The link between Virtua Fighter & Shenmue

[Kiyuu]

Some forget the project berkley vid where Ryo (then Akira) had Akira's wristbands on.
Not to mention how the hair and their appearance is all to similar.

You can see even their family name "Yuki (結城)" on the outfit of Akira's father
in the Saturn version of Shenmue, like this:

[Miles Prower]

Some forget the project berkley vid where Ryo (then Akira) had Akira's wristbands on.
Not to mention how the hair and their appearance is all to similar.

You can see even their family name "Yuki (結城)" on the outfit of Akira's father
in the Saturn version of Shenmue, like this:

Oh wow, I never knew about that, pretty cool. That would seem to confirm that the Iwao character (or he might have had a different name before, who knows) was always planned to be murdered in the storyline, even when it was still VFRPG...which contradicts Akira's father being alive and well in the VF games...hmm

[Virtua Hazuki]

Well, one of the things that makes the most sense to me in VF to Shenmue similarities is that Lan Di might be Shen Hua's father, considering the relationship between Pai and Lau from VF. Of course that might not be but in terms of character to character relation it might be the most obvious.
Other theories: Sarah as Joy or Chunyan, Jacky as Ren; Jeffry as Rod Stunt and Wolf as Greg More, Dural as Baihu, Shun Di as Jianmin, Lion as Chai (at least in fighting stance haha), Aoi as Xiyuying... at least it seems to make some sort of sense. Even if very remote.

I thought initially that there was a parellel, between Shen Hua's relationship with Lan Di's and the one of Lau/Pai's, but I if I recall correctly, the character model that Shen Hua has in the game, wasn't originally hers, but of a woman Ryo would meet later in Tibet, the model was instead given to Shen Hua's character. So I think the girl from Tibet has the better chance of being Lan Di's daughter, if anyone is it all.

Also as a general comment, that VF anime's resemblance to Shenmue is damn awesome, I'd love to watch that VF anime.

[Hazuki Legend]

The girl from Tibet, would you be referrinng to Niao-San?

[Virtua Hazuki]

Hmm, while I am not sure completely sure, I don't think Yu Suzuki ever revealed who this person was. I imagine since she is meant to be from Tibet, I think it would have been quite sometime before the story was supposed to progress there. Niao-San based on the the four pictures of the Chi You Men leaders was going to be revealed very soon in Shenmue III, from my impression, thus probably in mainland China.

Also she was in the Project Berkley video, so I thought that also pertained to be being seen early in the series in mainland China, of course when the series was still going to be 16 chapters.

Hell, I could be completely wrong here and it might be Niao-San as you say. Whoever it is I am pretty sure, the character model Shen Hua has was in the beginning from a woman in Tibet.

[Crimson Ryan]

Makes you wonder if, what eventually became our Shenmue series, would of been a much greener pasture for Sega if it remained as the Virtua Fighter spin-off RPG.. Has there ever been a spin-off series from Sega using their own characters from another established franchise?

(Thanks for letting me bump the topic, Kiyuu!)

[Bluecast]

Makes you wonder if, what eventually became our Shenmue series, would of been a much greener pasture for Sega if it remained as the Virtua Fighter spin-off RPG.. Has there ever been a spin-off series from Sega using their own characters from another established franchise?

(Thanks for letting me bump the topic, Kiyuu!)

If it remained a spinoff I don't think I would have played it,same if it ended up being a Saturn game.

I first heard about Shenmue not too long it had a name and was in a 1998 Next Gen issue mag. That was my first time interested in a non Nintendo console and was so hyped about DC and this unamed game Shenmue.

Sure I had played VF a couple times in arcades but that was it.
Where I lived everyone had Nintendo and Saturn was DOA ..even as it became more diverse with people owning a PS1...no one had a saturn,many never heard of one ..gamestores had maybe 2-3 games on the shelf.

VF was just known as a arcade game in the mall at least here but nothing more.

This is of course where I grew up but still think if it remained VF would have been a more niche game just Sega fans would have bought.
DC and Shenmue introduced me to to another world as it was something so new and different and stood on it's own.


Sadly I still think Shenmue's biggest flaw (besides being so different) was being on a Sega console...Had Sega been smart and at least ported BOTH games to PS2 we MAY have had Shenmue III and possibly the whole series but at least a 3rd game.

[Crimson Ryan]

Has there ever been a spin-off series from Sega using their own characters from another established franchise?

Answered my own question, Vyse and Aika in Valkyria Chronicles ;)

[Giorgio-San]

Shenmue is the best experience I have lived in a video game.
I know Yu Suzuki wanted to make a story based Virtua Fighter game, that's how he ended up with Shenmue, I have heard a lot of theories but this is one of the best findings I have ever seen. It's very interesting and awesome.

The intro of this VF episode in the video, reminds me a lot the prologue of Shenmue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUGpIY-hKz0

The eagle that flying above the rock mountains, the sounds of the wind and the music that being very similar with the music of Shenmue's prologue.


The whole episode is in Italian(sorry, couldn't find an English one).

[Crimson Ryan]

The whole episode is in Italian(sorry, couldn't find an English one).

That was the summit of frustration when I found those recently only to play it and find they were all Italian dubbed. Why no English version? WHY!?

[Kiyuu]

The whole episode is in Italian(sorry, couldn't find an English one).

That was the summit of frustration when I found those recently only to play it and find they were all Italian dubbed. Why no English version? WHY!?

There are some English versions. At least, the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAE0J09QaDE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrh87KN2RRY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0-75OCXtF4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8hOxpuldkI

[Crimson Ryan]

I was talking about full episodes, sorry if you misunderstood. I've watched the origin videos already, that's what's making me want to see the full episodes so much, I've shopped about for DVDs but with no luck so far.

[Kiyuu]

I was talking about full episodes, sorry if you misunderstood. I've watched the origin videos already, that's what's making me want to see the full episodes so much, I've shopped about for DVDs but with no luck so far.

You're looking for DVDs for sale? How about these?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h ... hter+anime

[Crimson Ryan]

My PAL PS3 can't play import DVDs.

[username1]

The whole series are online if you run a google search for them you will find them. SInce shenmue was originally supposed to be the akira rpg game based off virtua fighter it seems remarkable the similarity between the game and series with some changes plus the characters have been borrowed. The end credits of the virtua fight anime for episode 1 said Yu Suzuki was the Original Author. The series is in English with 35 episodes and ran from 1995-1996 much before the dreamcast launch of Shenmue. While the sega saturn's life time ws from 1994-1998 so it's possible Shenmue was fully made before it's partial launch on dreamcast. Episode 1 seems to tell a similar story to that near the end of shenmue 2 where by joy is kidnapped, ryo saves her and fights alot of people to rescue her.

Later on in successive episodes Akira (ryo type character) also looks up to find the north star and using that draws strength to defeat the character that seems to be dressed as lan di is dressed up. Before Akira looks up at the north star to defeat the lan di type character, he has a flash back to when he was a child and his master taught him the value of seeing the north star in the day to be a true martial artist.