Translation of Early Design Doc: Ryo's Arrival in HK

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I've translated a early design diagram for Shenmue II into English. It's quite fascinating to compare some of the early ideas they were considering for the story. (The diagram can be found in the Shenmue art book).

In particular:

- The little girl who Ryo saved from Chai in the boat chapter side-story & her mother were originally going to help Ryo more, assisting him with finding Xiuying / Master Tao.
- There was going to be more interaction with the "two butchers" who always argue with each other, as part of the main story.

Here are the first 3 sections of the diagram:






Analysis & the rest of the diagram can be found at the blog:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2017/09/ryos-arrival-in-hong-kong-shenmue-ii.html

[Switch]

Wonderful work as always.

[Niowiad]

- There was going to be more interaction with the "two butchers" who always argue with each other, as part of the main story.

What a pity

And come to think of if again... I wonder when/why they dropped the idea of Akira, how far they went with it and how much they ended up keeping (as opposed to what they made completely from scratch). Not that I have any complaints about it... just curious.

Great article btw... we never stop learning

[Switch]

I wonder when/why they dropped the idea of Akira, how far they went with it and how much they ended up keeping (as opposed to what they made completely from scratch). Not that I have any complaints about it... just curious.

Great article btw... we never stop learning

Glad you enjoyed it!

Yu Suzuki talks about the history of the "Virtua Fighter RPG" and how it evolved to Shenmue in the following GDC 2014 video. The game's name changed from "Akira's Story" to Shenmue in 1998, which is presumably would have been when they renamed Akira.

phpBB [video]

[Niowiad]

Awesome, lots of infos. Thanks