by Ikuzuh » Wed Aug 02, 2017 4:26 pm
Odyssey of Shenmue - Prologue- Page 2
As a gamer myself, I felt tremendous frustration at the end of that cycle. In this respect, it is very easy to make a parallel with the end of Shenmue 2, which frustrated millions of players. Many times, I joked to my friends that I was directly involved in the development of the third episode of the franchise, all who enjoy the series and would like to see its end. Of course, I did not know anything about the creative process of a game, much less a A-level game like this. And, of course, he we no contacts in the industry. However, all my life I have tended to ignore all the possible obstacles that get in my way and, thanks to it, I have managed to achieve several of my goals. We could say that it is about recklessness, ignorance or, if we want to be positive, to seek out opportunities.
The first time I spoke to Yu Suzuki on business was in 2011, when I invited him to France for an event. One of our conversations ended up in Shenmue III, after which they realized that at that time it was impossible to make it happen without an agreement with the rights holders. We met again on several occasions and, as the enthusiasm of the fans did not subside despite the years passed, Suzuki-san began to move strings behind the scenes. When we met in March 2014, I invited him to an event he had organized in Monaco, we talked for the first time about the possibility of making Shenmue III a reality ... I remember it as if it were yesterday. We had dinner with Go Nagai, the creator of Mazinger. At that time, crowdfunding began to take its first steps and, of course, we talked long and hard on the subject. Of course, without kidding ourselves at any time and being aware that we may not get enough funding that could be achieved through crowdfunding.
While waiting for possible solutions, we decided to tackle a less ambitious project for mobile, another famous franchise. It was already the year 2014, when Shibuya Productions was founded. Unfortunately, that mobile game, which was to be the first of the company, had to be canceled because the owners of the license decided to turn back at the last moment. We did not know at the time, but we were at the starting point of the adventure of Shenmue III. In fact, after accumulating several successes, especially in the field of animation, Shibuya Productions decides to invest strongly in the third episode of that cult franchise, even though the license belongs to Sega and that the first two chapters weren't very relevant in current times as no recent re-release had been created.
Last edited by
Ikuzuh on Thu Aug 03, 2017 10:37 am, edited 1 time in total.