Shenmue 1 would be the PERFECT size for Shenmue 3

[SMDzero]

Bailu village would be (roughly) the size of the Hazuki residence, Yamanose, and Sakuragaoka.

Choubu would be the size of Dobuita

Baisha would be the size of the New Yokosuka Harbor!

[phinal]

You're just guessing.

[SMDzero]

Well Yu-San sort of suggested that SIII would be the size of SI at the current budget... seems like this allocation would be appropriate.

[Sonoshee]

I think he meant each village would be similar in size to Dobuita. A village the size of the Hazuki residence would be unimaginable.

[Monkei]

I think he meant each village would be similar in size to Dobuita. A village the size of the Hazuki residence would be unimaginable.

He didn't really say that though, so I guess we'll have to wait and see. Maybe there will be another AMA or something in the near future where things can be clarified. I also think it would feel kind of small, but take a look at the size of Dobuita:



I could actually see three (really) small villages packed in there (with Dobuita Street and the Harbour each passing as one village and Yamanose+Sakuragaoka making up the third). And at the same time Dobuita seems to be too big for only one village in a game with the budget (of which we don't really know the full extent, I know) of Shenmue 3.

I don't know. Each village having the size of Dobuita would be pretty fucking awesome of course.

[SMDzero]

Isn't the harbor larger than Dobuita? Maybe I'm wrong but I always assumed as such.

[Monkei]

^ I don't know, I'm remembering it to be pretty large, too. Looks kind of small there. I don't know how accurate that map is. The harbour might have just felt larger than Dobuita Street though, with its narrow roads and everything.

From the Twitter Q&A:

at $5 million, exactly HOW open world will Shenmue 3 be, compared to Shenmue 1/2?

Yu: I'm expecting something similar to Dobuita in terms of scale.

Sounds like he's clearly talking about the whole of SIII there. Might be a translation issue of course. But at this point "Yu meant every village will be the size of Dobuita" is pure speculation and wishful thinking..

[Monkei]

Wait a second, Dobuita is only Dobuita Street, right? I think I just mixed it up with Yokosuka.

In that case I would also think he has to mean each village = Dobuita's size. And Shenmue = about Yokosuka's size.

Edit: Ah, okay. I guess I got it all wrong. Dobuita is Dobuita Street + Sakuragaoka + Yamanose, right? So that would mean it still could represent the actual scale of Shenmue III, even without the harbour.

[SMDzero]

Yeah I think it's wishful thinking to assume each town would be the size of Dobuita but entirely reasonable to think it was a translation issue and Suzuki-san meant Yokosuka as a whole and not just dobuita would be the current scale of SIII.

[Sonoshee]

From the Twitter Q&A:

at $5 million, exactly HOW open world will Shenmue 3 be, compared to Shenmue 1/2?

Yu: I'm expecting something similar to Dobuita in terms of scale.

Sounds like he's clearly talking about the whole of SIII there. Might be a translation issue of course. But at this point "Yu meant every village will be the size of Dobuita" is pure speculation and wishful thinking..

The budget will exceed $5m so I would expect the villages to be larger than Dobuita combined.

[Monkei]

Yeah, true. Didn't think of the 6.3 million they already have, plus additional crowdfunding via Paypal and quite possibly further sponsorings.

[Hanz]

I think Shenmue 3 will be the same as Dobuita in terms of scale, meaning that either one of the villages will or all of them but I don't see that happening. If we can provide more money by PayPal funding then the scale of the game will change, giving us a true open world experience for us to discover.

[Sonoshee]

I wouldn't have an issue If each village did turn out to be the same scale as say Yamanose or Sakuragaoka. Would be fun to have the S3 villages connected by boat trips or mountain paths, though. We know S3 will be more story intensive so as long as the environments are as detailed as they were in past games, I have no issues. I guess 14 years waiting for the next installment has made me a bit hungry

[Switch]

Yeah, I'm somewhat suspicious of those "official" translations from things like the Twitter Q&A

There was some clarification directly from Yu on the recent Kickstarter countdown twitch stream though:

In the town of Choubu, I will be making an effort to implement a detailed open world that will be comparable to Dobuita.

So it sounds like Choubu at least will be on a scale comparable to Dobuita and packed with a lot of locations to visit and things to do as budget allows e.g. the stretch goals on Kickstarter such as additional mini games, betting games, kung fu mastery, part time jobs, game stalls.

[shenmue852]

Well Yu-San sort of suggested that SIII would be the size of SI at the current budget... seems like this allocation would be appropriate.

He said the villages were roughly the same scale as Dobuita, actually. There is also going to be wilderness between the villages, and like in Shenmue II these are procedurally generated so they don't strain the budget.

So I think if you take 3 Dobuitas and the Hazuki residence then add in wilderness like Shenmue II disc 4, that's a pretty safe bet for the game's size.