Its not really Shenmue 3 without Yu Suzuki

[krizzex]

I consider Shenmue to be Yu Suzuki's greatest work. The thing I like about Shenmue is the creativity and originality that the legendary developer Yu Suzuki brought. All of the details and the individual nuances are what defines the game for me, not the name. I do not like it because its called Shnmue, but because of the exact arrangement of content it provided.

The reason I say this is because I noticed that most people who ask for Shenmue 3 seem to request a game to be made bearing its name for no other reason than to have a game with the name Shenmue 3.

When I say I want Shenmue 3, what I mean is that I want is Yu Suzuki's story to continue. If the game is made and he is not at the head of the project then it will just be some arbitrary game to me that isn't worth buying. The series and Suzuki are synonymous for me. It is just a name without him.

A lot of people seem to be getting excited for the possibility that there may be a Shenmue 3 coming out. Will it really be Shenmue 3, though? As I understand it, the story from beginning to end already exists in Yu Suzuki's head. What i want is for that story to be concluded. If SEGA finally green lights the game to be made, who will head it with Suzuki no longer present?

If they make the game without him, then it wound just be a namesake cash-in. It would not be the story that I wanted to buy. I could never support the making of such a game.



What is your opinion on what is Shenmue. Do you view as Yu Suzuki's game or just a game series with the name Shenmue?

[MiTT3NZ]

Well, Yu apparently didn't know what the hell he was doing, so I'd be happy with him doing the writing and supervising the project, but I'd rather it was in the hands of a team in the know.

[Let's Get Sweaty]

I don't think there's any danger of the game being made without Yu, and I believe for the most part you've misread people's wishes on that. Yu's the one that's been going around discussing the game and looking for partners to fund it, and fans who know this have been behind him all the way. He still has an advisory role at Sega, and refers to "we" - not "they" - when talking about making the third game. And it's so widely known to be his project (unlike some franchises where the publisher succeeds in almost anonymizing the work that goes into them, so that fans remain loyal to the brand only) that no games company would dare pretend otherwise.

[johnvivant]

it does worry me that Yu Suzuki has been out of game development for such a long time. its clear that he is an extremely talented individual, so i suppose its quite possible for him to bring himself up to speed with modern AAA game development. as mittenz says, he was somewhat inexperienced at producing rpg console games, and still he managed to make a masterpiece.

its a shame he hasn't been able to make more game since shenmue, apart from very minor titles.

[BlueMue]

When we say that we wan't Shenmue III, we all mean a Shenmue III with Yu Suzuki as the head of the project.
It has to be done with him. He's the one with the vision, with the story. Unless he has everything written down in a huge manuscript that he could hand over to someone else how's able to understand and realize it, Shenmue III is impossible.

But Shenmue III doesn't just need Yu. It also needs alot of the really talented writers and developers that were on the original team. And new ones as well, that have lead the industrie in the last few years. Images some of the folks from Naughty Dog and Kojima Productions joining forces to create the most incredible game ever!
That's wishful thinking, I know. But that's how I would like to see things happen.

[Half Dead]

From which point of view? Plot or gameplay? Because from a story standpoint I don't find the series to be particularly special or innovative (I'd argue it's fairly generic), but the mechanics and immersion is outstanding. I guess if Suzuki is the only guy that drive and preserve the creativity of the latter, then I agree.

[Henry Spencer]

Most of the Shenmue team are no longer with SEGA (lead programmer formed his own company, designers/artists/co-directors left to join various companies including Konami, Tecmo-Koei etc). The only ones left (marginal members, at best) within SEGA are working on the Yakuza series. Some don't even work in the industry anymore [they just upped and vanished]. It's a sad reality for us all, but SIII will be nothing like I or II at all, if it ever happens, Yu Suzuki or no Yu Suzuki.

[SlySpy]

Well, you never know, there could be a bunch of developers who understand what Shenmue is about who can still make a faithful entry to the series. The at-the-time unproven developers at Eidos Montreal succeeded at making a faithful prequel to Deus Ex, which matched the original's philosophies and gameplay aspects, even though certain qualities of the prequel weren't completely on the nose, and some even detrimental.

I think that's a good enough sign that Shenmue 3 can be good with the right people behind it. I do agree that Yu Suzuki does need some part in it though; the first two games were kind of the amalgamation of everything Yu Suzuki had learned as a game developer, and it certainly shows in many aspects of gameplay. He also has the overall story and some of the gameplay elements of subsequent entries worked out years in advance, so if not an active developer, he'd still be valuable as a consultant. I'm not saying Shenmue 3 would definitely be the same as the first two games, but you shouldn't definitively say that it will definitely be different either.

[Henry Spencer]

Disagree entirely. It rests entirely on who Suzuki makes the game with. I don't have enough faith in him after seeing which studios Suzuki has been shipping the series off to in the past.

The last couple of times Shenmue got handed to another developer, we (almost) got Shenmue Online which featured an entirely different look and feel. Nice CG cutscene, but you could definitely tell it wasn't the same team. The gameplay looked cheap and crappy.

This fantasy belief that if Yu Suzuki is involved no matter where he takes the project, it will be perfect are in for a rude awakening.

Again, look at Shenmue Online which had Suzuki's involvement; Dragonball Z style fireballs shooting out of everybody's hands and the character designs were like something out of a cartoon rather a realistic look. Not to mention the MMO structure just felt weird for a series like Shenmue, spin-off or not, it didn't look like it belonged. And it was meant to be "canon" but the gameplay was so terrible looking. Then there's Shenmue Gai, a crappy phone game the less said about that, the better. Again, Suzuki was involved with that and it didn't exactly take off.

Shenmue 1 and 2 were both a team effort and since that team is no more, the game will be completely different. Ultimately, the best scenario would be for Suzuki to be working at Sony Japan, where the teams there can create amazingly realistic looking character models set in Asian countries (example: Siren PS3) and fantastic art teams (example: Toyama's team and Ueda's team), all made on a relatively decent budget. In my opinion, they're the best team to make Shenmue 3, outside of the likes of Atlus (who often make games set in Japan in various time periods and are now owned by SEGA and they were "open" to bringing back old SEGA IP), Koei Tecmo [specifically Omega Force] (look at Dynasty Warriors, Fatal Frame, Ninja Gaiden etc and tell me they don't have great art/design teams who can damn well recreate ancient time periods in both China and Japan).

[SlySpy]

Disagree entirely. It rests entirely on who Suzuki makes the game with. I don't have enough faith in him after seeing which studios Suzuki has been shipping the series off to in the past.

So you disagree with my post entirely, but you say if Yu Suzuki makes the game with the right developers, the game might turn out good? Did you even read the post you were replying to, or were you just trying to reiterate your point regardless of what the post was?

By the way, there was nowhere in that post where I implied that the game would be perfect if he were involved, but at least I'm not thinking in negative absolutes.

And again, there are many up and coming developers out there who are probably hungry for an opportunity to work on games like Shenmue, so you shouldn't outright dismiss just anybody except for the few developers you know of that you think might properly salvage the series. Reiterating my previous example, Eidos Montreal was a new, unproven team that managed to make a faithful and successful prequel to a beloved game, because they understood some of the things that made it great.