Shenmue III @Gamescom '17 Discussion - That's All, Folks

[yuc02]

Got my press pass approved this morning. Now time to make plans.

Great news! I wish I can be there too...

Shame we can't catch up during the public days, but hope you have fun!

There'll hopefully be free wifi available throughout the showfloor, so I'll try to see if I can get some live streaming set up. (http://www.gamescom-cologne.com/gamesco ... /index.php)

In any case I'll post or tweet (@yuc2002) what I see during the public days as soon as I can, so keep your eyes peeled!

[Peter]

Three weeks still to the gamescom, it looks like a never end! Sometimes it seems like a dream that we are going to see Shenmue 3, I never lost faith but It was almost impossible for me and now we are only three weeks to see it properly!

How will look like Shenhua, Ryo and the "old" characters?
How will it be to play with the new free battle mode after Suzuki's new ideas?
How big will be the game compared to Shenmue 2?
Will the NPCs have their own daily routines as they had in previous games?
How will look like the NPCs?
I have tons of questions!

I have most of these questions covered, in one way or another. But if you have tonnes, by all means say. Anyone can think of any questions they can think of then knock yourselves out. But think about them from the point of view of them being questions he can answer. There's no point asking him, "uuhh, when's the rewards going out?". Those are Awesome Japan's & Fangamers responsibility.

Got my press pass approved this morning. Now time to make plans.

Great news! I wish I can be there too...

Shame we can't catch up during the public days, but hope you have fun!

There'll hopefully be free wifi available throughout the showfloor, so I'll try to see if I can get some live streaming set up. (http://www.gamescom-cologne.com/gamesco ... /index.php)

In any case I'll post or tweet (@yuc2002) what I see during the public days as soon as I can, so keep your eyes peeled!

We should be able to catch up I am sure. I am just not trying to have a set plan for the duration. Running around to meet people at specific times just adds pressure to it, so communicating over there, with all Shenmue fans is the way to go. It keeps things organic, and we are all going to be in the same location over the 3 days so it's not going to be difficult. Plus, we need to wait on more info from YSNET regarding meetings and whatnot.

I may stream live to the SD Facebook page. It's just an idea at the moment, again, nothing set in stone. I could do a video recap live. Or just stream footage live from the Shenmue booth etc. Even though theres the industry day, the business area is also open for 3 days just like the public areas so it gives me plenty of time to scope it out and put a plan together.
Say for example, if I get a feel for the booth, it's environment, I could say, "Can't get access to the business area to see Shenmue? No problem! Tune into SD Facebook tomorrow for a live hosting of their booth and what goes on during this event."

I may not be allowed to do that, but we will see. It's just one idea of many.

[Hazuki00]

Three weeks still to the gamescom, it looks like a never end! Sometimes it seems like a dream that we are going to see Shenmue 3, I never lost faith but It was almost impossible for me and now we are only three weeks to see it properly!

How will look like Shenhua, Ryo and the "old" characters?
How will it be to play with the new free battle mode after Suzuki's new ideas?
How big will be the game compared to Shenmue 2?
Will the NPCs have their own daily routines as they had in previous games?
How will look like the NPCs?
I have tons of questions!

I have most of these questions covered, in one way or another. But if you have tonnes, by all means say. Anyone can think of any questions they can think of then knock yourselves out. But think about them from the point of view of them being questions he can answer. There's no point asking him, "uuhh, when's the rewards going out?". Those are Awesome Japan's & Fangamers responsibility.

Thank you Peter, I think most of my questions will be answered once they show the new Shenmue 3 clips and share the latest info. Besides, I understand you'll have limited time to ask questions so I would like to ask them only one.

I'm worried about the future of the saga, I don't even want to think about it but, in the terrrible case Shenmue 3 wouldn't sell what it's needed, would Suzuki try a new kickstarter again for Shenmue 4 and 5? I think this may has been asked before. Shenmue 4 and 5 would cost much less money than Shenmue 3 because they will already have many material they can reuse again so, with a new kickstarter they don't even need to reach the same money than they did this time.

Apart from this, I'd like to say a BIG thank you to suzuki and his team, to Cedric and everyone who made this possible and the best of luck to Shenmue

PD: It'd be cool If they could say when we'll be able to try the demo.

[KidMarine]

Three weeks still to the gamescom, it looks like a never end! Sometimes it seems like a dream that we are going to see Shenmue 3, I never lost faith but It was almost impossible for me and now we are only three weeks to see it properly!

How will look like Shenhua, Ryo and the "old" characters?
How will it be to play with the new free battle mode after Suzuki's new ideas?
How big will be the game compared to Shenmue 2?
Will the NPCs have their own daily routines as they had in previous games?
How will look like the NPCs?
I have tons of questions!

I have most of these questions covered, in one way or another. But if you have tonnes, by all means say. Anyone can think of any questions they can think of then knock yourselves out. But think about them from the point of view of them being questions he can answer. There's no point asking him, "uuhh, when's the rewards going out?". Those are Awesome Japan's & Fangamers responsibility.

Got my press pass approved this morning. Now time to make plans.

Great news! I wish I can be there too...

Shame we can't catch up during the public days, but hope you have fun!

There'll hopefully be free wifi available throughout the showfloor, so I'll try to see if I can get some live streaming set up. (http://www.gamescom-cologne.com/gamesco ... /index.php)

In any case I'll post or tweet (@yuc2002) what I see during the public days as soon as I can, so keep your eyes peeled!

We should be able to catch up I am sure. I am just not trying to have a set plan for the duration. Running around to meet people at specific times just adds pressure to it, so communicating over there, with all Shenmue fans is the way to go. It keeps things organic, and we are all going to be in the same location over the 3 days so it's not going to be difficult. Plus, we need to wait on more info from YSNET regarding meetings and whatnot.

I may stream live to the SD Facebook page. It's just an idea at the moment, again, nothing set in stone. I could do a video recap live. Or just stream footage live from the Shenmue booth etc. Even though theres the industry day, the business area is also open for 3 days just like the public areas so it gives me plenty of time to scope it out and put a plan together.
Say for example, if I get a feel for the booth, it's environment, I could say, "Can't get access to the business area to see Shenmue? No problem! Tune into SD Facebook tomorrow for a live hosting of their booth and what goes on during this event."

I may not be allowed to do that, but we will see. It's just one idea of many.

If possible could you maybe ask him roughly how many NPCs will be in the game? He said 100-200 when asked before, but that was at least 18 months or so ago, I'm curious if that number has changed. Thanks!

[yuc02]

PD: It'd be cool If they could say when we'll be able to try the demo.

Yeah would be interesting to know if the demo's still going ahead, and roughly when they'll be able to release it

[Spaghetti]

Unless YSnet want a major PR issue on their hands, they kind of have to go ahead with the backer demo.

I think they know that, though.

[Peter]

If possible could you maybe ask him roughly how many NPCs will be in the game? He said 100-200 when asked before, but that was at least 18 months or so ago, I'm curious if that number has changed. Thanks!

Already got it

[Rikitatsu]

Three weeks still to the gamescom, it looks like a never end! Sometimes it seems like a dream that we are going to see Shenmue 3, I never lost faith but It was almost impossible for me and now we are only three weeks to see it properly!

How will look like Shenhua, Ryo and the "old" characters?
How will it be to play with the new free battle mode after Suzuki's new ideas?
How big will be the game compared to Shenmue 2?
Will the NPCs have their own daily routines as they had in previous games?
How will look like the NPCs?
I have tons of questions!

I have most of these questions covered, in one way or another. But if you have tonnes, by all means say. Anyone can think of any questions they can think of then knock yourselves out. But think about them from the point of view of them being questions he can answer. There's no point asking him, "uuhh, when's the rewards going out?". Those are Awesome Japan's & Fangamers responsibility.

If I may... Can you ask him how long the game is planned to be, compared to the two previous games?
I really liked how lengthy the S2 was, and I'm hoping since S3 also takes place in three locations, we would spend considerable amount of time in each of these locations, enough to get familiar with all of them.

Also, are there plans to get in contact with Ren, Lan Di, and Joy's English Voice actors to reprise their roles in Shenmue 3? Last I heard they were eager to get on the project, but they've yet to hear from YsNET.

[Peter]

Three weeks still to the gamescom, it looks like a never end! Sometimes it seems like a dream that we are going to see Shenmue 3, I never lost faith but It was almost impossible for me and now we are only three weeks to see it properly!

How will look like Shenhua, Ryo and the "old" characters?
How will it be to play with the new free battle mode after Suzuki's new ideas?
How big will be the game compared to Shenmue 2?
Will the NPCs have their own daily routines as they had in previous games?
How will look like the NPCs?
I have tons of questions!

I have most of these questions covered, in one way or another. But if you have tonnes, by all means say. Anyone can think of any questions they can think of then knock yourselves out. But think about them from the point of view of them being questions he can answer. There's no point asking him, "uuhh, when's the rewards going out?". Those are Awesome Japan's & Fangamers responsibility.

If I may... Can you ask him how long the game is planned to be, compared to the two previous games?
I really liked how lengthy the S2 was, and I'm hoping since S3 also takes place in three locations, we would spend considerable amount of time in each of these locations, enough to get familiar with all of them.

Also, are there plans to get in contact with Ren, Lan Di, and Joy's English Voice actors to reprise their roles in Shenmue 3? Last I heard they were eager to get on the project, but they've yet to hear from YsNET.

The first one I am working on, but it's a bit harder to try and word it than I imagined. He has already kind of answered that question in the Nico Nico interview in 2015, where he said that each experience is different for each player due to their age, playstyle, attention span etc. It could take someone 20 hours to complete the game, where as it could take someone 60 hours. The context of the question though was the fact that games in general are now played by all age groups, and that he creates his games to tailor the player in terms of difficulty (QTEs getting easier after numerous failed attempts for example).
But when asking a question like that, it leads to a bunch of specific questions like, as you say, the areas. How big is Baisha for example, can then correlate into how long it takes to complete etc. From experience, you do need to really nail down a question juuuust right, to really get the best answer from him. This is also with the language barrier, as the conversation doesn't flow as normal. For example, if you talk to someone about a topic, a specific details may come up where you immediately ask, and then you go off on tangents. Because of the translation between languages, it's very much stop/start, with no real method of natural conversation flow. So you have to get the question bang on, otherwise you waste time dwindling on something which could be useless info. The interviews are usually between 15-30 minutes depending, and you would be surprised how quickly it flies by.

The second part is easy. Firstly, they won't cast or record until the game is essentially finished. Around the 90% complete mark is when the voice acting is done. Eric went through it in Japan for us, and also told us about how fully complete cutscenes were there to be watched, in order for the cast to get into character, and have a sense of what exactly is going on in each scene. What's the context of the voicework, and what emotions should be portrayed at that time.
Also, I talked at the dinner with the executive producer about the original cast (to put a good word in for Eric, as I had promised him over a few pints the night before), and he said that they will be trying to contact them, but, with time and age affecting, well, everyone, their voices will still need to match the character. There are also some of the original cast who have gone completely off the radar too. One in particular, only ever did Shenmue as a professional voice artist, and since then, her whereabouts are unknown. He suspected she just had a family and chose a different career path away from voice acting.
To be honest, at this stage of production, it's a bit of a wasted question since I already know the response would be, "we will be contacting artists in the future", or words to that effect.


Just to add, I have about 20 questions already(that will be cut down once I've decided what's most important), which make up a sort of pathway through the interview. A beginning, middle and end. They would cover all the usual questions people ask. But Yu-san loves technical questions, that's his forte. Anything along those lines are great, although I am not a technical person. Questions that are a bit outside the box are always better than, "hey so will Ryo look like Ryo in the game?"

[Let's Get Sweaty]

It's not necessarily a technical question but could you try and ask him about Space Harrier please?

[Peter]

Absolutely! If anything, I'd love more questions about his games like Space Harrier, and also Virtua Fighter

[Kiske]

That's awesome Peter!

Thank you so much for covering the event for all of us!

Since we are talking about Space Harrier, could you ask Yu if we can expect some arcade games, from the original titles or even new ones in Shenmue 3?

And second question, although this may seem tricky to get an answer... is Ryo still going to wear his original "Timex" watch?

Again, thank you for giving us the opportunity to somehow participate in your Journey at Gamescom.

[Peter]

That's awesome Peter!

Thank you so much for covering the event for all of us!

Since we are talking about Space Harrier, could you ask Yu if we can expect some arcade games, from the original titles or even new ones in Shenmue 3?

And second question, although this may seem tricky to get an answer... is Ryo still going to wear his original "Timex" watch?

Again, thank you for giving us the opportunity to somehow participate in your Journey to Gamescom.

Covered and covered bud. A lot of the questions will be built around what we have seen in Kickstarter updates, like the arcades being spotted by eagle eyes fans, so things like that I've angled for. I am toying with the idea of emailing my questions through to the producer so he can see them and have more time to think about the answers. But then again, that may take the organic responses out of the equation which can cause a lack of emotion, and more along the lines of a robotic preprepared Q&A.

[yuc02]

Hey Peter, so I have a few questions for Suzuki-san that I hope you can ask him:

• Will there be a first person view mode?
• Will the game be VR-compatible (just for 3DoF head orientation tracking, I'm not expecting 6DoF full motion VR)?
• Will the trial demo have a standard feedback form for fans to express their opinions/suggestions?
• Not sure if he knows about the PC version, but what would be the recommended hardware specs for the game?
• Are there plans to release patches/DLC after the initial game launch, if say more funding is found to achieve some of the budget/time limited goals later on? I'm thinking about things like full voice acting and extra side-quests

Many thanks again!

[Kiske]

Thank you!

I know we are in good hands for a vivid and thoughtful interview!

Also, some question may find answers in the material they are going to show during Gamescom so it's cool if you keep some room for manœuvre.