I really have very little experience with kickstarters, but is it unusual to have so many exclusive non-overlapping tiers? Like an RPG where you level in a different job class? It's like there's a capsule toy job class and a temple visitor class and then there's the portrait class not to mention the grab bags, jacket, watch, dinners, NPC, etc.

It's totally not common for a project to have as many reward tiers as Shenmue 3 has. Up until the middle of the campaign I thought the rewards kind sucked, but now I'm on the fence on whether I should switch my pick as the price gap among the tiers is pretty small and rewards kind distinct from each other. My head would definitely explode if they decide to put out mirror replicas or physical Lucky Hit boards.

VIDEOGAME INDUSTRY TRIBUTE TO SATORU IWATA

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Last call to hop in to this train.

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I went to Portugal and got by speaking only Spanish (albeit slowly and staying away from idioms). They would understand me well but I would understand only about 30% of their Portuguese-language answers. Native Spanish speakers told me it's the same for them.

For some reason it's easier for Portuguese speakers to understand Spanish than the other way around. But I might be biased here as I actually learned Spanish for a while long ago, and Spanish is the more popular language worldwide with people just inclined to learn it even if just a bit.


Hope you'll introduce Shenmue to some non-english-speaking friends, dude! :D Find some friends to buy the game for! =D>

I guess you can forget about African countries and Timor as video game markets but having Brazil and Portugal with over 200 million speakers will hopefully make a difference for Shenmue 3.

In Macau, Portuguese doesn't seem to play that much of a role anymore, though. According to the impeccable Wikipedia, only less than 10% of the population speak it even though it will still be an official language over there until 2049.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macanese_Portuguese

I did =). But I could have enticed more backers if Paypal was an option. Not everyone has a CC or one that works internationally.

$39 Digital Upgrade & Collector’s Shenmue Character Busts
Posted by Ys Net
Happy Shenmue to You!

Here we go, the final rewards for the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter! This is your absolutely last chance to get these Kickstarter only rewards and help #SaveShenmue !!!

SAVE SHENMUE DIGITAL UPGRADE - $39 Kickstarter exclusive Shenmue III wallpaper set. The wallpapers will feature the Real Deal Ryo & Sure as Sugar Shenhua - the perfect models of our heroes as they were always imagined to be! + Your name on the official Shenmue III website. Includes the $29 Reward.

http://s16.postimg.org/8v51s6s5x/Kickstarter_2.png

Only backers pledging at the $100 tier or above will have their name credited in the game.
This reward will be included in all higher rewards.

SHENMUE CHARACTER BUST - $2,500 Concept design models of the main characters, produced for the development of Shenmue 1. These busts were important stepping stones in the design phase to make them as life-like as possible, and were the first time the characters took shape (literally). Good condition, with wear and discoloration from all the loving hands that went into making Shenmue.

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Choose one: Ryo (2 available), Shenhua (4 available), Ren (3 available) or Lan Di (3 available). First come, first serve! Limit 12. Includes the RYO VOICE MESSAGE BY COREY MARSHALL Reward.
Campaign Final Hours Twitch Broadcast

Yu Suzuki will be joined with the Shenmue 3 project members in a special live broadcast to count down the final hours as the Kickstarter project comes to a close. Scheduled to make an appearance are animation producer Hiroaki Takeuchi and main character designer Kenji Miyawaki.

The official Shenmue 3 Twitch channel can be found at:

http://www.twitch.tv/shenmue3official

The festivities will start at the following time:

Yokosuka: July 18, 8:00AM JST
Hong Kong: July 18, 7:00AM HKT
Bailu: July 18, 7:00AM CST
Los Angeles: July 17, 4:00PM PDT
New York: July 17, 7:00PM EDT
Berlin: July 18, 1:00AM CEST
Paris: July 18, 1:00AM CEST
Rome: July 18, 1:00AM CEST
London: July 18, 12:00AM BST
Moscow: July 18, 2:00AM MSK
Seoul: July 18, 8:00AM KST
Sydney: July 18, 9:00AM AEST
Rio de Janeiro: July 17, 8:00PM BRT

Is Shenmue 3 cursed or what? Is everything against Shenmue 3, even electricity? LOL
Next stretch goals revealed:
$6.7 Million so Yu can pay the electricity bill
$6.8 Million Power Generator
$6.9 Million Joel, the Fanta guy is back

http://www.twitch.tv/shenmue3official

I think Awesome Japan actually hurt the campaign. Things mentioned above like the Sony funding should have been put to bed within hours and not weeks. It felt like no preparation had gone into making the campaign at all past writing up the Kickstarter page and interviewing 5 people. I honestly think you could have just put up a page with a title just saying Shenmue III and got the same amount of money.

The thing that leaves me thinking is how much more money could have been made if you had a competent team. If Yu had been on every E3 livestream and interviewed by every video game website (rather then just Japanese ones or that French guy). Had decent livestreams and let's plays every week. Just clearer messaging alone would have been better.

I actually think the contrary happened. Because the campaign was too big for AJ team to handle at first, we as a community worked twice as hard to promote and show our support for the campaign. There's no PR team in the world that could have matched the passion and reach of what each individual Shenmue fan showed. We knew the brand better than anyone else and because of fear of failure by the work of an unknown team, it motivated us all to work together and make this project a success. In any case,I think AJ pulled themselves up and did a great job for Yu in the end.

And maybe this all was all intentional by AJ... as if they knew this would happen. After all is this really the look of a fool to you?
http://i.imgur.com/uGDc70k.jpg

So glad they're doing this. I wasn't able to pledge anything to the kickstarter but I hope to stop being worthless here soon and donate via paypal.

You'll get your chance to make a difference. They are dealing with some undisclosed obstacles now, but when Paypal is open, the AJ team assured me that even physical rewards like the replica jacket and the Crystal figure could be part of the rewards tiers. So prepare your wallet for now.

PS. There's nothing worthless about not being able to pledge as tons of people can't even afford it, though they are hardcore fans. Greek fans for example are going through some tough times, so I totally understand.

Seriously though, you'll have to point these being purged, since I just recall people coming back causing trouble. Or bots. Unless there's something I've missed?

Oh I remember this particular fella who called himself Brosauce, a young brit looking for advice on how to become a man , while dealing with an imminent loneliness . When he finally snapped , he got banned. And the poor kid tried to come back begging to forgiveness, only to be turned down once again.

A young man who has yet to know his potential,
This potential is a power that could either destroy him or realize his will...

Sadly his saga will not continue.

Look at my EDIT. His saga is concluded.

So he was a long term offender after all :-o . I guess I will have to get over my illusion that the younger generation would eventually acquire good taste in gaming and play Shenmue.

PS. I was just kidding about the purge thing, Henry. I know that you guys only ban trolls most of the time.

UPDATE: On an unrelated matter, YsNet sent me a reply (a late one regarding my problem lol) stating that the official crowdfunding outside KS will be happening soon (hopefully). So keep an eye on the KS page for updates!

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I have posted a message previously about how AJ told me the team is not privy to what's going on regarding the Paypal situation, but a lot people missed that so I decided to create a thread with a follow-up message he just sent to me:

We understand the sentiment going around. Unfortunately we do not have much to give right now. Talks are under way and progress is being made. As you can imagine however, there are other factors which will affect the decision that your normal Kickstarter does not need to consider.

All we can say is to keep spirits up, because it will happen. Mr. Suzuki still has a lot he wants to do with the game and feels strongly about making it work.

Hang in there!


Note that AJ has experience implementing Paypal as seen in their past Kickstarter projects, so in this case the issue is above them.

EDIT: Here's the initial response for my inquiry towards Paypal, among others.

Hello,

Thank you very much sir! Without the Absolutely amazing Shenmue community, none of this would have been possible. Congratulations to you!

As for the Paypal, Mr. Suzuki did mention it on the Twitch broadcast. There are reasons yes, none of which I am personally privy to. But you can imagine our situation is is slightly more complicated than your average Kickstarter.

As for the jacket and figure, you're right on there. If the crowd funding does continue, they should be included. Thanks!

Yes, we should be continuing to work with Ys Net and Mr. Suzuki throughout the whole KS process.

Enjoy your Happy Shenmue weekend too!

Awesome Japan

I'm not biased by nostalgia at all, just very opinionated maybe lol. Here are my points to why Shenmue 1 is actually the better game (for years I thought the second one was better):

The QTEs in the first game are better done, as they act as simply reactionary button inputs during cutscenes (as it was meant to be given the FREE acronym) and they are seemly placed without breaking the flow of the action. But in Shenmue 2 we are introduced to COMMAND QTE, which darkens and freezes the screen in wait for the player's button input and by doing so it breaks the fluidity of the cutscene. The mechanic just breaks the illusion of a continuous action movie take (without actually even providing a step-up in challenge, as the commands are just a matter of repeated button memorization).

The forklift is a far better job mechanic than the ones encountered in Shenmue 2. The fun factor might be questionable (as people already dread at the thought of working even in real life lol), but the crate carrying and the booking airing jobs consist of being simply the same QTE based mini-games found throughout the entire game, like the action cutscenes and the ghost hall building balancing on boards' section. Meanwhile the forklift mini-game in Shenmue 1 is a full-fledged simulator, and even contains a racing game component to it (I'm not considering the duck race in the 2nd game as it's a hidden and totally optional part of the experience).

And at last and more importantly, time actually matters in Shenmue 1. Though not apparent, there's a sense of urgency in the first game that was lost in the sequel. This is thanks mainly because of two factors. The first is Ine-san, the housekeeper, as the game puts her in the role of a time limiter for what Ryo can accomplish during a day. The player is forced to be worried about the time and hurry back home way before the allowed 23:30 everyday, otherwise Ryo is scolded by Ine-san in the following morning. Of course the player can ignore Ine-san altogether, but in doing so you'd be playing out of character (and besides what cold bastard are you to make Ine-san worry constantly about your well-being? lol).

The second factor is that time can't be skipped in Shenmue 1, and that forces the player to plan out his schedule well throughout the day if he wishes to see any in-game progress. For example, the player needs to find a certain NPC in a tattoo parlor during a specific period of the day, but if you miss that time window the game punishes the player by making him waste time (real and in-game) and wait until the next day in order to progress. The game simply makes it important that the player is mindful of the NPCs' daily schedule. But in contrast to the first game, Shenmue 2 presents you with a laid-back approach where the player simply has to be at the right location at his own leisure, and make Ryo skip time automatically until the scenario kicks in. Note that the player can even avoid the "inconvenience" of locating people or places by simply making a random NPC do the job for him. Ryo even has the ability to teleport himself from one location to another whenever he decides to call it a day. All in all, getting rid of the inconveniences and frustrations of the first game also meant way less challenge and immersion in the sequel, which ultimately amounts to a less fun game in the end.

And so these are the primary reasons why the first game was superior IMO . :D

These are my questions btw... in case you didn't get my e-mail:

1. Being a big fan of series like Virtua Fighter and OutRun, have you ever considered making another arcade game in the future? If so what game genre (shooter, racing etc) would you like to tackle?

2. In Shenmue 3, one of the new features is the ability to play with multiple characters during a certain scenario. What prompt you to go for such a drastic change, since we always accompanied Shenmue's story only through Ryo's eyes?

3. What FREE combat system have you planned for Shenmue 3? Are we expecting something as deep and complex as Virtua Fighter 5?

4. With the upcoming virtual reality headsets like the Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift, are you happy with the direction the gaming industry is taking? Is there any kind of game you would like to make for such devices?

Thanks again David!!! Hope your dreams come to fruition.

It came out today! So did this, which I also bought. Really looking forward to it.

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Don't forget the R2 for running (hold it for like 5 seconds or so) while playing it... otherwise you'll really feel the slowness of the game to be a burden.

I just saw your replies and recorded a couple of unsuccessful attempts. :lol:

I'll post a success video soon, I just can't play too many attempts in one sitting because of the long and unskippable "Me work for Lan Di, that's my dream!" cutscene.[/color]

I didn't think you would go for the trouble as I was just teasing lol. It's already great your attempt video btw!

Demon Drop cheese, that's exactly what I did too. :rotflmao:

I counted 4-6 hits in that video, depending on how you count that sweeping kick Chai does. Keep at it!

The funny thing is that throws never crossed my mind while fighting Chai lol. I always went for low kicks as it was always the safest way to beat him.

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Anyone looking for an integration of PS4 and Xbox One (at least in appearance), so we can end all fanboy console wars, there's a new crowdfunding for a Chinese game console named OUYE.

Here are the details:

-This is an Android Micro Console being developed by a Shenzhen company

- It will be a bit more powerful than the Ouya but the specs are a bit dated.

-Kickstarter will open later this month with $15k as the target goal

-Console is expected to cost around $70 to buy with one controller

-The console has had negative feedback from Chinese netizens because this rip off is very very blatant.

-The company said it took them 1 year and 3 months to get this product ready to ship and they spent “6 months on the unique design”..... yes.... unique design.

It might be a surprise to some, but China has a long history developing their own gaming consoles, as seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouTASMO-Sxw

:mrgreen: (doing what i do best, thinking for myself, and going against group-think!)
sorry, not down with this idea at all.
i'm just too old-skool and long in the tooth to like the idea.
ryo on SSB?
what's next? cats and dogs living together, merlins and doves getting along? :lol:
no way, SSB and shenmue are two totally different entities (ryo in this case) and i would see it as a portent to (new) fan service and the dissolution to the shenmue franchise. (pissing on the ip would better explain it.)
god, NO! :mad:
[edit]
corrections.

I respect your opinion. Though I believe no matter what you feel about this, having Ryo in the Smash Bros character roster would greatly help the chances of Shenmue 3 actually succeeding financially when the game comes out. At this stage I would not be against Ryo being featured even in a Mortal Kombat game, as these special appearances only got to help increase the character's popularity and in no circumstance they affect Yu Suzuki's core vision for the Shenmue series.

Dragon Slayer The Legend of Heroes for MD.

Nostalgia bug, so now here I go:
Game initially released in the late cycle of the 16 bit era. Not quite a JRPG.
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EDIT: Additional hints - SFC title released in 1996. It had a Sega release as well later on.

How about the Shenmue community makes a card with our names or whatever signed on it and then send it to Sony HQ?

You can count me in! Though it might be a bit hard having everyone physically sign the same card, we could have everyone write their own cards, someone to collect them all and send them in nice box or something.

I really hope whoever bought the GD-Rs will back up the data from the discs, for his own sake at least. Recordable media like DVD-Rs and GD-Rs use a dye that changes color or reflectivity when heated. There are many different type of dyes used in the industry, so they do not all have the same life expectancy.

But in short, GD-Rs will deteriorate over time and at a much faster rate than pressed Dreamcast games, specially in the case of the Shenmue beta discs sold in the auction as they already have scratches and scuffs, plus they have been labeled with what appears to be a marker-pen which solvents can slowly penetrate the reflective backing and dye layers, destroying the data as time goes by.