Update #77: New Character & Lakshya Digital

[BlueMue]

This came unexpected. I was in doubt at first but after reading what that team has pulled off in the past I'm reassured they're going to do a great job and we'll end up with a nice looking character roster.

By the way that new character reminds me of Kureha from Ninja Gaiden a lot!

[KidMarine]

Not bad. Pretty good infact. Compare her to Joy or other female characters and she definitely fits into the Shenmue universe. Still needs a little bit of work, but pretty reassuring.

[johnvivant]

great update. the new character is the right quality and art direction IMO. very cute. i think she's the shrine maiden from the old character art.

[ShenmueTree]

Someone screenshot the supposedly hiding Ryo cause I dont see him at all.

Edit: nvm. I found em. Hardly visible at all.

Also, from my crappy phone screen the temple looks like it says 堂札社千

Tangzha Community Temple? Thousand Tangzha Building? I dunno. Haha.

[RiGoRmOrTiS]

Looks great to me and I'm incredibly picky.

Looks like a natural evolution of the in-game models of the first two games, this kind of model is highly dependant on animation quality, so hopefully that's up to par.

I'm hearing nothing but good news recently, that person in resetera is just trying to bait people, it's obvious, but he's using wording and phrasing that are difficult to moderate. If he continues after that moderator warning then I'd guess action will be taken against him. Most people there seem positive and realistic.

All this outsourcing for bulk NPC work etc and the partnership with deep silver are nothing but positive, a tiny team and a tiny budget wouldn't even be able to afford outsourcing to such a well known company for supplemental work. Deep silvers deep pockets must be coming into play here and it's great news.

My confidence in the project grows with all the recent updates, because that's the logical opinion from what's been shared. Any other opinion is illogical and the result of mental deficiency or simply troll baiting...

High profile Kickstarters always attract these people, expect even more come release who will look for any reason to call it a failure. There are some negativity merchants on YouTube who will also do this to cash in on the hate train, so be prepared. The modern online community is a far more toxic circle jerk than it was back in the old Dreamcast days.

[life_247]

Where is Ryo in that image? I can't see a thing!!

Also outsourcing is pretty common, as the development ramps up when maps get finished and the engine starts to be playable you need a lot more people working on resources to place into the game. Problem is scaling up a team is difficult for the short period of time you need them and normally you have to hire a lot of freelancers and get them on the same page.

This is simply getting a team wholesale who already know how to work together to get the elements produced for the game. Although I do worry about the communication of this, although it happens all the time and would be required for this sort of game through an indie development cycle. Most large publishers have secondary studios that work on mobile or 2nd tier releases who get pulled in to do this work so it looks like its all the same team. However the lack of proper explanation here is quite stark - just hey we got these guys in India doing stuff.

As an example Assassins Creed Syndicate (happens to be what im playing through at the moment) was "lead" by Ubisoft Quebec who previously had worked on the other Assassins Creed titles and DLC items. This shows that Ubisoft was using them as a secondary studio for the previous games to make elements for the game but that Ubisoft Montreal was the main developer.

This kickstarter is very high profile and not just being followed by a few hardcore fans that probably understand modern game development. It should of come with an explanation that its perfectly normal part of game development but they don't have internal studios to rely on as they are developing this game on their own.

[Shenmue_Legend]

Looks great to me and I'm incredibly picky.

Looks like a natural evolution of the in-game models of the first two games, this kind of model is highly dependant on animation quality, so hopefully that's up to par.

I'm hearing nothing but good news recently, that person in resetera is just trying to bait people, it's obvious, but he's using wording and phrasing that are difficult to moderate. If he continues after that moderator warning then I'd guess action will be taken against him. Most people there seem positive and realistic.

All this outsourcing for bulk NPC work etc and partnership with deep silver and nothing but positive, a tiny team and a tiny budget wouldn't even be able to afford outsourcing to such a well known company for supplemental work. Deep silvers deep pockets must be coming into play here and it's great news.

Your profile pic is creepy! You know, I wonder if Deep Silver would give Yu Suzuki the "10 times the amount of our current budget" that he mentioned. It would be cool!

[Rikitatsu]

The eyes were the biggest issue with the previous models, this model has great eyes that actually look Asian...That's why it looks better than what they've shown before.

It's very Shenmue-esque.

[killthesagabeforeitkillsu]

Looks good to me. I'm very impressed with how they replicated the VF style on the eyes.

[Kintor]

I think that this partnership with Lakshya is a good move. Shenmue is a character driven game, having high quality facial animations is going to be essential to conveying all the emotional impact that Yu Suzuki intends.

Even big AAA studios don't get this right. I enjoyed Fallout 4 but the low quality facial rigs always bothered me. While the less said about Mass Effect Andromeda the better...

If Lakshya is the best option to getting Shenmue 3's character designs and animation done properly then I fully support it.

[SledgeNE]

This looks fantastic! Very good news.

[punkmanced]

Interesting move.
This could very well become that little extra 'something' that the game’s visuals needed…or the straw that breaks the camel’s back; only time will tell.

This is pretty awesome though:

By the way that new character reminds me of Kureha from Ninja Gaiden a lot!

Some Bollywood-style "inspiration" perhaps? ;)

[Technophilz]

How do people know that Lakshya have worked on the AAA titles you've mentioned (like Uncharted), in the past? I can only find CS:GO, Elder Scrolls Online, DC Online and Lara Croft Guardians of the Light on their website. You'd think if they'd worked on such larger projects, they would mention or showcase them on their website or something.

Edit: Nevermind, I've found some info on their Facebook page. This is very good news, although we should bear in mind, they work on the art for the game, not the actual character models, which is what we need.

Yup, and their LinkdIn page also mentions that they has created art for over a hundred game titles:

Experience: We has created art for over a hundred game titles including hugely successful ones such as Bloodborne, Just Cause 3, WWE 2K16, Uncharted 2, Farmville and Cityville.

Dreamy people will obviously feel optimistic about this very very late decision of outsourcing the game to an outside company (which btw needs a website on par with the AAA titles they claim they helped in).But, I think you already know I am not one of those dreamy people, because:

1-Unlike Shenmue III, it makes sense to collaborate with an Indian studio to provide Indian artwork for a title like Uncharted 2, that partially took place in India.

2-The games that Lakshya Digital claim they worked on were mainly last-gen titles, and none of them was made using Unreal Engine.

3- This very late decision, proves a point I made way earlier here in this very forum (and got a lot of hatred because of it): they finally realised that the original team was (at least) incapable of providing the required game assets so they had (or were told to) outsource the game to yet another outside studio.

4- One last thing, in the previous "update", we were clearly told that updates will be coming up less frequently, and guess what? we ended up getting a new update two weeks later, which is yet another example of the disastrous marketing and communication strategy this project has had since its very early days.

Therefore, I have to say I am not surprised to read the angry and harsh comments on Kickstarter and other forums, and I'd expect a similar reaction from the gaming media as well, because most people make their opinions based on real facts and not wishes.

Now, in order not to guarantee myself another ban, I feel I have to end up with a positive remark: outsourcing the game is in my opinion a step in the right direction. I can't say I'm very happy with its timing nor the studio they ended up choosing, but this may hopefully bring us a better game in the end.

[Kiske]

4- One last thing, in the previous "update", we were clearly told that updates will be coming up less frequently, and guess what? we ended up getting a new update two weeks later, which is yet another example of the disastrous marketing and communication strategy this project has had since its very early days.

Jesus Christ are you fucking reaching.

[SheepheadCG]

I'm going to search the internet far and wide to find random information and then will make up random negative shit to try and make Shenmue 3 look bad

lol...