Shenmue III : 6 chapters left !!

[hazuki90]

hi,,

During the shenmue city press conference, a reporter had asked Suzuki if he planned on completing the series' full 16 chapters at some point. Suzuki corrected the question, saying that the story actually has 11 chapters.

so there are only 6 chapters left !!
do you think Shenmue III (if its announced) will be the last one, containing all the remaining chapters??
Personally , Yes, I think so

[Axm]

In this..
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/1 ... live_blog/

Its actually not very clear in the translation to what Suzuki was refering to.
Its more likely Suzuki was refering to Shenmue Town itself having 11 senario`s. Meaning not chapters of the complete story but in terms of the first game in Shenmue Town, which is entirely set in Chapter 1 of the first game having 11 scenario`s that take place in chapter one.
I think this is most likely what Suzuki was talking about.
Its been made very clear in the past that Shenmue is 16 chapters long. I doubt Suzuki has decided to reformat the entire Shenmue story into scenario`s.
Infact the very definition of scenario is "an outline or synopsis of a play" so this would definitely be refering to Shenmue Town: Chapter 1 because of the nature of the type of game it will be.

To better visualize it, the story would look like this:

Chapter 1= 11 scenario`s. (Yokosuka)
Chaper 2= 1 scenario (Boat)
Chapter 3= 7? scenario`s (Hong Kong)
Chapter 4= 5? scenario`s (Hong Kong)
Chapter 5= 9? scenario`s (Kowloon)
Chapter 6= 4? scenario`s (Guilin)
Chapters 7-16= ?????? scenario`s (Guilin and beyond)

[Res]

I hope you're right Axm, 'cause I would like to actually see all 16 intended chapters. However, I think hazuki90 might be right because on another article on that site, Suzuki talks about cutting the full storyline down. During the conference he also answered a question about chapters in Shenmue City and he said that the game has no plans to be progressive at the moment but it may head that way in the future (pending if it's successful). Here is a direct quote from the article in which Suzuki is talking about the large scale of Shenmue's conclusive storyline, not related to Shenmue City:

In the Famitsu.com interview, Suzuki explained what he means by "chapters." Suzuki uses the style of novelizing his scenarios before converting them into a game script. He takes this approach because he feels the story and emotional impact can be more deeply expressed through novelizations. It's not necessarily the case that these novelizations are converted directly into game form, but they are made with the idea of being converted into games, inserting quick timer events in one area, inserting gameplay systems in other areas, and so-forth.

Just because there are eleven chapters, it doesn't seem that Suzuki actually plans on having eleven Shenmue games at some point. Thinking about how to put those eleven chapters into the form of a game is something Suzuki feels he'll have to consider if given the chance to make a new Shenmue. "It would be possible to finish the entire story in a single game if we were to show just the highlights and skip over parts," said Suzuki. Joking that the game would probably never reach the end if they made one title every five years, he said, "If given the chance, I'd have to think about the scale and the time frame. The Shenmue essence is, of course, in the scenarios I've made. I'd have to think how to make something from them."

Incredibly, Suzuki basically desires not to wrap up the story in Shenmue III, though it's possible. If all goes the way he seems to want it, we might actually be talking about Shenmue IV someday.

[Wanderin']

Well, that was only an incomplete and inappropriately translated initial report of what Suzuki had supposedly said at the Shenmue Gai press conference.

This is the most recent and appropriately translated one-on-one interview with Suzuki which also holds the most up-to-date information regarding where we stand with Shenmue 3:
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/1 ... interview/

So, yes - Suzuki himself confirms that the Shenmue saga is in actuality only 11 chapters or 'scenarios' long and that yes, all the remaining content in the Shenmue story could be feasibly included and concluded in one final game - Shenmue 3.

So. Just look at how close we all really are to finally finishing the saga. Just one more game! This is a critical time, even though it may not look or feel like it. Suzuki is active again, and he is saying rather attractive things like how only one more game could finish the story, that he is aware that he would have to review and reformat the remaining story so that it all fits in that one more game, that Shenmue 3 (regardless of when it comes) needs to be on the same grand scale as the first two for himself and others to be satisfied, and that he feels obliged to live up to the expectations of all those fans - us - who have waited for the last decade and participated in countless petitions.

I'll say it here and I'll say it elsewhere on these forums - Shenmue Gai is not what we should be excited about right now. Rather we should be excited about the fact that Shenmue as a series is being discussed seriously again within the gaming industry at the moment, and that Yu Suzuki is being directly involved in these discussions. If Suzuki is so aware about what needs to be done to release *just* one more game to finish off the Shenmue saga then we as fans *just* need to push him and Sega just that little extra distance (now that *little* extra distance may turn out to be a few more years yet, but it's not like we haven't waited our fair share already, right?) before they all finally commit to making it a reality. And if we must support Shenmue Gai in the interim, than so shall we. Means to an end and all that, right?

[Res]

Well, that was only an incomplete and inappropriately translated initial report of what Suzuki had supposedly said at the Shenmue Gai press conference.

This is the most recent and appropriately translated one-on-one interview with Suzuki which also holds the most up-to-date information regarding where we stand with Shenmue 3:
http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/1 ... interview/

Wanderin'. I assume you're not talking about me, right? Look at the link you gave: it is a link to the article which I quoted. It's exactly the same. Read the article and look at the last two paragraphs.

Anyway, I actually agree with your statement thereafter. Shemue Gai is not what we should be excited about but it's steering us towards where we wanna go. Good post despite my confusion.

[Wanderin']

No - you're all right Res. Look at the time interval between when the two of us posted. Only four minutes apart. When I was posting my comment yours was not up yet and I did not get a chance to see it before I posted mine. But, it looks like we were both just trying to validate the thread with the exact same Famitsu interview article. Thanks, and keep up the good work!

[Axm]

Ahh you guys are right, after reading closer into the andasang article its clear the story is now 11 chapters..

During the press conference, a reporter had asked Suzuki if he planned on completing the series' full 16 chapters at some point. Suzuki corrected the question, saying that the story actually has 11 chapters.

I wonder what the transition from 16 to 11 means.
Was is cut?
Compressed?
Re-written?
Is this 11 ment to fit the Shenmue Gai game`s future time lines and release schedual?
Or is this absolutely thee amount of chapters regardless of what system/delivery method its on?

Now im just left with more questions. I demand Suzuki to post in this thread and clear things up for us.

[Superrayman3]

Ahh you guys are right, after reading closer into the andasang article its clear the story is now 11 chapters..

During the press conference, a reporter had asked Suzuki if he planned on completing the series' full 16 chapters at some point. Suzuki corrected the question, saying that the story actually has 11 chapters.

I wonder what the transition from 16 to 11 means.
Was is cut?
Compressed?
Re-written?
Is this 11 ment to fit the Shenmue Gai game`s future time lines and release schedual?
Or is this absolutely thee amount of chapters regardless of what system/delivery method its on?

Now im just left with more questions. I demand Suzuki to post in this thread and clear things up for us.

I assume the story was rewritten and compressed since yu seems to have made a transition from 16 chapters to 11

[Shenmue_Saga]

It must have been cut or skipped, like the boat chapter, Ryo travel to kowloon or guilin can't remember exactly, and Shenmue 2 was supposed to be 6 discs not 4 disks and don't forget the pictures from shenmue 2 beta from an unknown village so...

[MiTT3NZ]

Consider these points:

- Shenmue was one chapter
- One chapter was cut from Shenmue
- Shenmue II had three chapters (I'm pretty sure anyway)

That's six chapters. if he originally said that there are 16 chapters, and is now saying 11, I would safely assume that he means that there are eleven remaining, as five are out of the way.

Also, Suzuki considers Shenmue to be a masterpiece of a story (presumably), so he would not bundle all remaining chapters into one game, as that would be bad storytelling. I know - and I'm sure he knows - that the way to execute it properly is to spread it across more games.

Take Shenmue II for example. For every chapter there is a first, second, and third act. However, looking at the game itself, there is a first, second, and third act. So really, it must all work together to make one part of the story by collecting the relevant chapters (imagine if Shenmue II ended after it's first chapter, it wouldn't feel complete) That is why Chapter 2 was cut from Shenmue.

It wouldn't have had the same feel if Shenmue ended with the Return of Chai, nor would it feel right if Shenmue II opened up with that. Sure, it could have been a bonus unlockable feature for Shenmue, but story-wise, it just didn't fit the structure.

On the same note, Shenmue II Disc 4 had a similar effect to what Chapter 2 would have had on Shenmue (for me, at least) However, it is blatantly a hugely relevant part of the story, and it is better to end a story on the cliffhanger of the floating sword, then to end with another "take a boat to somewhere else" scenario, and then have the floating sword crop up a third or even a quarter of the way through the next game.

Anyway, the bottom line is that Shenmue III would quite obviously not contain all remaining chapters. Tech-wise, it probably could, but that's like saying that you could fit the four Burton/Schumacher Batman films on one disc.. what would be the point when you're supposed to watch them separately? Exactly.