About the character design

[Yokosuka]

I know the current charadesign of kickstarter/famitsu interview are just placeholders but...

Why do not simply import the (superb) original CGIs in powerful Unreal Engine 4 then improve them ? How is it so complicated when the community has achieved similar solid things ? Are the original CGI files lost somewhere or still owned by Sega ?

When you look at :
Shenmue Dreamcast
Shenmue Online
Sonic & Sega All Star Racing
Ryo appears each time to be a different person.

In Shenmue Online trailers, Shenhua was not even recognizable and Lan Di raised a diabolic odd (stupid) smile that did not click with his original personality (notice that Lan Di CGI is used by the kickstarter page).

From a Shenmue III perspective, that does not mean anything but the risk still exists.

I don't want to have the weird feeling to talk to a stranger when it comes to Shenhua or any another familiar person Ryo could find. Accurate charadesign should be as important as gathering the old dubbers.

[flip]

I'm reserving judgement until we get some screenshots later on down the line but i'm not too worried since they're just placeholders and will obviously change as development goes on.

[FourWuDu1026]

Well from recent interview it seems that the kickstarter character models aren't just placeholders. From what we can gather those are the actual models they will use except they will refine them over time.

Even so it worries me a little that the original models from 14 years ago look way better. Either way I don't think we should expect shenmue 3 to be a graphical powerhouse. I think best case scenario is ps3 generation graphics.

[Mystere]

If it's a placeholder, I'm not sure why they're using it when "other" Ryo images look like this...



http://www.gamespark.jp/article/img/201 ... 07658.html

Ryo looks a lot more Ryo-like in these, so the question is, if they exist why use the placeholder? Perhaps it's not a different model at all. We are mostly basing our judgements on one image - the main Kickstarter pic which is very harshly lit. Even in the trailer he looks different.

What I AM hoping is that they'll make Shenhua look less like a white Cosplayer and more like she did in Shenmue II...

[shredingskin]

It's the same model I think.

[Surake]

It's all placeholders right now. They will improve as time goes on it's really early still.

[Jeff]

This is how I want Ryo to look in Shenmue III. What we all wished the Dreamcast could make it look like but couldn't. With Corey Marshall doing his voice at a bare minimum audio wise. This is doable. I pray they use this as the template.

[shredingskin]

I want this



or this



It's kinda weird, those look almost animeish, while other people try to make things look gritty and realist.

[AnimeGamer183]

Is it just me or does this new model make ryo look really young? I mean, he actually IS really young, but he looks even younger now. I almost want to say he looked too old in the first 2 games even, maybe this approach is a more realistic one for a 18/19 year old man. Only problem is its a bit different than what we are used to, maybe its just me.

[jay_mack]

Ryo looks a lot more Ryo-like in these, so the question is, if they exist why use the placeholder? Perhaps it's not a different model at all. We are mostly basing our judgements on one image - the main Kickstarter pic which is very harshly lit. Even in the trailer he looks different.

What I AM hoping is that they'll make Shenhua look less like a white Cosplayer and more like she did in Shenmue II...

I like these shots a lot more than the stuff on the kickstarter page. It's still not quite what I'd like (I'd prefer him to look more like the top bar of the dojo ^) but it's better. Hopefully as it continues, it'll get better and better.

[code l name]

I've always been a fan of the original artwork and always imagined for a Shenmue III they would essentially crip the passport model only with increased detail:

[JaySw34]

Yes I'm thinking the final version will essentially be the models we saw in the passport with more detail.

[Three Blades]

I really hope so, as well, and I'm surprised they didn't just use those models for the trailer. Why make a whole new one from scratch if it looks vastly inferior? Even in the Sega Racing game, I was surprised that they had a Ryo that looks exactly like the orginal Ryo, only more detailed.

I'm not talking about the graphics, either- people always say, "don't worry, the graphics will get better because everything is really early"...Really, nobody is talking about the graphic quality. The graphics are fine! The problem is that the character's faces look like completely different people.

I don't care if it has Dreamcast graphics, PS3 graphics, PS4 graphics! But I DO care that the characters look the way they're supposed to! I don't want to continue the story if, the whole time, I'm feeling like I'm playing as different characters that happen to be cosplaying as Ryo and ShenHua.

People need to realize that character designs are important here, because it's one of the things that'll make you feel like you're really continuing the same story that you've been playing. What if, in the Star Wars movies, they had re-cast everybody in Episode 6 as different actors? In effect, it would still continue the story, and maybe still be good, but it wouldn't feel like you're watching a continuation of the same story.
All I'm saying is, characters need to look like they're supposed to.

[chris1986]

The animations on those clips also like very much like the DC, the way the mouths move, the way they hop over the stones, which didn't look to look since we're now way ahead of the DC era, the characters looked too different too. They need to look at the older models for guidance and get it right.

[Hyo Razuki]

I have absolutely no worries about the character design with Yu in charge as Director and Producer and the original character design guy on board.