Hopefully those who support Yu's personal vision (and I am among them) will not be too harsh. I fear that a lot of strict nostalfags are going to express their disappointment.
Of course I've nothing against complains but please don't forget to respect his work if that case happens.

Btw, I think the story will follow this order :
1) Bailu Village (intro, Dobuita)
2) Choubu (core, would take two discs on dreamcast)
3) Baisha (epic, bosses)

That's stretching things. Shenmue has always been divisive. If the game honors the series legacy, expect a lot of negative reviews.

Really ? I remember Shenmue I & II had impressive positive critics despite a lot of weaknesses spotted by the reviewers. Considering the modern gaming has not evolved that much, Shenmue can still distinguish itself from the competition if YsNet make it right.

The Versus book is fantastic, it captures the Shenmue game design very well. The Shenmue III guide book is now the extra stuff I'm waiting the most with Kenji's artbook, if possible translated !

This ?

They have absolutely to make the remake of this (infiltration gameplay, QTE action, classic or whatever)

Hyo Razuki wrote: Wasn't Yu the producer for Daytona?

Yu was the co-producer indeed but the main man behind Daytona was Toshihiro Nagoshi, one of the Shenmue lead programmers and the creator of Yakuza.

Don't

Hype

Me

A little foretaste of what could be Shenmue III, amazing. You can activate the 60 fps.





edit : oops I did not see the Pramote2013's post, sorry

I don't understand the HK skyline point.

Tour of French magazines

Playstation official
Shenmue 3 ranked as 6th best surprise of the E3 (FF7r was 5th and Horizon 1st)
"However, this impulse of generosity from frenetic fans raises questions about ethics, the feasibility and the interest of the kickstarter."
"If it keep its old mechanics, will Shenmue seduce again ?"
http://nsa37.casimages.com/img/2015/07/25/15072507380757498.png

JeuxVidéo Magazine
"It's certainly the most anticipated sequel of gaming history (with Half-Life 3)."
"already offered a huge freedom of action and a daily real time system."
http://nsa37.casimages.com/img/2015/07/25/15072507375463714.png

Jeux Video News
"The Return of the King"
"Legendary franchise of adventure gaming and initiation into life"
http://nsa38.casimages.com/img/2015/07/25/150725073754584784.png

Video Gamer
four pages article title : "The past, a safe bet"
Shenmue paragraph title : "Concretize a dream"
"Shenmue is unknown from most of the young players. And his main gameplay invention, the famous QTE, has been so much recycled that we wonder if there is still an audience [...]"
http://nsa38.casimages.com/img/2015/07/25/150725073821263386.png
http://nsa38.casimages.com/img/2015/07/25/15072507382834286.png

Canard PC (the older gaming mag in France, very appreciated for its quality and its cynical humour)
article title "And what about the consoles ? Cripple Fight (pc conference included)"
"Yu Suzuki and Sony made themselves look like the biggest beggars of the E3 and have created a staggering precedent."
"Sony has claimed [...] the kickstarter was there just for "measure the gamers interest". Well yes, why making polls and expensive market studies when you can manipulate a hardcore fanbase ?"
http://nsa37.casimages.com/img/2015/07/25/150725073659762216.png

The Game (known for its good looking layout)
Yu retrospective made by Regis Monterrin (probably the best French journalist about Sega and Yu Suzuki's stuff, I'm glad he got a place in a paper magazine)
+
article from a consultant and university professor in marketing, communication and video games, written from the fact that Sony will mainly fund the game.
title : "Shenmue III the error"
conclusion : "My best wishes for this romantic project, driven by passionnate and in love people. But it's hard to be rational when you evoke a childhood sweetheart that belongs to a distant past. Shenmue, it's this."
http://nsa37.casimages.com/img/2015/07/25/150725073642332791.png
http://nsa38.casimages.com/img/2015/07/25/150725073651476044.jpg

In addition, almost all the French magazines have used the shot showing the E3 stage with Shenmue 3 on screens to illustrate their E3 review.

From what the reactions I read across the globe, It's funny to see that Shenhua has become somehow iconic even for people who never played Shenmue.

NEEED UPDATES NOOOOOOW

Can't resist few more days.

It's pretty useless but after 10 years I just found out a way to rotate Ryo by holding the B button in Shenmue II.

It's not really convincing without the camera effects I guess, Ryo should have ended by a moonwalk.
The mocap is from Akira of DOA5, isn't it ?

Have you succeed the QTE barber at your first try ?

I wonder what he means by decision specifically then. It sounds quite curious.


Yu Suzuki : " Modern fighting games are too complicated, too “hardcore”, overly attracting. Those factors definitely limit the audience, because even fewer people are playing them, and at this rate the genre can sink into oblivion. That’s why I support a more simple approach to gaming.

[...]

Difficulty in fighting games is usually based on the requirements for accurate reaction and memorization of combinations. Which means that you need to accurately calculate the timing, and flawlessly press buttons. But I would like to make a win dependant on how a gamer thinks. To make him think, like, “If I hit with an arm now, and then kick with a leg, I could win.”

I want to make a win based on making the right decisions. And because of that the battle system in fighting games is still imperfect. Even in Virtua Fighter. If you're not able to press a button in the exact moment, and because of that you lose, the problem is not in your wrong decision. The game just set the task of reaction for you. Did you accomplish or fail the combination – this is on what a win depends. It would be better to attach a sensor on the gamer, so all his thoughts could be instantly and flawlessly implemented by the character on screen. That would definitely be a battle of decisions and be true fighting action in a good sense, not thanks to blood and violence. For example, suitable for this could be sensors that measure alpha waves in the brain. And it's not a distant future, people have already been working successfully in such a direction for a long time. There are people, for example, who have microchips that can control heart function. Of course, I doubt that someone will insert something inside of them for games, but if they can stick something temporarily onto them – why not? Another example in this direction is Kinect from Xbox 360. So we don't have to wait much longer and there'll be a time for new realistic fighting games. "

http://www.shenmuedojo.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=46577

According Shenmue Master, Paypal should be available at September at the earliest. More details coming soon.

- Will the number of musics be as monumental as the previous episodes ?
- Will there be new orchestra musics ?
- Will there be new Sega capsule toys in addition of the original ones ?
- If fans are happy with Shenmue 3, can you promise Shenmue 4 will become a reality ? If yes, how will you estimate this level of happiness ?
- Will we see the real Shenmue 3, the Shenmue from Yu's vision ?
- How long did you work on your Shenmue III prototypes before choosing one for the kickstarter ?
- What are the respective roles of Neilo and YSnet ?
- How many NPCs will be there per locations ?
- Have you plan some travel in China to get your team into the atmosphere ?
- What kind of motion capture are you going to use ?

Cédric Biscay :

Because of summer vacations, communication is slow, but of course we are working on the game ;) More concrete news in september !

https://twitter.com/CedricBiscay/status ... 3034731521

Nothing really new but Spencer talked to Gameblog.fr at the Gamescom 2015.

https://youtu.be/bv_gCP5Dfg4?t=209

The Shenmue 3 announcement was not a real surprise to me. Our industry is not that big you know, we are aware of most of the deals which are being established. Yu Suzuki and the games he made represent an important part of gaming history. It's cool that he succeeded in his kickstarter, although I think a lot of work is remaining to give to the fans the Shenmue they expect. I know he stays very focused.

Yes I have talked to Suzuki ( gameblog.fr note : before the deal ). As I said before, our industry is a tiny world. Whether you are from Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft or a developer... we all know each other. We talk with everyone, but we can't make marketing deals with everyone. It's just impossible. So you have to choose the games you think are going to have the biggest impact on your gaming system.

Personally I'm focused on one goal : raise our first party titles. You saw our catalog this year... all the time and money you spend in marketing deals on short-term take you away from what you could do with your own games. I want to concentrate on our exclusive titles for our Xbox fans.

http://www.gameblog.fr/news/52588-gamescom-2015-phil-spencer-nous-parle-de-shenmue-et-des-deal

Episode 10

Hello guys,

Thanks again for providing so many questions. I've been working on it and It's going well so far. I will keep adding different questions as much as I can and try to give it all my best to make sure you'll be satisfied.

Some questions, even asked differently tend to have the same meaning so I have to cut some parts here and there to make sure It doesn't sounds too repetitive. But combining your questions with mine should result in an interesting interview.

More news asap.

Best regards,

David


Un grand merci aussi pour toutes tes traductions réalisées jusque là. ;)

Thank you so much guys, so many questions, I'll have to work harder than expected hehe.

I am probably going to gather everything until August 15th and will work from there.

Seems like people want to avoid spoilers etc and looking forward japanese voices being added to the game. I will work on this and tell Yu Suzuki that the demand is high and that he should definetly think about it. ;-)

About spoilers, you should inform him about the issue with his Nico Nico Douga video. Thanks of the fans effort (and the lack of interest from the media) , it was possible to avoid his spoiler for many of us. You should ask him whether this part is planned to be revealed in the future promotion anyway or he could still keep it secret two more years again.

Oh my, I found worse than Shenmue !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObioE1ML7h4

Yu needs these guys:

Moving from GTA 4 to GTA 5, Rockstar North wanted a story that would feel more mature. Not in terms of the violence, Morton insists (GTA has always been supremely violent), but in terms of feeling and tone. He flew to LA for recording sessions with hundreds of actors. Directors from Rockstar would have the "talent" in the booths, holding the scripts Rockstar North had produced.

"Given the fact GTA 5 was so big, it would be difficult for somebody who hasn't had a history in games of that size to just jump in and make something that big," Morton says.

"Me overseeing the dialogue for so many past GTAs, I had a better chance than most of making GTA 5's dialogue a success. I'm really pleased that came off. It's a genuine highlight of my career to have been involved in that."

Authenticity was a big part of GTA 5's design. So, for the video game gang members, voice actors who were previously real life gang members were hired. "They had turned their lives around and become actors," Morton says, "which in LA does happen.

"They'd look at the script and sometimes say, 'I wouldn't say that.' And we'd give them the freedom to make it their own."

One of GTA's more controversial - and long-standing - elements is the ability to pay for sex with prostitutes. It's been a staple of the series for years, so much so that the shock value has kind of worn off at this point.

For Craig and Will, though, it never got any easier to record a prostitute's dialogue. "There are a lot of people in the control room," Conner says. "There's the actress, being very professional, she's doing her lines and everything, and then, like, 'yeah, could you just give us a...'"

"We need something to sound very slurpy," Morton interjects.

"And now if you could just imagine you're getting - I'm thinking of a nice word to say - you're having sex with your client," Conner says. "It just goes from bad to worse. And it's so embarrassing."

Will Morton has a loftier ambition: "I would love to work on bringing Shenmue back to life," he says. "I'm genuinely a big fan of Shenmue 1 on the Dreamcast and Shenmue 2 on the Xbox. I would love be able to help re-envisage that for the next gen."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-11-25-the-reality-is-were-not-really-interesting

The sound is very crappy but I liked this playthrough a lot. The guy made a 9 hours video (!!!!) of Shenmue 2 last part and never played the franchise before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXEOdU0lzJQ

The Chinese website Mrgamer.net claims that there were negotiations between Suzuki and Tencent three years ago to make a sequel before taking their chance with Hideo Kojima since he left Konami.

http://www.mrgamer.net/news/150
https://translate.google.fr/translate?sl=zh-CN&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mrgamer.net%2Fnews%2F150&edit-text=&act=ur

Tencent is a big Chinese company and has investments in Riot Games (League of Legends) and Epic Games (Gears of War).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent

Q: Will we start Shenmue 3 with some items/skills/scrolls from Shenmue 1+2?
YS: The platform is different, so unfortunately we can't do it.
https://twitter.com/Murder0usInt/status/616348819840757761

Q: If future installments of Shenmue become a possibility will we have the option to bring over save data from 3?
YS: I have not decided it yet.
YS [some minutes after]: I am not considering it at the moment.
https://twitter.com/Murder0usInt/status/616343296399511556

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/dreamcast-console-sales-spike-following-shenmue-iii-reveal/0154989

Sales of pre-owned Dreamcast consoles have ‘gone through the roof’ since Shenmue III was announced at E3.

Indie retailers have told MCV that sales of Sega’s last console have skyrocketed since the LA-based trade show.

That’s in addition to software sales of the original two Shenmue games, as well as retro copies of Final Fantasy VII. A remake to the latter was also unveiled at E3.

“ We sold 20 Dreamcasts in the last week alone ,” said Alex Bowness of Canterbury’s Level Up Games. “A ll of sudden, people are asking where they can play the original two Shenmue games. The announcement of Shenmue III really piqued everyone’s interest. ”

Reload Games Michael Wealleans added: “ People are trying to get hold of the original copies of Shenmue and Final Fantasy VII, even if they don’t have the console to play it on. They just want it in their collection. But with that demand, the price has gone up. ”

David James-Turvey of Llanelli’s Retrobution adds that this renewed popularity is also driven by the fact that Sega is yet to launch HD Shenmue titles.

“ Sega has really lost out on a load of digital sales by not releasing HD versions, so naturally indies like myself are the only place that would satisfy that itch to get back into these titles ,” he said.

“ I’ve had more customers hyped about Shenmue III than Call of Duty, and I am glad there are gamers out there like this, because it proves that gaming is not as disposable as other forms of entertainment. Indies should be confident in their physical stock. ”

“ Dreamcast sales have come from nowhere almost, what’s exciting now is that young gamers who perhaps didn’t even know what the Dreamcast was are interested in it. ”

Episode 13

I watched the playthroughs since the episode 1 and have no complains for the moment as they still enjoy the game and fill the blanks when needed.

Hopefully they will make a Shenmue II playthrough.

The Yu's vision about combat in 2000.

http://nsa38.casimages.com/img/2015/08/28/150828102325973146.jpg

In 2013 :
Yu Suzuki : "Modern fighting games are too complicated, too “hardcore”, overly attracting. Those factors definitely limit the audience, because even fewer people are playing them, and at this rate the genre can sink into oblivion. That’s why I support a more simple approach to gaming.
[...]
Difficulty in fighting games is usually based on the requirements for accurate reaction and memorization of combinations. Which means that you need to accurately calculate the timing, and flawlessly press buttons. But I would like to make a win dependant on how a gamer thinks. To make him think, like, “If I hit with an arm now, and then kick with a leg, I could win.”

I want to make a win based on making the right decisions. And because of that the battle system in fighting games is still imperfect. Even in Virtua Fighter. If you're not able to press a button in the exact moment, and because of that you lose, the problem is not in your wrong decision. The game just set the task of reaction for you. Did you accomplish or fail the combination – this is on what a win depends. It would be better to attach a sensor on the gamer, so all his thoughts could be instantly and flawlessly implemented by the character on screen. That would definitely be a battle of decisions and be true fighting action in a good sense, not thanks to blood and violence. For example, suitable for this could be sensors that measure alpha waves in the brain. And it's not a distant future, people have already been working successfully in such a direction for a long time. There are people, for example, who have microchips that can control heart function. Of course, I doubt that someone will insert something inside of them for games, but if they can stick something temporarily onto them – why not? Another example in this direction is Kinect from Xbox 360. So we don't have to wait much longer and there'll be a time for new realistic fighting games."

Then in 2015, we heard :
- Kaz Hirai talking about a fighting system mixed with QTE for Shenmue 3.
- Yu Suzuki purposely refuses to ever pronounce "Virtua Fighter" in the Q&As when the fans ask him about.
- Advanced Free Battle system unlocked

Thank you for this very interesting interview Yokosuka!

Very surprised to read that Yu Suzuki isn't into actually playing games!

He's got a precise vision of what he wants and where he wants to push gaming limits.

Couldn't be more excited about Shenmue 3 right now!

Yep, Yu has never been a real gamer in his whole life.

From my experience, I know that the best talents (especially in art) are those who are the most dispassionate people because they only focus on the most profound human yearnings and create directly with the existing tools whatever the others do or did, which are usually boring for them.

@Lan Di-sama : Like in Shenmue 2, I think we will face forest mazes again because of the storm damages. Maybe an early occasion to see the new Ryo's climbing abilities.

Key figures :
$4 000 000 Kickstarter budget at least allowed to the development ($4.5m at most)
$100 000 average wage to pay ($4180 average monthly wage in Japan according the OCDE 2012 list x 24 months of development)

$4m/$0.1 = 40 permanent workers at the very least

Notes :
- I consider in my calculation that the private budget is intended to pay the potential extras like licensing, rentals, motion capture, dubbing, material, outsources, publishing, orchestra, etc.
- I consider that the Paypal budget is only a spare wheel to anticipate the possible delays as Yu seems not to care.
- It's a very rough & straight calculation, it acts like if the duration of contract would be 2 years for everyone. Infact, one programmer can work only 6 months while another can be involved during the whole 2-years project. So the number of 40 workers may increase rather easily.
- sub-teams expected : quests, events, free battle, mini games, scenario, planners, graphic design artists, music/sound artists + Sony support team

Reminder :
In comparison with Shenmue Dreamcast ( http://segaretro.org/Shenmue#Production_Credits )
- No Shenmue Saturn cost
- No Shenmue Passport cost
- No "Promotion & Publicity" team cost (role assigned to Sony)
- No R&D teams cost
- Mainly no artworks cost

Comparable projects :
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
Kingdom Come: Deliverance

If you have some other interesting facts, please share or correct me.

Rumors say that his name is Bill Gates.

If anyone should be hired it should be nicokid and espiral.
I'm not familiar with espiral other than by name, but if any fan of the series deserves to be hired, it's NoconKid. That dude has done some fucking incredible things with his HD remake of Shenmue - and all out of love, no less! Plus, he's clearly familiar and skilled with Unreal Engine, so it makes sense.

Espiral is famous here to make excellent Shenmue renders after extracting 3d models straight from the games. His best achievement is having given a fictional Shenmue III cover to http://www.favslist.com/MostAnticipatedGames

A rough translation has been made by Laevateinn from Neogaf : http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=177992816&postcount=2672

A lot of the interview is about E3, the Kickstarter and Japanese specific questions. It seems like they are slightly concerned with how English focused the Kickstarter campaign was, such as with the announcement being in English and English-focused tiers (e.g. get a call from Corey Marshall). My rough translations of the interesting parts about development:

Re Paypal:
Interviewer: By the way, at this time, The Kickstarter campaign has raised about 780M yen, will you be seeking further investments?

Suzuki: I think we will be accepting funds through PayPal. At this point, I am unable to give any details but preparations are in progress.

Interviewer: Is there any possibility of reaching additional stretchgoals?

Suzuki: If possible, I would like to add them. A big hurdle with Kickstarter has been that it was a foreign website. There have been issues entering addresses. I have been asked questions like "if I make a small mistake entering my information will I still be able to receive my reward?" which has lead to some anxiousness. In setting up a PayPal site, I think it will be important to allow entry in Japanese.

Interviewer: I see. You would like to make correspondence with Japanese fans easy. From here I would like to discuss the development. What type of candidates are you looking for?

Suzuki: For planners and programmers, we would be happy with someone who has experience with development using the Unreal Engine.

At this point, I decided that direct translations was too much work so here's the gist of some parts.

Interviewer wants to know about potentially returning voice actors but Suzuki suggests that some of them may have retired and are inaccessible.

The rest of the interview is about the areas we'll visit, character perspective system, and other little details like that. They spend some time talking about Niao Sun.

Talk of gameplay mechanics. Most of it is stuff we already are familiar with. He's most looking forward to testing the battle system so it sounds like that might be one of the first demos we get. They are also proposing a 2km by 2km playfield.

He wants to put in a fishing mini-game. They might also be a weapons shop.

He's interested in VR and talks about how at Sega he had experimented with early prototypes. He doesn't see potential for Shenmue 3 at this time but is very interested in it (maybe his next project?)

They would like to have a small update for the community every month.

Episode 15

Wow thanks for your fast answer.

Chai coming back looks more like fanservice than anything.... i mean he got beat when Ryo was much weaker than he is now :???:

Chai has one quality, he never gives up. He's the Terminator of Shenmue and things can become interesting if his relationship with Lan Di is finally exploited. All may not be lost yet with this character.

http://www.shenmue500k.co.uk/

You had simply to visit their facebook to know lol.

First time I really like a customized Dreamcast.

Jeuxvideo.com (the most famous video gaming website in France) has announced the release :
http://www.jeuxvideo.com/news/442695/un ... tembre.htm

Well done guys.

Shenmue 3 PC at 60 fps though...

And the ability to put his own arcade games maybe.