Japanese website Famitsu.com has carried out their annual survey, interviewing 107 game creators to ask their resolution for the year ahead and personal direction for 2018.

https://i.imgur.com/kxIOEHjm.jpg

I've posted up an English translation of Yu Suzuki's responses on the Phantom River Stone blog. His keyword for the coming year is "immersion" as he will be devoting all his energy to the Shenmue III project.
http://www.phantomriverstone.com/2017/12/yu-suzukis-keyword-for-2018-immersion.html

Considering that most people's objections to Shenmue_Legend's tweets is that they're embarrassing for the fan base (and potentially the game/developers by association), I'm not sure how this was supposed to help, sutoji.

Why have I been banned? I thought it was a 7 day suspension?
You will forever be banned, you are not welcome here. No matter how many accounts you make because all you do is annoy others with your trolling and pestering others on Twitter.

According to the IP checks, you and Shenmue_Legend are one and the same.

I haven't got time for your split personality, so do one.

You are not authorised to read this forum.

That's an Unreal Engine thing, isn't it?

Not really... it's art direction, not the engine. Games running on UE4, Unity, or any other modern engine can look as realistic or as stylized as the developers choose.

With regard to Shenmue, I guess it goes back to the discussion we had previously wherein it was revealed that many people in 1999 apparently thought Shenmue was the most realistic game they'd ever seen, even though almost all the textures are painted and many of the characters are stylized. Personally I prefer stylized art direction (Jet Set Radio being my favorite) and it seems to hold up over the years better than attempts at photorealism. But I also appreciate the drive for photorealism because it continues to push the technology.

In celebration for Shenmue III coming out this year(God willing), I've compiled up a combo video showing off the amazing Virtua Fighter FREE Battle System featured in Shenmue I and Shenmue II. Let's get sweaty!

Small clip of new footage...! We get to see the little girl introduced in MAGIC 2018 in motion, and a small clip of Ryo in a village. And I mean small. It is from today's THQ Nordic financial presentation: https://tv.streamfabriken.com/thq-nordic-cmd-2018?seek=4323

Skip to the slides where they briefly talk about Shenmue. Around slide 20.

EDIT: looks like (what I hope to be) old, outdated Ryo and Shenhua models in a slightly different Gamescom teaser. Interesting stuff.

Example:

https://preview.ibb.co/kD0jgJ/Untitled.png

Images added to OP. Thanks to Rikitatsu and Kiske for the images below .

https://i.imgur.com/cPAxFjc.png

https://i.imgur.com/aywXLpy.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/a0btjNu.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Ii4ygCX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/IYQWwRM.jpg

Video added

https://youtu.be/rXkThIMfP0M

I've been with contact with Robert Pontow from Deep Silver, who is working on Shenmue 3.
I told him about Eric Kelso, Paul Lucas, and Lisle Wilkerson, and how they want to return to Shenmue 3. This is his reply:

Hi, thanks for contacting me. Would you have any email addresses of the voice actors, their agents or any other means of contacting them? Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to discuss anything over FB, so we would need to take an official way to get in contact with the voice actors. But I am sure that Yu Suzuki would be happy if we can secure the same crew for Shenmue 3. Best regards

This means there is hope yet. I will try to find a way to get in touch with those three, I'll tweet Shenmue AM2 podcast who had been in touch with them recently. If you guys know anything that might help, let me know too


This also confirms my suspicion that they didn't know that the VA's wanted to return

I was talking to Eric this morning. Him, Paul and Lisle have been concerned for a few months now. They talk once a month and still haven't heard a word. Eric has his schedule cleared for the entire year waiting.

those who want to see Eric Kelso, Paul Lucas and Lisle Wilkerson (@lisleweapon) return for 3, please tweet requests to the following:

@deepsilver
@KochMediaNordic
@yu_suzuki_jp
@CedricBiscay

thanks

So I decided to get another Digital copy through the slacker backer, after paying the only thing I get is the PayPal receipt on my E-mail. No confirmation from YsNET, no survey... It's been 5 days and still nothing. Is this normal or should I contact them?

It's normal other than the lack of survey. Head over to here and see if you can request your survey https://fulfillment.fangamer.com/kindling/shenmue3/resend_survey
I did this, and it sent me this mail:

LOOKING IN DATABASE
HAIKU BOT DID NOT FIND IT.
TRY DIFFERENT EMAIL.
Hey there,

We did not find any surveys matching this email. Perhaps you may have used a different email address? You can try again with a different email on the Survey Support and Survey Resender.


:cry:

it takes 10 business days from pledge date to get survey:

*Backers will receive an email with instructions for the survey once preparations are complete. Surveys from Fangamer will be sent within 10 business days from the date of your pledge.

So I decided to get another Digital copy through the slacker backer, after paying the only thing I get is the PayPal receipt on my E-mail. No confirmation from YsNET, no survey... It's been 5 days and still nothing. Is this normal or should I contact them?

It's normal other than the lack of survey. Head over to here and see if you can request your survey https://fulfillment.fangamer.com/kindling/shenmue3/resend_survey