by Silas » Thu Mar 04, 2004 7:09 am
He made VF and Shenmue, yes. But as he is starting a new studio, you might consider that he would not want to start a studio only with an existing franchise.
We all love Yu Suzuki, and if it wasn't for the fact that we were waiting for Shenmue III, would we really be urging him on to revisit old glories?
I've tried not to stick my oar into these E3 debates this year (having had some very bloody battles in the past!) but the reason I'm not particularly expecting Shenmue III from Digital Rex this year is that, as a new company, they'll want to dazzle us with something new, something to make DR a notable brand. My view is that the continuation of Shenmue is something that a sensible new company would keep back until they've really got their feet wet in the marketplace. I'm sure, also, that Yu-san has been more keen on flexing his creative muscles as head of this new studio, which is not something he can really do with Shenmue - since he already finished the script, like, three years ago! If you look at the downside of Shenmue II - that minigame-style elements of the storyline part of the game had very poor gameplay and little in the way of challenge - the crate carrying, the wude quest - it could be argued that Suzuki got so wrapped up in creating the fiction of it, that he got too close and forgot his real genius, which is for creating playable challenging games.
Frankly, Shenmue, highly regarded as it is by the game media, was a failure. Despite this, he still retains a huge amount of respect in the industry and of course within SEGA itself. I think he'd be primarily concerned with putting his stamp back on the industry with something new and kickass and original - something YU SUZUKI. When he's done that, when he's created something fantastic and big selling, when he's put himself back as the king of video games, then he can produce the long-awaited third part of his greatest achievement, and everybody will be that much more interested.