I applaud them for not completely messing up and doing their best to make things better. It's not quite what the Bloodstained KS page managed in terms of hype and excitement but they deserve praise nevertheless.

I'll applaud YS Net, Shibuya's Cedric Biscay, Sony's Gio Corsi and the Shenmue fan base for keeping the dream alive for 14 years to even get us to this point.

Awesome Japan were given a golden goose but it was the fans that put the work in and enabled us to do this well, if AJ was better its entirely possible we may have gone higher, although its also possible the fans have done so much that AJ couldn't have topped it and have rode our coat tails to this success :)

regardless we appear to be getting an amazing result today :)

btw as I typed this we hit 6 million.. waiting for the trolls to strike now :)

Screw them. The industry is stuck in a constant loop of the stale, boring shit that we get nowadays, thanks to those dumbass "journalists" who just are happy with nothing but mediocrity. If I want to support my old favourite series, then that's my own choice to do that. It's my own money and whatever they say won't change my own mind. People should just think for themselves.

Now the campaign is over I think it's fair for us to look back and evaluate the performance of AJ over the past 1 month. Many of us fans who pledged substantial sums of money had many legitimate concerns during the campaign and I saw forum posting which catalogued many of the errors which occurred.

Let's have a look:


- Project started without a description of what Shenmue is. Later featured a still somewhat crudely made fan video as a fix.
- The Kickstarter Trailer - even though in early production failed to communicate what the series was about or excite anyone that wasn't already fan
- The Kickstarter Trailer featured a main character that was unrecognizable to the fans.
- Banners used neon colored dropshadows and looked extremely crude.
- The Website (shenmue.info) is an unusable mess, without any significant content.
- The initial reward structure was heavily flawed (with huge gaps between significant pledge points.)
- The final reward structure is heavily flawed with far too many entries, which created more confusion in the end.
- Adding additional rewards using the same Kickstarter account was impossible to the end despite the community pleading for add-ons.
- None of the Kickstarter Goals ever got explained on Kickstarter - which again posed a problem for more casual backers.
- There was no communication regarding building momentum to reach a certain goal, and no communication congratulating the community on having reached a certain goals at times.
- Instead what we got as "information" we had to aggregate between a Famitsu interview, a Reddit AMA and a Faq - ourselves, project management didn't.
- The AMA on Reddit was botched with the management misplacing an account password, or not setting up analytics properly, or not authenticating the account with reddits AMA team (probably) and having to switch reddit threads mid conversation.
- After concentrated confusion about what the backing goals where the Kickstarter Team released the entire list as a whole - without contextualizing the goals.
- In the first few days they managed to produce the rumor, that the project was mainly funded by Sony, then did not react to it. The rumor then got picked up by internet media.
- When everyone was complaining about their lackluster reward structure, they added very limited high roller rewards as a reaction, which mostly sold out within a day - producing some resentment in the process.
- Funding goals sometimes got checked off hours after they were reached - without any comments.
- Produced video interviews, which first were hosted on Kickstarter - but then switched to youtube - hosting two versions of each and every one of them at all times - splitting the audience. We had to rey on the Dojo to provide is subtitled videos.
- The first twitch stream "for the fans" was a -likeable- disaster, featuring an odd mix of QVC presentation, scripted Q&A, reading out loud FAQ questions instead of posting them on the site, and failing to read a chat - also the video quality was abysmal - because they hadn't bothered testing the equipment
- Halfway through the Kickstarter they introduced a Poll for reward tiers - which went live with half the price brackets (which its main purpose in gauging the audience) missing.
- To get participation they bundled it with a "who is your favorite character" poll - which was so useless, they gladly featured it in a 30 Minute segment within the celebration stream - one week after they released the results to the public anyhow.
- The celebration stream began late "because of technical difficulties", then featured a 20 minute echo fest after one of the translators (one of which had a really hard time at producing english sentences), or one of the segment producers, presumably took off their headphones and turned on their speakers.
- The celebration stream then cut out because of a "power outage".
- The celebration stream then came back on late, because of a computer failure after the power outage.
- Once the celebration stream was back - they couldn't get the audio to play on both the fan reaction segment and the fan videos segment - but went through with them anyhow.
- During the celebration stream, which they said multiple times, was set in their "studio" - there was a nice interlude of construction site soundbits - while the video sound wasn't working for them, so at least there was some atmosphere they could talk over...
- They announced paypal in a half sentence somewhere in the last third of awful celebration Twitch stream - but made sure, that it WAS NOT UP , when all the "New video game record on Kickstarter" and "Shenmue Kickstarter finished" news articles went up. In fact it isn't even up as we speak.
- No updates reacting to the Kickstarter finishing. At all - much less in this record breaking way.

Now the campaign was successful in spite of AJ's all around awfulness. The fans stood up and got it done but no matter how proud I am of the community, as a huge Shenmue fan I want to see the series reach it's full potential. These errors ensured that money was left on the table and we were not able to maximize the momentum and goodwill of the fans.

Shenmue 3 is trending on Twitter right now. Are they capitalizing on this with post-funding Paypal options. NO! And we may not see an update until Tuesday. In the world of the internet this isn't acceptable.

Suzuki, Cedric and co do also need to take a share of the blame. After all they selected AJ and frankly should have held them to much higher standards.

I agree with every criticism against AJ, but I have to say a major disappointment was the scene with shenhua and ryo, with their incorrect modelling and bad voice acting. That would have been directed by Suzuki and I doubt Awesome Japan would dare ask for changes. That scene should have hinted at things to come in part 3. Plus the concept-art could have been more descriptive or enticing, and that's also Suzuki's domain.

Oh I completely agree. I'm sure AJ at times were held back with what Suzuki and co were able to provide.

I thought the initial KS launch video was a giant mess. You have Yu's initial comments and then he rambles on about the 'technique scrolls' in vague, unclear language which frankly is confusing to new and existing fans alike. In addition if we've learnt anything from his subsequent interviews, mechanics like rapport system or character perspective system seem much more important to the overall design of Shenmue 3 yet are barely mentioned in the campaign itself!

It all seemed so rushed. I mean they get the original statue busts (a rare and highly sort after item from Shenmue fans) at the 11th hour and offer it at a tier way below market value, especially compared to the other 100 tiers they seemed to offer at a repetitive and predictable pace.

Suzuki was tweeting cool art-work of Shenmue 3 throughout the month. Was that integrated into the campaign? Nope. Like I said it's abundantly clear these guys had zero media strategy, not forgetting their absolute pitiful footprint on social media.

Awesome Japan did a really bad job in my opinion. From the start they appeared very amateur. I'm a huge fan and when I first saw the kickstartrr page I was almost immediately turned off. Firstly the intro video footage of the game I thought was a parody or something. They could have put a bit more effort into it? I can easily see how lame it would look to new people. Bad animation, bad acting (monotone yeah) and uninformative narrative. It was pointless.

Then there's the rewards, which were so lame to begin with. Most people would be around the 30-150 tier and it took days to get suitable rewards for that category. The grammatical mistakes, ugh. I just don't understand? If they took 5 seconds to at least copy into MS Word or proof read it, it would have made them look much more professional yet they made some really silly mistakes. This company's sole purpose is to be a clear communicator and organiser so how did they screw it up?

The first twitch was the most awkward and cringy interview I have ever seen broadcasted. Some of the questions asked were blatantly scripted, there was no real organization. The red shirt guy made what was supposed to be a concise QnA into a comical, cringe worthy convoluted piece of crap that I've ever had the displeasure of watching. I was rethinking at this stage about the pledge. The video quality and the quality of the content was so fricken amateur.

Then the last twitch, which was severely delayed at such a critical time. You'd think they would test everything well before. The updates and feedback was anticlimactic. Reaching all those goals and hardly any acknowledgement. Lots of uncertainty and questions left unanswered, unupdated FAQs.

While I'm very happy with the final outcome. I am left with a bitter feeling that I can't get over. Had they presented the whole campaign in a professional, informative manner from the start, how much better we would have done. First impressions matter the most in these campaigns and had it not been for the community I truly believe this would have been a disaster. Still today there has been no video or updates congratulating and thanking everyone. No word about PayPal.

Just my 2 cents.

At this point I don't care. It's past (thank God!).
We've had the best kickstarter campaign and now we can focus on the actual game content and not some marketing campaign.

What if they get to run the long term funding through Paypal? It will be a disaster. The coming 6 months will be crucial for funding, while at the same time the development team will have little to show. Marketing and transparency in communication will continue to play an important role. Things AJ can't be trusted with.

Great post. I really hope they are able to build enough capacity within Ysnet to run this by themselves but I frankly don't expect communication to be a whole lot better. Getting a community manager to channel the passion and dedication of the fanbase would be a good start.

The last Twitch stream was a success despite the power outage, AJ turned it around after the Twitch stream for the most part. Even I, one of AJ's biggest critics on this forum is giving them slack because they showed that they up to stepping up to the plate.

What is your definition of success regarding the Twitch stream? The fact even after a catastrophic first Twitch stream they still had technical problems and there was echo for the first 10-15 minutes of the stream. The supposed power outage was magnified by a computer problem they had on their end. During fan segment the audio wasn't working. Instead of pitching the last few higher tier items they spent 30 minutes talking about a public poll they took, the results which were released weeks earlier.

You're a good poster but tell me how exactly did AJ step it up. Seriously what ideas did they implement (Which the community didn't pester and ask for repeatedly) did they include in the KS campaign?

The campaign was not good. PR was poor.

And yet, we will; still get Shenmue 3.

I don't know if the PR was poor, we did break records but I think it's very apparent the campaign didn't come close to realizing its full potential due to mismanagement.

Who indicated that? I think the majority of people were saying the Paypal option should have gone immediately live after the KS ended. Instead community and fans are left wondering why the campaign failed again the basic fundamentals.

They deserve a tap on the shoulder for putting their best effort into acting on the advice from the community, but that doesn't absolve them from being incompetent. I wish they had had that learning experience with another project, not the revival of a fan favorite classic 14 years after its untimely death.

Exactly, I love people trying to defend their performance by saying they learnt and improved as the campaign went on like this was some type of educational endeavour. And when they cite these so called improvements, you can find out this was only due to the community having to back channel the co-producer of the game and demand improvements be made.

The fact that Cedric became more of a mouth piece and engaged the community more than AJ themselves I think speaks volumes to their effort.

I find it somewhat humorous, suddenly the same people that discuss topics ad nauseam about a videogame they've completed hundreds of times over the years suddenly rule certain topics don't bear further analysis or discussion. I guess some people really do like pleading ignorance...

THey hanven't even did an update saying "we did it" or something.

I know they don't work on weekends, but it's just writing a couple of lines, pretty much the same time that I've wasted writing this post.

That Lan Di is not a model from the game.
It's from the cgi of shenmue online.

...Dude, I wasn’t even hoping for a Paypal update at this point (that would be grossly overestimating things), just a simple congratulatory message, with perhaps a dash of hope and a twist of inspiration.
But nope!

Hey guys,

Just picked up 2 magazines from my local newsagents here in the UK, I got the Official Playstation 4 mag, and Games TM. After reading through both magazines, I would say Games TM sound more like fans, as alot of the early "hype" in the magazine bearing E3 mentions Shenmue 3 quite alot. I took shots of the main Shenmue 3 related pages though incase you were interested. Feel free to post your own shots from your own magazines you might find with Shenmue 3 tidbits in :)

Games TM:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/348/19787150568_f956ca1c9d_k.jpg
Games TM August 2015 Editor Note by James Brown , on Flickr

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/512/19354231983_0cba5cf7bd_k.jpg Games TM Shenmue 3 Article by James Brown , on Flickr


Official Playstation 4:

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/408/19788502979_f2584fcf64_k.jpg Official Playstation 4 Magazine Shenmue 3 Article by James Brown , on Flickr

These Rooster Teeth people really have it out for Shenmue. Another one of their programs (Funhaus) continues to run programs/podcasts bashing the series. Did someone at that company run a failed Kickstarter? I don't understand why they're spending so much time bad mouthing Shenmue.

how the hell is either YsNet or Neilo, which has only made one PS Vita game, a "triple A studio" as that idiotic Games Master article claims?

they're not Naughty Dog, swimming in a river of Sony's cash.

The fact that they seem so different from the locations we have encountered before makes me even more excited. I love the variety of the locations in each Shenmue game. Makes each game memorable and unique that way.

ok, so from what i can understand the actual 'controversy' was that certain 'idealists' dislike any project being on kickstarter that has an outside funding link with a big publisher - this goes against their 'ideals' of what kickstarter SHOULD be.

these idealist have a resentment against 'evil big publishers'. They want kickstarter to prove that games can be completely developed without any help from the big publishers - they have a kind of 'stick it to the man' philosophy.

What a stupid reason to try and sabotage the success of a much loved and desired project.

kickstarter is meant to 'kickstart' a project (not necessarily to completely fund it) and shenmue 3 was a very unlikely project that was a made a reality ONLY because of kickstarter.

shenmue 3 SHOULD be the finest jewel in the kickstarter crown but these weird idealists let their resentments of big publishers get in the way of their reasonable thought processes.

this is the biggest NON-controversy of all time.

it finally took this video to explain it , because all the previous articles by people promulgating the whole 'controversy' and 'scam' meme could not even coherently explain what it was that they found objectionable. turns out it was a bad and stupid reason.

Back in 2000 I bought my Dreamcast. I'm a huge Sonic fan and when I played Sonic Adventure for the first time on my nephew's Dreamcast, I knew I had to have it.
A friend of mine bought Shenmue and showed me how you could buy Sonic figures in the game. I thought that was pretty interesting, so I tried playing Shenmue, but I didn't like it because the gameplay was slow compared to Sonic and I thought the controls were weird.
My friend told me time and time again how great Shenmue is and that I should play it. Years went by and he told me about all the detail that's in the game. How you can open almost every drawer, pick up things, examine items, use the telephone, how you can practise moves, etc. So around 2013 I bought Shenmue 1 and 2 through eBay.
I played Shenmue 1 on my Dreamcast console I bought back in 2000, but now on my HDTV with VGA adapter. I thought the graphics and detail in the game held up very well. So I played up untill disc 3 and got stuck in the harbor. I got in a loop where some event didn't happen and I got to work everyday and go to bed and this would go on and on. Eventually I stopped playing. In 2014 I decided to play the game again and I tried to load my save file from 2013. Somehow I got an error about the save file being incompatible because I was playing with a VGA adapter. Which is strange because I also played the game before with a VGA adapter. I tried to fix this by editing my save file with the Dream Explorer disc, but unfortunately it didn't work. So, I decided to start a new game and start all over again.
This was my first complete playthrough of Shenmue 1 and I became a fan. I needed to get used to the controls, but when I did I thought they were just great. The pacing was also something I needed to get used to. Now I don't think the game is slow anymore because when you have to wait a day there is so much you can do. Go exploring, talk to NPC's, go to the arcade, practise moves, etc. It's fantastic!
So when I finished Shenmue 1 I immediateley started playing Shenmue 2 untill I finished it. After Shenmue 2 was finished and I was left with the cliffhanger, I just wanted more. So when I heard about Yu Suzuki doing a postmortem about the development of Shenmue 1 at GDC 2014, I knew I had to see it and I had high hopes for a Shenmue 3 announcement. When that announcement wasn't made I was dissappointed.
I was excited to hear about the Shenmue 3 announcement at E3 2015 and I backed the Kickstarter with $100. I just wanted to be part of this amazing franchise and to have my name in the credits of the most anticipated game of all time is just a fantastic bonus!
So this is my history with Shenmue and although it didn't grab me the first time, it sure did by the time I finished it. I know now I will keep playing it and I'm already playing it again for my second playthrough.

bump

don't forget about about this tweetathon tomorrow people.

if you want want Team Yu to autotweet on your behalf then you'll need to 'sign in with twitter' at the bottom of page of the following link.

http://teamyu.net/Shenmue.III?action=saveshenmuehd

if you haven't done so already you'll need to activate your autotweet.

then go back to the above link and at the bottom of the page there should be a text box that says;
'I hope SEGA releases Shenmue 1 & 2 on modern systems before Shenmue 3 comes out.'

you can edit the tweet if you like. then you just need to click 'save' which is right next to it. And thats it!

Hello everyone ! How are you ?

Today on August 3rd, fans from all around the world are welcome to tweet and use the hashtag #SaveShenmueHD to spread the word on Twitter!

We've achieved something really great and Shenmue III is finally on its way. However, while we are waiting for it, let's try to give a chance to all the fans out there to get their hands on the first two games. It only takes like 20 seconds and if we spread it all together, we can make it happen again !

Here are the details :

http://teamyu.net/Shenmue.III?action=saveshenmuehd

I also have something special to announce today.

Last year, I had the chance to meet Yu Suzuki and interviewed him regarding Shenmue and Shenmue III. Best thing coming out of this was to share with you all the latest informations I could get. Many of you really appreciated my work, or atleast, that's the feeling I was getting from your messages. I've never felt so much love and can't thank you enough for that.

During the Kickstarter, I was going to pledge 2000 dollars because that's the maximum I had for it, but during the last days I've decided to reduce it to 600 dollars. The reason is because I had another project that I wanted to get done for me and for you. And here it is : a new interview with Yu Suzuki !

Since it's official now I can finally announce it : I will meet Yu Suzuki in September in Japan. It wasn't something easy to do as I had to cut my pledge, sell some of my rare video games gems in order to gather enough money for the flight and fees I will have to handle in Japan, but I am glad that it was possible.

Meeting Yu Suzuki once again is something I am really looking forward to. I will bring in my own questions. However, since I've also been doing this for you, I am going to ask YOURS. Of course, I might not be able to ask all of them but as always, I will do my best.

So here we go :

What kind of questions would you like me to ask ?

What are you looking forward ?

Share anything that you're thinking about even if that's not a question, I'll try to turn it into one.

You can either answer directly through comments or you can send your questions to : [email protected]
I cannot provide details about the day of the interview and when it will be published on Shenmue 500k, Shenmue Dojo and Shenmue Master, but whenever I am allowed to do so, you'll be the first to know.

My dream of working as Shenmue III Community Manager is far ahead and It's highly possible that It'll never come true, but that's as far as I am willing to go to show my motivation and how much I am into this to make it happen.

Thanks for your continued support, it helps me a lot.

Best regards,

David

( french and japanese translations below )

*** *** ***

En français :

Bonjour à tous !

Aujourd'hui, j'ai quelque chose d'important à annoncer. J'espère que vous prendrez le temps de lire ce que je vais écrire. Merci à vous !

L'année dernière, j'ai eu l'opportunité de rencontrer Yu Suzuki et de l'interviewer sur l'avenir de Shenmue et bien évidemment, Shenmue III . Ce qui m'a fait le plus plaisir était de pouvoir partager avec vous de nouvelles informations et d'après vos commentaires, vous étiez très satisfaits du contenu. Les messages de remerciements étaient nombreux et je vous en remercie encore une fois. Cela m'avait fait chaud au coeur.

J'avais un budget d'environ 2000 dollars lors de la campagne Kickstarter de Shenmue III . Il était destiné à l'un des rewards "Dragons Don't Sleep" mais j'ai décidé durant les derniers jours de réduire mon don à 600 dollars et de céder la récompense à un fan. La raison pour laquelle j'ai réduit mon pledge est que j'avais un autre projet en tête qui nécessitait de l'argent et je tenais à le réaliser pour moi, et aussi pour vous. Aujourd'hui, c'est officiel et je peux donc l'annoncer : une autre interview de Yu Suzuki est prévue !

C'est donc au mois de septembre que je vais revoir Yu Suzuki afin de l'interviewer et partager tout cela avec vous, une fois de plus. Cela n'a pas été facile car il m'a fallu vendre une partie de ma collection de jeux vidéo et comme indiqué ci-dessus, descendre mon pledge à 600 dollars afin de me payer le billet d'avion et tous les frais que j'aurai une fois sur place. Mais je l'ai fait aussi bien pour moi, que pour vous.

Rencontrer Yu Suzuki à nouveau est une chose que j'attends avec impatience. Mais je ne tiens pas à tout garder pour moi et je compte vous faire participer. En effet, je vais effectivement lui poser mes propres questions, mais je souhaiterais poser les vôtres également.

Quelles questions souhaiteriez-vous que je lui pose ?

Quelles sont vos attentes ?

Si vous avez des suggestions etc, n'hésitez pas à les écrire.

Vous pouvez poser vos questions directement via les commentaires ou les envoyer à : [email protected]

Je ne suis pas en mesure de pouvoir donner la date de publication de l'interview, ni la date précise à laquelle elle aura lieu, mais dès que j'aurai le feu vert, vous serez les premiers informés.

L'objectif aujourd'hui est d'apporter de nouvelles choses aux différentes communautés le temps que le développement de Shenmue III progresse.

Mon rêve de pouvoir travailler en tant que Community Manager via le projet Shenmue III est encore loin et ne se réalisera peut-être jamais, mais je suis prêt à me rendre au Japon et à mes frais si cela peut augmenter mes chances. J'espère atteindre un jour mon objectif grâce à ma motivation et mon envie de bien faire.

Encore merci à vous tous de m'avoir soutenu jusqu'à aujourd'hui. Cela m'a énormément aidé.

J'attends vos questions avec impatience !

A très bientôt !

David

*** *** ***

日本語：

皆さん、お元気ですか。

本日、大切なことを発表させていただきたいです。本文を読んで頂けたら、嬉しいです。

去年の９月１８日にシェンムーとシェンムーIIIについてのインタビューを鈴木さんと行わせて頂くことが出来ました。おかげさまで、新しい情報をゲットして、世界中のシェンムーファンの皆さんにお伝えできたのは一番良いことでした。感謝のメッセージが沢山届いたことが嬉しかったです。

シェンムーIIIのKickstarterのキャンペーンの間、私は２千ドルぐらいを支援する予定がありましたが、今回の私の企画のために、２千ドルの支援のお金を６百ドルに減らしました。その企画は確定されましたので、このページで皆さんに発表します。昨年に引き続き、今年も鈴木さんと一緒に会い、インタビューを行わせて頂くことになりました！

確定できるため、支援を減らして、自分のゲームコレクションも売ることにして、簡単ではありませんでしたが、飛行機の切符と来日する期間の資金を用意することが出来ました。

今回は、自分の質問だけではなく、可能であれば、シェンムーファンの皆さんの質問を考慮して、鈴木さんに伝えていきたいと思っています。なので、皆さん、私が鈴木さんに聞いて欲しい質問内容は何でしょうか。何について期待していますか。

質問がありましたら、是非コメントを残してください。または、こちらのメールでご質問を受け付けています。

メール : [email protected]

シェンムーIIIに関する仕事「コミュニティマネージャー」として働かせていただきたいという夢を叶えるために一生懸命頑張りたいですが、実現するかどうかまだ分かりません。ですが、諦めたくないので、最後までアピールしていきたいです。

今まで応援してくださった皆さんに大変感謝しております。

質問をお待ちしております。

デュビル・ダビッド

http://s9.postimg.org/smmg8xiun/david_yu.png

New episode:

Episode 9:

Our first glimpse of the Dragon mirror from F4F's upcoming Lan Di statue.
https://www.facebook.com/First4Figures

By the way - and I only made the connection after working on the subs - the female presenter at the 1998 Shenmue premiere, Reiko Chiba, is the person Yu and Hiroaki went to dinner with last week.

http://i.imgur.com/atbSXew.png
How I didn't notice that! Haha. [Probably because I didn't keep notice of her name on Twitter, just her appearance...]

Why I've a hunch that she's going to be the voice [and (possibly) the motion] actress of Niao Sun?

Here's your 4-page interview .. enjoy.

Here's another Shenmue 3 feature from Play UK .. enjoy

Episode 10

Gameinformer in their playthroughs want to know what Yu Suzuki thinks about Peter Jackson ripping off Chai for Gollum

This is a translation of an article that was published in the September 2001 edition of the Dorimaga magazine. In it, Yu Suzuki and some of the Japanese voice actors talk about the completion of Shenmue II (released for the Dreamcast in Japan during the month this article was published) including some of the content that had to be cut from the release, and reflect back on their experiences over the previous 5 years they spent on the Shenmue project.

Part of this article (about Chapter 2) was translated by Kiyuu and discussed back in 2003. Also a short manga version of the Chapter 2 boat scenario is included as unlockable content on the Xbox version of Shenmue II.

http://i.imgur.com/FoGm3IDt.png

Special Interview: Looking Back on Shenmue

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

Yu Suzuki – Executive Producer
Masaya Matsukaze – Japanese voice & motion actor for Ryo
Hazuki Ishigaki – Japanese voice & motion actress for Shenhua
Takumi Hagiwara – Japanese voice & motion actor for Ren

Compared to the previous episode, “Chapter One - Yokosuka”, the townsfolk of Shenmue II seem friendlier. The game gives the impression that it has been made to address some of the areas that had room for improvement in the first game, as if to acknowledge that some may find it off-putting if everyone were to give you the cold shoulder like in Shenmue I. Some people may already have completed Shenmue II in its entirety, but this interview covers a range of topics, including things that people who have finished the game will also want to hear about.

TV Commercials

Q: The first topic is about the commercials for Shenmue II that are currently being shown on TV.

Shenmue II Commercial #1: "Pork"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cdJMDayC4o Shenmue II Commercial #2: "Kung Fu"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVGozf4zCRs Shenmue II Commercial #3: "Beautiful Woman"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jv1cgLsQAk
Suzuki: To film those TV commercials we went over to Shanghai, although in the near future we plan to show commercials that will feature actual screens from the game. I think showing some of the gameplay will help attract ordinary members of the public to the game.

Matsukaze: You know, Hagiwara-san and I actually appear in one of those commercials, but probably no one’s noticed. (laughs) And we're really acting, too!

http://i.imgur.com/WV2O5Qr.png
Left & bottom-right: the set of the Hong Kong street at the Shanghai Film Park. The first photo was actually taken by Yu Suzuki. In the “Beautiful Woman” version of the commercial, look for Masaya Matsukaze (Ryo), and Takumi Hagiwara (Ren), showing their “real acting" (!) in the background.
Top-right: two giant pig carcasses containing a machine gun were chopped up on location. The set crew took the innards home for dinner.



Hagiwara: Right. People who have played Shenmue II are sure to recognize that we’re acting the bit where we lie in wait for Yuan. There are several different episode variations of the commercial, and they’re fun to watch. In the one with the old man, he was pretty shaky on his feet, so we had to film using a high-speed camera to make it look as though he was standing steadily. Gee, that old man was wobbling all over the place. (laughs)


Release of Shenmue II

Q: With Shenmue II going on sale soon, how do you all feel about that? You've been involved with Shenmue for a really long period of time.

Suzuki: We’ve been through a lot to get here, but for me I think the main thing is to have created something that will be loved by the people who play the game. Recently that’s all I’ve been thinking about. So I’m extremely keen to hear everyone’s comments. Right now it’s the only thing on my mind. (laughs)

Matsukaze: For me, I started my “countdown” about a month ago. It hasn’t felt that long, but I’ve been willing it to get here faster. (laughs)

Suzuki: I think the way the game has been put together is pretty unusual these days. For example, the shop interiors have been created down to the last inch. I don’t think any other game pays such ridiculous attention to detail. “Shenmue: The Movie”, which is playing right now, has that same flavor.

Q: It really has been a long project, hasn’t it. The voice actors have also been involved for ages; how long has it been?

Matsukaze: I’ve been playing the role of Ryo since the days of the Saturn. All up, I’ve been acting the part for just over 5 years.

http://i.imgur.com/LRomR4A.png
Matsukaze has been playing as Ryo for over 5 years.

Q: Did those 5 years feel long?

Hagiwara: It felt long! For one thing, an enormous amount of time was spent on filming, but it also took a long time for it to be incorporated into the actual game. We captured an endless amount of motion footage, and even after the voice recordings had been done, the creation of the game still had to be done. It seemed like the release day would never be reached.

Suzuki: Well, the software implementation side was tough too! After writing the software there was a huge checklist to be run through – I wish I had it here to show everyone! (laughs) There was a line chart that showed the number of check items decreasing; there were more than 10,000 items to check and it seemed endless.

Q: By the way, how many times larger is Shenmue II compared to Shenmue I?

Suzuki: I don’t know exactly, but I'd say easily 3 or 4 times the size of Shenmue I. But a lot of scenes got left out, because right as we neared the end of development I added a whole lot of extra content. Even using the best compression techniques of the time, there was too much for it all to fit. Even so, at the end we increased the content by about an extra 30% of the total game, for the area of Guilin where Shenhua appears.

Matsukaze: I heard a lot about that near the end of the development. People were saying that too much had been made and it wouldn’t all fit in.


The Cutting Room Floor

Q: I’ve heard that there was going to be a “Chapter 2 – The Boat” between Shenmue I and Shenmue II, but Shenmue II starts with Ryo disembarking from the boat, doesn’t it. And the mother of a little girl makes reference to something about that. (laughs)

Suzuki: That’s right. “Chapter 2 – The Boat” from the original scenario was dropped completely.

Matsukaze: Oh yeah, the boat! Actually Chai shows up there. It turns out that Chai survives being cast into Yokosuka harbor, and he shows up on the boat where Ryo fights against this unseen enemy. That was how the scenario was going to run.

Q: Were the scenes filmed?

Matsukaze: Yes, they were. They were filmed in a really over-the-top style. (laughs) Several of the people involved in the story on the boat were to then appear again in a later scenario. They would say something along the lines of “Oh, it’s you from that time on the boat...”, connecting the plot together. That was the plan for the scenario.

Suzuki: The confrontation with Chai would have made a nice situation. We had completed the designs for the boat interior, with everything detailed - from the escape routes and deck heights to the length of the handrails. The plan was that it would develop into a large-scale action scene.

Matsukaze: We completed filming of all the motion capture too. It started with opening the cabin door, and events developed spectacularly from there.

Q: So as you were working on making Shenmue II, you reluctantly had to cut it?

Suzuki: Well, it didn’t trouble me too much. I was like “It’s impossible, it won’t fit – cut it!”. (laughs)

Q: I’m guessing that there were a lot of other scenes cut from the final version, and motion capture that wasn’t included? In particular, I think Ren’s movements are really well done and I was impressed; but I kind of wish we could see more of them.

Hagiwara: Well, if the motion capture was kept for all the detailed actions, it would make a huge amount. We shot a ton of fight scenes as well. Quite a lot has been cut.

http://i.imgur.com/ppqn5We.png
On asking Yu Suzuki, “What happened to Niao Sun, who was shown at the premiere?”, he replies “I haven’t been able to use her yet, since she appears later in terms of the scenarios.” Masaya Matsukaze, who plays Ryo, hints at things to come: “When it’s time for Niao Sun to make an appearance in Shenmue, the story will have reached an amazing point!”


Q: Which was more difficult to carry out: dubbing voices to the actions, or the motion capture?

Suzuki: Firstly, these weren’t carried out by different people – the actor’s own acting is the source of the motion capture. Also, when an opponent is hit in the game he cries out; so by actually hitting him, his cry will be the cry of someone who has really been hit. (laughs) It may sound like tough work, but I think it was the perfect set-up.

There was a lot of trial and error at the beginning, but by the time we got to Shenmue II, at last we had found ways to manage things more efficiently.

Q: By the way, Shenmue is your first RPG-style game, isn’t it. Would it be correct to say that one of the main factors that sparked you to develop it is one that is commonly cited, namely the arrival of Final Fantasy VII during the era of the Saturn and PlayStation?

Suzuki: To be honest, part of it was because I found myself in a position of having “no place to go next”. The reason that the Sega Saturn lost popularity wasn't because it was beaten in terms of Sega vs Sony software titles, but because of a completely separate shift in power. And around that time I definitely had a kind of feeling of not having a place to go. As well as that, up until now I had been competing in the 3-minute world of arcade games, and I had been wanting to try my hand at creating something without such a time limit. So you can say that these two points are why I decided to move from arcades to try my hand on the home console.

http://i.imgur.com/9JQjld9.png
“At first Shenhua wears plain clothing, but I planned to have her wear various different clothes later on” says Suzuki. “I’m looking forward to seeing how the story unfolds” comments Hazuki Ishigaki, who plays the role of Shenhua.



Looking Back

Q: And so, now that at last Shenmue II has been completed, how do you feel now looking back on it? After the Shenmue Premiere event (December 20, 1998), I guess that the plan was to release it within a year, but it has turned out to have taken right up until now... Is that somewhere near the mark?

Suzuki: It’s true that it didn’t turn out quite as I had initially planned. As more people became involved things grew more and more complicated, not just by a factor of a few times, but exponentially. And with everyone being a developer, if the person next to them developed something impressive, then they would feel compelled to outdo it. This resulted in a kind of chain reaction where everyone would strive to improve their output quality. But it’s hard for me to tell people not to increase quality! It was really challenging to find the right balance.

However there is one thing I think turned out well. In some ways Shenmue shares similarities with fighting-based games, but in the last half of the game in Guilin, where Shenhua appears, there’s no fighting at all. So I feel that I’ve been able to bring out the true Shenmue spirit there.

With Shenmue the graphics are all generated in real time, and ordinarily an attempt to make a game like this would be abandoned in frustration. (laughs) Game developers simply don’t go to the extremes we did. To tell you the truth, I don’t think we could go through it all again.

The Future

Q: So you won’t be making another Shenmue?

Suzuki: The first thing I want to do is take some vacation (laughs), and the staff too. I don’t think we could put ourselves through such tough times again as we did with Chapter One. However, even so, I’ve now learned a lot about how to make this type of game and so I’m confident that we’ll be able to make the next one more efficiently and with less of a burden. We’ll be able to make a similar kind of game, and it’s something I want to do. But... I feel like taking a bit of a break first. (laughs)

Q: Hypothetically speaking, if there was the possibility again in the future, what would be your choice of hardware? Ah, before asking that - is there any potential for a port?

Suzuki: Porting Shenmue I and II across to other hardware wouldn’t be impossible, but due to the sheer size it would materially be a tough job to take on. The easiest and most likely option would be the PC, in a year or two. That’s because the PC has, in a sense, the ability to handle anything and has few constraints.

Q: What thoughts do you actors have about that?

Hagiwara: I’m already raring to go! (laughs) Bring it on!

http://i.imgur.com/CrmKdVM.png
We really hope to see more acting from Takumi Hagiwara, who plays Ren. “Just say the word and I definitely will!” he says.


Q: I would have liked to have seen Ren take part in more scenes, to be honest!

Hagiwara: I know, right? There are still heaps of interesting stories connected to the scenarios made so far. Things like “Why is Ren present?” and “Why did Shenhua make an appearance?” It all gets explained later on.

Ishigaki: My wish for a port is that it starts properly from the very first disk of the series (laughs).

Matsukaze: Yeah, I agree.

Q: Yu-san, going back to the point you mentioned about the feeling you had of “nowhere to go”, have you satisfied this to some extent for the future?

Suzuki: In a way... not completely though. Conversely, now things have turned into a kind of hardware war, so it has become kind of pointless, right? Life is full of variety, for better or worse. But for me, the creation process is enjoyable, and therefore I want to create a product that people will enjoy. I think that’s been the lesson I’ve learned.

Matsukaze: A lot of female characters appear in Shenmue II, but actually people like Fangmei have some really detailed parameters associated with them such as her level of intimacy. And to reflect these parameters, her spoken lines were all recorded with various tones of voice! I hope everyone can appreciate the amazing attention to detail that fills every corner of the game.

Suzuki: For me, I don’t consider that “Shenmue” came to an end with the demise of the Dreamcast. I have an emotional attachment to the game. And so, I hope to meet up with you all again one day.

Matsukaze: Let’s meet next time for “Shenmue Returns”. (laughs)

Hagiwara: Absolutely. I hope we can.

http://i.imgur.com/Xn9zNAj.png
Matsukaze, Ishigaki, Suzuki and Hagiwara. For now, the long long project that was Shenmue has come to an end. Will we meet everyone again in the next episode? Or perhaps in a different project... if one is in the works? We’ll be watching for the next release from Yu Suzuki!

Episode 12:

Episode 13

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. ”