slower games" or whatever that means, how come no publisher is willing to put 50M up front for more concepts like Shenmue? Certainly with the amount of new players open to "intimate games" on the market, betting on Shenmue III and so on wouldn't be a hard decision to take.

The reality is that the gaming industry grew financially, so did the prices of developing and the sales, hence why comparing 1999's Shenmue 1M sale to 2015's Life is Strange 4M is ridiculous by the way. Yet, despite there being more people buying more games there ISN'T a big enough audience to have a company dropping 60M on a concept like Shenmue like in the 90s, which resulted in Kickstarter being the only option.

Nowadays, save a few exceptions, quality alternative games in the true sense of the word aren't getting made anymore because no company is willing big sums of money on something they are unsure of. The only example I can think of is of Dark Souls. It's not a indy darling game, it was fresh concept a company believed in, supported it and made it popular (and now it's overdone to death).

Ask yourself why everyone wants the next Megaman, the next Grim Fandango, the next Castlevania, the next Shenmue, etc. and why no one is destroying walls asking for Gone Home 2.

My biggest Shenmue mystery is how exactly would fantasy elements play out in the series.

Why can't SEGA get their head out of their asses and release a Shenmue HD already. Defo my biggest mystery.


Speaking of which, their biggest excuse, is complete, and utter BS. "Licensing," lol, and the sad thing is, they have been spouting that lie for so long, they probally believe it.

What makes it all the more iron, is that there was a lic problem back when Shenmue 1 came out, with Coco cola, but that didn't stop them from releasing the game outside of Japan, infact it didn't even slow such down.


You have to understand than in SEGA's standards, having to change 3 or 4 textures is too much work. :lol:

First and foremost, don't lie to the community . This isn't a problem since Yu Suzuki is humble by nature and he might put some outlandish ideas out there but he never promised this game will have the same type of AAA finish the first two Shenmue titles had. So you might feel disappointed in the end of the day but you won't feel robbed.

Second, don't give a release date you can't meet . This could be a problem, I don't think 2017 is a realistic date given Yu Suzuki is still trying to hire former AM2 people and judging by recent screenshots, it's still very raw. The last thing we need is for YS to rush a game that is 15 years in the making.

Third, use your budget and your time responsibly . Don't start talking about spin offs or negotiating a Shenmue Anime, if there is something on your work schedule that isn't about Shenmue III... remove it.

They don't have a big enough team to produce one game without literally sleeping in office, much less two.

I have adopted a good strategy when it comes to Shenmue... if it doesn't come from YS mouth, it doesn't matter to me. No announcement was made for PSX, while it's disappointing we didn't get to see the game it doesn't warrant this amount drama.

Many companies are now trying to change the timing of game announcements because very often they reveal their games too soon. This is a problem with Kickstarter projects, people expect a date on day one when it should be TBA until they have most of the game done.

I think the current character models were done by YS before Takashi Ito joined.

YS is an ideas guy, he's not a top quality 3D modeler and it shows. Obviously without a big company like 90s SEGA doing the busy work, some of the premium feel Shenmue had will be lost but that's the price for pursuing the project as a indy team.

I don't think criticism is hate and the people that spent their money on this project have a right to share their views respectfully without being branded traitors.

But people tend to forget YSNet is a indy dev team. We just had a world open RPG get released unfinished after 10 years of development by a AAA+ team. Yu Suzuki is a great creative mind but his team is not 90s SEGA where he can say "scrap it, I want this by tomorrow morning".

Pieces will eventually come into place, these screenshots will be one day replaced with a video of Ryo and Shenhua walking around and everyone will be blown away.

punkmanced wrote: Delay the game.
I didn't wait 15+ years for a botched experience.

People need to keep in mind that delaying the game means extra $ is required to pay salaries.

I don't think we have a right to see anything.

We certainly have the right to know our money is being used to develop the game and in what stage the game is.

We really don't. It would be smart and fanbase friendly of them to let us know every now and then of course. But they don't have to. They don't even have to ship the game if they for some reason aren't able to . That's how Kickstarter works, you give your money in good faith, hope for the best and are ready to accept the worst.

If you are going by what's legal, sure... but I hope the majority isn't fanatic to the extent of defending such thing.

I don't think we have a right to see anything.

We certainly have the right to know our money is being used to develop the game and in what stage the game is.

We really don't. It would be smart and fanbase friendly of them to let us know every now and then of course. But they don't have to. They don't even have to ship the game if they for some reason aren't able to . That's how Kickstarter works, you give your money in good faith, hope for the best and are ready to accept the worst.

If you are going by what's legal, sure... but I hope the majority isn't fanatic to the extent of defending such thing.


Why wouldn't I defend it? I don't have any reason whatsoever to suspect something foul going on or that we're being ripped off. I personally can live without there ever being another update prior to the game's release, really. All I need is the game. And while I'd love to have it now, I don't need to have it now. The less time and money they have to waste on pleasing this complaining, whining, demanding and too often unreasonable fan community, the better. I don't think that's a particularly fanatic point of view.. at least not more fanatic than claiming non-existent rights.

That's not what I said. I bolded the part where you said we aren't even "entitled" to a game, which might true legally but something no one in their right mind would defend. If we can't agree on that, this discussion isn't going anywhere. If you want to classify this community as unreasonable go ahead but this is by far most faithful fanbase you will ever meet.

Yu Suzuki said Shenmue III will cover chapter 5 and 6. Which one will be 6 from the 11 scenarios illustrations from Shenmue postmortem GDC 2014?

http://cdn.escapistmagazine.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/698/698943.jpg

I believe 6 would be the 4th illustration. I really hope the Free Battle system is really good and not some QTE hybrid, since it seems to be a very martial arts heavy chapter.

I don't have problems with 30 fps cap on old ports since that's how the games were designed to run.

Oh God...

I don't see why people shouldn't expect passport Ryo... after all just a few months ago they photoshoped Ryo's DC face into a screenshot, implying they were still going for that look.

There is nothing "toxic" about people critiquing the content, as long everyone is civil about it. At least that's what I think.

One could argue that singing kumbaya no matter what until the game drops to avoid negative opinions and then freaking the F out would be more damaging.

I don't think SEGA is "sitting" on any remaster, that's not how a business works. People don't work for free, there is always a budget and a return in mind within a time frame.

They used the proper Shenmue font

It's hard to "mobilize the troops" for the 7M without any substantial update. In a perfect world, they launch a new website along with a trailer and put a money counter on the front page with the option to donate via PayPal or even Patreon.

Sony never planned to support the game in any substantial way. They announced the game for PR points at E3.

Apply better clothing textures, ship it...