Managed to retrieve my old shenmuedojo profile from 2003 (pretty I was on it before then too).

Just been going through my old posts and found this from 2005 about why Shenmue was special to me... Nothing's changed!

I'd pretty much given up on shenmue 3 ever happening so the announcement warped me back to my 14/15 year old self and almost made me cry with joy!

''Postby joka » Fri Mar 18, 2005 4:00 pm

i don't care how great the graphics get or if there is a storyline that blows shenmue out of the water. no game- or for that matter any type of media will ever come close to shenmue. the reason is that shenmue was beyond an enjoyment level for me.
At the time it was released my life basically sucked and i know it sounds weird but the shenmue world was like me own haven to escape to. it helped me through that period so it's a very personal game for me.
i've got to say the dojo is part of that aswell :) i was reading the forums practically from shenmue was released in the uk and it was great to discuss shenmue (and other things) with top people like yorselves.
anyone else feel that deeply about shenmue?''

Yay I retrieved my old profile!

Fun times reading through my old theories... Time to start talking about them again!

Great topic and really interesting what everyone has done during the big wait!

Seems to be a coming out connection! Lol. I wonder if the escapism of shenmue connected with people still trying to understand themselves and not feeling like they fit in?

I'm gay myself but I've never really thought about a connection until reading this topic.... It's known that certain mediums have connected with the 'disassociated or minorities'- X Men being a good example as it is known to have a higher proportion of fans from ethnic/sexual minorities- mutants represent them in a fantasy way I guess....


Anyway apart from accepting I was gay I got kicked out of college, went through crappy retail jobs, moved around the UK with my ex, learnt to drive, got a car, got a new partner, got a decent job with a bank, split with that partner last year and then shortly after had the worst time when my mum died suddenly...
I remember trying to explain shenmue to her when I was younger and she knew I was a massive fan so shenmue 3's announcement was bittersweet in that respect as I would've loved to tell her it was finally happening and try explaining kickstarter to her! :')

Great topic

*Edit oh and I'm 30! Profile active since 2003 but I think we all migrated then from a different system didn't we? I'm sure I was on the dojo before then..

I'd say odds are it starts at the beginning of disc 4/arriving in guilin. Mainly because of the following-

a) presenting a remake of a scene from this part in the announcement of shenmue 3 would suggest Yu is atleast considering revisiting that chapter to form the beginning.

b) Yu has already stressed about his focus being on the relationship between characters and specifically Ryo and Shenhua so you have to really start from Ryo arriving in Guilin and meeting Shenhua as the foundation of that relationship

c) disc 4 didn't really feel like a full chapter or the ending of shenmue 2. As Miles has said it felt more like the beginning of S3 anyway (storywise).

I remember feeling the sadness of arriving in Guilin on follow up playthroughs on Dreamcast and Xbox because i knew it was going to end so abruptly with no sequel in sight.... Took a while!

The only thing is I hope Suzuki's signature is personally signed on each illustration and not just printed by machine onto each one. The thought of him doing of 1,000 signatures makes the latter seem more likely >_>

This question was asked and answered by Yu on Reddit and he confirmed he will personally sign them for all the backers! Gotta love Yu- he loves the fans!

Edit* I saw it on Reddit and below is from Riku's post on his AMA sticky-

''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!''

Storywise it makes sense- Ryo is on a mission to avenge his father so he's not heading back to Japan until he's caught up to LAN Di..... And he's obviously getting caught up in a bigger purpose with Shenhua so Japan would only be a valid destination in the last 1/2 chapters which S3 isn't covering as is pretty clear after this Q & A

Definitely adding the boat chapter (or just some additional content) and just modernise the controls!

I agree if it does get done it should be pulled together as a bundle also.


Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I like the dub personally. Thanks to Jibby and Raunchy from me :)

We definitely need to get Yu and his team to see this... Maybe coordinate tweeting it to the official account, Yu's account and some others?

I think you should've added Shenmuedojo at the very end btw lol

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/06/23/c264f3e3eb6697633b44752abbba3f11.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/06/23/4240014bc5698b33dd8ec89d21cf42bc.jpg

Never posted back in the day but why not.. I'll let you see buster too :)

P.s. yes its a phoenix tattoo and yes it was originally planned more shenmue/oriental but it didn't work so well and would've needed to have been a lot bigger to get the detail necessary so there you go.. It actually represents my grandmother.

Was tempted not to comment on this as it's kinda airing more negativity about negativity! o_O

I get the frustration on both sides but as soon as it hit $2m and it was definitely happening it became a dream come true to finally continue the saga- everything else is just a bonus.

We'll get the 10M. After the KS, we will have about 2 and a half years time to get there through Paypal. Cheer up, every one! :) Let's just make the KS the best we can and AFTER that is done we will have enough time to discuss what to do. :)

Oh, and just in case I forgot to mention it: Shenmue 3 is coming!!! :king:
If the money pledged really is just for development then they'd need the majority of that $10m a hell of a lot sooner than 2 years down the line though...

Hi,

I don't think this has been posted on here yet but a UK gaming site called Gamecentral discussed Shenmue 3 with Jim Ryan. It's only been published today but looks like it was actually not long after the announcement as he's very evasive!

If you click on the link for the full interview he actually says FFVII and Shenmue have histories of successful publishing implying he's not concerned about their success whereas he is for Last Guardian which I found quite interesting.

GC: And speaking of Shemue III, were you implying that you were going to help fund the game yourselves as well? Because the original cost $70 million back in 2000, so $2 million today is clearly not going to go very far.

JR: No… I… don’t think there was any…

GC: You’re not helping out financially at all?

JR: No… well, there was no statement made about it. But that’s not to say that we’re not helping out.

GC: So if Yu Suzuki comes along and says he needs another $20 million in order to finish it, would you be open to that?

JR: That’s not what I’m saying.

GC: What kind of help are you contemplating then?

JR: All…

GC: If he came in begging on his knees saying, ‘Jim help me! The Tomato store needs more gashapon machines and I haven’t got the money to add them…’ Surely you wouldn’t turn him away?

JR: [laughs] I think last night should be taken at face value for what it was, which was an attempt to help the guy out – and obviously a game that’s hopefully gonna add value to our platform. But because there was no statement about us supporting it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s the case.

GC: That’s fine. Okay, sorry I know I’m using up your valuable spare time. But great to speak to you, as always.

JR: I always like to find time for you, David.

Note: Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida recently clarified that Sony would ‘add funding and other support’ if Shenmue III’s Kickstarter was successful, which it has been. It seems obvious that Ryan knew this, but was hesitant of saying more unless their was an official statement.

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2015/06/25/ps4-boss-jim-ryan-e3-2015-interview-theres-always-a-lunatic-fringe-5266049/#ixzz3e648xaDv

Really good site Elf!

The only thing I'd say is remove or reword the 'I think some of you can give more than $30' as that's an almost negative way to end.

Maybe say $30 is just the recommended amount for this campaign and if you can give more please do so.

Question on this (probably answeredb so apologies if so) but can I open a new KS account and use the same card as my existing pledge to do this as a new backer so I get another digital copy?

I want to support this by pledging more and also want to get my friends to check Shenmue out and this would cover both :)

The negativity is just frustration that it could've been done better.

I'm still just hyped its happening more than anything else

I'm sure the dust will settle after the KS campaign closes.

Hmm, after reading the update, it seems as though all of the tiers above $1k get this reward included, which is a little disappointing to hear since i've got one of the $1k grab bag rewards at the moment, and obviously this ends up being the only premium tier not to include this as a reward then. So for me to get the Corey Marshall voice message, I would either need to spend an additional $1k, and end up with 2 lots of the $500 rewards :( or swap from one tier to the other.
Yea you're right James but then if they gave it to the people on the 1k grab bag reward also there wouldn't be any justification in making it a 1k rewards itself without would it...

Does seem a bit silly though- message them maybe and say can those in the 1k grab bag tier not be given the option of maybe increasing to 1.2k or something to get the Corey message also.

Just call Yu the Nights King..

Gio Corsi has already tweeted about the physical ps4 copy so he's keen- let's get them HD remakes Gio

Going back to the talk a couple of pages ago about Corey voice message being included at the $1000 grab bag tier, soley because i've backed that tier, i'd either need to swap tiers to the Corey voice one, or throw down another $1000 which I don't have to be able to get this reward. I sent a message as a couple of guys on here suggested I try and got a response :)

Ys Net says:

Hello James,

Thank you for your message, and sorry for the belated reply.

We do understand your situation and the problem that will be caused with the current reward tier setting.

One way to solve this problem would be using the Add-on system that we see in other Kickstarter projects, opening the doors for the backers to "add" the rewards. However, managing Add-on options of almost 50k backers would be practically impossible with the Kickstarter system.

We apologize for not being able to accommodate your suggestions.

Without support from backers like you, we would not be as successful, so we would like to thank you again for your support to this project. If there is any suggestions to this project, be it rewards or page contents, please let us know. We are more than happy to listen to you.

Best Regards,

Wataru
& The Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Team



Any idea who Wataru is? Anyways...that is basically a no, but atleast they responded to me in like less than 24 hours, it's pretty good :)
Aww well that sucks!

I like how they actually told you how they could resolve it but then said they're not going to! Lol.

Best solution would've been to make it a 750 reward and anyone above got it as you said James- wouldn't have added that many more for Corey to do by the looks of it...

They should have charged it for more...

They shouldn't have. A lot of people have only pledged the initial 29 because there was no ps4 physical version. With a retail physical version available people are going to be pledging 30 dollars more. Charging 100 or something wouldn't be fair at all.
I agree with sand4fish.

Must cost more to physically manufacture the ps4 copy over PC so I think most people waiting for this would've expected and understood a $10/20 increase to 'upgrade' as it were to ps4 copy.

I think most of the success on the third comes from the physical PS4 reward but still we have to pat ourselfs on the back for what we've reached with the campaign and constant requests to improve the Kickstarter.
Agreed- ps4 physical was clearly the most requested reward but takes the comments, feedback and involvement of the community to make that known.

Still no backers! Might as well remove the reward and add 15 more to the I Am Shenmue reward...

$4.2m target reached!

is the lucky hit reward tier new?

(i was google image searching and it popped up)

https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/004/088/636/49b6c7ac70a36691b59469855b8029b5_original.png?v=1435939404&w=680&fit=max&auto=format&lossless=true&s=577de34412cdc02bad25dc222b2faf25
Was added just before the physical ps4 reward along with some others like I Am Shenmue and the additional dinners in Monaco and LA

I want a Ryo Lego figurine so bad now!

New KS reward- make it so Yu!

Just ride the storm for a bit... Media is so fickle these days that literally you're crucified one day and the next they've forgotten and moved on to the next victim.

And that's even for the people who deserve it..

I didn't actually spot this :-/

I think they're both Shenhua too- they're almost identical to previous artwork release as Miles says.

The guy certainly looks like Baihu also

I've seen someone here using the left-side Shenhua as profile picture but I have never seen the original artwork. Would be happy if someone can link it.

The left-side man on picture 1 could be someone else than Zhao Sunming as well I feel, but you might be onto something.

Ziming has fully convinced me about Baihu in picture 2.

Thank you for clearing some of the characters out. Most interesting!
This?
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DYpcvMsHVo4/hqdefault.jpg

Henry Spencer wrote:Is Yu Suzuki really going 'yes' to all of this? Even Cedric thinks it's getting silly now too, if his Twitter is anything to go by.

These must have been signed off.

It's very easy to just blame Awesome Japan but any decisions on rewards are ultimately with Yu and Ys Net

I support having Rueben Kee's relfections during the credits/at some point in the game. A message in the credits dedicating the game to "the fans who are no longer with us" (not necessarily names) - perhaps at the point when the music starts - would be very thoughtful too. This is one of the saddest things about having to wait so long for Shenmue 3. :(
Very true... I dont know any fans personally that have passed but my mum passed away last year and she knew I was a massive fan and used to try and chat to me about it when I playing or afterwards so she'd have been happy for me :')

I agree it would be nice to have a message in the credits thanking fans for their support and paying respects to those that never got to see s3

I might actually shout out the fans that never got to see S3 in my guestbook entry! :D

As i understand it theres pretty much 3 reasons for asking for paypal.

1. Some people don't agree with Kickstarter- not 100% sure why but probably the cut they take (Riku has been vocal here on this so can probably clarify).

2. The more general reason is as mentioned above- existing backers/non backers would like the option of continuing to fund after KS closes. Not going to lie I didn't even know this was possible pre-S3 getting announced but from my understanding this has been hugely successful for other games (star citizen is it?).

3. There's also a few people that don't have debit/credit cards or can't because of the regional issues but would still like to pledge.

I wouldn't say it was clichéd- the core of the game is the relationship between Joel and Ellie and that's fantastically handled.

Gameplay wise I do kind of agree- I don't know how many times I had to move a conveniently placed pallet around in the water! That really broke the immersion at times and they'd have been better to remove that repetition.

The ending... Well initially I hated it but after thinking about it more it did grow on me (I don't like the last gameplay sequence leading to it though).

We need to stop sidetracking this topic though so let's agree to disagree lol

It is a bit yawn that there's another middle level in game content tier just to add to an already crowded tier area.

I don't get why everyone just blames AJ though- all the rewards are at least authorised even conceived by Yu/Ys Net!

Shooting the messenger...

The goals aren't gospel and should be taken with a pinch of salt.

I get fans are frustrated about some things and just want the best but it has started to tip over into just all out negativity that's not even constructive.

Ive found myself getting sucked into it too but I'm going to make a conscious effort to stay positive and to remember how happy I was at the e3 announcement and it hitting the 2m target to make Shenmue 3 a reality!

So is the new scene (or the new NPC reward) this 'bomb'? Got to assume so at this late stage right...

Well, it's better than the fishing rod, that's for sure ;)
...but I'm still hoping they've got one more card in their deck!
Well yes- on a scale of '1 - bomb' this ranks alot higher than the fishing rod :D

Just donated $20. I paid through my mobile. So didn't have 'add Shenmue dojo name' option but I was able to add a note so put in there...

Hopefully that's ok Ziming/Yama- great idea.

Peter wrote:Wow wait so if you hit the tier thats it?? I wont have funds cleared until tomorrow night!

Think Ziming said more will get added if they reach higher tiers in OP so don't think it's stopping at 600 Peter

Over 59,000 backers! It's steadily increasing all the time...

I smell blood... stained ;)

*checks Kickstarter once last time before going bed*


New world record by the time I wake up?

Let's see...

Such an amazing result!

Thanks to Yu for never letting the dream die and thanks to all the fellow fans who got Shenmue 3 in the record books!

And with PayPal confirmed and the continued fight to get the HD remakes there's still more to be done!

Does anyone know if Yu will announce when he has the full $6.3 million in his hands? Still uneasy that there could be issues with Kickstarter not being able to deduct money from some people's accounts (bank declining, not enough funds etc...)
Don't forget KS fees need removing- Ys net are getting approx. 90%, so around $5.7m.

Of that approx. $4.43m is actually going on development with the remaining going on reward fulfillment. (Not sure which pot the in game content reward comes out of though).


And the 7 days is the timeframe you have to fix a payment if their first attempt isn't successful- they will automatically make a second attempt at the end of the timeframe.

So you should see the money come out within 24 to 48 hours of the campaign closing.

I made a second account and pledged again- mainly as I want it to take the record from bloodstained!

Anyone that pledged on 2 accounts checked there bank account info to find Kickstarter took it all out as 1 payment? I was expecting a big payment, and a small payment seperately, but I just had 1 even bigger payment instead. Both of my Kickstarter accounts have confirmed that the money has been collected for both pledges, so I should be good, but just weird :P
Yup mines just showing as 1 charge for both accounts.

Now my bank is now showing the 2 seperate charges, which I good to see now, and so that first big one they took out wasn't combined in the end - but I didn't lose anymore money, so the second must have gone through but just took an extra day to show.
Thanks James- yea I just checked again and it's now 2 transactions for me also.

Just started playing Rocket League ....and god damn is it good. So simple and easy to pickup but it is pretty complex when you start digging into the strategy and tactics you can apply. The 5 minute matches are great too if you just want to play here and there.
Bro im right there with you.
Add me on PSN: AxmShenmue
Me and my friends are slightly obsessed with rocket league at the mo!

We're not very good but it's fun :)

Just finished Ep 5 of GoT and been playing Life is Strange last few days

Lan Di is stated as one of the characters on the Kickstarter campaign page- he'll be making an appearance for sure!

Also potentially quite quickly- remember he was heading to Bailu village as well!

As you go towards the cave doesn't Shenhua say theres no birds and they mustve been scared off? Always thought that was because of Lan Di's helicopter....

If the PayPal funding does get canned I doubt it'll be due to Yu having everything he needs (he wanted $11m after all) and more around these issues they had.

Yea it's possible the additional funding has been sourced but the investor(s) would be looking for a return on that investment whereas the only return the fans would expect are the rewards they pledge for.

Either way there really should be an update- even if it's to say theres no update!