Yu Suzuki: Le Maitre de Sega - Book Review

[NeoShredder]

Hello,
first of all, I want to thank you for creating this subject which will allow exchange your opinions on my book, and neutral manner, which is very important.

Thank you for writing it! A work that generates discussion is a good work.

There are a lot of questions about my work, but if I answer, I'm afraid to look like a terrible braggart.
I prefer that responses come from people have read my book (unless someone wait a precise answer from me ?).

I surely will when it's in English.

[freakycritter]

I know Arcades are still huge in Japan(all thanks to Yu at that), but what, they play mainly online in the arcades? Wow, now that is just weird(I know most Japanese don't know what a PC is lol, but they still have consoles, handhelds, and as a last resort, even mobile which are huge there).

hmmm...not mainly. The main audience is casuals that play music games or crane games. Like F2P games in a way, there is hardcore fanbase that pumps in tons of money, which is the main revenue for arcade videogames these days.

[sand4fish]

I know Arcades are still huge in Japan(all thanks to Yu at that), but what, they play mainly online in the arcades? Wow, now that is just weird(I know most Japanese don't know what a PC is lol, but they still have consoles, handhelds, and as a last resort, even mobile which are huge there).

He must have meant arcade with online features, like those cards that you can insert in the machine and unlock dlc data acquired online like customizable costumes for your characters in VF4. My brother was in Japan just a week ago, and told me physical arcades are pretty much the same as they were a decade ago, alive and thriving.

Now back to the topic, I wanted to ask if anyone knows if this this an authorized biography, having exclusive material or it is just a compilation of previous interviews made by third parties?

[Zoltor]

I know Arcades are still huge in Japan(all thanks to Yu at that), but what, they play mainly online in the arcades? Wow, now that is just weird(I know most Japanese don't know what a PC is lol, but they still have consoles, handhelds, and as a last resort, even mobile which are huge there).

He must have meant arcade with online features, like those cards that you can insert in the machine and unlock dlc data acquired online like customizable costumes for your characters in VF4. My brother was in Japan just a week ago, and told me physical arcades are pretty much the same as they were a decade ago, alive and thriving.

Now back to the topic, I wanted to ask if anyone knows if this this an authorized bibliography, having exclusive materials or it is just a compilation of previous interviews made by third parties?

Oh ok, that makes sense, and is actually a pretty cool idea(as long as the card(s) stores your DLC, so when you come back to the arcades at a later date, you still have access to the DLC. Uless the card its self, is just a access card, which would work too that automatically just gives you access to everything, as long as you bring X card with you, but this way would require a specific, and separate card for each arcade machine).

[Centrale]

I don't think it's so simple to cast anger at Peter Moore for "killing" the Dreamcast. By exiting the console hardware business, Sega was enabled to live and fight another day. Whoever made the decision, it kept Sega alive.

Yuji Naka is on record having said that he would have preferred that Sega completely went out of business, rather than becoming a third party developer. Personally I think that's just pride talking.

I happen to have enjoyed Valkyria Chronicles, the Yakuza series, Outrun 2 and its offshoots, After Burner Climax, Virtua Fighter 4 and 5 and lots of other Sega games that would not exist if Sega had "gone down with the ship."

[Hyo Razuki]

@Sand4fish:
No dude, it's not authorized or official or something but that's why it's a bit more controversial. There are for instance passages in the book where Yu went on record in past interviews harshly criticizing the Saturn (during the mid 90's), the PS2 and Microsoft (about Shenmue 2X's marketing campaign). I guess Sega themselves wouldn't have wanted an author to dig out those interviews if it was an officially approved book. On a side note: I think that's also why there are no pictures of Yu in there.

@Peter: There is one of David Deville's YS interviews in the appendix of the book which also served as source material. The same goes for an interview with the founder of Shenmue Master (I think his name is Remy), the most important non-English Shenmue website. Other than that Berget used public material in French, English and Japanese (such as YS Game Works). A lot of his sources were also "offline" sources such as magazines, especially since most of the let's say pre 1995 stuff is "offline". Berget is very thorough with his citations. There are more than 400 citations (footnotes) in the 500 pages book. He uses the "humanities style" citation system. So yeah, he does make an effort to back up what he says.

@Benjamin Berget: Thanks for your book. I've learned many new things about Yu Suzuki from it. Thanks also for clearing up the issue with my copy. I'm glad it's not a problem with all copies. I will contact Geeks Line as you said. You've done a biography worthy of Suzuki-San, imho.

For other questions concerning the book, I will give you guys the quotes for the Peter Moore stuff and the E3 2004 incident later this week. Don't have that much time now. Sorry. If you have any more questions, I'll try to answer but please expect some delay as I'm super busy this week.

[LucBu]

For other questions concerning the book, I will give you guys the quotes for the Peter Moore stuff and the E3 2004 incident later this week. Don't have that much time now. Sorry. If you have any more questions, I'll try to answer but please expect some delay as I'm super busy this week.

Hey no problem, Hyo. Take your time. Is it APA, Oxford, something else? (referencing style)

Benjamin! I'll buy the book when it comes out in English at one point. How long did it take you to write the thing and dig out all these sources? Did you enjoy writing and researching it? Some of those Sega Saturn magazines give me chills.

[Himuro]

Even if Dreamcast was a success, Okawa said Sega was likely to retiring from the consoles market. My guess is that he wanted to use somehow the Dreamcast online features as a tool transition to become later a third party.

Aside from PSO, Sega didn't become a powerhouse in online gaming or something like that...

Ironically VF4 with Suzuki, made online gaming in Japan boom in Japanese arcades more than the Dreamcast did.

Lol wtf, VF 4 had online, in the arcades at that, what's the point(the entire reason to be playing a fighting game in the arcade to beginwith, is to play "local" multiplayer) ?

I find it hard to believe such would have pushed online to mainstream more then PSO on the DC.

That isn't weird at all. When you're playing a fighting game and there's no one to fight locally, online is a great idea. This allows you to always fight against an actual human and get better rather than fight shitty AI.

[Zoltor]

Even if Dreamcast was a success, Okawa said Sega was likely to retiring from the consoles market. My guess is that he wanted to use somehow the Dreamcast online features as a tool transition to become later a third party.

Aside from PSO, Sega didn't become a powerhouse in online gaming or something like that...

Ironically VF4 with Suzuki, made online gaming in Japan boom in Japanese arcades more than the Dreamcast did.

Lol wtf, VF 4 had online, in the arcades at that, what's the point(the entire reason to be playing a fighting game in the arcade to beginwith, is to play "local" multiplayer) ?

I find it hard to believe such would have pushed online to mainstream more then PSO on the DC.

That isn't weird at all. When you're playing a fighting game and there's no one to fight locally, online is a great idea. This allows you to always fight against an actual human and get better rather than fight shitty AI.

It's a arcades in Japan, and we're talking about VF, there's going to always be people to play.

My point is, if people wanted to play fighting games online, people wouldn't be going to the arcades in the first place, as it defeats the entire point of even going to the arcades.

[Himuro]

It really doesn't. Being able to fight some Korean dude in Tekken while at the arcade is pretty cool. You're making a lot assumptions. It's a useful extra feature. Also I'm pretty sure the online data is how they gathered player AI in VF4 EVO.

[drunkensailor]

Hi everyone! I just finished reading Benjamin Berget's extensive Yu Suzuki Biography and since an English version of the book is coming too, I wanted to share some thoughts about the book with the Shenmue community. Here we go!

First off, the presentation of the book is outstanding and far more than one can expect from a small publisher such as Geeks Line. The book comes in a beautiful book jacket with the words "Yu Suzuki" printed in a slightly convex way which gives the reader an interesting feeling while touching the book's cover. The paper is pearly white and the font size makes it a very agreeable reading experience. The book spans 500 pages plus a roundabout 30 color print pages which show pictures of advertisement flyers for Yu's Arcade machines. The quality of those pictures is very good and the colors come out vividly. Unfortunately there are no pictures of Yu Suzuki himself in the book.

The book's content covers Yu's entire life starting with his childhood in a small coastal town, his beginnings at Sega, Yu at the peak of his power at Sega in the late 90's/early 2000's all the way till the emotional E3 followed by the succesfull KS campaign for Shenmue 3 earlier this year.

As a long time Yu Suzuki fanboy, I wasn't expecting a lot of new information from the book, but there was actually a lot of small details in the book which I had either previously overlooked or forgotten about as time went by. Anyway, Benjamin Berget did one hell of a job accumulating heaps of old interviews from magazines dating back as far as the 80's and also loads of online interviews and other source material.

Also, I think most western readers didn't know a lot about Yu Suzuki's early years, unless they were able to read Japanese and thus understand Yu Suzuki Game Works. I found it really interesting to learn that Yu was a die hard fan of Ritchie Blackmore's in the 70's and in his teenage years spent most of his time practing guitar, trying to become a guitar hero just like Blackmore. But fortunately for all of us, just before the final exams in high school were about to happen and with his parents worried about his long hair and indifferent attitude towards studying, young Yu came to the conclusion that despite all his dilligent practice, he lacked the musical talent to become a rockstar. So our Yu got a haircut and enrolled for programming in University. The rest is history.

Benjamin Berget covers all the games of Yu's career, regardless if he was involved as a director, producer, supervisor or something completely different. He gives detailed information about the development, the technical specifications of each arcade machine, the console conversions and the commercial performance (sales) of each game. That alone is an achievement in itself but it is the small anecdotes and details where Berget's book shines. Hitting the letter G in the fourth stage of Hang-On gives you a million extra points, not just Nintendo but also Sega was super close to striking a deal with Sony in the early 90s but the narrow-minded executives of Sega of Japan fucked it up which led to Sony taking bitter revenge on both Sega and Nintedo by releasing the Playstation. Yu worked for Lockheed as an advisor and helped them create a tank simulator of which Sega released a civilian version as "Desert Tank". Shenmue 3 was almost announced for Xbox at E3 2004 and for some reason we still don't really know the announcement got cancelled at the very last minute. Yu initially wanted to do a Shenmue 3 Kickstarter in 2012, but Sega asked too much for the license.

Granted, all those things may not be new to some of us but as I said before I had either forgotten or never learned about them. And God, how much this book made me hate Peter "I put the nail in the Dreamcast's coffin in order to take its IPs to Xbox" Moore and Hajime "I want Sonic on my Pachinko machines to seduce a younger audience to gambling" Satomi and Sammy again. Yeah, I know, I need to calm down and there's nothing I can do about Peter Moore being an asshole and Sammy being a money-grubbing piece of shit company which unfortunately has taken over Sega. Still, the truth needs to be said from time to time.

Shenmue gets most attention of all games in this book with S1 & 2 being covered in a massive 100 pages chapter, Shenmue Online and it's cancellation being examined in great detail and Shenmue 3 being the finishing sub-chapter of the book with about a dozen pages. I also found particularly interesting the way Yu underwent the development of Shenmue. He first took a ton of location pictures which he showed them to the composers (Mitsuyoshi, Iuchi, Koshiro and so on) who he would then ask to compose some music for those locations. After they were done, Yu listened to what the composers had created and when he found a track he liked, he would play it to everybody involved (graphic artists, programmers,etc.). He asked them to listen closely and to go to work with the music in mind. In that sense, Shenmue's development started with its music and the incredible athmosphere could be created because everybody had the music in mind while working on Shenmue.

With its sheer amount of information and all his little dietails, this book is a great read for every Yu Suzuki fan and all those interested in Sega or Shenmue. However there is one thing about the book I didn't like one bit. While the price (25 Euros) is reasonable, the binding is very cheaply executed and very poor quality. Geeks-Line really need to find a new partner for their bindings. I read about 20 to 30 books a year, some digital but most of the still physical. I have never before experienced this with a new book. I have only read it once and I've treated my copy in an absolutely normal way but still the binding is so bad, some of the pages just came loose and fell out of the book!

However, I'd like to stress, that this is in no way related to Benjamin Berget's work or the contents and reading value of the book. It's an issue the publisher needs to deal with.

I advise every Shenmue fan to read the book, but if you buy the original version, treat your copy with extra care. Hopefully the English language publisher will do a better job with the binding.

this happens in pretty much all forms of japanese movies. especially in anime. that's why so much anime like studio ghibli can be so emotional.

[Benjamin Berget]

@ LucBu
It's been about 5 years I worked on the biography of Yu Suzuki, but not continuously: I published two volumes of three of my trilogy on "History of controversial video games" and I worked in many print magazines since 2012 (mook Pix n Love, Geek magazine, Retro vers le futur, Sega Retro, Côté Gamers, P911 Magazine (Independent video games), and has sold digital magazine iPad is: [gi: k], Games History...).

I took great pleasure to seek sources and write this book, perhaps even more than my books on controversial games. Indeed, the third volume was paused time to finish this biography of Yu Suzuki. In fact, if the subject of "scandal games' fascinated me, it can not be said of all the games discussed. Some were very boring to test, and I soon felt the need to talk about more pleasant things, to blacken the pages on the Shenmue saga and its creator. The origin of this book comes from.

The only inconvenience is that I wrote during 75% of the time without a publisher, and so with the fear of having done all this work for nothing. Fortunately, the recognition that I gained from my previous books and magazines has opened doors. Even English doors with the translation of my book

[Hyo Razuki]

For other questions concerning the book, I will give you guys the quotes for the Peter Moore stuff and the E3 2004 incident later this week. Don't have that much time now. Sorry. If you have any more questions, I'll try to answer but please expect some delay as I'm super busy this week.

Hey no problem, Hyo. Take your time. Is it APA, Oxford, something else? (referencing style)

Benjamin! I'll buy the book when it comes out in English at one point. How long did it take you to write the thing and dig out all these sources? Did you enjoy writing and researching it? Some of those Sega Saturn magazines give me chills.

It's humanities style.http://library.williams.edu/citing/styles/chicago1.php

[LucBu]

For other questions concerning the book, I will give you guys the quotes for the Peter Moore stuff and the E3 2004 incident later this week. Don't have that much time now. Sorry. If you have any more questions, I'll try to answer but please expect some delay as I'm super busy this week.

Hey no problem, Hyo. Take your time. Is it APA, Oxford, something else? (referencing style)

Benjamin! I'll buy the book when it comes out in English at one point. How long did it take you to write the thing and dig out all these sources? Did you enjoy writing and researching it? Some of those Sega Saturn magazines give me chills.

It's humanities style.http://library.williams.edu/citing/styles/chicago1.php

Thanks Hyo. Though I think that's Chicago Manual. The 'hummanities' is a sub-section of the Chicago Manual 16th edition. Still looking forward to your quotes, and thanks for the information in the first place, friend.

@ LucBu
It's been about 5 years I worked on the biography of Yu Suzuki, but not continuously: I published two volumes of three of my trilogy on "History of controversial video games" and I worked in many print magazines since 2012 (mook Pix n Love, Geek magazine, Retro vers le futur, Sega Retro, Côté Gamers, P911 Magazine (Independent video games), and has sold digital magazine iPad is: [gi: k], Games History...).

I took great pleasure to seek sources and write this book, perhaps even more than my books on controversial games. Indeed, the third volume was paused time to finish this biography of Yu Suzuki. In fact, if the subject of "scandal games' fascinated me, it can not be said of all the games discussed. Some were very boring to test, and I soon felt the need to talk about more pleasant things, to blacken the pages on the Shenmue saga and its creator. The origin of this book comes from.

The only inconvenience is that I wrote during 75% of the time without a publisher, and so with the fear of having done all this work for nothing. Fortunately, the recognition that I gained from my previous books and magazines has opened doors. Even English doors with the translation of my book

Oh yeah, writing without a publisher is what separates the boys from the men. I think you of all people Ben can appreciate the uncertainty and hope of something creative and long-term like Shenmue.

[Hyo Razuki]

All right, ladies and gentlemen. Please forgive me for not quoting exactly from the French book and then translating into English again. To cut this short, I will paraphrase the passages and give you guys the page numbers in the (French version) book plus the articles which Benjamin referred to in his footnotes. You guys can google the original sources if you want So here we go

1) Peter Moore being an asshole. The passage I meant spans from page 352 to 354. Benjamin starts off quoting Peter Moore from a 2008 theguardian.com interview called "'We knew we could win' - when the Dreamcast was a contender". Moore basically says that from September 99 till September 2000 DC sales were not high enough in the States and therefor he had come to the conclusion that they would have to stop making consoles given the fact that the PS2 was so to be introduced.

Benjamin then goes on to quote from a 2009 Gamasutra interview (The Rise and Fall of the DC) with Charles Bellfield who accompanied Moore to the later infamous confernce in Japan in September 2000. Bellfield recalls all Japanese executives leaving the room when the Americans revealed their plan to leave the console business. Yuji Naka was stunned and accused Moore of forging the numbers in order to push Sega out of the console market. Moore then completely lost it and yelled at Naka to go fuck himself (page 354).

Moore became VP Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft after leaving Sega. Benjamin points out that this looked like Moore helped eliminating the weakest competitor in the console market which Microsoft later rewarded him for (still 354). He then quotes from a 201 Segabits article called "A TSA officer told Peter Moore 'I don't need to see your passport. You're the asshole who gave away Shenmue to Xbox'".

Also, on page 367 he quotes a 2002 Xbox Nation interview of YS's where he says he's worried about MS not doing enough for S2X marketing-wise ("Yu Suzuki - Shenmue series, the competion and beyond").

Benjamin: If you're reading this, please share your thoughts on those passages of your book with us, if you feel that something needs to be said.

Can't find the E3 2004 passage right now guys. And since my copy of the book is basically falling apart, I can't really look it up now because I'd have to be extremely careful not to lose any of the pages. I'll see what Geeks-Line will do about it. If they don't do anything, I'll have to find a shop which can make a hardcover binding at a reasonable price. I really want to keep the book and so I need to be careful not to lose any pages.