Relax guys. This explains everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZm-HzCVzL4

For those who missed the Twitch stream, I made a very rough transcript while listening to the interview.
Here we go:

"We have lots of very important things to get to so let's start right away!"

*They all pause to drink some Fanta*

Q: "One more time, explain Sony's role in Shenmue 3."

A: "Sony's providing us comprehensive support in terms of publishing and marketing, as well as funding of the project partially."

*Stream goes down due to technical issues*

Q: Once again they ask about Sony's role

A:"Sony is providing us comprehensive support in marketing, promotion, and funding. They are one of the most important partners of this project. But as we said before in our statement ... they are not receiving one cent from the Kickstarter... the funds collected in the KIckstarter project will be all used for development except for the fees used for the Kickstarter and for providing the Kickstarter rewards. Not a single cent will go to Sony from the Kickstarter funds."

Q: PS4 physical reward ?

A: "It's one of the most requested rewards and I personally want to prepare for it as a reward. We are now considering how we can provide the reward in such a way that satisfies the backers. Please be patient."

Q: Before you were talking about how the funds will be spent. Can you explain more?

A: "We have a pie chart for how the funds from Kickstarter will be spent. KS
Fees: 8 - 10 % Game development: 65 to 72% Backer rewards: 20 - 25% Most of the kickstarter funds are going to the game development. Everything excluding necessary fees and the reward fulfilment.. everything's gonna be used for development."

Q: "Will the real Ryo please stand up?"

A: "We're still improving the qualities of Ryo's face. Not satisfied with the face Ryo has right now. Today we have the latest version, a new pic or Ryo's face. (They show a pic) This new pic we're not satisfied with. Ryo still looks kind of 'frowny.' So I want to continue the improvement. I want to enhance Ryo's attactiveness and personality through not only the models but through the facial expressions and actions he does to make Ryo even better. So we are going to see an improved Ryo in the future. He'll be much better through the process of development."

Q: "Another big issue. Voice actors coming back to reprise their roles. Specifically Ryo. Will we be seeing them again?"

A: "So, I think that the original voice actors will be the best match for Ryo's voice. So I want them to come back as his real voice in shenmue 3 as well. I'm now in negotiation with them. Please wait. We'll have more details about that."

Q: "Will PayPal be an option to help fund Shenmue 3?"

A: "No definite answer, but we're looking into it."

Q: "Is Shenmue 3 going to be DRM free on PC?"

A: "We are now looking into it, but it's not something I alone can decide on. I'm talking to other parties to decide if that's possible... we're looking into it."

Q: "Shenmue 1/Shenmue II HD remaster: are we gonna see it?"

A: "I personally want to see them so that the fans can enjoy Shenmue 3 more. However the property rights belong to SEGA, so I'm not in a position to comment on it. But I want it, so I will talk to SEGA if that's possible."

Q: "More rewards?"

A: "Today we will have additional rewards. First of all we have the grab bags. A lot of surprises in different prize tears, starting from 1,000 dollars to 500 dollars. It contains Shenmue merchandise, and it is random, so you have fun in opening the bag. And also we'll have one more reward, that is the replica of Ryo's watch. There is only one. This will be in the 5,000 reward tier. *They show the watch*

Q: "What are the other rewards going to be like?"

A: "The grab bags will include for example special figures of Ryo. There are also Shenmue watches. (Not the one just shown.) They also include autographed art work. Check out the page later. The rewards will be up. Check it out! For today we have grab bags and watches but in the future we'll have more additional rewards so please stay tuned to the kickstarter page!"

Q: "Stretch goals... stretch goals... stretch goals. Can we get a little bit of explanation please, about the stretch goals."

A: "The budget we have right now, it's Shenmue with story elements. It will be Shenmue 3 up until the duel against the four big bosses. But with additional stretch goals, more areas are going to be added and expanded.

The Rapport system is the system that governs the changes in characters' attitudes toward you, depending upon actions you take in conversations. It will provide a new twist to Shenmue.

In Shenmue 3 there'll be a lot of occasions when you can obtain technique scrolls through special events, jobs, missions, etc. They can be used in battle right away as a QTE. However the advanced skill scrolls and arcane skill scrolls are managed in a tree diagram. Completing that tree will be another side of fun, and it links to the actual martial art learning.

Q: "More on stretch goals"

A: "With the area Baisha, we want to include new fun not included in Shenmue 2. Traditional tactics such as seige and infiltration that we see in warring kingdoms in traditional China are also added. But I want to make it Shenmue-like, easy to grasp, easy to play, and provide more fun.

There's an opportunity for the players to play as different characters. In that event you'll see different choices that different personalities offer, different from Ryo and other characters. That will provide more fun and more personality to the characters.

So there's a lot more stretch goals we published, but there will be a large amount of explanations and a large amount of fun still to come, so we'll leave it to other occasions to explain the other stretch goals.

Your cooperation is what makes this Kickstarter progress, so please support us!

Q: "How will Shenmue 3 at its current funding level be different from Shenmue 3 at the 10 million dollar level?"

A: "The current funding level - about 3.6 million - will have story oriented Shenmue. More focus on story. Exceeding 5 million will allow the development to include more things that are new, such as we explained about Baisha. Exceeding 10 million will allow for the players to enjoy a more open world like Shenmue."

Q: "When is Shenmue 3 going to be released?"

A: "It's expected to be released by the end of 2017. We're confident."

Q: "Is this the end of the story?"

A: "The initial storyline contained 11 chapters. With 1 & 2 it advanced to only a little bit of the 11 chapters. I considered doing the final game to include all the remaining chapters, but in the final consideration it would be skipping all the big arcs, and the completeness of the game would be less enjoyable. So this Shenmue 3 will have more storylines, but this structure will not finish the storyline with Shenmue 3."

Q: "When can we play the trial version?"

A: "It requires many of the basic systems to be developed. The release date of the demo version will be the latter half of the development stage. It might be after the new year of 2017. Until then it requires more development for the basics."

(Inaudible)

Please keep sending us your questions. We want to make Shenmue 3 the best we can. Please share the project. Get the word out. Let everybody know that Shenmue 3 is happening, and we need everybody to support and make sure that we make this Shenmue 3 spectacular."

Q: "Final thoughts?"

A: "I always want to do new things. I hope to achieve all the things I want to do in the new Shenmue, matching with what the Shenmue the fans want, to meet the ten million dollar goal. We ask your continued support, and that you spread the word around to make Shenmue a real thing! Thank-you very much!"

"Let's make this happen! Everybody has been so great the past fourteen years. Making it happen. It's happening now. #SaveShenmue! Let's do this! Thank-you!"

Amir wrote:

Technophilz wrote: Honestly ... I don't know whether I should laugh or cry

I'm still laughing. Definitely worth staying up for.

Off to bed now, almost 5am here, I'm sure RedShirt will be in my dreams

In our dreams and in our hearts <3

Adam Koralik got the watch. That's AWESOME!

The way the Q&A was handled yesterday was a debacle, that's for certain. However we need to come together as a community and bury it. Let's push forward for the sake of the Kickstarter, Shenmue III and Suzuki-san. At this point we can offer constructive criticism (there is another thread for the Twitch stream) and continue on with our own separate efforts.

I should not need to say this, but I will. We do not support or condone any form of personal attacks within this community. Let's carry on as we always have, positively and respectfully. That is the voice other parties will pay attention to, respect and trust. Thank you.

Be happy we got the kickstarter to begin with. If S3 doesn't make as much as we THOUGHT it or as much as we think it should have right now would doesn't mean we can blame awesome japan or red shirt guy. The game is funded. It's happening. It's in YOUR hands, not someone else's. Face it, there just aren't a lot of Shenmue fans compared to other games. It's what happens after 14 years. And even promoting it at e3 doesn't necessarily mean people want to back it as much as we want them to. People are selfish, especially when uninformed. There is only so much we can do, and 5 mil is a plausible goal...As long as we do the best we can, we can't get angry at anyone.

I know they are a pretty easy target. Hell, I am with you on a lot of points and do have my own feelings on the matter also.

But there's always a bigger picture here, and we have a reputation to uphold in regards to being here for Shenmue and Yu Suzuki as a community. We have ran Friday night into the ground and I have no doubts Awesome Japan will have been made aware of the feedback from everyone. But continuing to be negative about it will only keep the fire lit, and make it grow.

My advice is to bury it. We have had a classic moan about it, but nows the time to let them at least try and learn from it. We have just under 3 weeks left so let's see what happens.

Bronze statue replica of Tom's Hot Dog. $7000. I'd be sold.

Oh I am sorry. But asking for over $10+ Million is now making the Kickstarter seem like a joke. It's barely made $200'000 all week. Sure we might have a rush near the end, but at this rate this KickStarter will be unsuccessful. And what if it is unsuccessful? I mean how unbalanced is the game going to be if we meet all of goals for Baisha Village but do not meet the goals of the other two areas? Are they just going to be plain and boring - That to me would just compromise the game and make it a whole waste of time. I'm really starting to disapprove of the way this is being handled.

Star Citizen raised 74 million dollars through crowdfunding, 2.1 million of which came from Kickstarter. This is not over when the campaign ends.

mbisonyes.gif

I made attempts at contacting the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter team regarding the explanation of stretch goals, new rewards, VO choice and budget, redoing the video campaign, the reason for the choice of multiple playable characters and how to reel in the general gaming community when most never even heard of the first two games.

My plead yielded the following reply:


Hello,

Very sorry for not getting back sooner! Ok, here we go:
Stretch Goals - Thank you! We are working on it! Trying to be more specific with the SGs and will try to get the explanations moved over. Mr. Suzuki does not want to get too deep without giving all the story away!
Mirrors - Trying!
Video - Still very early development, so there is not much game footage yet. As for scene requests... I think we will have to leave that up to Mr. Suzuki. Again can't give away the story!
At the current stage of funding, it is still hard to know how much voicing there will be. There have been lots of comments for language switching and Mr. Suzuki is aware of the situation.
Why multiple characters? Mr. Suzuki has stated this is one of the things that he really wants to do with Shenmue 3. Will definitely let him know though!
Why care about Shenmue 3? Got it. You are very right. Top priority now getting the message across. We will have the page updated soon.
More rewards? Yes working on them now. Thank you for the ideas!

Thank you very much, please keep your ideas coming, because they will keep us going forward.

Joel &
the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Team


PS. I did not question the integrity of the work done by his team, because I believe it's counter-productive and unnecessary at this point.

What is having a magic maze in Bailu Village means? It sounds interesting.
According to this Digital Spy article of highlights from Yu's Shenmue postmortem at the Game Developers Conference 2014, it's a landscape generation technique.

A technique called Magic Maze would create trees, rocks, characters and even the doors and windows seen in Shenmue 2's Kowloon area.

Another technique, Magic Room, "simulated thought process of an interior designer", where an AI constructed and fleshed out a room, and ensured it would be traversable by the player.

Ask them if they know whatever happened to the guy who did the voice for Chai, Sam and Lan Di (was it Paul Lucas?). That dude was talented. Not that they weren't, I personally think Kelso's voices for Fuku-san and Guizhang fit the characters well, but you know, still can't get my head around that the guy who did "KEEEEEG HYA HYA HYA, LAN DI-SAMA WILL BE PLEASED" also did "Get up, I will allow you to die like a warrior". You would never be able to tell that it was the same voice actor, at all.

Red shirt guy, you seem like you know how to party, can we be friends?

I wonder where Kavinsky is...

It's a cheap way to make a lot of money and make a great game. Sorry for not caring. I can't say I'm surprised we're still going to have a bunch of negativity no matter what happens.

Crying.... yep. Just like i was when Shenmue 3 was announced.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/PeterC2005/Shenmue%203%20dinner_zpsnssnyjmg.png

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/PeterC2005/Mobile%20Uploads/Screenshot_2015-07-03-17-11-23_zpsfisfrbbt.png

I'M GOING TO MEET YU SUZUKI IN MONACO!! FUCK!!

And the reward tiers from here on in are so fricking good too. I think we really need the Advanced FREE Battle system at $6 million, sounds so good.

How much development was actually done on the Dreamcast version of Shenmue III? Will we ever see some more of it?

This article will have no effect on the campaign. It's pure shit slinging and he's feeding on negative energy. I'm amazed this is the kind of crap a videogame website would pay someone to write. you can find similar profundity on any videogame forum, usually written by a soon-to-be-banned user.

NeoShredder wrote:

Imagine if I had made fun of the fake shenmue box art and also was a black person or a woman. *shudder*

I was right. He's losing it.

He's not. He's an attention-whore.

He knows what he's doing.

Too old, too late, too stupid.

Hopefully he's out.

Was bored. Made a quick mockup picture of what one could look like? (Like the Yakuza example shown above)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5333907/sony_playstation_4_white_1.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5333907/sony-playstation-4-black.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5333907/sony_playstation_4_white_1.jpg

I think a plate would be a little unsubstantial as a reward though... unless they're limited to Kickstarter only and each one's signed by Yu Suzuki.

Just went to kickstart and put my $60 pledge

Even if the KS finished right now it would already be an undeniable amazing success.

Guys, let's face the facts here. This is Shenmue 3 we are talking about, 20 days ago 99% of gamers didnt even know the hell it was, the prequels are only available on fucking Xbox and Dreamcast and they came out FIFTEEN years ago.

It was already an incredible success that it got announced as a KS campaign, everything thats been happening since then trespasses in the realm of dreams.

Wow. I understand what some are saying and why they would feel that way, and I can respect it. But personally? If I had that much money to spend, I'd just be honored to be immortalized in any form in a game that means this much to me. I wouldn't be worrying about whether other people could make out my face or how prominent my position in the game was. Just knowing I was part of the game - my name, my face - would be a tremendous honor and something I would cherish forever. Hell, I already feel that way even just about having my name in the credits.

If it helps you guys at all: I promise when I have the game in-hand and see your names and faces, I will carefully reflect on each one, even if it takes hours, and say, "These people helped make this dream come true, and I'm so grateful. Thank-you." So you'll definitely get noticed. At least by one person. Does that help?

Very interesting! I think these could well be maps relating to the future Shenmue story. Here's what I have picked up from looking over the maps.

1. http://imgur.com/FvSP2mD
The small labels on the map are pointing to these various stores:
- Drugstore
- General store
- Pawn store
- Bicycle shop
- Shoe shop
- Florist
- Art supplies store
- Butcher
- Restaurant
- Fruit shop
- Rice gruel restaurant
- Greengrocer
- Noodle stand
- Fresh fish stand

These two labels are larger than the others:
- Water drainage channel (the dashed parallel lines)
- Garden Hotel (in the center between the two mountains)

Unfortunately I couldn't find anything definite about the location, but it can be seen from the topography lines on the map that three tall mountain peaks stand in its center, around where the Garden Hotel is located.

2. http://imgur.com/9lRY3to
This map also has a number of small shops, many similar to the ones in the first map:
- Florist
- Butcher
- Fresh fish stand
- Rice gruel restaurant
- Fruit shop
- Greengrocer
- Drugstore
- Tea shop
- Restaurant
- Noodle stand
- Portrait shop
- Candy store

These are the larger, underlined labels:
- Seimindou - Buddhist items shop
- Buddhist Items Street
- Bukkoudou - Buddhist items shop
- Taa Chai Tan - Buddhist items shop
- 胡浩's house {Somebody's name, but I can't guess the pronunciation}
- Part-time job area
- Pao Shiin Guu - Chinese herbal medicine shop
- Byakuju - Chinese herbal medicine shop
- Manzendou - Chinese herbal medicine shop
- Peach Garden Restaurant

Also there is a potential clue about the location of this map! At the top you can see a large rectangular area labelled 盤門. According to Wikipedia , this is the name of a gate (called Pan Gate in English) that is part of an ancient city wall located in Suzhou, eastern China.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/20090926_Suzhou_Pan_Men_5941.jpg/320px-20090926_Suzhou_Pan_Men_5941.jpg

"Chinese Dream" Kickstarter celebration art by Orioto.
http://orioto.deviantart.com/art/Chines ... -544770352

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening Shenmue Fans!

Kenji Miyawaki is back for the second part of his interview for one look back and one look forward. Kenji talks about how Ryo’s character got his fashion sense, and explains the mysterious character on the canvas.

English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4BTbyJmj9k

Japanese
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6a17mIdSNY


There are more new rewards on the way that you do not want to miss, so be sure and stay tuned!

After squinting at the tiny characters for a while, I've taken a best guess at what some of them say. Nothing too revealing though, unfortunately!

http://i.imgur.com/bVc0XuJ.png

The other text was too blurry for me to guess, such as the clothes pole(?) in the inner garden area, and the name of the room at the bottom right.

A blueprint has never made me so excited

Just noticed the $160 reward has 20 capsule toy tickets, was that always there?

Yea it must have been Amir, because they said that once someone backs a tier they can't change the description for it.

"*Changes to Reward pledge buttons are not allowed after they are pledged for, so please see the "Rewards" section below for complete reward details"

Adding $1200 to all higher tiers, which they could easily do since apart from the physical calligraphy print all this content is just digital would definately mean the rest of those $1500 tiers would be snapped up imo, and then possibly might increase the $3000, and $4000 tiers aswell if everything higher included from the $1200 tier downwards.

I've been a Mac fan for over 20 years and even I don't want this. Apple has long given up on the Mac as a gaming machine and so have the card manufacturers.

I have a Mac Pro with dual Firepros but there are no Mac drivers that allow me to use both at once. None.

I mean what.

Man, that's pretty stupid. Gaming aside, wouldn't dual graphics card support be better for professionals using Mac Pros for CAD and the like?
Not necessarily. Dual graphics cards don't mean x2 GPU power. And if we're talking workstations, Macs don't really have a place.

Then what purpose does having dual GPUs in the Mac Pro have?

There are apps that are written specifically to use both. It's just that there are no drivers to make already existing apps use them both at once. Not on Mac OS X anyways.

I can still boot into Windows and use generic AMD Crossfire drivers, and then it's very nice.

Maybe you get the option to call certain characters at certain points in the game and get little tidbits of information from them?

Whilst on the phone:
Guizhang: "Still trying to catch up to you, stop moving around so much you fast prick. *huff* *huff*. WHAT? You're in Bailu Village? Where the hell is that? I've just been looking around Hong Kong and Kowloon for you...*sigh* See you in Shenmue 4!"

My first contact with Shenmue was in February 2000, that's when I bought Polish console magazine named Neo Plus with preview of Japanese version of Shenmue. I still have that magazine.

http://i.imgbox.com/7vB6JAow.jpg

If someone is interested here is the short preview - http://i.imgbox.com/cunYpLDM.jpg
http://i.imgbox.com/4rqh3So9.jpg

Thank you guys for the congratulations. I will also address some of the things being asked.

Joel Tess from Awesome reached out to me via Youtube Messages and told me that Yu Suzuki had seen my video and loved it and that he wanted to use it on the Kickstarter page. Once I emailed him about it and said I'd love to do that, my video was shown to SEGA who requested that the arcade footage was taken out and that copyright notices were put in. (I also received request to change the logo but I'm unsure if that's Sega's doing of if it's a personal choice of Yu Suzuki). Once the final version was made I emailed it to Joel Tess who put it up on the page.

I was in touch with Dreamcaster's Tube when I first put the original video up and he said that he's ok with people using his footage as long as they credit him in the description. I'm not taking credit for his work.

"These goals can only be achieved through Kickstarter" is to encourage people to pledge and clear up the fact that Sony and others contributions likely wont be enough to cover any stretch goals.

Anyway, thank you guys for the amazing words. I never thought it would get this far and I feel really honored to be acknowledged by Yu Suzuki and Awesome Japan :D

Sorry I made you waste your time with the arcade footage only to see it get pulled, congrats on winning Suzuki-san's favour, though!
Nah, it looked good and people are still sharing the original version outside of Kickstarter, so it's still doing its job :)
But honestly, I just about started crying when I saw that Yu Suzuki himself loved my video!

someone in the Kickstarter comments said he switched from the bag to the LA dinner. Someone also took the NPC spot. Rumor has it its LIL B.

And the second-floor plans from Yu's latest tweet , to which I've added some translations. It even has a suite room, with its own private bath & toilet facilities - very fancy.

http://i.imgur.com/3sK9PgW.png?1

(I don't know what's going on at the top with the extra stairs, door and sandals...)

Updated 7/25/2015: "sandal" text in the top area updated to "sample". Thanks to Kiyuu for the correction!

to which I've added some translations.)

Hey man, where it says 'twin room' etc...what's the significance, if any, of the "18" characters?
With Japanese floorplans it's common to refer to the floor area of a room by the number of tatami mats that would fit in it, even if the room doesn't actually contain mats. With these twin rooms, each has an area of 18 tatami mats. The standard area of one mat is 1.653 square meters, so this converts to around 29 square meters in size.

You guys are all wrong. Shenmue was obviously a very expensive marketing campaign to get people to buy a defunct console and master system games.