Shenmue Dojo

ChiefNeo wrote: Sooooo...it still looks like an unreal engine game? Shame...the backer dinner made me think they had nailed the pallette and "color texture"

The temple gate picture looks familiar to Shenmue II where sometimes you'd find purple or green "glows", IMO. We saw the same kind of glows in the Shenhua's house interior shots from Feb.

Update is now live, so as I said, I'd post the comparison to show Ryo has been photoshopped:



Basically, the face isn't ready to show. Ryo's arms and legs look less spindly than they did during the reveal, though.

Just got the KS email with the screenshots, so I guess it's fair game to talk about them now. I did look at cache early and thought the one with Ryo looked photoshopped too. His face is 'correct' now, but it looks like it was pasted over another image because the direction his face is facing doesn't match the direction his body is facing. And his ears look like they're missing or something.

Since all 3 images are in the kickstarter update, I guess they're the real deal. I mean, they look nice. But I hope they show us a video of it in motion because right now the art style doesn't look consistent to me between the 3 stills. Still, it's nice to see new screenshots of the game.

Holy shit! They are going in the right direction! Love it. That temple shot is fantastic.

Spaghetti wrote:

Yokosuka wrote:Shenmue III will be tomorrow in front of the world for sure.

If the world can't see past a clearly photoshopped image to see an inspiring one like the temple gate, then that's their problem.

Please don't be hypocritical with me. You're among the ones who regularly complain about negative press and people reactions. It has always been the YSnet's problem and they choose the worst timing to reactivate the PC preorders.

Hopefully you're right about your feeling on the temple but it's definitely underwhelming screenshots for me. The ordinary art direction, the bent skeletons of the NPCs, the aliasing, the uninspired wooden board design, that textures, no real progress shown since ten months... Nothing from the special sense I've got on Dreamcast. Again, a WIP game like Shaolin vs Wutang has more "Shenmue" than these screens.

Yokosuka wrote:Please don't be hypocritical with me. You're among the ones who regularly complain about negative press and people reactions. It has always been the YSnet's problem and they choose the worst timing to reactivate the PC preorders.

Hypocritical? Please. The games media is a walking, talking hypocrisy. They pump up unrealistic pre-release materials, then capitalise on controversy when the game inevitably doesn't look that good, but similarly will shit on realistic and heavily emphasised work in progress media as not looking up to scratch. Why? Because all three of these get clicks, and that's their bottom line.

But look, you've got a right to be displeased if you feel like this wasn't good enough. I would have hoped for more too, but being realistic? They still have a lot of work left to do, and have clearly prioritised systems and gameplay over flashy visuals for pre-release materials.

I see enormous potential through that temple gate shot because I see an atmosphere being built, and what is Shenmue but pure atmosphere?

Even the market fight shot has potential, despite Photoshopped placeholders and clearly repeated models. A market fight at dawn? Sounds awesome.

The written content of the update sheds more light on things:

R&D for various game elements is on course as the development team shifts its focus towards production. Main game scenarios are nearing completion, motion capture tests are well under way, and voicing tests with the cast have begun. Yu-san and the production staff are happy to say they are enjoying the work as they continue to diligently make progress on the mini-games, events, and battles.

“I have been absorbed in developing the game and I stay in the studio all night time to time. My life is all about Shenmue day and night.”-Yu Suzuki

We're still a long way from the end goal, and the visual elements are going to reflect that. Make no mistake, they genuinely are giving this their all. Gauging their progress in 10 months based on three screenshots is not wise. Look for the promise in the screens, it's much more fulfilling.

Well, everybody seems to love these works. Glad I'm the only person to be disappointed so far.

Yokosuka wrote: Well, everybody seems to love these works. Glad I'm the only person to be disappointed so far.

I mean hey, that's one way of looking at it at least.

Yokosuka wrote: Well, everybody seems to love these works. Glad I'm the only person to be disappointed so far.

The game is still improving it will look better when the game comes out trust me!

I hope they make Shenhua look more like she did in Shenmue II.

JPZ wrote: I hope they make Shenhua look more like she did in Shenmue II.

i prefer the Shenmue 1 look myself. (even though it's less detailed but closer to the original art)
of course the passport ver is the best one done in 3D.

Suzuki Yu wrote:

JPZ wrote: I hope they make Shenhua look more like she did in Shenmue II.

i prefer the Shenmue 1 look myself. (even though it's less detailed but closer to the original art)
of course the passport ver is the best one done in 3D.

Yes, I meant like any of the original versions, she looks very different in the current development footage.

I just want to remind anyone who has forgotten, or inform anyone who doesn't already know, Yu Suzuki is the same developer who, during the development of Virtua Fighter 2, would downgrade the graphics whenever his superiors walked into the room, so that they didn't think he was close to finishing the development of the game.

What I'm saying is, the team may have more cards under the table than we know. Just be patient.

SlySpy wrote: I just want to remind anyone who has forgotten, or inform anyone who doesn't already know, Yu Suzuki is the same developer who, during the development of Virtua Fighter 2, would downgrade the graphics whenever his superiors walked into the room, so that they didn't think he was close to finishing the development of the game.

What I'm saying is, the team may have more cards under the table than we know. Just be patient.

It's not exactly the same situation, but I kinda sorta share the sentiment.

I don't think they've secretly downgraded the graphics for the purpose of this display, but quite clearly the look of the game is going to clearly evolve and they're still holding their cards close to their chest about what has been achieved so far.

Spaghetti wrote:

SlySpy wrote: I just want to remind anyone who has forgotten, or inform anyone who doesn't already know, Yu Suzuki is the same developer who, during the development of Virtua Fighter 2, would downgrade the graphics whenever his superiors walked into the room, so that they didn't think he was close to finishing the development of the game.

What I'm saying is, the team may have more cards under the table than we know. Just be patient.

It's not exactly the same situation, but I kinda sorta share the sentiment.

I don't think they've secretly downgraded the graphics for the purpose of this display, but quite clearly the look of the game is going to clearly evolve and they're still holding their cards close to their chest about what has been achieved so far.

Of course, I don't think it's the exact same situation either. I'm just trying to get across a point that Suzuki and team may have more than they've shown us, and that Suzuki has the propensity to hide certain things for the sake of more effective development. That doesn't necessarily have to mean graphics; it could mean art direction, or progress with a given area, or anything really.