Shenmue Dojo

Giorgio wrote: Peter Moore says it better:

Peter Moore wrote:I'm with you. Huge fan of the game, but I don't believe another iteration can ever be made. Hope springs eternal though!

https://twitter.com/petermooreEA/status/416672017476100096

What a liar! Its largely his fault Shenmue as a series was so screwed over, all because he wanted a job really. I HATE him

Very little hope, But I'll back it to the end. Every couple month's I'll catch up on the latest news/rumors.

Seriously guys !! Anyone off u thinkes about going to sega headquarters to convince them about the idea of shenmue ??

Hope to see Shenmue III coming to us one day ? I always have.
Hope to see a sequel worthy of the original episodes ? No as I suspect the worst.

I'm almost glad that Shenmue III has not been released yet. Unlike many fans, I care very much attention about the overall quality. Japanese studios were so bad during x360/ps3 era that I can't imagine the result if Shenmue III would have been developed today. Not to mention Suzuki looks completely lost about modern developing.

I know you can make tough things with cheap Unreal engines but make a good game is not just a question of engine. I don't want a Shenmue with the poor Ryu Ga Gotoku quality (awesome franchise but the overall realization quality was never close to DC shenmue, it's even a step down despite the hardware advantage).

I don't want Shenmue III. I want Shenmue III, Shenmue IV and all others Shenmue we should have since the beginning. Highlights plots from the 11 or 16 chapters in one playable episode is an horrible thing to imagine.
I want to see coming back the true spirit of the franchise, not to play a compensation game !!

But if Shenmue III is not coming in the next 5 years, I think I would be ready to accept a poor quality sequel.

I know how you feel. I also have mixed feelings about Shenmue III at times. That it may not meet our expectations. That it might not live up to the first two games. But I have that more in the back of my head rather then overshadowing my demand for Shenmue III. Of course I'd like Shenmue III to be the most cutting edge game on the market but I'd be happy with a solid conclusion of the story without it being too condensed. After all that wait...

I know the Unreal Engine can put out awesome graphics and it's easy for the developers to work with but Shenmue should run on it's own engine. I mean, "Shenmue" and "Unreal" just don't go well together at all.
Btw not all Japanese studios were crap. Platinum Games did a damn fine job for Sega with Bayonetta for example.

Creating an engine (graphical and physical) seems so expensive nowadays that I would accept without undue difficulty the fact of Suzuki not using his own, depending on the engines prices on the market.

On the other hand, create his proper engine can be the smartest opportunity to start new ambitious projects for the company, like Naughty Dog sharing the same self-made engine between Uncharted and Last of Us.




Unreal 3 would have been terrible for Shenmue I think but Unreal 4 looks pretty interesting. The crucial point is how it would be flexible according the essential parts of shenmue :

- environment details that make you want to take time for exploring and feeling the exotic local atmosphere, to walk instead run, to accept by your own will the typical slow narrative pace of Shenmue. Notice that the original Shenmue engine was beautiful despite very poor compressed textures. The fact that the story took place in poor districts when the respective countries were still in a developing process, maybe helped psychologically, I dunno.

- high number of polygons for the characters, feel strongly you have a person with his chair and his bones in front of you, not an articulated puppet like it's almost always the case in videogames. Weak framerate is one of the another reasons that's usually not click.

- face details, possibly the most important point of shenmue spirit (keep in mind we're talking about the most humanist videogame of history). I always found the faces terrible in this generation : show up odd emotions, excessive sweating, and often over-acting. Not to mention the impression of clones. Don't underestimate the uncanny valley issue too. The original shenmue engine is still awesome despite a quite low number of different available expressions for modern standards. I remember the transition of DC nba 2K to the first nba 2K on xbox/ps2 : the new faces were a step down because the "2D face" style of dreamcast was still more expressive than the "3D face" style of the new versions.

- pretty bright colors, allowing a lively artistic direction. Maybe not as important as it was in the past, all modern engines seems basically perform on this area. In Shenmue II, the most impressive part of the artistic direction was that each district had really his own flavor. Each place was a singular painting, an individual piece of art emphasized by its own music. No other game give me ever this feeling of a well balanced level-design architecture.




Shenmue gameplay is still unique in 2014 : it's not a sand box game, it's neither exactly a basic adventure/action game, that's why it needs an pretty accurate engine. Btw that's really surprising that no one has copy them yet, apart the Yakuza. Maybe the patents ? Even the QTE strangely sucks in other games.

I pay a lot of attention to it because I consider that as much as important than the story. Without one of them, no Shenmue spirit. I fear future Shenmue as a simply basic video-game indeed.

I don't really mind them using the Unreal Engine, especially 4, from a technical standpoint. Ijust don't really want to read "Shenmue III - Powered by Unreal", it just seems awkward to me. Yeah, it's just the name.

A unique engine would allow them to shape the game more in their favor. Of course today that's not quite needed as much as during the Dreamcast days. Shenmue had to have it's own engine, since it was so groundbreaking. I mean it was common for most games to have their own engine back then, but Shenmue really needed something vastly more advanced then anything else at the time.

I still wonder if the Shenmue engine and it's technology can't be reused because of issues with the license.

rome wrote: Very little hope, But I'll back it to the end. Every couple month's I'll catch up on the latest news/rumors.

Hey Rome!! Welcome back old friend!

BlueMue wrote: I don't really mind them using the Unreal Engine, especially 4, from a technical standpoint. Ijust don't really want to read "Shenmue III - Powered by Unreal", it just seems awkward to me. Yeah, it's just the name.

A unique engine would allow them to shape the game more in their favor. Of course today that's not quite needed as much as during the Dreamcast days. Shenmue had to have it's own engine, since it was so groundbreaking. I mean it was common for most games to have their own engine back then, but Shenmue really needed something vastly more advanced then anything else at the time.

I still wonder if the Shenmue engine and it's technology can't be reused because of issues with the license.

Oh really ? When I read Unreal, I read brutish, guns, unbrain and aliens. I think it's pretty accurate to the Shenmue universe.

(well ok, UT 2004 was fuckin mint)

I'm still trying to hold some hope for the series to continue.