A few days ago I was online and saw the picture from an undisclosed source of a brown leather jacket with a zipper, white t-shirt and 3 pink petals. I thought, "what's the big deal? It's a brown jacket and a white shirt." Then a day later I realized there was 1 cut in the first petal, 2 in the second, and 3 in the third....my heart stopped! I immediately thought "SHENMUE 3!" Then I read that it wasn't an official picture. Still, with that I felt hope, and here's why;
Over the past year or so there have been many Yu Suzuki interviews, all of which he as mentioned a continuation of the series. He has teased us with the "III" at a conference (or whatever it was he was at) he was at and then said he did it as a joke. People have voted and there have been rumors of Shenmue 1 & 2 HD. With all this being done SEGA and Mr Suzuki has had to have taken notice..and taken notice of fan's cry for Shenmue 3 over the past 10 years.
The picture that was recently "leaked" was first made public from Japan...from Japan, the country of origin. Yu has tried to make Shenmue Online, which shows his dedication to keeping Shenmue alive, Yu has teased us with the "III", rumors of Shenmue 3 on PS4, Shenmue HD, official word of Shenmue continuing from Yu himself, re-opening of Yu Suzuki's twitter account, posting of the man that had effect on one of the styles from Shenmue 2....all in time for E3.
If there is any time that Shenmue 3 is most likely to be announced, now would be the time. I have high hopes we will hear something, like you all, I have been waiting for so long for the story to be continued.
Fans of this series come from all walks of life. I was around 23 years old when Shenmue was first released, I was seriously into martial arts and huge into Asian culture. I tried Shenmue on a whim and it had everything that I loved, martial arts, Japan, Japanese and Chinese culture...It changed my life, literally. Shenmue gave me that hair under my but to go to Japan, I went to Japan and made multiple trips there staying over 3 months on one visit. Because of Shenmue and driving into me my love for Japanese culture, I met my wife (who is Japanese). Now we have 3 children. Would I have met her if it wasn't for Shenmue? Probably not. Would my children have been born? Probably some children, but not the ones I look at daily today. They also know of Shenmue, have played or seen me play it (except for my 6 week old son, but he'll get his share soon ). I'm sure there's people out there with similar experiences as me where Shenmue has affected their life in a positive way.
Anyway, I've rambled enough, but this series means so much to me and I wish everyday that this will be completed, and I feel that the time is right for there to be an announcement that the series will go on. I have a good feeling about it this time, so many things point us in that direction. Just a few more weeks.