Can we speculate on locations based on the GDC concept map?

[shenmue852]

http://cdn.escapistmagazine.com/media/g ... 698955.jpg

Basically, although it's from the VFRPG planning phase, the map is chronologically and geographically accurate for the games (not the chapter divisions) Shenmue I, Shenmue II and Shenmue III. The locations for for Shenmue and Shenmue II are accurate, shows characters from those (Master Chen, Gui Zhang for Yokosuka and Ren, Xiuying for HK/Kowloon) and beginning of Shenmue III is also in Guilin.

There's another picture with the order of it- but here is my guess based on the map (can't read the Japanese, has anyone translated the text if it's visible enough?) and references from the game.

Yokosuka to Hong Kong (Kowloon is located within Hong Kong)

Hong Kong to Guilin (Guanxi province)

Guilin to either X'ian or Yungcheng

Xi'an or Yungcheung to Luoyang (pretty sure about Luoyang, game has a pretty significant reference to it and it seems to be Luoyang's map location)

Luoyang to Mengcun

Mengcun to somewhere near Beijing or more likely Cangyanshan because Cangyangshan is a more Shenmue-ish location in that area of the map? somewhere Northeast. [EDIT- I meant Cangyanshan not Cangzhou]

Northeast to far Northwest, either the border of Tibet or India

There is also an Eastern coastal city, which I think would be Shanghai. But it isn't connected by line/arrow unlike the other locations. It might be Shandong province, Qufu in Shandong province is the birthplace of the Yellow Emperor.

Thoughts?

[shenmue852]

I am 99% sure the Eastern coastal city is Shanghai.

Compare the line from Guilin - Shanghai in Yu Suzuki's concept map with this one-

https://www.google.com.hk/maps/dir/Guil ... d31.230416

However, it seems like even at that stage, Shanghai wasn't a confirmed location, hence the lack of lines connecting it to the rest of the locations.

[fritz]

According to the Chinese text, the locations following Guilin are xi'an (西安) and Luoyang (洛陽). I'd like to figure out the rest but the text really looks like a bunch of scribbles.

[fritz]

I'm seeing Shanghai and Suzhou (上海 and 蘇州）too. Can barely make out Beijing (北京) near where the red circle is...

Looks like Ryo will truly have a chance to drive a forklift again

[shenmue852]

According to the Chinese text, the locations following Guilin are xi'an (西安) and Luoyang (洛陽). I'd like to figure out the rest but the text really looks like a bunch of scribbles.

HOLY SHIT BRO I WAS RIGHT.

i love you so much thank you thank you.

Sorry it was just so much fun guessing those on the map. I'm calling Mengcun as well!

And although I never expected Shanghai, and never heard anything about Shanghai being in the game, the map makes the Eastern part look like it's definitely either Shanghai or part of Jiangsu.



EDIT- I replied before I saw your second post. Shanghai and Beijing too wow. I'm a bit disappointed that it's not Cangshan but oh well!

EDIT 2- I'm not claiming to have figured out anything I bet others have already, probably didn't search the forum enough. I bet LanDC or Ziming knew from before! I just found these images recently.

I'm just very happy to know the originally planned locations, and having guessed it just made it that much more fun! but just on a personal level.

Anyway- the usual disclaimer applies. This was the plan for VFRPG starring AKIRA in the 90s. Yu Suzuki already revealed chapter 3 (Ryo and Ren pictured with the phoenix mirror between them) which was set on a train, was cut from Shenmue II. So for sure, that part is at least shuffled in terms of its order in relation to actual game version of CHAPTER 4 GUILIN.

But I'll go ahead and admit that the amount of detail and degree of location and plot match that correspond to the chapters already released in the first 2 games (Yuan! Dou Niu! Master Chen! Xiuying! Guizhang!) makes me personally believe that even if it's not 100% the same as what the future direction will be, it is still more accurate than inaccurate, at least SOME of it is for sure.

So freaking cool. This was planned out in the 90s. Shenmue is like as long in the making as freaking Game of Thrones.

Last edit- ok maybe you won't believe me, but I was looking up Chinese water towns in Jiangsu, thinking about how cool it would be for Ryo to visit one. Just wow! turns out that made the list too!

I hadn't even heard of Suzhou. I was looking up other water towns. Hey hate on it if you want, but from time to time I like to picture locations in China for future Shenmue titles and what it could've been like to portray them fantastically.

What have you guys pictured before seeing this map? I pictured Shaolin temple (Henan) and of course Mengcun. Aside from that I pictured Wudong and I kind of wondered about Shanghai. I didn't think Shaolin/Henan would make the list, but it kind of seems like it does.

And I recently rewatched Shenmue II playthrough had forgotten about Luoyang. So that wasn't one of the places I pictured until recently.

And I admit I really really wanted Cangyanshan to be in the games: that's why I hoped the map marker near Beijing was actually Cangyanshan since it's just 3 hours away

Cangyanshan:





Sorry I'm so geeky

[Yokosuka]

Don't

Hype

Me

[shenmue852]

This thread is now a location picture thread. Starting with Suzhou, the water town!

[colacube]

Cangyanshan looks amazing.

Here's a post I made on the villages in Shenmue 3. It has some real-life photos:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48086&p=1097268#p1097268

[shenmue852]

Cangyanshan looks amazing.

Here's a post I made on the villages in Shenmue 3. It has some real-life photos:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=48086&p=1097268#p1097268

Great post, I have actually seen your post before when looking up info about those 3 villages! great job, you're extremely accurate with those. It's kind of hard to research if you just go by the village names and your post was one of the better info sources I found for that.

Just to clarify, Cangyanshan is NOT written on the map, at least not according to that guy above who can read Chinese.

It is only 3 hours from Beijing so we can dream, but I'm gonna say it's unlikely. At the very least there's no mention of it.

But yes, Cangyanshan does look amazing. It filled in for the legendary Wudang mountain monastery in Crouching Tiger.

Speaking of which, there's a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon sequel in 2016. What's up with sequels to 15 year old martial arts themed stuff all of a sudden

[kuwakodono]

From Luoyang, the text definitely looks like it's Cangzhou, although Cangyanshan would be cool. The "end" in red is hard to make out too, but it seems to be Beijing.

[shenmue852]

I originally typed Cangzhou in the first post when I meant Cangyanshan...but Cangyanshan is close to there as well as Beijing.

Maybe it's happening, Cangyanshan is a natural fit...if you see both Cangzhou and Beijing that means there's a chance.

[Hyo Razuki]

Don't know about the Tibet thing. Shenhua was originally meant to be from Tibet but then Yu changed it to Guilin and also her ethnicity was changed from Tibetan minority (藏族 Zangzu) to some other Chinese minority. I think it is Miao (苗族 Miaozu) now.

So I think Yu will not take us to Tibet anymore and just stick to other parts of China.

Edit: I'm also 99% sure, the characters above the something-zhou (州) say Beijing (北京). But still, this is only VF RPG we are seeing here. The map is like 20 years old and like Shenhua's ethnicity a lot of other things might have changed in the meantime as well.

[shenmue852]

Shenhua's ethnicity was already changed from Tibetan to Guilin indigenous tribe by this point.

About her ethnicity though

Shenhua is almost certainly descended from royal/imperial lineage, most likely Han, but her family has been in hiding for centuries/generations in a Miao village Guilin called Bailu

As for Tibet, this map doesn't show any sign of the story going to Tibet. I made a mistake and confused the Northwest desert region with Tibet.

[kuwakodono]

By the way, Cangzhou is there because Hebei province is supposed to be the birthplace of Bajiquan. Additionally, according to Wikipedia:

"Meng Village (Mengcun) is said to be the original birthplace of Baji Quan, or at least the modern versions of the art.[8] Baji is still widely practiced there."

"Mengcun (Chinese: 孟村回族自治县) is a Hui autonomous county of southeastern Hebei province, China, under the administration of Cangzhou City."

From Xian, it would be cool if there was a detour to Hua Shan, one of five major mountains of China:

[shenmue852]

That makes it likely that there aren't plans for Cangyanshan- although the concept art does show a mountain, but nothing that indicates that it's Cangyanshan with the monasteries built into the mountainside as opposed to another mountain from that range.