Random Shenmue III Thoughts

[Spaghetti]

I'm also playing Vampyr. It's pretty Shenmue-ish in a few ways because of the unique NPCs with their own stories/backgrounds.

Ultimately an engine does not automatically make an optimised game though, but an engine that isn't held together by bubblegum and tape does make it easier to achieve.

[The_Intruder]

Do you guys think Shenmue 3 will have a larger script than the first two games? Im hoping it does because of Shenhua, Lan di making more appearance and the introduction of Niao Sun.

[Supa]

If we consider the past, the general market was very harsh towards Shenmue II. I mention shenmue II because after the game was canceled for Dreamcast in the North American market, Microsoft was given the rights to have it as an exclusive on the Xbox and was supposed to market the game, there was very little marketing and the exposure the game had was very poor. If you recall, gaming magazines, xbox magazine (and their terrible demo), and G4tv or tech tv all criticized Shenmue while bashing and tearing apart everything regarding Shenmues legacy.

I think OXM did a fair job with their Shenmue II demos. They had a trailer on one disc, the introduction of the game up until Wong steals your bag (I believe) on another disc, and then another demo which included the first Zhang meeting at Dou Jiang DIner up until the end of the QTE chase/battle in the White Dynasty Quarter. I played that one so many times in Walmart.

Also, I remember some pretty positive coverage of Shenmue from both G4 and TechTV:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY1OL9q ... XcYU5DLgVP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC4Bdhm ... XcYU5DLgVP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmYDE87 ... XcYU5DLgVP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZVtRSA ... XcYU5DLgVP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0tXQRo ... 2B2F6BD2C2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0qZwCd ... 2B2F6BD2C2

There is also a review from Judgement Day on G4 where they give it a really good review, but I can't find the video.

[sand4fish]

Do you guys think Shenmue 3 will have a larger script than the first two games? Im hoping it does because of Shenhua, Lan di making more appearance and the introduction of Niao Sun.

It seems large enough given this Masaya Mastsukaze's tweet:



According to him, the stack is double printed for each page, and that much is just for a day's worth of work.

[The_Intruder]

^^^ oh wow that is alot of papers for a day of work. I can't really wait for a story trailer and gameplay footage. How long does the voice work last for a video game?

[sand4fish]

^^^ oh wow that is alot of papers for a day of work. I can't really wait for a story trailer and gameplay footage. How long does the voice work last for a video game?

It will depend on how much dialogue said character will have, but apparently according to a professional an hour worth of finished recorded dialogue averages 5 hours of work for the voice actor plus 2 hours of editing per finished hourly dialogue. That is, if it's done professionally. Amateur or heavily budget constrained work will take way less time as the director might only opt for one take per line and be done with it.

[The_Intruder]

^^^ oh wow that is alot of papers for a day of work. I can't really wait for a story trailer and gameplay footage. How long does the voice work last for a video game?

It will depend on how much dialogue said character will have, but apparently according to a professional an hour worth of finished recorded dialogue averages 5 hours of work for the voice actor plus 2 hours of editing per finished hourly dialogue. That is, if it's done professionally. Amateur or heavily budget constrained work will take way less time as the director might only opt for one take per line and be done with it.

Is the 5 hours for the entire game script per character?

[Spaghetti]

Is the 5 hours for the entire game script per character?

Depends on the length of the script/character.

In the case of Shenmue, definitely not. They're doing multiple sessions.

[The_Intruder]

Is the 5 hours for the entire game script per character?

Depends on the length of the script/character.

In the case of Shenmue, definitely not. They're doing multiple sessions.

I was thinking maybe what if they have some lines ready and tease something at E3 maybe is just wishful thinking.

[swimingdeer]

Hum, all of this make me curious :
How much time worth of dialog will there be stored in the game ?
How much was it for SH1 and SH2 ?

[Spaghetti]

I was thinking maybe what if they have some lines ready and tease something at E3 maybe is just wishful thinking.

Yeah, anything at E3 is wishful thinking right now so don't get too excited.

On if they have lines ready, well... they've definitely got some recorded from what we can see, but it's another question to implement, animate, and test all that in the game. Plus, what they've recorded so far might not match up with scenarios they would want to show in a promotional video, and won't want to jump around in the production process just to record (and possibly implement/animate) trailer lines that'll get redone later anyway.

Gamescom is still our best bet for seeing more.

[The_Intruder]

I was thinking maybe what if they have some lines ready and tease something at E3 maybe is just wishful thinking.

Yeah, anything at E3 is wishful thinking right now so don't get too excited.

On if they have lines ready, well... they've definitely got some recorded from what we can see, but it's another question to implement, animate, and test all that in the game. Plus, what they've recorded so far might not match up with scenarios they would want to show in a promotional video, and won't want to jump around in the production process just to record (and possibly implement/animate) trailer lines that'll get redone later anyway.

Gamescom is still our best bet for seeing more.

Your definitely right on everything you said Spaghetti. I had no idea it was a long process implementing all that together. I guess we should all wait for gamescom then.

[Reprise]

Yup, we should probably wait until Gamescom. And then when nothing is shown at Gamescom, we should probably wait until the event after that. And then when there is nothing shown at that event, we should probably wait until Magic Monaco. Oh, but no, that's not the right stage for Shenmue 3, because remember you can't just release something as simple as a few minutes of gameplay or a new trailer without doing so at a special event (even though other developers do it all the time). So we better wait until E3 2019. Until they announce that the release has been delayed until 2020.

I'm sure I'll get scolded for negativity and cynicism, but let's be honest, that's been the cycle with Shenmue fans over the last 3 years, constantly hyping up the next 'event' and then trying to rationalise why 'that event' isn't the 'right event' once it becomes clear that S3 won't be making an appearance.

No, but seriously, I'm sure something will be shown at Gamescom. At least we know voice recording has begun and that hopefully means they're making good progress

[Rikitatsu]

Yup, we should probably wait until Gamescom. And then when nothing is shown at Gamescom, we should probably wait until the event after that. And then when there is nothing shown at that event, we should probably wait until Magic Monaco. Oh, but no, that's not the right stage for Shenmue 3, because remember you can't just release something as simple as a few minutes of gameplay or a new trailer without doing so at a special event (even though other developers do it all the time). So we better wait until E3 2019. Until they announce that the release has been delayed until 2020.

I'm sure I'll get scolded for negativity and cynicism, but let's be honest, that's been the cycle with Shenmue fans over the last 3 years, constantly hyping up the next 'event' and then trying to rationalise why 'that event' isn't the 'right event' once it becomes clear that S3 won't be making an appearance.

No, but seriously, I'm sure something will be shown at Gamescom. At least we know voice recording has begun and that hopefully means they're making good progress

I'm more concerned about what they'll show instead of when.
I don't mind them taking their time, but I don't want something like that abhorrent Gamescom trailer to ever be released again. Oh, and we need to see Gameplay already.

I still think we'll see something this E3, mainly due to how quiet they've been the past 6 months.

[Reprise]

I actually have no qualms with the gamescom trailer... It should have been labelled a development progress update or something and been shown with some kind of context provided (e.g. details on how early they are in development etc.). You're right though, what we really need to see is gameplay. Not glorified concept art.

Hopefully we do see something at E3... I think the relative silence over the last 6 months might have more to do with the delay though as a result of them being behind schedule.