I've started as a Hunter. I'm tempted to try the other two classes, but I'll likely ride this one out until the end of the Beta.

Done the first two missions so far. Overall, I really like the art direction and general scope of the game. It feels ambitious and full of breadth. The level-ups are great and I enjoy scavenging for materials. I also like how you're on a mission and you suddenly find a group of other people whom you can choose to join up with or carry on doing your own thing.

Oh, and the music... dat music. So good.

I also just reached level 8- max for the Beta. I played tonight and last with a friend and it was great.

We played most of the missions on Hard for the extra XP and it was a satisfying challenge. The big bosses require a LOT of work to take down, but somehow it doesn't feel monotonous, even with wave after wave of subordinates that have to be taken down to get ammo. I suppose it's because it is challenging, and my friend and I were constantly chatting about our locations, health, where ammo drops are, enemy locations, and most importantly, should we attempt a revive. We were always kept on our toes.

There are upgrades on everything- armour, weapons, cloaks, ships, you name it.

I particularly like how you can play in story mode, or go at it in team vs. team in the Crucible, trying to get kills and protecting several flag locations. Really it's a lot like Battlefield in that regard.

So now I can choose to either unlock more weapons and equipment by finding more Glimmer (the game's currency), or just choose another class and have a go at it from the start. I'll likely choose the latter.

My friend and I had one really cool moment where a third person somehow joined our fire team (we set it to friends only). In the mission, I was standing in a hallway next to the random while we spotted enemy in a large room in the distance. I trained my sniper rifle and took a few moments to line up the perfect shot. The random guy waited patiently while I did, and once I popped off the enemy's head he and my friend immediately dove in the fight. It was a wonderful little moment of synchronicity.

There's still more I can do in the Beta, but holy cow I can't wait for the full release. It'll be interesting to see if our characters with all their upgrades will transfer over.

The book is 30 pages long and written completely in Japanese. There are bios for the primary voice actors, details about the play mechanics such as FREE, QTE, the weather system and characters, amongst other things.

There's a very interesting Making Of section, with photos of the Japanese voice actors doing their lines, maps and character art which includes images of what look like actual 3D busts of game characters. There is also a production flow chart- perhaps showing character interactions. It finishes with a section of Yu Suzuki talking game concept.

The reason why there's no scans is because someone would need to sacrifice the quality of their art book by either folding the pages fully open (which would give a spine crease) or by tearing the pages out altogether. You would have to do one of those two things to get satisfactory scans as images and text goes right to the inner spine.

I actually have two of them, and can take a few pictures if anyone is interested. I remember Peter had a bunch of images in a thread some time ago.

I would be interested in taking pictures of all the pages if I can enlist the help of someone who can translate Japanese to English. I'd love to know what the book says.

Glad you're enjoying it, Fenix! But I am super-jealous you met the man and got it personally signed.

I have a couple of the games signed, but since I picked them up from eBay there's no way to know if they're actually legit, or whether the seller decided to get creative with a $2 sharpie.

Nice. Have you tried Eternal Darkness? It's a GC classic.

http://i.imgur.com/DoSFjxs.png
Shamelessly grabbed from GAF.

Well, it's been a gaming night to remember. Sony was already dropping bombs starting with TLG, but a PS4/PC Shenmue 3 Kickstarter that will likely be funded by tomorrow is almost beyond comprehension. I'm thrilled to be a $500 backer.

I think I'll wake up tomorrow and run to the internet just to make sure all of this wasn't some kind of dream. And now, finally, the dream will become reality. Incredible. What a time to be a gamer.

'night Dojo.

P.S.- great work on the OP, Peter.

Yes, we are all hyped about the recent news about Shenmue 3 being made though Kickstarter, but the game will not be as good as the first two games. Looking at the screenshots of Shenmue 3, it looks terrible. It does not have any shenmue feeling to it. It just looks plain and generic. I know it's early to judge, but looking at these ingame screen shots, they look pretty bad. At least it's better than nothing.



0/10.

So can we now delete this thread? It's completely incorrect and irrelevant.

I'm older than you, MK and I'm totally stoked about Shenmue 3 coming down the pipe.

That is, I will be stoked once I wake up from my afternoon nap.

Suzuki says tiers will be added between $500 to $3000, which will generate more funding from existing pledgers. I think it's safe to assume we'll hit the $5M with ease. The big question is how close to $10M will it be by the end of the project.

That's a pretty good idea.

Or, if the final version she decides on sells well, perhaps she can make the other ones available for sale as well. If I like the design of the first, I'd happily buy another.

Getting around to watching this now, so thanks for the youtube links, people! I don't want to dogpile on the host, but I can't help it. At about 7 minutes in it's barely watchable. I'm not sure I'll watch the rest.

Awful host, awful set, awful sound and lighting. Mr. Suzuki is being a pro, though- I'm not sure how he can tolerate the quality of this entire format. At least the right questions seem to be getting out there. With respect to his responses from the answers, the host should be embarrassed. I know I am.

It really is such a shame, because Mr. Suzuki and this franchise deserves so much more respect to the Shenmue brand and the marketing needs to reflect this.

There are many voices out there that seem to "demand" all the answers, which I find particularly annoying. First of all, because this is so early in the development process (it's just Kickstarting so it's super-early), ideas and processes are still being formed. And secondly, this is Mr. Yu Suzuki we're talking about here. We know he wants to make the best game Shenmue III can be and we already have the trust in him that he will. It's really that simple.

For people that are new to Shenmue, perhaps the marketing should focus on Yu Suzuki himself. Have it start with a mini-bio on himself and the games he made before Shenmue. Then focus on all the innovations that Shenmue I and II brought to gaming which we all now take for granted. For example:

Open World:
As far as I know, Shenmue was the first game of its kind to have the kind of open-world scale so many games have now. This game came out over a year before GTAIII, which previously was a top-down game.

Magic Weather:
Never seen this before in a game. The seasons changed as you played, and the weather changed accordingly. NPC's brought out umbrellas when it rained. Wasn't the weather modelled after actual weather from Yokosuka in 1986-1987?

NPC's:
Depending on where you are in the story, each NPC Ryo interacts with will say something relevant to that point in time. They have their own daily schedule. Store owners will leave their home in the morning, go to work, then go home at the end of the day. Incredible.

These are just some examples but we all know there's so much more. The piece could finish with what Mr. Suzuki hopes to accomplish with Shenmue III, with our help.

The Shenmue brand needs to be better handled during this critical campaign not only to help make Shenmue III be the best game it can be, but to give the history of the game the respect it deserves.

If I remember correctly, Corey and many of the other English-speaking voice actors were asked to give their lines with a specific delivery which may have come off sounding a bit stiff.

If that was the case, I'm hoping a more natural delivery will be encouraged for Shenmue III. For me, Corey's voice in itself is a natural fit for Ryo.

I'm lucky enough to own two copies of the art book.

Here is another tread where Peter posted images from his:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=41557&start=350

It's beautiful. It's so cool seeing production images from the voice actors, location sketches, the maps, etc.

The map in the upper-right on the left page is Aberdeen and Wan Chai.

I don't know about the other two since all the text is in Japanese.

No probs, dude. Here are the pics. They're a touch distorted from holding the book a bit awkwardly and snapping with the other free hand.

http://imgur.com/FvSP2mD
http://imgur.com/7YyHy1U
http://imgur.com/9lRY3to

Would be great if someone here could help translate/identify.

Browsing over the Mac request thread got me thinking.

Destiny has a companion app and I look at it daily. I constantly transfer gear to and from my vault, look at my character stats, my friends characters, browse forums and more.

What if Shenmue III had one? Put it on iOS/Android and offer features like:

• View game progress
• View notebook and flip pages
• View photos you've taken in-game
• View move scrolls and practice while you're on-the-go (updates Ryo in-game)
• Mini-games (Lucky Hit would be amazing!)
• View discovered maps
• Connect to forums (here would be nice)

I'm sure there's lots more ideas but these are off the top of my head. I'd absolutely love to be somewhere on the go, listening to the Shenmue III soundtrack in my earbuds and engaging with this app.

Thoughts?

Edit- I just thought of the perfect name for it: Shenmue Passport. Like the spirit of the original passport, put some of those ideas into the app as well.

Ryo Fhan wrote:

I felt this movie was so bad do people really like it? maybe it hass some decent parts but.... wow most of it seemed terrible to me lol

HEY.

What do you mean, do people?

Well I just made a second kickstarter account so I can get the PC physical copy in addition to the PS4 physical.

Was a bit stressed about it, thinking it might put my higher tier in jeopardy, but so far so good!

Amazing collection, Pol!

Never actually seen pictures of the magazine with the statues. Can you show us what the cover looks like?

And the Shenmue II square box you have is really interesting- what is it?

Thank you, Yama for all your dedication to Shenmue Dojo. It's been a fantastic resource for any fan to discover just about anything they could think of regarding the games and to connect with other like-minded people.

Congratulations, Peter- being the superfan you are, it's a logical choice to have you at the helm. It's clear that Shenmue is a part of your DNA so I'm confident in the future of this site and its community.

And this is how I imagine this peaceful transition of power:
https://i.imgur.com/sIQJ9l3.jpg