Thief wrote: I worry about the production process spoiling aspects of the game -- I'd like to be involved, but I'd also like to experience the game as "fresh" as possible.
I do agree there would be more chance of spoilers since we are following the development closely, whereas 15 years ago Shenmue caught many by surprise. I think Suzuki is very conscious of spoilers since Shenmue is such a story driven game, so he hasn't dropped a many. We've also had 14 years to analyse every aspect of Shenmue 1 & 2 and some theories of course are probably accurate.