I'm going to buy several copies of Shenmue 3 for my family and friends, what I don't know is when to buy them. Is it better to buy them when they release the game or now? I want to help in the success of the game so I don't know what would impact more..

I'm going to buy several copies of Shenmue 3 for my family and friends, what I don't know is when to buy them. Is it better to buy them when they release the game or now? I want to help in the success of the game so I don't know what would impact more.. :-k
I'm going to gift copies to people at random on Steam. That's always been my plan.

Man, I really wonder if Shenmue III will hit the top spot on Steam's 'Top Sellers'...

With the publishing deal just recently finalized and the knowledge that the game will now be expanded into a broader open world, I think it's safe to assume that we won't be seeing a Shenmue 3 release for at least a year's time - though I'd personally be leaning towards a November/December release.

Just found a Dutch interview of Yu Suzuki from Gamescom.

Nothing really new according to the google translation, but for those interested.

Translated by google: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.xgn.nl%2Fshenmue-3-release-interview-yu-suzuki&edit-text=&act=url

Original article: https://www.xgn.nl/shenmue-3-release-interview-yu-suzuki

The Character Perspective system

The previous Shenmue games were only played in single player, but nowadays most games still have a multiplayer or co-op mode. According to Suzuki, Shenmue 3 will focus on the single player again, but players can get started with a new feature:

"Shenmue 3 is a single player game, it does not have network features, but there are certain events that can change the playable character. We call this feature the Character Perspective system."

Normally you play Shenmue 3 as Ryo, but at some times you can switch to other characters like Ren or Shenhua. During such events, the outcome of the situation remains the same, but the way you achieve this outcome may change depending on the character you choose.

"For example, Ryo is a strong fighter, when he faces an enemy, he will fight with them directly, but Ren may use another weapon. Shenhua can not fight, so she uses her brains and ignores tactics. Ultimately, you achieve the same goal. That's the concept. "

One thing that does concern me is how the gaming media will receive the game. I fully expect the big websites to criticize the game because either 1. They have no history with the franchise or 2. They just enjoy trashing fandoms they are no part of. I wish there was a way we could get out in front of this and let these places know we expect fairness when reviewing Shenmue 3. If it's a bad game, it's a bad game. But if it's a good game after 15+ years of dormancy but it's not the AAA people expect it to be, it's done what the majority of revisited franchises have failed miserably to do.

They aren't going to criticise the game just because they enjoy trashing the fandom, is it impossible to believe that not everyone thinks Shenmue is the best thing ever? If they criticise the game it'll be because they don't enjoy it, you really think anyone outside of the fanboys will care about the history of the series when writing their review? At some point I've seen every website that reviews things called shit because someone didn't like a score they gave it. I expect the review thread on this forum to be hilarious with people tearing their hair out that someone doesn't like Shenmue because you can't just dislike the game.

Some outlets will enjoy it and some won't. Just like every other game. The idea of trying to tell people we demand fairness is embarrassing.

Yu Suzuki interview by Eclypsia.com (French)

Original interview: http://www.eclypsia.com/fr/shenmue/actualites/shenmue-3-interview-de-yu-suzuki-a-la-gamescom-2017-23773

Shenmue 3: Interview with Yu Suzuki at Gamescom 2017

At Gamescom 2017, we were able to talk with Yu Suzuki about Shenmue III.
A few days ago, Yu Suzuki was present in Cologne for the Gamescom 2017. For a few minutes we were able to talk to him and ask him some questions about Shenmue III.

Here is the full report of this exchange.

Eclypsia: Before speaking about Shenmue III, is this your first time in Cologne and / or Europe?

Yu Suzuki: This is actually the second time I've been here in Cologne and as for Europe, I came here 5 to 10 times, I cannot remember exactly. As for the Gamescom itself, I do not have enough time to go for a walk in the public area, being caught by the interviews for the game. I should nevertheless be able to take a few hours to go see what it is, see what happens overall.

E: Let's get to the heart of the matter, are you satisfied so far with the direction of development of the game?

YS: Things are going very well. Recently, and thanks to the signing of our partnership with Deep Silver which will publish Shenmue III, I can devote myself fully to the development process.

E: What have been (and still are) the most complicated challenges in the development of this sequel, so long after the previous episode? Has your vision of the game (Shenmue III) changed during this time or are we going to be entitled to what you had initially in mind?

YS: As for the general concept of the game, it has never changed in my mind and I have kept the same line in mind from the beginning. At the same time, everything related to technology, gameplay as a whole and even my development team has changed. My real challenge has therefore been to adapt myself as much as possible to what had evolved drastically during all those years that separate Shenmue II from Shenmue III.

E: At the level of history itself, you have kept the original idea?

YS: Exactly. With regards to Shenmue, everything works through chapters and from the beginning, I imagined the sequel from a certain angle, which I could not change.

E: Many fans of the Shenmue franchise have been waiting for this game for many years and are probably having high expectations, are you afraid to disappoint this specific part of hardcore fans?

YS: Totally. I really have a lot of pressure, but at the same time, I attach great importance to it. I can’t necessarily do according to the desires of the players, but my goal is obviously to satisfy everyone, especially the fans of the first hour.

E: Shenmue in his time revolutionized the genre with an utterly realistic and coherent universe. Virtually 20 years later, how have you gone about offering a game of the same caliber again?

YS: I sincerely believe that the work I do is unique. My goal is not necessarily to create something fundamentally new or which is considered new, but I think that by simply following my instinct, I can create something meaningful. Generally speaking, when I share ideas with my development team, we often have big debates about how to approach things, and they sometimes have a hard time understanding my point of view. By continually exchanging our views, we come to find the perfect balance between my way of seeing things and the way they have to apply it. It is surely this complete alchemy that allows us to propose things of this sort.

E: For a few years now, Open-World games have swarmed from everywhere, even being for some, real gold mines at the level of the present characters, possible interactions and global coherence of the game. Did this force you to revise upwards the third episode realization?

YS: In reality, I do not pay much attention to it and hasn’t a lot of impact, simply because I don’t really play a lot of games myself. As you know, Shenmue III is developed on Unreal Engine 4 and if I had to do a research work, the focus was more on that side. Indeed, I gave priority to the technical aspect in order to avoid any weakness from this point of view, rather than watching what was done from the competitors to find where to position myself.

E: Have you planned some kind of system that would allow players who have never played Shenmue I and II to still enjoy the III as it should?

YS: Let's make a quick parallel by using a film saga like Spider Man. If you start watching the saga with the third episode, you will understand the movie, even if you have not watched the previous episodes before. But at the same time, you will appreciate it even more if you have followed the adventure since the beginning of the saga. It was necessary to make sure that the people who would start playing Shenmue with number III would still be able to enjoy the experience at its best. However, you will really enjoy the game to the fullest if you have played previous episodes. Because of that we have incorporated a lot of features that will link to the previous opuses, such as the ability to pass a phone call to Shenmue characters or Shenmue II.

E: Last question about music. How important is this aspect to you in developing the game?

YS: I'm really convinced that the music and the sound atmosphere have an essential role in the development of a game and this is one of my priorities. For me there are three highly important aspects to abide by: Everything that concerns the interactivity within the game, then the graphics and finally the music. These three things are an indissociable whole for me to really make a special universe.

________________________________________
Shenmue III is planned on Playstation 4 and PC at the end of 2018



Note: I've first google translated the French interview and then proof read the result and made some adjustments to ensure that no questions or answers were distorted.
Please, keep in mind that English isn't my first language and therefore, I cannot guarantee my translation is 100% accurate.
If something sounds odd in the interview, just ask and I'll double check.

Wow! An amazing find by Shenmue Forever‏ on twitter. Lan di and Niao sun are in the teaser! Probably an Easter egg.

https://twitter.com/ShenmueForever/stat ... 2827518976

Interview by John Linneman (Digital Foundry) for Eurogamer.net

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-09-08-sitting-down-with-shenmue-3-and-yu-suzuki

Sitting down with Shenmue 3 and Yu Suzuki
I see.

https://i.imgur.com/y2DsU8k.jpg

"As Suzuki noted earlier, however, Unreal Engine is more flexible when it comes to prototyping ideas. It's much easier to gain an understanding of how a certain mechanic or concept will function within the game and it will be interesting to see how this freedom influences the final product. With two years of work complete, a full staff and the financial backing of Deep Silver it feels like the team is shifting into high gear."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0blSBgpRUg

Ren's going to get encased in Carbonite.

New interview with Yu on Shenmue 500k - http://shenmue500k.net/interview-with-yu-suzuki-gamescom-2017/

A Shenmue I & II pack sounds bad, as bad as little to no effort put in to enhancing the games.

I've translated a early design diagram for Shenmue II into English. It's quite fascinating to compare some of the early ideas they were considering for the story. (The diagram can be found in the Shenmue art book).

In particular:

- The little girl who Ryo saved from Chai in the boat chapter side-story & her mother were originally going to help Ryo more, assisting him with finding Xiuying / Master Tao.
- There was going to be more interaction with the "two butchers" who always argue with each other, as part of the main story.

Here are the first 3 sections of the diagram:
https://i.imgur.com/3dLAGu5l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1ztPXFkl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/1Al2nkZl.jpg

Analysis & the rest of the diagram can be found at the blog:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2017/09/ryos-arrival-in-hong-kong-shenmue-ii.html

Who is handling their marketing at this stage. Is it still Awesome Japan or was that just for the Kickstarter?
Awesome Japan are Kickstarter administration with some limited PR capacity. That's likely not changed much.

Yes, Shenmue III could have had a warning that it was still in development and a work in progress
Yeah that was a pretty big mistake. If you're promoting an incomplete product you need to make sure that people know that it is incomplete. That was a pretty big marketing blunder to be honest. I just hope the next trailer will garner as much interest and this time be polished to perfection.
The YouTube description made it very clear it was an in-development build when it first launched on Sony's channel, so it isn't like the game wasn't marked as such.

The naivety was expecting people to read the description and using their heads to realise that of course things are going to improve from now until release.

Though to be honest, people would have bitched regardless. YSnet has put out screens and footage before that had various disclaimers about unfinished materials right on screen and people still whined.
Hence why its a marketing blunder. This was promotional and not a kickstarter update hence why not taking in to account that the public wouldnt look in to a description and treat it as a trailer was a promotional blunder on their behalf. If you're advertising a lroduct you can't blame the public for not understanding your advertisement.

Why's it become such a seemingly negative thing to raise genuine concerns about a franchise you want to succeed? I waited my entire life for a Batman/Superman film and was pretty happy to debate why I reckon it's great with those who thought it was a trainwreck. I don't seem to recall telling anyone to shut up about it.

There seems to be some growing mentality amongst Shenmue fans that we should shut our eyes and ears to anything bad and just repeat the mantra of "la la la, not listening, it's gonna be great, they know what they're doin, waited ages for it, just be grateful, la la la!"

Can you imagine if it doesn't end up being good? If it's poorly received by both the public and media? Who's gonna buy it? We've already got copies reserved. Where are they gonna make the money needed for the follow-up? It's simply not a case of "anything will do". Yeah, we waited fifteen years for this. So it better be fuckin worth the wait. And the money.

As for Spaghetti, how are you not getting this? Why does any studio show something off? No, why does anyone show anything off? Honestly, just think about it. Maybe English isn't your first language, in that case it'd be slightly more understandable, but c'mon... showing off concept art is promotional material. "Checking in" on Facebook to a hotel in an area where there's a relevant event: promotional material. Appearing on a chat show. That's promotional. A video, work in progress or not, is promotional.

People aren't panicking. I've said I don't think it's a good trailer/teaser and people get all touchy about it so I explain why because quite a few people think nothing bad can be said about Shenmue. Saying something that isn't 100% positive doesn't mean I'm pounding on my keyboard panicking. Everytime I've explained why I don't think the teaser is very good I've said why and explained my reasons. It's the side that aren't supposedly panicking that have called people cunts and claimed people who don't like it are on a bandwagon with an agenda.

Because I want the game and series to be a success so we can get Shenmue IV. The argument is that it's not a good trailer that sells the game to the masses who they need to sell it to for this game to be a success story. Sure the 70k hardcore who contributed to Kickstarter understand it's in development and a work in progress but most people don't look into this stuff or care. But so far the game has sold only 70k copies but they still need to make back Sega, Sony, Shibuya and Deep Silvers investments to be a success. People think the game is already a success story because of Kickstarter but 70k copies sold would make it one of the biggest flops ever so you can't stop there, that's why you need to focus on non Shenmue fans.

Henry Spencer wrote: Guys, guys...You know what I think would be the best promotion for Shenmue 3?

Shenmue 1 & 2 KIWAMI.

Fixed.

Does this mean Ryo will be able to actually travel from one town to another?
" the world of Shenmue III will be designed as a whole, rather than a sum of parts." Does this mean that you could go from the begin to the end freely? :?:
If I had to guess, I would say that Yu Suzuki is referring to the systemic structure of the game world, and how it functions as a single organism/ecosystem, rather than a few pieces of land loosely joined together like an incomplete jigsaw puzzle, as opposed to being quite so literal.

Okay, 2nd try ;-)

Page 1 of the Interview

http://www.imagebam.com/image/64d21d610978493

http://thumbs.imagebam.com/d8/a0/b5/64d21d610978493.jpg

http://thumbs.imagebam.com/d8/a0/b5/64d21d610978493.jpg

Page 2

http://www.imagebam.com/image/4a8b46610979263

http://thumbs.imagebam.com/20/e9/f0/4a8b46610979263.jpg

A little bit messy, but i hope you can see it more clearly. :D

To the Question with the plaster

Ryo wears a patch in his face, while Lan Di a scar - is that intentional or random?

I wanted to make a good distinction between the two. *laughs* This is the reason why. People are always asking me, when Ryos would finally heal the wound. At some point it has to be that far. *laughs*

Here is my translation of that Yu interview in the German magazine.
I didn't translate everything because some of the questions are just about Yu's hobbies etc.
I'm not a native english speaker, i tried my best.

Question 1 to Yu:
You said that Shenmue 3 will be bigger than you thought at first?

Yu's answer:
Yes, the game will probably be three times as big as i had in mind at the beginning. One of the villages has over 200 residents now instead of just 50. This village alone is five times bigger than i had in mind.

Question 2 to Yu:
But still - Shenmue 3 has not the same budget as 1 or 2. What do you have to change in the game because of that?

Yu's answer:
The story is still intact but i had to adjust some of the extra elements and details. We talked about the 200 people in that village - maybe we will even have 400 in the end, i didn't decide yet. You have to remember that all the city / village residents in 1 & 2 had a "real" simulated life, thats a really complicated and tough quest and the budget for Shenmue 3 is probably not big enough to do that again.

Question 3 to Yu:
Will there be voices and sound for everything in the game?

Yu's answer:
We don't know yet. To tell the truth - the amount of text is getting bigger and bigger and not all of it is planned, so we don't know if all of it will be available with sound.

Question 4 to Yu:
Will you use the voice actors from 1 & 2?

Yu's answer:
Ryo's english and japanese voice will be the same in Shenmue 3. I can't tell you anything about the other people yet.

Question 5 to Yu:
Shenmue 3 will be only available on PS4 and PC, why is that?

Yu's answer:
That's simple - it's just because of our partnership with Sony and their support at the E3 2015.

Question 6 to Yu:
Did you ever thought about how you could tell the story without a real Shenmue 3?

Yu's answer:
Yes, i thought about a mobile game before.

Question 7 to Yu:
There were a lot of critical responses for the Shenmue 3 teaser. What would you tell the people who feel dissappointed?

Yu's answer:
We don't have any facial expressions in the game right now and none of the character models are final yet. So it will look different and better in the final game. The teaser is not representing the quality of the final game, we are still in the middle of developing. And of course you have to remember the budget. The budget is good enough for our game, but its pretty small if you compare it to other games right now. We can't keep up with big modern games. We would need a way bigger budget (ten times bigger than now) to make perfect modern graphics. So we need to find a good middle way between good graphics and good content. Please don't expect highend graphics, Shenmue 3 is not about that.

Hate to be critical but, hmm..prefer they said something like "a peek at what we're working on".
The blip of content was fine, but not technically impressive enough to be much of a "progresd report".
The presentation is very weak. 9/10 of fans could have done it more justice.
Showing us Suzuki drinking coffee and talking or sketches or something to build hype, with a couple facial animations would do S3 more justice.
Reason I complain is, non-hardcore fans are going to be terribly critical of this sort of update. The first thing I thought was (guilty confession here) *snide comment*: "guess we couldn't afford animators so we got dental assistants"- and an hour later people had actually said it.

Rant over, it looks ok.. and WE'RE GETTING CLOSER TO SHENMUE 3!

Anyone interested in what the subtitles say in 0:11 ?? I am curious :D

Here you go!
https://i.imgur.com/5ks0U9dl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/i8wj36el.jpg

Full set & blog article here:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2017/09/kickstarter-update-75-face-animations.html

R.I.P. "Shenmue Guy" memories.

Sappharad told me that you can still change the resolution with the newest version.
You just have to switch the GPU plugin to DX11old.

we all chip in to build an artificial island in international waters. This should lead to nearby countries trying to claim said island as a way to expand their maritime boundaries. At this point it should have garnered the attention of every international news outlet to which we reveal that we made the island in the form of Ryo's head to promote shenmue.

PM me your donations.

Trent and Shendream from Shenmuemaster.fr have written a recap of what they learned from Gamescom. English translation by Dojo member Yokosuka.

Link: Gamescom Recap

Just a minor thing but still heartwarming to see: The German Amazon has now listed S3 on PC and PS4 for preorder. :heart:

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07589W18S/ref=twister_B075LF7NX8?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Some things which are a bit worrying about the preorder page though are:

1) The price. 70 Euros is a lot. "Regular" price for newly released physical games is usually around 60 Euros in Germany. But I'm pretty confident the price will drop to a normal level before release.

2) The release date Amazon states. I hope this is not the release date YS Net and Koch Media (Deep Silver) are aiming for. December 30, 2018 would be a very bad release date. I think they need to absolutely make sure the game gets out before December 1st 2018. We neeed the Christmas business. I hope the date is just a placeholder.

Oh yeah, and the logo doesn't get any less fugly, no matter how many times I look at it. But whatever, the logo is the least of my concerns. :)

It's just so awesome to see this. Who would have dared to dream about S3 being up for preorder on Amazon three years ago? And not some Bulgarian niche website, it's Amazon this time. You know, sometimes I still can't believe S3 actually exists but this makes it all the more tangible.

A new interview with Yu Suzuki at Gamescom emerged. (9Lives.be)

Google Translation:
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.9lives.be%2Fspecial%2Fportret-van-yu-suzuki-de-gamelegende-die-een-comeback-forceert-met-shenmue-iii&edit-text=&act=url

Portrait of Yu Suzuki, the game legend that forces a comeback with Shenmue III

With Shenmue III, somewhere in the market next year, legendary game designer Yu Suzuki returns from the Limbo of mobile games to finally make a title with some scale. Who is this person, and why is his comeback such a big deal? A portrait.

https://www.9lives.be/sites/default/files/styles/main/public/content/shenm.jpg?itok=Y6sYY2hz

It is 1985, and a 27-year-old Yu Suzuki undertakes a car trip through Europe. The journey starts in Frankfurt, but takes him further to places like the Romantic Road in Germany, the Swiss Alps, the French Riviera, Florence, Rome, and the Trevi Fountain. The visual impressions he gains there will form the basis for Out Run (1986) for him an ode to the romantic road trip, for the audience of young people who are in luna parks around the red, pneumariate-set Ferrari shears a piece youth sentiment under construction. " A game designer has to open his eyes and ears so that he can bring up the impressions he gains in the world of the game he makes ," Suzuki says now more than thirty years later. "About eighty percent of everything I make is based on my own experiences."

Continuation

Patches from that life of the now 59-year-old game designer will be encountered again in Shenmue III, a third episode of the kung fu-eighties-rpg epic that Suzuki started on the Sega Dreamcast in 1999, especially after the second game. from 2001 became a culthit. A lot of fans stayed until today, sixteen years later, waiting for a successor, Suzuki says. "That is also the main reason why I did not just put my shoulders under something completely new: the many fans who are still there for Shenmue, and who asked me in online forums to finish this story. And so I did the latter . "

Despite the more than sixteen years between the releases of Shenmue III and the previous episode, the game picks up the events of Suzuki's saga almost immediately in 1987. Ryo Hazuki, the late teen from the previous games who is looking for the his father's murderer, migrates to the mountains of Guilin, China. Where he meets Ling Shenhua, the mysterious girl that appears in his dreams. His quest proves to be in touch with hers: a legend from her village already predicted that their paths of life would intersect. In the meantime, he keeps in touch with characters from the previous games via the telephone, who are still in Japan.

Shenmue III is a continuation of a multi-game spanning story that Suzuki already had in his head twenty years ago, he says: it was only because of circumstances that it never went beyond two episodes. Even the themes of Shenmue III remain more or less the same, says Suzuki: " Romance, friendship, adventure. And kung fu. The usual combinations of a Shenmue story. "

Comeback

Yu Suzuki's star started a decade ago within the ranks of Sega, the video gamer in which he grew up. But his influence on the video game medium as we know it is undeniable. We already talked about Out Run, but in the late 80's and early 90's his name featured more big games from the luna park: with the graphically powerful internal hardware that Suzuki designed for those games, and the system of hydraulic pumps that caused the arcades to move, he gave Hang-On, Out Run, Space Harrier and After Burner a completely new élan to the category of arcade cabinets that was already waning. A few years later, he again pioneered, this time in 3D graphics, with games such as Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter and Virtua Racing for the Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast and the luna carpets from the Japanese manufacturer.

"A game designer has to open his eyes and ears."

When Sega gave him carte blanche at the end of the 90s to develop a big title for the Dreamcast, Suzuki seized the opportunity to start his magnum opus with the first Shenmue. But the market conditions decided differently: the Dreamcast became almost Sega's Titanic, and Suzuki was put on less ambitious projects. At the beginning of the decade he made some worthwhile sequels on games that he himself had helped launch, including Virtua Fighter 4 (2001) and Out Run 2: Coast 2 Coast (2003), but the time of big new things was over. Suzuki's and Sega's roads separated from each other in 2011, and Suzuki went into a sort of subcontracting deal from his own company Ys Net to make mobile versions of Segatitels until he announced the production of Shenmue III two years ago through a Kickstart campaign.

The grandmaster started back at the bottom of the ladder. " I have researched various opportunities to finance Shenmue III, " says Suzuki. " But a Kickstart campaign seemed like the best. It was also hard for us to find a good partner. And we saw the enormous momentum of fans who were still interested in the game. Then I decided to use that power to get the project going again. "

Much changed

In the meantime, the project also found shelter with a new publisher, the German Koch Media. Everything is ready to put the game on the market in 2018. During that very turbulent period, Suzuki also discovered how firmly the medium has changed. Not only the landscape of video game companies looks very different than just a decade ago, when he recorded his last small successes under the Sega flag: the way in which games are made is also very different.

" The arrival of game engines, which are central to development today, has changed a lot, " says Suzuki. "And that is for the most part good: you can analyze everything you want in terms of gameplay much better, quickly create a prototype in which you try small details. But for someone who has been working for a while, it is quite a change: I have to retrain myself to learn to think in that new way. At the time of the first two Shenmue's I wrote all the code myself, and I could quickly check things myself. With the advent of engines, the programming work can be done by a whole team, but that also means that I have to stop a whole process when something does not quite suit me. It has its advantages and disadvantages. But especially advantages. "

With these modern means, a game is still being made that takes place in the 1980s, an era that was deep in the past at the time of the first Shenmue, in 1999. But for Suzuki, himself a late twenties to a young man in the Eighties, the last important stories were told at the time. " With the Shenmue games, I wanted to tell a story about the older eras, when the character of people was even more important than anything else," says Suzuki. "The 80s were the last years of that old time with which today's players still have points of contact. Everything changed afterwards: before the arrival of the modern technology that is waving today, everyone was still largely the same, because we all got the same information. The charm of that era, its innocence in a sense, is for me a never-ending source of inspiration. "

It's odd to use Miao people as a inspiration for a village exclusively inhabited by Han Chinese. I guess the problem is Guangxi, the region Guilin located in, is not stereotypically Chinese, about 40% of its population are minorities. The developers are only interested in exploring Han Chinese culture, yet still want to make Guangxi feel like Guangxi at least superficially.

https://i.imgur.com/KcOGfmFl.jpg

The recent publication of an official Shenmue-themed tourist guide map for Yokosuka has caused a buzz of excitement within the Shenmue community.

Shenmue fans may be wondering about how such a map came to be created - for example, was it a proposal from SEGA? To find out more, we contacted one the guide map's co-creators, Eriko Furusaki of the Tourism Planning Division within the Yokosuka City Economic Department, who kindly agreed to share some insight about why and how the guide map was made.

The interview can be read at the Phantom River Stone blog:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2017/12/interview-with-yokosuka-city-story.html

Yu Suzuki gives some brief comments to Japanese website 4Gamer.net as part of their annual survey of prominent figures in the game industry.


English translation here:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2017/1 ... mance.html

Blog post with some analysis of the new images at Phantom River Stone:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2018/0 ... shots.html

Let’s hope the conference will be open to public, i’m going to MAGIC just for Yu and Shenmue.

One thing i am happy about though is that they seemed to have given his jacket its used look again. It bothered me a bit how in previous screens ryo looked like he had just came out of zara.

This can be reported on YouTube as spam and misleading content.

If you watch the video to the end you will see it is a humorous video. Its a well put together, shenmue influenced fan made video... don't be so uptight. I thought Shenmue fans would like the in game joke at the end.
You don't understand. The title and thumbnail appear as an official video. But it isn't. That is misleading content. It doesn't matter if there's a reveal at the end. You still wasted the viewer's time if they didnt know it was fan made.

SEGA recently published an interview with one of the designers who worked on Shenmue II, Norikazu Hirai.

I've translated the part where he talks about his Shenmue work. It turns out that he is the person who was responsible for designing the Sword of Seven Stars. He also reveals that Yu Suzuki's original concept for it was actually a "Dagger" of Seven Stars!

https://i.imgur.com/G2o1nKrl.png

Link to interview translation:
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2018/02/interview-with-shenmue-ii-designer.html

I’m not going to panic and make assumptions about the quality of the final product like some of you clowns are, but to only show 4 screenshots after the hype leading up to this event is PR malpractice at best.
I’m not worried about the quality, but I think they need to start upping their transparency about where they are in their development. The Kickstarter component is making it vital. If this were just some game being developed privately with private funds, I’d feel differently. We’re nearly three years in and are being given some cinematic screenshots and an old trailer that shows no actual gameplay. Something is up...

That's the best I could find.
That was the version posted by Shenmue Forever on Twitter right after it was shown, which was split into two parts and both tweets were deleted. Only the last 10 seconds or so are missing. Those last 10 seconds have not been lost though, I have my own copies that I saved and stitched together on the correct frame once I realized those tweets were deleted. I'm not going to share that just yet, because I'm hoping that one of the people who originally recorded it will release their video in full quality. And I also want to see how the whole thing goes regarding whether they get taken down or left alone. In absolutely worst case scenario, it can resurface once we have proper new footage, at a time where the outdated footage wouldn't be a problem to share anymore.

I posted my thoughts elsewhere, but simple summary:
1. Liked the new QTE stuff that we saw, QTE Title Arcade game, and more people in Choubu.
2. Disliked the fact that they showed a video that we know is 6 months old at this point.

In a few days, preferably after we get a kickstarter update about this (and depending on it's content) I will probably quote my old post about why I thought they were still on schedule because they potentially failed my criteria for showing they could meet a 2018 release. It's hard to tell because they're really not giving us any information about what they hope to have accomplished by what times, so I have to base it on what I think their schedule needs to be and in order to evaluate that they need to tell us how various things are going. I now have a new estimate for where I think they are, but I'm going to hold on to my thoughts for a little longer because we haven't heard much from those who attended the event who can provide more information.

https://i.imgur.com/ULBhgx3.jpg

"why I'm beating this old man when the only certain thing in life is suffering ?".
"Is anything even worth it ? I should have banged joy only to feel what is like to feel alive".
"Does Nozomi think about me like I think about her everytime before I go to sleep, the pain is too much to bear".

Right now I'm not even really concerned about the story and whether or not we will need more games to reach a satisfying conclusion. What I want is more F.R.E.E - Full Reactive Eyes Entertainment. That sense of immersion and intricate level of detail that can only be found in the world of Shenmue. As long as Yu Suzuki delivers on that I think I'll be fairly happy with whatever direction the story takes. For me, Shenmue 3 is about the journey and not necessarily the destination.

You are not authorised to read this forum.

It's a poorly programmed bot. Its designer picked up on Shenmue as a hot keyword and it just trawls for others to compose random tweets that might get it noticed and followed, presumably by people with a terrible grasp of English.

So, random thought of the day :
Newcomers starting with Shenmue 3 are entering the story the same way Shenhua does.

This thought made my day as it means that, there's little risk newcomers can be lost with the game.


Let me explain myself :
In universe, Shenhua only knows the basics about Ryo and his journey up to that point.
(Ryo is following after someone. He his a bit impulsive/naive but a good guy overall...)

As I believe the story of Shenmue 3 will make sense, Shenhua will have to understand what's going on.
(I'm going with the hypothesis that Ryo is not going to hide too much to her.)

So, as it turns out, maybe it's the most corect way to see it :
Starting with SH3 is starting the story "in Shenhua's shoes",
while, old veterans are "putting back on Ryo's jacket" !


Basically, you could see this as reading "The Lord of the Ring" before reading "The Hobbit".
(Even if we're not here to compare J.R.R. Tolkien and Yu Suzuki...)

So, yes, I have faith that SH3 can connect with new players.
Not in the same way it is going to connect with old fans, but it should work anyway.

http://cdn-enterprise.discourse.org/gamekult_forum/forum/uploads/default/original/3X/8/a/8a21b77e766965d45a4d3a2560067eedd9a29c62.jpg

Are you intertessting by an un-official or official paper box case like Dreamcast for Shenmue 3 on PS4 ?

I can make it (I am Graphic Designer) and propose my free work to Koch Media and Depp Silver.