Never thought I'd spend this much on a single game, but went $500. Gotta make it happen. Would do $10,000 if I had the money (and no family to feed!).

Just managed to get my first proper look at the kickstarter page - I have a tear in my eye. Now just need to convince my other half that it will be a good idea to pledge some money.

My conversation with my wife went something like:

Me: "I know money is tight, but there's a Kickstarter for Shenmue 3. I've waited almost 15 years for this, and..."
Her: "It's Shenmue 3, I understand."
Me: "Uh, I'm leaning toward the $300 or $500. Probably $500, because..."
Her: "It's Shenmue 3. I understand. Really."

I couldn't convince her of the $10,000 dinner with Yu Suzuki, but, you know, can't win 'em all! \:D/

Yes, I donated. $500 tier, because this needs to happen, and I'm blessed to be in a position to do so at the moment all things considered.

I wish I could donate more, I really wish. I know it's only 5 bucks, but I feel that it's not enough, especially with me being a nerdy uberfan over the years.

The biggest donations sometimes come in the smallest amounts.

MiTT3NZ wrote: lol, no. That's one of the dumbest things I've ever read.

Haha, fair enough. It probably is a little dumb that I've spent 14 years having never played possibly the best part of the series!

As I've said in a previous thread, the fact of the matter is, NONE OF US know exactly how much external funding this game is getting. It's all speculation at the moment, that's as much as we do know!

Until that time comes, all we have is the KickStarter, that's the only thing at the moment that is giving us real monetary values!

That's why we cannot assume that others are heavily funding this game until we know for sure. From the sounds of things we will never know for sure.

Therefore we MUST keep promoting the KickStarter and getting the word out there. That's the only option we have. We can't take the risk of making assumptions that others are behind this heavily!

Nailed it! None of us can claim to know specifics, and that leaves a single option choice: to fund and fund and fund as much as possible through the Kickstarter.

Worst case scenario if we do that? We send them a bunch more money than they planned for, and we have a better game in the end. Worst case scenario if we stop funding, as some sites and individuals are recommending, the game scores far less money than expected, interest dwindles, Sony and others back out, and we have nothing (or at least a very low budget game) to show for it. We can't afford the latter scenario! We've waited far too long!

Just beautiful. Takes me back. It really sounds like something from Shenmue. I think it might have hit me harder than the Kickstarter, because that was an announcement, while this is an appearance of actual Shenmue.

Not too much, really.

I'd like Passport to be built into the main menu, or perhaps be able to access it from anywhere, and put most of the content offline (there's no reason the character biographies, for example, had to be online instead of off). Similarly, I'd like to see a Shenmue II Passport, or have Passport itself expanded to encompass II (Hong Kong weather reports, biographies of the new characters, leaderboards, so forth).

Add a few more SEGA games in there. Maybe put an OutRun cabinet in the harbor something.

Make Chapter 2 playable. Does that count? (Edit: Somehow overlooked that someone beat me to it!)

Microsoft and Sega signed deals to have it exclusively on the Xbox in NA. And here in Europe the publishers haven't given up just yet. I applaud them for that.

Was it definitely due to the Microsoft deal? I thought that all came way after....


They were to the point of even advertising Shenmue II's NA Dreamcast release, and then, relatively shortly before it happened, the rug was pulled out from under NA fans.

http://spong.com/article/2358/Shenmue-2-and-Phantasy-Star-Announced-for-Xbox-as-US-Dreamcast-Shenmue-2-is-Cancelled

http://archive.thegia.com/dc/shmu2/shmu2.html

A friend of mine and I were discussing this several months ago. I remember being heartbroken, having just seen banners on GameFAQs advertising it, and when he heard the news, he stomped over to his wall and tore down an advertisement he had hung that was marketing the US release for DC.

It was a rough time for SEGA fans. Dreamcast was on its way out, SEGA was going third party, and barely more than a month before release, it was announced we weren't getting Shenmue II for another year at least, and on a different system entirely. It was an all-time low for Dreamcast fans. Fun times, fun times!

I think, what most fans want, is "more Shenmue", and it won't be Shenmue unless he's allowed to do his thing. At least, that's my optimistic appraisal of the community!

I don't want him to significantly compromise his vision either. I don't, however, mind him tweaking or adjusting/adding things that can work in tandem with said vision. I think he'll find the right middle ground!

Rereading the topic, I think we're all saying the same things, just with some different interpretations.

Vision changes over time. His vision of a VF RPG became the Shenmue we know and love, and 2000's vision for Shenmue III won't match 2015's, which won't match 2017's. That's fine, because the best visions grow and evolve. Artists grow, learn, and thrive, assimilating new ideas and information, discarding some and running with others. Yu should listen to the fans, but what he takes from them should ultimately be his call.

We all want Yu's vision to be realized. Basically, we're all saying is this: "We want him to follow his vision within certain parameters of what's expected from a Shenmue game." One side isn't saying that they truly want him complete freedom to deliver Shenmue in the form of a Skittles potato salad if that's what he wants, nor is the other saying he *should* if that's what the fans demand. If he wants Ryo with Joy and it's reasonable and integral to his vision, we agree that he should run with it even if we prefer Nozomi or Shenhua, but if he wants to make Shenmue III in the form of interpretive dance riffed from the audience by Crow and Servo, he should probably listen to the fans and stick to a video game set in Baisha village!

I have faith in Yu, and trust him to grow and evolve in a way that's true to himself and Shenmue!

(I had a big, rambly post here that was maybe more antagonistic than I intended. Sorry about that!)

I'm sure this has been seen and I'm just failing at my forum searches, but just in case...

Remember that infamous Gamespot review? The original author (who also wrote a mini-guide I've seen people reference) wrote about it a few years ago, and stands by his original 6.8:

http://frankprovo.livejournal.com/568275.html

It's an interesting read. He did post more recently about Shenmue III ( http://frankprovo.livejournal.com/609377.html ), and was a little more positive about Shenmue II in that post.

For those who aren't familiar with it, the original review ( http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/shenmue-review/1900-2540599/ ) scored it a 6.8. After much rage, it was bumped up to a 7.8 against the reviewer's wishes. At the time, it was fairly notorious, with most sites giving Shenmue rave reviews (IGN scored it a 10/10, for example).

Anyway, wasn't sure how many had seen his "response" in 2010. It's always interesting to hear from the other side.

I would be happy with a Dragon Age-style questionnaire-type deal, although direct save transfers would be nice too!

It's probably not a huge deal in the whole scheme of things, but having the specific pictures and capsule toys you chose and got would be really nice to have in 3!