Great job. It's really cool to go through and to see Yu's full answers to the questions instead of the snippets we heard reported and paraphrased.

He's Samurai-like and I don't expect that to change, but we saw more of a comedic side in his interactions with Ren and Shenhua in II and I expect that to carry on into III.

A.) Time - They likely had a fire lit under them after the success of the Kickstarter, but a HD remaster takes time and effort if you're going to do it right.

B.) Legal complication - There have been mutterings about legal complications stopping SEGA properly making a Shenmue remaster happen. Some say they're related to the branding tie-ins (Timex, etc), and others that middleware used to make the game no longer have identifiable owners due to insolvency and asset stripping of the original owners. Neither of these have been substantiated by fact, but it could be true.

C.) Legacy - Shenmue was wrongly a scapegoat for the death of the Dreamcast. Like a game of telephone, inaccurate and inflated budgets have been passed on as fact, and the true cause of death of the Dreamcast (bungling all hardware from the Megadrive onwards) was disguised by executives. SEGA have recently gone back on this though, especially since the KS success put significant egg on their face. They're acknowledging that Shenmue III is a big deal, and they know Shenmue sells judging by how much they've been farming it out for merchandising and allowing cameo appearances from Ryo.

D.) Tie-In - They want to ride Shenmue III's hype, and likewise Shenmue III wants to ride the wave of renewed interest a Shenmue collection would bring, but Shenmue III isn't due for another 21 months at the earliest, and they want to be released close to each other for maximum effect.

During the MAGIC conference Suzuki talked about wanting to introduce Southern Chinese martial arts in Shenmue III, having focused on northern Chinese styles in Shenmue II. These have more rapid small movements for close-quarters fighting, and as such he wants to have fights taking place in tight spaces such as corridors and stairways. After showing a slide of a courtyard with a table and chairs he also said that fights in such areas would see said objects flying about.
Mm. I saw this. I like what he said about being able to split up the numbers of opponents in order to fight them off separately instead of individually too. I've not seen many attempts at close-quarters hand to hand combat in games, so I'm pretty hyped to see what Yu comes up with.

I think we're likely to see an overhaul of the FREE Battle system that progressively introduces itself through the game and includes various other elements like the skill tree system. It'd be so cool if they did a major update to the dynamic countering system in the DC games and gave it a modular aspect of applying and developing different martial arts disciplines through the skill tree system, as well as allowing you to use regular moves while in a dodge state.

Say for instance, at the start of the game you've only got the Hazuki style discipline that isn't developed very far on the skill tree and you're facing an enemy. You press Y (or triangle, but I'll be using DC inputs for the sake of familiarity) to activate a dodge, then ->-> X to go into an elbow assault as a counter move. Later in the game you've been able to develop the skill tree and adopt a Wing Chun discipline and the same thing happens with an enemy, you could press -> -> B to activate a version of machine gun fist where you have to hammer X until the attack is interrupted, the enemy is knocked out, or you send them flying with a kick extension with A at the end of a string of Xs.

That would be my dream of part of how the combat engine is upgraded. Make really good use of the motion capture data mixed with animation blending, for a cinematic yet realistic game of playing offence and defence against individual and groups of enemies in tight spaces.

To be honest, I can't wait to move away from the graphics chat into more about the gameplay, but I know we've got another six or more months of pixel peeping left.

Spaghetti, link the topic when you post it. Love reading Shenmue threads on the GAF

Wrote an article about the Eze tour and Monaco dinner: https://medium.com/@MoosaviAmir/a-weekend-with-yu-suzuki-6ff4d9d9edb6
This was an amazing write-up.

Would it be okay if I shared this in one of the Shenmue threads on GAF?

Thanks!

Go ahead, I'd share it myself but I got an email last week telling me they wouldn't approve my account, 5 months after I registered.

Someone already shared it in the Kickstarter thread but I think sharing it in the PayPal thread would be good to encourage people to back the game.
As suggested, I posted about it in the Paypal thread.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=198391462#post198391462

The Daytona USA bit cracks me up every time I read it.

I'm still not quite sure, what to make of this whole "Shenmue 3 and the (mainland) Chinese market" thing. It seems to be a great opportunity at first glance, but then again it's a highly problematic market for video games in general with all the piracy going on, government regulations and so forth.

Isn't sending CDs, DVDs, BluRays and so on illegal in China, or does that regulation only go for private parcels? How are Chinese customs going to react to thousands of parcels with BluRay discs coming in from Japan?

Well, still I'm glad they did it and I think the opportunity is well worth taking the risks. Oddly enough, they haven't added Chinese subtitles as a stretch goal. I'm not quite sure if you can lure in a lot of Chinese fans to the slacker backer campaign it a big portion of them won't even be able to understand the game.
I'm not totally clear on things, but China are loosening restrictions on video games and other media. Unless there's a complete 180 in the next year things should be fine.

For your last point though, I think a Chinese language version will happen, but it seems the logic currently is to appeal to existing Shenmue fans in China who played the games in English or Japanese previously, and that they would be able to play Shenmue III in the same conditions. It's a bit of a narrow view IMO, and stinks of Awesome Japan yet again being unable to advertise to anybody besides existing Shenmue fans.

Sorry for the double post, but:

$6,580,155

72,070 backers

Jumped 2K in a day. I think $6.6 million is smooth sailing. There might be hope for $7 million after all.

I hope when the time comes, the media doesn't go into a total blitz about the trial's quality/polish as indication for the final product to bad mouth it like with mighty no. 9, but knowing the media... :-(

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk
Depends how the trial is presented. If the trial is a What's Shenmue style demo of varied game mechanics that serve as a separate introduction to the game, and it is made very clear the purpose of the trial is to obtain feedback, then I don't think the media will lay into it too hard.

Sad to hear that the story has changed from its initial form, but i guess it's inevitable after all these years...
?

The way Yu described it, the story was always meant to be chopped and changed where appropriate, because making 11 games based on each chapter as they were originally would be foolhardy, costly, and time consuming.

We're not losing anything. In fact, I'd say we're getting more than expected, because I and many others used to think if a chapter was passed over it was gone for good. Now we know that isn't the case.

But we did lose the original vision of the story.

He was asked why he skipped chapter 3 and 4 and went straight to 5, and he answered that the chapter numbers don't mean anything anymore because he had to change the story's structure. A shame like i said, but inevitable.
But we skipped to 5 in the ending of Shenmue II. That decision was likely made long before either Shenmue game came out too, because no pre-release materials outside the Project Berkley video ever hinted at anything from Chapter 3 and 4. The decision wasn't likely made out of restriction, but instead just creative desire to streamline/alter the story.

I halfway understand why Yu wants to separate the letters but... I was 8 years old when the first Shenmue game came out and I read the logo perfectly. Things can't have changed that much.

https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status/717824202934460416

Pretty open and shut. I don't think the Papyrus logo will make it into Shenmue III at all. A new and better designed alternative logo that splits up the lettering will possibly appear on promotional material between now and release, but on the box and on the title screen? Original logo. I can't fathom any situation where this wouldn't happen.

Can't believe we're only $6000 away from that $6.6 million milestone. Fingers crossed for an update after we pass it.

Can't believe we're only $6000 away from that $6.6 million milestone. Fingers crossed for an update after we pass it.

Cool, so what's that, around 300K raised post-Kickstarter? That's great!
Yeah, that's a pretty great figure for post-Kickstarter funding. I think most Slacker Backer campaigns top out at around $200,000, so we're definitely doing pretty well. Shenmue continues to break records and trends in crowdfunding even now.

EDIT: This isn't counting Star Citizen's massive post-KS success, which made their money selling digital goods to very hungry, high paying consumers. That's a beast of its own.

Somebody should pass Kiske and squall's logos on to Cedric/Yu, if they haven't been sent already.



That's the idea

Don't have the guts to do that. Not with this amateurish version of the logo anyway.
Too much love and respect for Shenmue creator to send anything not perfect to Suzuki San.
Don't beat yourself up over it, I think you've done a pretty good job of at least illustrating that there is an alternative to the Papyrus logo that evokes the original, but still fits Yu's desire to split the lettering up.

Sh3nmu3

*rubbing hands*

It's almost time for the monthly update too. I gotta get my Shenmue fix bro. I gotta.

It's not just a case of swapping the VO, guys.

If they're making an effort at localisation that means there will be changes between the English and Japanese dub to better suit the markets. It's the same reason why the Shenmue Undub mod just has periodic silences because there's no equivalent for the English subs.

Dual VO could possibly mean full retranslation for all subs (and don't forget, the game will be in 5+ languages subtitled), to properly translate the VO.

shengoro86 wrote: All went well! Lots of support from people at PAX East

I'd be interested in reading a write-up of promoting the game at the event, if you're not already doing one.

The French media are "doing it" again :???:

http://www.jeuxactu.com/shenmue-3-les-doublages-anglais-et-japonais-ne-sont-pas-garantis-103756.htm?

According to this article, there will be probably only ONE audio language in Shenmue 3 (For all regions). English or japanese.

Misunderstanding of the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter updates became a bad habit...
It's just negligence at this point. The update is very clear about what it is talking about in regards to dual language tracks. The requirements for a games media job must be that you have enough working fingers to type and little else.

https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/with_replies

See Cedric's first retweet. I think we're getting close to something.

*update the total every day leading up to $6.6 million*
*get to Thursday, seems likely it'll cross the threshold tomorrow*
*take Friday off*

AWESOME JAPAN

Something to take our minds off the count:

I saw this retweeted by the Shenmue Dojo account but I'm not sure it was ever really discussed here: https://soundcloud.com/ryujiiuchi/erhu

It's basically a demo track for Shenmue III in everything but its name.

At least by the time we next get a total update we should be well over $6.6 million, right?

The extra funding is already here: Sony will help the development (publishing, dev milestones, advertising, etc). http://www.gamespot.com/videos/the-point-how-did-shenmue-3-raise-63-million/2300-6426535/
It's not strictly accurate that they're helping fund development. They're offsetting other costs so more money from KS, YSnet, Shibuya Productions, etc, can be dedicated towards development.

In your opinion, did Cédric Biscay say too much this time?

http://i.imgur.com/P1w7bJX.jpg

Q: Why not launch a crowdfunding for the Xbox One version? It's a shame to do without 20 million of players.

A: The PS4 has console exclusivity.

Q: Did Sony buy the exclusivity? The Kickstarter FAQ's says Xbox One version is not impossible.

If true/confirmed, what could a strong Sony PS4 exclusivity mean for the future (and the past) of the Shenmue franchise?
And on this subject, Sony didn't buy exclusivity. That kind of deal is dying out, because it doesn't make sense for the console manufacturer or the developer. What's more common is to take limited exclusivity for helping with marketing, distribution, etc.

The lack of an Xbox One version is more likely down to limited development resources, and the fact that Cedric and Yu approached Microsoft prior to the KS and got given the cold shoulder.

I think when I was younger I would have loved to see a lot of characters return, but thinking about it now, the concept of Ryo travelling and meeting an entire fresh cast of characters with each wildly different location is very interesting. Not only do we have the concept of a man so bent on revenge he's leaving behind all the places and friends he makes, but also a concept where each entry (or chapter if you will) represents almost kind of a new "world" each time, with new people to meet inside of them.
I agree with this, and I think that's the direction Yu is taking. He's spoken pretty openly about Shenmue having strong themes of personal growth through engaging in different cultures with new people, I can't see that being thrown away to keep fan favourites in the game.

Here's a translation of Ryuji Iuchi's message in Japanese on SoundCloud:

あくまで個人的なデモ曲です。
森の中の村、森の中の水辺をイメージしました。
習作を兼ねて、あのゲームのサウンドに少し寄せています。

This is purely a personal demo piece.
The image I had in mind is of a village and waterside in the forest.
I've been experimenting composing practice pieces to evoke the sound of "that game".

Nice to see it confirmed that Iuchi is getting into gear to start work on Shenmue music again.

Wow, you've dampened my enthusiasm big time! :lol:

I'm aware that none of my points are solid enough to point towards new Shenmue 3 material or Shenmue HD annoucement.

That said, if I have to throw myself into battle, I need to believe that I can succeed.
This is of course also true for Shenmue :king:
Sorry, man.

I'm pretty hopeful we'll see an update around E3 time! I just don't think the big E3 re-reveal on Sony's stage is going to happen this year.

Nobody should be getting their hopes up about a trailer on an E3 stage at all .

It's far too early, and these fully produced trailers take a long time and dedicated resources to create. The focus is clearly on creating the game right now, and Shenmue III punching above its weight by getting into the AAA hype game is a waste of time and money.

Best case scenario is:
. Shenmue III gets name-checked on-stage at Sony's conference
. Shenmue HD
. Large KS update on the game's progress

Thinking we're getting much more than that is setting yourself up for disappointment.

We'll get a well produced reintroduction trailer eventually, but this year's TGS/PSX is the very earliest I can imagine it happening. E3 2017 would be the right time to start getting people excited.

It's been the elephant in the room for years at this point.

Closest we've gotten to any kind of acknowledgement was when that SEGA rep had a slip of the tongue, and mentioned Skies of Arcadia and Shenmue as hotly requested re-releases.

Why do I think this is a subtle confirmation?

Actually stating they're investigating making it happen is a big turning point. The business case has likely been made to have the go-ahead for figuring out the legal wrangling, and the legal situation must be workable enough, or have a viable alternative, to talk about a HD Collection publicly like in the video.

SEGA probably wouldn't set themselves up for a fall by talking about Shenmue HD before they were confident it could happen one way or another. I think the battles to be won now are just getting the games as accurate to the Dreamcast originals as possible by making an agreement on the licenced aspects.

My number 4 in the list. :P

4. Sega Europe #AskSEGA campaign. Inconceivable (imo) that they didn't anticipate the #SaveShenmueHD effect.

Doesn't mean that they will announce Shenmue HD at E3, BUT to me, it's almost like they know that finally, the Shenmue question isn't tabou anymore and can fit into a campaign like the #AskSega one.

The licencing problem may be tough, but definitely not an insurmountable challenge.
If they decide to remaster Shenmue I & II, they will remaster Shenmue I & II no matter what licencing or technical issues they may face.
Haha. I don't think either of us could have predicted it quite like this.

That said, I don't think they suddenly decided to look into Shenmue HD since #AskSEGA, but it probably gave them incentive to address it sooner rather than later. The decision to talk about Shenmue HD likely came all the way from Japan, and probably after extensive debate on the business case for making it happen. It's a long time coming for sure.

If they're ready to talk about it as a legitimate possibility, they must be at the fork in the road where they decide to make a licencing deal, or replace the licenced items. I really admire them for wanting to go the extra mile in preserving the Dreamcast originals in their entirety. I just hope the licencees play ball.

Hopefully they get it sewn up in time for TGS/PSX this year.

Am I correct in thinking that some middleware used in the development of the first two games are no longer in business? This could also be one of the licensing issues.
The video specifically says the licencing issues are with productions in the originals, so naw.

I'm of the personal belief the engine licencing issue was never real, because nothing besides a single forum post ever backed up that urban myth. Not saying it couldn't be true, but if it was, it has already been solved if product licencing is the last big roadblock.

https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status/730754247449559040

Re-confirmation that nothing is planned for E3. Cedric said as much during MAGIC, and has little reason to play games with people about this, so we can accept what he says at face value I think.

Not to say they won't put together a KS update over the next month for an E3 launch, but again, anybody expecting a showing on Sony's stage better temper their expectations.

And thus the struggle to $6.7 million... begins.

No matter what, as always I'm probably going to spend the whole night awake watching E3 when I should be asleep.

I don't think there's really much point making the distinction of "Oh, I meant internal SEGA of Japan development", and then discounting Yakuza entirely when it's a high quality series they're regularly putting out. Kintor is right in saying that ultimately it was a loaded question.

SEGA doesn't put out a whole lot these days, but the games are usually quite good. It's much more preferable to their more prolific period during the mid-2000s when they were a glorified shovelware developer. They're also doing small cool things like the Megadrive/Genesis Collection hub on Steam.

From barely $50 to nearly $800. Unpredictable as always!

Some important ones:

. Sony's role is limited to marketing and publishing the PS4 version only of Shenmue III (Source: http://www.gameblog.fr/interview_948_shenmue-3-notre-grande-interview-de-yu-suzuki-et-cedric-bisc )

. SEGA's role is limited to providing the IP and production materials from the first games (Source: http://www.gameblog.fr/interview_948_shenmue-3-notre-grande-interview-de-yu-suzuki-et-cedric-bisc )

. SEGA/YSnet/Shibuya Productions formed the agreement to use the Shenmue licence before Sony was ever involved (Source: http://www.gameblog.fr/news/57133-shenmue-iii-pourquoi-la-ps4-et-pas-la-xbox-one-cedric-biscay )

. Shibuya Productions is the main investor in Shenmue III, and has a much greater role than Sony (Source: https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status/645483756371873792 )

Seeing how the "SONY/SEGA ARE SECRETLY FUNDING SHENMUE" lies are still put out there by the gaming press and the people who religiously take the media's conjecture as fact, I think it's up to us to put these real facts out there.

From barely $50 to nearly $800. Unpredictable as always!

http://i.imgur.com/aK7NTHU.png

I am one of the seven backers from May 19, and my birthday is just in a few days that's why I pledged a bit more than usual.

As a side note: it would be nice if they could also add a donation option. Maybe it is something we could request in the upcoming Tweetathon on June the 3rd?
Nice job, and happy birthday in advance!

A donation option would be nice, but I don't think it'll happen even if we ask. Implementing KS upgrades and adding the PC version to the PayPal would be more beneficial right now.

Hey guys... it's getting near the end of the month. It's almost Kickstarter update time again.

This is starting to get kind of ridiculous; actually, it's been ridiculous for a while. I'm glad that they're contemplating adding options, but the game is supposedly a little over a year away from release and has a final budget. How long has it been since they opened the Slacker Backer?

I'm sure there's a good reason they've taken so long to include PC and Kickstarter upgrade options (I hope it's not just incompetence), but I think it's too late for either to have much of an impact at this point. Maybe that's not the point. I don't think they're going to reach many people when, or if, they add these options, though. Their audience has significantly diminished since the summer of 2015, unfortunately. Most people aren't going to notice.

Just getting kind of tired of getting excited about these Cedric tweets, which have been a thing for what, seven months now?
Every little bit helps, so I'm certainly not going to turn away the chance to put more money into the project. Worrying about the hows and whys is pointless when there's nothing we can do, as fans, to move things along. Well, besides keeping Cedric and company aware these are still desired and expected.

I wouldn't get bogged down in if we reach certain numbers or not with any increases to monthly backing amounts. If the PC version and KS upgrades brings in another couple thousand a month, that could easily pay for more staff to be brought onto the Shenmue III project.

We have to remember, the stretch goals aren't what it costs to implement a feature, it's effectively the time, resources, and people to research, experiment, prototype, and then implement the feature. Even if we don't hit $7 million or above, the money raised is helping increase the number of staff on the project and raise the overall production qualities of the title.

Yeah it would have been nice if this was all prompt and smooth to capitalise on the initial hype, but we knew we weren't going to get that when it became apparent Awesome Japan were inadequate for a production of this size. We've just got to accept things as they are and stay on their case when things aren't changing. We know they're finally listening after the logo u-turn, so maybe they're getting their act together at long last.

Another one for the pile regarding Shenmue III not being Sony's project:

Luke Crane, head of Games at Kickstarter.

Source: http://www.nodontdie.com/luke-crane/ (thanks to the TeamYU forum, where I found this)

I think people felt that if Sony wanted to promote it, they should fund it themselves. This is what I saw floating around the internet.

Right, because that's how that works. That's totally 100 percent how that works. Yup.

There's actually a cyborg that sits at the center of Sony and just churns out all of their work. Just one biological mechanical interface. You feed it and it says, "I will make Shenmue 3 now."

Yu Suzuki's the creator. He talks to his team and he's like, "Yeah, let's do it. Let's do this. What is this Kickstarter thing?" [Koji Igarashi] had just used Kickstarter and the Mighty No. 9 team, obviously, [Keiji Inafune] had used Kickstarter. So, obviously it's in his circles of friends and they're talking about it. They know it exists, and so he's like, "Yeah. Let's do Shenmue 3 Kickstarter." And his team calls Sony and they're like, "Hey, Suzuki-san, like, he's into this." And Sony's like, "Great!" But also, Sony's saying, as a publisher "Does anybody wanna play Shenmue anymore?" And his team goes, "Um, yes."

Right? The team doesn't know. It's not like there's any market research on this or anything.

Well, also, too, among that group of creators you mentioned, I know crowdfunding is not as big in Japan as it is over here.

Right.

There are some, but it's not as popular over here.

Right. We're not live in Japan or anything, yet. For creators, at least. For backers, yes. But not creators.

Yeah. Yeah.

Right. And I can tell you, it's not some shadow project for Sony. It's not like -- the email address is not "[email protected]."

"[email protected]"

Right. It's not. I mean, honestly, if you look at their project, it looks like it's a small dev team put that project together. It doesn't look like a splashy E3 presentation.

Awesome. Shenmue fans continue to be good people.

But thats the point you are not getting. No one is going to be disappointed if Shenmue 3 isn't at E3, despite hoping for it. We have Shenmue 3, E3 appearance or not.
Naw, I get it, but at this point there is overwhelming evidence that nothing is getting shown at a conference, so why continue to expect it?

Watching the Sony conference thinking "I wonder if Shenmue is next..." through the whole thing will at least bring some disappointment when it doesn't show. It's easier just to accept we're probably getting a Kickstarter update and that's that. If it's anything more than that, great!

But let's not kid ourselves. We've been told since February, point-blank, there are no plans to show Shenmue III at E3 2016. SEGA are seemingly fumbling in the dark on Shenmue HD. There's nothing to expect, and there's no teasing to the contrary. It's all very matter-of-factly been put to us as "Not this E3".

E3 2015 was great for Shenmue fans, but now the dream is becoming a reality and we've got to accept that every big gaming event won't bring similar earth-shattering news about the series. We've got the peace of mind knowing the game is coming, but we also need to wean ourselves off the "Could this be THE YEAR?" feeling we've had to deal with since 2001.

Ultimately, people can do what they want. I'm not the hype police or nothin', pfff. But y'know, maybe I'm just trying in some small way to spare us pages of "Shenmue III/Shenmue HD wasn't at E3, what a disappointment! They were teasing it too!".

And besides, it's still wayyyyyy early for any kind of conference trailer. The game didn't officially go into production until late August last year.

More funding should in theory make a better game. If the game falls short in areas because it didn't get enough money (say they fell behind in some areas of development because they couldn't afford another three/five staff members), that'll negatively impact the perception of the game and sell less as a result.

If more people pledging to the PayPal campaign can afford more staff, then the game gets improved overall as a result even if we don't manage to hit a specific stretch goal. Good games do sell. Maybe not as much as they should in some cases though, but that's neither here nor there.