I pledged the maximum $10,000, and will be having dinner with Yu Suzuki in Japan next September. I am beyond excited. I was watching E3 at the Opry Mills theater here in Nashville. As soon as it was announced, I ran out of the theater, hopped on my phone and pledged it immediately. Very reckless in all honesty as I'm not rich, but I just don't care. 8) I wonder who the other two are that'll have the dinner with me.

Alright everyone. After a few requests and support from members in me doing this again and especially after Shenmue 3 was announced I decided it was indeed a great time to revitalize the podcast and stick to it.

I present to you all the first episode, which is really just an intro to where I want to go with this. Episode 0 is just myself but I will get others to join in soon enough.

Feedback is welcome. I want to turn this into a community podcast and build it up to help the fan base.

Enjoy.

Audio
MP3 download and stream.

https://soundcloud.com/alexander-munoz-1/the-shenmue-cast-ep-0

Slide show video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am6KEh2QA6g

Please DON'T have quest markers. This is a big deal to me.

How about injuries and stamina ?

Certain moves taking more stamina that regenerates with time/damage/blocks like other fighting games ?

If you can gain experience point to spend in the skill tree, maybe you have to balance how much you can train per day or risk getting injured (so you may have to buy food/medicine) or getting recovered by days passing.

Also I was kinda mad they removed the automatic move button.

Thought I'd compile all the reddit Q&A in an initial post so it's easy to read for those who don't want to go through 10 pages. I'll edit my initial post as it goes on.

How accurately will Shenmue III be compared to your original vision of the game or will there be major compromises?

YS: There are a total of 11 chapters that make up the whole story. Over the past 14 years I originally planned for there to 4 or five games to the series. If at all possible, I would still like to realize the full story of 11 chapters.

Will Shenmue III enable PayPal or a means to donate to the project when the Kickstarter ends? Projects like Star Citizen gained tens of millions in donations by allowing this.

YS: I am still thinking about it, but have not decided yet.

Shenmue is a Peach Blossom tree correct? Could you tell us what type of tree exactly?
I would like to plant one.

YS: It is more like a cherry blossom tree, that blooms its flowers in the springtime. It is actually a tree I made up for the story.

Hello Suzuku-san! Will a day-to-night cycle and weather system return to Shenmue 3? They added so much to the atmosphere of previous games. Thank you Suzuki-san!

YS: Of course!

Will you reassure us that Ryo's face will be changed back to the Ryo we all know and love when Shenmue 3 releases, and not this impostor wearing Ryo's jacket that you have on Kickstarter? That is NOT our Ryo!

YS: I am not happy with Ryo's face. It will be the face I have in my mind in the end.

Will the gameplay in Shenmue III be more contemporary or will it be more in line with past Shenmue iterations?

YS: As for III, I would like to make a less stressful user interface, that will feature more usability. From now on, I will make that a focus.

Yu are my hero!
Shenmue is credited with introducing the QTE. Given the significant advances in gaming systems and technology over the last decade, are you confident that you can show the gaming world something we have not seen before?

YS: Thank you very much.

Will we see any capsule toys based on Ape Escape or any of the Sony franchise in Shenmue 3?

YS: I have not decided the capsule toys, so please keep your ideas coming.

Have you ever consider telling the rest of the tale for Shenmue in a book if the opportunity to make Shenmue III never came up?

YS: Yes, I have but if I did do that, it would give away the end of the story, and I thought that would be a big minus.

What was your inspiration for the story behind the first two Shenmue games?

YS: When I was making Virtua Fighter, I went location hunting in China. I was very inspired by Chinese martial arts. That very well may have been the beginning.

Will practicing moves make a return in Shenmue 3 along with the FREE battle system? A lot of fans feel not being able to practice moves was big piece missing in Shenmue 2, and I also personally loved being able to practice and make the moves stronger. It really makes you feel as if you are learning marital arts and then performing them in a skill-based actual battle feels very satisfying.

YS: I want to do it yes!

Will players have access to both the Japanese and English voice overs for the game?
And I wanted to say thank you so much for Shenmue and Shenmue II, it brought a tear to my eye seeing those games at E3 during the Shenmue III announcement, I cannot wait. Those two games are what made me curious about Japan as a child, and I am now trying to work as a Japanese translator!

YS: I am thinking about that, yes. However it is not for sure.
It is because of fans like you, I wanted to make a sequel. Thank you very much.

Will the band-aid ever come off?

YS: I am considering a special option where it could be removed.

Will we see Ryo's Journal return? Would be cool to be able to flip the pages using the PS4's touchpad.

YS: I would like to bring back the Journal. That is an interesting idea, I will look into it. Thank you.

What do you think of the current state of Japanese game development?

YS: I see the share of mobile games increasing, the budgets of games decreasing. It will be harder to express a game's vision.
I would hope the console and PC markets gain more popularity.

Any possibility of a bicycle finally being added to Shenmue 3? Thank you so much again, Yu!

YS: There is a 60 horsepower bike in Shenmue 1. For Shenmue, 3 I was thinking about something with 1 horsepower.

Will character polls compromise your artistic vision?

YS: I really want to get everyone's opinion on the characters. I have something in mind that won't break the world immersion.

In Suzuki-san’s opinion, what is the essence of arcade games? Are those influences in Shenmue?

YS: With an arcade game, you are restricted to a 3 minute window to express what the game is. That is how I made games for the longest time. I wanted to create a game that could be played at a more leisurely pace, so I created what ended up being Shenmue.

Yu, are you really going to be signing your autograph on the illustration for the $300 kickstarter signed collectors edition? So far there is almost 2000 backers, that is a lot of illustrations to sign!

YS: Of course I will write them all myself!

Will Shenmue 3 have any sort of multiplayer component? Perhaps Co-op or a versus mode?

YS: I am thinking about something that would resemble that.

Do you have any more details to share about the stretch goals? It's not clear to me what a "Rapport System" or "Character Perspective System" entails.

YS: They are new systems, so naturally they need new names. The Rapport System will govern changes in Shenhua's actions depending on your conversations with or actions towards her. The "Character Perspective System" will highlight different characters personalities as they go through the story.

What will Ryo do to earn money in Shenmue 3?
As great and engrossing as the story and gameplay were in Shenmue 1 and 2, I (and many others) really really liked the forklift driving. It was like I could learn a new (video game) skill, get good at it, and putter around the docks like a badass.

YS: There will be part time jobs that will be indicative of those you would find in China. In the Stretch goals there will also be the old favorites.

Do you have any dogs or cats?

YS: 3 yorkshire terriers and a turtle.

Love your work! You are a pioneer in this industry! As for my question:
How much game elements/features will we be missing in the game if the campaign doesn't reach the $5 million mark?

YS: I will say this: if we reach the $5 mil mark, one of the things I really want to do with Shenmue 3 will become a reality.
At $10 million, it will truly have the features of an open world.

Who would win a fight between Ryo and Akira?

YS: Akira! Akira is up to 5 now, and Ryo is still on 3.

Can we expect more duck racing in Shenmue III? That was the best easter egg I've ever seen in a video game.

YS: I would love it.

How was it working with mega64?

YS: It was really fun. I would love to do it again.
I hope they pitch in for the replica Ryo jacktet!

Will there be forklift gameplay in Shenmue III?

YS: Look for it in the Stretch Goals!

Given Shenmue 2's ending and previous items found within the series; will swordplay enter gameplay at all? What about the story, can we expect Ryo to use a sword at some point?

YS: I can't answer that.

Do you have a favorite game that you've developed other than Shenmue?

YS: I had fun making all the games I worked on, and can't say one was better than another. Boring answer I know, but it really is true.

I only have one statement. I think I speak for everyone here when I say that Shenmue is one of the greatest game series of all time. And one quick question, what can we expect for surprises in the 3rd installment without spoiling the storyline at all?

YS: How could I do that? Sorry, gotta pass. Thank you very much though!

I've always wondered, why did you set the game in the 1980s rather than present day?

YS: I wanted put forward the differences in culture and values between the two periods.

(Suzuki-san, thank you for coming today! Shenmue is the reason I came to Japan. Those living towns and people you showed in your games were so natural and real, that I wanted to see it for myself. So, now I am in my fourth year of living in Japan.
What I'd like to ask is, if you had billions of yen, what would your dream Shenmue be?
Also, were there any features or gameplay you liked that didn't make it into Shenmue 1 or 2?)

YS: One where the player could live in that world. A second life.

I have two important questions for you:
Do you know where I can find some sailors?
Would you like to try a game of Lucky Hit?

YS: Yes, but not right now.
Uh, ok.

I love the music from Shenmue, if anything kept me thinking about Shenmue from time to time during these 10+ years it was the music. Was is your favorite piece from the soundtrack? Thank you for bringing Shenmue to our lives, I can't thank you enough.

YS: Of course I love both the Shenmue and Shenhua themes, and all of them really, but the one that really sticks with me is the Tomato Mart.

Will there be more funding tiers added to the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter, specifically between the $500 and $3000 tier?

YS: Yes.

Shenmue 3 is just the start. How successful does the game need to be for us to get Shenmue 4 and so on until the saga is complete?

YS: If the fans are not happy with 3 there will not be a 4. So I please hope we can together make this game the best it can be.

What Sega console is your favourite and why?

YS: The Dreamcast. It has really good balance. I was involved with the hardware as well, so it had a lot of meaning for me.

Suzuki-San...welcome to the fantasy zone! It's finally happening. Any plans on more arcade games within Shenmue III?

YS: I plan on making plans.

Why do you create?

YS: Why does one climb the mountain?
The shark cannot breath when it does not swim.

Any info on the stretch goals for Choubu and Bailu village?

YS: Choubu is a riverside village with lots of shops, souvenir stores, hotels and temples. The quests in this village should be very enjoyable, I think.
Bailu is the village where Shenhua was raised and also a place that Ryo's father, Iwao, had visited when he was younger. Here as well the quests will play an important role as Ryo and Shenhua start their journey.

Are all the towns listed in the Kickstarter stretch goals in the game already, or are the stretch goals only there as a means to help give them more features and spice?

YS: They are there, but with more powered up through the stretch goals.

Will Ryo ever go back to Japan?

YS: Not in 3.

Who is your favorite Shenmue character?

YS: It has always been Shenhua.

Are you still involved in any programming activities?

YS: I still write algorithms, logic verification, and make simple prototypes.

Do you play airsoft, paintball, or anything similar?

YS: I think it was Afterburner that I really got into airsoft. The office floor was covered with plastic BBs. Yeah, the Berretta 93R rocks. I put a real hunting scope on that one.

Are you at all a fan of Anime? If so, what are your favourites?

YS: Sure, but its all pretty old stuff.

Will the game take advantage of the virtual reality goggles on PS4 and PC?

YS: Right now, there are no plans for a vr system compatibility, but I love the idea of using it to peer into the world of Shenmue.

When creating Shenmue 3, will you use any assets at all from 1 & 2? Or do you have to start all over from scratch because SEGA still owns the first two games?

YS: The assets from 1 & 2 will get a lot of use.

I hope Ryo becomes a rickshaw runner/operator or whatever you call the people who pick up the two handles and run. This could actually become a pretty funny QTE minigame.

Hi

i made a poll so people can give their opinion, but well just open the link and you will understand i think
(please share the link on whatever Shenmue or video games related site/forum you go, i cant subscribe to all of them)

http://strawpoll.me/4684057
(the main idea being raising more funds)

http://poucopixel.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/RyoCoke.jpg

i was just thinking about a few sponsor (with high level selection)
so we could see Hyundai, Pepsi, Nutella, etc...

if i get enough vote i will transmit them to Shibuya Productions (company supporting Yu Suzuki and in direct contact with him)

i just want to get the 10 millions $ so dont hate me for that...

It won't cost 400k to write the subtitles. It's just how the strech goals are laid out.
I think it's a good thing that they actually planned these subtitles from the very beginning.

Shenmue and Shenmue II got some bad feedback for not having German subtitles (or any other then English in the PAL version for that matter) and I know of people that don't play the game because they can't get into the story that much without having native language subtitles. That is the biggest thing. People didn't play the game becuase of that, it alienated gamers by only having english subtitles.

Shenmue III should not fall into a niche product category by not offering translated subtitles, like every other game does today. I know Shenmue is niche and III is only a Kickstarter game but come on, this is NOT a waste of money.

Yeah, I think they just included the subtitles as stretch goals to get people from those countries to donate, clever idea.

You know, now that I think about it, the 400k sort of bothers me. I'd really like to know how they came to this conclusion. Simple subtitles shouldn't really be this expensive. What am I missing here.
High quality translations can get a lot more expensive than you think, even without voice over. There's the agency, the translators and the reviewers that have to be paid and the subtitles have to be properly incorporated into the game which also takes some time. The developer also constantly needs to provide information and context for the translators for difficult and unclear passages (which is a problem with most clients, I'm experiencing it myself regualarly when working on texts).

Yeah, this is I agree with, well, most of it, :) but 100k still sounds too much for me. How much are these people getting payed? :D

EDIT: I guess a god damn lot.
I can't complain, some projects are really well paid. :)
But I wouldn't take the 400k too seriously, I think it's just a more or less random number like in other Kickstarter projects when it says "100,000$ more and you'll get another character" or something like that. I can't imagine it is possible to perfectly calculate stretch goal costs so early.

I'm new here! So, hi everyone who has been here for years before me.

I'm from IL, I'm 23 years old, and I love Shenmue. :D

Any relation to Riku? Either way, give me your purse.

No, I dunno who he is.

http://www.quickmeme.com/img/21/21d2f2194e7eb6925dac5a428cc518d4398b850316887505b740e8bd0e8ffdd2.jpg

http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2015/06/20/88702.html

I'll try to translate it, but it might take a while...

Edit: Found another one on the same site from the 17th: http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2015/06/17/88607.html

Edit 2: Translation is complete. I'm neither native in english nor japanese, so it might sound strange in some places.

Again, this is the inside-games.jp article from 2015-06-20
- a follow up on the interview Switch translated.

------------------------------------------------

Yu Suzuki, the man who started the Shenmue III Kickstarter that set a new Guinness record for the fastest game reaching 1 million dollars. One night after the last time we spoke we ask again about the state of the project and about game creating.

-- Thanks for the other day. This time I would like to dig deeper.
YS: Please go ahead.

-- Can you tell us more about this "nostalgia" that you mentioned was like a theme or keyword for Shenmue 3.
YS: Wherever I go in the world I'm always asked "Where is Shenmue 3?" By mail or through other persons. That's when I felt it, that Shenmue has a lot of parts in it, the things that you feel about the game can differ very much from person to person. Like, one fan said he met a person called Nozomi in real life, you know, like the heroine of Shenmue I. He felt that it was some kind of fate and married her.

-- Wow. Really?
YS: Yeah. it's true. Other than that there were things that seemed obvious for japanese people, but were new for foreigners. For example in the first game Ryo walks around and asks for help from many different people, right? As he leaves he always says "Thank you". There are foreigners that were moved by that. When I heard that I thought "Well, don't you say thank you in your country?".

-- Maybe they don't say things that explicit in that culture?
YS: And in the game these "excuse me" and "thank you"s are repeated many many times. For people not experiencing that in their daily lives it might have been a bit of a shock for them. I took that to my heart.

-- I guess there aren't that many RPGs that end their conversations with "thank you".
YS: And in this society we live in now information is shared over the internet, but as you go further back through the years, and go further into the countryside, information exchange is slow and the culture and customs are more specific to that area. The beliefs and values of the people living there are [less complicated and] easier to understand. That is very interesting.

-- I see.
YS: So maybe the people anticipating part 3 are having fond memories and feel a bit nostalgic. I think people are probably feeling nostalgic about the Shenhua, Ryo and Shenmue from fifteen years ago. And I think that I shouldn't destroy that nostalgia with part 3. If I don't make that work with part 3 I don't think the game will live up to the expectations. That's why the keyword for part 3 is nostalgia.

-- Wasn't part 1 and 2 also make with nostalgia as a keyword?
YS: It's a different kind of nostalgia with part 3. In part 1 and 2 there is the nostalgia towards the era, in part 3 it's the nostalgia towards the game. For part 1 and 2 the target user was late teens to early twenties, so for these users I wanted them to experience the culture of the streets still having that showa-period feel of 1986, and be nostalgic about it. So in contrast to that, in part 3 I want the players to be nostalgic about part 1 and 2.

-- So looking at the years... part 1 and 2 came out in 2000 and 2001. Since part 1 in taking place in 1986 Yokosuka, the users playing the game at 20 years of age would have been six when the game took place.
YS: So it's not really nostalgia since it's a story from when they were just kids. Maybe making them feel "there was a world like this" together with the nostalgia.

-- Since then 15 years has passed and the users has become 35 and start feeling nostalgic about things. Now they are looking back and being nostalgic about having played part 1 and part 2.
YS: Yes. Now they are nostalgic about the experience with Shenmue.

-- So the games were released and as said before the users over the world described what moved them which you didn't think about when the games were made, right? As a game creator, did you continue to be surprised by all the reactions over these 15 years?
YS: Yes. They didn't come all at once. The comments continued coming from all over the world. Especially about cultural differences.

-- As with part 1 and 2, even if you think about what the users will enjoy in part 3, it might be different between japanese and foreign users.
YS: It's different. I can't remember making part 1 and 2 for foreigners.For example the themes of Outrun and other arcade games I made a long time ago were chosen in order to be popular all over the world. But for Shenmue 1 and 2 there were no thoughts about the target country.

-- You didn't make them for japanese users?
YS: I didn't really think about it. It was more about making a new game style, there is something interesting in just that. Making a new thing means a new kind of game which would make the world take notice of it. A new system. But I never thought everyone would react to the culture and customs like this.

-- You can say the new system was the skeleton and the culture and customs were the flesh and outward appearance, maybe?
YS: Maybe more like the system is the physical and culture and customs are the spiritual.

-- That would connect with the word "spiritual" that is often said about Shenmue. So for part 3 you can keep working on the aspects you didn’t think about that people actually really enjoyed about part 1 and 2.
YS: Yeah.

-- Neilo is developing part 3. The CEO Tak Hirai was the lead programmer of part 1 and 2 I've heard. Could you share the story of how you came to work on this project together again? Did you keep in touch during these 15 years?
YS: I've been in contact with Hirai and other members all the time since then. Drinking sometimes, talking about wanting to make Shenmue etc. "If it ever happens I'll count on you". We always said things like that.

-- Everyone was thinking about it.
YS: I'm a programmer from the beginning and Hirai too, so we have a kind of programming bond. In a game there are graphics, sound, program and other elements, but I want to focus on the programming.

-- I see.
YS: There are great games in the world today. Destiny, Grand Theft Auto, Assassin's Creed and more. The budget difference makes it very hard to challenge them in graphics and quality. For example Nintendo games are a bit less graphically advanced, but I don't care about that. They have great playability and I love them. So that's the approach. I'll probably challenge myself on the programming side. I think the programming makes games fun. So with that in mind the programming lead becomes an important partner.

-- Meaning Hirai-san.
YS: Yes. Back then Hirai was the programming lead and... Ah, I guess I can't call just call him Hirai anymore {as in dropping “-san”}. He was working under me back then... He was the one who started Neilo so f course he's great at programming. And this time, for the development of 3, we have gained access to the source code from part 1 and 2. He has written much of that code and might be able to reuse some of it. Back then there were probably nobody as great as him at programming. So in that sense being able to collaborate with him and his company is great.

-- It looks like there are other important creators participating.
YS: Yes. The screenwriter Yoshimoto-sensei is helping out. I'm very happy that many key members are participating.

-- How is the development looking now? I guess you have been talking with Neilo until now.
YS: It all depends on how the Kickstarter goes. If it fails, everything stops. Since it's not finished yet we can't do any real work. But we can do the work we can. We've been having a lot of meetings. For the Kickstarter we've been making promotional videos in Unreal Engine 4, but that was delegated to Neilo. However, I was of course directing it. We worked together like that. The budget will be decided in about a month I think so that's when we'll organize the project team. The plan is fluid but Neilo will be the center, and that won't change.

-- During the Sega era, how was Hirai-san?
YS: When we made Shenmue we were over 300 people at one time. We had managers for different sections, and he had about 100 people under him. So he was between me and where work was being done. He was very much trusted by his subordinates. I think that's the best compliment I can say about him. People who are trusted from above might just be appeasing their supervisors. But it takes someone special to be trusted by those working for him.

The rest of the questions are more about how and why he creates games. While interesting, it’s not that relevant in regards to the Shenmue III project.

Here's a translation for a Yu Suzuki interview published by Inside-Games on June 17.
http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2015/06/17/88607.html

Capsule Toys Maniac working on the translation for the second interview with Yu Suzuki they published on June 20.

[E3 2015] Interview with Yu Suzuki following his Kickstarter achievement
June 17, 2015

The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter: the campaign got underway on stage at the SCE press conference held on June 15 (local time), and achieved its minimum goal in the short space of just 8 hours. It is now aiming to achieve stretch goals, and the amount of backing is continuing to increase as it heads towards the deadline of July 17. At the E3 venue we asked the creator of Shenmue, Yu Suzuki of Ys Net, about his most recent thoughts and about the enthusiasm for Shenmue 3.

-- Congratulations on the Kickstarter achievement.

YS: Thank you. At any rate, it’s the first time I’ve done this, so I don’t have much experience with it. When I heard that the sheer number of accesses to the Shenmue 3 project page on Kickstarter caused it to crash multiple times, I knew we would be successful. This may sound bad, but I was happy. I heard that the times it took to reach the $1 million and $2 million levels are a new record within the games category, and second-fastest across all projects. Since it’s my first experience [with Kickstarter], it’s only through those kinds of statistics that I get a sense of the reality.

-- How do you feel at the moment? Pleased? Relieved? A deserved result?

YS: Well, things are really just getting started. I’m always looking to try new challenges, and so in order to take on as many of these as possible, the more budget we can collect the better. We’ve got stretch goals as well, and I’d like to see how far we can go.

-- Is it accurate to say that all of the development funding will be raised through Kickstarter?

---Show to continue reading ---
YS: No, development will be carried out with Ys Net own funding together with Kickstarter. I won’t know the scale of the budget until the Kickstarter campaign has finished, so I can’t comment on it right now.

-- What were the events that led to you being on stage at SCE’s press conference?

YS: It started by my sounding them out to see if they had any interest in the Shenmue 3 project. Actually, it turns out that Shenmue was at the top of their list of software that people wanted to see revived. And so, with that being the case, I had the chance to speak with SCE and (without sounding like I’m blowing my own trumpet!) they told me “It’s a game of great historical importance; and everyone wants it, so if you were to go ahead and develop part 3, as an exceptional case, we will give you our co-operation”. I had already let them know that I wanted to do this through Kickstarter, and so that’s how it came about.

-- Are there plans for a release on Xbox One?

YS: We don’t have plans for a release on Xbox One. The platforms that are confirmed are PS4 and PC.

-- Was the reason you started development on part 3 due to the voice of support from the fans?

YS: That’s right. For more than 10 years I had been hearing those kinds of requests, and trying to find a way to make it happen. I did things like searching for a partner (company) but did not find one that fit the criteria and so I wasn’t able to make a start. Then came the possibility of realizing it through a combination of self-funding and Kickstarter.

-- I see.

YS: Also there was the aspect of Kickstarter of “creating something together with everyone”. As I stated in my promotion video, it’s the spirit of “within your hands”. Some say that the Shenmue series is the originator of the open-world genre. In reality, with the present amount of $2 million, making a Shenmue that will meet everyone’s expections, even without implementing an open world, is unlikely to be achievable. However, the demand I hear most from the fans is to know how the rest of the story plays out.

-- Yes, that’s something we’d like to know.

YS: In addition, the Shenmue series has a rich portrayal of Eastern and Japanese culture, and so it has quite a different feel to it compared to any other open world games. Because of this, trying to accomplish both the “story” aspect and the “open world” aspects simultaneously is likely to lead to the budget rising higher and higher, and no matter how much time passes it is impossible to get development underway. After thinking long and hard, I have decided to do as much as possible with a minimum level of funding, even if it means creating something story-oriented. Then, if additional development funding is collected, I will add on various elements. And so I decided that development will be based on this kind of scalable approach.

-- This way of thinking is uniquely suited to Kickstarter, isn’t it.

YS: Further, with [development of] any game, there is a piece of it which can easily cost a lot of money to implement; while at the same time it has another piece that doesn’t need to cost a lot of money, namely making it interesting through its ideas and plot. I also think that Shenmue does not consist of merely its story and its open world; it is also fun to play, and I think the way we capture this is vital. Above all, I decided to maintain both the fun and the story aspects, even at the minimum budget level.

-- How much money will be raised is becoming increasingly of interest.

YS: Yes. It’s not that we will not be implementing an open world, but doing so lavishly will cause the budget to shoot up. On the other hand, since I am a creator, I’d like to try new mechanisms. I have set stretch goals with that balance in mind.

-- Compared to 15 years ago, the possibilities for game implementation have greatly widened. Are there any games that have influenced the creation of part 3?

YS: That would be Shenmue 1 and 2.

-- What aspects do you place most importance on, and wish to continue in the new game?

YS: Firstly, the most important is that I want to show how the story continues. As well as that, “nostalgia” is a keyword here: the nostalgic feeling of when we created part 1 and 2, 15 years ago. But even at that time, the setting for part 1 and 2 was the world of 1986. In principle, I believe that going back to an earlier age really brings out the flavor of a region’s culture. That’s the case with the era of the 1980s (and earlier), compared to the current day. Even looking at other countries around the world, as the eras pass by, the scenery of cities all starts to look the same.

-- Yes, that’s true.

YS: This kind of Eastern and Japanese culture, and the spiritual aspect, is what makes Shenmue special. Although though this has given it popularity in the West, what it expresses is certainly not Western. Through thorough creation of so-called Eastern spiritual aspects, culture and customs, I want to bring out people’s interest towards a different culture. There are a lot of things I would like to carry through from parts 1 and 2 to part 3, but through the scalable plan that I mentioned earlier, I want to pay special attention to these kinds of things.

-- Are there any aspects you want to try, given the increase in hardware specs nowdays?

YS: This may not directly answer the question, but actually when we made part 1 and 2, we also completed the plan for part 3. I want to go forward with that exactly as we had planned.

-- Could you explain more?

YS: In part 1, we implemented an open world that we called FREE, and the concept of time passing within the game. In part 2, we greatly expanded that world. In part 3, and this may be giving too much away, but we planned to keep these aspects intact, while making it much deeper. And in parts 1 & 2, while there were elements centered around money e.g. you could “do a part-time job, gamble to increase your money, purchase items at a shop...”, they did not really have any connection with the fighting and skill improvement parts. So when we make part 3, I have in mind to build up those elements; that’s something I would like to try doing.

-- What would be a concrete example?

YS: I’m thinking of a “Technique Scroll” system. Through actions in the game, you can gain new technique scrolls which let you perform special moves. Whether these moves are something you can control directly, or whether they are implemented in a QTE, is something we will be considering and deciding in the future.

-- Please tell us about the release schedule.

YS: Release is planned by the end of 2017.

-- Could you give a message to our readers.

YS: It is thanks to the continous voice of the fans who have waited for the next part of Shenmue across these many years, that we have been able to get started. This is only possible thanks to all the people who give their support. I will continue to put in my best effort, so please give your support and encouragement.

-- Thank you very much.

Check this part out. It seems to fit our situation.

https://youtu.be/xw6cMBzBSw0?t=229

We'd have to edit the video to skip a few parts, but if we can get someone to voice Fuku-san(shouldn't be too hard) and Corey to change a little of the dialogue it would be awesome! We'd also need someone to capture that part of the game, preferably in HD. What do y'all think?

[color=yellow]Shenmue is inherently spiritual anyway, I think it's the mysticism that's throwin everyone off.



I wouldn't agree that it is inherently spiritual, since we're are far from sure whether the story and setting (i.e Lan Di's reason for collecting the mirror) originally stems from such concept. Also, I should say, growing from boy to man isn't a spiritual transformation, as it's been said. Personally, regardless of the so-called prophecy in the epilogue, spirituality seems far from taking any kind of major place in the series, prevailing, instead, the mundane and everyday's relationship with it. On the deeper level, philosophy, especially through Ethics, is fundamental to this story of perseverance, accountability and emotion - natural, human endeavours.

Really cool of him to support this. He definately needs to post as Ryo in some form, at least convince the people in his Ryo voice to "Try a game of Kickstarter"

GUESS WHAT!!!

This is an interview with Yu Suzuki from the japanese site 4gamer.net published 2015-06-19.
Here translated by me.

Original article: http://www.4gamer.net/games/305/G030593/20150618126/

Among other things it brings up interesting new information about the 5 million dollar stretch goal; the character perspective system.

There is also a slight spoiler of a character that might appear, so those of you who want to play the game totally spoiler free should maybe avoid reading this.

here we go.

-- Thanks for being here.
YS: Thanks for having me. before jumping into questions I just want to make clear that Shenmue is a Kickstarter project and the scope and contents depend on the stretch goals.

-- Yeah, looking at the Kickstarter stretch goals there are the rapport system and skill tree and other added.
YS: We add more stretch goals so as more people pledge the scope of the game will get bigger. So as of now I can’t talk in detail about the mechanics of the game. What I’m able to accomplish will very much depend on the funds we can gather. I want to avoid telling too much and end up betraying those who have paid.

-- Under those circumstances, what do you want to do with Shenmue III?
YS: I want to show the relationship between Ryo and Shenhua in more detail. Even further than previous games.

-- It’s kind of hard to imagine how that would work.
YS: Maybe so. I want to to challenge myself, but new things are hard to get people to understand and therefore harder to gain support for. That’s one of the reasons we have prepared stretch goals like larger map and mini games.

-- So you made easy to understand stretch goals first.
YS: As more money comes in, the world of Shenmue III gets larger, and the game becomes more complete. But if it becomes a question of what game has the largest world, the game with the largest budget has a sure advantage. When it comes to Shenmue III, I want to ensure that there are other parts to enjoy besides just the open world aspects.

-- Can you give us any examples?
YS: At 3.2 million dollars there is the rapport system stretch goal. Actions and conversations will affect the relation between Ryo and Shenhua in subtle ways. The way Shenhua speaks and cooperate etc. will change.

-- It seems like the story could change depending on the relationship.
YS: Let’s just say that it depends on the budget. Making statements like that is just asking for trouble (laugh).

-- I get it (laugh). Could you explain the 5 million dollar stretch goal; the character perspective system?
YS: That is where the player will take control of characters like Shenhua and Ren instead of Ryo.

-- At a certain point in the game will we be able to change characters freely?
YS: I can’t talk about details yet, so I will just say that it’s not necessarily like we are letting you control the other characters exactly like Ryo.

-- So it’s not like you can just change characters at will.
YS: The personality of Ren and Shenhua is different from Ryo, so even if they see the same thing the reactions would be different. When you played as Ryo it was his decisions, but playing as Ren and Shenhua would make it very interesting.

-- Hearing that makes me even more interested (laugh).
YS: I’m unable to describe it any more until the 5 million dollar stretch goal is reached, so I’ll stop here for today.

-- By the way, will the story end with this part.
YS: To tell the truth, the original story is too long to end here. So I decided against trying to fit it all in to Shenmue III.

-- Which means that after the Shenmue III project has been finished we have to wait for the the next part.
YS: First we have to do our best to make Shenmue III a solid game.

-- Let’s leave the appearance of Shenmue III and talk about the backend. Can you tell us why you chose to use Unreal Engine 4?
YS: It’s because it’s easy to use and fits with how I imagine Shenmue to look. There are like rendering tendencies for the different engines, and the base colors of Unreal Engine 4 added with “dampness and scent” makes it Shenmue.

-- Are the colors you imagine the same as with the first two parts?
YS: Of course. Shenmue had that air humidity feeling well presented and it had a smell too. That’s what I aim for with Shenmue III.

-- So you’re saying that if you take a scenery out of the game and look at it you’d be able to say “That’s Shenmue!”?
YS: Yeah, That’s what I want to do. But the promotional video we made for Kickstarter felt dry. Kind of ended up like the Californian humidity level (laugh).

-- Your idea of the exact colors or the “scent” of the graphics, is it hard to convey that to the developers?
YS: It it very very hard to explain it. It’s like trying to explain what a melon is to someone who only has seen watermelons and mandarins. Well, you can say the size is about in the middle, but trying to explain the taste is very hard.

-- With that said, do you have members from the former parts working on Shenmue III?
YS: Yes. So we have the original members that kind of know what Shenmue is about.

-- After fifteen years, it’s quite the thing to bring everyone together again.
YS: I think so. Everyone has gone independent or changed their positions, but even at this stage when the scope of the production isn’t set in stone they have gladly offered to join. That’s really heartwarming.

-- It feels like the relationship is deeper than what you could expect from work colleges.
YS: That’s because Shenmue was a project that was more than just work. Ten years after the development of Shenmue II we had this get-together and more than 100 people came.

-- That’s amazing. I’m not sure if I would call that just a get-together.

-- The level of creativity in the games you have created is often very high. Is there any secret to this?
YS: No. I never play games outside work, so I don’t get that influenced by other games. Maybe that’s the reason.

-- I had this idea that you researched other games thorough and tried to make something different, but I guess that’s not true then.
YS: Yeah. it easier to just make something from zero (laugh).

-- So maybe If someone from the media like me hear an explanation for a game and say “Is it like the mechanics from that other game?” you might not be able to get it?
YS: I’m sorry, but I guess that’s true. Well, maybe I have to study the trends in the most popular games.

-- By the way, this is the first in a long time that you get to work on a game this big.
YS: Yeah. It feels like it was a long time ago I got this invested in a game.

-- It’s not like you totally left the game industry, but what do you think of the game industry in Japan looking from a bit afar.
YS: The game engine Unity came out and made it easy for just one person to make his own game, which is a good thing. It wouldn’t be healthy if only big budget games were able to survive. It’s good that the market has expanded with more alternatives. But it’s kind of sad that a majority of games that make money are small like games for smartphones.

-- Do you feel like more effort should be made in making titles for the consoles?
YS: Yeah. Before, Japan was said to be number one in game making. It’s sad that the knowledge that had amassed during that time wasn’t used better.

-- Many of the people during that time went over to make games for smartphones.
YS: It’s not like games for smartphones are necessarily bad, but what’s characteristic of smartphone game making is that the development cycles from start to finished tend to be fast. It might be good for business, but I’m not really satisfied with that. If you compare to cars there’s the really popular cars that sell well. They make a lot of money for the company, but if they don’t develop their flagship model their technical advancement will suffer.

-- In USA there is still a lot of money spent in games for game consoles and PC.
YS: Yeah. That kind of rich content helps activate the whole industry. I hope the industry in Japan gets back on track like before...

-- Oh, the interview got very negative suddenly. Could you maybe give a word of encouragement to the young developers of today or people thinking about making games?
YS: Today is different from before. It’s possible for anyone to make games now. Before it was impossible to make games if you didn’t know how to program, but now there are tools for that. It’s also possible to study game development, and it’s easy to learn from the internet. Living in this age you shouldn't think too hard and just try for fun, go in the direction that feels best for you. Begin with having fun creating.

Comments:
The character perspective system means taking control of characters other than Ryo. He literally says “レンやシェンファ” which means characters “like Shenhua and Ren” so it could be for other characters too. (Edit: Or it could be just an example of characters. Like Thief said: "It could mean that characters like Shenhua and Ren (as in main supporting cast characters) are playable. Ren could have merely been used as an example." Thanks Thief! )
But it’s pretty much as close of a confirmation that we can get that Ren will show up in Shenmue III in one way or another. There is a concept art image of him riding a horse so it’s maybe not that unexpected, but we can be fairly sure he will show up in part 3 and not 4 or even later. Horses were also pretty much confirmed in Yu Suzuki's Reddit AMA so the concept art could very well be of an event happening in Shenmue III.

I think Ryo will give up revenge, but Lan Di will give him no choice. I think in this situation, Ryo could be forced to kill him but I think more likely a bigger baddie will do it right in front of him. I've always liked the idea that Lan Di is being tricked or used.

Playing through Shenmue 1 again, and it seems like every other day this dude is trying to bum a free soda off of me. I'm getting really sick of having to shell out 100 Yen so this dude can line his stomach with acid. Dude says he's thirsty...then get some fucking tap water or something. Either that, or Tao-san needs to pay his employees better. What makes it worse is that every time he does it, he acts like he doesn't even remember me doing it for him the day before. If you ask me, I say that it's just a scheme to try and get a free winning can. Asshole.

Finally pledged! I'm so happy this worked! It's in German but I guess you can make out the important part. :mrgreen:

http://fs1.directupload.net/images/150624/pmobv84d.png

I was orginally just aiming for the $300 tier, only put enough money for that on my credit card.
But then I remembered that you don't have to have all the funds on it at the time you pledge. So I just stepped stepped it up, tried if it would work and it did! \:D/

I did feel a bit sad when I couldn't find any mention of a physical PS4 release, but to even consider letting something like that stop me from pledging... after 14 agonizing years...

Not a chance!

If a physical PS4-release is announced later I will buy that as well - without hesitation. If it's not... well... life goes on. Even if I'm not a fan of digital copies, I'll still be able to finally play Shenmue III and that is - by far - the most important thing for me.

Done
But why Conan?
Because he has gaming segments on his tv show

I do not watch Conan or really any talk show, but why did he decide to get into gaming? Seems kind of odd. I guess he wanted to connect with his younger audience and be hip?

It's a joke. He's a comedian, that's what he does.

Is this really the kind of person we want promoting Shenmue then? :-s

Umm yes, absolutely. Why don't you watch one of his segments and see what it's about.

Feminism is absolutely necessary. Its plain as day. I can see it in your responses, throughout the gaming community, throughout society as a whole.

First of all, let's dispense with the feminist strawman already. Feminism is not here to take over and oppress men. If you want to look for radical feminists that want to kill all men, sure you can find them. Because you know what? There are radical people for every movement. But bringing it up every single time feminism is brought up is ridiculous. You're shutting the conversation down before it can happen. ( Not sure how many here are Christian, but if somebody brought up the radical sects of Christianity to you every time you mentioned your religion I'm sure you'd be pretty pissed off. )

We are still a long way out from actual equality. The arguments people today use against feminism are the same arguments men used against feminism 100 years ago. You want to think we're all equal but we're not. Until we can all acknowledge our privilege and work toward a better future we're going to be stuck in inequality for a long time.

Women are treated as objects. Its clear the way they're presented in the media and the way people talk about or to them. I'm sure all of you wouldn't feel good if your entire life was people judging you as a sex object. If you're sexual, you get called one slur, if you're not sexual you get called another. There's no winning there. For a man, it doesn't matter. That's called a double standard which wouldn't exist if we were equal.

Women are treated as less intelligent or less qualified. Would you feel good about going through life trying to pursue a career and are constantly questioned, talked down to, and having everything explained to you while a person of the opposite sex does not?

Nobody is saying as a white man you haven't had challenges and adversity in your life, but typically for women and people of color your have to work twice as hard to get half as far. People have socially constructed images of how they view certain types of people to be and its hard for many to get past them.

On the topic of 'shaming white men'. White men have ruled for a long time. The institutions that exist within western society were created and controlled by white men. Most wealth is owned by white men. Laws were made by white men. Historically its a very unequal world. This is not about shaming white men. It's not about calling them evil. It's about exposing the privilege they enjoy each and every day so that we might start getting the conversation going as to how to change the world.

It's easy to say "Hey, they should take down the confederate flag, see I'm not racist!" It's not as easy to understand and admit your privileges and biases.

The 'everyone is to sensitive these days' argument is bullshit. You don't want to admit that these things are ingrained in society and that maybe, hey, you're a little bit sexist/racist/homophobic/etc too. Its easy for a bunch of white men to sit around and go "Yeah I agree that's not offensive, these people are too sensitive!"

Your experiences != everyone else's.

I was thinking of an old YS interview and yeah, we know what rapport is.

He talks about it here:

JM: I play games to do things I can't do in real life. Do you think games have become too real? If you were to do Shenmue 3, for example, would you take the same approach and make it super realistic, or would you take a different approach?

YS: The concept for Shenmue 3 already exists, so... [Laughs] The world of Shenmue 1 and 2 expanded outward. So, for example, in the original games, of all the data used for dialogue in the game, the main characters' dialogue was about 20%. The remaining 80% was dialogue by characters other than the two main characters. But Shenmue 3 doesn't expand outward, but inward. A lot of the dialogue is used for the main character and especially dialogue with Shenhua. They talk about a lot of different, deeper things. For example, and I can't say too much, but here's an example.

This is not actually in the game, but as an example to give you an idea of what I mean by deeper dialogue, when Shenhua and Ryo are at home, Shenhua will ask Ryo if he would like to drink tea or coffee and the player will select one or the other. Or, Shenhua will ask Ryo a hypothetical question like: "There are four animals; a monkey, cat, dog and bird. You are crossing the river but you need to leave one behind. Which one will you leave behind?" And the player has to choose one. Shenhua will ask lots and lots of questions like these and the answers will get stored in the game and affect the outcome of the player's relationship with other characters. It's like a personality test. For example, the person who leaves behind the monkey is the type of person who leaves their wife.

TH: That's scary. [Laughs]

JM: So it's more organic, and very contextual. Personally, I would leave the bird behind. The bird can fly across the river.

YS: It's very deep. I think it will be very interesting if it happens.
http://www.1up.com/features/disappearance-suzuki-part-2

I'm not sure I want the mirror replicas either. A lucky hit stand, on the other hand…

I would really like the mirrors replicas, just because they are cool as phuck. I actually bought a little collection of miniatures from a japanese museum because it had a little one.

I don't think I could fit somewhere a lucky hit stand. But also, it's easier to doubt about the quality of a mirror replica.

A shenmue themed usb would be nice, a metal case would be nice, a keychain (most of the kickstarters have this), the heavens lighter.

I'm not much of a collector either, but I wouldn't mind.

A lot of assumptions about game development here from people who don't develop games.

"Polygons are polygons."

Heh. But in anyway, I agree the model didn't look good, but the model shown in Famitsu (shown above) was absolutely fine to me.

http://i.imgur.com/PZDaNhg.jpg

Hey everyone, my brother and I decided to contribute $20,000 for the making of Shenmue III. We spent many hours thinking about whether this is a good or bad decision. We spent $10,000 in 2012 to get our school off the ground and that went a long way. Because of our initial $10,000 pledge, the school received an amazing amount of attention in China, social media and gaming websites. I'll reiterate, We are not wealthy! This was a hard decision. We could have given $20,000 directly to building the school and it's programs but we feel that this pledge will lead to more exposure and support than what we could do through other mediums.

For those who don't know our school yet. We are called The "V.E.T. Program" (Volunteer English Teacher). You can find us on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/VolunteerEnglishTeacher?fref=ts&ref=br_tf We teach children and young adults English to help in their educational and career pursuits. Many of these kids come from small villages in the Guilin area and may not have an opportunity to learn elsewhere. You can go to the "about" section on the Facebook page to learn more.

We really need help in reaching our goals. We would love for you to like us on Facebook. We will eventually look outside ourselves and setup a way for donations to be made but we didn't want to distract from the Kick Starter or be overbearing donation hunters.

We decided to make the second $10,000 pledge a character in the game. We don't want to be a character attacking Ryo though. We are going to try and ask Yu Suzuki to let us have one of our Volunteer Chinese teaching assistants be a character in one of the villages. They deserve to be recognized for their hard work. They are volunteers and many of them come from poor rice farms.

We are also hoping that since we will be listed in the credits as a special sponsor that it can have our school with a logo and a website rather than our names.

I don't think any of this would be asking too much. I think it would help get attention to the school. We would love any assistance in helping us achieve this. We also would love to have Yu Suzuki come to the school some day but we won't don't want to be greedy.

Please, help our little school!
http://i.imgur.com/GS7Iwrq.jpg

The fact we can type 'Shenmue' into Steam and this comes up feels so unreal:

its a good price. I'm hoping they will announce an interesting collectors edition in the near future and include things like figurines, capsule toys, replica notebook, face sticking plaster, remote control forklift, replica mirrors. things like that.

BayStone wrote: Do not run while travelling with Shen Hua.

Or skipping conversations.

If they want to do a super obscure reference that only a tiny fraction of fans will get, they'd call that achievement "Let's Hur".

Um...wow. I guess it's been a while. My most sincere apologies! I want you all to know that I have NOT lost interest. I've just had a lot going on this past...year... OK, I have no excuses. I tend to get really distracted by every new thing under the sun. However, I just heard that Shenmue 1 & 2 are getting a re-release, which reminded me of this thread.

In honor of the re-release announcement, I'm going to try to pick this back up and continue playing soon.

See you then!

I know people wanted a save transfer for III but has it even been confirmed that you will have a save transfer from 1 to 2?

Take it off Shenmue2 as well

Well, this decision kills any chance we had at gaining a big audience for the Shenmue series.

The remasters are a blessing to the fans, but they are also the biggest and only chance this series has to attract major interest from newcomers...

Did people still think this was going to happen? It could be an amazing remaster, done by a team going above and beyond, and it'll still be a fairly niche title...

I like to mention the facts about how the Beta of Shenmue technically has both a time skip option and save anywhere with the aid of its debug options. Not everyone knows about them so it might be interstings.

The save option brings up the regular menu where you select a file and save, just as one would expect. It just isn't 100% on the spot though as Ryo will be standing at an entrance point of the area he's in. NPCs also have to respawn wich can mess up their routines a bit.

The clock can be turned forward and back at 3 different speeds each at any point. This definatly messes up the NPC routines as they just can't keep up with their schedules and thus the streets will be very crowded and stores open with no one inside to attend it. These results are amusing in their own way but not something that should be seen normaly. Of course messing with the time whenever you like goes much further than skipping time in Shenmue II.

These examples shows where the problems are and why these features were ultimately easier to pull of Shenmue if not the only way to pull them of at all at the time. That is not to say that it's impossible to make this work properly with todays technology. The save files can be much much larger and include all the necessary locations and routine points of the NPCs as well as Ryo's of course.

The time skip wouldn't really mess up the NPCs the way they work in Shenmue II because you don't really see things moving about and the time will skip to the point where Ryo has to go to bed. Of course that means only points where Ryo has to wait for the next day are sure to work without issues but adding these would be enough.
Another approach to save some time would be to allow Ryo to advance time quickly in his bedroom until he can go to sleep. Or just make it possible to go to sleep whenever you want... though that approach really goes against the foundations of Shenmue.