New GDC Plot image discussion *Spoilers*

[UnHoly Bible]

that 8th concept art card looks disturbing, i wonder what that's about. I WANNA PLAY THAT CHAPTER!

[Fenix]

that 8th concept art card looks disturbing, i wonder what that's about. I WANNA PLAY THAT CHAPTER!

Seems there's a lion or a tiger statue.

Could it be Ziming?

[Axm]

Ok... I'm sleepy so I hope you'll understand this:

The 4th chapter or artworks shows some martial artists wearing green dogis or gi. One of them seems to be Ryo / Akira but on the 8th, Akira is "facing" one of the martial artists with the green dogi.

Now I'm remembering what the fortune teller said to me one day: "a friend will become an enemy".

And about the 6th chapter. The woman is similar to Niao Sun but there's another old man at her side. I'm pretty sure he's the unknown leader of the Chiyoumen. Representing the snake tortoise.

I noticed that 3rd chapter shows a train.

[Supa]

I still don't understand...if Suzuki has 11 chapters in mind, then why did Shin Ishikawa write down 16?

And WHY did SEGA Europe announce Shenmue III was in development way back when? Something has to be deep inside SEGA...even if it's very, very early in development life. Not current, but started back after Shenmue II was released.

From 2010:

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."

That makes sense, but remember the whiteboard interview from 2003 (I think)? Shin Ishikawa specifically wrote down that there were 16 chapters, and Yu says 11. Maybe there were 5 that were cut?

[shredingskin]

I remember some interview that Yu said something like "there's an ending at the 9th chapter" or something like that (meaning ryo facing Lan Di I guess). So from the new information the "ending" of shenmue has quite a bit of "afterstory".

Also, the 3rd picture face seems really close to that stone thing opening in project berkeley (that it had the shadow of the sword I think).

From the pictures we see Akira with a green martial arts suit till the 8th picture that shows him with the regular akira suit (maybe a big master in ryo's life ?).

In the 4th picture with shenhua there's a woman's face in the woods (maybe Niao Sun ?), seems weird, but the promo stuff from niao sun was also in the woods, maybe we were really close to meet her.

Also from some reason Akira seems to gain his headband between in the last two pics (another master ?, the loss of someone ? defeating Lan Di ?).

Also in the 10nth picture I think those eyes are from Lan Di (gui zhang ¿?), but at this point he should already been defeated. Is Lan Di in some way looking after Ryo ?

[blacktorn]

Ahhh so many un-knows!!! were going to make ourselves crazy with speculation lol

[Rakim]

For more early story outlines be sure to check out this section of the Project Berkley translation put together by Ziming and I

phpBB [video]

[johnvivant]

the grey/silver head with a menacing expression in image 3 (top) looks a lot like Dural from virtua fighter series.

behind these characters you can see the undercarriage of a train.

if you want to see a close up of these characters in this image go to 0:58 in this shenmue online concept art video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23D-YTgB ... 2&index=15

i thought maybe the suited character to the far right above the head was Guizhang but the close up shows him with glasses so its probably not him.

speculation : maybe dural was removed as the ultimate fighting machine test for ryo, and replaced with the concept of Chiyou.

image 4 (top) - shows lau chan from virtua fighter on top right (in the virtua fighter animation he was head of Koen Kan the evil organisation which is the the equivalent of Chiyoumen in shenmue. did lau chan become Tentei for shenmue?

or are these supposed to be the 4 chiyoumen leaders?

the person on the bottom left doesn't really look like Niao sun , in fact i would say it looks more like a man, (looks a lot like Yan from virtua fighter animation) and the person on the bottom right definitely does not look like ziming.

the head of the person on the bottom right looks the same as the muscle bound person in image 6 (far left image bottom row)

so much to go into with these images.

any chance of a higher definition screen cap? or is this the best that can be done?

[Fenix]

True. He's very close from Lau Chan from Virtua Fighter anime.



But in my opinion, Tentei is the one in the 9th picture.

Now when you all see these chapters list I supose you understand me when I say I don't want Shenmue 3 as the end of the saga witch would probably be the final game if it's released.

Shenmue's story is too long. It's the greatest and longest journey ever seen in a video game. If the game was not cancelled and continued the story as Yu imagined, TODAY we'd still be far from the end of the saga.

[elfshadowreaper]

Somehow I feel that with all of this detail it's the nail in the coffin to the series. I could be wrong but I don't know why he would show his cards if there's still a chance at playing them one day.

[elfshadowreaper]

These are some of my observations. They could be wrong...

[Fenix]

Yes. The train. It was on the Berkley trailer. No doubt.

But one more and interesting thing. The locations. We're missing them and they are pretty important.

It seems chapter 8 happens in Luoyang and 9th in Lanzhou or Bayan nur and last chapter is in Xinjian region.

[Fenix]

I'm taking more carefuly looks and I can see Xian and Hebei were important locations too.

Hebei is where Bajiquan was born.

[johnvivant]

i just sat down and wrote my own description of first 5 images and what they might mean. i'll do the rest later when i have time.

it would be really great if we can link all these art works to their specific chapters and their corresponding location on the map.
this is some amazing stuff!!

Akira’s Quest chapter concept art:

11 images representing the (possible?) events that would occur in each of the 11 chapters of the game

I will refer to the images as follows

top : 1,2,3,4,5
bottom: 6,7,8,9,10,11


Image 1: Chapter 1 - Yokosuka

This is Ryo’s departure from Yokosuka to Hong Kong, saying goodbye to Guizhang and Master Chen from the harbour.

Image 2 : chapter 4 Kowloon

Clearly depicting Ren in foreground, Xiuying behind him and then Don Niu behind her.
Rens gang members just to the left of him?
Background cityscape of Kowloon with low flying jet above.

Image 3: chapter unknown

Background at the top of image shows a lush green environment with blue skys and the foreground with Ren to the left and Ryo to the right with the phoenix mirror between them. (does the phoenix mirror cause a division between Ryo and Ren at some point?)

Background of the lower portion shows the undercarriage of a train (train from project Berkeley CG?), in front of that is a grey face with a menacing expression, very similar to Dural from virtua fighter series/ animation.

Above the head: To the far right could be Guizhang (this might be the chapter he returns) –(or maybe not since he is wearing glasses )
To his left is a character in military uniform, to the left of a him is man who is wearing clothes similar to the fortune tellers on shenmue 2, left of him an old woman holding a urn, left of her a man in a suit with slick back hair, left of him is a woman with a pink business coat, left of her a policeman, or a man in a blue uniform.

if you want to see a close up of these characters in this image go to 0:58 in this shenmue online concept art video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23D-YTgB ... 2&index=15

Image 4 : chapter unknown

In the centre we have Akira/Ryo in 3 different martial arts poses- performing specific moves (someone probably knows which ones) wearing green Chinese martial arts clothing.

Around him are 4 heads (are these the early version of the chiyoumen members?)

The top left head is clearly that on lan di. The top right is a older man with a pony tail and moustache who looks very similar to lau chan from virtua fighter animation.

Bottom left is difficult to see who is it. The character has long light coloured hair worn down, with sinister almost maniacal grin (reminds me of Yan from virtua fighter animation) – could this be the mysterious dark silhouetted 4th chiyoumen member?

Bottom right character is again unknown although he appears again in image 6 where he seems to have a very muscular body (looks similar to bruce lee)

Below the images of the 'Ryo poses' there are several figures on a pedestal surrounded by what seems to be water, with a yellow dragon serpent/s swimming around them?

One of the figures on the pedestal is wearing green Chinese clothing and seems to be sitting, which makes me believe that its Yuanda Zhu in his wheel chair. He Surrounded by 3 girls in light coloured clothing? Really difficult to see.

There are red beams coming out of the water.

Image 5 – Guilin Chapter 5

Ryo and Shenhua in the woods of guilin. Its difficult to see but it seem shenhua is giving Ryo/Akira some flowers or showing them to him. Maybe a dandelion which is akira first introduction to shenhua supernatural ability, or these are the herbs that Shenhua collects for her father.

Niao Sun? in the background, red dress but with light coloured hair instead of the darker hair we are more familiar with. Her presence in the image seems to imply that she will have some kind of involvement with Ryo and shenhua in guilin (is she is the evil presence the birds flew from?). She may have been observing them for quite a while. Her presence looms over them.


edit 1:

Image 6 – Chapter unknown

Akira in the centre in a martial arts pose.

There is a nimble old bearded man with grey hair who seems to be either leaping over or balancing on Akira’s head. Could this be the early prototype of Chai? His posture seems very similar to Chai’s.

***edit
This old man could actually be a martial arts master who is training Akira. Balancing on Akira’s head while he holds that pose could be an example of an eccentric training technique which in common in martial arts films. Also reminiscent of star wars when Yoda trains luke.

On the left hand side we see the Bruce Lee look-a-like again, and on the right what can only be an early version of Niao Sun. she seems to have a tiara on her head.

I assume that these 3 are the main antagonists of this chapter.

Behind akira is what seems to be the sun, or some kind of fire ball.

At the bottom of the image we can see the streets of a city which appears to be older in style with more traditional architecture. Its very different to the more modern looking kowloon. I assume this is the city where this chapter takes place.

[Shotaro Kaneda]

I still don't understand...if Suzuki has 11 chapters in mind, then why did Shin Ishikawa write down 16?

Maybe when he said "I've written the series myself up to chapter 11. " he meant he had written up to chapter 11 and not finished up to 16 by that point